Ketchup

This furry nightmare seems to finally be over. Which means that I've been released from the prison, along with my poor, long-suffering kitty.

Which means I need to get y'all up to speed so we can return to some sort of normal schedule around here.

So, list post.

1. My favorite little martini glass cosplayer is finally out of her cone of shame. Which, by the way, we had to go get a LONGER ONE because she fecking FIGURED OUT HOW TO GET TO HER STAPLES WITH THE SHORTER ONE!

Damn cat is too smart for her own good.

2. All of the other pets were so thrilled to see me that I have barely been left alone, especially when I'm trying to use the bathroom.

3. I have gotten SO MUCH squish mail in the past month, I'm genuinely feeling overwhelmed.

Christmas present

100% Mongolian Cashmere from a Kickstarter (intended to be a shawl)

Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace for Cobweb shawl by Boo Knits

Bulky weight eco wool from KnitPicks for a circular shawl

More Christmas presents

I actually had to rearrange the stash because of all this.

This is the "Shawl yarn that DEFINITELY has a pattern picked out/too delicate to put anywhere else" drawer.

4. I have started THREE BLOODY SHAWLS in the past three weeks due to above overwhelming feelings.

First is Sugar Maple

Cobweb

And Jörð

Jörð was the one I've worked on the most because duh, it's bulky and quick.

Well, it's supposed to be. When you can actually follow the damn pattern.

I... I apparently could not.

And I fucked it up so badly that I had to pull it off the needles, rip it back to where I STARTED yesterday, and repickup all 288 stitches.

Yes, it's in time-out.

5. The previous event made me sooooo angry that I knit a cat.

Who is being turned into a sushi cat...

No, I don't know why either. But when inspiration strikes, you go for it.

6. I did manage to get one Christmas present done and two others started.

Except, I don't think Al is actually going to care about getting a shark plushie, so I guess I have no Christmas presents actually done?

7. WE GOT TO SEE NINJA SEX PARTY AND TWRP LIVE AND IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE AND AMAZING AND AHHHHHHH!

8. I also went to Columbus with grandma this past Sunday because she was receiving some fancy-schmancy award for her contributions to Special Education.

9. John turned 32 and to celebrate, we went out shopping for new nail polish for him.

We also picked out each others' outfits for the evening.

I talked him into the outfit the previous weekend, and I absolutely adore how he looks. It makes me so happy that he's branching out and trying new things.

10. While getting his nail polish, I *may* have bought myself a new palette just because of the name.

11. We were actually planning on a surprise party for him the day we had to take Bee to the emergency vet, so that got shot to shit.

I did give him is present I had planned on that day, though.

Because everyone needs a GIANT fucking plush chameleon with a hand knit scarf.

This is actually supposed to be his familiar in our D&D campaign, Quell. The letter up there is actually the elvish one for "Q".

I knit this thing right under his nose. It was actually drying on the front porch the day before and he walked right by it.

12. Speaking of plushies, BETHANY GOT ME SOMETHING FROM YOU GOAT MAIL!

SPOOPY GOAT FRIEND!

13. She and I went out shopping last night and got ourselves into trouble at Pat Catan's. See, they had all their Halloween stuff 70% of off the club price. So I bought...

a hat...

some rats...

... annnnnnnd a life sized vulture.

He is my new favorite thing ever. Especially because I got him at a HUGE discount. He started at $66.66, club price $50. I paid $15.  

AND multiple people came out to me, all bummed because they wanted to buy him. Ain't no way I was letting go of him then!

I came home and immediately put this on to unleash my Full Inner Witch.

And I may very well have magical powers because look at how much I spent verses how much I saved.

Yep. Definitely got that money witchery going on.

13. I did some non-knitting crafting and made a few more cross stitch pieces.

Cactuses for my grandma and a Mustard the Wonder Llama for John.

14. And here's a bunch of random selfies because I like feeling pretty, damnit, and deserve to feel nice after all this garbage going on lately.

15. BONUS PICTURE!

I don't know how to make small quantities of soup...

Well, that should be about it. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting, but to be honest, the past month has been a blur. I'm surprised I remembered as much as I did.

I am so ready for this colder weather because it *should* mean that THE UNIVERSE TAKES A DAMN HINT AND SLOWS THE FUCK DOWN TOO. But we'll see.

For now, I'm going to go finish this sushi cat. And then freak out over the amount of Christmas stuff I still have to make.

*sigh*

Kitty Calamities

So.................

You already know what this is going to be.

More trouble has happened.

Some other misfortune.

Yep, you're right.

We had Bee spayed at the end of September.

We got through it. She was okay. And we thought we were in the clear.

But then at the beginning of this week, her incision was looking a little off. The day after that, I had a family member look at it and they said that it looked like it opened up.

So, off to the emergency vet nearly 40 minutes away we went (because I literally couldn't find ANYWHERE near us that was open and available).

And you know it's bad when the vet flips your cat over, takes one look at her wound, and goes, "Ewwww."

*sigh*

Bee had developed an infection and did indeed manage to pop her incision open.

So they had to do a secondary surgery to clean out the infection and make sure she was thoroughly closed up this time.

We won't discuss how much this was going to cost us. (Grandparents to the rescue yet again...)

She came home yesterday. She's got to have a cone on for two weeks and to insure it stays on, we've got to keep her in isolation. Which means that *I* also need to be in isolation. Because there's no way I'm letting my poor baby suffer alone.

So this is my life for the next two weeks.

At least I can get a lot of knitting time in, right?

Guess it's time to get back to the Christmas presents.

Because there's literally nothing else to do in here.

*sigh*

A Bout of Brain Dumps

This year has been extraordinarily hard in terms of crises, difficulties, and hurdles. It's been relentless, wave after wave after wave of stress, anxiety, and despair flooding not only my small little corner of life, but really much more of a global scale.

I feel like every other post from me has been, "Sorry! Bad place in my brain right now! Be better soon!" But I never hit "soon." Every time I get a foothold, something else comes and knocks me on my ass again.

I then get angry at myself for not following through with my goal of one post a week. And for not getting a chance to write about milestones because I'm not in a good place to do so. But what am I supposed to do? I don't want to to force myself into a false cheeriness that doesn't exist. So I'm stuck, just hoping things get better enough that I can write freely again.

It's exhausting.

I am exhausted.
Just... worn out.
Worn down.
Brittle.

I don't know what this post is, to be honest. Or what I'm hoping to accomplish.

Maybe I just needed to acknowledge out loud that this year has sucked, and will continue to do so in all likelihood.

Maybe I'm looking to forgive myself just a bit for breaking a promise to myself.

I don't know, I just wanted to get it out of my head.

I'm not going to end this with yet another platitude and promise.

I'll write when I can and feel accomplished when I do.

Besides, there's still three months of this year to fit knitting in to. I've made my Christmas knit list, queued up some shawl patterns, and started some socks.  I have some thoughts and ideas I want to write about, including some plans for next year.

So, I'm not stopping. Merely slowing down and doing my best to heal these wounds.

We keep moving forward because there is nothing else to do.

Keep fighting, friends.

<3