First Fractal

 Just a quick post about my first fractal spin.  I think I got this roving from my sister.  My spinning skills are a bit rusty.  The twist and thickness aren't the most consistent.  But it turned out very lovely.  I haven't bothered yet to figure out how much I have.  I'll do that when I decide on a project for it.

Squeaks, You Were The Best!!!!

 At about 7:15 am yesterday morning, Sunday, November 30, 2025, we lost the most precious, sweet girl.  Squeaks was sleeping in bed with us, made a few strange noises, and then passed away.  We are heart broken.  The vet said it sounds like she had a heart arrythmia that went undetected.  She was only 7 years old.  Far to young to be gone.

Here are highlights of her favorite things.

Havinug her belly rubbed.  She's lick my hand to show her love.

Watching the birds outside

Napping in bags and boxes

Watching nature shows

Looking beautiful for the camera

Helping her mommy with sewing

Inspecting the latest yarn acquisitions

Keeping an eye on the squirrels and chipmunks

Staring off into space, comtemplating life

Using mommy's laptop

Watching knitting podcasts with mommy

Deciding which yarn is best for a project

Making sure mommy is keeping on track with her crocheting

Comforting mommy when she wasn't feeling well

Making sure mommy was never alone

Napping in the sunshine

or in front of the fire

We hope she passed happily to kitty Heaven.  She was active the night before with her usual evening zoomies.  She played with some toys.  Had treats,  Slept in front of the fire while we watched football.  And then crawled into our bed when we went to sleep.

I'm doing a lot of searching to see if there had been signs of an issue.  Looking back there might have been, but as my niece who is a vet told me they probably weren't strong enough signals to prompt a call to the vet.  What she thinks happened is something that goes undetected in many cases.

We had Squeaks for not quite 7 years.  We loved her completely and we are grateful for the love she gave us.  We wished we had had at least 7 more years with her.  We adopted her, or rather she adopted us, on March 9, 2019.  She has been the joy of my life since then. I miss her intensely and can't stop crying.  She was the best.   

Rest in Peace, baby.

Visitors

 Nature provides the most interesting things.  It is amazing how something as fine and invisible as a spider's web can hold droplets of water many times larger in diameter.

Hundreds of droplets are visible but the web cannot be seen.

Like a string of pearls magically suspended in air.

Each droplet refracting the deck railing behind.

This past month has flown by.  In fact, this year is going very quickly.

I'm enjoying watching the birds that are coming up to our feeder, or in some cases, below our feeder.

A momma duck brought her babies up to the house to eat the seed that was dropped to the ground.  She started with 11 chicks, but sadly only 7 made it to the fledging stage.  They are now all grown and moved away.

A wide variety of birds frequented the feeder this summer.  Some acted like we were the intruders when we went out on the deck.

One night in July, after Ed went to bed and I stayed up to knit, I noticed the back security light kick on.  Peeking out to see what triggered it, I noticed this guy also under the feeder.  I don't imagine he was eating the seed.  Maybe helping to keep the insects at bay.

We had an unexpected visitor stay with us for a week.  Last Tuesday when Ed went out into his garage, he found a racing homing pigeon sitting there.  The bird had a couple bands on his legs.  We determined one is a tracking device and the other was an ID tag.  After getting the numbers off the second band and doing a little internet investigating, I found who he belonged to.  After a week of taking care of him, his keeper was able to come down from the Cleveland area and claim him.

While he was here we gave him food and water and let him hang out in the garage.  We left the garage door open in case he had the urge to fly home on his own.  Unfortunately, he seemed to like it here and stayed.  One day he even started following me as I left to go down to the mail box.  I think I have imprinted him.

He's gone now, back to his loft.  We are hoping he recovers his strength and becomes a champion racing pigeon.  We have a mess in the garage to clean up.  He was not a tidy house guest.

I will admit, I am missing him.

Missing someone is something I'm going to have to deal with more.

When I worked my previous contract at another state agency, I had the priviledge of working with a wonderful young lady named Rathna.  Rathna and I became quite close.  She called me her American mom.  We haven't worked together since 2021, but we have remained in contact.  In the fall of 2022 Rathna married a wonderful man.  They bought a house. In May of this year they had a beautiful little girl. They were settled into a nice life here. Unfortunately, as they say, all good things must come to an end.  Rathna has stopped working because she had a very difficult pregnancy.  Her husband's work engagement ended at the end of June and he has not been able to find another contract.  Because they are both here in the US on work VISAs, they are required to go back to India by the end of August.  They hope that someday they will be able to come back to the US.  It's not likely that they will ever be in my area again.

My heart is broken.  I'm not sure if I'll ever see her again.  We've promised to keep in touch.  We'll do video calls so that I can watch my adopted grandbaby grow.  As a going away gift, I made this Chunky Benji.  I'm giving him lots of hugs so that he can share them with Rathna after she's gone.  I'm meeting Rathna and her family on Friday to say 'Good-bye'.  It makes me want to cry just typing these words.

I always knew in the back of my mind that this might happen someday.  It doesn't make it any easier though.

Besides Chunky Benji, I've been working on a couple other things.  

I started a Summer Vibe Tee, but it is now in timeout.  It is a simple pattern, but I just kept making mistakes or dropping stitches.  It was frustrating me too much so it is put away until next spring.

I cast on the Harrisburg Pullover.  I bought this yarn a couple years ago at one of my LYSs.  I'm calling this my candy corn sweater.  If I work a few stripes each night, I'll have this done in time to wear this fall.

Competing for my attention are baby knits.  Grandbaby #3 is due on Christmas Day, so I've begun working on things for him.  First up is the First Impressions Pants.

There are a couple other babies joining the world soon that I should make something for.  But my new little guy gets top priority.

Almost 6 Months to Recap

 No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.  Life has just been very busy.  I can't believe 2025 is over half over already.

At the end of February I managed to crank out a few quick projects for my grandbabies.

Swirled Ski Cap from Knitting For Peace.

Garter Be Kidding Me by Katherine Young

Small Rabbit by Julie Williams.

The rabbit is staying at my house as a toy.  I'm not ready to give him up yet.

March included a trip to Cincinnati to celebrate my birthday with Ed and Blake.  Blake took us to The Precinct.  I had a lovely cocktail with dried roses pressed on the side and an orchid floating as a garnish.

The birthday dessert was a piece of funfetti cake.  Honestly, I would have preferred something else but this was the complimentary birthday dessert.

March ended on a very happy note with Kristin and Michael moving back to Ohio

April began with a few visitors to our yard.  There were 8 deer roaming around the pond.  Several were does and the rest were yearlings.

Easter was a beautiful day.  My brother Joe was here along with rest of my family except Michael.  He was in Germany for a business trip.  Jameson didn't hunt eggs this year.  This year he got to hunt tubs of Playdough.

I managed to make a baby sweater for a friend's daughter's second baby.  This is My Gift To You by Taiga Hilliard.  I used some stash Lion Brand Wool Ease in the color Blush Heather.

May's big event was Kristin and Michael's wedding on May 10.  They chose to be married on top of a mountain in Tennessee.  It was absolutely beautiful even with a very, very light drizzle and an earthquake in the morning.

I made the cake that Kristin and Michael cut at the reception.  The cake is my grandmother's strawberry cake recipe.  I used the Sugar Geak's Easy Buttercream for the frosting.  This is the reason I have been absent.  I spent a lot of my spare time practicing my piping skills.  I think it turned out beautiful if I say so myself.

After the wedding, I needed a rest but that didn't happen.  I had my brother visit the very next weekend and then Ed and I got busy with the basement.  My sewing room project is still not done.

Mid-June our front door got absconded by a robin.  She built her nest right on top of my wreath.

We had to wait four weeks for the 3 eggs to hatch and the babies to fledge.  They finally left the next on July 1.  The wreath and nest got tossed in the trash because it was a total mess.  Along with the front door and porch which I had to scrub.

Also in June, I decided to rip out my Yume sweater that I made last year.  I loved the fabric but it was too big for my liking.  As a result it never was worn.  I'm going to reknit it one size smaller.

I'm making slow, slow progress on my Astri afghan.  This is the halfway point for attaching the flowers.

I cast on a Summer Vibe Top using Knitty McPurly yarn I have in my stash.  Knitty McPurly is having a summer top KAL running through August 15.  One entry for prizes for each completed top and an extra entry for using her yarn.  Squeaks was giving me advise on what order to place the colors.

Sourdough has been an on/off project for me.  I have two starters that I've managed to keep alive.  My original whole wheat starter, named Edna, is on the right.  Marge, on the left, is made with all purpose flour and starter I retrieved from Kristin's when I babysat hers back in March.

During the past few months I finished 4 projects. I can't remember exactly when I finished them so I'll do a big photo dump here.

The Riptide Slipover from JST Designs.  This was made in &Make DK in the Soft Love colorway.  I like the pattern, but the armholes are too deep to wear without a top underneath.

Nila by Natasja Hornby made with Purl Soho Linen Quill in Crocus.  This had been in hibernation for a while.  I love how this turned out.  My only complaint is that the yarn is pilling under the arms.

Funnel Neck Pullover by Churchmouse in Jody Long Alba in the color 19 Winter.  This was yarn I bought last fall on our Canadian Maritime cruise.  I ended up losing yarn chicken and having to order another ball of yarn.  The knitting gods were smiling on my because the ball I ordered from a shop in Michigan was the same dye lot as the yarn I bought in Canada.  YIPPEE!!!!

Bernat Baby Blanket using Bernat Softee Baby (Sport DK) in color 0200.  This was a deep stash yarn.  The blanket went to the baby girl of a young lady I used to work with.  I consider her my adopted daughter.

I also made a cover for my iPad but didn't feel that it's worthy of a photo.  I just used some leftover stash yarn and self drafted pattern.  

In total I've finished 10 projects so far in 2025.  Let's see if I can make 25 in 2025.

I'll sign off now with a picture of the cutest little patriots and the news that they are going to have a cousin by the end of the year.  I'm so excited to be Omi x3!!!