This is the first fawn I've seen this year - the does haven't let them wander much before now. This little fella tiptoed into the backyard, so I ran out with the camera and 300mm lens. The pictures are tolerably focused for a long lens handheld or balanced on a rubber garbage can.
Instinct is fascinating. Every time I moved, s/he went flat down on the ground, as at left. When I stayed still for a while, its head came up.
The cat box lives inside a cat crate. This allows me to 1) close off the box quickly when I run out to the mailbox, etc, preventing any canine residents from surfing for tootsie rolls; and 2) clean up any "overpee" easily.
Jeeves has recently realized that the cat crate sits by a hot air vent so now he runs in there to bask when the furnace ignites. This is deja vu all over again, because my former feline residents (left to right: Hannah, Travis and Jasper) did exactly this. Huey, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care. Apparently, he is made of sterner stuff, as befits a black panther.
In fibrous news, the shawl project has grown. Unfortunately, it's colliding with an editing deadline on a pattern that I curse more and more by the minute. (Note to so-called designers in the knitting universe: basic algebra is a good thing. You will suffer far less pain if the math geek editor doesn't have to stab the voodoo doll with pins every time she needs to concoct major rewrites of your fuzzy pattern.)
And I'm getting the Beka swift and NKK ballwinder for my upcoming birthday - woo! The swift should be on its way, but I'm still waiting to hear when the ballwinder backorders have cleared. Or so I hope, since the scripting on the NKK web page is more than a little sub-par.
Jeeves deserves equal photo time. While he is of a less elegant body type than Huey, he's seriously cute.
Cookie currently declines to be photographed. Between her surgeries and a flea infestation she picked up (apparently, this fall was hellishly bad for fleas), her coat is a little patchy. She might consent to a headshot at some point.
The new camera is fun, but I still need to work through the manual and get faster at changing the settings. Then maybe I can catch the red-headed woodpecker who hangs out at the feeder.
On the fiber front, I think the first of the book submissions is going to be spectacular, if I do say so myself. Wish I could show pictures!
OK, I have a new camera, and I couldn't resist shooting a back-lit black cat. Verdict: really good fill-in flash and exceedingly grubby window! (And for anyone who notices, yes, the tip of Huey's right ear is missing. He was "tutored" in the local SPCA's feral/barn cat program as a kitten, and they routinely mark the neutered cats by clipping an ear, which is easier to spot from a distance than a scar or lack of testicles.)
I've begun knitting one of the two submissions for the upcoming publication after math-geekily computing weight per stitch to make sure I had enough yarn. Frankly, I think my swatching method should be adopted universally (oh, how humble), because it's much more accurate estimate of the amount of yarn needed than some guess at stitches per unit length.
How to do it: knit a swatch of at least 1000 stitches, although more are preferable, particularly with handspun. Wash and block the swatch if you want to see how the final fabric will look. When it's completely dry (and don't be fooled by wool in a humid climate!), weigh the swatch on an accurate scale; mine is accurate to 0.1g. Divide the number of stitches in the swatch by the weight to get the number of stitches per unit weight. Multiply that by the total amount of fiber you've got, and you know approximately how many stitches you can knit from it.
Today is Jeeves' second birthday (plus or minus a day, since it's always hard to know exactly with barn kittens). The blur was caused by his relentless attacks on the camera strap.
That's Mr. Runt on the left, posing with a glob of canned cat food on his nose. In the other, he's jumping on his mom Midge. She's Jeeves' slightly younger and smaller, but nearly identically marked, sister.
I've measured a short sample warp for the Frida Kahlo Andrea shawl and will dressing the loom shortly. The warp will be 20/2 silk set for twill but woven in plain weave with a 60/2 silk weft. I'm aiming for a warp-dominant but very drapey fabric to show off wide stripes of the multi-colored Andrea flanked by narrower stripes of a solid neutral color.
Jeeves has a rather short but incredibly thick tail. So when he sleeps on any kind of ledge, it falls straight down.
The new shawl is growing rapidly, but since there's no urgency on this project, I'm taking breaks to read, etc. It feels odd to work at what is for me large gauge (5 st/inch), but the knitting certainly zips along.
And I've got a lead on a local fabricating place that will cut me lengths of finer gauge wire for blocking. I'll take a sample of the short wires I already have and see what matches. The Home Despot wire was fine for a project with large lace holes along the edge, but it won't work as well with other patterns.
Here are the gray kitten and Mr. Runt. (I think it's Mr. Runt - the other tabby didn't come out while I was there.) The lure of canned cat food has overtaken Mr. Gray, and you can actually pet him now, at least while he's eating.
This is one of three new barn kittens. He's the biggest and most shy, whereas the runt is very bold and likes to be petted. Prior to this litter, the barn cats have been black (cf. Huey and Jeeves) or gray tabby (Mr. Runt and Kitten #2), but we've never seen the dilute gene before. Of course, we shouldn't see any more, because as soon as the kittens weigh more than 2 pounds, they and mom are getting scooped up and "tutored".
Meanwhile, poor Cookie spent a few hours at the vet's yesterday, because she probably pulled a muscle in her neck or shoulder and was in a fair amount of pain. We came home with drugs, and she's much better today. With luck, she won't need to go back for x-rays.
And I am finally knitting the new shawl! Since the yarn is more fingering weight than lace weight, it will knit up quickly - maybe in less time than it took to work out the stitch pattern.
This munchkin is feasting on what I spilled while refilling the bird feeder.
