Cat Mad Crochet

Well, well, well, if it isn’t December. However did we end up here and with so much still on the hook? And, you might ask, where the heck have I been for months? I would dearly like to tell you that I found a Door. I would like to tell you I went somewhere else, haven’t seen the horrors, and got to live in a nice, happy place. Alas, I have not. I have seen the same horrors you have seen. Keep strong, friends. Hooks up for solace!

I did finish some stuff. Let’s run down that happy list.

First, I made a pair of fingerless gloves for Adia. I used half double crochets and changed the color every seven rows or so. I wrote down what I did so both gloves would look the same. Look at me go! Adia requested individual finger holes for the gloves. Honestly, I really did not want to do that. It meant math. It meant being very deliberate and thoughtful. I tried to wiggle my way out but that felt wrong, so I just freaking did it. Did I have to frog the fingers like five times? Yes. Do they fit perfectly now? Also, yes. Look at them! Behold their wonder and the correctness of their math. Take that perimenopause brain! I did it despite you.

Second, I finished the arm warmers I started before I stopped posting for a while. They are done. When they aren’t being worn, they look a bit like those muppets that only speak in meeps. It doesn’t matter. Adia likes them, so I win! Two projects done. Happy day! (These are done with single crochet v stitches. I ran the increase down the middle of the part that goes over the hand and placed them wherever I needed them to make the body of the arm warmer grow properly.)

I had intended to save all of these projects for the holidays, but life seems tenuous and strange right now, so I am just giving things to people as I finish them. Adia was very happy with these and has already been wearing them.

I also finished the marled wrap I was working on for Adia. This one is all linked doubles with two strands of Malabrigo lace yarn held double. I changed one strand when I felt that I could not bear to continue working in the present color combination anymore, which was often about seven rows. Twice I ran out of one color mid-row and just added a new color where the old one stopped. It isn’t readily visible. I am not upset by this. I do not think it disturbs some overall artistic feeling of the piece. It just is. I’m just happy it’s done. This one took a while.

I finished nothing for Hannah for the holidays or any other time. I have worked on things. I had the bright idea that I was going to finish her blue wrap before the holidays, but it quickly became apparent that that was all lies. What to do? Work on it more? There just wasn’t time. Adjust the project so it isn’t so big? And compromise my artistic vision?! Hardly. (Please read that with a lot of sarcasm.) Start an entirely new project with fingering weight instead of lace weight yarn and hope for the best? Obviously!

So here I am almost done with the round yoke of a caplet. I am working it in moss stitch with six marked increase points and two rows of increases with a row of no increases between the increase rows. I have to do five more rows then I will switch over to a nice, open lace stitch to get it to length. Ideally, that will go faster. We shall see. Then all I have to do is add the button placket and buttons, weave more ends than I thought there would be, and I’m done. I have a bit of time left. It could happen. I mean, New Year’s Eve still counts as the holidays, doesn’t it? I’m going to argue, for the sake of this project, so does Valentine’s Day. Whatever. I’ll finish it eventually. I’ll even weave the ends in a pretty way. Freaking look at me go!

Meg is still plugging along despite having what the vet termed “the worst case of feline arthritis” he has ever seen. He wasn’t sure how she even walks anymore. I guess what they say is true, if you keep moving then you keep moving, if you stop you stop. Meg is a very active cat. Mostly she’s begging for food and pets, but she has to walk around to do it. I think this has kept her going. She’s on some meds now that seem to be helping quite a bit, so fingers crossed she keeps making her way for a long time to come.

The chinchillas have been especially feral simply because they can be. Hannah instituted raisin Sunday for them, so they count the days each week until Sunday when they receive a single raisin a piece. It is one of their highest joys.

My airplants are doing well, which brings me great joy. I do so love a plant without soil for me to spill all over the place or that becomes riddled with some sort of nasty bug.

In the time I wasn’t posting but should have been, I even figured out how to keep an orchid alive and happy. It has been an eventful fall. I just didn’t think it would happen during the fall of civilization, but here we are. The only way out, is through.