Thursday, October 28, 2004

Cats + Yarn + Leather Couch = AAAAARGH!

My night started out just fine. My husband and I went to the nice downtown area after work so I could stop at the LYS and get some size 13 dpns. Quite pricey little things. I couldn't find any cheapie ones in that size at the craft or fabric stores so nice bamboo ones it is.

Once home, I immediately cast on for the kitty bed and was pleased at how quickly it went. However, it was a constant battle to keep the cats out of my work. The female queen kitty isn't the problem - she just watches intently and sometimes decides that when I knit it's a good time to sit on my lap. The male tuxedo-cat is the problem. He wants to attack the yarn. I really should take a picture of him. He looks possessed. During one of the times I pushed him away with my foot, he grabbed onto the arm of the leather couch and...oh, I'm going to be sick. It's not just a scratch. It can't be buffed out with leather conditioner like the half million other scratches he leaves when he races around during kitty-krazies. It didn't go all the way through but it's definitely cut. About 1 1/2 inches long. My husband says leather repair is expensive (can't be as expensive as this sectional couch was). I searched on the internet this morning and learned some stuff. Mainly that the DIY leather repair stuff doesn't really work. A professional can fix it but when I read that it involves sandpaper I quickly knew this was not something I would attempt on my own. A professional can and will fix it...eventually. Since the scratch isn't bad and isn't on a cushion that would get stressed (but could be taken to a shop for repair), I will leave it alone. I'm sure there will be more and we might as well wait to call in the professionals.

I try to keep the cats' claws trimmed but don't always remember to do it. Like closing the barn door after the horse gets out, after the couch got clawed I got out the cats' nail clippers and trimmed some nails. The tuxedo-cat protested and bit me through my sweatshirt sleeve, leaving a nasty bruise.

As for the kitty bed, I'm about half-way through. I'd like to think that the cats' fascination with it is because they somehow know I'm knitting for them. But they've also responded this way to the scarves and hat I recently worked on. And they know where I keep the yarn.

Oh, and I must add that although the bamboo dpns (Crystal Palace) were expensive, they're worth it. I noticed a big difference when I switched to the Clover bamboo circular needles - nice, but not nearly as nice as the Crystal Palace.

1 comment:

  1. It sounds as if your cats have been reading recent entries on wendyknits.com : http://wendyknits.net/archives/000559.html#000559

    I'd guess that they're more of a hardline faction than the one that Lucy leads, though.

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