MIA

 Before all the kitty sitting/Daddio hospital drama exploded on me, I was on quite a roll with my latest dishtowel kit. I didn't care that I had goofed it up. I was enjoying every tedious step of the warping process.

That mojo has vanished, however and in it's place is complete angst for my inability to get it back. I need a few days of down time to get there and that isn't happening this week. Daddio and I have some pre-op appointments to keep and that's going to keep me pretty riled up for a while. I also need The Mister to go take a hike for a few hours so I can have a chance to think without his background noise playing over and over in my head. Boy, do I sound grumpy. Somebody needs a nap.

Happy Feet

 My "Grateful Dyed" colorway socks are proceeding nicely. For once I am enjoying all the crazy pooling and odd striping.

 Almost all of it. There is an oops right there on the front and I had to practically restrain myself from ripping back and sorting it out.

 See it now?

When you do all the fiddly heel stuff the color pattern always gets messed up and this time the green and the yellow met where they shouldn't to make a big light stripe and it drove me crazy for a while. Then I asked myself WWJD. That's What Would Jerry Do meaning Garcia, of course.

I'm pretty sure he'd say to just keep truckin' so I will. There's no telling what craziness is going to happen on the toes or on the second sock so I just better chill out and enjoy the ride.

Home Sweet Home

I couldn't wait to get home yesterday to see Pup. I was afraid she had forgotten me. I was gone six long days so I had bought her a new toy to break the ice.

She is still not too good at this fetch thing.

When she gets the ball, she wants us to chase her.

We didn't get anywhere with her but it seems that she trained us pretty well.

Trading Places

Daughter is on her way home from her South Carolina vacation today so I'll be heading back home soon. Her cats won't be sad to see me go. They weren't a fan of my knitting or my guitar.

The little kitty was mildly interested in my drop spindle. I was working on adding that dark blue stripe under her supervision when I started having spindle issues. It was very hard to wind it on neatly and not get a wobble in the spindle.

A support spindle would be a better choice but my only one was busy with a project that I wasn't too keen on.

I spent a morning winding off the red and winding on the blue.

Much better.

Counting Your Blessings

 Facing another round of surgery and all those complicated preparations with Daddio once again, I was sitting here feeling pretty sorry for myself. I've been on this insane merry go round with him since March and I'm ready to get off. After moping around all morning, I got a reality check when I opened up my email and found this. It's Little Sister's just finished chemo cap she made for her walking buddy who quite out of the blue was informed she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. Ouch. Now that's something to be crying about.

Little Sister and I had briefly discussed patterns and yarn and I'm not sure but I think she may have used this design. This free pattern even has a how-to video for us crochet amateurs attached here.

You can find lots more free patterns and local organizations that collect donations of hats here.

Star Gazing

 The big news stories out of Hollywood this week were hard to bear. Like so many, I've spent the last few nights marathon watching my favorite Robin Williams films. I had watched this particular one over and over in the weeks after Dear Old Doggie's departure and was grateful for it. Like so many of his performances, it is heartbreaking and painfully real. All that sad had to come from somewhere and I suppose, now we know where.

When I'm not watching Netflix, I'm usually glued to TCM and this grand lady was a fixture. They don't make movies like she made anymore and they don't make dames like this. More's the pity.

TCM does a heartbreaking "In Memoriam" montage at the end of every year and it's staggering to see how many familiar faces we lose in just a year's time. If you haven't seen one, here's 2013's.

Travel Projects

 When I am stuck somewhere, I like to take along projects I have lost interest in back at home.

 I am adding the purple borders to the mosaic blankie I swore I would finish by Labor Day. The jury is still out on the purple next to the burnt orange but I'm running out of colors to try.

I also picked Daddio up from rehab yesterday for a consultation with his surgeon. I took along my happy socks because I was pretty sure that appointment was going to be anything but. I was right. There is more surgery in the future and rehab wants him out asap. Not. Happy.