We have a coffee table we got years ago from Ikea, that is basically a set of six cubbies on feet. The best part is that the little cubbies are just the right size for a stack of books, or some baskets that attempt to hide knitting / media-related clutter, or if one leaves the cubbies empty, cats.
Ingrid is the usual cubby cat. She seems to love crawling into it and then flopping upside down (although here she’s right-side up, just snoozing).
But the other night, we had a different cubby cat, which made me pretty happy to see.
Ruby’s always going to be a bit nervous, I think – you don’t really ever get over a couple years of being a scared little stray. But she’s really showing progress, coming out from under the sofas more and more; hanging out in the middle of the floor when both of us are in the room, and even standing up to Ingrid (who stares intently at her, but doesn’t seem to otherwise care about Ruby at all anymore, thankfully).
Some day it’d be nice to have both of them in the cubbies at once, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a very, very long time before we see that happen.
*****
Snowflake #16! This one also has a teeny tiny star in the middle.
I suspect this one would look nicer if I’d bothered to pin out all the teeny tiny little nubs around the points. But we all know how *that* will end, now don’t we.
Last rehearsal tonight before the concert this coming weekend, which means things went a little long and a long day was even longer. At least this time I didn’t have to chase Sherman around outside when I got home, though, so at least there’s that.
Here is the 15th snowflake, which means we are now more than halfway through this challenge. Yay!
I like this one because it has a little star in the middle.
We don’t really do Valentine’s Day, primarily because neither of us can be bothered, so today has really been a mostly ordinary day. I do admit, though, that we were both highly amused by this headline that was trending on Facebook today. It seems somehow peculiarly appropriate for a day that is supposed to be all about hearts and candy and love.
Poor little octopus. Denied her true passion.
*****
I was doing really well on the whole 10,000 steps a day challenge until it got to yesterday, when due to a combination of ‘my sinuses want to kill me’ and sheer laziness, I didn’t even crack 5000. So today I walked the long way to the bagel store in the morning, and I parked extra-far away from the yarn shop when I went to the lacy knitting guild meeting (where I knit lace and did *not* crochet snowflakes, because I have learned my lesson, oh yes), and we parked in the back lot when we went out to dinner, and then I ended up walking in place throughout most of the old episode of Face Off we watched last night (It’s our current favorite ‘doesn’t require much thought so we can watch it while doing other stuff’ show, especially since there’s a whole bunch of seasons to work through). And with all of that I finally cracked 10K again, so now I am back on track. Yay.
*****
Technically I made lots of things today, including 7 new header images for the random images that top this blog. And yes, because some of you may wonder, every single header image is a picture I took of one of our cats (some of whom are no longer with us, alas). But I know you’re all here for the snowflakes, so here is today’s.
I suppose I could have flipped through the book to find one with hearts or something that is otherwise Valentine’s Day-ish, but I am doing these in order primarily because there are 99 of them and if I mix them up I will forget which is which and then where will we be? So here is Snowflake #14, which is completely free of hearts or anything else that looks like love. I don’t like the awkward jog where the ends meet, but otherwise it’s passable.
I pinned it out on the board and my first reaction was ‘huh, I thought I was getting better at these things.’ And then it occurred to me that every other snowflake has been made while sitting at home, where the only distraction is a cat (or three) trying to ‘help’. This one, however, was made while sitting with a bunch of friends and chatting.
Clearly the take-away from this is that I have much more practicing to do before I can be trusted to make snowflakes with others. Lesson learned!
It is not all test knitting and snowflakes around here. Sometimes I do other stuff. Here’s what I did last week during my business trip (the bulk of it was done on the flight home); finally got around to blocking it this morning.
The pattern is Nymphalidea, and it’s knit with KnitPicks Chroma fingering. I love working with this yarn because it’s super soft, and it’s got the long color changes that are perfect for projects like this.
But yes, yes, you all come here for the snowflakes. So here’s todays.
It’s been a really long day and what with getting up early to go walking in the morning, and then work, followed almost immediately by long rehearsal, I am completely wiped out.
Do you know what is a really great way to relax and unwind after an extremely long and exhausting day?
Chasing the goddamn cat through the neighborhood at 10pm, that’s what. Do I even need to add that at 10pm, it’s dark out there. Very, very dark. And the aforementioned goddamn cat (Sherman, in case you hadn’t already guessed) is grey and blends easily into shadows.
Gah.
(Yes, I caught him. Little brat.)
Anyway. Here is today’s snowflake. It’s the best one yet, so far. Or maybe I’m just too tired to care.
Yesterday morning started far too early, what with getting up to meet my coworker in the hotel lobby so that we could go for a walk and try to churn through a couple thousand steps as a way to kick off the day. As predicted, the amount of coffee then required to make it through the day was very, very high. At the airport last night I got in another couple thousand steps, due to the fact that, having lots of time to spare, I decided to walk the very long hall between terminals instead of taking the shuttle, and also due to the insanity that was the security line. That’s an hour and a half I won’t ever get back. But hey, kudos to whoever coordinates the security checkpoint lines at the Atlanta airport – it had the feel of a Disney ride. You weave around for a bit and then you turn a corner and just when you think you might finally be getting close to the end, nope, there’s another forty five minutes of slowly zigzagging along.
And then I didn’t get home until around 11pm, by which point I was in no mental state to try to muddle through crochet directions, which is why there was no entry from yesterday, nor was there a snowflake. As penance, I ended up doing what would have been yesterday’s snowflake twice. The first time the center ring was much too loose, resulting in a sad, pathetic thing that did not look remotely snowflake-like. Technically I suppose I could have just passed it off anyway, (because if snowflake #2 is any indication, clearly my standards for these things are extremely low). Luckily the second time worked out much better.
I suppose I ought to note that I am actually doing the snowflakes in the order in which they appear in the book. So when I say this is snowflake #4, it actually was made using the pattern for snowflake #4. You know, in case anyone is reading this and is so inspired by my wobbly little sad excuses for snowflakes that they decide to rush right out and buy the book and play along.
As for snowflake #5, once I did #4 the second time, #5 was a piece of cake. It might not be obvious at first glance, but there are only a few very minor differences in the pattern between these two.
I rather like these two. Or at least, I like the fact that all the directions made sense and more importantly, they both turned out closer to what is pictured in the book than any of the previous ones have so far.
Here is today’s snowflake. Clearly it is obvious I am still struggling with the whole concept of crochet. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized I was doing slip stitch instead of single crochet and there is a disturbing little lump where the whole thing joins in a circle and ends. But hey, what do you expect for someone working with what is basically thick thread, who also has to fight off a Rupert who is SURE that what I need more than anything is him to flop right onto the book where the pattern is, or else try to eat the string.
I thought maybe pinning it out might make things better but….ha. Clearly not. Ah well. They say no two snowflakes are alike, so surely among all the pretty ones there also have to be the rejects too.
December 31st is Richard’s birthday, and sometimes we will try to schedule a party or go do a thing, but here is where I freely admit that my very favorite way to usher in a New Year is at home in my pajamas, curled up on the couch with cats and a laptop and some ice cream, and luckily that is exactly what we did. Okay, technically we only made it to 11pm before we both gave up and went to bed, but 11pm in California means it’s midnight (or past) many other places so whee, that counts.
2015 was a pretty good year, overall. A lot happened, but here are some highlights. I did my very first 10K, which came complete with Nutella sandwiches and cake at all the rest stations, so if one is going to do a 10K, that’s really the best way to go on. I attended an amazing knitting retreat in Monterey with a good friend and learned some really awesome things about knitting sweaters (primarily – why it is I have never managed to knit a single sweater that actually fits me). For the third time in my life I submitted a knitted lace piece to a Fair (this year it was the California State Fair) and for the third time it won an award and was on display for everyone to see. My sisters and I took our annual Sisters Only weekend, this year going to San Diego, where, due to sleep deprivation and extreme giddiness, we ended up with a rather odd looking blue balloon cat we dubbed Caesar E. Purshing, who became our mascot for the entire trip. Richard and I went to WorldCon up in Spokane, where the smoke from the massive forest fires made things a little interesting, but where I also got to see Robert Silverberg and George R. R. Martin sit on a stage and talk about whatever they wanted, and it was a wonderful time.
Today is the day I have, for the past few years, posted a cheerful little tale, complete with pictures, for how we’ll be meeting our doom. Two years ago we were overrun with Daleks. Last year we were zapped by a shrink ray and trapped by the cats in a butterfly jar. This year – eh. I just couldn’t come up with anything, although admittedly I was pondering exactly how to work in a Meyer lemon tree taking over the world (our Meyer lemon tree is certainly trying its best). So instead I’ll point you to the end of October, when I posted about spiders. Lots and lots and lots of spiders. Because spiders trump Meyer lemons any day.
The last couple days have been busy – the house stuffed with family, presents exchanged, movies watched, far too many cookies consumed. At one point a majority of us had all downloaded a fun little game called Monument Valley to our various phones and tablets and were all playing it, with my niece going from person to person, helping us out when we got stuck. My brother-in-law got a theremin for Christmas and I was SO hoping that one of the cats would show some interest, because reasons, but alas, not a single cat even blinked an eye. Bah.
Last year I found some Christmas Crackers at the 50% off sales so everyone had one of those at Christmas dinner. Each one had a tiny little penguin that you wind up, so the dinner table was full of little penguins whirring around. By chance my brother-in-law discovered that if you angle the penguin just right, it’ll just go around and around a bowl until its spring runs down, at which point every single one of us (11 tiny penguins in all) wound up our penguins and had them racing around the bowl in a tiny penguin conga line and possibly there was a lot of very hysterical laughing going on. Possibly.
We also took part in our yearly tradition of dragging out various instruments (ability to play them, in tune or otherwise, not required) and worked our way through a series of Christmas carols. By the time we got to the last one in the book things weren’t so bad, but the first few – well, let’s just say that we’re a long way from Carnegie Hall and leave it at that.
My mom and my sisters and I all got up too early the day after Christmas to take part in the usual combat shopping (which isn’t so much combat anymore, but it’s still fun). This year we went to Pier One first, which turned out to be a good choice because we all found some really cute stuff, and then we went to Target, and then we introduced my mom and my little sister to the warm, gooey bliss that is Senorita Bread, before continuing on.
This morning I dropped my little sister and her family back off at the airport and hugged them goodbye. The house is empty now – the cats all creeping back out to investigate now that all the strangers are gone, and we’ve got a timer going off every 45 minutes, at which point either Richard or I goes downstairs to swap over a load of laundry from the slowly dwindling mountain. Later this evening we’ll head off to meet some friends for sushi, at which point we’ll have to be social again, but for now, we’re primarily just enjoying not having to speak at all. Holidays are fun and I loved having my family here, but now it’s time for these two introverts to recharge in preparation for reentry into the real world of work and chores and all fingers crossed, cats who aren’t trying to charge out the door at every possible moment.
*****
This is why I was soooo hoping one of the cats would have fun with the theremin. Sigh.
