Cat Toy Business

Mother's Day was last weekend.  It ended up not being a good weekend.  During the prior week, Ed became ill with what we and the doctor thought was food poisoning.  Early Friday morning, we realized it was food poisoning, but rather a stomach virus, because I was horribly ill.  After the worst of it was over, which thankfully only lasted about 6 hours, I spent the day on the couch with a towel over my eyes because the light gave me a headache.  It took all day to sip a can of Sprite and eat a handful of crackers.  It took about 5 days until I felt completely better.  Trisha had planned to make me dinner for Mother's Day, but I asked her to postpone until I felt better.  We were able to get together Thursday at her place for pizza and beer.

As a response to the remorse I'm still feeling from my LYS Day purchases, I decided I'll start making cat toys with some of the leftover bits of yarn.  The cream colored one below is crocheted.  Squeaks plays with it a little, but it isn't as bit of a hit as the grey one.  The grey one is knit, stuffed with yarn and a little catnip.  Squeaks loves it!!!  In fact, she was so excited over it, I caught her later stealing the ball of yarn that I made it from.

One of my co-workers suggested I make the cat toys and sell them.  I don't know if I'll do that but I probably will write up the pattern for the knit toy.  

Last weekend, while I had no energy to do anything except watch television, I decided to cast on the Uneek socks and try out the FlexiFlips I bought on LYS.  I'm not sure if I really like either one yet.  The yarn is a bit splitty and the needles take some getting used to.  I'll try not to pass judgement until they are done.

The cuff is done on the other pair of socks I have in the works.  These were cast on over a year ago.  We have a road trip coming up next week so maybe I can get them done while I'm in the car.

As I mentioned above, Squeaks has tried to steal my yarn.  Now every time I pull out a project, I get watched.  She now thinks everything I knit is a toy for her.

Once I put the projects away, she either takes a nap or takes up her watch at the windows.  Right now she is alternating between the front and back windows.  There are a lot of birds chirping outside.  She can't decide which side is the most interesting.

Need to Lessen the Stress

The stress level around here has been a bit high lately.  Nothing major has happened, at least not yet.  Just a lot of little factors all at once that is making me feel a bit unsettled or out of sorts.

Recently my husband had a physical.  One of the blood tests indicated elevated levels of something, but not in the immediate danger zone.  After a consultation with a specialist, we were told that everything right now is fine, but he'll need to periodically be checked to make sure nothing changes.

I work as a consultant for the state.  Each year my contract must be renewed.  Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but this year Ohio has a new governor, which means the department I work in has a new CIO.  Things are changing, drastically.  The new CIO is going to cut 42% of the contractors.  I've been told by the manager who hired me that I don't need to worry, but on Friday he announced he is leaving in a couple weeks.  Contract renewals aren't until the end of June.  By that time there will be a different manager in place, deciding if I am one of the 42%.  I believe the quality of my work has been noticed by the new CIO.  Hoping July doesn't find me back in the job market.

Our oldest daughter was on break for a couple weeks.  She and her cat, Nala, came for a visit.  Actually, Kristin spent most of her break visiting friends and we cat-sat for 10 days.  Past Nala visits have been enjoyable, but now that we have our own little kitty, it was 10 days of cat shuffle.  They did not get along and could not be in the same room with each other.  I created an 8-hourish rotation for them.  One roamed the house overnight while the other was locked in a bedroom.  As I left for work, I locked the free kitty into another bedroom and let the other one out to roam during the day.  In the evening, I switched them again.  Each cat got to roam every other shift.  The biggest issue was that they knew each other was there.  The free cat spent a lot of time sitting outside the bedroom door of the other.  Nala, who was placed in Kristin's bedroom, clawed the carpet by the door.  I would be upset but the carpet in the bedroom is old and we have plans to replace it with hardwood anyway.  My biggest concern is that the new carpet in the hallway not get ruined.  After Kristin and Nala left to go back to Michigan, Squeaks spent a couple days pacing the house to make sure the other cat was truly gone.  Today she is napping most of the day.  I think she is finally not stressed anymore.

While posting last week about LYS, I was reminded (again) about how much I've spent on yarn.  I really do have an addiction issue when it comes to yarn.  I need to keep away from yarn shops and stop surfing Ravelry.  And stop watching podcasts like Chelsea Purl and The Grocery Girls.  All of these things just make we want to run out, buy yarn and cast on new projects.  I need to figure out a way to squelch that urge.

One thing I am going to try is to get a few of my WIPs finished and use up what I have in the stash before I buy anything else.  (We'll see how well I stick to that statement with Great Lakes Fiber Festival coming at the end of the month.)  I pulled a couple WIPs out of the bag and am trying to work a little each day on them.

Stonecrop Top is first on the list.  I started this last summer while on our trip to Iceland.  I want to finish this so I can wear it this summer.

Bellrose is also in the active queue.  Since it is cotton, it will make a nice summer shawls to wear on cooler evenings.  I started this last fall, sometime around Thanksgiving weekend.  I remember really enjoying the pattern.  This should be an easy one to finish up.

I have a pair of socks to finish also.  Once those are done I'm going to try out the FlexiFlips that I bought in Pittsburgh with the Uneek sock yarn from LYS Day.  I'll just use my tried and true basic sock pattern.  That way I'm sure to have socks that fit me.