Poor Thom-Cat

Poor Thomas had to be rushed to the vet yesterday. He ws absolutely fine - or appeared to be - in the morning, but then early after lunch he started being very weird, limping and sitting on the shoes next to the hallway radiator, but keeping his bottom up off them, then he started wailing. I carried him to the sofa to try to investigate (thinking maybe he had a sore back leg or something) and he lay there trying to keep his back leg up off his tummy. I rang the vet and they said he should come in immediately but the emergency vet is at Heworth (across the river and miles away) conveniently :-(

When we got there the vet said his bladder was very full and there was a gritty substance coming out when she investigated his nether regions. So she reckoned he might have FLUTD and his urethra might be blocked by crystals in his bladder, and she said they would do a small procedure to unblock and flush it out then keep him in overnight. Awwwwwww,poor little kitty!! But she also said it was a good thing I noticed immediately because this can kill cats if it is not treated; their bladders can rupture and they end up with fluid in their abdominal cavity, which leads to infection, shock etc. The thing is,it is so easy to notice when Thomas isn't himself, because he just lies there and forgets about terrorising the other cats and the home!

Well, he is back now and wearing a rather fetching transparent cone-shaped collar to prevent him licking his little winkie where they had a catheter. He does have FLUTD and the vet said his bladder was full of these stravite crystals and they had formed a plug, blocking the urethra, and so preventing him from peeing. He is now lying in front of the fire looking decidedly pissed off because instead of looking funky in his usual highly fashionable black and white skull and crossbones pirate design collar, he possibly knows he looks ridiculous in the veterinary collar. I have to take him to the vet on Tuesday to see how he is doing and to get some special type of cat food which is low in minerals (as normal dried cat food such as Iams actually has too much and this can be a major cause of crystals in the urine) I also have to give him more canned cat food. (The vet said to introduce him to it,but as he already has this sometimes it will be easy enough to switch over to that and the special dried stuff) It isn't just for cats with that condition and so it can be given to the other two too. At 7pm I have to give him a dose of this anti-spasmodic thing, which is because after having a catheter up his tiddler all night it will be a bit sore and the little muscles can spasm, which will make him think he needs to go to the litter box (which I notice he has been doing the past half hour or so.)

So...an evening of knitting with Thom-Cat sleeping on my lap I think. I'm knackered - after failing to sleep last night,then having to go on the bus and Metro to collect him then bring him back (he weighs almost 6 kg, plus his carrier, which is an aircraft-safe heavy duty one, weighs a ton too)On a more positive note, I have ordered this gorgeous limited edition Botany Lace from Wild Fire, to replace the BFL in 'plum' which when I received it just wasn't right colour-wise; the customer service is fantastic and I plan to buy a lot more from Vikki in future, as the quality is brilliant and of course each skein is unique. I am going to ask Dad to buy that fab Arctic Lace book for my birthday and this fabulous yarn will become a lovely scarf either from the book or the 'Iceland' wrap from KnitLab.

What I'd love to do is design my own patterns, very geometric, like Cold Mountain and Iceland, but I know it can be frustrating. I think I'd like to design it first on squared paper then work out which stitches would work best. There are obvious 'rules' such as needing to have an increase stitch for every yarnover if you aren't reducing stitch numbers....and so forth.It never ceases to amaze me what can come out of such simple stitches.

5p.m: I have given Thomas his painkiller via a syringe (not with a needle though) into his mouth, and also used that very convenient method to make him drink some more water. The other two kitties are very wary of him; a) he smells weird - of the animal hospital - to me, so to them he must smell really odd - not like himself at all; b) he looks very scary with his collar contraption on! I'm going to have to get a bigger one at the vet's on Tuesday because when he tries to lick/pull at his bandage the edge of the collar is right next to and actually rubbing against the very area it is meant to stop him licking on the back of his front paw, and it has been bleeding again. I remember one of my childhood cats pulling her stitches out after she had just been spayed, despite a similar collar.

AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH...MORE FROGGING!

Damnation! I was just about to start the second pattern repeat of rows 3 to 30 of Chart A of Cold Mountain and I noticed that halfway down there was a stitch that was hardly there...and when I investigated the stitches underneath it for about 5 rows unraveled, leaving a gaping bloody hole in my otherwise perfect lace! I have frogged the lot in exasperation, as it is too complicated to frog only back to that row and then try to pick up 69 lace stitches properly.

*SIGH*

Oh well, it's only 33 rows; I could've noticed it later and that would have been worse. I'm just really annoyed, because it was perfect and I hadn't made a single mistake (well, um, clearly I had, but you know what I mean!). I'm now going to cast on again and get stuck back into it or I will lose interest.

I didn't actually frog entirely to the very beginning; I left about ten rows and blocked it to see how much give there is etc. Bloody complicated way to do a swatch LOL!! There isn't that much give but there is enough that the finished lace will be opened up without widening the scarf too much. so at least something positive and constructive has come out of a crap situation.

BROKEN TOE (AGAIN!)

What a day....!

I was down at the garden this morning. Really pleasant: lovely Northern Autumn sky - you know that sort of almost-but-not-quite washed out pale blue sky you only get this far north because of the 'blue light'; a nip in the air enough to rose your cheeks up (must replenish my supplies of Dr.Hauschka Rose Day Cream); no noise except the occasional cluck of the hens or bird song (I think Goldfinch); and good company. I really wouldn't mind working there full time in the future. Anyway, I got the keys from Yosin and gotmy attractive green overalls on and then went and got some bulbs off Mike to plant out in the wildflower area next to the pond. Incidentally the pond is looking very cloudy so I might look this up online and see if there's any obvious reason related to, say, the recent heavy rains. The soil in the wildflower garden is apparently 'too fertile' so it has a membrane under the top layer. I had to try and dig holes for the bulbs using this little plastic trowel and I wasn't really holding it right because I was trying to gouge holes out as it was really tough digging. I ended up with a blister.....

When we went for our lunch break I took my boots off and decided to put them outside as the doorway was - rather anti-Health- and-Safety-ishly - blocked by too many pairs of boots from the group of DWP Teambuilding Excercise volunteers who were eating their lunch in the 'conference room attached to and accessed by the office. As I went out, I tripped on the little metal lintel across the doorway and my foot went right into the edge of the door jamb and - in an uncannily perfect repeat of the incident a couple of weeks ago involving Thom-Cat- I mashed my little toe against the very edge of the door. YOWWWCH!! I ate my pizza (which was delicious and made by the resident chef) with my right foot in a recycling caddy (one of those big grey stackable ones with a half open front) full of frrrrreezing cold water. It did numb my toe sufficient for me to hobble up the street back home! But it is really sore now, although mustn't grumble as at least it has stopped throbbing. I spent the afternoon on the sofa covered by my Totally Autumn throw with Thomas underneath it, and fell asleep within minutes....adrenaline wearing off - endorphines kicking in (kicking! Ha! Get it?!) I haven't dared look at it, because it was bad enough earlier on today when I'd just done it,but at least it doesn't feel as bad as the other time. They say we have no memory of pain,but that is only partly true because we can tell if something is more or less painful than something previously.

Ive knitted a few more rows of my Cold Mountain scarf. and I've discovered more beautiful yarns on Etsy. Wild Fire Fibres has some more gorgeous lace weight yarns in blues and purples, and I have discovered another secret hideyhole of absolute epic win-ness, Yarn Art Serious.
Have a look.

Busy Busy Busy

Forgot to add this photo yesterday, it's the first twelve rows of the Cold Mountain scarf in the amazingly gorgeous Elvincraft Laceweight Merino/Cashmere 2 ply. It's so easy to knit, although it does look complicated at first glance of the (three!) charts, but it is straightforward enough as, so far, the pattern is all SSK's, K2Tog's and YO's - and the occasional KTBL, and the WS is straightforward P right across. The colour of the yarn is fantastic! You can really start to see the subtle variations in shade. This Winter, I am going to look fabulous darling, as I will be fit through work and I can accessorize my basic wardrobe of layered long-sleeved tops with all the gorgeous lace scarves I am making in divine colours.

Went for a kind of introductory chat with the Director of Women's Services, at one of the supported accommodation houses - opposite the place I will be working. It is an ok house but the kitchen is typical of institutional residential care settings, regardless of how nicely designed it was. There is nothing on the surfaces or walls to show anyone lives there and half the cupboards are locked. The lounge is fairly attractive but doesnt look lived-in. The women there are attended 10 hours per day; it's secondary housing. The place I will be working at is staffed 24/7 and is the first non-temporary safe place most of them have been in. They come in from sleeping rough, from prostitution and related situations, from domestic abuse, drug detox and jail. It's the only organisation which will 'hold' a bed for someone coming out of jail or detox for example. The main thing I like about this organisation is the very holistic approach to supporting homeless people and dealing with the whole problem, of which for many being without a home is only a part. It is definitely looking more attractive to me as a long term career. Anyway, I will be going to meet the senior support officer at the place on Thursday and then will be doing two evenings per week.

Last night, I opened the back door to let Thom-Cat in...he had something dangling from his mouth and it was too late for me to shut the door again and make him stay outside. The 'something' was - yes, you guessed - another mouse. He really loves those mice! He let it go in the kitchen and as soon as it started running away he put his back paw on its back, although not openly paying it any attention. A few seconds later he let it go again, only to catch it again and carry it around in his mouth again. This process of torture, with the poor little mouse eventually becoming too frightened to run away or do anything except squeak, continued with me doing my best to try to get either Thomas or the mouse out the back door. After finally shoo-ing Thom, with mouse safely stashed in his mouth,out into the garden I shut the door. Half an hour later he was still at it, and after an hour he cried to be in again and this time the mouse was lying next to the doormat outside the back door, in an obviously dead manner. I let Thomas in but he was very hacked off at not being allowed to bring his new toy/friend into the house.

I am back at the horticulture project tomorrow, which I'm definitely looking forward to. It's hard work but rewarding, and the feeling of tiredness at the end of the day is a good one. I wonder what we will be doing tomorrow....watch this space....

EATOMOLOGY

For many people, eating insects is a normal everyday occurrence, and in fact some insects are considered a delicacy. But here, the nearest one will get to insect 'delicacies' is this site, Edible.com - whose products I spied in Fenwick's delicatessen last week. That's D's christmas present sorted then. What got me thinking about eating insects was watching Charley Boorman on Beeb 2 in his latest 'By Any Means' series, whilst eating my dinner in a very working class 'tea-on-knee-in-front-of-TV' fashion. My come-uppance for such sloth was to catch sight of Charley putting a deep-fried cockroach in his mouth, just as I forked a piece of pasta into mine.....eeeeurccchhhh! I PROMISE to use the table in future!

D told me a story once, about when he was in Sri Lanka and someone was eating these big crickets. His friend dared him to eat one too. This is D we're talking about, and I shall need to write an entire post about him sometime to really do him - and this story justice - so of course he immediately put this cricket in his mouth and started chewing. When I saw the Edible display - of insects and other assorted products - D was the first person I thought of! I do miss him....

Josh goes back to College tomorrow after his 'Reading Week' and I am going to the horticulture project after my week off sick. I've got so much to do when I get back home after that tomorrow - post some yarn I've sold on eBay, hoover up downstairs, phone the local Council for a bulky rubbish collection, and do the household budget for this month in such a way that we have enough to put into the savings account at the end of November, and still eat and keep warm! It is definitely Autumn now, all of a sudden. It's cold, dark and at the moment pretty grey and damp. In short, typical Northern England weather. I can't seem to remember having a proper Summer this year. It was looking pretty promising in April, really warm, and May was hot, so I thought this was a sign of things to come and we would have a long hot Summer. But then it got humid for a couple of weeks in early June (I think) then that was the end of that. I only hope we have an easy Winter this time round. I don't mind bit of cold, so long as the sky is blue, but if we have cold and damp and sleet and all the really crap things about Winter - again - I doubt I can cope! Snow is all very well and good when you are 6 years old, and then it's lovely to look at when you're older, but apart from that it is nothing but an irritation. And what really annoys and frustrates me is the way every year Britain acts as though we have never before encountered the stuff. SNOW! Oh My God! Stop all the buses and trains and Metros! Close down the schools! And put the gas and electricity prices up!

The only consolation, in a month which is typically pretty miserable and dank, comes on the 17th when the Leonids Meteor Shower comes round again for its annual display of shooting stars. Apparently we are in for a real treat this year, with NASA predicting 'upwards of 500 meteors per hour'! (Which means around 8 or 9 per minute - one every few seconds) More about that on the night. Hopefully.

Well, I am now onto the second Express Lane/Hacho sock (that's the completed one at the top of this post - although you can't really see the colours because it was taken in artificial light and it seems to be difficult to photograph those purpleypinks without natural light) and last night I did another dozen or so rows of the Kernel scarf. I've noticed I accidentally missed out the garter stitch section between the two charts....oh well, it will look different from how it's supposed to. I might adapt the chart for the edging a bit and knit it straight after the chart at the other end when I get to it, because if I knit that end without a garter stitch section too there will be nowhere to graft a separately knitted edging section to.

I am not liking the Baktus

I just bought a gorgeous skein of laceweight lambswool/cashmere from Wild Fire Fibres - on Etsy - at what is actually a very reasonable price comparable with, say, Araucania. I'd rather support smaller businesses and have yarns which come in amazing colour schemes. I couldn't resist the colour, a rich deep bluey purple, and its name - Atlantic Ocean. It is so me.

After knitting halfheartedly several rows per day of my Rowanspun Batus, I have decided my heart isn't in it. I don't think it's the Baktus itself, although I do prefer triangular scarves to be made of thin, brightly coloured and patterned cotton or silk fabric rather than yarn. No, I have decided I just don't think that Rowanspun is right for this particular scarf. Also, I think the problem is, since I discovered lace, I need to have charts, charts, CHARTS!!!

So...unfortunatey the Baktus will be frogged. The rest of the Rowanspun is headed for eBay. I am gradually de-stashing my brand name yarns to make room - and cash! - for gorgeous handpainted stuff on Etsy and a few tiny yarn businesses.

I'm almost finished the first of the Mirasol Hacho Express Lane socks. Easy pattern to remember. I added an extra purl stitch at either side of the chart to make 16, as I needed to cast on 64 for a cuff-down sock (I HATE toe-up socks) I am not following the pattern but simply using the chart. The generic sock pattern is adapted from Monkeys. Hacho is turning out to be quite thick for socks, I like Chirapa for ideal-weight socks,but since it is now cold here I reckon I'm going to need thick socks, sheepskin boots or not! Time to put the sandals away. I live in them from April to September - when I go outside, that is, as we are very much a barefooted household.

Tomorrow is Saturday,a very gezelig kinda day, with late coffee-drenched breakfast and the Guardian. I will finish the socks then do a bit more of Kernel - I can imagine making something similar with my Atlantic Ocean yarn....oh,so much yarn,so many patterns, so little time!

I am re-reading "The Road" partly because the film has at long last come out. Not here - yet. But I can't wait. I've seen some trailers and am a bit disappointed,partly because the Boy is older than I imagined from reading the book - just the way he talks and so on should make him about 7, but in the film he looks like 10-ish. And one major difference, which I feel is important, in the book the Father never actually points the gun at the Boy he wonders whether he would be able to do it if the time came - and he does tell the Boy at one point to use it if he has to,and tells him what to do. But it is a major theme in the book that he possibly does not have it in him to do so himself. also, in the book they get out oif the cannibals' house before they come back - in the film they are stranded in the house (leading to the gun-pointing incident) and have to sneak out undetected. Well, it's always the same when you read a book - and particularly when it is a favourite and much read and re-read book - then it is made into a film (or 'movie' - CRINGE) and the film doesn't live up to your images from reading the book.

I have just put a dent in a bag of toffees.......

DREICH!

Before anyone calls the RSPCA, the above is NOT MY FAULT!!!!! Yes, it is a photo of a very wet kitty,but he insisted on going out when it was drizzly, and as soon as it started to rain he was up on the window ledge and I got him straight back in again! Awwwww!!


My lovely Elvincraft 2 ply merino lace est arrivee! Fabulous!! The colour is just divine. Although it's too dull to photograph outside so I had to take the pic in the kitchen and so it isn't really possible to see the true colour and the little variations in shade.I'm thinking actually instead of ruining it by knitting an ambitious lace shawl which has about 4 charts, I might knit another Kernel because I love that pattern; also, I am more likely to wear a scarf than a cumbersome (if fine) shawl, because that's what I like. I just love gorgeous scarves.

However....I have just found - on the fabulous Knitty - a lovely wrap called Cold Mountain, which I can easily adapt (fewer pattern repeats) to make a lovely lace scarf about 150 x 45cm. The colour of my lace yarn and the name really match, and Arthur's Hill can sometimes feel a bit like a cold mountain at times!

Funny, if you go down south, they just do not use the word dreich at all, it isn't in their vocabulary except as something they might read in a book. The word itself means everything at once about a day like today: wet, miserable, drizzly, grey...... I have been interested for a while in the fact that a lot of the language and dialect up the Northern coast, particularly here and further north to Scotland, resembles Scandinavian and also Dutch langauge. Dutch can sometimes sound a bi like someone speaking a mishmash of Germand and Norwegian with a Scottish accent. We talk about 'bairns', 'gannin hyem', 'hooses'....my Grandad used to call me 'lang'en' which is actually Norwegian for 'long [or tall] one'.

I would love to shove the Geordie accent in Nick Griffin's face and ask him if he is going to send us all back to....where? Norway, Denmark, Rome, Holland? Or, as someone on QT pointed out, send us all back to Africa, which is where we began our evolution. After all, white skin and pale eyes are simply an evolved response to the reduced need for melanin, the brown pigment that protects us from the UV rays of the sun in really hot places. A pigment that many white people encourage by going for sun bed sessions to make them look brown.....how ironic is that?

But yeh...you would think people would have realised by now how dangerous and insiduous fascism can be. Propoganda, fear, ignorance....this is a 'good' climate for Griffin's racism to be able to spread, because the uneduacted or simply ignorant just see immigration, migration and asylum-seeking as one and the same, without thinking about the reasons behind why people come here. Can you imagine what would have to happen to you and your family, what would have to be going on around you, for you to even consider leaving everything - literally everything - behind and risking your life to travel halfway across the world (and not in a comfortable plane or ship either); and can you even begin to understand what circumstances would lead to someone choosing to take their children on such a dangerous and uncertain journey, destined for a foreign country, and with no money? We complain about how crap Britain is and how lousy the Government is etc etc but we are actually very well off, in terns of money and other factors. We can go outside without worrying about being shot; our children can go to school - or not - and we do not have to pay for healthcare. we can say whatever we want about the (unelected)Prime Minister, about the way the country is run, we can protest if we are not satisfied and we can teach our children whatever we want to, all without fear of being jailed or tortured or even disappearing. If we are ill and cannot work, we do not starve, and women whose children's fathers are not with them are provided for. Children without parents are given shelter and - in most cases - are protected from harm. We have enough - more than enough - to eat. We have a roof over our heads, regardless of income. Imagine having none of the above. That is why people seek asylum. They are not given hundreds of £ of taxpayers' money per week and they are not given homes which would otherwise be available for British people. The accommodation available for asylum seekers is usually with private landlords who win contracts from the government. These asylum seekers are not allowed to work, so they are not 'taking our jobs'. There are plenty of jobs for British people. If someone is granted asylum and given the right to stay in Britain they have to seek permission to work. The sort of work they do is generally poorly paid and 'casual' - not the sort of work British people would perhaps wish to do, such as cleaning toilets in a hotel or picking vegetables for £3 an hour. They are limited in seeking work by the fact they cannot move around the country as we can if we wish. The people targeted by racists as 'taking our jobs' etc. tend to be people from the E.C who have the right to come where to work, as we do to work in their countries and often do. Does Griffin have an opinion about, say, rich middle class people who drive up the price of housing in idyllic parts of France or Italy or Czech and who have gained skills and qualifications here, paid for by the taxpayer, and who now use those skills to make a living and benefit their new country of residence? And why does he himself look slightly tanned?

I dont want to make this a political blog so I have tried to keep it simple, but there are so many more different things to consider and the majority of Griffin's supporters are, sadly, poorly educated, knee-jerk reactors, who would blame immigrants for a rainy day! They are entitled to their opinions are of course, but I am sure the BNP is well aware that most of the people who agree with them are poorly informed and do not really understand much about the complex issues around immigration and economics and so forth. Racism, however it is dressed up, is destructive for everyone, and it is absolutely stupid to talk about 'keeping Britain British' after 3 or 4 generations of welcoming people from all over the world - people whose descendants have now made their homes here,put down roots, had children and grandchildren - many of whom are mixed race. In my view the UK as a mixed race society is fine.the problems which arise from a multicultural society do not arise specifically from that fact, but from people's attitudes and their unwillingness to co-exist with their fellow human beings. People are people. It is a no-brainer.