Time to catch up

Wow, it's been more than 2 weeks since I last posted anything. It's not like I haven't been doing stuff...I just haven't taken the time to write about any of it. My lack of posting is also because I want to show pictures and I haven't gotten around to taking them or uploading them.

Anyways...here's the scoop (sans photos):

Sewing
The Butterick top is coming along slowly. I work on it for a couple hours a week if I'm lucky.

I'd like to whip up a new night shirt and couple of pairs of knock-around-the-house pants. I really need to make some easy things for a change.

Knitting
I finished the Monkey socks and just need to show them off with a picture. I really like the way they came out.

I started some new socks and frogged them and retarted them, frogged them, restarted, frogged...you get the picture. I can't find the right pattern. The yarn is bamboo/wool called Panda Wool from Crystal Palace. The swatch in stockinette came out soft and drapey and I want to retain the feel, especially since the yarn has a sort of mottled denimy-like look to it that would not show off an intricate pattern very well. I should just do a simple rib knit but I'm afraid I might be too bored knitting it.

My Rowan Bonita tank top is almost done. I reworked the last shoulder and found my error right away - I had misread the instructions.

Garden
We've been eating zucchini every night for the last week or so and there's still a lot more! Now that the hot weather has moved in the snow peas and lettuce are past and the berries are nearly over, but many other things are taking off. We enjoyed our first Early Girl tomato and first cucumber, sliced up in a delicious salad topped with dill from our garden. The yellow squash is quickly ramping up to zucchini-harvest levels so now we are enjoying both for dinner. I've picked over a pound of green beans so far and more are coming although the plants are taking a bit of a beating from the heat. I've picked one jalapeno pepper so far, which was mild so I sauteed it with some squash, garden fresh onions and basil, and served it over couscous. I look forward to more peppers, including Serrano and regular green peppers. Once the tomatoes pick up I think we'll be making fresh salsa. Our corn is looking promising, as are the eggplants. No sign of cantaloupes yet (just blossoms), but the pumpkins are getting big already. I took photos of the garden yesterday and I hope to post them soon so you can see how much everything has grown in two months.

Cats
Had a bit of a scare last week when I found pools of bloody vomit in the living room. When you have 4 cats, it's hard to tell who's doing what but we suspected that it was coming from Abby.

She was a feral kitten and is not totally socialized. We adopted her at 5 months and have had her now for over 4 years but she's still scared of us. She spends most of the day under the bed or behind the couch. Lately she hasn't been coming out for dinner and she was also sneezing. I've experienced plenty of cat puke in my years, but nothing like the bloody pools I found, so we took her to the vet. An exam didn't uncover anything obvious, except that she's a very scared cat, so they took blood and ran a bunch of tests. Some numbers were a bit odd but nothing pointed to anything obvious. The vet thinks she might have eaten something toxic. I'm searching my brain to think what she might have gotten into. This is a cat who will barely eat cat food and is not interested in people food or cat treats. She doesn't seem to get into mischief and doesn't climb on things. The plants look in one piece so unless there's something under the bed or behind the couch I'm not aware of, I just don't know what she could have ingested. I've joked that I have no idea how she stays at her weight (9 lbs) because I hardly see her eating and the other cats are quick to eat her share when she runs away in fear. It's a mystery. But she is doing better. The vet thought she might have a virus so she prescribed an antibiotic, which we are fortunately able to give her 2x day despite her skittishness. We have to close off escape routes and "chase" her down and she hisses at us (fortunately she's all hiss with no biting or scratching) but we can pill her.

So let's hope that it was a virus and not something toxic or some cancer or disease. She's an odd little kitty but it's still nice to have her around. She likes to be brushed (the only time I hear her purr) and even tolerates me cutting her nails. I hope she gets less fearful of us as she gets older but she hasn't really changed since we brought her home. We adopted another former feral kitten around the same time and he is also skittish but he at least interacts with us more and I can even pet him when I put his food down. If you have any ideas, both as to what Abby might have eaten and how to socialize her, I'd love to hear them.