The Cuteness Just Keeps On Coming and I'm Going

The kittens are growing so fast, that they will probably reach spaying/neutering weight by the end of this week. There is already a waiting list of people waiting to adopt them. They are all just loaded with personality and very people-oriented. They've also made friends with Chloe and Abbie, who get to have little visits with the kittens inside the play yard every night. The dogs are so sweet and gentle with the kittens, who enjoy being sniffed down by the dogs. Gumbo keeps trying to climb out of the play yard, and when he manages to escape, he runs straight over to Chloe and Abbie, who are usually laying nearby, keeping an eye on their little friends.

I may not be able to see them off to their new homes, however. I'm going to Charlotte for my niece's high school graduation this week and I won't be back until next Monday. My brother and his family moved to Charlotte about 9 years ago and this is the first time I'm going to visit them. As an added bonus, one of my most favorite friends lives in Boone, which is in the mountains, about 2 hours away. She was my mentor in graduate school, and if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have stuck it out and I'd be working at KMart or something right now instead of slaving away 50 hours/week. I'm driving up Friday morning and will stay with her and her husband that night. Not nearly long enough! And yes, I have already checked to see which yarn shops I need to visit when I'm there. Fortunately, (according to some of the forums on Ravelry), the most popular one in the Charlotte area is just 20 minutes from my brother's house. My niece, who is a newbie knitter, has already volunteered to take me!

I have been doing some knitting in addition to trying to work, socialize kittens, clean house and get packed and maybe sneak in a little sleep now and then. We were asked to knit something that "screams spring" for our spring coffee swap pals. A couple of weeks ago, when I looked out my window at the grey, cold and drizzly April day, I thought to myself: a wooly headwarmer is what is screaming spring right now. So I pulled some luscious merino hand-painted yarn out of the stash because the colors reminded me of my downstream pal and decided to make her a Calorimetry, since her weather hasn't been much more spring-like than ours. I had a blast knitting it and loved the little bone button I found for it.


It figures that one of the few times I checked my gauge and hit it spot-on that casting on the 120 stitches called for results in a Calorimetry that would fit a basketball. Good thing I made a mistake and took it off the needles to frog it. That's when I saw how huge it was. I went down a needle size and it looks like it should now fit a normal-sized head.

So I heard from my spoilee today and I think she liked it. I had a great time spoiling my friend and fellow dog-lover, Nichole. If you don't already read her blog, please pop on over and tell her hi.

Now I'm off to pack, which is always a 2-day event. I start by trying to load every single thing I think I'll need into my suitcase, then jamming in extras "just in case". Did I mention my OCD sometimes makes it a wee bit hard to make decisions? Then I try to zip the thing, laying on top of it to mush everything down and it still won't zip! So then I have to do a ruthless weeding out of everything but the essentials (and my pillow, which must always go with me. Always.) Then onto the part I love the most - narrowing down the knitting projects and the reading material I want to take. When we drive, it's no problem. I throw a couple of Rubbermaid tubs into the back and away we go. Flying is a different matter.

I have been obsessing over this all week and think I have it narrowed down to 3 small projects, 2 magazines and 2 books. All for 5 days. Think it'll be enough? I worry that I will run out of things to do and get bored, which to me is worse than having my toenails ripped off, 1 at a time. So I must go now, and obsess over this all some more. I'll be back next week with tales of my adventures and pictures and knitting content. Take care and have a great week!