Apologies to the Cat

Yesterday I complained about Scipio, our cat. He was born feral, and certain times he still acts feral. Visitors frighten him, if someone knocks on the door and the dogs bark he hides. But sometimes, after he's been outside for good part of the day, I swear it's like he decides he can go it alone and doesn't need me or the delicious cat food I supply. Or the safety of the house. One day he brought me several gophers, as if to demonstrate he could feed himself, and me as well.

Yesterday evening, the winds calmed, the air cooled and the smoke lifted so I opened the windows to cool and air out the house. I woke up to the sound of Scipio meowing at me from beside the bed, he's never done that before, and realized my throat was sore and the smell of smoke strong. While I was sleeping, the winds shifted again and blew smoke our way.  It was time to close the window. Yes, sometimes Scipio is 'that darn cat', but he proved he can look out for me.

Scipio Supervises

He seems to like the noise and motion of the shuttle as I throw it across the warp. The weaving of the first napkin is finished. This is the sad part of weaving. The finished napkin stays on the cloth beam, waiting for the other napkins to be made. So its hard to play show and tell.

Now, If I Could

Just get him to count the ends while I'm winding...

'Cat'-aflage

I keep trying to figure out why Scipio rolls in the dirt so much. Maybe a white coat seems conspicuous?

Cat Owner Confessions

Really, I'm not obsessed with my cat. He's just always doing goofy stuff, and doesn't seem to mind having his picture taken. Having those cute pictures around helps when he's done some rotten bone headed cat thing. Like try to climb my leg.

 Dear Cat,
I like you very much. However, there are a few things you do that are not so endearing. Climbing up my leg to tell me how much you like me is never, ever, going to be a good thing. Even if you can't see my legs, trust me, they are there, inside those pant legs or long skirts. Also, don't climb those things when they're hanging in the closet. Please don't try to grab the strings that adjust the waistband of my sweat pants. By the way, none of the men in the house like this either. Typically, when I climb into bed, I'm thinking of sleep. Not mock combat. Please stop ambushing me. I know you are young, with much energy and curiosity. I want to see you live to a ripe old age. I think there is a much greater chance of that happening if you heed my requests on these few matters, at least most of the time.

From Scipio's Point of View

Balance Beam

Kitty Toy

Cutest Cat Ever

Tuckered Out

The loom provides a built in pillow.

Weaving, with helper

Quality Control

Scipio does a quality check on the latest batch of woolen mice.

How Did I Forget That?

I finished my second weaving project, and I'm in love with watching how the colors play during weaving. But I can't believe I forgot to post a picture. So here it is.

I've started another project, but right now its a secret. I'll tell more later.

In other news, Scipio demonstrates how that saying may have come about. You know, the one about curiosity and a cat?

Watching Nature Shows

It seems Scipio likes watching nature shows, and shows featuring bears are a big favorite. The other day he watched a show about Polar Bears.

And later he really got into a show about Grizzly Bears.

He seemed ready to jump right in there with them.

At least it keeps him from "supervising" my spinning.

Shhh...

Someone has been sneaking into the wool pile.

What?!!

Spinning Has Changed My Life

One of the signs; while vacuuming or sweeping the floor, those bundles of pet hair are no longer thought of as dust bunnies. They are rolags. In the wild. (If I've been really very lax, they are batts.) But they don't reflect poorly on my housekeeping standards, no. They mean I'm not brushing the dog (dogs, cat, whatever) enough and I'm losing valuable spin-able fiber.

Scipio's fur, especially his undercoat, is far to short to spin. But, enough of it seems to get caught up in my knitting and spinning that I don't think he should feel left out. Plus, he often 'supervises' my spinning activity. Last night he kept insisting on helping control the amount of twist (well, he claims he was only trying to help) entering the yarn. I'm trying to find a new hobby for Scipio, and this morning I hit on this, a live camera feed from the kelp tank at the Birch Aquarium. It did catch his attention.

It Must be a Random Sort of Month

Because, I still have very little to show on the fiber-y front.
A Christmas tree was purchased and set up. A lovely 7-8' tall tree. The incredible shrinking tree. Once we got it home I saw that the trunk was too big to fit in our stand (normally we take the stand with, but forgot this time), so I cut off about 4-5" of trunk and put the stand on. Once set up in the house, we saw that the trunk, beside being big around, had a definite bend to it, like no way would it stand up even passably close to straight, with a major 'elbow' about 8-9" up from the bottom.  So back outside where I cut off another 8-9" of trunk. Now the tree is maybe 6' tall, it gets a boost from the stand. And it is pretty close to pointing straight up, even though you can still see the trunk is curved. It is a brave little tree, proudly displaying the minimal amount of decorating it received. With an adolescent cat in the house, I felt is prudent to only use the non-breakable decorations.

So aforementioned cat would have something in the house to climb besides the Christmas tree (and the furniture), I decided to make a climbing/scratching post. I went to the local big box home improvement store and bought one of those cardboard cylinders used as forms for concrete footings. The one I used is 8" x 48". I was going to wrap it in sisal rope, but when I got the rope home and opened the package, the rope stunk! Of whatever they use during processing I guess. So I set the rope aside and decided to use an old doormat/area rug that was sitting around. I cut the tube so it would match the length of the rug, then used a staple gun to attach and wrap the rug around the tube, then trimmed of the excess rug. Then I tied the tube to the weight machine that sits in the family room, mostly unused whilst the Boys are away at school.

Scipio the cat ignored it for a while, but now he scratches, climbs and generally attacks the thing. I've a smaller tube to add to it, some time later. Eventually, I hope to add some cat perching areas to the weight machine. At least then, someone will be using it.

The Boys are home now, and its just like old times. I mostly see them when they're hungry, otherwise they're in their rooms, or hanging out with friends. Ryan did help me make some holiday goodies, chocolate covered peanut butter balls (except really, they look more like breasts). There was melted chocolate left over, so I dipped marshmallows, dried apricots and made chocolate covered almond clusters too.

Fun and delicious.

Can you see the halo?

Really? Somebody got into your yarn? Why would anybody do that?

Fall Cleaning and Mini-Stash Busting

For some reason, Fall is when I get the urge to tidy things up. But most of the tidying is happening in the yard. The last few days were warm and dry, and I've been trimming branches and clearing out dead growth. I wonder what type of winter we'll have?

With the the cardigan finished, and the phone cozy waiting for me to decide what type of strap to add, I decided to do a little stash busting. (This is a type of tidying up, too.) I've an odd assortment of little bits of hand spun yarns; test samples and what not. I'm tired of keeping track of them and decided to knit some kitty toys. The goal is two-fold; no make that 3-fold; use up yarn bits, work on something simple and mindless, and hopefully give the cat something to play with that will keep him out of my yarn stash. Every time I open the stash containing closet, he runs in and tries to steal yarn. And he doesn't just steal it, once he runs off with it he bites it and tries to disembowel it with his back feet. Naughty Scipio.

While I was knitting these, Scipio kept trying to steal the yarn. Now, he ignores them. Stinker.

Hot Weather

Cool Kitty

Scipio hangs out by the pool. Yesterday and today are unseasonable warm. Even by Southern California standards.

Like Cats & Dogs

The furry ones are definitely bonded now.

Scipio flops down next to Shae for some attention. And then decides to make the dog his chew toy.

Oh my, how big he's grown!

Road Trippin' part 3

Well, this is embarrassing. There was a reason why I split the road-trip into 3 parts, and I can't remember why.  I mean, I can't remember much of anything significant for the 3rd part. I feel like I've left the house and forgotten to don an article of clothing.

The drive south from the Ranch to Davis was just as enchanting as the drive north. BTW, my dog is a champion road-tripper. Never whines, doesn't get car sick, and never, ever asks if we are there yet. Mount Shasta is just as impressive from the north as from the south. Shasta lake was still completely full.  You know, I drove almost the entire trip, both directions without listening to the radio (or any other music player) at all. About 75% I think. Weird.

I stayed in the Davis area for the night. The room next door had a barking dog. But he didn't start in until about, oh, 11:45 pm. And then he only barked when someone left his room, or walked by the door. As long as nobody thought is was my dog.

The next day, I  met up with Evan in the morning so we could take care of some business, and then I headed for home around noon. Like I mentioned in a earlier post, this part of the drive is becoming routine. I did notice something that had escaped my attention before. At the north end of the Grapevine on highway 5 is a rest area, near Lebec. Caltrans is refurbishing the rest area, so it is closed right now. The sign below the "closed" sign states "next rest area 202 miles" or something near that. (There's one of those truck stop travel plazas at the next exit, stop there.) As I was passing that sign, it occurred to me that the refered to rest area could only be the one located along the stretch of the 5 running through Camp Pendelton, only 35  or 40 minutes from my house. Trust me, you don't want to wait that long if you need a rest stop.

Dog and I made it home safely, the cat was sure happy to see us.

I still feel like there was something in particular to blog about the return trip, but can't dredge anything useful up from the dregs of my mind. Oh well. Instead here are a couple of pictures; progress on the ottoman cover,

Some lovely, fluffy lumps of combed (by me! Sqweeee!) Shetland,

and a picture of Scipio, in his favorite cat wallow. That's right, cat wallow. Anytime I let him outside, the first thing he does is sprint over to this spot and roll, no roll doesn't begin to cover it, rub and swim through the dirt in this spot.

I'm headed out of town for about 10 days, and don't expect to have computer access, everybody be safe!  By the way, my friend at the Ranch had shoulder surgery today, everybody please keep good thoughts for Dusty.

Buddies at Last

Shae (the dog) and Scipio (not the dog) wait for breakfast. I get a giggle out of this every mealtime; Scipio stands up to head-butt Shae and it always pops Shae's jaw shut. Clearly, Shae is puzzled by this cat-peculiar behavior, but she doesn't seem to mind. Head butting the dog at mealtime started awhile ago, and now the cat greets the dog this way multiple times during the day.