Cat-o-centric

I know most pet people think that their lives revolve around their pets. Feeding them, getting them to potty, petting... catering to their every whim. Now, BEFORE the last couple of weeks, I would have said I was a good, but sort of negligent owner. I was happy to leave out the never ending buffet of kibble, scoop their litter box every day, and feed them stinky goodness at night. Being a grad student, our 'quality time' together consisted of me on the sofa with my laptop where a cat should be, and one cat sprawled out next to me (usually... it was Cosmo. He's perfectly happy to lay against my leg... you know... so long as he's touching the mommy. Of course, sometimes, the cat is better than the laptop.


Obviously, this pic was taken a few weeks ago.

He still is happy to let me use most of my lap.



For the next few weeks, my life is going to revolved around him. He's got an esophogeal tube (e-tube) in his neck, b/c he won't eat. See?



I have to feed him (using a syringe) 4 times per day. Between the feedings and the 8 medications he's on (most of which are administered through the e-tube). This procedure (of warming and mixing his food, preparing his medications, and then giving them to him) takes me about 5 hours per day. For breakfast and dinner, it takes me longer b/c of the meds. At lunch and late night snack, it takes less time b/c all I have to do is the food. But that's ok. I'm so happy to have him home and doing better, that I'm thinking of all this time as our 'quality time.'

We went back to the vet on Friday for a check up. They drew blood, and his blood sugar is still high, but his bilirubin levels have come down considerably. When he was admitted on Monday,3/10, his bilirubin level was 4.0 (it should be around 0.1-0.3 or something). On that following Saturday (3/15), it had skyrocketed up to 16!! On Tuesday of coming home (3/18), it had dropped to 10. On Friday, it was 2.8. All signs point to his liver still actually functioning... What I need him to do now is to show that he can eat on his own. And for his toileting to improve (he gets in, but doesn't turn around. This positioning results in his pee going OUTSIDE of the box. Very unfortunate. Luckily, I went and purchased a bag of wee-wee pads. Invaluable.

KNITTING NEWS:
Here are some pics of print o the wave. There are kitty action shots (Danger... 'helping')

Here's a pic of a bigger section, where the stole is actually the focus of the picture.


And my sock in progress.



Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina, converted to toe up.
Yarn: Socks That Rock: Rare Gems
Needles: 2.5mm Addi Turbos, 100cm (magic loop)

I also have neglected to show off some Stash Acquisitions... from The Woolen Rabbit. I made the Print O The Wave from her laceweight, and about midway through, I was mourning the loss of this yarn in the stash. So... I bought more!


I bought 2 skeins of laceweight (in Raspberry and Thyme, and Blue Lagoon) and 2 skeins of superwash sock (in blue lagoon and some other purty color I can't remember right now).

Camp Never Wanna Go Home

Last we left off, Michelle and Stacey had come to pick me up. First stop? my fave LYS. Yes yes, I know I now live in Boston, which has MANY A YARN STORE. But you can't really beat being able to have yarn held for you at a moment's notice. I needed some addi lace needles (that's my excuse for asking to go) and ended up with the needles, plus two skeins of



which is tagged for a market bag like Michaele has already made. (they're even cuter when stuffed!)

Sufficiently armed/geared up for camp, we went over to Stacey's house so I could see the new furniture, and so we could watch the dancing show (So You Think You Can Dance) to which Stacey and I are absolutely addicted.

Look what I got!!


I've 'met' Mary Kay through Ravelry and heard tons about her through my grrlz. She asked Stacey what my 'colors' were and gave me some of this gorgeous hand dyed sock yarn! Thanks Mary Kay!! I LOVE IT. The kind of love where I might not knit with it b/c I love it too much. Sounds crazy, but I do this with lots of yarn that I love. Just ask any of the grrlz.

We met up with Stacey's mom (hi Marsha!) and sister (hey Whit!) for lunch at a local vietnamese restaurant. We stuffed ourselves FULL and then headed out for camp.

Other people have already documented something or another about our annual Camp Wanna Knit Knit. Stacey just recently posted pics of our fab gift bags this year, put together by... almost all of us. Kim got us started off by finding the cute mini sock blockers, Stacey, Michelle and I cooked up the custom dyed yarn from Adrian at Hello Yarn. What's yarn without some stitch markers from Hide and Sheep? Michelle rounded out the package by ordering some highlighter tape from Knit Foundry. Seriously folks, you gotta see the pics Stacey took of the awesome bags that Carmen made for us!


I managed to finish knitting Reid (which is still in progress b/c I am still finishing it. I've seamed up the seams, but need to crochet the contrasting edging).





I also finished knitting the lace pattern repeats of Madli. I'm a little scared to knit the second lace edging and graft that onto the center part, but I'm SO CLOSE to the end! I will be purchasing some blocking wires, since I want the edges to be nice and straight. I also cast on for the hourglass sweater, using a beautiful color of Noro Cash Iroha. I was cracking myself up while I was at Michelle's house, just before leaving for the airport to come back to Boston. In the project bag I used for the hourglass, I had packed away 9 (yes, NINE) skeins of the yarn. Ambitious? Optimistic? Stupid? yes, yes, and yes.

I'll finish up camp in another post.

Between

It's amazing how productive you can be when you're busy. My theory is that you feel less guilty for procrastinating on something (like a paper, let's say) if you're doing something productive (like knitting a sock, maybe). My other favorite way to procrastinate now is to sleep. I call it 'self care.' Us psychological-mental health people can rationalize anything.

So, now I have a sort of but not really matching pair of Opal Socks.

You can kind of make out the differences... um, besides the obvious difference in length of the leg. The sock that has the white/purple toe (they look like little purple tulips to me) was done toe up. The longer sock was done cuff down (I cast on while I was out and about and didn't have my "how to cast on for a toe up sock" instructions.

Having knit two pairs of socks this way (one toe up, one cuff down), here are my conclusions. I love that i can end the sock almost anytime after turning the heel when knitting toe up. I DON'T like binding off the cuff on the toe up sock, b/c I"m a tight tight knitter and even if I use 'stretchy' bind offs and larger needles, it's not as stretchy as the cuff down cuffs.... For the cuff down socks, I love the seemingly more 'finished/polished' cuff, but hate grafting the toe. I also don't like how I can't estimate how much sock I can knit before I run out of yarn. (Ok, honesty forces me to admit that I never really worry about running out of yarn. I have a small foot, US6.5. I'm just impatient, OK?

Other fun purchases, made at Windsor Button in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston:

I couldn't choose between these two Rowan Classic books, so I bought them both. There are tons of sweater patterns I love in the left book, and see that scarf? LOVE IT.
These sock patterns are a Fiber Trend pattern. I don't know how well you can see them... but they're PURTY. And maybe will force me to make some matching socks?




On the left: my latest acquisition of Cherry Tree Hill supersock. You know that all their colors are kind of limited editions, so when I see one I like, I snap it up b/c it really might never be available again.

On the right, a pic of the blanket from one of the books I bought above.


Now I have to struggle with what skein of sock yarn to use next. Maybe I chose the company first. Koigu? Cherry Tree Hill? STR? Lorna's?
So far, I've used Meilenweit, Opal, Trekking, Cherry Tree Hill, and Interlacements. But I bet I'll end up using the Fiber Trends pattern to make me some cute sandal socks...

I probably won't be blogging for another 2 weeks. I have humongo ginormous papers due in the next 1.5 weeks (90 pages worth) and someone needs to get cracking. This past week, I was at school for an average of 10 hrs per day (not including today). I think when you're at school until 11pm at night (and you've been there since 10am that morning) something in your life is whacked and you should have to check yourself into a mental institution. Or a spa. Right now, I would probably find either one of those pretty relaxing.

classic elite

I got to sleep in today, and then met up with Cristina to visit Classic Elite's Warehouse and maybe a few other LYS. Well, I was way too optimistic about the driving and not getting lost. We spent a ridiculous amt of time looking for the warehouse (see her blog for pics of the warehouse door). They do not make it easy folks. Not easy at all.

Inside, I managed to do some retail therapy to make myself feel better.



Really, I should be ashamed. My knitting has slowed down considerably, and I'm sure I have enough stash to last me through the completion of this program (that's at least another 5 years), and yet, I continue to amass more yarn.
What you see is Lace Style (yes yes, I know, you're surprised I didn't have it already, me too!), some brown alpaca tweed (I bought enough to make Central Park Hoodie), and some Lush (cotton/tencel?).

EDIT: OOPS OOPS MY BAD! I didn't get lush, i got Premiere. I got the ingredients of the yarn right though, that counts for something, right?


The alpaca tweed was $4/skein, and the Lush was $3.50/skein. I mean, really. It would have been criminal to pass that up. I may have been swayed to purchase the alpaca tweed b/c of how freaking frigid it has been up here in Boston. I am currently encased in fleece pants (thanks Nachaele!), socks (which I hardly ever wear), a tank top, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. A blanket on top of me, and I'm still cold.

In any case, after our indulgence at CE, we decided to grab lunch (we found a vietnamese pho restaurant by chance) and it was just what I wanted and needed on a day like today. Cristina needed to work, so we had to part ways. I love when friends stop by and I have time to visit with them!!!

Oh, what a feeling...

cause we're dancing on the ceiling!! (thanks Lionel...)

seriously, folks. Jeni and Stacey arrived bright and early on Friday morning. We needed sustenance for our plans for the day, and headed to breakfast. Then we began our weekend journey.

First stop: WEBS. Those two went a bit crazy, (which I can understand... remember this? We bumped into Melanie, Kellee, and Elisa. Reportedly, Elisa misspoke while talking about NY Sheep and Wool, renaming it, appropriately, Yarnbeck. Which I like better than Rhinebeck.

In any case, second go around at WEBS, I was much more well behaved.


we've got a skein of some mega boots stretch meilenweit sock yarn, a skein of plymouth yarn linen isle, and a hank of valley yarns kangaroo dyer lace weight (950 yds) in the handd atlantis colorway. I needed the linen in order to get the discount (spend an extra $3.50 so i could get 20% off? heck yeah).

We hopped back in the car for the other half of the drive, and got to our hotel. Since we were all up at the crack of dawn AND we wanted to be well rested for the next day's festivities, we went to bed early. We awoke at the ass crack of dawn, simply too excited for Yarnbeck. We got there OBSCENELY early. We had time to wander around, look at all the different sheepies (i loved the baby dolls... I kinda want a few for my back yard when I grow up!)

A lovely man from some alpaca farm let us ask all sorts of nosy questions about his alpacas. He gave us a mini lecture about the differences between llamas and alpacas. I also wanted to know about baby alpacas, b/c well, that's my favorite kind of alpaca yarn, right? If you aren't sitting down already, sit down. Baby alpaca fiber? NOT from a baby alpaca!!!!! Are you SHOCKED? I was flabbergasted by this information. This nice man (dang, how did I spend 20 min talking to a man.. and NOT know his name?) pulled out this little tactile demonstration of the differences in alpaca fiber (four different grades... he had little burlap sacs filled with roving from the 4 different grades). The baby alpaca is the finest (thinnest) of alpaca fibers... which is why it feels so soft. If someone had been videotaping me during those 20 minutes, I swear a little lightbulb would've turned on above my head when he explained all of that...

we noticed someone walking around with a vendor bag... and rushed back over to where The Fold was located, in order to get our fill of Socks That Rock. I was quite restrained, if I do say myself... 2 skeins. Puck's Mischief and Lagoon.

Honestly, the rest of the morning was a big blur. We wandered from booth to booth, building to building. I'm quite the pre-planner, and had printed out the names of all the vendors and the booth/building locations of the ones I wanted to visit FOR SURE. I tried to be systematic about it. The plan was met with limited success.

Here's a pic of all the stuff I got at Rhinebeck.



A skein of Sea Purls from Briar Rose, sock yarn from The Fold, sock yarn from Spirit Trail, some super soft wool/angora from Jamie Harmon, a skein of lace weight from Skaska, a company out of Ft Collins, CO, and a needle case from Crippenworks. All in all, I don't feel like i went COMPLETELY crazy, and in fact, i'm kind of wondering why I didn't buy MORE. Then I look to the left at my stash, and wonder why I bought so much. No buyer's remorse though. I'm all fired up to cast on for about 10 more projects!!

Somewhere in the frenzy, we ate some fried artichockes and some french fries smothered in cheese. Obviously, we made it to blogger meet up, where I was able to cross off quite a few on my bingo card... and see the Yarn Harlot in person (holy kamoly, the wedding shawl is prettier in person. I know, hard to believe, but really!). I also finally got to meet Monica, who I've been blogstalking forever... how fun was that!!!

Totally exhuasted, we left the fairgrounds... because it was closing time. I would've stayed longer and bought more, if the booths were open past 5pm. Sigh.

I was complete. Rhinebeck had me at "hello."

* to answer the questions... no, that mountain of yarn in the previous post is NOT all mine. As some of you (most recently Kim) noticed, there is PINK yarn in that pile. PINK yarn will never be something that I've acquired for myself.

Yarnbeck or bust

just a quick drive by blog post, b/c a full length description would take me way too long while Jeni and Stacey are in town.

we came.



we saw.



we conquered



details to come.

Give a small inch, Take a MILE.

So, I was punished for my indiscretion. Everyone knows that I need no more yarn. Especially at the rate I'm knitting? (about 5 stitches per week), I have no business even going into the hallowed ground of WEBS, much less walk out with a huge bag stuffed full of yarn.

what? what was that? you want to see what I bought?




What we see is the big ass pile of yarn. I just couldn't make myself branch


out from my favorite color -blue/green-. I tried!! I really did! The cash iroha, I almost bought the purple color instead, b/c I also like purple and I can easily see how much blue/green I have in my stash by turning my neck about 5 degrees to the left. But the Boston bloggers convinced me that this color was better (they had to twist my arm, i swear!). The silky tweed was almost brown or midnight blue instead, b/c there were only 6 skeins of this lovely color... until someone (can't remember who in the broo ha ha) pointed out that there was more of this stuff in the front room.

I think hour glass with the cash iroha, and I found an elsepeth lavold pattern for the silky tweed. (the one in orange, bottom right, and on the cover).

I also bought a few skeins of silk garden, but that was shipped off to Celia posthaste. She wants to make her baby a lizard ridge blanky, and who am I to deny her access to clearanced Silk Garden?

I also enjoyed some SheepMail! I had coerced a few friends (Michelle, Jeni, Stacey...) to join the Grey's Anatomy KAL. Stacey, being such a good friend and all, sent me



I also got my Socks That Rock club yarn a week or so ago. and I LOVE IT. The first two shipments were a little bit disappointing, to tell the truth. I see that it's lovely yarn, but the colorways were... so PINK. Wanda took one skein off my hands, and I'm trying to convince myself that I like the other skein. But this skein? It was luuuuv at first sight.


After all that goodness, I was due a downfall. I was not disappointed.
Just as I was sitting here at home, gloating over my yarn purchases on Sunday, feeling oh so satisfied with my life... ring ring ring!!! The special ring tone that I have assigned to my parents (um. ok. I'll admit that my parents are the ONLY ones with a special ring tone. The one that says "if you're tired, you don't have to bother trying to find the phone because it's just your parents." I know. You don't have to say it. Bad bad daughter. It was 11am, and I decided I was too comfy on my couch (never you mind that the phone was also on the couch).

* the following "amusing to you all, but not amusing to me" parent story is dedicated to Maryse. Everyone go give that girl some encouragement (the french version of my parents, aka HER parents, are visiting her for 2 weeks).

1pm. RING RING RING RING. (sigh!)

230pm. RING RING RING RING. (sigh! eye roll. SIGH! eye roll. SIGH.)

4pm. RING RING RING RING. (Cyn's blood pressure goes up about 20 pts).

5pm. RING RING RING...
At this point, I wanted to just throw the phone out the window. But, I don't live on the 11th floor of the building anymore. I live in the basement. Throwing the phone out the window won't solve my problem, unless I happen to throw it hard enough that it ends up under the tracks of the subway. I snatched the freaking fricking fracking phone up and pushed the green button so hard, i'm not sure why my phone didn't bust right then and there. I"m sure that the grip I had on my phone wasn't anything to sneeze at either.

me: "HELLO" (with a very pissed off tone)

dad: "CynCyn-ah... where have you been all day?"

me: "I'm studying Dad."

dad: "oh, you're at the library?"

me: "no, i'm at home, but i've been studying. Which, by the way? when you call and call and call? don't do that. If I don't answer, leave a message, and I'll call you back when I have TIME. Don't keep calling and calling and calling. It's kind of... annoying."

dad: "....."

me: "I'll call you back if you leave a message. But if you call and I don't answer it means that I AM BUSY."

dad: "oh, you're busy?"

me: "um. yeah dad. the PhD program kind of keeps me busy."

dad: "oh, is it a lot of work?"

me: (grrrrrrr, what does he think? that the PhD program is a piece of cake? shits and giggles all the time?) "um, yeah dad. there's a lot of work involved."

The rest of the convo was me telling him what I needed (my immunization records). Which they denied that they had (but I knew they had).

530pm. RING RING RING RING!!! (grrrr)

Dad: So, we found your immunization records. Why do you need them?

Me: (notice that there's no mention that I was right?) My school needs them as proof that I'm not carrying some disease around like vermin dad.

Dad: well, that's ridiculous. You were born and raised in the USA. How do they expect that you got schooled in the US if you didn't get your immunizations?

Me: Sigh. Dad, I don't know. They just need them ok? I don't make the rules. Can you just send them to me please?

Dad: Well, I see that you got the blah blah blah in 1976, and then again in..

Me: Dad? I dont' need to know the dates of every vaccine I got. I just NEED THE RECORDS.

Dad: Oh. Well, it looks like your last immunization was in 1993.

Me: Yes Dad, I know. But I don't need to know all that, I JUST NEED YOU TO SEND ME THE FORM.

Dad: Oh. Ok.


6pm. RING RING RING RING (are you fucking KIDDING ME?????)

Me: YES???

Dad: We made a copy. We'll send you the copy. We'll keep the original form here so you don't lose it.

Me: (thinking, jesus and mary. I'm 30 yrs old. If I can't be trusted to keep track of my own shit, maybe someone should call my school and tell them I'm WAY too stupid to get a PhD. what the EFF were THEY thinking accepting me?) Dad. I have my own birth certificate, my passport, quite a few important papers that I've managed not to lose. You can send me the original forms. But if it makes YOU feel better to have the original, then fine. send me the copy.

Dad: Ok. We'll send you the copy.

Is it just me? or did the point of what I said just completely fly over his head? My Dad and I got in a rip roaring fight a couple weeks before I moved to Boston (because every girl who's picking up all her shit and leaving all her friends needs MORE stress. Didn't you know?) During THAT fun conversation, I told my dad that he doesn't listen to me. He doesn't hear what I'm saying. To which he got offended and said, what? when don't i listen to you? you're being silly.

sigh.

630pm. RING RING RING RING (holy mary. someone just kill me. I might go throw MYSELF in front of the subway)

Me: "YES?"
Dad: "we sent you some stuff from CA."
Me: "ok"
Dad: "we'll send the immunization records"
Me: "yes. ok"
Dad: "ok... so, have you talked to your brother?"

now. didn't you all notice that I said I was busy and that the PhD program had a lot of work to go with it? Does he really think I have time for him to call and call and call and call and call? Ok. My bad that I didn't answer the phone the first four times he called. But really.

Thank God, or whoever the powers that be, that he is back to work today. I think that my father, is the MOST annoying man alive when he's on vacation.

I know. You don't have to say it. bad bad ungrateful daughter.

Yarntainer*

*aka... why Cynthia hasn't been yarn shopping since moving to Boston.

I have more pics I need to take/show, of the sleeve out of Rowan Calmer, the clapotis redux (winter version), and whatever else I've allowed myself to cast on for while moving.

I do have some pics to share now though. Of the ever so incredible and every knitter should have one, Yarntainer, brought to you by IKEA (I have the one that's four cubbies x four cubbies, in the black brown).

If you look closely, you can see my Ikea chair (aka, where Cyn sits b/c she has no couch). I have the tv tray set up to hold remotes and my diet coke (or, my books and my binders). And underneath the coffee table, you see the huge bin of WIPs.

Close ups?



I also wanted to show you all, and especially Stacey, the yarn I bought in NYC at School Products, which I visited with Jeni.


Ok. I'm watching the US Open right now, and I've been missing all the important points. I'll blog about my first week of school later.

Why don't I move more?

There are several things that make me ask this question of myself. The most obvious way to take the question for me, is to ask myself why I let myself gain weight back that I worked so hard to get off of me. Why did I stop going to the gym on a regular basis? Why don't I move more?

The second way I'm thinking this question involves... why don't I move, like pack up and move away, more?
Tiffany made my last day at the shop very memorable. Stacey, Jeni, and Michelle kept me company for the last couple hours of the day at the shop. We had a small feeding frenzy when we saw the new swag that Tiffany had ordered in. I got a complete set.




Then, Tiffany gave me a going away present! What more can a knitterly gal want besides to work in a yarn store you ask? Take a look



She made a couple cute stitchmarkers, got me an awesome seahorse magnet, and a lot of Godiva Chocolate. Yes, you read that right. GODIVA. But wait! There's more! (a la Ronco). What could top Godiva chocolates, you ask?



None other than a skein of ever loverly Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace. She gave me a choice between some Lonesome Star Alpaca Farm yarn (oh so loverly) or a skein of the LL. How can one go wrong?? Seriously, she's too generous. I've loved working there, and I wish I could've had that cush job the entire time I was in my master's program. Thanks a million Tiffany!!!