The Knitting Pirate

I was hoping one of them would pull a Maru and go diving through the box. No such luck.

If you don’t know of Maru the Cat, you probably should go check out his videos.

3KCBWDAY5 – Something A Bit Different
This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

What’s this, mama? Yarn! You’re playing with yarn! …what do you mean, I can’t play with you? You’re a yarn-hog. Look at you sitting there keeping all the lovely yarn to yourself. Come on, let me play too! Let me at it! Won’t you drag it around for me to chase? Pleeeease? Not even a little bit? Hey, why are you pushing me away?

You know I love yarn. All strings, really. I can’t resist it. How about I play with your shoelace instead? …Fine. You’re no fun. Never let me do anything I want. Hrmph. See if I care. I’m going to sulk right here in front of you so you can feel bad. I don’t care if you say you’re making the best thing ever, you’re not sharing and that’s not right. I heard you tell the other cat just the other day that he needed to share with me. You should take your own advice, mama. Sharing is caring.

Totally not looking at you. That’s what you get for not sharing the yarn. I don’t care if you say that it’s bad for me, all I know is that you’re not sharing. Do you think I care that loose fibres could give me a stomachache? No. Not at all. It’s *yarn*, mama. Why are you being so mean to me? What did I do to deserve this?

You just wait. When you go to bed tonight I’m going to figure out how to get at this ‘intar net‘ you keep talking about, in the warm box with all the buttons I’m not allowed to touch when you can see me. I’ve been watching you and I think I know how it’s done – and you thought I was just sleeping next to you the whole time. I’m going to paw at all the buttons until I get to ‘rowvr ree‘, and then I’ll tell everyone just how mean you are.

…Can I have some yarn *now*? Look, it’s just the littlest bit of yarn left. Hey, where are you going? Come back here with that yarn! I hate you forever! Or until dinnertime, whichever comes first!

(Happy Feline Friday!)

To read what other people are writing for today’s prompt in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, search Google for 3KCBWDAY5 or click here.

I’m bored of these toys. Can’t I have some new ones? How about that yarn you’re always dangling just out of reach?

He is such a handsome cat.

I totally rocked my Saturday.

There was a lot to do: garbage dropoff, a trip to the hardware store, grocery shopping, fishpond maintenance, cat brushing and yardwork. To be honest, it was a little overwhelming to face a day like this for the first time on my own. But I sat myself down with a cup of coffee (which I made without any sort of coffeemaker at all, because all the coffeemaking devices left with Pirate-Ex, but which was awesome nonetheless and possibly even more awesome for not needing a specialized device) and told myself, “Self, you can be anyone you want to be. Do you want to be someone who goes wah wah wah I can’t do this it’s too much, I hate being a girl in a hardware store and I know nothing about fishponds or do you want to be someone who goes HECK YEAH (I may have used a stronger word than ‘heck’) I can TOTALLY do all this! RAWR! I am going to STEP UP!

In a move that should surprise absolutely no one who knows me, I chose RAWR over wah wah. (Useless trivia: my desktop computer is named RAWR.)

And to reward myself for being RAWR I stopped at the local artsycrafts store and bought the sock yarn I’ve been ooh’ing at – do those stripes say “I want to be Jaywalker Socks“? Maybe! or maybe they’ll just be plain socks! – as well as three colourways of Sugar and Cream for washcloths and a new swiffer mop cover as the old one doesn’t fit quite as well as I’d like anymore. The mere thought of knitting anything else in cotton makes my fingers seize up in protest, so I’m going to make up a crochet pattern for it if I can’t find one I like.

(Conveniently, I had a 20% off everything coupon for the artsycrafts store in my pocket.)

I expected the cats to get between my camera and the yarn, but for the most part they were quite well-behaved. Kipling snuck into the frame once or twice…

Anyway, it was such a successful day. I tossed garbage bags and didn’t hesitate to ask for help in the hardware store and bought only healthy groceries within my budget, and I fixed the fishpond all by myself without even getting too wet, and raked leaves and cleared two flowerbeds and I even ran up the driveway, and despite (because of?) all this activity my back isn’t even complaining too much. Also, I brushed the cats, since they’re shedding for springtime. One cat absolutely loves being brushed and the other only barely tolerates it. Can you guess which cat is which?

Oh yeah, so making coffee without any coffee-making devices! You’ll need a heat-resistant glass measuring cup (I’d say a Pyrex, but mine’s actually Anchor Hocking. Either way, one of those.) and a good strong paper towel, like Viva. Add the right amount of boiling water into the measuring cup. Now, you don’t actually want your water to be boiling when you put the coffee in; you want it to be a few degrees less, but when the water hits the glass it’ll cool down just enough. Then put coffee on top of the water. The general recommendation is for two tablespoons of coffee per eight ounces of water (about 240 ml). Don’t stir for 90 seconds, just let it float and bloom on top of the water. Then stir and wait another 90 seconds or so. The coffee shouldn’t be in the water for more than four minutes total, or it’ll get bitter. Pour through the paper towel into your mug; most of the grounds should have already sunk to the bottom of the measuring cup anyway. Et voila, coffee sans coffeemaker!

I bought more coffee at the grocery store. I’m determined to perfect this method. My first attempt was strong but sour; the suggestion I found was to use *more* coffee rather than less to avoid sourness.

He really is the upside-downiest cat of all time.

No paparazzi! No paparazzi!

Finally, this sock that’s been traveling around with me since Thanksgiving is finished. (Now I have to knit its mate. Such is the way of socks.) I wanted to do a toe-up sock, but the usual short-row heels don’t fit entirely right, so I went looking for different methods. This pattern from Wendy Johnson has a gusset and an interesting heel shape. It fits pretty well, though I’m not sure about the thick stripes on the heel section. This pattern would probably look better with a semi-solid or variegated yarn. I made the socks quite tall – almost too tall, as the ribbed cuff is stretching to fit over the bottom of my calf muscle. Once they’re washed they’ll probably be just perfect.

I used a figure-eight toe with sixteen loops, which has worked well, but on my next toe-up socks I’m going to experiment and try fourteen loops for a slightly longer toe with a wee bit more tapering. One change I made to the pattern was to extend the length of the gusset, and I’m glad I did. I snuck in six extra rounds during the gusset increases to accommodate my extra-long feet. The socks would have been too short otherwise, and probably too tight over the instep. I’m glad it worked out well; I would have been grumpy if they hadn’t fit right and I had to rip out the whole heel and gusset section!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the sock perched in the redbud tree. This is the only one in my yard, but I see them everywhere and I love them. Maybe this year I’ll take some cuttings from my tree and try rooting them! Having a line of redbuds in the yard would be beautiful. I could alternate them with forsythia for the best spring colour ever. We’re supposed to have nice weather this weekend; perhaps I’ll put in some time outside working on the flowerbeds… when I’m not working on the second sock. I’d like to go for a walk too, or maybe get back on the bike. Lots to do!

Spring on the mountain is just so pretty.

Go away, I’m sleeping.

Can’t you see, I’m all curled up and sleeping.

Come on, really? I was sleeping…

One evening I was sitting on the porch, enjoying the warm spring weather, when I noticed a movement behind me. It was Kipling, staring at me through the window, looking very much as if he wanted a headscritch or two. “Do you want to come outside?” I asked him, and he chirped back at me. That must mean yes, right?

I went inside, got the harness, and put it on him. He didn’t argue about it at all, so I thought that perhaps he’d been on a harness before, and would be fine. He tried walking backwards out of it, and slinking out from underneath it, but after a few minutes seemed to forget it was on. (This bodes well for next winter, when I will try to put a sweater on him. He was so cold this past winter that he learned to roll himself up in one of the couch blankets. Cute, but probably not so comfortable. And he’s extended the trick to burrowing under the bed blankets when I’m trying to sleep.)

We went outside together. First he looked around a bit. So far, so good. I thought he might be so distracted by birds and other wildlife that he would forget his apprehension and enjoy the breeze as much as I was.

Then he cowered under a chair and made unhappy noises. I hate to laugh at him, but he sounds as if he’s crying “woe!” and it’s really quite funny to hear. Laughing only made him cry more, so I tried to hold it in to save some of his dignity. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t fooling him at all.

Floyd was brought outside as well, hopefully to be a calming influence. It worked the last time the cats had to go to the vet, but it didn’t work so well today. (Perhaps the heavy doses of pre-vet catnip helped more?) He produced the most pathetic mewing when he first set paw on the deck.

Floyd doesn’t like the Big Room With No Walls very much at all, and after a quick sniff at Kipling he made a beeline back to the door.

He’s a smart cat.

His short stature and lack of opposable thumbs seem to be a constant source of frustration for him.

Kipling, on the other hand, had trouble figuring out how to go through a glass door.

He looked this way and that way.

No amount of encouragement could convince him to look around the door to the inside of the house. His small brain couldn’t quite comprehend the glass.

Finally he wailed, “I just don’t understaaaaand!” It’s a good thing he’s cute, because he’s certainly lacking in the intelligence and courage departments.

I tried going inside to see if he would follow me, but he was still confused and probably too scared to move anymore. Eventually I had to go out, pick him up, and carry him through the door.

It was dinnertime for the cats, and I thought feeding them would be a positive reward for their good behaviour with the harnesses and going outside for a little while. I would love to spend a good chunk of my summer reading books on the front porch with the cats keeping me company. Unfortunately Kipling was still so nervous about his experience that he ate his dinner and promptly yarfed on the kitchen floor. I don’t think I’ll try taking him outside again if he’s going to react like that – who’s training whom, here?

There is a big change happening at Up Mountain, one that’s been in progress for quite some time, but is finally happening: Pirate-Husband is moving out. We’ve had a good run together, but it’s time for both of us to move on. It’s a bittersweet thing for us, but we’d rather end the marriage so that we can be friends, instead of hanging on and growing more and more resentful of each other.

…so we bought lottery tickets, because winning the Mega Millions would solve our remaining problems. :)

I’m looking at this as an opportunity. I’ve never lived on my own – I went from my parents’ house to university to an apartment with him – and I’m excited for the chance to do everything my own way. Over the past few years I’ve been putting quite a bit of effort into remaking myself to become the person I really want to be, and this is the final stage. When I look back on it, I want to be proud of what I see.

April is going to be a big month for me. I work well with schedules, so I want to get myself into a healthy routine of exercise, keeping the house clean, and working on my creative projects.

Here’s to new beginnings!

It was recently pointed out to me that my house is the sort of place that creative people might rent in order to escape from the world and write the Great American Novel or paint a series of landscapes. I’m so lucky to live here, and I want to make the most of what some of my friends refer to as “their mountain vacation house.” It’s a beautiful place, and there’s lots of inspiration to be had just from living up there. Then another friend (Hi, Monica!) wrote, “what if I thought of EVERY day like that; just a vacation with some mandatory stuff thrown in?”

She hit the nail on the head. I look at life as an adventure: some parts are more difficult than others, some challenges seem as if they may never be overcome. All in all, though, almost every little thing in life can be made good and exciting, and I try to look for ways to make everything into a quest or a challenge or a mission. It’s turning life into a fun game instead of a dreadful series of boring responsibilities like going to work and paying the bills.

Instead of thinking of the house as just a house, it’s become the exclusive Up Mountain Bed and Breakfast. Instead of having to run errands, I go on missions to restock the pantry with the best food I can find (and then there’s the challenge of keeping to my grocery budget). Exercise isn’t just having to work out, it’s a part of Operation: Badass. Everything can be turned into part of the fun and the game.

Lately I’ve been feeling as if all my projects are crawling along slower than a turtle, so I started thinking of ways to rekindle my excitement about them. Keeping on with the vacation home metaphor, what do resort vacations have? Scheduled activities. I’ve always done well with schedules and routines; they help keep me from procrastinating. “Oh, I’ll just check a few things on the internet” turns into “now I’m too hungry to exercise, I’d better make dinner,” to “this show I want to watch is on,” and the next thing you know, I’ve stayed up too late doing nothing at all. Then I feel guilty when I realize that I’ve wasted my day putting off the things that I say I want to do.

So I’m going to try an experiment for the month of April, and plan out my time after work to make the most of everything. I’ve written out a schedule which includes the new start to Operation: Badass, enough time to cook and enjoy good food, an hour of a specific creative activity every weeknight, and also time for the slightly more mundane stuff like cleaning the house. I’ve even remembered to give myself some free time to do whatever I want.

As I get more done, I should have more to blog about as well. Now that the days are getting longer and there’s more light in the afternoons, I should be able to take more pictures. I’m going to keep my camera close by so I don’t miss any opportunities. I’m really excited about turning over this new leaf, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my adventures – and please do cheer me on, because that will definitely help me stick with it!