All The Comforts Of Home ...

So, those of you who have kitties in your home understand the amount of time it can take for a cat to get used to its surroundings and to become very social. Let me tell you, little Miss Audrey Grace must've known the second she walked through our doors that she has fallen into a pot of gold. She wandered around for a good day and a half ensuring there was not another animal here and then she climbed right out of her shell. She is so sweet and loving and wants to be around her people. And I'm pretty sure she knows that I'm Mama too. Her place is on the sofa right next to me. She sleeps with me too. She has the sweetest little personality. She knows she runs the house now and everyone, absolutely everyone coming through the door is going to pay attention to her! I love this little girl cat, she has certainly carved out a permanent spot in our hearts for her. She is also EXTREMELY photogenic...

and this....

I only just realized I could put cool frames around the pics on my phone (what can I say) and these just dull the edges a bit. I like them! I did especially for my phone. There are lots of others from when she was getting used to us and the house....

We were all kind of waiting to see who Audrey would snuggle up to first. Prior to her finding her spot on the sofa next to me she snuggled with Dad first. It was so cute. It was just before dinner and he was going to have to get up soon but you could tell he didn't want to. He didn't want to disturb her! Here she is with Dad...

 As soon as Dad got up, she just stayed there and sort of took over the chair! So cute! When dinner was done Dad went right back to the chair and she moved right on over so he could sit down and she fell asleep! She has now found that her place is next to me on the sofa with all of my knitting. She doesn't seem to really bother the knitting although if yarn is waved in her face instinct will take over! 

Sidney and Lisa came back from the Ren Fair in AZ and brought us presents! They brought presents for taking care of Lisa's cats and for my birthday! They always get the neatest stuff from the places they visit. I got a wonderful night light of cut blue glass with a sheep painted on it...

Isn't it just wonderful! For a long time now I have had to sleep with night lights. I'm a big baby that way. I suffer from PTSD and have anxiety and I cannot sleep unless I have a night light. This is wonderful and perfect for my room. They also got Mom and I some yarn. They got 2 skeins and Mom picked hers and I picked mine. Its yarn that I have never seen before or heard of. Its a Queensland yarn but I've never seen this before....its stunning....

Here are the contents...

Its really beautiful stuff. I can see making a lace shawl with it and using this yarn for the body and another lace yarn for the border...maybe something like Ritratto. Its really beautiful. I'm going to take it to Village Wools and show them and see if its something they want to carry. I think its likely to fly right off the shelves if they did carry it. It is surprisingly very soft and has a good hand to it, I know it will be awesome to knit with!

Yesterday afternoon I CO my Elphaba socks. This requires a bit of an explanation, I know. A few weeks ago at the Wooly Wonka Trunk Show, I blogged about that here, there was a particular colorway that she had named Elphaba. Those of you who've seen Wicked know who Elphaba is. I have not seen Wicked (I intend to later this year) but I am very familiar with who Elphaba is. Anyway, in addition to the Elphaba yarn that Wooly Wonka had, Berroco made a similar colorway in their plain sock yarn so I got some. Dilshani also got a skein as a gift from her hubby and we intended to make socks together to have matching Elphaba socks. I know, I know....so what. I'm 42 years old and if I wanna have matching socks with my friend I will! So there. Turns out Dilshani landed herself in the ER yesterday for the second time due to an ovarian cyst that was causing her a tremendous amount of pain. Her husband Dan called me to let me know the situation and I met them at the hospital about 45 minutes later. I felt so bad for her, I understood what she was going through and I couldn't fix it. Its always tough to see people we care about in pain. I knew we were going to be there a while so I took some knitting with me. I took my Elphaba socks to CO to let her know that me and my knitting were really thinking about her! She's probably going to end up having surgery to have that ovary taken out since its not being very nice to her AT ALL.

Dilshani was on quite a bit of morphine here. But she had her I-pad with her and we were looking at patterns and Ravelry and such while we waiting for answers. She was eventually discharged as she didn't require immediate surgery. She will follow up with ob-gyn and will go from there. I followed them home to just hang out with her and make sure she was comfortable and doing okay. I got a chance to really meet her dogs for the first time last night. I'd seen them before in passing so this was really the first introduction. They are all so sweet. Here is Ellie...

And Max, who is just a tad intimidating...

They have 2 others but I couldn't get pics of them! Too much excitement going on for them with a new person in the house! Here is the progress I made on my Elphaba socks last night....

And a picture of the skein so you can get a better idea of the colors....

I cant remember if I've blogged about it somewhere before but I make plain Jane socks I don't make fancy patterns with lace and cables and stuff like that. To me, they are utilitarian and go under jeans and don't get seen anyway. The fun for me is in the yarn! I make cuff down socks with all ribbing before the heel flap. It works for me. I know its different for everyone but this is the way I do it. And I just love how these colors are working up! So pretty. I told Dilshani she may want to caution in picking a pattern because this is such variegated yarn that a pattern may get lost. She may end up doing what I'm doing so its shows off the yarn in the best way. 

I'm going to go for now. I've got tons of emails to get to. I just wanted to update you all on how things were going. Here is another wonderful pic of Miss Audrey...

And I peeled this one off Facebook because I love it!

Exactly, right??? I'll see you guys back here soon, until then...Knit On!