Repurposing

I am behind in project posting, but I 'll try to catch up faster than the finished objects accumulate. The first thing I have been wanting to mention is my failed attempts to knit a scratching post for the kitties.

In 2002, when the girls were just kittens, I had made them a scratching post out of a pole, a heavy base and all wrapped in some cheap carpeting.

It was a big success - note how young Sunny is here! Still hadn't grown into her ears!


After a couple of years, the post was totally torn, and therefore ineffective for its purpose.



It stayed in storage for a while, until I thought I 'd try to knit a tube and felt it, using some bright orange and hot pink yarn from stash. When it was ready, I rubbed catnip all over it, so as to jumpstart its reintroduction into their lives.


As soon as it was presented to them, L woke up Skid and brought her over for a test run.


Things seemed to work well.


But, alas! it was the catnip... After the first day, no kitty claw was laid on my felted post. My feelings were kind of hurt. All this work, and for what...

Luckily, I had a plan B:


Filled with unused clothes from my closet, it keeps the air out of the HUGE crack on our entrance.

As for the kitties, they will have to continue to use the floors for their pedicure, until I buy some carpeting again and give them just what they want, how they want it. Spoiled...

Bad kitty chronicles

Yesterday, while Seven helped me pick fabrics for some sewing...


... and Sunny minded her own business, sleeping in my closet...


... Skid took matters into her own paws. She likes to burrow under things, and likes to sleep on the loft bed.


Put two and two together, and you have a ripped sheet and a happy cat.

Me, not so happy.

Luckily, there was brownie mix.


And knitting.

Lizard ridge blanket is out again. What's on the sofa is the second to-be-felted slipper on the needles.

Silvery grey

It is a very grey Saturday. Which is fine, because 'Saturday' in my mind has always been a lead-grey coloured day (am I the only one who thinks of days in colours? Always done it, since I was a kid.) As a result, all silver, grey, charcoal colours stick out in my mind today, from the foggy overcast sky to the grey projects in my finishing line.

One of them was indeed grey: this skirt, that I started making about a month ago, with some linen-looking cotton and following step by step the instructions in this book. Only the facing and the hem were left undone, but I had been kind of afraid to finish it on the day I started it. Not today - in fact, I did all the remaining steps without reading any more directions. It didn't come out perfectly, but certainly good enough.

I feel I will get to wear this skirt quite a lot, it is just the neutral kind of clothing I feel comfortable with, and I hope it doesn't look all that 'homemade'. I think it's the darts ;-)

Seven, of course, being the quintessential silvery-grey household member, insisted on being there all the time. She is right here next to me as I type. She was there for the photo-shoot.


She was there as I measured and pinned the hem. Skid joined in the fun.


Meanwhile, Sunny was watching from nearby, lying on the Lizard Ridge blanket, because she knows its colours make her look particularly radiant.


Okay, okay, you caught me. Sunny's picture was taken on a different day. The discerning eye will notice Seven's ear behind Sunny (top right). They all like this colourful, expensive, time-consuming blanket, as if it was made for them. Not in their dreams - it's mine, MINE!!

Guide to the Knitting Listmaker Papers

Today I got the urge to put all the bills in order. Last time I had done it was sometime in Sept. 2006 - all neatly organised before then, messy piles after that. I continued the process to bring it up to date, and at the same time I pretended that I was wondering about the people (me) who paid those bills as if they were some collection at work, and I was trying to guess. It certainly helped the time pass quicker!

The difference is that at home I had help. It is a well-known fact that anything occupying my attention fully, especially if spread on the floor, is a target for rolling and sitting stubbornly on. Although of course I was very grateful for the help, I do understand why archives don't have 'house cats'! Unfortunately, I was on a roll and didn't even stop to take pictures.

Meanwhile, here's a nostalgic, parting shot of Assistant Archivist Skid during a study break in her early youth. She speaks many languages: kitty (first language), human Greek, human English. This was during the time she was taking human French lessons.


Crafting news coming soon.

Ο Φλεβάρης κι αν φλεβίσει...

I smelled spring last Monday, as soon as I came out of the house in the morning. I have been smelling it every morning ever since. The signs of spring are indeed everywhere. No pictures of it, yet. For now, spring remains an elusive feeling, a promise, that only my supersonic nose can catch.

However, there are pictures of the sky a few days ago. I always like it when the skies do weird things that are like inviting people to raise their eyes from the ground and stressful lives, and look up at the incredible happenings just above their heads.



Another piece of 'old news' is that I finally gave in and bought one of the incredibly cute Japanese aprons I found in Flushing. I don't really use aprons, but I realised that if I didn't buy one I would regret it in the future. And I am all about avoiding the unnecessary feeling of regret ;-)


Every apron has a different piece of fabric, and I wish I could buy them all! I had to make a choice, though. In the end, I always go for the greens...


Finally, here's another picture of Skid supervising my vigorous knitting progress. She has got into the habit of lying on my sewing table, which is next to my knitting-and-t.v-watching sofa, and she is incredibly interested in my diligence. This picture and the one from the previous post were taken on two entirely different days. Skid never lets her guard down!

Memory flash

I have been dealing with sketches at work recently. Lots of sketches, incredibly beautiful and expressive sketches, that are truly a joy to play with. As someone who was never particularly good at drawing, just looking at them amazes me and inspires me. It also makes me think a lot of my high school years, when I spent endless hours drawing cartoon stories while (sometimes) listening to the teachers' lectures. Ehm..

So, where am I going with all that?
It must be because of some odd crossing of wires between sketches, cartoons, and my new shoes, that something has been needling me insistently in the last couple of days.

Admittedly, only one other person on earth will understand this, but that's what my new shoes remind me of:

Λοιδορείκια!

In crafty news, I have eventually decided upon an edging for the long-suffering blanket I am sure everyone is sick of hearing about.


So I spent two episodes of Charmed working on it, while Skid supervised

On the Nature of Resolutions

I have been thinking a lot about resolutions lately. Mostly philosophising about them, since so many people share theirs in their blogs. In fact, I really enjoy reading what other people want to change in their lives, and how they plan to do it.

As I don't think I need to wait for January 1 to decide upon improving one or another aspect of my life, New Year's resolutions aren't much different than the rest - only those I may occasionally share. This year, the theme will be simple: be more tidy (heh.. good luck on that!)

I call it 'a theme' because the term 'resolution' somehow feels that if you fail for a day you are free to drop it altogether. Or so it would seem, judging by the fear people seem to have about keeping or not their resolutions. On the contrary, 'theme' rings to me like something to keep in mind, but accept its ups and downs without using downs as an excuse to abandon the plan.

Shots from the airplane: Newfoundland (I think)

In any case, it will take me more than one try to develop a tidier standard in my life. Many, many more tries, I 'd say! What interests me more, however, is how will this effort change my life on other aspects. Will it enhance my creativity or stifle it? Will it take time away from other things, or free them in an uncluttered world? How far should / can I go with it? Will I EVER have a tidy closet?!



So far, it doesn't look bad. After changing my table-corner decoration with a very old box that was in daily use in my mother's house decades ago, I was looking for something to put in it



It seems the perfect place to keep the yarn tails that I keep obsessively after a project is finished. I have no idea what to do with them yet, but now at least they have a home. I guess the challenge will be to find a use for them. Needle-felting or small embroidery projects, perhaps?


I also discovered that Sunny looks particularly cute on top of the new throw I brought for my knitting sofa


And that spending just a few more seconds of thought before making the decreases on L's latest hat I end up with orderly lines. While making it, I kept thinking of rivers that flow into each other.

Halloween

Why are weekends so short? Though weekdays pass by pretty fast too.
I must be getting old.

This, all too short, weekend passed in a lovely, mellow rhythm. Saturday it was rainy, Sunday was glorious. There was some shopping

Fabric from Pearl River Mart

Skein of recycled sari silk from friendly Nepalese woman

... and some sewing

Another journal cover. I can't stop making them.

Finally, in the spirit of Halloween, Skid decided to turn from this



to this (note the ferocious fang!)

my yarn was scared!

Little moments of joy

It is a dark, melancholic morning. Fall is upon us, and I 'm not ready for cold. But it's Saturday, and that means I 'm staying mostly home, repaying the kitties for their patience over my long absences during the week.


I was sitting on the sofa, in my usual place. Where I knit, read, watch t.v., do computer stuff. The other side belongs to the kitties.


Skid came and curled up next to me, I registered her presence and kept on doing what I was doing. Half an hour passed this way.


Suddenly I turned to her, and saw she was dozing off. I reached out to her and put my hand on her. She 'd been cleaning herself all this time, and her fur was slightly wet, smelling of wet wool. In her half asleep state, she turned her head and rested it on my hand, her breath on my skin.


Now it doesn't matter that it's a dark, melancholic morning and fall is upon us.

Seven

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No real knitting or otherwise crafty progress worthy of talking about.
Meanwhile, here's what cost me a week's salary in vet tests.

The vet seemed good, but turned out to be the golddigger type (more, more tests!!!). I don't think I 'll be going there again.

Thankfully, Seven seems to be fine. Must go snuggle her NOW.

Things that make me smile...

Today, it's the new photo on my desktop at work:

What I found in my camera

I have a lot of help when I sew

... or arrange squares.

It's hard work indeed

and rest is well-deserved.