It’s about Lui
He was seen, coupla months back, to have developed a very common side effect – so to speak – of feline diabetes: neuropathy in a hind leg (never in a fore-leg, only one at the back). It was his right, and he walked on it like a bear does – flat from the toes to the back of the heel:
whereas a cat normally walks on its toes:
See the diff. ? – and how strange it would be to see a cat walking with an entirely flat back foot ?
Anyway, it was awful; because that right back leg also trembled, and I would cry every time I saw that happening to my once large and fearsome (not really) mog.
But it eventually went away, the neuropathy ! I reckon I was more pleased about that than Lui was.
ANYway.
His diabetes is being managed, with only one interruption when a visit to my new vet resulted in a test’s saying he was in remission and I should radically lower the insulin dose … and the test results were somehow wrong, and he wasn’t in remission and going from 5 units m+n to 3 m+n took him right back to the beginning … Still, now he’s back on being stabbed m+n with 5, and almost back to how he was.
But.
Something is wrong with his right FRONT foot. I shall show you a video, and you’ll see how very wrong it is. In my opinion, at the outset of this, it was as if he had neuropathy in a front foot ! – but it got worse, and now it’s clear that there’s definitely something wrong there. Only trouble is: I’ve taken him back to his vet two more times and on both occasions he has refused to limp and refused to hold his paw up. In other words, he behaves as if there’s nothing wrong with him.
After the second useless visit, Nev suggested I video him. Being a NOT-phone-lover, it hadn’t entered my head. Now I video the little bugger every day; and Nev is going to be bored shitless by having to look at every single one in order to check his progress. Basically, he IS a little better; and he now occasionally puts weight on it when walking. But he still licks the paw, and sits with it pathetically held up …
SHE, the cat’s mother (read: me) is hoping against hope that this, too, will f-f-f-f-fade away …
Sighh … I’m at it again :\
I finished the Vintage Walrus – that is, as much as I’m going to do. I shall add a photo, later – because I need to have breakfasted, showered and dressed so that I can take it outside and put it on the lawn.
I’ve lost interest in it.
Two reasons: (1) because I was dreadfully disappointed in the yarn. Scheepjes Colour Crafter seemed glorious to me when I was making the lapghan for J – those two (ONLY !) shades of grey. But the coloured shades are far less nice to work with: the darker (or perhaps I mean more saturated) the colour, the rougher the strand. I HATE that ! I hate making something with yarn that has tiny bits sticking off it. And (2) because I couldn’t make the motifs without the stranded colours showing up like d*gs’ b*lls, which the designer did not intend. I have no idea how she managed to hide her stranding; but you will admit that her blanket shows not a sign of the second colour’s being carried behind.
I forgot ! – there is a third reason ! (3) because some of the colours are very garish. The on-lne Scheepjes Colour Crafter photos contain a large proportion of very false representations of what you actually get.
So all in all, I am very dissatisfied with the finished (in my terms) article.
With me it’s all or nuthin’; is it all or nuthin’ with you …?
This is Annie Oakley signing off for the time being – until I add that photo.
******************************
Later: it rained last night, so there was no spreading it on the lawn. Although, to be honest, I wouldn’t’ve minded if it got sopping …
Yesyes, I know that the arrangement is far from poifick. That’s what happens when you lose interest. I believe I might’ve reached the point where I shall not construct ANY motif project again.
Btw: there are yarns other than SCC in there, if you observe closely … That’s because I wanted not to be using an acrylic with teeny little bits coming off it.
:-|
I have a loathesome disease !
It’s called “trichiasis”.
It’s really painful; or really uncomfortable; or really annoying; or really distracting. Or all at once.
I’ve had this ghastly affliction for many years – I reckon around ten or so.
Why it chose me I know not. I never heard anyone in my family speak of it; and cerrtainly no-one had to visit their specialist carer to have it looked after …
So It’s apparently not genetic. Or inherited. Or familial. Whatever.
And once you’ve caught it, you’re never free of it for the rest of your days. Thank all the gods, its best feature is that it goes once you’ve had it treated; and there can be lengthy breaks until it recurs.
This is it:
REEEEEEEALLY disgusting, eh ?
Ingrowing eyelashes.
:}
What the— ?
So I get onto the bus after having been #4 clippered, finding the driver to be one previously met and chatted with – middle-aged bloke with all silver hair tied back in a ponytail, who has an accent from somewhere in the Balkans. Sit in the front seat on the left so as to be able to continue chatting.
Somewhere in this activity something is said that causes me to say “Of course, Trump is only making it all worse”, and from there find myself in the Madlands.
“Trump is ? – you’re kidding me !” it begins; and then follows a rave I’ve not experienced thus far. Do I not understand clearly that Trump is the best thing that has ever happened to THE WORLD ? Why do I not know that he is fighting, alone !, to right all the terrible wrongs perpetrated by those who went before ? What about Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and Obama (I draw my breath in sharply), who had rooms deep underneath the White House in which they abused helpless children ?!
I am outraged by this insanity: no-one talks about Obama like that ! Open my mouth to flay him, then shut it again. What’s the point ? He’s perfectly mad, and who would waste her time arguing with a rabid lunatic ?!
As as I disembark, thankfully, at the station, I reflect that in all probability all of Trump’s supporters are of this ilk. Surely they must be …
And think with remembered joy of the man of great learning, industry, dignity, grace and, over-all, humour (how many photos of him have you seen wearing that amazing smile ?). Yes, I’m a hopeless fan, admitting he wasn’t perfect but firmly opined that he was the best in living memory. Just check out the video link behind that devil photo ! :D
Much more than gewgaws
There are them what says crochet is silly; that you can only make tissue-box covers and mats to put around the lav. To them I speak !
I did a filtered search on Ravelry of a designer named Robyn Chachula; and the results were only of her crochet patterns for actual items of clothing – not a scarf or sock (let alone a coffee-cup cosy) amongst ’em. But the search results had to be tied in to my own Ravelry account: so I changed the search terms and now you can access all her designs on that website. I fondly hope.
Just look at what a truly creative person can design !!!
Shall we …?
You might find it hard to believe, but I’ve always had a yen for watching people dance.
That doesn’t mean people in tutus or tights: I’m talking people wearing ordinary clothes (or in certain cases, matching outfits – e.g. Bruno Mars and his team in some performances).
I once even tried it myself: when I lived in Sydney, I was persuaded to attend a line dancing evening ! – and I actually enjoyed it, even though it was a bit frustrating to be expected to pick it up after two rehearsals of each segment. But I didn’t have the right shoes, and I was never going to be able to have the right shoes; so I didn’t go again.
Now I get my dancing kicks on-line, of course: and here is a terrific example of a kind of swing, known as, alas !, “shag dancing”. Do not be put off by the name: it’s BRILLIANT.
This pertickler clip comes with Django Reinhardt backing, so you’re getting a class act. There is the slight initial distraction of the teacher’s voice in the background; but you soon get to enjoy matching what he says with what they’re doing.
I hope you like it. If you don’t, you’re a philistine.
[grin]
Almost no words …
J’s birthday: misery :(
July 27th is the day on which my eldest sister was born. So, as I love my eldest sister (and also my youngest sister), why the misery …?
Because what I made for her is gone. Disappeared. Vanished into the cavernous depths of the French postage system.
Remember this ?
That’s it. After all the time I spent on careful creation, realizing that it IS possible to crochet from side to side without its growing larger, or smaller, or one after the other, or both at once, or slanted … in other words, that I am actually able to create a crocheted lap blanket that’s simply straight up and down – and even without blocking ! – after all this time, as I say, it’s just – gone.
J will never set eyes on the lap blanket I made for her winters up there in Paris, in her little flat that she loves almost as much as she loves the city itself. She will never be found sitting at her desk in, say, January, writing a paper for some conference or other and keeping her lap warm with my lapghan.
So. She’s coming back to Oz in September for a brief sojourn. I must make something to replace the birthday present she never received. The Vintage Walrus must be put on hold while I do this, and that’s that.
This is where I get to make a lapghan with that amazing combo of yarns I posted about yesterday. Unhappily, it won’t be that really nice combination of greens, because I don’t have time to wait for a parcel delivery from the US – nor do I have the money (US postage to Oz is unbelievably expensive) – and instead I’ve chosen something she will like from the very limited range of colours available here.
Not a happy story, not at all. And especially because that lapghan was the first time in my life that I’ve made something plain but good, and finished it. Sighh …
It’s not really plagiarism …
Chi Wei’s site, One Dog Woof, today offers for sale a delightful pattern for a baby blanket. Being a female Methusaleh with mostly contemporaries for friends, babies are not anywhere on my horizon (I am happy to say, having never in my life felt even momentarily maternal). But her pattern provides a discovery about yarn blending !
This is a grab from her finished article:
Ain’t it AMAZING ?
She achieved that look by combining two Lion Brand yarns, Thick & Quick and Baby Soft Boucle – it’s the latter that has those teeny little beads, of course. So I shall be doing the same, ere long (NOT a baby blanket !), but with a different combo:
and I believe the result will be an absolute knockout !
I don’t mean to plagiarise, as I said: it’s just a matter of someone’s basic idea’s providing a kind of eureka moment; and all such someones should be happy !
