Catching up...

Since the last time I posted, I've had cataract surgery on both eyes, and can now see distant things without glasses! The trade-off is that since I'm no longer near-sighted, instead of holding small stitching close up to see it, I have to hold it farther away, and use magnifiers. It's hard to change a life-long habit, but I'm determined!

Catnip Mousies!

I went to the Natural Foods store yesterday, and bought (among other things) some buckwheat hulls and some catnip, so I could make some catnip mousies for my kitties. I also bought some lavender, to stuff a sleep mask for me.

Anyway, today I got out some flannel scraps that I got from a coworker, and made myself a mousie template from an index card. I drew it about the size of their favorite non-catnip mousies, forgetting that those mousies have their little skins stretched over a hard body by a machine. I came to that realization after sewing four of them and turning two right-side out. These were way too small to stuff with anything but a cotton ball, and we don't have any of those. So I tossed them, and the cats are going to get little square pillows instead.

Back to stitching!

Frogging the sweater

Yesterday morning, I spent hours hanging out with Honey, and working on my sweater. I was almost done with the second sleeve, when I realized that it was a good two inches shorter than the first one. So I had to "rip-it" out; and since I'd been decreasing at a pretty good clip, I had to rip almost back to the elbow. sigh

So I picked the stitches back up and got back to work on it. I haven't gotten nearly so far on it, though, because I also got busy doing other household kinds of things.

In the afternoon, my neighbor across the street took me to the Natural Foods store (called Harvest House) about a mile-and-a-half from here, and then to the produce market that's near it. Harvest House is a treasure trove of grains, flours, herbs, teas, and all kinds of such goodies, including all the stuff to make salves & ointments & such. Oh, and buckwheat hulls for herb pillows. Needless to say, I'll be going back there often!

Shortly after I finished putting away my purchases from that foray, Dee came home and gave me a ride over to Safeway to pick up more mundane things, like prescriptions and cat litter.

Today, after I finished going through this week's craft-show recordings (I love Tivo!), I did a load of laundry in the kitchen sink (which makes a wonderful washtub), and hung it out to dry in the back yard. I do love having a yard where I can stretch a line to dry things in the sun! Now it's a bit too warm to sit with a lapful of wool, so I'll get back to my knitting later.