Finally!

I got a decent enough picture of Moonie to use in the header! She's the 2nd from the right (in between Titus & Luna). And, how do y'all like the new look?

We're still trying to get poor Moonie used to us and our house. She loves the other cats; it's Todd and I that she hates. LOL Well, maybe. I think she must have had some horrible trauma in her life at the hands of people. People are such freakin' idiots sometimes. So it makes sense that she's still so leery of us. The rest of our feline family are mostly ambivalent towards her, which is a little sad, but certainly better than hissing and fighting. So, I'll take it!

I also think she's way older than we or our vet originally thought. It's so hard to tell their ages once they get beyond about age 2. I'm thinking maybe 10 or so.

The other issue is getting her to use the cat door into the garage where the litter boxes are. See, we have been leaving the flap up for her since February because she didn't seem to know how to use it any other way. Normally, we could just gently get behind a cat and help them go through it until they learn (which is usually immediately; we've never had any issue before). But she hates us and won't let us get within 10 feet of her, let alone touch her. This wasn't an issue until the last month or so when it started getting VERY warm. The litter boxes are more stinky than usual and they attract flies. Todd is pretty meticulous about keeping the boxes clean. Bless his heart, he sifts them out twice a day. But it's still getting to be a problem now that summer is almost here and the hot weather will be more prevalent. We've always prided ourselves that, upon entering our house, nobody would ever be able to guess that we had even ONE cat, let alone 6.

Anyone know of any good ideas how to get a shy cat to use the cat door without traumatizing her further!?

In knitting: I'm almost done with my Helix scarf. It looks great and it's a simple pattern to learn, but it is tedious! Lots of short rows makes it take 3x as long to knit! Plus, I'm knitting it with sock yarn on size 5 needles. Hey, less time in purgatory. It's a free pattern too, but I think you have to sign up for a newsletter to access the patterns on the site. Here's the link.

I finished my alpaca socks, they turned out loverly. And I cast on another pair of socks in the Deborah Norville yarn because that yarn is nicer to work with in the summer. I like to always have a pair of socks on the needles!

I am going to make this mosaic scarf for my boss, who is stepping down as the department chair (and therefore won't be my boss anymore either) on September 1. I'm extremely nervous, but the person replacing him is VERY competent and seems really nice. Anyway, I'm using Rowan Felted Tweed yarn in a midnight blue and a sagey gray. The yarn should arrive any day in the mail.

I've made a few Christmas ornaments for a disaster relief package that my friend Marsha will be sending to a close friend of hers whose family was deeply and devastatingly affected by the Tornadoes in Joplin. These were a quick and fun knit! I might make more for myself and family members too.

These are the balls (Free pattern from DROPS):















I also knit up a ball using some left-over mohair/wool/acrylic yarn with sequins that I used to make a shawl. I improvised this a little by adding some rounds in the middle to make it bigger. This was a little painful to knit because I held the strands doubled, and used size 1.5 needles, and the yarn has absolutely NO stretch or give to it at all. Also, I had to finish it with the wrong-side out because that's where all the sequins seemed to want to land! Not sure if I will give this one with the package. It might be too weird for the tastes of Middle America!
















Then there is the Oisin Owl. Another free pattern (link is through Ravelry). This was super easy and fast to knit. Everyone that sees this falls in love with it. I have like 4 family members who all exclaimed "AWW! I want one!" I embroidered the eyes, beak and feather details on the front afterward.




















I'd like to knit myself a couple shrug/bolero/cropped cardigan kind of things. When the scarf for my boss is done, that's probably what I'll try next.