Napkins Still Underway, Slowly

The napkins are slowly threading themselves :)

At this point, I'm at end #1050, out of a total of 1240 (about 19 inches wide at 65 epi). Unfortunately, threading and holiday preparations are mutually exclusive activities, so not only is it slow going but there are an inordinate number of interruptions ("What did we get for my brother?" "Nothing yet, you were supposed to have him on your shopping list!"). Here's a picture showing the three remaining sections to be threaded.



Those last three sections will have to wait until we get back from spending Christmas with DH's family in So.Cal.

In the evenings, I've been working on a couple of instant-gratification projects: cat beds crocheted from wool roving. Okay, okay, I know it's not weaving, and never was even in the same room as the loom. Too bad!

I bought the makings for the first one as a kit from Meridian Jacobs at CNCH back in April. Robin Lynde bundles an appropriate quantity of the multicolor Jacob roving (the "britch" or rug yarn version) along with directions and a gigantic crochet hook made from a wood dowel. There's a picture of Robin's finished article here. However, my cats are both 12-pound bruisers who are far more likely to sprawl full-length than to curl up daintily, so I made mine larger and flatter, not so much bowl shaped.



This is Tim (short for Timid, which he was as a kitten). Isn't he beautiful? At this time of year, he gains 2 lbs in body weight, and almost as much in fur!

Of course, because I have two cats, as soon as I finished the first bed, I had to make another. I found a 3/4-lb bag of Columbia roving in the attic that has a fair bit of VM mixed in (I figured the cats wouldn't mind a few weeds - they bring in daily bushels of burrs and twigs in their fur and scatter it around the house) and used it for the second cat bed. I have to say that the "britch" Jacob was much easier to work with than the fine, ultra crimpy Columbia! I think that one will felt in no time, with 12 pounds of lazy long-haired cat rolling around in it.



This is Trouble, well-named when we got him at 12 weeks, and still well-named now at 1.5 years. He's a true double-coated cat, like some primitive breeds of sheep, having a down coat next to the skin and a hair coat on the outer layer that sheds water. Those eyes always have a gleam of "what mischief can I get into next?" in 'em. It never takes him a long time to find an answer.

Tim, on the other hand, has a single coat, all the same stuff all over his body. And, is less likely to find mischief.

Between the two of them, we have no gopher problem in our 3.5 acres. No mice, no gophers, no moles, no rats, no ground squirrels. None. Zero. Zilch. Of course, there are the occasional critters (alive or otherwise) that are brought indoors to be admired, but the number of outdoor critters diminishes on a daily basis.