Knitting is meditation-the cats help!

Yesterday I was home upstairs in my super fabulous craft room knitting away on another oddball bag. These are bags of my own design, I just cast on and knit a squareish bottom, pick up the outside stitches, and knit away. When I run out of one ball, I add another. I have lots of oddball yarn, so this is the greatest stash reducer, time waster of all. DH came home and asked what I was making. I said I wasn't in the mood for spinning, or lace scarves, or such n such, so I just cast on for the oddball bag. and he said, "oh, meditative knitting" I love the crap out of him.

On another note, meditative knitting is also enjoyed by cats. Mulder seems to really like to lay in between meditative knitting and the tv. Hence, belly loves commence. What he wants he gets. On the other hand, Itchy wants to KILL the knitting, which is not ok with me, so he is banished to "go away or I will swat you" land.

Cat stuff

I love the crap out of my cats. You know this. If you have a cat, you have your own reasons for loving the crap out of your cat. I will tell you my reasons, as many as I can remember, with photos of course. The first reason is that Mulder likes to drown his mice. Stuffed mice. And only the mice. For a while he didn't have any stuffed mice because I was sick of fishing them out of the water bowl. Then we got a free one with his food, and he had a new mouse. Immidiately in the bowl. Pic 1 of poor drowned mousey, pic 2 of proud drowner. We even have initiated the "how long does it take Mulder to drown the mouse if we hide it" game. Put the darn mousey on the bathroom scale, went in to pee, Mulder followed, found mousey and HIGH FREAKING TAILED IT to the water bowl. It was a sight to be seen.

I thought he thought he was killing them. But I went to the vet and she suggested that he was putting them in a safe place for later.

Which makes total sense now, because our 2 cats have EXTREME territorial issues over the water bowls. One is Itchy's, one is Mulder's. It changes on a day to day basis, and only they know the rules of the water bowl game, but clearly, there are rules. Apparently, this day, Mulder had the blue/red bowl. Don't freaking ask me.

I knit more stuff

I've been knitting from my stash lately. I feel really good about this. Not that I don't want to buy more yarn, I do, but I seem to have this radar for estate and garage sales that sell an enourmous amount of yarn and I buy it all. Like the Textiles center garage sale a few months ago where I walked away with 1 1/2 of the large Target bags full of yarn for about $100. I know that sounds like a lot to drop on yarn, but consider the quantity, and also the quality. This wasn't crap acrylic. this was great yarn, some with 5 skeins for a dye lot.

So I'm trying to knit from my stash because it is estate and garage sale season. I'm not dumb. I know I will find a huge stash of someone's somewhere and drop a couple hundred $ on the best yarn purchase of my life. It happened last year when a yarn snob passed away and her friends sold her stash. Got the best yarn of my life in complete dye lots of 12 or so skeins a piece. Egyptian cotton, mohair, silk, etc. Thousands of dollars worth of yarn at that sale and I wiped them out for a few hundred. Again, lots of $ but not when you consider. I swear.

Back to knitting from stash. I have a great stash. Love my stash. Except that I have some weird stuff in there that can only go for specific knits. Such as pink. Really. Who wears pink? Acrylic pink? So a coworker is having twin girls and yep, you guessed it, she's getting 2 pairs of pink booties. Another coworker had a grandson. She got green baby booties. Bought the book Knitting Little Luxuries, made the Charlotte bag from stash. Even the darn ribbon was stash.

Look out Craigslist. Here I come.

I think I can spin!

I love my new spinning wheel. My mom gave it to me about a month ago, and i hated the freick out of it. Tension wrong, missing a part (spring). Ordered spring. Oiled the freak out of it. Spun crap. Hated it.

But last weekend the wheel decided against being firewood and decided to play nice. It caught a good tension, and let me spin to my hearts content. I have heard that the spinning wheel is a bit like a bicycle. Once you get the tension, you can get it again and keep going.

The pic is of my best spin yet. Not so high on the almighty greatness of spinning, but way way way better than anything else ever before. The stuff in the middle of the bobbin I swear is of even consistensy. And the stuff I spun today is even better. I even moved on to my "good' roving which is some beautifully dyed stuff, and am spinning that. Na na to anyone that says you shouldn't spin your good stuff until you rock at spinning. MY wheel rejects crap roving and I have the proof.

Best weekend ever!

I had such an awesome weekend! Saturday I hit an estate sale where I found a box of knitting needles, tons of notions and dpns for $4, a thread holder that hangs on the wall for $15. Came home, looked at it all and knit on the Classic chanel for a few hrs. good fun. Sunday, today, I got up and went to the paint store. I got some paint that matches the tv stand color in my craft room, dug out the $2 shelf I bought about 3 years ago, and painted the shelf and the thread holder. See pics after hung on wall. I am so proud of myself! The whole room has been completely redone by me, and I love everything about it! I feel very crafty and proud of myself. Then I finished the Classic chanel, and because my hand hurts so darn much from using such unforgiving yarn I got the wheel out. I actually was able to mostly (about 60%) spin some decent singles. I may actually dye those singles and see what happens. Seriously. This was a great weekend. For me to get all that accomplished, and spin some semi decent yarn, happy!

When does the other shoe drop???

Drunken Knitting Night

Ravelry has a group for MN knitters, and once a month a bunch of random people show up at Merlin's Rest and knit together. Tonight was my 2nd time going and I have to say this is the best fun this side of the law to be had. If you knit. We talk yarn, ravelry, knit books, knitters we know, needle choicees, etc. This isn't all we talk about, but it is the majority. And I love the crap out of it. I have gotten a few knitter friends to come with, which rocks, because they get to see that I am not the only crazy obsessed knitter in the world.
The best part ever though? Both times I have gone I have walked in, sat down, said hello, and someone says "hello, I'm .... (insert ravelry name)" and I say oh my gosh I am Mulderknitter, and we instantly feel like we know each other. Freaking cool. I came in tonight with my sweater/turned bag and promply was told that someone had seen in on my project page. (Beam with pride) A woman showed up later that I knew from somewhere, said her ravelry name, and ohmygosh she's on my friends! We had a great bonding moment of remembering when I friended her and she didn't know who I was and I told her I just wanted Mpls knitters for friends and she obliged. Very nice girl. Very gracious girl. Even if she didn't like my brand of yarn choice (you know who you are!)
DH thinks I'm even dorkier than him now. We shall try to prove him wrong. See later posts for pics of snoring/splayed on the couch sleeping. I shall win

The sexiest man alive

Mulder is my soulmate. He is my guardian, he is my best friend, he is the only one that gets me and leaves me be. He is the best thing in the world that has ever happened to me. He was lost for a day on an adventure that was the worst day of my life.

My Mulder has diabetes. He is almost 13 yrs old. Please, if you have a story of keeping your diabetic cat happy and comfortable, tell me.