Spring

Daylight Savings Time is the day I start spring in my mind.  Daylight Savings Time is earlier than the actual spring date.  No, the official spring  date also marks the day that I celebrate spring equinox.  I like the idea of the day being equal in light and dark.   I am now asking myself if there is a full moon on the spring equinox.  If so, is that a special thing?

Spider plant that has eaten up all the dirt.

Anyway, I repotted my house plants, and potted some plants that had sprung major roots in water.  Most of it went easily but there was one plant that I had to dig out.  Talk about root bound!  I am continuously amazed at plants.  This plant ate the dirt.  This is a spider plant who now has a new home.  I bet it is grateful.

Bottom of screen door.

I also put together the frame for my screen door.  Now all I need to do is sew the screen cover for it.  I have my former shower curtain and some fiberglass screen, both materials that can be sewn on a sewing machine without damaging the needle too much.  I’ve been mulling it over in my mind how I want to attach the screen to the door.  I also need to glue the parts together and get it mounted to the outside of the house.  It is going to be a sliding door.  Like a barn door but with plastic and no wheels.

front view

My other ‘finished’ project is more of a transformed project.  I was going to crochet myself a tunic out of hairpin lace.  It turned into a capelet.  I love this thing and now want to make me another, wider one.  I’m going to get buttons on this one and see if I can sell it.  The wider one will be for me though.  I might even write a pattern.  I can tell you from experience that it is a warm piece of material.  Perfect for spring.

side view of capelet

March randomness

I like leggings.  They are comfortable to walk in and show my legs off.  They also show off my butt.  As I just turned 55 (*) yesterday, I don’t need to show off my butt.  It is considered tacky for women of my age.  The answer to that is to get shirts that are long or to make me some tunics.  I’m going with making me a long over shirt that I can wear over my short shirts that can act like a tunic.  Since I am enamored with hairpin lace at the moment, I decided to make it out of hairpin lace.

So I happily crocheted 4 stripes, 120 stiches long to make the first panel of the tunic.  Only when I did that, I realized that it makes a much better collar than a panel and so now I have the back collar.  It also means that I am momentarily stuck.  I think I’m going to crochet me 8 more strips,  this time 60 stitches long and make the front of the collar.  I’m rather excited to see what happens next.

The only design problem that I have at the moment is that I am a big woman with big boobs and I might end up looking like a colorful barrel when I get done.

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On a side note:  55 is 5 * 11.  This is neat because now I am double primed and one of those primes is one of my favorite numbers:11.  11 is a neat number because of Pascals triangle.  Go to http://www.mathsisfun.com/pascals-triangle.html to discover why it is so fun.  The number 11 is just a kick butt number.

My isms.

These are things I find myself saying a lot.

1.  The last perfect human was hung on a cross to die.  This is one of the shitty ways to die.  You suffocate while in great pain and it takes awhile.

2.  “Congratulations:  your human.”  as I shake the hand of someone who has made an error.

3.  When you insult other people, they have a choice to accept or reject the insult.  When you insult yourself there is no choice.  You have called yourself a name without the luxury of even thinking about whether it is true or not.

4.  (corollary to 3).  The definition of said insulting name is already in your mind.  At least, when other people call you that name, you have the choice to change the definition or modify it in some way to make it less hurtful.

5.  Plants are amazing things.  They will be on this earth a long time after everyone is gone.  They can last longer than animals as well.

6.  There is no known machine able to crochet.  Machines take advantage of doing several things at one time.  Knitting machines are good because you have all stitches in a row.  Crochet does one stitch at a time.  No money in making such a machine.

7.  We need the water.

8.  There are more humans than cows.  Ergo, more human shit is creating methane than cow shit is.  Why isn’t anyone talking about birth control saving the world?  Less people would mean less methane gas.

9.  “Bull shit”  exclaims my Mom.  “Cows do to ”  say I.  “Why are you only  concerned with the bulls?”

and finally

10.  Life is better with a smile.

February thoughts

1.  Why doesn’t each state have its own ground-hog?  It has been proven time and time again that when it snows in the east it is 60 in the west.  Just in Colorado it snowed five inches in Denver county but zero  inches in Morgan county…a hundred miles east. .

2.  The cats are playing tag team with me.  When they want to go outside they run to me and then run to the door.  Run to, over, under me and then run to the door.  Tripping me is also an option.  One cat will start it and pretty soon both cats are doing it.  I sit, they jump onto my chest, walk around a bit to make sure I’m paying attention and then run to the door.  Or I am walking around, George will twine himself around my legs causing me to look at him, then run to the door once he has my attention.   Dozer, on the other hand just stares at me sending mind thoughts hoping I understand.  My psychic ability is nil.

3.  There are color ways in plarn.  I like the gray and white one more than the one with orange.

Plarn

4.  There are scraps when making plastic yarn.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  You take a sweater, sew the bottom and top and stuff everything else.  It becomes an animal bed.  Then I saw another pin on Pinterest where the user used plastic to stuff things.   Combined the two ideas and I am slowly getting a stuffed cat bed.  Both cats already use it because it is warm and comfy.  The arms aren’t stuffed yet which is good because that is what is holding it onto the chair.  I wrap the arms around the back pegs.   The bed also makes this nice crinkly sound which I think they like.

Future cat bed

Bags and stuff

1.  I crochet with plastic yarn.  Plarn for the uninitiated.  Plarn is made by cutting up plastic shopping bags and looping them into a very long string.  It can be quite colorful.  White bags make white plarn with hints of other color because of the logo.  Walmart  switched to gray bags.  I have a lot of gray bags now.  So I asked three people if they shopped at a white bag store as I was running out of that color.  Two people came through and now I have plenty of white.  However, people like to be helpful so I have a few more people who are saving bags for me.  Plus the one person who I asked who hasn’t given me her bags, also has some bags for me.  Pretty soon I’m going to have more supply than I can use. I’ll have plenty of white with no time to make it, let alone crochet with it.  I am blessed.

2.  My scaredy cat is no longer scared but curious.  She is spending more time outdoors.  George is an in and out cat so he will come in first, look around, and then go back outside.  A couple of times I send him back out with the words “Go get your sister”.  He does.

3.  There is a set of stitches that make up a pineapple motif in crochet.  I recently tried to do that pattern with plarn.  One cannot see the motif with plastic yarn.  I’m thinking about doing a color coordinated motif to see if it is more visible.  I have plenty of colors to choose from.  No green bags though.

4.  Weaving takes up lots of string.

My animals

Freddy

I have two cats and a dog.  George, Freddy and Dozer Bud.  They are comfortable with each other but the dog and the cats are never going to be best buddies.  The two cats are survivors from four cats dumped in my dumpster when I moved here.  Freddy is actually Frederika but that is only because it is close to Fraidy Cat.  Freddy is afraid of everything.  I had to force feed her from the bottle because she was afraid of the bottle.  Afraid to be held, afraid to explore.  Developmentally she is about 6 months behind George, her brother.  Don’t tell George, but she is my favorite.  She spends a lot of time indoors.  Don’t think she is incapacitated by her fear.  She is the one who kept bringing home the baby rabbits.  She is just very wary of what life has to bring.   She if also very feminine.  One of these years she might even be a lap cat but I don’t think so.  She likes sitting on my chest so she can smell and taste my neck.  Then she will snuggle down for a snooze.  Makes it difficult to do other thing.

George

George was named because the name goes with Freddy.  My brother pointed out to me that Fred and George are the twins in the Harry Potter series.  George is more of an outdoor cat.  He likes to explore the outdoors and hunt birds.  I think he has caught some but has never brought me any presents.  I am thankful for that.  He is also a trained cat.  When he doesn’t come home I can call out the door or go for a walk calling ‘Georgie Porgie pudding pie, kissed the girls and made them cry, when the girls go out to play Georgie Porgie ran away’.  It works most of the time.  It helps if he wants to come home.   He will also follow me for a short walk around the town.

Dozer Bud

Dozer Bud I got from the shelter.  He is the first dog that I have ever had as an adult.  I think we had a puppy when I was little that terrorized us so we had to get rid of it.  That is what the story is but I don’t remember much about it.  Dozer is about 9 years old now.  He is an American Staffordshire terrier mix.  AKA a pit bull.  He is the best trained dog!  Someone else had this amazing dog for 8 years and let him go.  They spend gobs of time working with him to teach him manners and I get the benefits.  I often wonder what his previous life was like but then I remind myself that I am trying to live in the present.  He has the neatest smile.

Thought for the day:

I recently started going back to church.  There is a commandment that states ‘don’t take the Lords name in vain’.  I have been practicing breaking that commandment for many years.  I finally thought to change my words from G**damn it to Simon Sings it.  I have no reason I chose  those words except that the sounds express what I am feeling.   One day it occurred to me to wonder what a Simon will say when he realizes I’m using his name as a cuss word.  It is probably what God says when I use its  name as a cuss word.  It is a good thing that Simon is singing.

January

Todays post has no pictures.   I like pictures in a blog post but today I’m just going to write because it has been so long since I wrote.

How I started my new year.

A week before the year started, I was in the bathroom on the toilet.  When I went to stand up, I did not have good balance.  So I sat back down.  Kind of.  My back hit the tank, the tank hit the wall, the tank cracked.  The time was 5:30 a.m.  There was a lot of water.  I was wondering what to get myself for a Christmas present and now I knew:  A new tank.

Plumbing is not my favorite thing to do.

—–

I have two cats and a dog.  They are all three mousers.  Only I think the dog only catches outside rodents.  There have been two dead mice inside which is the result of cats I think.  Since all the animals are well fed they tend to play with the little creatures.   I would feel guilty about that if I didn’t hate rodents so much.  Thank God that none of the animals think I need a present.  I do not fear mice as I can calmly look at them and not scream, but they do eat books and leave little nuggets of excrement over nice things.  They also eat wood and put nice little holes in places that shouldn’t have holes.  So basically rodents are o.k. as long as their teeth stay off of my stuff.

—–

I am currently knitting fingerless gloves with mitten caps.  I keep telling myself that I should start writing patterns.  Patterns are hard to write though.  However, I do a lot of designing so taking it a step further would be a good thing.  Still thinking about it.

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A post with no pictures is weird.

Some projects and a cat story.

lace trim. Not sure what I’ll use it for.

I finished two things:  a piece of lace trim and a baby blanket.  Both items feature hairpin lace.  At the moment I am addicted to hairpin lace but I’m hoping that isn’t going to last.  I feel the looms calling.  Since I have two weaving projects going, I should be doing those.  It will happen, I’m sure.

Baby blanket. Need to finish the sides. Done with the hairpin lace part. 3 types of yarn, all fuzzy.

Now for the cat story.

The infamous tree as seen in daylight

Every night I play a game with the cats before we go in for the night.  One of the more popular games is catch me if you can.  I chase a cat to its hiding place and then it runs from me.  Great fun.   This is done outside in the back yard where there are lots of places to hide.  I bring a flashlight as it is dark and my backyard is not very even.  Also, I now live closer to farmland where public light is discouraged.

Usually when I chase one cat, the other cat soon comes to play the game.  This one night I was chasing Fredericka (the female)  while waiting for George (the male)  to arrive.  Only he didn’t.  TJ, the neighbors cat did though.  TJ meows to announce his arrival.  So when I heard meowing I thought it was TJ announcing himself.  Only I looked at TJ and he wasn’t meowing.  The flashlight roamed the yard searching for the cat making the noise.  Pretty soon I looked up into the tree where I spotted George sitting on a branch of a 100-year-old tree.  A branch that was placed twice as high as my house.  There was George sitting in the crook of the tree at night on a branch making the same mewing noise as he did when I found him.  The meowing that said:  “Save me!  Save me!”

George

I did what any cat owner does with a cat stuck high in a tree.  No, I didn’t leave him in the tree all night.  I will the next time but this was the first time.  It was night and the moon was only half full and he was way up in a tree.  So high that I had to crick my neck to look at him.  How to get him to get himself down?  I tried mental telepathy coupled with the flashlight.  I’d think “this way” and then show him by using the flashlight to mark the path.  It didn’t work.  What the flashlight did though was call the neighbors kitten to come play.  On one of the flashlight trips down the tree I caught a kitten climbing up the tree.  I not so gently moved the kitten off the tree who then proceeded to either trip me as I walked around the tree or tried climbing the tree again.

So in the house I went to get a painters  ladder.  One of those nice stable ones with 4 points on the ground that will let one climb 10 feet.  I thought if I could just get him to the tip of the branch George could jump and I would catch him.  Let me tell you how well mental telepathy works with a cat.  I got him to the middle of the branch by using the flashlight to trace a path but he failed to get the message to jump.  The kitten finally caught on though and was trying to help me by climbing the steps of  the ladder with me.

I gave up on the step-ladder.  I got out the big ladder.  One of those two-part ladders that can go way up in the sky.  The ladder that is heavy and clumsy to move with only one person.   This should have been my first clue that I needed help.  I managed to get it to the tree where I looked into my back porch only to see the mama cat and all three of her kittens, including the helpful kitten exploring.  I lost it.  I woke my neighbors up.

” Please come get your cats out of my back porch while I try to get my cat out of the tree. ”  I gruffly told the woman who answered the door.  She got her shoes on so to follow me back to my house where there were no cats anywhere in the house.  She did help me get the ladder on the tree though so I could do some climbing.  She then suggested that her husband would be better at this and went to get him.  I found the visiting cats with my flashlight back on my neighbors’ property.    Grrr.

We got the ladder positioned safely and up the ladder I went.  Up to this moment the most daring thing I ever did was to drive across the Mississippi river all by myself.  I am afraid of bridges.  I kept my eye on the lane I was in and made it all the way across the bridge without falling into the water, wrecking or freezing up.  That is what I did on the ladder.  I would go up a rung, pause, look at the tree, look at George and go up another rung.  About midway I looked at the tree to see the helpful kitten also climbing.  I picked the kitten up and dropped him into the neighbors’ waiting hands and climbed another rung.  Six feet away from George I stopped.  It took some talking (read meowing, who knew I could speak cat?) but he finally climbed the 6 feet to me and we made it safely down.

The really sad thing about this story?  I no longer have an excuse not to clean my gutters.  I can climb the ladder.  I’m still going to wait for someone to be there watching my back though.  I need to know how many rungs there are to the bottom.

Random Sunday

1.  I am adjusting to country living.  I love it.  I planted 4 tomato plants, a squash, and several decorative drought tolerant plants and 90% are growing.  I even started a new collection of chicks and hens. There is a lot of land to work on unlike my former small yard.  I even had to get a mower and for the first time in my adult life mowed an entire lawn.  Twice.  (The experience is still new enough to be counted)

George

2.  The cats have grown and are very spoiled.  I also have a new part-time cat.  A new neighbor moved in with  two cats:  a male and a female.  They mated and soon the female had kittens. At this  point the female decided to get very protective and territorial and wouldn’t let the male near the kittens or the food.  The male is eating at my house now.  I have an indoor porch and this cat is a very polite cat as he is  always asking before he enters the house.

Fredericka

3.  I have visited crochet again.  I don’t like to crochet very much as I always make mistakes and it takes me three times as long to finish.  Unlike knitting where I can fix previous mistakes rather easily, crochet requires me to pull out an hours worth of work because the mistake is so glaringly obvious.    I started with a thick thread and decided that was not doing it for me so switched to size 10 thread.  Crochet is one of the few crafts that I require a pattern for my creative ideas. Recently I made small doilies.     The pattern can take the form of written, picture or the actual object.  The easiest pattern to read is a picture.  I am a visual person when it comes to crochet.  I made three doilies before I rediscovered hairpin lace.

left: Pattern from 50 Fabulous Pineapple Crochet Motifs.(*) Right: Copy of another antique doily.

4.  Hairpin lace is also crochet but  the crochet part is just one stitch.  What you can do with the lace ribbon  is a whole other ball of wax.  I was crocheting a ribbon and it occurred to me that I could knit the ribbon into a very pretty scarf.  Art yarns would work well as hairpin lace.  Use the entire ball of yarn to make a ribbon and then knit the ribbon.  Voila you have a scarf that emphasizes the qualities of the yarn.  Or you can use several strips of plain worsted weight yarn to make long ribbons and combine them to make a blanket.  If one is into thread, one can combine strips to make chokers or head bands.  Lots of possibilities here.  I made one lace ribbon that makes me want to invest in some pillowcases  just so I can decorate them with the lace.

Ribbon scarf.  First step: make hairpin lace ribbon. Second step, knit using loops for stitches. (#knit 6, turn ,repeat from # until out of ribbon or proper length)

The ribbon needs to be 3 times the length of the future scarf.

(*)  50 Fabulous Pineapple Crochet Motifs by Jean Leinhauser and Ferosa Harold.  Publisher:  Leisure Arts www.leisurearts.com 2010.  ISBN:978-1-57486-337-6

The long and short of it.

Gratuitous cat picture. aka Look how high I can climb!

The long:

Last year I moved from city living to country living.  Now I am familiar with rhythms of city living.  So much so that I am not even aware of certain things.  That is why living in the country the new rhythms pop out at me.  Case in point:  Cornfields.  Here in Morgan county there are a lot of corn fields.  Corn is used for a variety of things from making gas to human consumption.  I am guessing that the corn in Morgan county is made for gas or cattle consumption.  When I moved out here, the corn was just reaching my shoulder.  Fast forward to harvest where one day there is corn drying in the husks to no corn stalks anywhere.  The root ball is still in the ground so here and there are short pokey things signifying that the earth hasn’t been tilled under. In come the cows.  For the next several weeks the cows are there to eat leftovers while fertilizing the corn field.  This is rather elegant  synchronicity.

The question comes up as to why the cows are staying in the corn field and not roaming the roads waiting to get hit by my jeep.  After all, normal corn fields do not need fences.  I look at the corn fields with cows in them and notice that there is a fence of sorts.  One wire attached to stakes put in ground every 12 feet or so.  I think that the tags on their ears must be electric some how and the closer those cows get to the one wire fence, the more electricity runs through that tag attached to the ear.  Much like those dog collars that give an electric shock when they jump a fence.  So there I am at the National Western Stock show looking for tags with some kind of gizmo attached that will interact with the fence.  I find nothing.  Thinking that my ignorance is not allowing me to see these tags I ask where they are.  Laughter  is the answer I get.  That lone wire running around the corn field is an electric wire running with enough volts  to shock a 800 pound cow without killing it.  Nor will it kill a 200 pound women foolish enough to touch that wire.  However, it will hurt.  Cows don’t like pain.  Neither do I so I am very glad I have never gotten out of the jeep to go look more closely at that fence.  When the field is fertilized enough, the cows and fence are moved to another field where the process starts all over.

The short:

You can find Yin Yang symbols almost everywhere: my two cats for instance.

Yin Yang