Prairie Gumbo

Bad Blogger is Back

2011-07-23T11:17:00.005-05:00

OMG, how long has it been? 7 months since I last posted? I feel like the worst blogger ever. The best news is that we're all still alive and kicking. Although we almost lost Chloe earlier last month.

We didn't know that she had a tick somewhere on her, even though we carefully check over both pups whenever we are down at the lake. The only thing I can figure is that it was between her toes, since that's the only place I hadn't checked. We could tell she had been gradually feeling poorly, but attributed it to the heat. Until one evening she seemed so disoriented and her legs were just collapsing under her. She was refusing food but drinking water and was still wanting to go outside to use the bathroom. We had put flea and tick stuff on both dogs earlier that day and I thought maybe it was poisoning her, so we washed it off. We made her comfortable and decided to forego the emergency vet clinic because we were afraid the stress would kill her. We took her to see the vet the next day, who reassured us that the flea and tick meds could in no way have made her sick, but that she had some kind of bad infection. They took samples and sent us home with some antibiotics. As Mr. Criquette was shaking out her blanket to settle her back in (she was still terribly weak at this point), he saw something fall out.

It was a hideously large, dead tick, as big around as a dime. The flea and tick meds had apparently killed it. So he called the vet back immediately, who then was able to diagnose with her with a tick-bourne disease and put her on the right antibiotic. It was an almost miraculous recovery, and within 2 days, we had a big, bouncy 12-year old puppy! She has been so happy and frisky since then. We are so grateful. And sweet little Abbie had literally stayed by Chloe's side the whole time she was sick, curling up on the blanket with her, which they never normally do. Needless to say, they have both been getting extra love and treats!

Soaking up the sunshine

Checking for bunnies

Last year, I realized that I had let knitting take over my free time so much that I was becoming isolated from friends and family. I had also taken up quilting in the spring, and work is going as strong as ever. So I decided to put more time and energy into re-building old relationships and starting some new friendships as well. I had always taken my relationships for granted and finally came to the realization that I, being an introvert, have to "put myself out there" so to speak, and give relationships the same amount of focus and time that I had been putting into knitting. It has really paid off in a more balanced life, although most days I would prefer to be hiding at home knitting or being on Ravelry or blogging. So that's why I'm not around in the blogosphere very often. But I'm like a comet and I inevitably have to swing by from time to time to visit my blog (it's the only close to a diary that I have) and check in on my friends here.

I have also been so fortunate to have my brother and his wife, and then a week later, my sister and 14-year old niece for nice, long visits. We got lots of good quality time together, with lots of laughing and loving being together. Here's a picture of us girls, snapped in one of the rare moments we weren't running around somewhere or eating.

This is my expensive yarn-loving niece who is slowly learning to knit, but prefers to raid my stash and ask for me to make her something squishy and warm. This time, she was immediately drawn to my carefully hoarded Madeline Tosh light merino in Logwood. Fortunately I have enough to make us each a nice slouch hat or cowl. After all, I have to enable the next knitting generation.

I've also been in somewhat of a knitting slump this summer. It's not because of the heat, since I don't mind staying inside with my yarn and air conditioner no matter how hot. But I haven't been inspired by a pattern or yarn in a while. I have made a couple of cute baby hats for friends with new grandbabies, and have cast on and gotten a few inches into some little shawls, that have ended up being frogged, and have been slowly slogging away on an afghan to donate to a victim of the Joplin tornados, but otherwise, have nothing much to show. But I do keep to my resolve to knit at least one row of something a day, which just has to be good enough for now.

Hope you are all having a good summer and finding lot of ways to beat the heat!

Stash, Stash, Go Away

2011-01-22T10:25:00.006-06:00

It's hard enough to believe we have finished the first decade of the 21st century, but even harder to believe January is almost over. The holidays felt like they snuck up from nowhere and ambushed us before we knew it. And then they were over.

Mr. Criquette and I went to New Orleans, but everyone was grumpy and out of sorts, so it wasn't one of my family's best celebrations by a long shot. One of my SIL's had to have emergency surgery the day after Christmas and no one knew if she would be able to walk again (fortunately, she will thanks to intensive rehab for the next 3 months). There was some good news, too - one of my nephews is engaged and I will have a new niece before the end of the year. And now it's over, we're back home, and I have started knitting with a vengeance.

I am part of a Ravelry group for Malabrigo lovers and someone started a stash down challenge. Since we got our little lake house, I have put myself on a strict budget, and yarn purchases are one of the victims. Plus, when I had to buy yet another huge Rubbermaid bin for storage, I knew I had reached the "I will never knit this much yarn in my lifetime" stage. And that just made me sad. I managed to donate 2 trash bags full of mostly yarns I had purchased early in my addiction, before I had been introduced to the finer things in knitting life. This freed up one bin and some floor space in the overflowing craft closet, which motivated me even more.

My next step was to borrow Diane's brilliant idea of putting yarn into brown paper sacks, closing them up, and then when she finishes a project, she has one of sweet pups choose her next one. I went through my stash and picked out yarn that had been purchased without specific projects in mind, and paired them up with a pattern and then I put both in a bag together.

The projects:

My new LYS:

I think it's working because I am 2/3 of the way through January and haven't bought a single skein! Destash! Destash! Go Criquette! And I actually have 2 projects that I started and finished so far this year.

A slouchy hat for my hand-knit loving niece:

And a start to my Christmas gifts for 2011:

It's amazing what the girls will do for lamb jerky treats!

Although belated, I wish everyone a new year full of love, health and, of course, good yarn!

In Which Criquette Rediscovers an Old Friend

2010-10-24T21:58:00.001-05:00

Today's special guest is an old friend. We last visited about 7 years ago. Although she looked a little, well, dusty, she really hadn't changed a bit (wish I could say the same about me!). But, you know how it is with old friends, as soon as you get past that initial awkwardness, you settle down into the friendship again, and this is just what we did.

Since she was here to help me with a project, we got down to business right away. No messing around, that's how my friend Elna is. She was helping me make something special for a couple of swaps I'm in. I had already prepared everything the night before, so we could get started first thing in the morning. Can you guess what we're making?

If you guessed small project bags, you guessed right. And here's my friend, Elna, hard at work:

Didn't know I could sew, did you? My mother forced me to learn when I was in 5th grade. Our family had 4 kids at that point (the 5th came along the following year), and so money was a bit tight. I was going to have to make most of my own clothes. Which I did until shortly after college, when I had enough money of my own to finally afford a wardrobe that someone else had already made for me. That was what I considered a luxury. To this day, I still cannot stand the thought of making clothing, but it is somewhat reassuring to know that if I ever did have to resort to sewing clothes or going naked, I could make the more appropriate choice.

By the time Mr. C and I were on our 2nd home, I asked Santa to bring me my own sewing machine. I had taken an intense interest in making my own comforter because I couldn't find one already made that I liked. After that turned out much nicer than I expected, I made a couple of easy quilts. Then I decided to tackle lined drapes with an upholstered valence, which I loved, which led to me re-upholstering some chairs I picked up at an estate sale. I also made lots of fancy pillows for myself, family and friends. I was really into the sewing thing, and that was about the time I was getting bored with crochet and cross stitch, which had filled my time from college to the "sewing era".

Then we entered the 5 years from hell, during which we lost all 4 parents, a SIL, and our first kitty and our wonderful dog, KC. Our house was struck by lightening, which started a fire and fried all of our electronics and caused some moderate water damage to our second story. Right after the house was repaired and all of the electronics replaced, we had a robbery. The thieves stole the usual stuff (TV's, computers, my grandmother's silver) but also stole my sewing machine. (They were actually nice burglars, because they filled the cats' bowls with food, and left a big lipstick kiss on a mirror, and they didn't trash anything so we were lucky).

I did replace my sewing machine, with Elna. But I had lost the time and interest for sewing. We built the house we're in now, my practice boomed and best of all, I discovered and fell in love with knitting. Elna sat in the back of the coat closet, collecting dust and cobwebs.

But that all changed when I saw some cute little project bags on the 'net and realized that I could make my own. Then a couple of weeks ago, I did something that clinched the deal. I had my first quilt shop experience. And let's just say I might have come home with enough little piles of fabric to constitute a tiny stash. And last night, I cut out the pieces for 2 cute little bags, pulled Elna out of the darkness, cleaned her up and put her back to work. It's like we never lost contact. It feels good to see old friends.

There is something about autumn that really revs me up and gets my creativity overflowing. Here are some of my FO's from the last 2 weeks:

This is a clever little bookmark that I made to fit an oversized paperback. While you are reading, your can wear it on your wrist and when you're ready to save your place, it's right there. Now I have no more excuses for dog-earing.

I made some stitch markers for a recent holiday swap. I also made the fall dishcloth.

I got a jump on Christmas by making these 2 little sheepie ornaments while catching up on some tivo'ed Grey's Anatomy on Friday night.

Criquette, as usual, goes looking for mischief when the weather turns cooler. This time she found this ribbon and dragged it out of my craft closet to the dining room where she proceeded to create a "Happy Autumn" greeting to all of her fans.

So from all of us here in Criquette World, Happy Autumn!

Part 3 The Wilton's Dyeing Experiment

2010-10-03T17:08:00.005-05:00

This is the rest of my Wilton's Supersaturated Dyeing Experiment. The next colors I tested were the Ivory and Brown.

Both dyes behaved very well. I didn't have any problems with breaking or exhausting for either.

Now for the surprises. Here are the Juniper Green and Cornflower Blue. If you are looking at these thinking they look black, you are right. Both of these turned out black at high saturation. The Juniper has a warm cast to it, and the Cornflower is a true, deep, cool black.

I also tested Wilton's Black and a new dye I found in the cake section at Michael's, called Duff's. The Wilton's behaved well and did not break at all. It has a slight brown cast to it, though. I really like the Duff's. It is a thick, smooth liquid that dissolved immediately in warm water. The color turned out a solid black without any breaking.

Here is a comparison of the 4 blacks I got. As you can see, the Juniper and Cornflower more than hold their own against the Wilton's Black and look as good (to me, at least) as the Duff's Black.

My conclusions are that I can get really beautiful, deep colors using 1 1/2 tsp. amounts of Wilton's dyes. However, using this amount of dye requires letting the yarns sit for longer periods of time because most of them take longer to exhaust.

At this amount of dye, it was easy to get dark, true blacks. Of the 4 blacks, I would probably use the Cornflower Blue if I were looking for a true, cool black. I would also prefer to use Duff's Black over Wilton's in terms of the ease of mixing as well as the nicer color. The only downside to the Duff's is that it comes in a 4-pack. If you don't need the other colors, it is not cost effective.

So after the big experiment, I took the leftover white yarn and mixed up a test batch of brown, royal blue and a mix of lemon yellow+a bit of orange. I was not paying close attention and added too much vinegar at the wrong time, but I really like the resulting mess. It actually comes very close to matching a skein of hand-dyed yarn I purchased some time back at my lys.

It's going to be made into either toddler socks or a hat for the next afghans4Afghans campaign.

In other knitting news, I volunteered as a first-time test-knitter for someone in my Malabrigo swap group. I am making the cutest hat out of alternating skeins of Malabrigo worsted. It is so cute, I can't wait to finish it and then be able to show it off. As always, I have way too many projects on the needles, but sooner or later, they seem to get finished.

Finally, I have a couple of pictures of the cabin. We are going down next weekend for the inspection. I plan on doing an inventory of what is already there and what we will need to get. It's furnished, but not accessorized and I don't remember what has been left with the kitchen. Since I didn't get pictures of the inside, I'll be sure to that as well. And of course we are taking Chloe and Abbie so they can check out their new playground! Once it's ours, we also plan on taking the kitties down with us for long stays.

Isn't it cute? I can't stand having to wait until the end of the month for it to be ours. But it will be just in time for my birthday!

The Wilton's Dyeing Project, Part 2

2010-09-21T17:57:00.005-05:00

Continuing with my Wilton's saturated colors project results, next are the greens, blues and purples.

As I commented yesterday, the greens and blues gave me some surprises. The first greens that I tested look almost identical:

Leaf Green/Kelly Green/Moss Green

I let these soak in their dye baths 30 minutes after the last nuke and the leftover dye water in all 3 was still green when I removed them. The Leaf Green is a bit lighter and you can pick up a little more of a yellow cast on the white sample. The Kelly Green doesn't show the blue cast I was expecting, although if the blue needed more time to absorb, that would explain it. The Moss Green is the same depth of color as the Kelly green, with a touch more yellow.

The blues surprised me by not breaking. Since they received the same time to sit in their dye baths as all the other colors, they may not be fully saturated in terms of the blue dye - they may be much deeper if left to sit longer.

Teal/Sky Blue/Royal Blue

It was hard to get an accurate reading of these 3 colors because they all seem to not look quite green enough (compared to the real-life samples), if that makes sense.

Delphinium Blue/Aster Mauve/Violet

On this next group, the Delphinium broke so badly you wouldn't think it's supposed to be a pretty violet-blue. I have no idea where this one color went so wrong, since all of the blues were treated alike and the others did not break. The only explanation I have is that it needs to rest in the dyebath for a much longer time than the other colors and maybe that it needs a lot more vinegar.

With the Aster Mauve I was expecting that ugly 80's muddy pink color, but I got a beautiful pinkish-purple the color of thistles. The violet, which also showed no signs of breaking, is a very dark, very rich, true purple. At this saturation, though, it's almost black.

Tomorrow I will finish up with the neutrals and reveal something very interesting (at least to me).

And, just because she hasn't put in an appearance in a while, here are a couple of totally gratuitous pictures of the cuteness that is Criquette:

The Wilton Dyeing Project (Part 1)

2010-09-19T21:49:00.009-05:00

With the most beautiful time of year almost upon us, I have been dying to dye some yarn in a colorway that captures my favorite time of year. One of the challenges I am finding with using food-safe dyes is that I have a hard time getting really saturated colors. I want to dye some fall and winter skeins, but didn't know if I could get the deep, vibrant colors I have in my head. And a good, true black is very hard to come by. So I decided to use some of my research background to run a little experiment. It actually turned out to give me lots of information without needing to blow up the kitchen or commit acts of violence on small lab rodents.

My little project took place over the past 2 weekends. It took longer than I anticipated after my kitchen microwave died and I had to make countless trips up and down the stairs to use the one in the basement. But it all came together and I am ready to share my results. And I am all about the multi-tasking, so with that many stairs climbed, I could skip working out and use the time to work out with yarn instead!

To begin, I got 3 base yarns and cut 5' samples from each. They were Cascade 220 (white), and Paton's Classic Wool (natural and grey). I wanted to see what differences the colors made on overdyeing, to see if I would be able to get the results I wanted on white yarn, or if I needed to start with a deeper base.

Here is the naked yarn:

All of my samples were pre-soaked in lukewarm water with 1/4 tsp salt and 2 drops Dawn added. The excess water was squeezed from them before entering the dyebath. All of the dye was mixed using high concentrations of dye:yarn - 1 tsp diluted in 1 cup boiling water. The water was allowed to cool off before adding the yarn. I let the yarn sit in the unheated dyebath for about 30 minutes before nuking in on high for 2 mins, cool for 3 minutes. I added about 1/2 tsp vinegar before the second and third heatings, then let the yarn sit in the heated dyebath until close to room temperature, probably about 20-30 minutes. I then rinsed it well, until the water ran mostly clear.

Here are the results, grouped by color:

Pink, Rose Petal, Rose

These were a bit of a surprise - the pink, which I thought would be lighter than the other two actually ended up more of a wine color. In general, the Rose Petal was a bit more coral and the Rose more of a lipstick pink, other than that, they were pretty similar.

Next are the reds - Creamy Peach, No-Taste Red, and Burgundy. (I am missing the other reds in the Wilton collection. When I get them, I will add them to the samples.) The burgundy is so dark it looks brownish-black almost.

The dyes in the orange family actually "took" the quickest, almost exhausting the dye. The orange is very vibrant, whereas the Terra Cotta and Copper look almost identical. Also, there is almost no variation among the 3 base colors with Terra Cotta - they are virtually identical. Copper is one of the colors notorious for breaking, but this batch didn't show any sign of breakage.

The yellows are probably my favorites of all the colors I tested because they look different than I expected and because they are incredible autumn colors in their super-saturated state.

These colors didn't give me any problems. But the next batch, the blues and greens were a different story. I'll show my findings in Part 2.

Criquette Returns (With FO's!)

2010-09-18T20:13:00.014-05:00

Since I haven't seen my little blog in a while, I thought it was time to check in and see if it's still here. And time, once again, to catch up. First, here are some of my projects that I have made in the past several months:

Malabrigo worsted hat for the Malabrigo swap:

A lavender and rice-filled neck pillow for my rav friend, Laura:

My 3rd Montego Bay scarf for the Odd Ducks' Sea and Ocean swap:

Bella's Baseball Scarf from "Twilight" for my darling knitted-goods-loving niece (which was my first, but not last, attempt at cabling):

JJ Scarflette (some early Christmas knitting):

And my very favorite - my first shawl! Knitted from my first (but not last) skein of Wollmeise:

I've been getting more and more involved in hand-dyeing with food-safe dyes. Creating the colorways I have in my head is so exciting! Here are my favorites so far:

Of course, I am staying busy taking good care of the fur-babies. Nothing new with them, they are all still running the show here on the little house on the prairie.

And we have been sneaking down to the lake whenever we can, which isn't nearly enough. So we have finally decided to take the plunge and get our own cabin down there. That way, we can go whenever we want. There's a place we have our eye on, and we may put in an offer this week!

And of course, working my crazy-long hours. I had to hire 2 new therapists to take some of my referrals since I wasn't able to get people in for months. Neither one of them knit, but I won't hold that against them.

Criquette Returns (With Grits Recipes!)

2010-07-10T10:36:00.007-05:00

Dear Criquette,

I cannot believe you have come back, after all this time. I have felt so abandoned and alone. Things were so much better before that upstart Ravelry came along and stole you away from me. And now, here you are, acting as if nothing has happened, as if you haven't ignored me for months on end, and expecting me to forgive you and just be here for you. Well, missy, blogs have feelings too! What's that? You're going to give me a new template and fonts? You'll post some pictures of all I have missing? Well, maybe I'll forgive you this time....

Sincerely,

Your sad and lonely blog

Yes, it's true. I actually have torn myself away from 'rav to post again. I can't promise this will become regular, but I have missed the blogging world while I have been on this latest blogging sabbatical.

To celebrate my return, I want to post a couple of recipes for grits, as requested by Sally (known on Ravelry as warpedntwisted). Sally is one of my new malabrigo-loving buds. I was lucky enough to make it into the mal swap!!! Anyway, it's probably safe to say that most people think they don't like grits. And if they're thinking of those lumpy, glue-like, bland white clumps of sand, they're smart to stay away from them.

But if they tried pimped-out grits, like these recipes, they just might change their minds. Whenever I make one of these dishes for my midwestern family and friends, there are no leftovers, and I have given out the recipes many times, to people who thought they hated grits. So here goes:

This first recipe is just sublime. It is one of the signature dishes from one of my favorite resturants in New Orleans, Zea's Rotisserie. It's actually easy to make, just be careful not to add the grits too quickly to the boiling broth/cream or you will have a giant, nasty mess to clean up and ask me how I know.

Zea's Corn-Roasted Grits

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup grilled corn
1 cup yellow grits (not instant)

Directions:

To grill corn, shuck off husk. Lightly butter corncob and grill over charcoal or open fire until slightly blackened. Cool corn and cut kernels from cob with a sharp knife. Bring chicken broth to a boil. Add heavy cream and return to a boil. Slowly whisk in the grits and then the corn. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook 5 to 6 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Copyright 2005 by TheNewOrleansChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I will follow these instructions when I can get fresh corn. But this is a great fall/winter dish, so I have successfully substituted thawed and drained frozen corn. I set my oven on 450 with the top rack a few inches from the top, put the corn in a single layer in a greased pan, spray a bit of PAM on top and slide it in for a few minutes. You have to keep a close eye on this, and turn the corn a couple of times so it roasts evenly or you will have a burnt mess and ask me how I know. It only takes a few minutes and tastes almost as good. Also, instead of just salt and pepper, I add 1/2 tsp of cajun seasoning, like Tony Chachere's or Zatarain's to spice it up a bit more. This dish is great for brunch, and is also a good side for bbq.
And here is a more classic Creole grits recipe. It is creamy, rich and so delicious.

French Quarter Brunch Grits

1 quart milk

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon Creole or Cajun Seasoning

1 cup white quick-cooking grits

4 ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes

4 ounces Cheddar cheese, cut into cubes

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the milk, garlic powder, salt, white pepper and Creole seasoning. Heat, stirring slowly and constantly, until the milk just comes to a boil. Add the grits, slowly and stir to mix. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the mixture is thick and creamy, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add the cheeses and stir until they melt completely. Serve warm.

I am getting ready to head off to the farmers market now to pick up some fresh corn, because I hear those Zea's grits calling me. Bon appetite!

Dogs=Angels

2010-01-12T11:53:00.004-06:00

If there was an official religion named "The Church of God, Canine", I would give up my non-denominational identity and become a member, along with Abbie and Chloe, of course. And one of the hymns we would sing every week would be this one, the simple yet profound "God & Dog", by Wendy Francisco.

Watch it (if you're like me, more than once), cry some tears of joy and gratitude, enjoy, then go love all over your precious dogs. Amen and bow-wow.

(My apologies if everyone has already seen this. Although even if you have, why not enjoy it again?)

My Brother Is a Star

2009-12-19T10:00:00.003-06:00

My brother, the Instigator, was my childhood nemesis. He tormented my other siblings and I incessently, and was always careful to do it when no parents were looking and then playing innocent so they never believed us and he didn't get in trouble. And of course, whenever we tried to seek justice on our own, we were caught and spent the rest of the day in our rooms, playing with dust bunnies.

Eventually, we all grew up and, realizing one can not sell one's horrible brother on eBay, made our peace. Now, the Instigator is one of my very best friends and I love him dearly. He still loves to tease and play practical jokes, always in a non-malicious way, and loves to be teased in return (although he won't admit it).

We are going to New Orleans for Christmas this year, and I can see it now. He will be trying to give us autographs, and will be wearing sunglasses inside, and will be expecting us to treat him like a TV star because, well, he is! I have posted pictures of the beautiful hand-made ornaments he crafts each year for his jewelry store, donating part of the proceeds to local charities. He was interviewed on the local ABC affiliate and he was so cute that I just had to share this clip. And what you're hearing is a genuine New Orleans accent. I've lost mine, long ago, but pick it right up again whenever I go home. Did you notice how quiet and serious he seems? Not like an instigator at all, is he? And that, my friends, is the act he used to trick my parents (and teachers, and other authority figures) into thinking he is an innocent lamb. Ha! But I am really proud of him and that's why I wanted to share his 5 minutes of fame. He is such a good person, with such a generous heart, that he deserves more.

I didn't plan to take such a long break from blogging, but I love Ravelry so much that what little free time I have had is usually spent there. I was finally talked into creating a Facebook page because everyone in my immediate family is on Facebook now and we can keep tabs on the day-to-day stuff much more easily now. I will confess, I am also a Bad Facebookee. I check out what everyone else is up to, but rarely post anything. I have had, for me, some big accomplishments this fall which are keeping me away from cyberspace more and more, too. Lots of news, lots of projects, so little time to post about them...

But I haven't forgotten my blogging friends. I have turned into more of a lurker than a responder these days, but I am happy to see that you are all doing well for the most part and knitting beautiful things and having wonderful adventures. I hope you all are having a blessed holiday season and building lots of good memories with your loved ones. Hugs to all, and I hope to catch up with you all really soon!

Dogs on Thursday: In Which the Bunny Hunter Gets a New Hobby

2009-09-03T00:18:00.000-05:00

Well hello there! Where did you come from? Did you take a wrong turn in New Jersey? Did you make a break for it when my pal, Tara the Turtlehunter wasn't looking?

It's no use trying to hide from a beagle y'know.

With my powerful x-ray vision and supercharged nose, I know you're out there....

...I just don't know what you are. You may not have long ears and a cottontail, but I want to hunt you anyway!

(Chloe is confused by all of the barking and howling that is going on at this point. She prefers to save her energy for critters that are fun to herd, like squirrels and small children.)

A few days later....

I knew you'd come back! That's why I've been planted in front of the window every spare moment I haven't been eating or sleeping. Now come over here, a little closer. In fact, you're welcome to come in for my little snack...no, wait! I meant *a* snack. Wait! Don't go! I was just kidding!

(On yet another day....)

Turtle! Turtle! Turtle! You're more fun to obsessively watch for than bunnies, especially since you make a beeline for the same bushes under my window almost everyday and stay there for hours, where I can watch your every non-move! You give me something to live for! I love you, Turtle!

(She must love Abbie, too since she comes out of the woods every few days to hang out in the bushes below the back windows. We're assuming it's the same turtle. If not, we've had 17 different turtles showing up for the past few weeks.)

She is an ornate box turtle. We have also been visited by a very pretty painted turtle but that one did not have beagle-love and hasn't been back.

(Meanwhile, Chloe ponders what her new hobby shall be.) "Mom? Can I get some sheep?"

Summertime on the Prairie

2009-08-09T18:32:00.000-05:00

No matter how hot it gets here, summertime in Kansas provides lots of eye candy. The main star of the show is the big, gorgeous blueblueblue sky full of clouds so white and wooly, it often looks like a whole flock of sheepies overhead.

This summer has apparently broken some very old records as being the coolest and wettest in over a half-century. Yes, that's right, Kansas stole Seattle's weather and left the unbearable Midwest heat for our Northwestern neighbors to enjoy. This means that we have had some of the most beautifully perfect days that I can remember in the 15 years I've lived here now.

This is one of the small wheatfields I drive by on my way to work each day. They still farm wheat, soybeans and corn on the many parcels of undeveloped land around here. Sadly, it will eventually be destroyed to squeeze in yet another shopping center. The good thing about the bad economy is that it is slowing down the warp-speed rate of development that has been happening in our county.

The next four pictures are from a teensy roadtrip I took a couple of weeks ago to Lawrence, home of the Kansas Jayhawks who won the 2008 NCAA championship. It's a great little college town and the 20 minute drive from my house is through gently rolling farmland. One of my favorite ways to relax is to take a long drive by myself and this is one of my favorites.

I love cloud shadows!

I had two reasons to head to Lawrence - yarn and eagles. There is a fabulous yarn store in Lawrence that I had never visited before called The Yarn Barn. It's right in the middle of the charming downtown and was all that I hoped it would be. There is a very nice selection of various yarns and the best array of knitting supplies I have found so far. However, the thing that makes this store so special is the unbelievable variety of big cones of laceweights and silk yarns. I am not sure why anyone would need such large amounts, but if they do, this is the place to get it. They also have large quantities of wool battings from all types of sheep and lots of undyed roving. They also have a large display unit with both sides covered with all types of undyed yarns. I am not sure if my next hobby will be dying, spinning or weaving, but whatever it is, this will be where I come to buy my crack, er, I mean supplies. I found a few souvenirs to take home, so the drive was worth it.

When is sock yarn not for socks? When it's for pretty scarves and mitts!

I also had another reason to go to Lawrence and it was to find a particular spot on the Kansas River, which is right across from downtown:

Even though I have seen a mated pair of American eagles on their nest down at the Lake of the Ozarks (an unbelievably close view, too), it was before I started keeping a life list of birds. So to me, it won't count until I see another one. plus, I'd love to see one or more feeding. This little waterfall is a prime eagle, hawk and sometimes osprey fishing site in the winter. This is because the moving water keeps ice from forming so the birds can fish even in subzero weather. I have heard of as many 17 eagles fishing at a time! I am planning to come here in the winter to see some eagles and wanted to scout the area out first. I only hope the eagles don't elude me the way the pileated woodpeckers have.

I also love my garden in the summertime. The Annabelle and Limelight hydrangeas grow obscenely large, and so far this year I have harvested over 3 dozen large heads of Annabelle (shown here) to sell to a local floral designer as well as several bunches to give to neighbors. The Limelights aren't mature enough to harvest yet, but I should get almost 2 dozen heads from the one bush I have. I don't do anything special for them, not even fertilizer, but they obviously love the location on the front of my house (northern exposure).

This pretty little yellow flower is very special to me. It is a banana magnolia, which is an old-fashioned semi-tropical shrub that grows in New Orleans. The blooms are small and mostly unnoticed except for the heavenly smell that is like banana creme brulee. I brought one up here about 5 years ago and have babied it more than my other potted plants (who must abide by Darwinian rule in my household). It has finally rewarded me with 2 blooms! They only last for a couple of days, so I ran out to the porch several times for those days just to take a long whiff.

These are some shagbark hickories that grow not far from where I live. These are some of my favorite trees. I want to spread a blanket under them and knit all afternoon except there's a walking trail right there and I wouldn't want my yarn to get trampled.

And of course, the girls can't get enough of summertime in Kansas either!

In Which Criquette Finally Resurfaces and Writes a Post

2009-08-08T22:28:00.000-05:00

I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I didn't realize it's been nearly 2 months. Bad, bad blogger! I was also surprised that I hadn't continued the story of my quest to see a pileated woodpecker, or of our wonderful long weekend down at the lake, or posted pictures of the pathetically few FO's I managed to finish since the beginning of summer (and let's not count the embarassing number of UFO's and frogs that I created).
First, the Quest for the Pileated WP. I did go back to the arboretum the following weekend and spent 2 hours lurking among the cottonwoods by the creek. I found evidence that I was in the right place, looking at the right trees:

Notice the huge holes in this tree

compared to these holes made by much smaller woodpeckers

The more I looked, the more of the huge excavations I found. There was a tree I suspected they may have been recently using as a nest, but I could only get glimpses of it through the foliage. I looked and waited and waited... Finally, I gave up and started heading back. Then I heard it, right in back of me: the pounding. Two beats, loud and strong, just like what I've heard on my bird sounds cd. It was soooo close, but I couldn't see anything. Some other people were close by and they heard it too. It drummed once more, then called it's kah-kah-kah sound, as it flew further away from us. Arrrgggghhhhhhh!

Some birders will count identifications by sound alone, but for my lifer list, I want an actual sighting. I went back 3 weeks later with a friend, very early in the morning, but didn't see or hear much of anything. The birds all seemed to be sleeping in that day. I've decided that during summer, the forest is too thick and lush to see much of any birds who perch or fly among the canopies. I decided to wait until mid-autumn, maybe October, to go back and try again.

Then, in late June, we headed down for a few days of r&r at the Lake of the Ozarks. We love staying in the quaint family cabin close to the water's edge in a quiet cove, listening to the birds and the gentle lapping of the water. Mr. Criquette, being a Type A personality, has no concept of the word "relaxation". I call him my 2-legged squirrel. He hauls down numerous projects, some of them work, or finds small fix-up projects around the cabin. His idea of fishing is to throw a line off the dock and bustle about doing projects until a fish snags itself on the line. He rushes back to release the fish, throws the line back in and bustles some more. It gets quite exhausting watching him in all of this activity, so I take little mini-naps in between knitting and reading.

I will usually stir myself once or twice a day to take a nature stroll, looking at the various wildflowers and birds that inhabit the area. I was on one of my strolls along the bank of the cove, and had my binoculars looking for the herons that roost in the swampy area at the far back of the cove, when it ocurred to me that the tree I was looking at was a cottonwood - a really big one at that.

Wait a minute! Pileateds love them some big, old cottonwood trees and PWP's are listed as one of the regional inhabitants. I did a quick search around the cove and noticed several big cottonwoods. Best of all, I noticed that the huge, half-rotted tree that sits at one edge of the property is a cottonwood that has several of these:

Holes this big could only have been made by PWP's!

I about peed my pants as I ran off to tell Mr. C. He was very interested and we both kept a close eye on the tree the rest of the time we were there, but, except for a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a lifer for me), some extremely noisy titmice and chickadees, the herons, a mama wood duck and her babies (another lifer!), yellow finches, a phoebe, a great crested flycatcher, and 2 different warblers I could hear but not see, there was no sign of the big woodpeckers.

I was still happy about adding to my lifetime list, but still felt like the PWP's have a conspiracy to elude me. The most frustrating part was when Mr. C returned the key to the owner (his uncle) and asked about the big guys. His uncle, obviously not a fan, said, "Those big pests? They're around all the time. We wish they'd go somewhere else." Such is my luck.

Even though I've not been blogging, I have been knitting (with a little crochet thrown in for a change). I have made several dishcloths, including several for Ravelry swaps:

And of course, there are the ever-present UFO's, always lurking in my knitting basket...

My most favorite project right now is a very special one. One of my lovely nieces, who is majoring in hotel management and tourism, is taking a class in wines. As part of this class, they have to go on a 2-week tour of the California wine country, which of course includes mandatory tastings and gourmet meals. All this and college credits too!

I missed her birthday earlier this year, an important one. So I decided to make my first shawl. As in the kind of project where I must FOCUS and PAY ATTENTION. As you might imagine, my progress on this shawl is quite slow, despite the fact that the pattern is so easy, a toddler could make it.

I'm using Classic Elite Cotton-Boo in a beautiful light grey, the color of Spanish moss. The entire time I was working on the first 10 rows, I kept feeling like I needed to frog it. But I remembered reading that lacy projects look terrible the first few rows and so I kept going. Now I am past the second repeat and am loving what I am seeing so far!

I'm so excited that all I want to do is spend the entire weekend doing this and nothing else. However, there are massive dust bunnies gathering in force throughout the house, and my closet has become the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle and must be brought under control, not to mention the mundane weekly chores that have to wait for the weekend. I motivate myself by remembering that we will be going back down to lake soon. And maybe, just maybe, the "big pests" will make me a very happy birder.

What's In a Name?

2009-06-14T11:48:00.004-05:00

I have always been someone who is fascinated by names. When I was much younger, I used to entertain myself by making lists of names I liked, names for my future husband and kids (Mr. C's name was not on any of those lists!), names for pets, names of people I knew. When I was really bored, I would sometimes look through the phone book for really silly or weird names. Perhaps this is a strange fixation, but I am not alone. There is even a label for people who are fascinated by names: onamamania. Google "fascination with names" and see how many times this comes up. So even if I'm weird, I'm not weird alone.

I am sure this stems from my early childhood.

From as far back as I can remember, I despised my birth name. It felt ugly and awkward, not at all who I perceived myself to be. For anyone else, it is a perfectly fine name, and I have had many friends and acquaintences throughout my life who have been given this name as well. But it wasn't me. I was pretty angry and resentful as a child and, looking back, I think having the wrong name contributed to my overall lack of self-esteem.

In the summer between 8th grade and high school, when crazy hormones and 13-year old angst were at their peak, my friend (who also hated her name) and I decided to rebel against our parents by changing our names. I had a great-aunt named Katie. She had passed away before I was born, so I never knew her, but she had a reputation in her family as mischievous and fun-loving. This was the name I wish my parents had chosen for me, it felt right and it matched my inner view of who I am. Much more well-suited than the dignified, serious name they stuck me with. And so that day, my true self was born and I became Katie.

I went home and announced to my mom that I was changing my name. This announcement was, I'm sure, made with lots of nasty teenage attitude. I was just waiting for her to challenge me so I could launch into a full-fledged snit-fit. But, to my complete surprise, she agreed that my personality was definitely a "Katie" personality instead of the name I had been given. She started calling me Katie that very day and my siblings soon after. My dad had a harder time with it. Sometimes he called me Katie but more often, it was the original name. He is the only person I let get away with this.

And I started high school a couple of months later and introduced myself to all of my new friends and teachers as "Katie". It was that easy. It helps that it is kind of close to my original name that most people never question it, although it is not a nickname of my original name. I have never changed it legally, and while the original name is on a very small number of the important official documents, my chosen name is on many others. A couple of times, I have been asked for clarification, but I am continually surprised at how easy it has been to go through life with 2 different first names.

It is amazing the immediate impact this had on my personality and self-esteem. I became much more confident and outgoing. For the first time in my life, it was easier to make friends. And I began to like myself, which I had not done before. As a psychologist, I am now aware of the fact that our names can have a significant impact on how others perceive us. It makes me sad to think there may be lots of kids out there who feel this way, but never think that they have the power to change their names, unless they have the kind of name that comes with some decent choices of nicknames.

In the cyber world, we have a chance to choose any name we wish to be called. And it makes sense to have an alias. For instance, I have 4 different email accounts - the only one in my "real" name is the one associated with my practice. Then there is the one I use for ravelry and this blog, the one I use for secret swaps and the one I use when signing up for things where I might end up on a spam list. When I first created my blog, I wanted a place to share thoughts and ideas and a few personal aspects of my life without it showing up when my name was googled. So I borrowed Miss Criquette's name since the others I tried first had already been taken. She says she doesn't mind, as long as I don't do anything to embarass her or her fellow felines.

"This is NOT what we agreed on..."

"That's it, name-stealer! You'll be hearing from my cat-torney on this!"

"Okay, that's more like it. All pictures must show my cuteness at it's best."

(And just for the record, because when I have met a couple of my blogging pals, they did not know that the correct pronunciation is actually "cricket", like the insect. For cultural purposes, I Cajunized the spelling when we adopted her.)

So as you can see, we here at Criquette-world like alternate names. And I ran across something in a forum post on ravelry that is so much fun!!!! I had to share it with you. It is an alternate name generator. You can use it to create a new identity for yourself. You could use it to create crazy names for secret swaps and safe email addresses. Heck, you could even find the name of the "real you" that is hidden inside, just waiting to be released!

When I typed in my first and last name, here is a sample of what I got:

a city ukelele
cake lite yules
tease lucky lei
lacy lee sue kit
ictus la lee key
cute lea lei sky

These are sort of silly and upbeat, like me. Now compare these to my original name:

lunacy sleeker
scaly knee rule
acne seller yuk
ankle securely

Clearly, words and phrases that are Just Not Fun. Now we can see why I subconsciously did not want to be stuck with this.

Finally, let's look at the original Criquette's name:

cutely cirque steel (Addi's?)
celery cut see quilt
query lettuce slice
quest cute lyric lee

Many of her anagrams made no sense to a human, but perhaps would speak more clearly to other cats. But still, we can see from her anagrams that she is a cute, quirky little character.

Do you want to share in the fun? Click on over to the name anagram generator. Then tell us, what's in your name?

Cuckoo in Kansas

2009-05-30T12:08:00.011-05:00

(Please note that these pictures all came from various birding organizations on the 'net. )

I love birds and I love watching birds. We put out several different kinds of feeders to attract a wide variety of birds, keep the birdbaths clean and full, and plant lots of bird (and butterfly) friendly plants. all of this pays off because we get a very wide range of birds who visit our yard for food, water or insects (I don't use any pesticides in my gardens and I never have insect problems thanks to my feathered exterminators).

I like to read books about birds and birding. I have narrowly avoided a few accidents due to bird-watching while driving (almost as bad as knitting while driving). Today, I took another step closer to becoming an official bird-geek - I went on a bird-watching walk at the arboretum near my house. Mr. Criquette's jaw dropped when he saw me appear at the coffeepot at the crack of dawn. I am not at all what we call a "morning person". But I was determined to do this because I have become A Wannabe Bird Geek With a Mission. The mission: to see one of these in person:

This gorgeous fellow is the Pileated Woodpecker. I have had 2 dreams about these beautiful creatures this spring. It is currently at the top of my lifetime bird list. They are not only strikingly colored, but apparently are also huge, like crow-sized or larger. Here is a map of their distribution:

According to this map, northeastern Kansas is out of their range. I pouted and started planning trips to visit family and friends who might live in their territory
.

I guess Kansas doesn't have the kinds of thick forests with humongous old trees that they like - oh wait - yes we do! There is a large patch of virgin forest just 20 miles south of my house! Is it possible there may be one or two who venture north from time to time? The arboretum's website actually mentioned pileated woodies as one of the birds that have been sighted there. Be still my heart!

So I went and today could not have been more gorgeous in terms of the weather. It was warm with low humidity and a very nice breeze. We had a very nice young biologist as our guide and he did an outstanding job. We only covered about half of the park today, but I added 4 new birds to my list that I have not seen before!

Great Crested Flycatcher - I am a huge fan of flycatchers. Not only do they eat more than weight in nasty flying critters, but they are also extremely attractive birds. I've been wanting to see one of these.

This is a much smaller member of the flycatcher family, the Acadian Flycatcher. Since the word "Cajun" is derived from "Acadian", these were on my list - I really wanted to see a little Cajun bird. Today, I saw 2. C'est bon, cher.

This one was completely unexpected! I had no clue these little guys even existed, much less in this neck of the woods. But the arboretum was full of the little cuties - the Northern Parula. Right after the guide told us we'd never see one (just hear them), I saw a small bird flit into a tree in front of us. Guess who spotted him first?

I did think there was a chance I might see a Summer tanager, which has been on my bird list for a long time. We rounded a bend, and there they were - a pair. Just gorgeous!

Male Summer Tanager

I never did get to see a pileated woodie today. But I did get the inside scoop. There are a couple of nesting pairs in some huge old trees by the river. The guide gave me exact directions on where to go to see them and where I should look. If I can drag myself out of bed early tomorrow, I'm headed back.

I was only a tiny bit disappointed because I got a fabulous consolation prize, #2 on my lifetime list:

The elusive and rarely seen (around here, at least) Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. We heard it's lovely cooing during parts of our walk, but didn't even see a glimpse. The group was watching a chickadee but I was bored. I was randomly looking around in the treetops with my binoculars and all of a sudden, one landed on a branch not far from me. I (and the rest of the group) was able to get a long, clear look at him. I almost wet my pants I was so excited! As you can see, I am ridiculously easy to entertain.

So I am off to bed, about 2 hours sooner than usual on a Saturday night. But I have an important date in the morning!

If It's Summer, It Must Be Rerun Time

2009-05-28T23:04:00.005-05:00

It is a known fact that, in TV land, summertime means either endless reruns or really bad fill-in shows. The jury is still out as far as which is more intolerable. But the truth is, actors, writers, directors, producers and all of the people who are responsible for bringing our favorite shows into our homes, need a break in order to refresh their creativity. Makes sense to me.

That's why I decided to borrow a page from their screenplay and present a rerun today for my Dogs on Thursday post. I thought I would share one of the earliest posts, when my blog was still in her infancy. Most of my 1 or 2 readers may not have seen it before and I figure it may be better than posting nothing.

The title of the post, "Another of Abbie's Escaping Escapades" alludes to her obsession with escaping whenever possible in order to hunt bunnies. As a beagle/Jack Russel mix she can't help it: it's genetically programmed. It's a good thing she has so many other good qualities (we will overlook her other obsession with snacking from the litter box). Hope you enjoy!

The Pi is done!

This morning started off with an obscenely early rude awakening. Mr. "Refuses To Listen To Me" woke me up 30 minutes before the alarm to tell me he dropped Abbie's leash while on their morning walk. Of course Abbie Bad Beagle, who is suffering a bad case of Bunny Fever grabbed her chance and was off and hunting. Her speed makes Gone in 60 Seconds look like a turtle race. So Mr."Why Won't He Use A Second Leash On Her Like I Suggested" ran home to wake me up to help him find her.
Ha, this is the challenge. Abbie never runs away in a straight path. She zigzags, zogs and zooms on her quest for bunnies. She seems to vanish into thin air and so the first part of the hunt for Abbie is to locate her - she could be anywhere, in any direction. Fortunately God sent the little miracle I was praying for and gave us a break. She had doubled back to a large field near our house and had her full attention on the bunny she had located.

The trick with catching Abbie (assuming you can even locate her) is to be patient and try your best to keep up with her until she has the bunny cornered. Then you stroll up in back of her and scoop her up. Of course she always chooses the day after a storm to escape so she (and you) are covered in mud. So you haul her home, wipe her down, and put her sternly into her kennel for a timeout. And she totally knows she is being punished. She starts howling and singing the blues pathetically. And then when she comes out, she falls on the floor with her head down in the most contrite manner you will ever see in either human or beast.

So of course you have to pet her and reassure her she is still loved and won't be shipped off to the Big House and say a prayer of thanks that she didn't run into the woods where there are wolf-sized coyotes and bobcats looking for a little beagle bagel to snack on, or get hit by one the cars speeding way too fast down the busy street at the front of the subdivision. And tonite, she insisted on lots of snuggling and playing so no knitting today. I had to content myself with taking some pictures of the unfelted Kitty Pi with your choice of either Criquette or Bad Beagle filling.

"Why would you run off when there are such lovely wooly things at home?"

Still looking Very Sorry

Criquette In the Garden

2009-05-24T15:32:00.006-05:00

Here at the Casa de la Criquette, spring has finally sprung and I have been as busy as a hive of bees getting the gardens ready for summer. Would you like a tour? Let's start at the front...

This is a very shady and damp bed as it faces north/northeast. It's not good for colorful flowers, but in the heat of the summer, it is a very restful green and white. I grow Limelight and Annabelle hydrangeas, astilbes, chelone (turtlehead) and wintergreen boxwood.

I also have a white dogwood tree, variegated false Solomon's Seal and sweet woodruff groundcover.

Walking around to the west, there is a large berm that runs along the property line and gives us some privacy from the neighbors as well as serving as a windbreak from the wind, which can get pretty ferocious. We grow mainly white pine in the berm, but there is also a Fat Albert blue spruce and a blueberry cobbler viburnum. If you look closely, you'll see that a robin built her nest in this tree. She reared 1 baby, who fledged early this morning.

Our bird feeding station is in this curve of the berm. We have a birdbath, a big cardinal feeder, two finch feeders and a hummingbird feeder.

Moving south to our backyard, we have a patio under the porch, with a small curved bed in front of it. It contains salmon-pink non-stop roses that will start blooming in a week or so. Before that show, the Japanese iris gives us a gorgeous shot of purple for about 3 weeks.

This is one of the earliest perennials to bloom - 'Carolina Dawn' baptisia (false indigo).

If we keep heading south, we get to the woods that run the entire back of the yard. I planted a little plant of white violets last spring and the rabbits ate them down to the ground. I was pleasantly shocked to see this big patch. We have several bunnies this spring, but they haven't taken even a nibble.

This is a honeysuckle shrub, which grows wild in the Kansas City area. It is not a native, but is an introduced species that has started taking over native woodlands and so is considered a pest. I think it's lovely and allow a couple of them in my patch of woods. (Warning to the honeysuckle shrubs: I'm keeping an eye on you!).

When the builder first cleared the land, they left a little copse of trees. We love it, and turned it into a little island bed. I'm growing some daffodils and columbines in the shade and there is a beautiful wild white rose. We hung one of the wren houses there. This year, a little male wren worked very hard building a nest in the house. I saw him bring the female to inspect it. She must not have approved, because after a brief look inside, flew away, with Mr. Wren close behind.

Also in the copse, one of my favorite statues. It belonged to Mr. C's parents. I like to think they are looking out for us whenever I see this little guy.

There's more, but I don't want to test anyone's patience, so I'll save it for another day. Happy summer!

Cornus florida (dogwood, 'Cherokee Princess')

Seven Things: Abbie & Chloe Version

2009-05-21T20:41:00.000-05:00

When I was over at Chan's blog a while back, she had a fun little meme called 7 things about me. Since I've been running low on anything remotely interesting to post about my canine kids, I thought they could have their very own meme for this week's DoT. So I'm tagging them. Go for it, girls:

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Share 7 things people may not know about you.
3. Tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged. (I consider these steps optional since my taggers just noted that if you’re reading this and want to play along, you’re tagged…)

1. Abbie uses her stuffed toys as communication tools. She brings over 1 toy and shakes it while prancing in front of us when she wants us to play with her. When she needs to go out to potty, she stuffs 2 or 3 in her mouth at once then presses the toys hard into our legs. She brings us toys and lays them at our feet to greet us when we get home. This is what it looks like by the back door at the end of the day.

2. When we have special treats that Abbie really, really wants, she does her special "begging boogie". Even the dreaded Collar of Doom can't stop her.

3. Chloe is getting older (we adopted her 9 years ago when she was about 6 months old). She goes a little slower and takes longer to get up when she's laying down and has a lot of white around her muzzle. But she's still as sharp as a tack, especially when it comes to herding the cats and neighbor children. And she still breaks out into little bursts of "happy running", like she did as a puppy.

4. Chloe is so obedient we can take her anywhere outside with us, without a leash (unlike her sister). Last week, she forgot she was getting older when she spotted a squirrel bouncing it's way to the birdfeeders and took off after it. She almost caught it, too. Just because she's getting old doesn't mean she has to act old!

5. Their favorite hobbies are sunbathing and barking at invisible critters in the yard.

6. When they are out on a walk together, people always think they're mother and daughter, or sisters. Not only are they not related, but they're not even mixtures of the same breeds of dogs.

7. They are the best dogs in the world and they are very, very, very loved!

Elderberry Juice

2009-05-09T13:01:00.007-05:00

So many things have been conspiring this year to keep me out of the garden. The weather has been very cool and wet, or hot and wet. It has rained (or snowed) at least once every single weekend since early March. Wet clay soil, such as we have here, is Not Fun to dig in. Then there has been the health matter. When I got that nasty flu at the beginning of March, not only did it take a couple of weeks to start recovering, but I think it re-activated the Epstein-Barre virus that I contracted about 20 years ago. So for the past month, I have been having low-grade fever, body aches, headaches and a lot of fatigue. It also gave me a lot of mental fuzziness. Whatever energy I did have was getting depleted by work. So I haven't been able to do much of anything.

Last weekend I went to my local Whole Foods to re-stock my supply of vitamins and other supplements and while I was there, a man who has a small company that produces elderberry concentrate was there giving out samples. I am always game to try something new. It sort of tastes like strong, unsweetened cranberry juice, so I wasn't impressed. That is until I found out that native Americans have used elderberries for hundreds of years because they have so many health benefits. One of those benefits happens to be strong anti-viral properties. Hmmmm, since the epstein-Barre wasn't getting any better with my usual regimen, why not try it?

So I did and after 3 days of taking a tablespoon in a glass of pomegranate juice, twice daily, I woke up in the morning alert and full of energy. I'm almost back to feeling like myself again. You can read more about the healing properties of elderberries here.

I also have had elevated blood pressure on and off for the past year or more (hereditary as well as since I started taking hormones for perimenopause). I've been monitoring it daily, and the numbers have dropped by 10 points (systolic) and 3-4 points disystolic. When I saw my doctor yesterday, she wasn't convinced that this was good enough and really wanted me to start taking Bp meds. Since my sister is going through the same stuff right now, and has had a bad reaction to 3 different bp drugs, I am opposed to going this route without trying a natural approach first.

I already eat a pretty healthy diet, low in fat and sodium, so I can't change much there. But there are some supplements I can start taking and there is one big difference I think I can make, and that is excersise. I used to work out 3 times/week regularly, then about 5 years ago, I had a bulging disk in my lower back that caused me to have foot drop as well as lots of pain. I was determined to avoid surgery, so had aggressive physical therapy and was healed in about 3 months. But at that point, I didn't go back to working out, mostly because we had started builing our house about that time and starting a private practice and literally didn't have a spare minute in the day. When the house was finished, and the practice up and running, I had taken up knitting. And honestly, for me, working out doesn't even have a chance when it comes to how I spend my free time! I did try to figure out a way last year to knit while using the treadmill, but the normally knitting-supportive Mr. C put his foot down.

So this means that, with the exception of taking the dogs on a 1 mile walk about once a week, the most excersis I was getting came from either gardening or walking through a parking lot. Therefore, I think that if I start working out again, keep my sodium intake under 2000 g/day and keep drinking the elderberry concoction that I can get my bp into a healthier range. My doctor has given me 3 months. Once she said that, it turned this into a challenge - she doesn't think I can do it...and I am determined to show her I can.

I started researching my options. We have a workout room in our house, with a treadmill, 2 other evil pieces of equipment that I am not coordinated enough to use, free weights and an exersise ball. It's a nice room, filled with light and there are no current foster babies taking up any space in there. No Excuses. However, I do better working out with people, but I won't go anyplace if it's not convenient, so I am checking out Jazzercise (which I have done in the past), Pilates and yoga classes. Until then, I'm going to walk on the trail near our house or use the treadmill. And since this is the first weekend without the threat of rain, I'll be gardening like a maniac.

Big Thanks To Caroline!

2009-04-18T12:40:00.004-05:00

I have been fortunate enough to have the Aussie-loving Caroline as my Mix Makers Swap spoiler in the second round. She and I have very similar music tastes, yarn tastes and snack tastes. I received my last package from her earlier this week and it continued the fabulousness of her first two packages.

First of all was the mix. This time the theme was "Spring Fever ". It's full of fresh, lively music that is perfect for listening to over and over again. I have lots of new favorites on here. I want to point out the cute packaging that Caroline has created for all of the mixes she has sent. I really enjoy these little details.

This time she outdid herself on the yarn - mmmmMalabgigo!!! 2 skeins!!! In one of my most favorite shades of blue! She also sent a pattern (the Drop-Stitch Scarf), which may be what this beautiful yarn becomes. She included some sugar-frosted gummy bunnies - so cute and very delicious! A Key Limeade mix, enough to make a big pitcherful. One of my favorite flavors is lime so this will get mixed up and be gone by the end of the weekend. She also included a cute little memo pad, which I use by the dozens. And finally, 3 packs of very pretty little tissues, polka-dotted and monogrammed. Just right for this time of year, when the dandelion fluffs start flying around and my allergies hit the roof. Problem is, they're too pretty to use!

Thank you so much, Caroline. I love everything and have really enjoyed having you for a spoiler. You're the best!

When Pointy Sticks Become Weapons of Mass Destruction

2009-04-18T11:39:00.005-05:00

The basic logic for knitting for afghans 4 Afghans is simple: the Taliban recruits poor, uneducated people from a very young age, taking advantage of the extreme poverty and harsh living conditions that are found in Afghanistan. If international charity organizations can get to them first, with food, medicine, warmth and education, they may be less vulnerable to the brainwashing of the terrorists.

A4A provides the "warmth" part of this equation by collecting knitted and crocheted wool items and sending them along with the other critical supplies, which are then distributed by the organization. There is a strong hope that, by reaching the impoverished Afghans first, they will be better able to resist the propaganda of the Taliban and be strong enough to function independently and ultimately, without recruits, the Taliban will fail in Afghanistan.

Therefore, each big shipment by a4A is like a big, soft, wooly bomb going off. I love the idea that maybe I can make a tiny difference in ending this war, while helping someone in great need.

These are my peaceful bullets, shot from my powerful and pointy sticks of mass destruction:

My first mittens, made from the pattern BB's Knitted Mittens- super easy and went really fast. I wanted to knit flat first, so I could understand the basic construction. I didn't like the bulky seam, so will definitely knit future mittens on circ's. But they're cute, aren't they? (I believe these are going to children who live in the Northeast part of Afghanistan).

The baby blankie, finally finished. My "pattern", if you can call it that. I knitted and crocheted a variety of squares, using common stitch patterns that I sort of winged as I went. I ended by crocheting a single-crochet border in black around each square. This allowed me to use black yarn to join the squares with a crochet slip-stitch. I like the consistent appearance, and, for me, I feel like this went faster and was less tedious than sewing the squares together. Next time, I will be more clever and knit the blankie in strips, picking up stitches along the sides for each new lengthwise row. (My blankie will be given to a baby at the Pediatric Hospital in Kabul).

This project has been so satisfying and makes me feel happy all over! Plus, it used up a lot of my stash, especially my odds & ends. There's actually a bit of empty space in the Rubbermaid bin that holds my wool yarns. And you know what that means...

If you would like to join the effort, there is still time before the May 15 deadline. A4A is still in great need of socks for babies and small children. Friends of a4A is a forum on Ravelry. You can search the recent threads to find more information on the specifics of what is needed. All items must be made from animal fiber, so this is a great way to use up leftover sock yarn! Even if you can't make it in time for this current deadline, you can always make some and keep them on hand for the next campaign. There is also a drawing for 3 $50 gift certificates for any mittens sent before the May 15 deadline.

Greetings From a Bird-Nerd

2009-04-12T17:02:00.005-05:00

In addition to all the other ways I like to be dorky, I am also an avid bird-nerd. That would be wild birds - I don't do inside birds, in fact they scare me. But I can use up a lot of time watching the birds who come to our feeders and the ones who inhabit the woods behind my house. I read at least a couple of books each year about birds. Right now I am fascinated by raptors. We have 3 kinds of hawks, a pair of peregrines and 2 kinds of owls who frequent our neighborhood. I bought a beautiful book last week about owls. Mr. C isn't yet convinced of why he needs to build an owl box for our patch of woods, so I am hoping this web site will help convince him.

Klaara is an adorable Tawny Owl who lives in Estonia. (I had no idea where Estonia is located, except I do know they knit exceptionally beautiful lace there. Anyway, it's near Finland. But I digress.) Klaara and her mate, Klaus, are currently raising 4 adorable little balls of white fluff and you can watch them 24/7 on the Klaara-cam. I have been addicted to peeking in on Klaara and company for a couple of weeks now, but especially since I watched her help her third chick hatch last Saturday night. It was amazing and I feel so privileged to have seen this happen. There's a group of us following the action over on Ravelry, in the Bird Lovers group.

Tawny owls are related to barred owls. Our little patch of woods is a favorite hunting ground for a pair of barred owls and this week we've heard them sounding their mating calls, which sound like they're calling "Who-cooks-for-you? Who cooks for you, who?" That's a question I wonder a lot about recently, as I haven't been in a cookerly kind of mood for several weeks now and I would love for someone to cook for me. My neighbors are not as charmed, however, since the male owl likes to sit in a dead tree right outside their bedroom window and serenade his lady just before dawn.

Klaara's little owlets are getting bigger everyday. She can barely keep them tucked under her warm feathers now. In just one week, she has shown them how to eat for themselves. Klaus keeps bringing her enormous rodents, which she keeps re-arranging in the nest throughout the day. These varmints serve as the owl-buffet in the nest. I keep the window open, but shrunk, with the sound turned up when I am not actually watching the cuteness of Klaara's family. Chloe and Abbie have taken to hanging out in my office with me, and there is always great interest on their parts when Klaus arrives at the nest to deliver food, with the rustle of wings and Klaara shrieking and owlets peeping. They both run up to my desk, noses twitching and tails wagging. Our family is so easily entertained.

As the babies get bigger, Klaara will join Klaus in their hunting efforts to keep enough voles and mice available to feed the growing chicks, who will be out of the nest in about 3 weeks.

Fortunately, it is easy to keep an eye on the little brood and knit at the same time. The A4A blankie is finally finished and is blocking right now. I hope to have pictures to show in the next day or two.

An Un-Baa-Lievable Video (With Proof That Border Collies Are the Einsteins of the Dog World!)

2009-04-10T21:48:00.003-05:00

I saw this link on a forum in Ravelry. Forgive me if any one has already posted this already, but this is too awesome not to share!

Where's a Nice Lamb When You Need One?

2009-03-28T13:19:00.005-05:00

If it's true about March that "in like a lion, out like a lamb", then the opposite is also true. And this March, which started off as nice and soft as a newborn merino lamb, is ending up like a whole pride of lions. Hungry and angry lions at that.

Beginning of March

End of March (ignore the fact the sun is out in this picture)

Days like today are the ones that make me ask myself, "What am I doing here in this place?". Precipitati0n has been coming down all day. Lots of it, in the form of rain, freezing rain and sleet. The temperature is stuck right at 32 degrees, so the rain portion of this mess is icing over. I can see some snow starting to mix in, but it's melting as soon as it hits the ground and then it'll probably turn to ice.

Where was this stuff during the winter?

The birds and the pine tree are not happy about this, either.

I'm feeling very frustrated with Mother Nature right now, because this is the third year in a row we're having one of these nasty icy storms just as the trees and shrubs are starting to bud. I know the flowers that have started blooming and the ones that are ready to bloom in the next few days are toast. I have my fingers crossed that my yellow "Butterflies" magnolia buds, which just barely started coloring up this week, will survive because the buds are still wearing their little fuzzy coverings.

It could be worse, of course. Up until I went to bed last night, the blizzard that has slammed western Kansas, leaving a record 28" (!!!) by Wichita, was headed straight for us. Our part of town was going to get the worst, anywhere from 8-12". So I guess this is better - it doesn't seem bad enough to knock out the power (fingers crossed).

It's a great day for knitting, at least. I have finally finished making all of the squares for the baby blankie. They are all washed, blocked and ready to be joined together. I am not a fan of sewing squares together. Not only is the back and forth tedious, and all of the loose ends annoying, but I think the sewn stitches look very unattractive. So I am going to crochet the joins instead, which will end up finishing it off very nicely. I'm going to sit and catch up on the numerous tv shows I have recorded while working on the blankie. I'd like to have it finished and ready to go by next weekend. Here it is, laid out and ready to be joined:

And when I get tired of squares, I will alternate working on the Montego Bay scarf I am making for myself out of the merino/sea cell yarn I bought in San Diego. It's finally long enough to where I can see how it will drape, and it's going to be lovely.

I hope that you are all having a lovely weekend, whether your end of March is a lion or a lamb!

Mix Makers Swap, Part 2

2009-03-20T15:13:00.003-05:00

Once again, I have been wonderfully spoiled by Caroline. It is amazing how she picks out things that I would get for myself if I had seen it first. She must be psychic or something.

The mix she put together this time is themed "Singer/Songwriter Mix" and has a great group of songs from such songwriter artists as Ani DeFranco, Ray LeMontagne, Jeff Buckley, Turin Brakes and, my favorite of the mix, Dashboard Confessional. While I've heard of, or have a few songs from some of the singers, every song on the cd is new to me, which is so much fun! I just love finding out about new music! The majority of the songs are mellow and it seems like the perfect cd to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon, drinking tea and knitting.

She also sent a big bag of M&M's in pretty springtime colors, a pack of those thingies that hold needles together (thanks, Caroline, I didn't have any and was resorting to using rubberbands), an adorable and extremely useful little lunchbox type box that contained some very pretty fish stitch markers that she made. The yarn she sent is some crushingly soft baby alpaca in a dreamy fuschia color - perfect for an early spring hat - and the pattern for the amazing Koolhaas hat that I had admired many times on Ravelry but never thought I could make something this beautiful. I still don't think I can make something this beautiful, but I'm going to give it a try because I love this hat!

Here's some yarn and stitchmarker pron for your viewing pleasure:

There was one more piece to the package that is not pictured, but is probably my favorite part of all. Caroline, a fellow animal lover & parent, made a donation in my name to the ASPCA. How awesome is that? Helping homeless animals is one of my favorite things in the whole world, which makes this part of the package priceless!

So, Caroline, thanks you most sincerely for another fantastic swap. And may the swap goddesses bring you an equally wonderful package this time around!

By the way, I found out that Caroline is not completely blogless. She shares one with her husband. Please go by and visit and check out her adorable fur-kids, Fenway and Cat.

DoT: Sure Sign of Spring

2009-03-19T17:37:00.011-05:00

Although tomorrow is the first official day of spring, Chloe and Abbie decided that it should unofficially start today. As evidence, here are their usual winter napping spots - perfect for basking in the warm sun:

No dogs here....

...or here...

...not here either...

Today was beautiful with balmy temps and a sunny sky. That means the door to the porch stays open all day, letting the girls come and go as they please. Who wants to stay inside on a day like this?

Well, that's exactly what I had to do today. I caught an upper respiratory bug that Mr. C brought back from our trip to San Diego. I've been coughing and congested for over a week now. After mostly ignoring it, I finally had to give in to it when I completely lost my voice yesterday. Nothing at all is coming out, not even a croak. We will not pay any attention to Mr. Criquette's snarky jokes about peace and quiet.

I figured I could at least take the opportunity to do some overdue chores around the house, but moving around just brought on more fits of coughing. So all I could do was to hang out in front of the TV and continue knitting for the A4A baby blankie I am still working on. Since I haven't recovered virtually any ability to speak at this point in the evening, I will probably have to cancel my patients for tomorrow, too. Since other than the coughing and laryngitis I feel okay, I feel really guilty about staying home, but I can't do therapy without talking and miming is out of the question! Oh well, as long as I stay busy with my knitting for Afghan orphans, I'm still being productive, right?

Another sure sign of spring is when Abbie starts the compulsive chewing on herself. This year, it's her hind leg. The only way to stop her, and to keep her from licking off the medicine, is to put her into The Cone of Shame. I'd pity her, but it doesn't look like it's keeping her from enjoying a gorgeous spring day!

Speaking of beagles, someone sent me this personality quiz to take. Usually, I score as a Labrador. I answered the way I typically do on these things, but this time, it seems like I am a beagle. Except, I am a beagle who does not chew holes in her leg. No Cone of Shame for me, no sir!

You are good natured. You enjoy spending time with people and animals.

You have a wild, independent streak. If you're left to your own devices, you get in trouble.

You love to eat and enjoy food of all kinds. If you don't get enough physical activity, you tend to have a weight problem.

You are very stubborn. You don't like authority, and you tend to do your own thing no matter what.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

Swapping Around the World (and Actual Knitting Content!)

2009-02-24T22:04:00.004-06:00

Last fall, I signed up for what looked like an interesting little swap on Ravelry - the Mix Makers Swap, where we create music mixes and swap them along with some yarn and other goodies. The first round ended up being a lot of fun and so I signed up for the second round. And am I ever glad that I did.

I am fortunate to have been paired up with blogless Caroline (her rav id is 'ameristralian'). We have some important things in common, especially our love of knitting hats, scarves and other simple diversions (although she is by far a more talented knitter than I), as well as our love of similar kinds of music. And, while I am not as passionate about all things Aussie as she is, I have had a lifelong fascination with the country, even going so far as badgering my parents about moving our entire family there during a particularly difficult 7th grade school year. I had seen the movie "The Sundowners", after which I developed a brief, but intense desire to become part of a sheep ranching family. During my graduate school years, I was part of a collaborative research project with a group of delightful Aussies down under in New South Wales, when I again entertained the notion to move there.

But I digress from the more important task of flashing my great first package from Caroline. She must be psychic, because I could not have done a better job of putting together my own package. Even though I have never said this in response to a swap questionnaire, I love the color grey and have numerous items of grey clothing and accessories. So I was delighted to get 2 skeins of Paton's Shetland Chunky in a beautiful shade of charcoal grey and a pattern for the Bella mittens. I have seen these on ravelry and lusted after them, except they looked way too difficult to consider. Caroline also included some cable needles and a very sweet note encouraging me to take the plunge into the wild world of cable knitting. She assured me it's not hard, so I think I'll take the plunge soon.

There was also a GREAT mix of world music, of which I loved every single song! And quite possibly the very best treats I've ever received in a swap - silky, creamy milk chocolate covered cookies and a slab of chocolate covered popcorn. I haven't tried the cookies yet, but I am not ashamed to tell you that after one taste of the popcorn, I put it away until Mr. C went out of town this week so that I don't have to share it with him. Judge me if you want to, but if you could only taste this crack-in-a-cellophane-wrapper, you'd do the same thing too.

Finally, look at these gorgeous stitch markers (I am guessing she made them!). They came in this cute little bag and I just love them. In fact, I loved everything, can you tell? Thanks so much Caroline - you're the best!!!

In case you haven't noticed, I have been very remiss in my blogging. Work, not enough time in a day, blahblahblah. I have been knitting furiously every day, however, trying to get as many wooly items made as I can before the shipping deadline for Afghans 4 Afghans. I made two hats, but I think they're too big for this shipment (they need items for young children and infants) so these may need to wait until another time. The green one was knit in Lamb's Pride Bulky and still needs a pompom. The variegated one is Galway chunky yarn and is my favorite. I crocheted 3 strips of single crochet for the corkscrew top and stitched them together in the middle, then ran the 2 long threads down in the top center of the hat, tied it off and wove the ends in. Faster than icord!

Here are some of the squares for the blankie. I am mixing knit and crochet, which should give an interesting texture. I am using a lot of leftovers from my stash and am amazed at how well the colors go together considering I didn't buy the original yarns to go together.

We had a very sweet, but uneventful Valentine's weekend here at the little house on the prairie. Criquette had her fill of flowers and candy and romantic movies and she hopes you all had likewise.

I am getting ready to go to San Diego to join up with Mr. C who is already there on business. I've never been there and have already gotten lots of very useful advice from the SD Knitters group on ravelry. I have made plans to visit at least one yarn shop and of course, the zoo. I'll be back with a full report. Hope you're all staying warm and dry!

A Scare, A Blankie and An Excellent New Swap

2009-01-30T22:16:00.010-06:00

This past week, it has been Abbie's turn to give us quite a scare. It all started when Mr. C, who is normally the perfect life-partner, made a Very Bad Mistake. He has the bad habit of not closing drawers, cabinets and closet doors after he has opened them. It irks me to no end, but since he actually enables my yarn addiction, I can usually overlook it. Earlier this week, he made some pork babyback ribs, of which I am not a fan. Even worse, he didn't close the sliding drawer that contains our garbage can after he disposed of the bones. Then he left to run an errand and I wasn't home either. These are the times Abbie often gets herself in trouble if she is left to run loose in the house, usually by snacking from the kitty box or chewing up something of mine.

This time, however, her excellent beagle nose led her straight to the open garbage can. When Mr. C got home, he found her chewing on one of the bones. He found the remains of 2 others. And I mean chewed. Into little needle-sharp shards of bone. And, being a typical man, he under-reacted and did nothing about it, not even calling me, because "she was acting fine.". I didn't get home until about 3 hours later. Of course, I freaked out. Then I went to trusty Google and called up some websites that offered advice to other idiots who had not protected their dogs from pork bones.

What I read freaked me out even more. If she didn't end up with a blockage, she could end up with a pierced or ruptured bowel, leading to peritonitis and a slow, agonizing death. Cooked chicken bones can do the same thing. Several people recommended feeding the dog lots of bread, to help the bones pass through their bowels more safely. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I made Abbie a "bread pudding" with torn up chunks of bread, a jar of lamb babyfood, 2 giant spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, 2 giant spoonfuls of pumpkin and sprinkled on a bit of garlic powder (good for digestion)and she scarfed half of it down. I gave her the rest about an hour later. Our vet told us what to watch out for and bring her in if she was exhibiting problems.

She seemed fine that evening and the next morning, passed a stool that contained a lot of bone fragments. She was not exhibiting any of the symptoms of possible problems, including dry coughing, unsuccessful attempts to throw up, pain in the abdominal area, straining to poop and passing blood (I am only giving yucky details in case any of you ever have a similar problem). By the second day, she had thrown up about a handful of very sharp bone shards, and got us up several times during that night to go out. She started having normal BM's after that and we are hoping we are out of the woods and that there isn't trouble brewing. I really think the bread pudding idea helped enormously, and we are still giving her some yogurt every day.

So I kept her close to me all week when I got home from work, and it is amazing how fast the time passes (and nothing gets accomplished)when I am hanging out with my fur-babies.

But I did manage to get quite a bit of knitting done. I even (gasp) picked up the crochet hook, which I had shunned since I began knitting 3 years ago. The spring campaign for Afghans for Afghans has been announced and they need hats, mittens, socks and blankets for infants and toddlers. I have a couple of wool baby hats I had already made and thought I'd make one or two more as well as knit a blanket. I remembered how much I liked the patchwork blankets we made from squares for the Greensburg, KS project and thought it would be fun, as well as a great stashbuster to make one of the for the campaign. So I knit a few squares and decided to crochet one for the center. After I made the crocheted square, I realized how much faster I can crochet than knit and decided to crochet some more to scatter around in the blanket.

I figured I'll need 40 or 48 squares to make the requested size, and I have finished 13 so far, in a little over one week. Abbie-nursing has made me very productive. I can't wait to see it come together. I have until at least sometime in March to finish and at this rate, I should be able to do another hat and maybe some mittens.

Here's the hat I am working on - I have to check the size as it may be bigger than toddler size.

And here are some of the squares:

And because of Abbie's little mishap this week, I have not been able to blog, which means I haven't been able to tell you that the second edition of the Mix Makers Swap is about to begin and signups are still going until midnight tonight. You can find out more by going to Ravelry groups and looking up Mix Makers Swap. The first round was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to this next go-round. Of course there's yarn involved, but my favorite part is getting to burn and receive cd's full of music I haven't discovered before. I have a huge music library, but there's always room for more! So if you're looking for a very pleasant little diversion to lift you out of the winter blahs, this could do the trick! And if you're late, go over there anyway and ask Jen, the wonderful moderator, if you can squeeze in. And blame it on me, or rather, blame it on Mr. C.

We are supposed to emerge from our deep-freeze conditions tomorrow - sunny and high in the 60's. I will be outside, soaking up the sun and warmth. Hope it's coming your way soon!

Whiskers on Wednesday: Easily Amused

2009-01-20T23:59:00.000-06:00

I am lucky to be owned by two kitties who are not only adorable, but are easily amused. They enjoy a wide variety of hobbies, such as...

...garden gazing...

...jigsaw assembling...

...birdie catching...

...paper romping...

...salsa dancing...

...and, of course, yarn wrestling.

But even the most fun-loving kitties get bored with their amusements and wish for a new entertainment. And I think I've found just the thing. Don't you think they'll just love their new BFF?

History In the Making

2009-01-20T17:08:00.004-06:00

How awe-inspiring to be a small part of history being made.

Words cannot explain the emotions I am feeling today as I have watched our new president take office to become our leader. I am so thankful that, finally, our healing as a nation can begin. I am proud that we Americans have finally had the courage to look beyond race and political parties in order to exercise our voice for change. I am filled with joyful optimism that, although not easy, our new journey is bringing us to a new kind of prosperity and peace, truly "one nation, under God". I am so happy to be here, at this time and place in history. God bless America and especially, God bless President Barack Obama.

Whiskers On Wednesday (On Saturday): Today the Tabletop, Tomorrow the Universe

2009-01-17T21:31:00.007-06:00

Everyone who lives under our roof knows that Ms. Criquette is The Boss. Very few events escape her notice, and she usually needs to supervise it all very closely. So when I sat down at the table recently to organize my schedule, she immediately bee-lined it over to see what I was up to. Deciding she needed to get a better look, she began sit and stare and to harass me until I finally gave in and let her up on my lap. She knows that we can't resist "The Look".

She started off with all 4 paws on my lap. However, that wouldn't do. Within 30 seconds on my lap, she began to sidle her way onto the table, inch by inch, in order to get a closer look at what I was doing, just like she does every other time.

First her left paw, and then the right one. It starts with just the tips of her toes, and then the full paw. Before you know it, she's slid a shoulder onto the table. It's done so smoothly, you don't even realize she's moved.

So then she's reading what you've written and, if she approves, leaves several big splotchs of drool. For this reason, I've learned to use permanant ink. But it doesn't stop there.

A little wiggle, a tiny stretch and she has half her body up there. It's amazing how big and heavy she gets when she doesn't want to be moved.

This last was taken just before the final breach of the table, at which point she had created a puddle of saliva all over my list. As you can see, she had gotten me to abandon my writing and was going in for the final victory of laying fully on top of my work so that it could not be read, which would leave me with nothing else to do except give her lots of pets and scratchies for the rest of the evening.

It takes a brilliant mind to come up with a plan like that. Now you see why we're all just pawns in her quest to take over the house, and then the world.

FO's/Non-Knitted

2009-01-17T17:19:00.009-06:00

Christmas 2008 was one of the best I've enjoyed with my family in a long time. Everything just came together to make it perfect. I'm really happy because my idea of giving handmade gifts not only didn't backfire, but got an enthusiastic response from everyone.

One of the easiest gifts to make was the infused cranberry vodka. Not only was this really fun, but it got a very good response from the recipients.

Fortunately, I had about a third of a bottle leftover and got to keep some for myself. Let's just say that it blends so well with cranberry juice and lime that a person could perhaps drink a bit too much before realizing how much they had actually drunk. Ahem. Thank goodness I had the sense to finish preparing the brunch for Mr. C's family celebration before hitting the juice.

The other gift from my kitchen whipped up pretty quickly. It was the brown sugar scrub recipe that I found on Deep-Fried Kudzu. I used Ginger's idea for the packaging as well. We have a really neat shop where I got to concoct my own essential oil fragrance. I blended together some chai, some chocolate and a hint of peppermint for a fragrance I named "Chocolate Chai". It smells so delicious that I wanted to gnaw my arm off after I used some of the scrub on my hands.

Martha, eat your heart out!

The little jars were so cute and I couldn't believe my luck when I found these adorable gift bags in the $1 bins at Target that perfectly matched the lids! These went over very well, also.

Then I dusted off my beading supplies and made some angel necklaces for my sister and her daughter, and a pretty pink pearl bracelet for another niece.

And I made ornaments for everyone. The young ones got some candy canes, made from pony beads strung onto a piece of pipe cleaner.

And I discovered a use for the origami cranes I like to make. I decided to add some beads and turn them into "peace crane" ornaments. Everyone really seemed to like theirs.

There have been some suggestions that I make more of these and offer them for sale. I'd love to do that, but it will have to wait until I can cut back on my hours at work.

I also made 4 blanket-sized snuggles for the younger nieces and nephews. They were a very big hit, especially with the teenaged nephew, which was a complete surprise because ...well, he's a teenage boy. He's too cool for school. But not only did he love his snuggle, but was wrapped in it when I went to visit a few days later. I think the older ones were a bit disappointed that they didn't get one, so they may each have to have their own next year.

And finally, these were not technically a Christmas gift. I made them for my Music Mix Swap partner who owns 4 rescued bassets. I had to show you, because they turned out to be so adorable. I wish I could get more of these beads, but I got the last ones.

It was so gratifying to see how happy everyone was with their handmade gifts. I was really surprised by their responses. I still have some promised knitted gifts for my beautiful nieces. One is finished and just needs blocking. One is finished and just needs a trimmed edge and some blocking. I will show pictures when they're ready to go. The other two have yet to be cast on. Let's hope that I get them completed before Christmas of 2009.

New Orleans Trip

2009-01-08T21:45:00.001-06:00

Since I'm a New Orleans native, when I go back to visit, I rarely do the tourist thing because I'd rather spend as much time as I can with family and friends, just hanging out and being part of their day-to-day lives for a while. That means I rarely have pictures that would be of any interest to anyone outside of my family, which makes for a boring post about my trip to New Orleans.

So this time I took a few extra shots as I was driving around (my driving while taking pictures skills are improving!). I took these on the day I went downtown to pick up my adorable niece from her rather glamorous and exciting job at one of the big hotels. I-10 runs from the 'burbs into town and that's where I took pictures of 2 tourist attractions.

This is one of the "cities of the dead" that New Orleans is famous for. all of the white things you see are thousands of above ground tombs. This is just a tiny portion of one of the larger cemetaries, which covers several city blocks.

This is the Superdome and the new arena where I believe they play basketball and arena football. I can't imagine what kind of crack the architect was smoking when he or she decided that the arena should look like a gigantic Andes mint with the chocolate sucked off. It's like they had a contest to see which professional sports complex would win the "Fugliest Building" contest.

Here's part of the city skyline. The vast majority of commerce for the city is the tourist industry these days and most of the skyscrapers these days are hotels, not office buildings.

Canal Street streetcar line

Then I was on Canal Street, in the heart of downtown. Canal Street is the original outdoor shopping mall in New Orleans. I remember many wonderful outings to Canal Street with my mother and grandmothers as a child, before the malls had been built in the 'burbs. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best clothes to go shopping. We'd park in the French Quarter, have lunch at a wonderful resturant, like Acme Oyster House or Tony's and then go shop till we dropped. Canal Street was always so beautifully dressed up for Christmas. Because the lighting was lousy, you can't really see it, but all of the light poles and palm trees have garlands and lights. It brought back so many cherished memories.

Most of the big department stores with their magical window displays and luminous light displays are gone now, but it made me laugh out loud to see that Blue Dog is rockin' the window display of this hotel.

In New Orleans, the palms take the place of evergreens so they have to be decorated as well. There were lights and big snowflakes in all of them. I thought they were so cute!

One of my favorite places to hang out in the city is Magazine Street. It's several miles of unique shopping, bohemian neighborhoods brushing shoulders with exquisite mansions, great places to eat and fascinating people to watch. My niece took me to one of her favorite spots, Sucre, a mecca of eye candy which has beautiful cupcakes and to-die-for gelato.

It's also home to the Garden District Needlework knitting shop. This was my first visit there and it was quite an experience. The owner has done nothing to artificially enhance the shop's decor (which is in an old building that has the original exposed brick walls, rafters, floors, etc.). The place is charmingly shabby and overall has a very funky feel to it. It's authentically New Orleans. I was surprised that they carried as much wool as they did (I'd have guessed they'd have more cotton, linen, silk and bamboo) and they had an over-abundance of synthetic and novelty yarns (I am pausing to shudder as I write this). Their inventory was low, since it was right after the holidays, and I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be able to do my part to boost the local economy.

But there was a room packed full of sale items that were all 50% off, so I picked up some lonely single balls of Mission Falls 1812 merino yarn, Noro Kureyon (in the exact colorway I needed to match in order to make a project for my North Carolina niece) and 2 pairs of Lantern Moons, which I have been dying to try. They must have had at least 50 pairs each in only 4 sizes: 7, 9, 13 and 15. Whoever did the buying on that order must have been smoking from the same crack pipe as the arena architect. But I shouldn't complain. I've started a project with the 9's and I can totally understand the degree of needle-worship Lantern Moon inspires. I adore those sharp little points and the silky-smooth glide. Now I want more!more!more! But unless I run into another sale, these will be it for a while.

Speaking of knitting, my 11 1/2 year old niece asked me to teach her to crochet, which delighted me no end. I learned to crochet from my favorite grandmother and think of her often when I'm doing needlework. Tragically, I realized that since my niece is left-handed, and I am not, that I was just confusing the poor girl. So I found her an instructional video on YouTube to show her how instead. I'll have to send her some luscious yarn and some hooks and then maybe she'll think of me when she crochets in the future.

One of the coolest comments I heard during the trip came from my 16 year old nephew, as I was trying to teach my niece to crochet left-handed (before we gave up). He said "V, just don't start knitting at parties like all of the high school girls do, ok?" My teeth about fell out of my head...I asked him to tell me more. Apparently knitting is a very popular activity with a large number of the junior and senior high school girls in their little corner of New Orleans suburbia, so much so that they bring their knitting with them everywhere, even to parties! Now these are young women who have their heads on straight, if you ask me. There is hope for the future! If only knitting would have been this hot when I was in high school and college....I wouldn't have gotten into nearly as much trouble, and would no doubt have had much more fun!

On a different day, Mr. C and I drove across Lake Ponchartrain via the twinspan bridges on the eastern edge of New Orleans. New Orleans East was a thriving and rapidly expanding community before katrina struck. There were very upscale neighborhoods, miles of apartments and condos, numerous old fishing villages and modern waterfront communities covering what used to be marshes and wetlands. It was virtually destroyed and wiped out. The media didn't give any coverage to this part of town after the hurricane, so when we drove through on this trip, we were astonished at the destruction, as well as the overall lack of rebuilding. It's creepy, like you're driving through a modern day ghost town.

Shopping centers, medical offices, schools, libraries and even the hospital (seen in the background) all remain deserted.

Apartment buildings and homes have been deserted. It's a city of ruins.

The amusement park, only a few years old when Katrina struck, now in ruins. It would be a great site to film a post-apocalypse movie.

So my poor, beautiful and beaten-up city is still here, but struggling. The people who have stayed are like pioneers - they're tough, determined and are not going to give up. When you read the history of the city, it's a testimonial to the staying power of it's people that there have been plagues, fires, wars, and hurricanes that have destroyed large parts of the city over the years, but the people stay and rebuild and don't give up. And after all the hard work, it's time to have a good party. Food, music, family and friends, all together, celebrating the joy of getting through the day and being alive. It's the spirit of New Orleans. It is unique and it is what makes people fall in love with the place. I am proud to come from such strong people and I am reminded of that every time I go back home.

Mix Maker's Swap 2 & 3

2009-01-05T19:24:00.005-06:00

Lots of people experience a post-holiday letdown when all of the festivities are over and life settles back into the usual same old/same old. And I am one of them. So it was reallyreallyreally exciting when I got home from work on Friday and found a package from my Mix Makers Swap pal, Sarah.

The first package was so much fun, and this was double the fun because she combined the second and third packages into one big "superpackage"! Look at all of the goodies she sent for me:

Lots of yummy things to eat and drink including some hot chocolate mix, salt water taffy, raspberry tea, some delicious chocolate cookies, a bag of interesting Japanese snack food that I am looking forward to trying and a big box of chocolates that contain pieces of tropical fruits and macadamia nuts ( I looooove mac nuts!) that I can't wait to try. Now that the holiday treat supply has disappeared, it's good to have delicious little nibbles around.

There were lots of fun little surprises tucked in - a stamp with a beautiful design, 2 packs of large sticky notes, a notebook and address book. I can never get enough office supplies and notebooks! She also sent me 2 really cute little toys. One is a grow-my-own polar bear (it's been cold enough here for the polar bear to feel totally at home) and the other is a tiny go-fishing game. I plan on using the game at work - kids usually love playing this game (and I do too).

Sarah sent me a pattern for a beautiful headband that she designed. I definitely plan on making at least one of these but I have a feeling that it will be addictive and I'll have to make more than just one. I'm looking for a new, quick project to cast on and this will probably be it. My bangs are growing out and in that awkward stage so the headband will be very useful.

Last but definitely not least is the scrumptious yarn she sent me. I love both of the color choices she chose. The deep blue teal is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and is so incredibly soft I want to marry it. I think it will make an amazing shawl, and I have a few patterns stashed away in my favorites over on Ravelry that would match up well with it. As I was going through my closet this past weekend, I was somewhat amazed to see how many pieces of clothing I have that are in the blue/green/teal color family.

And the luscious buttery yellow yarn is a wool/silk blend called Creme by Crystal Palace Yarn. Sarah must be psychic, because I was thinking I needed some wool/silk for a lightweight warm and soft spring scarf. The color is just right for spring!

And of course, there were 2 cd mixes that I've been listening to all weekend. Both are so addictive. Sarah is a genius at putting together interesting mixes that really flow well. The song choices are so eclectic, yet they sound like they all belong together.

So thank you Sarah, for the great package and cd mixes. Once again, you picked goodies and music that have made me very happy. It's been fun to have a swap pal who gets me. You've been great and I hope you have been spoiled well by your pal, too!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T22:48:00.002-06:00

I hope you all had wonderful holidays full of family and friends, good food and lots of laughter. I certainly did. My visit to New Orleans did not last nearly long enough, but I guess the sign of a good visit is leaving before you're sick of the people and the place. We had a wonderful time in New Orleans and I will tell you all about it when I get all of my photos downloaded.

I am looking forward to catching up with you all over the next few days. We are hosting the Christmas celebration for Mr. C's family on Sunday, and I have a fun brunch menu I am trying. I'll take pictures and post recipes of whatever turns out good.

Finally, I would like to wish all of you a healthy, prosperous and love-filled 2009. Full of yarn, of course.

The True Meaning of Christmas - Muttley's Story

2008-12-25T10:21:00.001-06:00

I have been involved in animal rescue since I was a kid (although I didn't know it at the time) when I would bring home stray dogs and cats and beg to keep them. In a chaotic household of 5 kids (at least 3 of whom undoubtedly had ADHD, present company included), only one pet at a time was manageable, so off they would go to the pound. I was innocent of their probable fates at the time, and naively believed they would all find good homes.

Bitsy BonTon

So when it was time for me to go out on my own, and I was able to have my own pets, I always wanted the homeless ones. Even if I couldn't ultimately keep them, I would work hard and find them a loving home. Everyone of my pets has been either rescued off the streets or adopted from a shelter and they have each filled up my heart with their unconditional love. But that's not the only thing they have done for me. They have each and everyone taught me lessons that have shaped me into a better person, because I have learned to give unconditional love in return. What a blessing they have been, because otherwise I would not know how to reach beyond my natural selfishness and self-centeredness.

Chloe

So what does this have to do with Christmas? It has everything to do with it. In the Christian faith, we believe that God came to earth as an infant whose job was to teach us what it means to love fully and unconditionally without judgment, to take care of those who are in need, and to dedicate our own lives to this purpose.

So I do my little part to take care of fellow humans who are in need, but I really feel like I have been called to take part in caring for God's angels on earth - those furry, daily reminders of unconditional and grace. I am so fortunate to have gotten involved with Animal Haven, a small organization crammed into an old ranch house. I started off as a member of the Advisory Board and stayed on as a volunteer and more recently a foster parent. In the time I have been part of this great organization, we have set our mission to become not just a no-kill shelter, but to model how other kill-shelters can evolve to becoming no-kill.

Abbie

The shelter director just sent out our year-end numbers. We have broken all of our previous adoption records this year. In January, they jokingly set a goal of adopting out 2008 animals, not really expecting it to happen. Not only did they reach the goal this year, they have exceeded it and now think they can reach their new goal of "2080 for 2008"! With this joyful news came the following video about Muttley, a miracle dog. His story has touched me so much - as badly as he had been neglected, and then so badly injured, this wonderful creature is so full of love and joy. I haven't heard if he has a forever home for Christmas yet, but he is in foster care and being spoiled rotten!

So I believe that everytime one of God's angels is rescued, Christmas - the true meaning - happens all over again. I love each and everyone of you who show your support for animal rescue, in any way at all. When we help them to find them find loving homes, we are giving them the opportunity to make us all better people through the love and grace they bring in touching our lives.

Criquette Anne

Best wishes for the warmest and most loving holidays ever!
From me and my angels

(New Orleans) Snow Dogs on Thursday

2008-12-20T23:32:00.000-06:00

Every New Orleanian I know desperately wishes for snow each winter. Or anything remotely resembling frozen stuff falling from the sky. I have experienced 4 snow events in New Orleans during the thirty-something years I lived there, and one of those lasted only about 10 minutes. But I remember them in great detail (except the big snowfall when I was 1 year old, but I have all of the pictures my parents took) because they were such wonderful and rare events. None of my nieces and nephews have experienced a snowfall in New Orleans in their lifetimes, until last week. I had exuberant phone calls from most of them to spread the good news. Sadly, it started melting later that day.

As I was reading the Times-Picayune (the New Orleans newspaper) online, I found some pictures of some residents who probably never saw snow before and will likely never see it again in their short lifetimes. But did they make the most of it while it lasted! These pictures made me feel so good, I had to share them with everyone today (although I realize that those of you who have spent the past several days without power may not feel in a frolicky mood when you see these).

And it wasn't just the dogs loving the change of weather...

Mike the Tiger (LSU'S mascot), wishing he could be traded to MU or points further north)

Here is one of the naturalized monk parrots that obviously wished to return to captivity - at least for the day.

But, before you start feeling sorry for the little guy's fate, rest assured that there are growing colonies of these urbanized parakeets thriving in such diverse places as Nashville, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, and Montreal. New Orleans' guys may be the toughest of all, since they survived Katrina. So what's a bit of snow?

Criquette Is Back In the Building...

2008-12-17T13:19:00.000-06:00

....in case you didn't realize she had left.

I have been persona non grata since Thanksgiving because I ate way too many pumpkin desserts. Not really. I can never get enough pumpkin.

But I have been very busy doing the elf thing around here since I decided to make as many hand-crafted gifts as I could this year. Unfortunately, not much in the way of knitted goods, but wait until you see what I've been up to. I'll post pictures in a few days. As well as doing some decorating. And of course, working like a maniac, since this time of year raises everyone's stress levels, kids included. I'm seeing lots of social anxiety and perfectionism (the obsessive-compulsive having meltdowns kind) in kids the past few weeks, not sure why so many cases of these 2 types of anxiety.

And I had to have some minor surgery to my jaw last week in preparation for some dental work. Did I ever mention my dental phobia? Even 15mg of valium and nitrous didn't keep me from having a panic attack in the middle of the procedure. I wish I could bop every medical professional upside the head for each time they have said I would feel "a little discomfort". But, aside from looking like a one-cheeked chipmunk, mumbling instead of talking, drinking my meals and feeling very loopy for a couple of days, I'm feeling fine.

I hope to catch up with everyone's blogs over the next week and I can't wait to see what all of you have been up to. Especially all of my poor Northeastern buddies - hope you're all safe and warm and enjoying electric power! And if not, at least I know you'll stay warm in your beautiful wooly handknits. We're having a little preview of the nastiness that's heading your way later in the week. Our temps plunged from 63 to 26 in just 1 hour on Sunday (!!!), on Monday we had a high of 10 with wind chills at 16 below. Yesterday we got about 3" of snow (most of it during rush hour, of course) and tomorrow we are scheduled to be hit with a freezing rain/ice thingie, also during rush hour. The biggest problem tis week has been the very gusty winds, but the prairie without wind is like New Orleans without the humidity. You just learn to suck it up.

However, I'm getting lots of usage out of my thick alpaca scarfies and Hurricane hat, although I need a thick alpaca hat for cold days like we're having this week. I have a wonderful alpaca scarf that I made out of some gorgeous extra-super-bulky yarn that I received from Sonya in one of first swaps I joined. It is so thick and warm I can only wear it in arctic-like temps. It gets so hot that I have to immediately remove it when I get inside.

Thanks, Sonya, I always send good thoughts your way when I wrap it around my neck. And if Nichole doesn't get her power back on soon, I may need to send it to her so she and her pack can stay warm at night.

Of course, you know things are really bad when it snows in New Orleans (first time since 1988). Ironically, I sent a Christmas mix to my spoilee in the Mix swap that has the track "The Day It Snows on Christmas". It's a song by Allan Toussaint (famous for the hoochie-song "Voulez-Vous Couchez Avec Moi"). It's about all of these bizarre things that would happen if it ever snowed in New Orleans on Christmas, that's how rare snow is in NOLA. He was almost right. And you can listen to the song for free here.

I've actually started writing my DoT blog for tomorrow, featuring some special guests. See you then, and stay warm!

A Love Letter to Pumpkins

2008-11-27T12:41:00.000-06:00

Pumpkins are quite possibly the most perfect real food item (I love chocolate but don't think of it as real food). They are very healthy, as pumpkin is an excellent source of beta-carotene, antioxidants and fiber. They are quite versatile - pumpkin can serve as an appetizer, salad, soup, main course and dessert ingredient and tastes delicious whether in a sweet or salty dish.

They are very appealing as decorative items - either brightening the entryway or as a centerpiece. They play a very important role in the most wonderful time of the year - it feels officially like autumn when the pumpkins come to market. And what would Halloween be without Jack-o-lanterns? One of my day-after-Thanksgiving rituals is to cut my decorative pumpkins in half and place them out in the woods for the wild critters and birds to feast on. Within the next month or so, they will be completely consumed, so they are also a good resource for wild life.

Today, like all Thanksgivings, I am not craving the turkey or fixin's. I start salivating for pumpkin pie. I plan my entire caloric intake on T-Day around the pie. I skimp on the potatoes and completely ignore the stuffing and rolls so as to leave ample room for the pie. I could care less about having leftovers of anything but the pumpkin pie - if there is a chance there won't be any, I have been known to bake an extra pie to enjoy over the days after T-day.

Speaking of pumpkin pie, I love it so much, it is my official birthday cake every year. But I don't just love pumpkin pie. I am an equal-opportunity pumpkin dessert lover. I make pumpkin goodies year round - pumpkin cake, pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins. I just downloaded some additional recipes that I am going to try over the next few months.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Pumpkin Mousse

Now, grab your barf bags and try to imagine these yummy desserts made with turkey instead. Not the same, is it?

As I was surfing the 'nets for all things pumpkin, it occurred to me that poor pumpkins are treated like second class citizens, especially at Thanksgiving. Turkeys are given superstar status, while the poor pumpkins are relegated to the sidelines.

Superstardom has clearly gone to this diva's head, er, neck

For instance, how many pumpkins get the chance to get this up close and personal with the head Turkey every year? (Although on second thought,,, maybe that's a plus for the pumpkins).

Don't get me wrong. I like turkey just fine. Especially with mashed potatoes and gravy. But I don't find myself looking forward to Thanksgiving because of the turkey. To me, Thanksgiving means pumpkin-love!

All of this has gotten me to thinking....when you compare all of the benefits of pumpkins against the merits of turkey, pumpkins will win almost every time. Pumpkins are much cuter than turkeys:

Pumpkins come in a wider variety of shapes, color and size:

Whereas turkeys come in only 2 basic modes - light and dark:

Pumpkins are eaten by carnivores and vegetarians alike, which cannot be said for turkeys. Preparing pumpkins to be cooked is not nearly so messy as prepping a turkey (although you don't get leftover bones to make a delicious turkey gumbo the next day). And finally, knitters everywhere prefer pumpkins over turkeys, 3 to 1.

Don't believe me? Ravelry has 6 pages of knitted pumpkin patterns as compared to a paltry 2 for turkeys. So while it is clear that pumpkins are superior to turkeys in countless ways, I have to ask: Why do we have a national holiday for turkeys and not pumpkins? I would like to start a petition to make pumpkins the official mascot of Thanksgiving. Who's with me on this?

Happy Pumpkin Day from Criquette's House of Pumpkins to yours!

Music Mix Swap, Part I

2008-11-23T14:56:00.000-06:00

I signed up for a swap I found on Ravelry where we make music mixes and send out 3 packages. I am loving it! I'm probably the most ancient person in the swap, by far and I think that both my spoiler and spoilee are the 2 youngest. They both seem like really interesting people and surprisingly, I seem to have a few things in common with both of them. My spoiler does an incredible amount of knitting for charity and raises chickens. Most people don't know that I have my bachelor's in Agriculture. I REALLY wanted to raise chickens. Maybe one day... My spoilee has bunches of pets and is involved in animal rescue. They both have eclectic taste in music, much like I do. And they knit. So yeah, it's fun.

I'm still waiting to hear whether my spoilee is happy with her first package, or if I'm totally out of touch with what older teens like. But I received my first package today from my very talented spoiler, Sarah, who did a fantastic job! It's like she knows me. I loved everything!

Chloe and Abbie knew the package had treats in it before it was opened. Abbie was leaping frantically and salivating (which is why she looks so goofy in this picture). They must be psychic.

Look at all of these goodies! Starting with the upper left, you will see "People Crackers" for the pooches. I had to open them immediately to get those 2 from driving me crazy. She also sent along some toys for the kitties, some Ghiridelli (one of my favorite chocolates)peanut butter squares, some melt-in-your-mouth crispy chocolate cookies (one pack was demolished immediately), a beautiful and very pettable ball of Elizabeth Lavold alpaca/wool/silk yarn in one of my favorite winter colors, a perfect-sized little box (for stitchmarkers and small accessories) with a great pair of handmade earrings. And of course, an intriguing music mix which I can't wait to hear.

This is probably the best notecard anyone has ever sent me

These are definitely my new favorites!!! I wear black just about every day and I just love the style of these earrings!

What about the rest of the goodies? I'll let the pictures do the talking. After eating many people treats, Chloe went off to Mr. C's office for a little nap.

There were some fun little mice with jingle bells on their tails. Bitsy, who has always ignored stuffed toys up until now, was the first to run over and claim one for herself.

But she left one for Criquette, who showed Bitsy the best way to kill a toy mouse.

And then there was the best toy of all - wind up shrimp sushi! Abbie was all over it and had to be scolded to "leave it." I am convinced she would have eaten it if given a chance.

Criquette wasn't sure what to make of this crazy orange thing that was spinning around on the floor. She spent a few minutes checking it out.

Once she was certain the sushi was safe, she got closer....

and snatched it up and ran off with it before I could get another picture! We laughed until it hurt. Priceless. However, once I located the sushi (under the bed), I reclaimed it, as it is the perfect addition to my little collection of crazy windup toys.

So as you can see, I have been blessed by the Swap gods and been given the best spoiler ever! Thanks, Sarah!

We're heading out now for a couple of days. I have a workshop to attend, but we'll be back before Thanksgiving. All of you have a great week and take care!

Dogs on Thursday Say: Koyotes Is Our Cuzzins

2008-11-20T06:47:00.001-06:00

The woods behind our house serve as a wildlife highway. We regularly see or hear coyotes as they travel along the edge of suburbia, trying their best to survive in a world of expanding lawns and minivans. Like all of us, they are just doing their best to survive, day by day. I have no grudges against coyotes. In fact, I think they're quite beautiful. As long as they're not eating the local dogs and cats.

This is Charlie. He is not my coyote, but I wish he was.

He is an amazing animal companion and he has his very own blog.

He also has his own yarn (his mom must be a knitter).

Take a few minutes to go and visit. His human mom takes some of the most haunting and beautiful photographs of the west. Her book is coming out in early December. I've already signed up for my copy.

So what does this have to do with dogs? Well, coyotes are very closely related to our domestic dogs - they are both members of the Canine species (with different genuses). When Chloe and Abbie spot coyotes, or hear them howling, they react very differently than when they spot bunnies or squirrels or deer. The hair on the back of their necks and flanks will raise up and their barking is deep and serious, as in "guarding the house" (as opposed to the hyper and shrill excited "quick mom, let's go hunting! Let's go catch those things!"). And yet, their tails are sort of wagging at the same time. It's like they recognize the coyotes as distant cousins, but they don't want them to come and visit.

Although for Charlie, they might make an exception.

Dogs on Thursday: Back From the Big Car Ride

2008-11-13T21:32:00.000-06:00

We got back from the lake on Monday. Criquette was in quite a snit and would have absolutely nothing to do with us, the little cow. Bitsy, the grump, is the one I'd expect to be sulking, but she came running out of her hiding place to greet us and actually let us pet her for a bit.

Chloe and Abbie, who spent much of their time at the lake napping, immediately ran to their beds and slept most of the evening. They were totally worn out from so much relaxing. I wasn't mentally ready to make the transition from the lake back to real life, so was in a grumpy mood myself.

I think the weather may be playing a role in this. I am being charitable by calling the weather "dreary". The entire time we were at the lake. On the verge of drizzling, on the verge of being cold, but overall, just yucky. This is how the sky looked on our way to the lake:

And it just got worse. We stayed in the cabin in front of the wood stove most of the time we were there, except to take the dogs for walks twice a day.

The cabin is as cozy as it looks.

Abbie and Chloe don't care if it's cold and yucky, as long as there are plenty of smelly things to investigate.

Abbie is checking out a small flock of ducks that had just landed in the water.

Abbie got too exhuberant on one of the walks and hurt her leg while bouncing around on a steep hill. She wouldn't put any weight on it for a couple of days and naturally got lots of sympathy from mom and dad, who even let her share the nest by the stove. Two days later, she jumped out of bed onto both legs and hasn't had a single problem since. I think she's smarter than she lets on, at least when it comes to scoring comfy places to nap!

I drove about 40 minutes over to the largest town, to visit The Yarn Basket. I shopped and hung out with some local knitters for most of the afternoon. The local gossip was quite juicy and vastly entertaining, like the stories about the very unattractive knitting guy who wears kilts with nothing under them and brings his 2 girlfriends with him to one of the knitting groups. I think I'll spare you the other bits on the basis of TMI. I guess there's more opportunity to get into all sorts of trouble living in a small town without much distraction.

This time I went in to the yarn shop with a mission so didn't end up buying much in the way of "oooh's" and "ahhhh's". I got an idea for a secret project and became very fixated on it during my getaway. I decided it should be felted, so I needed to purchase some wool that I knew would felt nicely and knew I couldn't go wrong with good old Lamb's Pride. I decided to also try the Galway wool, because I like the colors. It's unpleasantly scratchy which I suspect should make it felt well too. I also got a couple of skeins for my Ravelry Music Mix swap pal, a ball of Berrocco Comfort in a beautiful woodsy green colorway that will be a couple of men's chemo caps, a couple of skeins of rainbow cotton, and a couple of balls of red and green variegated cotton in a brand I am unfamiliar with.

The newest members of the stash

I liked the Christmas colorway, but what seems obviously dark green turns to black when knitted up. I don't really like it, but I'm not hating it, so I'll finish up the dishcloth and throw the remaining ball into the stash.

As far as the rest of the trip... doesn't it just figure that on the very last day of the trip, out comes the sun. Grrrrrrrr! But we had a great walk before packing up to go...

and all of our legs were working just fine

Goodbye, little cabin, we'll see you in the spring!

Our trip ended with this beautiful sunset as we pulled into our neighborhood. Abbie and Chloe voted for us to do this again next year!

Dogs on Thursday (On Wednesday)

2008-11-06T08:09:00.000-06:00

Two very lucky Dogs on Thursday are going to go for a Big Ride in the car today. They get to go on a little vacation with their Mom and Dad to the lake. They can watch the fish, bark at the squirrels, ducks, and deer, and sleep up on their own beds and smell all kinds of new and exciting smells. And maybe their Mom will get a chance to bake them some homemade canine cookies that they can snack on while lounging in front of the wood stove at night.

They have been such very good dogs through all of the months of fostering, they deserve a long weekend of pampering. Chloe is doing very well. She's on a different dog food now and is like a new dog - happy and energetic and healthy!

Abbie's been really excited to go on walks with her again, now that Chloe's not poking so far behind anymore.

I feel like I'm still not over the bug that I had last week, or maybe it's a new one, who knows. But it won't stop me from spending my birthday at the lake, surrounded by most of my loved ones (the kitties declined the invite to join us), with nothing to do but knit, sleep, drink wine, eat good food, and shop at one of my favorite LYS' away from home. Enjoy your weekend too!

One Vote is Like a Drop in a Bucket....

2008-11-03T13:38:00.005-06:00

...but if it wasn't for each single drop, the bucket would never be filled. So especially if you think your one vote won't make a difference, get out there and help fill the bucket already! (And don't forget to bring your knitting - the early voting lines were really long).

Boo!

2008-10-31T19:26:00.002-05:00

Wishing you chills, thrills and lots of chocolate!

Dogs On Thursday: They Work Hard For the Money

2008-10-30T16:41:00.010-05:00

Employed dogs behave much better than unemployed dogs. It's a well-known fact in the dog training world. Whether they're herding, guarding, hunting, carrying things, warming your lap or just running around making everyone happy, dogs need to work to have good self-esteem and to keep evil Mr. Boredom away. You know him, the guy that makes them bark like maniacs, use the bathroom all over the floor, and chew up your new shoes.

So of course, the dogs who live with the Criquette pack are kept very busy. They take Mr. C for long walks every morning, herd the cats, stay on the alert for squirrels, bunnies and any other furry creatures who dare to brave into their territory. They are ferocious guard dogs (and they mean business, too) yet are always happy to be outside chasing the little kids on the block and tolerating lots of hugs and kisses. And let's not forget the critical job of helping their mommy keep the floors clean.

Today, however, they were prepared to take on another job. You see, that yucky bug I caught over the weekend hit me again and I had to come home early yesterday afternoon. I made a cozy nest on the sofa, where I could recover with the help of knitting and TV -

Nurse Chloe and Nurse Abbie, keeping the bed warm for the patient

Dr. Criquette, making sure the knitting stays healthy

I had to stay home today, to0. My medical team is taking good care of me. Remember the party that I missed on Saturday? My friends were so sweet - they sent me a big container of some of the most fantastic soup and a big slab of gooey, chocolately brownies. Tragically, I've felt too sick to eat the brownies, and I gave them all to Mr. C, since he made a special trip to the store to get me 7-up and rainbow sherbert. But the soup has been wonderful. I'll be sure to get the recipe, but I'm pretty good at duplicating recipes from taste and sight, so here's my guess -

I think she started with a chicken broth base. There was shredded chicken, barley, lentils, white shoepeg corn, celery, fresh spinach, and little shreds of parmagiano cheese. She seasons her soups with some garlic and Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (I know this because I'm her supplier). I had the last of it for lunch, and I'm already thinking I have to make some this weekend. For my friends out there who don't eat things with faces, this could be easily converted to a meatless soup by leaving out the chicken (and cheese) and using veggie broth instead. If I can talk my friend into sharing her recipe, I'll post it here.

As far as my chicken pot pie soup recipe, Lynn wanted to know how long to boil the chicken tenders. Ummmmm... I'm not sure. I just boil them until I think they're done. I would say it was between 10 - 15 minutes. I'd take one out at 10 minutes (while the rest is still boiling), and cut it open. If it has any pink on the inside, throw it back in and cook it another 5 minutes or so. They get white and sort of curled when they're done. Be sure to pop on over to see Lynn and scroll down past the adorable pix of her Girly Girl to Monday's post and look at her dinner - Lynn if you lived closer, I'd be knocking on your door for leftovers (if you even had any!).

I've been up long enough, as my head is starting to ache again. I'm going to go crawl into my nest, which my nurses have kept nice and warm for me.

It's Pity Party Time!

2008-10-25T20:31:00.003-05:00

I was feeling very sorry for myself all day. Instead of going to the most fabulous Halloween party ever, I knew I'd be sitting home all alone tonight. Without fail, I get some kind of bug every year about this time. I've been fighting off something all week, but when I woke up this morning, I knew it had caught up with me. It's one of those sneezy, headachy, ear-achy, fevery kind of things that make a person want to lay around and stare mindlessly at the tv.

Mr. C didn't want to go at first, but I insisted because the host is one of his best friends from high school and it's such a fun mix of people and the food is great and because I kind of want to be left alone to be ill in peace.

I knew I wanted to eat something comforting, like chicken soup or chicken pot pie. I didn't have enough broth for the soup and a pot pie would be ridiculously non-healthy, so I decided to combine the two. I pulled some chicken out of the freezer and rooted through the pantry and what I came up with was so quick and easy and so delicious, I had to share it with you.

Criquette's Crustless Chicken Pot Pie Soup

2 pounds (thawed) chicken tenders (you could substitute boneless chicken thighs, or strip the meat off a rotisserie chicken for an even faster meal)
2 cups water
32 oz low sodium chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
16 oz frozen peas and carrots
20 oz frozen roasted potatoes
1 TBLS poultry seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder

Put the broth, water and chicken tenders into a large pot and bring to a gentle boil. Continue to boil the tenders, until cooked through. Remove the tenders and let cool. Meanwhile, add the remaining ingredients to the broth and bring back to a gentle boil. Dice the cooled tenders and return to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. I didn't measure, but this looks like it made enough to serve 8.

I didn't take pictures, but it looks as good as it tastes. I wouldn't hesitate to serve this to guests - I would add a green salad, biscuits or cornbread, and for dessert, pumpkin pie. If you try this, let me know how it turns out. Bon appetite!

I feel much, much better after eating my comfort soup. I had some pumpkin bread for dessert, washed down with jasmine green tea. I've slipped into my soft pj's and turned on my electric blankie. And now I'm going to take my little pity party to bed with the cats and dogs, where I'll snuggle in with some knitting and the TV remote. Hope you're all having a lovely evening, too.

Dogs On Thursday: An Uneventful Week (At Last)

2008-10-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

We are happy to report that this past week has been uneventful and boring, with hardly anything worth blogging about, and lots of time to do it. And it's about time!

I had my last appointments of the day cancel twice this week, meaning I got home around 7pm, which is usually unheard of, twice this week. And while I was off being a little less busy at work, the critters of the Criquette household were catching up on their R&R:

Bitsy has decided on a career change. Instead of Resident Grump, she took a position as Home Security WatchCat. She had a good time growling and snarling at the moving leaves. She has been taking her shift every morning for the past couple of weeks, same time, same spot.

Criquette, on the other hand, has whiled away her week, basking in the golden autumn sunshine and savoring her victory after finally winning the turf battle against the evil foster kittens.

Abbie just continued with her usual daily routine - wake up, eat, walk, poop, lounge about and think of rabbits, nap on the porch, nap on the stairs, look out the window for rabbits, nap in the patch of sunshine, nap in her bed, wake up, eat, walk, poop, nap in the family room, nap in Chloe's bed, look out the window one last time for rabbits, beg for a bedtime snack, go to sleep.

"When will these dumb humans figure out that we canines hold the keys to true happiness?"

After getting home from the hospital, Chloe spent two days just catching up on her beauty sleep and enjoying being back at home. There's not much better than sleeping in your own bed.

She's feeling great and back to her usual routine. For details, please see Abbie's previous section.

An Unfortunate Series of Events, or I Need a Bushel of 4-Leaf Clovers Right About Now

2008-10-18T13:05:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I've gone a whole month without blogging or visiting blogs. I've really missed everyone and I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger.

Does anyone else out there ever feel like their life is either too full or too empty but hardly ever in between? I know I do a lot of this to myself, by taking on yet another patient when my schedule is already completely full, or taking in fosters when no one else has room, or trying to keep up with maintaining my gardens when there's not even enough time to get basic house cleaning done, but without these things, I would have too much time on my hands. And then I would get bored, which leaves my brain wide open for anxious and depressing thoughts to sneak in and take over my life and then I don't want to do anything or go anywhere or talk to anyone I don't have to talk to and that's a recipe for crazy-making and I don't want to go there.

So I stay busy. Since that last blog in September, so many things have happened. The good: As I reported in my previous blog, Kona and Scout/Cordi have found themselves wonderful homes. With the alien critters all gone, the resident critters have all settled back into their normal routines. I had started getting on top of the cleaning again and managed to get my fall decorating done. Last Sunday, a glorious autumn blue-sky day was spent in the garden, doing some planting and getting the beds ready for winter. I've started some knitting projects and finished some knitting projects. I've been consistently busy at work and most of my patients are doing well. Life was good.

And then, this week, my luck changed. I don't know why - broken mirror? No, but I did lose my purse mirror last week. Black cat? Just Kona, who went to his new home 3 weeks ago. Spilled salt? No, but I've been spilling other things all over the place - a full cup of coffee all over my receipts and expense reports, a bottle of 500 aspirins all over the kitchen floor while trying to medicate a splitting headache, and a big glass of sticky pomegranate juice all over the island on my rush out the door to work. Walk under a ladder? No, but does falling down the stairs in the parking lot at work 2 nights ago because the parking lot lights have not been working and it's totally dark and I have wrenched something in my shoulder and hip- does that count? All this in the past 5 days.

But those were really NBD's - no big deals (well, except my shoulder may be hurt more than I want to admit) - just a string of daily hassles that are annoying and stressful. But we had a bad scare early Monday morning. Chloe has had several bouts of stomach and bathroom problems on and off over the past 2 months. Our vet has given her some medicine, we've had her on a gentler diet and most days are fine. But on Monday, she had a really bad problem and lets just say it involved a lot of scary bodily fluids and a very dazed and sick puppy. Our vet got her in first thing that morning. She was diagnosed with HGE and had to be hospitalized. Fortunately, we caught it at the beginning of the cycle, got her to the vet specialty clinic (translation=really, really expensive vet services). She had to spend 2 1/2 days there, on an IV drip, and Mr. C brought her home Wednesday afternoon. My poor, sweet girl lost a lot of weight and was acting like she had been punished and didn't know why. I just prayed that somehow she could understand, at some level, that she was being helped.

Mr. C's business partner is a veterinary pathologist. When he heard about Chloe's diagnosis, he was surprised that she survived. Apparently, this has a very high mortality rate. We caught it just in time. She's feeling much better now and is gradually being weaned back onto her regular diet. Her potty is normal again, she's getting her energy back and has been trotting around the house, barking at squirrels and people passing by out front. The problem with this illness is that it could be caused by a variety of things in the environment or even stress, but not controllable things like food, so it's not something you can take measures to prevent. It may or may not happen again. All we can do is carry on as usual, with lots of prayers that it doesn't come back. And lots of prayers that this week of "Friday the 13ths every day" is over and our luck turns once more.

In Which Criquette Comes Out of Hiding, With an Update

2008-10-17T22:52:00.001-05:00

I'm baaaa-aack - after my long, involuntary sabbatical from blogland. And what a month it's been! (What a week it's been, but I'll save that for another post.)

First off, I want to thank Nichole for the wonderful collar I won in one of her contests. When she said the collar was a "small", I thought of Scout, who is small. Apparently she needs "toy-size". But I will keep this for next spring's batch of foster puppies - surely we'll have one who fits into this luxurious collar!

Gives new meaning to the word "choker"

Last week, Scout (now re-named Cordelia, Cordi for short), was adopted by a very talented local dog trainer and her family. Cordi's new mom knows all about how to help tiny dogs whose tiny bladders can't "hold it" when they get overexcited, so wasn't concerned about Scout's little "problem". Cordi also has a new dad, a big human sister and brother, and 2 Boston terrier brothers who love having a baby sister! Since her mom's training studio is in their home, Cordi gets to meet all kinds of new dogs and their people, and goes on long walks along a beautiful walking trail every day. We're getting together soon - can't wait to see my little rat again!

One lucky dog

Kona also hit the adoption jackpot 3 weeks ago, after 3 long weekends of being down at the shelter with me, searching for the right match. He was adopted by a great family - the parents saw him on PetFinder and knew he was the kitty for them. They brought their 10-year old daughter in to meet him and it was a mutual love-fest! He also has 2 Shi-tzuh brothers, who happen to love cats as much as he loves dogs. Hooray! We got an update from them and apparently the dogs have decided that Kona is a rockstar (which he is) and they defer to his every whim. He's always in someone's lap, demanding pets and love. And so far, he's been well-behaved, except for one incident involving an unlucky houseplant (keep your fingers crossed). I still really miss him, but Criquette is back to being sweet again and even Bitsy has been in a good mood.

They grow up too fast!

I have managed to make time almost every night to do a little knitting in order to maintain some measure of sanity. Current projects include a scarf for my niece, who is away at a college in the Blue Ridge mountains and needs a soft, toasty alpaca scarf to keep her warm as she scurries across campus. I am also making myself a pretty scarf in autumn colors. There's a another chemo Hurricane Hat in the works. And I couldn't resist casting on for a couple of dishcloths to carry around with me. Finally, I have a pattern I am creating for a knitted pumpkin that is turning out great so far - can't wait to show it off, although by the time I finish, it will be an Easter pumpkin!

And of course, since this is my absolute favorite time of year, and the weather has been outstanding, I've been sneaking in gardening whenever possible. I have such a bumper crop of hydrangeas this year (off of only 5 medium-sized shrubs), that I had containers of drying hydrangeas covering every available surface in my kitchen and dining room. I have already given away 3 big bunches of dried hydrangeas as hostess and birthday gifts, and still have a ton left. I called a local florist and they are interested in buying the rest. It won't make me rich, but it should be enough to cover the cost of a few skeins of yarn, a couple of new knitting books and a few new Addi's!

This is only about half of what I've dried so far

I am also trying to come up with some durable and inexpensive garden markers for the plants that go dormant in the winter. I got my supplies today and if it works, will share my idea in a future post. I refuse to pay an exorbitant fee for cheap plastic or metal markers that don't make it through the winter.

Not that my life has been all fun and games and knitting, of course. I'm in my super-busy time at work, and should continue with my 50+ hours/week until the end of school. My practice now consists almost exclusively of kids and teens being treated for some type of anxiety or stress-related disorders and I turn away several each week. I could write a month's worth of blogs on why I think there are so very, very many kids who are so stressed-out that they need professional help. I love what I do, but I wouldn't be sorry if our society started changing in ways that made kids (and adults) have less pressure and fewer things to worry about and fear - in fact, if it put me out of business, I'd be the happiest person on the prairie.

Dogs on Thursday: the Better Late Than Never Edition

2008-09-12T14:16:00.004-05:00

What better time to catch you up with Miss Scout than with a DoT post? She is still as cute as ever, but OMG is she high maintenance! (This is one of the reasons I prefer larger canine varieties.) What a diva - the yipping, whining, squeeking, and high-pitched yowling that goes on when the Princess is not getting her way can get very annoying. We give her a warning, then cover her up like a canary when she gets started. She's starting to catch on.

But she more than makes up for this with her adorable antics. She is a virtual tornado of energy and will get to running so fast, she falls down and rolls before getting up and tearing around some more. She'll grab her tail and go round and round, then leap straight up in the air and take off again. Her ears play a big part in her charm - she looks like she has wings instead of ears.

The wonderful pet-loving people at PetSmart have donated some free puppy training classes to Animal Haven, to be used in helping our adopted and foster dogs more likely to stay in their forever homes. Petsmart, while being a giant chain, has always been very generous in their commitment to animal adoption. The local stores always have on-site adoptions featuring the local rescue groups, and donate generously to our fund-raising efforts. Plus, Abbie and Chloe are always very happy to go shopping there with us.

Scout's new family will get one of these free classes. Which they will more than need since the toy fox terrier breed is very intelligent but very stubborn. While she is well along in becoming house broken, she cannot control her submissive peeing, although we are closely following recommendations from a trainer to help her get it under control. And her idea of "sit" is to do a play-bow, which is actually so cute that I've reinforced it, fully knowing better.

She is loved by, and loves both the big dogs and Kona. In fact, she and Kona seem so devoted that I really hope someone would adopt them together. Abbie seems to have "adopted" Scout as her favorite stuffed animal. She is very gentle and loves to get her between her front paws and nibble/groom her all over. Of course, Scout wiggles much more than Abbie's stuffed animals and licks and nibbles back.

These pictures are from the past 1 1/2 weeks, when she was a 5 pounder of pure muscle. She's still growing and should reach 7-9 pounds. She's almost too big for the collar she arrived in, but she had the good fortune of winning Nichole's weekly review contest and will soon be sporting a beautiful new comfy and earth-friendly Planet Dog collar! We'll take pictures and let you know how she likes it. If she does, we'll have to get some for her foster sisters, too. Thanks, Nichole! Nichole also tagged me with this cool dog lovers button. Double thanks again, Nichole!

The weather here has been gloomy and rainy for the past several days, and since we've had rain every day this week, and when Ike hits, more rain will come our way, so we're under a flash flood warning for the weekend. No wonder my toes are growing webs. Quack. Hurricane Ike will be wrecking havoc in Texas and western Louisiana. One of our fellow knitting/blogging friends, Cheryl, the Knitting Wildflower, is in that area, so please send special wishes her way today and let her know you're thinking about her.

Speaking of the weekend, I'll be at Animal Haven with Kona, trying to help him find his new family. Scout has to stay home, with just her cute picture to help her out because there was an outbreak of parvo at the shelter recently. It's under control there, but they don't want any puppies, whose immune systems are still growing, to come into contact with remaining pathogens. I've spent so much time down there, it's beginning to feel like home. It's certainly cleaner than my home right now, too.

While we're on the subject of the shelter, there is a new movie that will premiere soon, All Roads Lead Home. Clicking on the title will lead you to our joint webpage promoting the movie. You can follow the link to view the trailer. I can't wait to see it and I hope you'll all get the chance too!

I have a bonus day this weekend. I was supposed to have some dental work done today so took off work. Because of my dental phobia, I took a Xanax. For technical reasons, they decided not to do the work today, so I came home and am too whacked out to do much of anything until this wears off. So I may get another blog post in later today. Blogging is like feast or famine lately. Thanks to everyone who left such kind words encouraging me to continue - I love you all! Have a great weekend and take care!

(PS - this post was actually written Friday, under the effects of the Xanax and I apparently forgot to hit the "publish" button. So technically, it's only one day late for DoT!)

Catch Up With Criquette, Chapter 2

2008-09-10T18:59:00.000-05:00

"K" is for knitting, of which I have pictures. "K" is also for kittens, of which we have one foster kitty. As in "K" for Kona.

My beautiful boy, Kona was adopted 2 weeks ago by a lady who really wanted him to replace her older male cat who had recently passed away. She had a 1 year old cat who was lonely and wanted company. And a husband who wanted a buddy to sit in his lap while he watched tv. Kona seemed to take to her and I thought we had a happy ending.

Two nights after adopting him, I started getting calls from her - Kona won't use the litter box, Kona (a 12-week old kitten) is being "mean" to my cat, my husband isn't bonding with Kona and wants him to have a more manly name (they changed it to Conan)blahblahblah, whinewhinewhine. I asked her several questions, since this was such a shock to me. I offered several pieces of advice, most of which had been discussed with her at the time of adoption. Apparently she thought she was an expert since she neglected to follow any of the advice. By the end of the week, she called to tell me she was bringing him back.

I wish there was a device that would detect boneheads, so those of us who are not boneheads could be alerted and take appropriate action (such as slapping them silly). I'd pay good money for that.

At least she did the right thing, finally. So I picked him up at the shelter and brought him home, where he promptly greeted all of his canine siblings and his foster dad, then went straight to his litter box, like the excellent little kitty he is. I am so relieved he's out of that other house. I'm so mad at that woman for not following the instructions she was given on introducing a new pet into her home. The adoption counselor at the shelter has told her that although she has a credit for another pet, she will not be able to adopt another kitten. I did get a small degree of satisfaction from that!

So now we are once again trying to find him a good home and you can bet I'll ask lots more questions next time around. He is the most loving boy, who is more doglike than catlike. He wants to be held and petted more than anything else, and is very good-natured. He likes to play in water and follows us around. He doesn't get out into the house, since Criquette turns into the spawn of Satan when she senses he is in her part of the house. I started putting him in the bathroom upstairs where they can get acquainted under the closed door last night, because I have a feeling he may be with us for a while (and no, as much as we would love to keep him, we are resolved not to break our rule regarding fosters.)

Kona's marketing picture - who could resist such a cutie?

Kona's favorite hobby is "helping" Mr. Criquette as he tries to work in his office (he works from home). Kona rearranges papers and piles, knocks all pens and office supplies to the floor, (trying to help Mr. C maintain his youthful waistline, heehee), and laying with his paws wrapped around Mr. C's hand as he tries to use the computer. Here he is, taking a well-earned nap (on Mr. C's desk, of course).

And now for a completely random change of subject - recent knitting projects revealed! I competed in the Ravelympics, representing Team GRITS in WIP Wrestling. I went into the opening ceremonies with 6 projects and went into the closing ceremonies with these:

I faithfully watched and knitted every night. I completed 2 scarves and 6 hats (not included in the picture are the 2 hats I shipped off to Nichole). In addition, I frogged 2 former UFO scarves and the sleeve and upper left side of the Baby Einstein jacket.

You too could finish this many if you only had to pompom and weave in ends on 3 baby hats!

Not only did I finish all of those WIP's, I also made some new ones during the Olympics. The Baby Einstein is in the bottom right corner. I frogged because I saw that I would run out of yarn part way into the second sleeve. And of course, it's discontinued. So I picked up a solid blue that I will knit the front yokes with, which will give me enough to complete the sleeves in variegated. I also cast on for a charity baby hat, a yellow & white dishcloth, another Stormfront scarf (this one for my North Carolina niece who is going to college up in the mountains and so will need wooly goodies to stay warm), and a silk/wool lattice scarf for a Christmas gift.

After the Olympics ended, I thought I would have severe withdrawal symptoms. Fortunately, the Democratic and Republican conventions came along to take it's place. I come from a family where politics were passionately discussed all of the time. It is probably a moral failing on my part that I have very little interest in any kind of politics, ever. But, this year is different. The presidential race has really captured my interest, in terms of the issues that I care about as well as the cast of characters involved.

I am an Independent, so don't have a strong preference for either the donkeys or elephants. But I would probably join a party that had meerkats as the party mascot. They represent such a strong sense of community and family values, have an excellent work ethic, are loyal and courageous and know how to kick enemy butt. Sure, they have a few unsavory tendencies but no one's perfect. But I digress.

Anyway, I have watched every night of both conventions and have a very messy house but lots of knitting to show for it. Plus, I can actually carry on a semi-intelligent conversation now about current events. I still haven't completely decided who I will vote for come November. I think both candidates are essentially decent people and they each have some ideas with which I agree, as well as ideas with which I do not agree. As with meerkats, no one's perfect. It's a matter of figuring out who is the least imperfect, I guess.

Two weekends ago I was on pins and needles, obsessively watching all of the national news stations and the Weather Channel, hoping and praying that Gustav would miraculously downsize and bypass New Orleans. (It did. God is good.) I was having trouble focusing on my WIP's and decided I needed to make a hat. A little search on Ravelry, and voila!

This looks weird, but it's the best I could get. It's taken from the back, with my arms up and over my head.

If you look closely, you can make out the little "bands" of purl stitches swirling around.

How could I not make the Hurricane Hat? I went into the stash and pulled out a lone ball of Moda Dea silk/wool in a dusky teal colorway, cast on and around and around I went, my needles mimicking the furious swirling winds. I finished the hat last night and I'm keeping it for myself, I love it that much. I highly recommend this pattern. It looks like it can be easily adapted to fit larger and smaller heads, and would make fast-knitting, attractive chemo hats. This is one of those patterns that I will knit several times because it's quite addicting. In fact, since Ike is heading into the gulf, I think I'll go cast one on now, while saying a prayer for Texas.

Catch Up With Criquette, Chapter 1

2008-08-31T19:08:00.000-05:00

I can't figure out what exactly has made my schedule exponentially explode into "busyness", the likes of which is consuming what little free time I had. I suspect it's a combination of work, extra critters, an increased commitment on my part to spend more time with friends, tackling some overdue home and office organizing projects, and other miscellany that is interfering with the time I used to spend blogging.

Unfortunately, none of these reasons will be going away anytime soon. I have also allowed myself to finally be talked into writing a book with my friend, who is a child psychiatrist. It's geared towards kids, so won't be a ridiculously major undertaking, but will eat up some more time on weekends. What this means is that I won't be able to blog with any predictable frequency.

I thought about even giving it up, but I'm still loving the whole experience too much to do something that drastic. I don't want to lose touch with the friends I've made through our mutual love of blogging and knitting, and I need to have the time to visit you all at your blogs. So it may be a couple of weeks between posts, but I will still be around.

I've had a lot to blog about and instead of one massive post, I'm dividing it up into a few that I'm hoping to post in the next couple of days. Since I haven't run much knitting content to speak of, I thought I'd start with that.

There have been a couple of wonderful sales sponsored by 2 of my favorite local dealers where I scored some serious wooly crack. The first (and best) took place at The Studio, where the entire store contents were on sale. I could have easily bought more since I saw so many yarns that screamed my name, but this is what I managed to squeeze out of the remnants of my Christmas gift cards:

Addicting, but 100% legal

After knitting a Calorimetry in the mossy green version, I grabbed some more of the scrumptious Colinette Cadenza in a summery periwinkle hand-painted merino:

And even though sock-knitting and I don't seem destined to become a couple, I saw this and fell instantly in love -

It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd superwash (Franklin's Panacopticon colorway). It's a limited edition yarn, so if you too think this is a fabulous new color combination, scoop some up now.

I also made a couple of Calorimetry's with this lovely handpainted Peruvian merino, Mirasol Hachu. The colors are very intense and just pop, and the yarn is nice and springy to work with.

Here's my favorite score of the day, a huge hunk of the soft and sproingy goodness that is Shaeffer Elaine, in the byooteous "Shirley Chisholm" colorway. I am most excited by this because I first experienced this wonderous yarn as a newbie knitter. It was the yarn that suffered an identity crisis but, with therapy from moi, was able to decide it wanted to be this lovely length of squishy warmth.

I loved the pattern, the colors and the whole sensory pleasure of knitting with this wool so much that I have felt several pangs of regret at gifting it to my SIL (who wears it a lot and seems to like it). I've been keeping my eye out for a colorway that is different than the original, that I like as much as that one, and this was the one. I am savoring the anticipation of casting on, but it will have to wait until my September vacation.

This yarn is to die for!

I also picked up some Araucania merino in this pretty pink color for my Dogs on Thursday swap partner.

I thought I was done with stash enhancement for the rest of the year when I discovered that the Knit Wit, another of my favorites, was having a summer sale. Jan usually puts good stuff into the big sale boxes, and all kinds of things jumped into my basket before I knew it.

I picked up some Trendsetter Scoubi Do (the 2 bright pink balls) for chemo caps, the Cervinia Madrid for a baby jacket and a couple of baby hats, the Berrocco Comfort DK for baby hats and matching booties, and the 2 single skeins of sock yarn for the 1st two squares of the Barn-Raising Quilt I will be making for Mr. C and I (over the next several years). I also picked up about a million balls of Fixation for chemo and baby hats, and a pair of house socks for me.

And speaking of stash enhancements, I wasn't the only one getting a fix around here. The lovely lady who adopted Gumbo gave us an obscene amount of her finest organic home-grown catnip. While it was drying on the back porch, Criquette kept a close watch, guarding her stash from the notorious nip-head, Bitsy BonTon.

Sadly, Criquette couldn't stand guard 24/7, and Bitsy consumed vast numbers of leaves before they could even fully dry out.

After eating her way through an entire pan of catnip brownies, Bitsy awaits her next fix, not realizing that plans are already in the works for rehab