staggered window shelves for an arthritic cat

Our poor cats are not getting any younger.  In fact, one seems to be aging rather quickly sometimes.  I don't know if it's arthritis or just clumsyness, but he needs a little extra help when it comes to getting into higher things, especially windows.  Brian and I have been watching "My Cat from Hell" on Netfilx and we find the cat therapist really funny!  We noticed that he emphasizes having spaces for your cat to move vertically.  Many people are installing shelves for their cats, and I wanted some shelves for our cats!  Although after a trip to Home Depot, I quickly realized that building the shelves that I wanted would cost a small fortune.  Instead, I decided to make some shelves with my dad!  We whipped these out in no time at all, and the cats love them!

 

These really help Scout get into the windows!  And as a bonus, they don't look half bad either!

Thanks dad!

I picked out a name!

Seven years ago when we found our orange kitty Zip, we had to make the hard decision of whether or not to keep him.  We were living in a very tiny apartment and my husband is allergic to cats!  Brian got worried when I named him because he realized that we couldn't get rid of him once we named him.  And I knew that, so I picked out a name while standing in line at the pet store buying supplies!!  I love looking back at Zip's baby pictures.  These are from April 2006.  I'm glad we decided to keep him!

His eyes were so orange when he was younger.  They've faded now that he's older.

Now I've picked out a name for my sheep.  But this is a good sign, it means I like it, and I want to keep it!  I want to stick to names with "wool" in it, but sounds like a real name of some sort.  So, I came up with Woolton, almost like the The Waltons or Wilton's food dye.  And then I like the name Wilma, because it doesn't remind me of any of the 1,350 students I've had throughout the years.  But if I change it to Woolma, it sounds cute, sounds like Wilma, it has wool in the name, and it has "ma" in the name so it can also be a mama sheep!  If she has a baby, I want to name it Woolite because it implies that it's small and light!  And then there's the whole wool washing soap called Woolite... just plain cute!

We're making progress!

I'll try not to weave up the cat...

I just love my friend Sharon's (from In Stitches) turned taquete tea towels!  They are amazing!!!!  And I love how she calls them "tea towels" because it sounds a little bit more upscale than "dishtowels."  When I first saw them, I knew I would be making them, too.  Sharon sent me the 4-shaft pattern, but I have my 8-shaft loom available.  So I research online and found an 8-shaft pattern that has the exact same structure as the 4-shaft.  So really, I'm only using the 8-shaft just because I can!

But here is the 4-shaft as well:

I was going through my cones and I have decided to use all shades of blues.  This is something I've been wanting to do for awhile anyway and this is just a perfect opportunity to do so.

I had a pre-measured out warp from the P2P2 project that I plan on using up in this project.  It is 6 yards, so therefore this project will be warped 6 yards!  It will be nice to use up this segment that I have.

I'll try not to weave the cat into my project.  He sure is curious about what I'm doing!

He needs to just go take a nap and trust me on this one!
I think he's having trust issues.
Did you notice his hair cut?
He had a spa day last weekend!  Here are some memories:

The fluff before:

The aftershave:

And phase 3, the bath:

Scout looks, smells, and I'm sure feels better!

Poor little guy... he just can't take care of all that fur.  It gets clumpy, smelly, and nasty!

I don't even want to cuddle with him when he's like that.

So now, he smells like coconuts.  He's our coconut kitty!

And now he's fun to cuddle with.

Catnip!!!

Zip: Our orange lion

 Zip did this himself!  

 

 

You can see his fur is finally growing back in!  He lost it just in time for winter a few months ago and now it's coming back just in time for summer.  Poor kitty, just a food allergy is what caused all his fur to fall out.  I'm so glad to see his spots and stripes coming back in!!  We now buy special food for him.

 

 

 

Trellis in green and teal

I decided to try some different colors because so many colors look good with this teal.  I am using green right now and I love this combo!  I was afraid that it would be generally too dark together, but it looks good.

I also plan to try some light yellow and maybe even a brighter green.  The brighter green happens to be 20/2 unmercerized cotton I picked up in Utah this summer, so I will have to double it.  I also wondered it it would look good doubled with the green I'm using now...

Scout's hanging out on the remainder of my Christmas cards. 

Everything is weaving up so fast, but I seem to be making plans for future projects just as fast!  Will I ever catch up?  Good thing Christmas break is here!!!

Confessions of a balding cat

 I don't know if you've noticed lately, but I haven't been taking my cat pictures.  And there's a reason...

Poor Mr. Zip is going bald.  It's so unexplainable and has happened so fast.





This picture from April shows he had a fully body of soft, fluffy fur.  Then this summer it started disappearing for no reason.





 

But now, he is so mysteriously bald.

We took him to the vet in August, and they suggested a food allergy.  So we changed foods.  It started to go away, and he started to grow fluff back, until a few weeks ago.  He really starting losing it fast, and would not stop licking.  So we took him to the vet again and they've run some tests.  It's negative on the mites and fleas, but we're still waiting on some of the cultured results from poor Mr. Zip.

Poor guy, he looks so homeless and mangy.  Hopefully we can get this problem "licked" soon.  He was such a pretty kitty!

It's purrrrrrr-fect!

So our cat Scout is a nuisance when it comes to needing attention.  He will constantly bug anyone for cuddle time.  It's especially bad in the kitchen.  When I cook or do dishes, he is constantly at my feet or tripping me.  Not only is it really annoying, but it's also terribly unsafe!  Honestly, I don't want him to get hurt.  One Thanksgiving a few years ago it got so bad that I had to make a new rule that he had to sit outside the kitchen.  We almost got a baby gate to try and keep him out, but decided against it.  So then we had to train an older cat some new tricks.  In our new house, we tried to make the different colored tile the marking point, but Scout just doesn't get it.  Well, a few days ago my mom gave me a lovely handcrafted rag rug that I was using at the sink.  When Scout claimed it to be his own, I realized I had the perfect boundary setting tool to help us out!  Here is is on the mat:

It's purrrrrrr-fect!

A little bit o' orangy goodness!

This cat

is

 

too easy to 

photograph!

My next weaving project:

My mom picked out this pattern.  After she saw my Huichol blanket, she also wanted a blanket so she brought over some yarn from the yarn shop and we went through lots and lots of books.  After searching and searching for just the right pattern, she finally settled with this classic M-W beauty.  I'm going to thread it onto the 4-shaft loom and then that means I can still put something on the 8-shaft loom!  Woo hoo!!  I'll start measuring out the warp this afternoon.

I think this will make a very pretty blanket. I really like the sage green mixed with this shade of yellow.  They will be a nice relaxing summery feel.

First sewing lesson!

I taught my first sewing lesson!

One day a week I have an 11 year old girl coming over for sewing lessons.  This is her quilt top so far.  She picked out the fabric all on her own.  It's going to be so cute!  The squares are each 6", so the blocks are sewing up into about 17.5".  So when the top's done, the quilt blocks will probably be about 17" around.  She is very enthusiastic about this project and I'm proud to be her first sewing teacher!  (She's also my first sewing student!)

The kitties are enjoying their indoor sunbaths!  So far it's been a mild summer here in Arizona.  I'm surprised we just barely had to turn on the air conditioner!

Sley bells ring...

Wrong sley AND wrong season...

Besides, we're onto the winding now!  Get this yarn on here so I can get weaving!  And QUICK!

A little peek at Zip, who is staying out of trouble!  I hate when he comes around the sits on my yarn during this point or starts showing too much interest in it when I'm trying to roll it onto the back of loom!  Silly boy!  He's sometimes just a little playful or snugly with the yarn.

I love these two shades of blue together.  It was a happy surprise when the cones were sitting by each other.  I'm glad I went with them!  They look so great. 

I'm almost all set up.  I still have the pedals to tie-up, the floating selves to take care of, winding yarn onto the shuttles, making sure threads aren't crossed, weaving a header, and working on my hemstitch.  THEN I can finally start to sit back and really enjoy the weaving!  It sure is a lot of work to set up a loom.  I do enjoy the whole process though, but I especially like the weaving part!

Weaving helpers

Such good helpers... sometimes... okay maybe not... they just like to play with the string.  Which is So. Not. Helpful. At. All.

But I can't say "no" to the company.  They are good at that!