i have been really falling down on the job lately. aka, i have no head. things are good, but things are busy. i’m racing through one project to get to the next five. not in a terribly stressful way, but still, i’m starting to feel it. i’ve also found some time to make new friends and sneak in what might be one of my last swimming trips of the season. right now as i type, my good friend shannon is visiting from maryland. this coming weekend i’ll go to pennsylvania to visit my family for a few days, which i’m really looking forward to. craft updates that will happen soon: gushing about my new spinning wheel, gushing about the drops cardigan (i’m almost done and i think it’s going to be good!), and gushing about what might be the best halloween costume idea i’ve ever had. in the meantime, feast your eyes on this picture of my beautiful cat hanging out in a tiny, tiny house:
i meant for this update to happen last monday. but life gets in the way and i am notoriously always a little late. updates will be more frequent over the next week or two though. i have some leftover yarn from mass market and i want to get it out of my life and into yours.
i posted four skeins of handspun yarn today, so go check ‘em out and keep checking back! i’ve also decided that this time around i may add copies of my zine to the etsy shop. it just seems like an organized and efficient way of keeping it easily available, although i still recommend that anyone interested in my zine still order it from any distro that carries it – i’d rather see people supporting diy zine distros! so eventually a few copies will go onto etsy, but i’ll also be letting you know what distros carry nothing rhymes #5, and how soon they have it in stock.
that’s all – just some general shopkeeping! my personal life remains largely uneventful, but i will say that gary and steph and i might be addicted to the tv show the wire after watching the first three episodes last night, and also i don’t think i can get behind the website last.fm. but maybe that’s just because i wouldn’t want anyone actually knowing how often i listen to the annie soundtrack. if you listen to cool music, it’s probably not a bad website i guess. oh, and also, look how great my little weasel is:
we’ve been together exactly four years now. i still hate that anyone would have abandoned this little freckleface, but i’m so glad that she found her way to me.
back in providence. got home last night in time to celebrate part of gary’s birthday with him, and it felt really good to be back. i would like to report that i didn’t smuggle any kittens with me on the plane from pennsylvania. but look at this little guy. wouldn’t you want to put him in your pocket and take him everywhere with you forever?
i actually have no idea how i managed not to bring him along with me. but it’s probably for the best that i didn’t. gary and i move this week (with meghan and steph for the month of june) and then again in july (with jess, for the next year!) and i’m busily knitting away at amber’s socks, in addition to plenty of spinning and dying for mass market 4 on june 14.
it felt good to sleep in my tiny uncomfortable bed again last night. as always, my visit with my family felt way too short. i’m lucky – i legitimately like and enjoy the company of the people i’m related to. and a short vacation was just what i needed to help me feel a little better after everything that happened with beary last weekend. it was a little sad coming home to two cats instead of three, but i’m dealing because that’s kind of all you can do.
the other thing that will surely help is dealing with my ravelry withdrawl. just thinking about the pages of friend activity that i have to catch up on calms the nerves almost immediately. even though i’ve got a lot to work on right now and can’t even think about my ever-growing pattern queue, it’s relaxing just to look at new patterns and yarns. i remain convinced that ravelry is crack. i sat next to a knitter on my flight yesterday, and i told her about ravelry. this makes me an enabler, maybe. it’s kind of a gnarly cycle.
Filed under: cats
i had wanted to write about the rhode island wool and fiber festival that nicole and i went to on saturday, and maybe eventually i will, but unfortunately today i feel like i need to just get this out of the way and let everyone know that beary was put to sleep late saturday night.
i had gone out to a show in olneyville with gary and meghan, and i got home at about 2 am. beary was acting pretty normal and seemed happy and comfortable, but about half an hour later as i was getting ready for bed, i heard him start to wheeze, and decided to give him his inhaler before i went to sleep, just so he wouldn’t have trouble breathing through the night. normally when he sees me coming with the inhaler, he runs away at first, and i have to follow him around a bit and calm him down before we can use it. but on saturday night, he stood up to run away and his hind legs collapsed and he fell onto the floor and started gasping for air. at first i was so upset with myself for not having been home all night, in case there could have been some sign that things were going wrong, but the truth is he’d been active and playful during the day, and if i had stayed in on saturday night, i would have been sound asleep by 2 am and probably would not have woken up or realized what was happening. i’m just so glad i got home right when i did.
in addition to his asthma, beary was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy when he was about a year old. for the last two years i’ve known that what ended up happening on saturday night was inevitable, but it was still very shocking for me because he’s been especially healthy these last few months. i’m just glad the heart disease was diagnosed and that when i saw his back legs give out that i knew exactly what was happening. i called the emergency vet to let them know what had happened and that we were coming in, and gary and meghan drove us there. we got to the vet at 3 am, and were told pretty quickly that bear did have blood clots in his hind legs, and that fighting them off was possible, but that he would be in a lot of pain and wouldn’t likely survive the treatment, so i went back and he rested his head in my hand, and i rubbed his back while he was euthanized. it was one of the saddest things i have ever had to do, but i know that it would have been unfair to let him suffer. as it was, we left the vet at 4 am, and i at least have the comfort of knowing that beary was really only in pain for about an hour.
i can’t say enough about how comforting and wonderful everyone has been since saturday night. gary and meghan were so supportive at the vet, and i’m so glad i didn’t have to go through that alone. i was so glad i didn’t have to be the one to carry bear’s empty cat carrier out, because it was just too sad. i so appreciated breakfast and walking with gary on sunday morning, running with jay and josie and islay in the afternoon, and meg bringing over knitting magazines and homemade cookies, and gary and meghan bringing me pizza (beary’s favorite food) and flowers and ginger beer and ice cream and a copy of the book frenemies. also talking to my mom and jess, and everyone else who called or texted throughout the day. it helped more than i can even begin to say.
i miss my little catfriend. there is no other cat like beary. i remember when i first met him. he looked like a little orange rat with a broken tail. he was small enough to fit in my hand, and we fed him with a little eye-dropper. i loved his little chirping noises and the way he would fly through the air to steal pizza out of my mouth. i loved his weird phase of only being affectionate and rubbing against anyone’s legs when they were sitting on the toilet. he was such a treat to know and i’m so glad i got to spend three amazing years with him. i knew for two of those years that all i could really hope to do was keep him happy and comfortable until this happened, and i hope that i accomplished that and that his life with me was as good as mine was with him.
Filed under: cats
this is still the most logical thing i have ever learned from a cookie.
i just paid off the last of beary’s emergency vet bill! this was a huge (for me) chunk of money, but interest was starting to build up and since regular vet visits and inhaler refills and hopefully soon also heart medicine are going to be recurring expenses for a long long time, i wanted to just get this out of the way. so i’m clearing this up just in time to pay for yearly vaccinations and a checkup to see if the vet thinks bear’s asthma is getting any better. i feel like it is, although we haven’t gone a day without an asthma attack yet. but the inhaler seems to help, and the attacks are at least less severe. things are looking up i think, and we’re working really hard to keep them that way. he’s been a really tough little guy, considering twice a day i make him breathe through a really scary contraption.
and in terms of knitting, i’m working on a few little things. i should be getting yarn in the mail almost every day this week; i got my order from cantrix yesterday, and the colors are beautiful. i can’t wait to knit with it, and you’ll be seeing it soon! my legwarmers (poorly pictured above) are coming along, but i’ve decided to unravel a few inches and leave out the decreases, because i think these are going to be wide enough without them, and i want the things to stay up over my knees as much as possible. hopefully keeping them nice and tight helps.
and, being inspired by shannon, i’m also using some handspun yarn that my nana bought me for christmas, and that i dyed pink with a little kool aid not long ago, to make myself a mustard scarf. the color looks like something someone’s insane great grandma from la might make for them, but in the seventies, not now. so i like it.
and THEN? i’m going to give in and learn the two-at-a-time magic loop sock technique. so when i make those five pairs of socks, they’ll go much much faster (i hope). but i’ve never knit toe-up socks before, much less with the magic loop, so i’m hoping i can do like tim gunn says and make it work. we will see.
well, i am either pretty gross or pretty great, because i’m done with my owl sweater! i cast this on on saturday and finished it on tuesday night. as i type this, it’s blocked and drying in my apartment. i soaked it early this morning. mamma helped:
i know blocking is an important part of the sweatering process, but i seriously hate it. after i spend all that time knitting a sweater, i really, really hate getting it all soaking wet. and then it takes SO long to dry. it’s worth it, because sweaters do look about a hundred times better after you’ve blocked them, but i do wish i could just skip this step and go straight to wearing what i’ve made.
(actually, this still wouldn’t be ready-to-wear, since i have to order buttons for the eyes. that’s the only thing that made blocking more bearable in this case.)
i’m feeling pretty good in terms of productivity. my crafty-ish priorities right now are more or less: finishing my frostberries scarf, knitting myself a hat with the lite lopi i bought at yarn it all, writing a zillion letters to the people i’ve been promising letters to, and packaging up some zine orders.
i’m not going to lie, now that this sweater is done, i kind of miss working on it. also, i’m 90% sure that every cat in my house is sleeping on it and/or air humping it right now. cool.
now that i have a great big vet bill and a great big heat bill (even though i keep my apartment icy icy cold!), i’m going to be making a lot of those etsy updates that i’ve been so lazy about for the last month.
you can (if you feel so inclined) buy any of this handspun yarn at my etsy shop: www.birthdayeveryday.etsy.com. i’m going to be updating with more yarn and more one-of-a-kind knit goods very frequently over the next few weeks. so keep checking in, and i’ll keep updating with new things!
it feels good to start selling things again and know i’m putting a small dent in my bills already. i’m also feeling a little more positive becaue i got to spend a nice long weekend at home with beary, and although there were two pretty bad asthma attacks, overall i was really encouraged. i’m keeping a log of his attacks to get an idea of possible triggers/stresses, as well as to chart general improvement. if things keep going fairly well, maybe i will be able to keep my plans for going to maryland/dc to see shannon this weekend. even though i won’t have money to spend while i’m there, the ticket is paid for and if bear seems healthy, i could definitely use a weekend of knitting with one of my nearest and dearest friends.
Filed under: cats
i’ve been trying to read up on asthma treatments, and also on good ways to get a cat used to an inhaler. i’m a little concerned about whether or not this will ever be a practical solution for beary, but i’m trying to stay optimistic.
feline asthma with fritz the brave has some really encouraging treatment hints that are making me feel a little better about the process of getting bear to take an inhaled medication.
pet education also has a good overview of feline asthma, and some useful suggestions for getting a cat to start accepting the inhaler mask.
i’m probably going to start trying to use the inhaler again tonight using the towel treatment, which the vet used over the weekend when beary was in, and which seemed to help calm him down a bit. he’s so wiggly and hates the inhaler so much, that hopefully this combined with some treats will calm him down and let him actually breathe some of the bronchodilator in. hopefully we can do this without any major freakouts or asthma attacks.
also, i really appreciate everyone’s encouragement and positive thoughts and wishes for bear. and especially friends who have already driven me to the vet, and friends who have offered in case of another emergency. i can’t even say how much it means to me, and i know my petite catfriend appreciates it too.
Filed under: cats
well, after another long day at the vet yesterday, little beary has another slew of treatments that i think he will hate even more than the last batch. pictured above is his inhaler. i can’t believe there is such a thing as a cat inhaler. but if it will help, i’m willing to try anything. i was approved for the vet’s ‘care credit’ card, and thank goodness, because i really didn’t have an extra $500 lying around, and depending on what meds bear needs in the future, i’m going to be spending at least a few hundred more within the next 6 months. but money is just money, and if i’m going to spend it on anything, i want to spend it on this.
so far the inhaler is totally terrifying to beary, and it’s going to take a long time to get him even remotely comfortable with the idea of having that little mask over his face. while i try to get him used to this, i just have to keep things very calm and quiet and stress-free. once his asthma is stabilized, we can start looking into the best heart medication for his hcm. i’m looking forward to that stage – the inhaler even scares me a little bit. i’m just keeping my fingers crossed and trying to be a good cat mom.
on the subject of health issues, i saw this today on my friend amelia’s tumblr and wanted to share it: racing to save lives. a very nice girl i had the pleasure of meeting this summer is doing this, and i think it’s really great, and even if you’re like me and can only spare a few extra dollars, this is a really nice thing to spend it on.
the other nice thing i’ll be spending a little money on this week: two cups of coffee tomorrow. one for myself, and one for my bus driver, whose last day of work it is. i am actually going to really miss him. he’s been brightening my mornings for the last five or six months, and i’m really sad to see him go.
someday i will probably talk about knitting again. expect lots of updates also about how i’m selling everything i own to pay my vet bills.
