Knitty Kitty

Yes, definitely a knitty kitty !

Bib has gotten used to her new home nicely. She sits with me when i knit and follows me around in the house all day long in the hope of a treat or some petting which she gets quite a lot of.

She has gained some weight since she got here.

As a former outdoor kitty she tries to sneak out the door with us and has succeeded a few times but i catch her right away and put her back in since she is not spayed yet and the last thing i want to do is add to the cat population.

She is great company and i enjoy having her.

By the way, i want to thank everybody for their well wishing posts and e-mails after my fall off the bluff.

I'm all healed up now and as good as new ,just a little twinge when i stretch my arm over my head but that will be gone too in a couple of days.

I'm still busy knitting socks with more custom orders coming in .

There are big changes coming up in the spring (around april/may) which i will post on. One of which is my expansion of inventory. I'll be able to offer hand dyed yarns, spinning fiber ,hand spun yarns, and some weaving supplies in greater numbers by the end of summer.I'm very excited and can't wait to get going on this.

Waterfalls,waterfalls,Gaby falls....

We've been having some beautiful fall weather the last couple of weeks : sunny, quiet,warm days,temps in the high 60's,lower 70's.

So John and me decided Sunday afternoon to take Skimpy on a little hike in the woods behind our house.

We have two beautiful waterfalls just a few hundred yards below a bluff that surrounds the whole top of the mountain we live on.The shelters behind the falls had been used for hundreds of years by the local Indian tribes as shelters.

To get there we go through the woods about 400-500 yards until we come to the bluff.

There is only one spot where it is possible to get down into the creek valley without ropes or a ladder.

It is about 7-8 feet down ( the rest of the bluff is up to 25-30 feet down.)

we've used that spot lots of times before and never really had a problem, except for this time.

John went ahead and passed by a narrow spot right on the edge of the bluff .He told me to be careful the leaves where slippery. So carefully i placed my right foot and then my left foot and before i could shift my weight i went over the edge feet first.Halfway down i hit the trunk of a big tree with my right lower inside arm and slid down the trunk the rest of the way.

When i hit the tree the momentum twisted me backwards to my right and i overextended my arm and shoulder. A sharp pain went through my back and i thought:

" oh no, i broke my back!!" the pain knocked the breath out of me.

Almost at the same time i heard a snap in my shoulder and i thought: " ...and there goes my shoulder or arm"...

I finally landed hard on my butt , i just sat there for a minute trying to get my breath back and trying to assess my injuries.The back pain went away after just a few seconds and i moved my feet and legs...back not broken... thank God!!

By now John had safely made it down the bluff to me. He was white as a sheet.He said he had just got past the iffie spot and turned around to help me past and all he saw was me going over the edge and hitting that tree.I sat there for awhile getting my bearings back and moving my extremities,i knew i hurt my shoulder, it hurt BAD!!

Nothing is broken but i think i very much overextended or even tore a muscle in my chest and shoulder.

By this morning my whole right side ,shoulder ,ribs are very,very sore.and on top of that i got allergies and am constantly sneezing and coughing. oh, the pain!!

but, i can still knit! that doesn't hurt at all !!

and we did go on and i made some pretty pics of the falls:

Fall #1:

Fall#2:

I also found the tree John carved our initials in five years ago ( the old romantic :)

Update : Here it is three days after my fall (been trying to get online long enough to finish this post (phone lines are messed up again since yesterday), and I'm still hurting but it's much better already. I should be pretty much back to normal by the end of the week.

Aaarrrghhh....

This is a picture of a pair of my patchwork socks inside out, before i weave in all the little yarn tails and yes, there are just as many on the other side.

It takes me about 45-60 minutes per sock to weave all the tails in. This is my least favorite part of making these kind of socks , but then there they are in all there glory .Pretty , aren't they ?

These are some of my favorites ,with the camouflage pair my mostest.

and these are still waiting to be finished.

There are 11 pair in all and they are all going to a good home wayyyy up north to Canada.

weaving in my blood?

I received a " my mom loves me " package from my mama in Germany and with all the goodies she send me a stash of cotton kitchen towels.

At closer inspection they did not look store bought so i got on the phone and called my mom to find out where she got them.

And here is the story:

apparently those towels are about 50-55 years old and hand woven by her mom!

I didn't know my grandma was a weaver! I knew she was a seamstress making clothes for the wealthy people during and after the war. Looks like she also wove a lot. My grandma passed away 15 years ago and my mom told me when they cleaned out the house she had a big floor loom with lots of heddles( my mom thinks at least 8-12) and a bigger (she thinks about a at least 40 inch ) table loom.

I was afraid to ask what they did with it but asked anyway:

i shouldn't have :( , i now will forever have the picture of my dad hacking the looms to bits and burning them in the back yard in my head!!

What a crying shame! those looms where at least 50-60 years old.

The towels are woven with sewing thread thin yarn. Some of them have a very tiny waffle weave pattern ,some are plain weave.

I will have nightmares about this for a while.

But at least i got a little more insight of my love for fiber arts.

BIB

Well, we are now the proud caretakers of a sweet kitty who joined our family yesterday.

Meet "Bib": she is a one year old, dark ginger tabby with a snow white bib on her chest (hence the name ) ,white belly and four white feet and greenish amber eyes.

My stepdaughter graceously gifted her to us as we where looking for a good mouser .

We occasionally have a mouse in the house and apparently they are getting smarter each year concerning getting trapped. So, we decided a cat would be the best move.

She will be a indoor cat only from now on and i think she likes it :

loves watching tv too:

she follows me around wherever i go,right now she's sleeping by my feet under the pc desk and she slept on the foot of our bed all night.I love having a cat in the house,it is so calming and relaxing.I had a calico cat for 15 years until she passed away 6 years ago and not had one since then.I love it, she'll be my little buddy and companion.