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Friday, December 29, 2017

FOs, UFOs, UFPPs, FPPs, Trout triage, Cat, and a Giveaway.

There has been a lot of action on the needles of late because


WTH.



FOs (Finished Objects)


Double cabled headband in Sapphire - no photo of this, as it went into the mail as soon as it came off the needles. 


Socks!  Only 9 pair to go!  These were my green ones.  Next up are a pair in Poison Candy, a hand-dyed yarn from Sweden.  Can't wait...


UFOs (Unfinished Objects)


Leggings for Sylvie*


Good use of a lunch hour

Who knew that my office chair had
the perfect 'span'?
#2 Legging!
I have one completed (other than weaving in the ends) and over half done on the second.  I am hoping to get these completed and mailed by Saturday. *This is now officially a FO!


Yet another ear warmer!
I love this pattern!




FUFO - Or, Finished Unfinished Object.  This was a knitted 't' shirt that made it all the way to just needing sleeves before I was honest with myself and realized I hated it.  Sooooo, I frogged it.  I do like the yarn (Noro), but not for this pattern.  It will, most likely, become a scarf.
Sigh.

Next up, stripey scarf.


UFPs (Unfinished Purging Projects) 


I don't know if I would bother to count all of the purging projects (endless), but I have decided to tackle all of my closets for the !Great Closet Purge of 2018!  So far, I have half a closet done.  Snort.  I will have the closet in the Cat/Canning room sorted out by the end of the year.  Then it is on to - gasp, gulp - the craft/office room.


However, on the FPP front (Finished Purge Project), I have finished the major purge of canned goods!  This involved masses of unlabeled jars of mysterious things being turned into compost or chicken treats.  Besides the seven boxes of empty canning jars that left the building a week or so ago, I have another five boxes that are going to another person this weekend.  That does not count the still-filled jars and the two dozen of each size that I have - just in case.  It is so nice to know what I have!  And it allowed me to make an awesome mincemeat pie for Christmas - although my sister and I had a good laugh when I hauled out two pints of what I thought were mincemeat, only to discover that one was canned black beans!  Luckily, I realized it before opening them.  That would have made some interesting fusion - British/Southwestern Mincebean Pie.


*****

Besides his new, self-warming bed, Slimmie Kitten got a toy.  Troutie!  I had seen this on Instagram and was mesmerized by the tubby, fluffy cat that appeared in the video.  It had Slimmie written all over it.**  He got it on Christmas morning and LOST HIS MIND!  I found, after the fact, that it was the kind of toy that needs supervision, as he managed to chew Troutie's face off in under 15 minutes.

Slimmie enjoying the self-heating
DOG bed - all beds are cat beds, in
Slimmie's eyes.

Pre-triage, with the ragged bits trimmed off.
It has a zipper in the bottom for refilling of
catnip
I took a video of him with Troutie - it's a little/lot dark, so I hope you can make out all of Slimmie's tubby gloriousness.  We call this "Trout-a-Rama".

Into the Arctic Wilderness that has become our world, a few (dozen) bright spots:
My Meyer Lemon tree.
Look at her go!

*****
 The Giveaway.  I recently was gifted with two great cookbooks, so something had to go.  I have one small bookcase in the kitchen that is strictly for cookbooks - it is packed to the gills.  You can't get a dime between the books.  Room had to be made.


For any of you who are contemplating baking with Einkorn flour, this is the Bible.  If you would like this book, let me know in comments by a) stating so and b) letting us in on your favorite cookie!  Due to prohibitive postage rates, this giveaway is only open to the Continental US.  I will draw the name of the winner on New Year's Day.

**A slightly incensed observation about customer service.  When I ordered Troutie from Amazingly Cats, the expected ship date was 14 days.  It actually arrived one day short of a month.  When I sent an email requesting the shipping status about 15 days in, I got a reply that informed me that the REAL shipping range was 14-28 days.  Mine took 29.  When I complained, I was completely ignored.  Fast forward to the purchase and arrival of the dogs' Christmas bed, ordered from Chewy.com.  When the bed arrived (two days after ordering), the box AND the bed reeked of cigarette smoke!  What the - ?  I immediately sent an email to customer service and they almost immediately replied that they were shocked and horrified.  Then they told me they were shipping off a brand new bed with their compliments and apologies.  They hoped I could launder the original cover and donate the original bed to a rescue.  Guess who is getting all my (considerable) furry business?


18 comments:

Charade said...

What a fun toy for Slimmie. I hope it holds up for a long time, as I'm sure no cat would tire of a dead fish that smells like catnip. Please drop my name in the hat for that Einkorn cookbook. Our new integrative cardiologist (finally, there is such a thing) is intrigued, and I promised him to learn more about it before my followup in April. I just added this book to my Amazon wishlist in case someone else is the lucky winner.

Goatldi said...

I envy both your energy and Meyer
Lemon. My poor ML was planted by the Naval orange and Bay tree in the summer of
2016. It had lived in a pot all its life here. Last winter was cold and even with a nice cozy cover it almost bit it. It is now in recovery mode although now fruitless and it is sizing up to be another cold winter.

Slimmie could be my PTs twin. He did enjoy Trout didn't he?

Customer service is an oxymoron in many cases anymore. And having dealt with Chewy for a few years I would put my money on the transport driver. YuckšŸ˜

Is the leg warmer just a ribbing stitch to length and width or do you have a pattern?





Susan said...

Progress! I am always surprised at how far behind medicine is with what is really needed. I will put you in the hat!

Susan said...

The leg warmer was a free pattern on Ravelry and she was nice enough to figure out the math on varying sizes (not my strong suit). It's just K2P2 forever. I got to learn a new cast on and a new cast off! Woohoo!

Toni said...

Love your lemon tree, and totally envy your talent for knitting. I can knit a single strand for a mile and a half but just can't get that second row, let alone follow a pattern. I can crochet but would love to knit.

My pantry needs you, I probably have pomegranate jelly from 2010!

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i love ll of your knitting. i haven't done any in forever! chewy is a good company!

Rain said...

Oh gosh, don't get me started on customer service!!! Troutie is hilarious! Your leggings look great Susan. I have to get to my slippers that I keep saying I'll finish "this weekend"...I'm really jealous of your lemon tree...mind has zero lemons on it since the one I picked in the fall!

Susan said...

I would love to learn how to crochet. Every winter, I say I will, then don't. I'm not a book learner, so I need to learn from watching. Oooh! Pomegranate jelly!

Susan said...

I think the only way you'd have time to knit is if you gave up sleeping altogether! Yes, I was a little put off when PetsMart bought them, but it seems not to have diluted the quality.

Susan said...

Rain, I've had great luck with my tree (please don't let me have jinxed it) since I bought it about 4-5 years ago. It's now in the biggest pot it will ever get, so I need to do some root trimming this spring. I've had between 24-28 lemons on it every year! I have slippers on my knitting list, too, but the list keeps getting longer and longer and my time gets shorter and shorter!

Theresa said...

Chewy is pretty good with CS, although I miss WAG.com. Great trout. I wish I still had the big mouth bass plaque that sang Take Me to the River when you walked by, the ultimate in tacky wonderfulness. I have knitting projects that might be of biblical age...Love your leggings. Check out Urth yarns for some awesome self striping sock yarn (Uneek)

Nancy In Boise said...

That troutie is funny! Lousy customer service too :(

Nancy In Boise said...

And your lemon tree, WOW! What you you fertilize it with?

Goatldi said...

Knitters field day. Good for you!!!

Michelle said...

Busy-busy-busy (as usual); you make me tired!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I would love to know where I can find the pattern for that cabled head band. Your lemon tree looks great. That is a goal of mine. They are around $50 here to buy in the summer, so I am saving up and hope to get one. Please put me in your drawing. I would love to have that book. As for cookie recipes, I have a few shared this year on my blog too, and I'll see if our cut out recipe is posted. Stay warm. I agree with customer service issues too. I ordered one brand of yarn, and they sent another, and more of it recently. I'm still sitting around waiting on another oil order.

Ed said...

I love it when I get customer service like your latter story. Makes me believe in humanity again.

DFW said...

Love the lemon tree & all your wooly things. Troutie scares me a little though. Happy New Year!