Ms. Madeline

Who's the pretty girl? :) Meet Ms. Madeline, latest member of the household. Calmer heads prevailed (mine, lol) and we just adopted one kitty cat. That's enough for our sweet Iko cat to handle for now - he's a good guy but he's very shy.

Happily, Madeline is about the sweetest cat I have ever met. Seriously. She loves everybody, even the baby. Iko has worked up to approaching her and touching her nose with his before he takes off to hide under the dining room table. She hasn't so much as said 'boo' (or 'hiss') to him, she's very willing to be friends, so I think they'll be great together eventually. She even spent most of last night on Bella's bed - great cat! Very talkative, constantly purring, and in need of some exercise (a bit pudgy).

We didn't chose her name - she already had it at the shelter (she's an adult, 8 years old). Not sure if I should change it - we have friends with an absolutely lovely daughter named Madeline, so it's a little weird to have a cat with the same name...

Tencel!

So, I just finished a lace (huck) scarf for a customer, using Tencel:

It has three huck lace stripes that run the length of the scarf, with plain weave between and along the borders, to stabilize the fabric. So much fun to weave! It's sett at 20 epi, so you wouldn't think it would be a particularly quick project to weave, but it didn't feel slow, somehow. Maybe because it's fun to watch the little lace windows appearing as you go.

And Tencel is another one of the man-made fibers that I love! Like bamboo, it is an all-natural fiber (not synthetic) and made from wood cellulose in an environmentally-friendly process. It takes dye gorgeously so the colors really sing, and it has lovely drape when it's finished.

I'd been meaning to get around to weaving some lighter-weight scarves that are good year-round so it was nice to have a customer request one and light a fire under me, so to speak... I have a draft of a turned twill scarf in my notebook that I need to get back to - it's going to use six colors of tencel, that will be fun! I also put on extra warp for this project and am in the midst of making another scarf using a slightly different purple tencel for the weft this time, and weaving different size windows of lace instead of a solid lace panels the length of the scarf.

On other fronts, we visited the local ASPCA shelter (Nevins Farm) to meet some kitty cats today (poor boy cat Iko is looking very forlorn with Little Girl gone for the past week or so). Looks like we might actually wind up adopting TWO. Good grief. A lovely tortoise shell girl cat and a black and white boy cat, named Madeline and Lucky. They're both older (8 y/o) and very mellow and sweet - they both reacted really nicely to Ms. Bella and were very lovey to us. And they're both living in one of the shelter's communal cat rooms so they get along fine with each other and with other kitties. So, we'll go back tomorrow and who knows, maybe we'll come home with three. (Just kidding. Yikes!)

Little Girl

So, we have kind of a small yard, and we live pretty much in the center of our town (Chelmsford has about 30,000 people in it - a lot bigger than where I grew up, but not exactly huge, either), but I have a small garden, helped hugely by my mother (who has a crazy gorgeous garden), and there is a surprising amount of critters around here. Last year a wild mother turkey and her babies trekked across our yard and across the road to a small wetlands - Carlos (hubby) actually hopped out in the road to stop traffic so they could get across, wish I had taken pictures! A tiny little bunny rabbit has taken up residence in the brush pile and under my day lilies.

This year, the chipmunks are crazy, must have been a good year for them baby-wise. Iko the cat spends his days glued to the big french door that looks onto our backyard, watching them run across the deck and pouncing the screen ferociously. He used to be joined by Little Girl...

There she is, sweet kitty. She passed away this past Sunday, of renal failure (her kidneys just shut down, the vet said - for anyone out there with an older cat, this is quite common, and can be treated if caught early enough, one of the few warning signs is large urination in the littler box, wish we had known!).

She was quite an old cat, we adopted her when she was already grown up and she lived with us for ten years. She was one of those cats that likes to ride around on your shoulders... And, although the shelter we adopted her from had labeled her as a problem child with behavior problems, with lots of love and patience, she wound up being one of the sweetest cats I've ever owned. Definitely a two person cat, though, she never really got along with Bella. Poor little thing was pretty sick at the end, but it's never easy to say goodbye to a very loved pet.