Blocked Shawl

I finally finished AND blocked a shawl. The yarn was a skein of Fannie's Fingering sock yarn in Kaleidescope.  The pattern was the Cherry Surprise Shawl designed by Preita Salyer from Ravelry.  I wanted to wear the shawl on a short trip the end of June. It was an instant cat magnet.  Molly did not want to get off it.  I received several compliments when I wore the shawl.

Singing Mice

The article "The Mystery of the Singing Mice" by Rob Dunn in May's Smithsonian Magazine tickles me somehow.  As a cat owner, I have found my cats on stakeouts in the kitchen, waiting for the mouse to come out.  All these years I've assumed the cats have been listening to the sounds of the mouse moving around.  Maybe they're listening to the singing instead.

Was Walt Disney closer to the truth than we thought? 

The Beautiful Appaloosa

A while ago on Etsy I fell in love with this necklace by Freerangeart. I love turquoise and Appaloosa horses, although I only have admired the horses from afar. Her design of galloping Appaloosa, turquoise tassel and a bit of crystal sparkle was a perfect combination. I finally succumbed to the temptation. However, there are three other Appaloosa necklaces still available.

The subject of the necklace brought to mind another favorite, the song "The Heart of the Appaloosa" by Fred Small.



It was a favorite song before I began researching my family history, before I joined the Keepers of the Circle (a local Native American community group) and before I presented my radio program Native Circle on WRPI in Troy, N.Y. The song means even more to me now. I have no Nez Perce ancestry, but other Native American ancestry

Northern Lights

I have always thought it would be fun to see the Northern Lights, or the aurora bourealis. I don't live in an area where they normally occurred. Once every few years there is a chance. Someone recently shared with me this wonderful video created by Terge Sorgjerd. I think he did a great job of showing us what it's like. I hope you enjoy it.



The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Clever Cat

My oldest cat Midnight has developed arthritis and has decided to stay in the living room. We have an interesting set-up here with a bowl of dry cat food on either side of the room, each a different flavor, one on an end table and one on a couple boxes of knitting stash. There's also two bowls of water now, on either side. Midnight also has canned cat food delivered to one spot twice a day.

There is a heated cat bed in one corner on top of a painted chest of drawers near the window. I bought the bed when my cat Jenny was ill with chronic renal failure. I brought it out again thinking that the warmth might help Midnight feel better, especially in winter. Her youngest sister Molly also likes the cat bed. She doesn't have a very thick coat, probably because of her Cornish Rex and Siamese ancestry. She tries to steal into it during the day.

Today when I came into the living room Midnight started bouncing around like she does when she wants to play. I picked up the ostrich feather that was lying on the sofa and started waving it around. After batting at it a couple times, she bounced onto the ottoman away from me. Hmm. I thought a moment and went to get the bag of balls that I bought on sale a while ago. I started to toss the nerf balls to her. Molly was in the heated cat bed and climbed out to see what I was doing and Emily showed up too. To distract them I tossed a ball the other way past them. The next thing I knew Midnight crossed the window shelves to the other side of the room and hopped into the heated cat bed. She sat there looking quite pleased with herself. Quite a clever ploy she thought up.

Cabin Fever

My cats and I are suffering terribly from cabin fever. At least as a human I realize that I can change my attitude if I want. The cats just wander around bored, looking for something to do, and sometimes getting into trouble.

Molly is fascinated by the printer. Every day she runs to it to see if it's doing something. She was very happy the day I printed out 100 pages back to back. The printer did jam, however, when she darted a paw inside it. After I took care of the jam, she sat on the chair. I did have to tell her "No" and "Paw out" several times though.



Here is the original of the cat vs. the printer video that went through my department at work within minutes. It was an IT department, too.

Here are a few more fun videos:

Freedom is Coming

I learned of Mother Turtle through a friend. Her songs are in the same vein as Bill Miller. Mother Turtle is based much closer to home and maybe I can see the band sometime.



In the Northeast, freedom can also mean spring, and freedom from shoveling snow, scraping ice and walking around bundled up. Last week after our second snowstorm, I had to do a lot of shoveling and it made the bursitis in my hip act up.

Happy 2011! A New Project for the New Year

As the holidays passed, I kept the idea of my striped Periwinkle Sheep shawl in the back of my mind. I think I know how I want to knit it now. I like the way the Damson shawl drapes, so I'll use that as the base pattern.


I'm going to alternate the two purples at the beginning. After it passes my shoulder span, then I'll alternate a purple and the blue (at least I think I'll start with blue). In the widest stripe I'll alternate the blue and the silver. At this point I could go two different ways. I could continue the pattern by alternating silver and purple, or I could keep using the blue, then add some purple and then alternate the purple with the silver. With the first variation, I could add some stripes of alternating purple and then do the light colors stripes all over again. Hmm. I think I like that idea best instead of separating the blue and the silver. Somehow I was invited to a New Year fiber party this coming weekend and I think the shawl would be perfect to work on. I better get to winding the hanks of yarn. I really find out how much 400-450 yards are when I do that. At least the cats will be amused for a while. They get very bored in the winter time. Recently Midnight sat very close when I made hairpipe necklaces for gifts.