Knitting and cats, what else?

My camera seems to have broken. It shows "low battery" and will not function even after I put in new batteries. I thought I got a bum pack of batteries, but the same thing happened with the new batteries. A quick look on the internet indicates that the battery connection needs to be checked. I hope that works because I've been using my camera phone to take pictures, and for some reason those files are HUGE.

Since this is supposed to be a knitting blog, I thought I should post some knitting pictures amongst the random thoughts and pictures. Here is the back of the shawl/scarf I made. I usually wear it more of a scarf; that is, more around my neck.
The pictures show it worn more as a shawl so the stitches and size could be seen. I love this yarn! It's from Newton's and is soft and nice to knit with and to wear.This is a collar/scarf and fingerless mitts I knitted from yarn I got from the mother of a friend. It's acrylic and I usually knit with wool or wool blends, but it's nice yarn, and can be washed, so that gives acrylic an edge. I also made mitts from this yarn for a client I had been working with for the last 9 months. Too bad the client I worked with for years didn't get mitts made by me! She told me they are now using internal resources, only after I asked, only after she didn't respond to email messages or voicemail. Keep in mind this is a person who has a very long list of people in her life, both personal and professional, to whom she no longer speaks, and the list has grown in the last 4 years since I've known her, so it was only a matter of time that I'd be on the list. But I digress.

This set was made for the person who gave me the yarn. I mailed it off to her yesterday. I hope she likes it, but if she can't use it, I told her it's okay for her to give to someone else. Note the matching buttons. They are slightly unmatched because they are VERY old - from my vintage button colletion, and matched this yarn so well! I probably couldn't have matched this well had I tried. I prefer contrast, but how could I resist?
This set was made for the client I've been working for who just returned from medical leave after a very long 9 months. It is also out of yarn from the above stash that I got from my friend's mother.


This is part of the aforementioned stash, courtesy of my friend's mother.I knitted these socks for a gift, but decided they came out too small, so I kept them for me and was able to buy one more skein (Deborah Norville yarn from JoAnn's Fabrics) and knit a pair for the gift from what was left plus the extra skein. It's so hard to tell what the size will be while knitting, but it worked out.
Ziggy is in this cat tent toy thing we found last summer at a garage sale. Yes, that's Mow's tail. He has to check everything out. It's weird because we moved this inside the house, and Ziggy has pooped in it a few times. It's back in the sunroom.
Here is PT in its better days getting washed. It's been in the shop because the transmission crapped out while we were driving in San Jose. Luckily we had just exited the freeway, but people were just nuts while Will and a friend (who luckily had been following us in her own vehicle) were trying to wave them around us. Some were angry, one almost hit them because it appeared he didn't see them (and he's driving?) and a few stopped to ask if we were okay (probably because it looked like an accident since both cars were stopped). Cha Ching Cha Ching.
I love Niles Blvd, especially in that rare moment when there are no other cars driving on it.

I also love seeing the cows up on the hill near the Niles sign.

It's spring and the clovers are taking over our yard, but so far no four-leaf clovers that I could see!
I highly recommend this book. No, I'm not Oprah, but that's probably better. Wouldn't you trust my choices over someone you don't even know, just because she's famous and has a lot of money?

Back to cats:

Don't look now, but it's Alex, the big 20+ pounder walking behind the sheers ON the windowsill in the TV room. Always makes us a little nervous. He's tried to get down and missed, but he seems to have his 'route' down now.

And because he seems to be everyone's favorite, here's Mowry on my lap while I try to type on the laptop.

Knitting and Cats

It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but I finished the scarfy/shawl thing I made (or was it a shawly/scarf thing?) and I LOVE it. It's triangular, but not too long in the back, so it's really more of a scarf. I probably need to post the picture of the pattern, but I don't have it with me right now. This yarn from Newton's (bought at Stitches 2010) is wonderful to knit with and to wear. I will post a picture of me wearing it at some point. The one I had was not good enough to post here.

Every few months I need to post this picture of Mowry. This was his "mug shot" from when we adopted him. His eyes are green now, and he's bigger, but he's still this sweet kitty. Actually, his face has some gray (or "blue" as they call it in the cat world) so he almost looks dirty, but it's his coloring, and it's what makes him unique. We could pick him out in a crowd of orange tabbies.

And Mowry now! You can't see the gray in his face that I mentioned, but it's there. He looks a little grumpy or sleepy or something in the recent picture, doesn't he?

I think I've posted this picture before, but it cracks me up. Here he is, NEXT to the cat beds. He's yawning, but he looks mean. Those are the socks I made for Aunt Mare (of "Knit Mare Knit" fame).Mowry CAN be mean, especially to Ziggy, but here he is doing cat kisses with Ziggy. Or maybe Ziggy just smells funny and Mow is sniffing him. Whatever it is, it isn't mean or fighting.

Knitting Yarn Cats

I have a follower of my blog, and I found out she's someone named Megan who lives in New Zealand. I'm not sure how she found me, but hello to Megan and I hope you are safe after the big earthquake today. It looks like it's not that close to you, but also not that far away. The map program I used shows it in kilometers, and I have no idea what that translates to in miles.

This picture doesn't do this little collar scarf justice. I was very happy with how it came out, and how the red button worked so well.Typical evening in winter - Alex on Will's lap, remote control comfortably sitting close by for use when needed.
This picture was at www.knittinguniverse.com with a caption about Stitches 2011. But alas I spotted myself in the picture, and I was not there on opening day this year, and I didn't wait with all these people. I went on Sunday. Can you find me?
I wasn't sure if I was going to go to Stitches West this year. I usually go on Friday with Diann, but this year I inadvertently scheduled myself to work on Friday. I decided on Saturday that I would go on Sunday. I'm glad I went. I expected it to be VERY crowded, but it wasn't. I was also there for the "must be present" grand prize drawings of $250, $400 and $750 cash, but I didn't win!

Here is what I bought - Rayon from Newton's probably for 2 scarfy/shawly projects (possibly a mobius pattern - think infinity symbol), and 2 pairs of socks. I can never seem to have enough black socks, and the other pair is for Will.
I also found this homeopathic medicine called Topricin that is supposed to work on pain. I don't usually go for stuff like that, but with my trigger finger on one hand, and because I just knit too much, I was willing to try it.

It's always random pictures

I just noticed I have two followers on my blog. Thanks, Lauren, for checking out my blog! I don't know who the other person is, but for now if she wants to see random (mostly cat) pictures, then I guess it's okay.

I may have posted this before, but it still cracks me up to see Alex (white whisker on our right) staring at Ziggy as Ziggy is eating. Silly Alex the intimidator. I love this sign - "Uneven Pavemen Surface". Is Pavemen anything like Cavemen? I kept driving by this sign, and finally I got the camera on my phone set up to take a picture. I wasn't driving! Good thing I did it - the next day the sign was gone after being there for several weeks!

Ah, how appropriate. This is Cupid's Heart sculpture in SF on the Embarcadero. Perfect for today - Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine's Day to all. My client is located right near this. Location, location, location.

Weekend things

It's a lazy Sunday - basketball on TV (Heat & Thunder, then Lakers & Celtics), a load of laundry going, some extra yarn picked up by someone who posted on Freecycle that she is starting to knit and was hoping someone had yarn to share, which I did. We even finalized Will's little DVD business entries for 2010 in Quickbooks. Sadly, this business will be liquidated since his partner only made one DVD, albeit a good one - "The Greatest DVD on ... Quartzsite" (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art27488.asp for a review), but without more titles, it wasn't worth keeping the business.

Last night Will played bongos with his musician friends (Eddie and Friends). While he prefers playing his drums, and has had to be convinced by me over and over that his tapping at the bongos DOES add to the music, he and I both enjoyed the evening. There are several musicians, depending on who shows up, and all are good. Eddie and Friends - Eddie writes original music, and plays a cover or two on guitar, harmonica and sings, 3 other guitarists who do the same, a violinist, a pianist who also sings, and Will on bongos. I hope I didn't miss anyone. They trade off and play together and it's always a night with good music at Mission Coffee in Fremont (www.fremontcoffee.com).

Mission Coffee is a fun atmosphere, although sometimes instead of being polite and using inside voices, people get louder when the music is on. I didn't think that was the case last night. It was really good, although apparently the proprietor of Mission Coffee was her usual grouchy self and had issues with the sound. She growled at me when I asked if something in the food display case was good, which I thought was a fair question since it's something new that they are carrying. "It wouldn't be here if it wasn't" was the response I got, in a tone that Ziggy would use when around small kids. Her response seemed a bit crabby, so I wasn't surprised to hear she wasn't happy with the sound and was crabby about that, too. It was too loud or something, but then someone else said the kitchen noise was too loud, so who knows, and who cares.

I enjoyed the 1/2 BLT and 1/2 Vegetable Pastie (the item I mistakenly asked about being good - figuring I'd open a little dialogue as in "yes, it's great" or "it's good but I prefer the Beef Pastie" didn't seem unreasonable, but there you go), 1/2 cookie (Will and I like to share), visiting with friends and acquaintances we've met over the years thru the music scene, and knitting. Today my neck hurts and I'm guessing it's from the position I'm in while knitting. Too bad I missed the ergonomics class last year at the Stitches West knitting convention, and they aren't offering it this year.

It was raining this morning, but it seems to be clearing up.

The little white cat who lives next door is moving. We are really going to miss her. I'm glad she won't be here because I believe it's only a matter of time before she'll be road kill since she runs across the street like cats do, but I will miss her coming to me for her treats (picture above). I don't believe in feeding other people's animals, but I feel like she's "family" and I give her two treats when she comes to visit. She just walked across the back fence a few minutes ago, reminding me that I will miss her when she's gone. She is a tiny little cat, which is a huge contrast from Alex and Ziggy, who this morning left us two presents - one in the living room by the fireplace, and one later in his little cat tent. BAD kitty. He's on Will's lap now, loving as ever.

Random Photos and Thoughts

These really are in random order, but I need to go do something, so I'm not going to take the time to organize them.

This was a lovely sunrise one day last week. The orange stripe was interesting against an otherwise grayish bluish sky.
I was able to capture this contrail on my camera. I'm not sure when I took it.
Mint is growing quite well, except that something is eating it. The green onions I planted last year are coming back! All in the same planter. I put some of those sharp round things around the edge so whatever is eating the mint can't climb over it. I hope it works.
Thank you, humans, for not making the bed. Can you see Mowry on top of Ziggy's tail? I put their favorite toy "shuttlecock" on the bed with them.

I used a 9" circular needle to knit these socks. You can see it below. The hated this needle the first time I used it, but I was going on BART and to a movie theater (to see Wizard of Oz, see prior post) and I didn't want to carry regular double pointed needles. As it turned out, this needle was perfect with this yarn. It's Deborah Norville Serenity and was so soft to knit with.
Below is the garden from the movie "It's Complicated". How come my garden doesn't look like this? This is the garden I want. Sorry for not editing out the flash as I am on my laptop and that camera program doesn't allow me to crop photos. I have something eating my mint plant, which has been growing well. I took some out and replanted elsewhere, hoping the thwart the villians.
Isn't the moon and sky pretty? This was taken several weeks ago. It might have been the night of the eclipse before all that fun stuff started. Unfortunately, I missed the eclipse.
Uh oh. What happened here? I can't blame the cats for this one. I picked up the Trader Joe's cookie tub from on top of the refrigerator where we keep it and the top wasn't on right, so they ALL fell on the floor. These ginger cookies are really good! We were both bummed until we could get to TJ's to replace them.

We're off to see the wizard.....

I loved my last blog posting about seeing double, if I may say so myself. Unfortunately, on a "can you top this" note, I haven't posted since because I am quite sure I can't top that post. Not that it's a contest, especially a contest of me against me, but I just really liked that post so I hesitated to post again. But it's time to move that post down one slot and have a new post.

Sometimes things work out better when they aren't planned. Yesterday we got a call from a friend who had two unused tickets for last night's screening of "The Wizard of Oz" at the lovely Paramount Theater in Oakland, and she wanted to know if we were interested. I don't usually like going to movies - it's a long time to sit in the dark with people who I wouldn't invite into my living room (our friends are NOT part of that, of course); people who are loudly chomping on popcorn, may smell of cologne, or who knows what, and sometimes talking in their "outside" voices, but when Will said yes, I agreed that it was a good opportunity. This isn't just any movie. I'm betting if we had been asked to go when the tickets were originally purchased, we probably would have declined. We were both glad we went. Is there a lesson here? Probably not!

The Paramount is an old theater built in 1931 and renovated in 1973. Even the outside marquee is beautiful.

We took BART up there. The BART station left us off across the street from the theater.
When this movie is on TV I never watch it. I've seen it many times, and since I don't have great recall after I see movies, it's apparent I must have seen it many more times than I remembered because I knew MANY of the lines and song lyrics! When it's on TV it's easy to walk away and say "I'll watch next time" but on the big screen, it's really cool.

There was some idiot sitting two rows in front of us who was recording part of it on his phone or mini-video recorder (just like the Seinfeld episode). It was fun watching with an audience of about 3,000. People clapped at parts, booed the wicked witch, and occasionally recited specific words, such as "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" - one of my favorites!

When we got home we had to do some "maintenance" on Alex. This is where one of us holds him down and the other helps him clean up with a wet paper towel or rag. I am the holder,and I was holding his head and front paws rather well, or so I thought, until he got those hind legs going and nailed me between my thumb and index finger, which hurts A LOT! It doesn't hurt this morning, but at the time, it was enough to make me not want to see Alex for awhile. He's still a little stinky this morning. He may need a sanitary shave like his "brother" Ziggy got a few months ago. TMI? Too much information? Probably, but it's my blog and I'll post what I want to. Wasn't that a song?

It's hard to believe that both of these cute kitties (who love it if they can get onto our bed and settle before we make the bed, and love it even more on days we don't make the bed) have nailed me but good with their sharp claws.

In case you're wondering, that's Alex on the left, and Ziggy on the right. It's RARE that they are together like this, but more common lately, and even rarer that both have their faces toward me and their eyes open. Is it Christmas?
We stayed up past midnight last night. Can we do it again tonight?

Happy New Year to my many readers. LOL! OK, Happy New Year to my 5 readers! May there be peace, prosperity, good health, and happiness in 2011.