Did something just for me...

No I didn't knit myself something, as if I could right now with all the projects I have gotten backed up on. I GOT MY TATTOO!

For pretty much my whole life (at least since 4th grade) I have been obsessed with Ancient Egypt. In fact, I am still disappointed for not going into Egyptology in college (but there is still time for that). Anyways, if you know me you know I wear Ankh's (symbol for LIFE) everywhere, earrings, necklace, rings, purse, everywhere. I have wanted to get an ankh tattoo for years but always chickened out because my family would kill me or just plain ol' being a pussy but I have stopped all that and finally after 10 years of seriously considering getting the tattoo I DID!

It is syck as shit and "I love it so much I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant"(thank Tracy Morgan for that quote). I was lucky to have my buddy Erica with me (and a few friends from work) cause she was a good support.

I can't lie though, I have to brag a bit, I took that tat like a man, no pain, no tears (until after from joy), and most of all no shaking. Everyone was very impressed (including myself I am usually such a pussy) but it really didn't hurt until he got to the soft fleshy top if the oval. Erica was there rubbing my hands the whole time it was nice.

So anyway, I am thrilled and want to take my tat on the road, gotta get skinny again so I will feel more comfort wearing tank tops! This is kind of a blabbering post but I had to talk about my tat. I need to get some of my recent projects up here too. I can't believe I don't blog anymore.

YAY!

WE FINALLY HAVE THE HOUSE!!!

Unfortunately it is a piece of shhhhhhhhh at the moment cause the lady that lived there before was a pig but we are cleaning and patching holes and painting and all that good stuff. So I should be posting pictures of it in about a week or so. As you can imagine I haven't been able to pick up sticks in a while and I am knitting anxious but I have too much house stuff to do.

Oh yeah, and I just bought knittingwithavengeance.com so my cousin and I will be designing my site soon and getting that up. It will be fun fun fun. Can't wait to get working on that.

That's it for now, just a posted to let yawl know what I am up to. I will be bloggin' again once we get settled in.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

World Wide Knitting in Public Day

Yesterday was World Wide Knitting in Public Day and although I have been absent from my blog for awhile, I have been "trying" to get my first official WWKIP day off without a hitch. Well, because I am in the middle of buying a house and getting a promotion I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I had hoped. BUT in the end it was a nice day. We had about 12 knitters, some who knew each other, some that did not, but we all sat there in our little patch of grass on the capitol lawn and knitted it up.

I think it will make it easier for me to go out on a limb and pop up at one of these knitting meet-ups in town through out the month.

I don't really have much to say about the event except that it was hot, humid, but fun meeting the ladies and seeing the different things they were knitting on. Here are some of my pictures from the day...

Failed! Failed AGAIN!

Talking big talk like I was going to be back on the blog more often but life has gotten in the way a bit. Trying to buy a house, getting a semi-promotion, and of course playing mama to two lively kittens. But still knitting. I made a few more hats for my World Wildlife Fund fundraiser, and that came to a close on Earth Day but I raised more money that I pledged to, so that felt awesome. But I haven't gotten any pictures of my recent knits yet, so I will do that shortly. I just thought if I put up a post maybe it might boost my bloggin' again.

Been at SXSW this week hence my lack of posting but I will blog up a storm after the festival ends on Saturday. And don't you all worry, I have been knitting my WWF beanies like crazy as well, 2 down, 1 on sticks, and 1 to get on sticks. I am hoping to get a few more biters, if not I will just knit up a couple and try to "sell" them to folks at work or something. Just to show you that I am knitting here is a picture of the first hat I completed this week.

I promise I will post after SXSW ends!

World Wildlife Fund Time for Change Earth Day April 22

I have joined a pledge to collect change for the World Wildlife Fund 's Earth Day fundraiser. Basically, you can pledge anywhere from $50 and up and as you collect the change take it down to a Coin Star machine and send the donation to WWF between March 4th and April 22nd. The idea is to pledge to collect the change in your own unique environment friendly way. I have chosen to knit beanie's from my existing stash for people in exchange for whatever change they are able to scrounge up. I have also scrounged up change from my home and truck to donate.

I have always been connected to the World Wildlife Fund in some form or another since I was a little kid, saving up my milk money here and there to adopt a sea turtle or something, but this is the first time I have ever signed up to help out. I think bringing the kittens into my home this year has made me more aware of the need to protect animals. And as every cat owner knows, those little cuties still retain quite a lot of the instincts and mannerisms of their larger & wild cousins. Having miniature, semi-wild versions of a tiger or leopard in my house has made me more inclined to participate in animal and environment charities than people ones. People can take care of themselves, Revan & Rayne's cousins need my help! (heeheeheehee).

I got my first request for a camoflague beanie so I am working on that right now. Hopefully, a lot of others will hit me up for beanies for a good cause. Anyways, I just wanted to share this with you all and encourage you to collect whatever change you can and send it on over to the World Wildlife Fund or any charity that you feel strongly about.

Reunited and it feels so good...

Revan got cleared from the vet on Friday, so we had the first weekend together as a family in over a month. It was so great. Cuddling with both babies, and watching them play. I couldn't have been happier. =)

I finished my Knit Blue project as well. Which was basically most of the way done for about a year, but the Knit Blue KAL gave me an excuse to finish it. I do want to try to make something actually Democratic in nature since that is the point of the KAL. We'll see.

I like this picture, it kind of has some mystery. I hand took this with my Nikon D80 and the lens is so large it sometimes cast a shadows in the image (usually a point of irritation) but in this picture. That's it for now, I'm sleepy.

Green Hat Finished, Yay!





Top View

Harassing baby Rayne

I am the host of a few extra knitting blogs now, I started the Atheist Knitters Blog yesterday but for awhile now I have also been hosting the Austin Knitters Blog Ring and I have begun preparations for the first official Austin World Wide Knitting in Public Day. I blogged about it on the Austin Knitters Blog here.


I thought I might blog about it a little here in case any of you are intersted in hosting your town's WWKIP event. For details on how to make it official go here.

Okay, I created a blog and blog ring for Atheist Knitters. It will be awesome but first we gotta get members. Check it out, join if your interested and pass the word along.

Yay!

In Progress: Green Hat for Green Hat Along

This pattern is loosely based off the Besotted Scarf Pattern from Hello Yarn (but the X's & O's are smaller), and a few hats I have seen on the random blog. I had been struggling with the X's & O's when attempting other peoples versions of this pattern.I kept getting a lot of holes in the reverse stockinette and it just was looking awful so I frogged it several times but this last restart things clicked. I reduced the number of reverse stockinette stitches there were and added and extra row in the O's to give it a more open look and it is starting to look how I pictured in my head.

I have slid my head in there a bit and it does make for a nice snug fit, which I really wanted to get. I think it will turn into a favorite pattern and I'll have to knit up several in different colors. The brilliant part of this project is that it covers both the Green Hat Along and my Fall Cables KAL (which I like to keep up on a nice community of knitters) killing two birds with one stone. (Where did that phrase come from, isn't it an odd one?) I hope to be done with this hat today so I can move on to my Knit Blue project.

I have to show off how cute my little Rayne is. Okay, unlike Revan who isn't as crazy when he chills in my lap while I knit. I mean he bats at the yarn and bites it and stuff but its not crazy. Rayne goes freaking nuts! She bites the yarn and pulls more into her mouth with her paws, she makes this sound like she is inhaling sand or something. But the worse thing of all...she bites the project! Yes, she bites the freaking project AND pulls more of it into her mouth. She has rustled many a Sharmane feather doing that. I am forced to 'kitty be good' her (that's what I call the squirt bottle). But every now and then she just gets so tuckered out that she falls right to sleep on the yarn...

And this is Rayne just before an attack...

Cute huh?

Anywho, I just wanted to share a bit about her since I have so rarely had a Rayne only post. Its sad I know, I am still getting used to the baby girl. Even though we have had her now for about a month and a half, most of that was spent in a bathroom recovering from the ringworm. She is a sweetheart though loves to curl up and snuggle you, and if she is on the floor and you walk up to her she immediately rolls over to the submission position to be petted. With Revan we worked a little bit for that roll over. For all her sweetness though she is equally irritating, waking me up through out the night biting my hair and fingers. She did do really well Monday night though, she didn't start biting my hair until after my snooze went off a few times. She was my little alarm clock yesterday morning. I was very proud of her. Then this morning she struck again but not until 5:47 AM which is 13 minutes before my first alarm goes off and that is certainly not as bad as it has been. With a little more training via 'kitty be good' she should be able to keep her bed privileges for awhile. =)

Revan has a check up on Friday to see if the ringworm is dead on him yet. I really hope he is cleared cause I am tired of missing out on good kitten time. And getting the kids back together again will be nice as well, you can tell they miss each other because Rayne sits at the bathroom door and they swat at each other through the crack under the door. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...my poor babies.

Meme

I took this from A Pinch of Knit and a Dash of Purl.

1. I’ve been hooked on the needles since: I taught myself to knit (with the help of others) a few years ago, 2004.


2. I’m still a virgin, but not for long: Fair Isle. I don't know, that I even like the look of Fair Isle but I want to at least know I am capable of doing it.


3. She’s crafty - she gets around…to : KNIT. I am basically just a knitter in terms of needle crafts but I have scrap-booked a little, and made cards and such before.


She’s crafty - she’s always down…for: Photographing something, someone, some kitten in my house. I love my cameras and I can’t go a day without taking a picture.


She’s crafty - she’s got a gripe…about : How ineffective most instructional books are. There have been times I have read a book on a certain technique and just not understood the method, and then I open a different book a year later or something and it is plain as day. I just wish that knitting instruction books made more sense. Or that there was some standardization or something.


She’s crafty - and she’s just my type. What type of knitter are you? I clutter knitter. I have a jumble of UFO’s on sticks and a jumble of yarns I am not sure how I acquired (can we say buy when you don’t need to) and all my knitting stuff is unorganized to the average eye but to me it all makes sense…sort of.


4. I’m dying to try: NORO! It’s so pricey though, but man it seems to be all the rage.


5. I gravitate towards colors like: I like dark colors, Black, Grey, Blue, Purple, but I am trying to lighten my spectrum up a bit.

6. My most cherished possession (kids, pets, family don’t count) is: My Ankh jewelry. I have always been obsessed with Ancient Egyptian art, culture, history. And I have a bunch of ankh’s I wear daily and I would hate to be caught dead without them. I don’t know why the symbol just grabs me.

7. I’m stuck on an island, what am I reading? I like mysteries, true crime, some science fiction, knitting stuff of course, and letters from famous people to other famous people.

8. If I were about to be executed and I was offered a last meal , I’d be dining on:

Anything with meat (and I means BEEF), cheese, sauce, and bread. And fried (my favorite food group is fried). And desserts with caramel, or cheesecake, or lime flavor.

9. Music to knit by: I watch TV when I knit mostly.

10. I have a crush on: My kitten Revan, I am so in love with him.

10a. I am in lust with: Tristan of course.

11. Least favorite celeb: Britney Spears

12. Choose:

Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp? Brad Pitt
Madonna or Janet Jackson? Madonna (But I used to love Janet until she got crazy)
June Cleaver or Peg Bundy? Neither, not my type of women
Jackie or Marilyn? Marilyn Monroe (but I like both in different ways)
Love or Money? Well, I have love, so let's say money. =)
Brains or Looks? Brains
Math or English? English
Cat or Dog? Dog (usually but I recently gotten kittens and I love them)
Leader or follower? Leader
Beer or Champagne? Neither both are gross to me, not much of a drinker unless there is midori present.


13. My favorite smell? Tristan’s skin. There are times it is just crazy and I must sniff him to death.


14. Not many people know this about me: Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don’t.
15. My hidden talent is: I used to be a great dancer, then I got hurt, and then I gained weight, so no more dancing.

Biting of more than I can knit?

I'm afraid I dun bit off more than I can chew in my knitting projects of late. I got myself all excited and joined all these damn KALs and now I am not sure I'm going to be able to keep up. (Psssssssh yeah right!)

No, my concern is only that I have started, frogged, restarted, frogged, and restarted my green hat for the Green Hat KAL about 4 or 5 times now and although it typically only takes me about 12 - 15 total hours to knit a beanie, I am attempting to design on the fly and it has been reeking havoc on my knitting. Plus, I am still riding my high of the camo blanket (I'm just so proud ;P ) and so I think I went into this "designing a green hat" thing with a little too much gumption. Anyways, I still hope to have my green hat finished in time for St. Patty's day but if not at least I will have my green t-shirt I designed. (I'll post pics on that on the day.)

I do still want to get a jump on my Knit Blue Project I was also going to get all big and bad and knit a "Vote Hillary" scarf or something but maybe I will just use this blue wool I have been sitting on for awhile and make me a plain ol' k1, p1 scarf that I can wear with almost anything. We'll see.

Fetching gloves....ummm yeah right haven't even tried to cast on. But to be fair I attempted to join last month and they never even contacted me back so even if I do knit them I won't be able to post on that blog.

I have the start of a "My So Called Scarf" but I haven't revisited it in weeks. Its not even worth posting about yet. I also haven't heard back from the Invisible Pink Unicorn guy yet about granting me permission to do the IPU KAL, but as soon as I do I will get that going too. If I never here back, then I will probably just do the Arabic symbol of a circle with a strike through it with nothing behind it, that is another symbol adopted by Atheist as well.

It's really all about, what do I feel like knitting at the moment for me right now, which is strange because I am very much used to having A PROJECT that I want to focus on, not have 5 or 6 things I want to do all at the same time.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Project Spectrum thing too! I just joined, it will be an easy fit with my Knit Blue project but what about next month!!!!!!!

Funny!

I have to share this cute comic strip with you all that my co-worker friend Erica (Nathan's mommy) sent me after I conveyed how my night last night went.

I got the news yesterday when I picked up Rayne from the vet's that she was free and clear of ringworm and no longer needed to be quarantined in the bathroom. I was so happy cause that meant she didn't have to be cooped up any longer but I was sad too because now Revan had to be in the bathroom alone. Well, being that Baby Girl has been locked up in the bathroom for nearly a month she seemed to have forgotten all the rules of the house. Like "NO BITING MAMU'S FINGERS" and "NO BITING MAMU'S HAIR." All night long she harassed me as if she never got the memo that humans are not nocturnal like cats! So, when Erica sent me this comic I started cracking up all alone in my desk at work. That is pretty much how my night was and I'm sure will continue to be until my Baby Girl Rayne learns the rules again.

YAY! I'm finished!!!!!

I gave Erica the blanket for Nathan today and she loved it and already set it up in Nathan's room and sent me this picture...

What do you think?

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Found a couple more Knitalongs you might enjoy

So, I am at work surfing the Internet as per usual and I came across a couple more KALs that I thought might be of interest. The first is "Knit Blue" its a KAL for democrats. In support of the change of power in Congress. I have just finished a blue item but I will have to get another on sticks for this KAL. Besides the color I am not sure of what I could possible knit that would show my Demo-Pride but I will be happy to contribute for the fun of it. Here is all the blue I have left to knit from (I am trying not to buy more yarn without a specific project in mind).

The second KAL I discovered is for St. Patrick's Day, which is a mixed holiday for me because it is also my Best Friend, Elizabeth's birthday. Poor dear, her birthday on a holiday she has no connection to on account she's Armenian. Well, she was born here but still there ain't no Irish in that lass. And I'm not sure she loves wearing green on her birthday every year. I'm off subject, so this St. Patrick's Day KAL is for green hats. No pattern in particular, you just have to knit green hats. I have some left over dark green from Xmas time when I attempted to make stockings (I will be attempting that again this year too I imagine). AND I believe it will match the T-shirt I designed for the holiday. It says, "Don't Pinch ME, I'm 1/8 Irish." I love that there are so many websites out there that allow us to design our own shirts and have them printed. I have my Knit Vengeance store on cafepress.com of course. But there are so many others you can work from. As soon as I have the shirt and get started on my STP hat I will start posting pictures.

Let me know if you have any interesting KALs that you are a member of, I so like the idea of it (which I have blogged about before).

Tangled in laces...: Elephant!

Hey knitta's, you have got to check out this post on Tangled in Laces of this toy elephant that fellow knitter & blogger, Black Rayne (Black Rayne spells her name like we spelled our little Rayne's name) made for her mother.

I am a super huge fan of elephants. I still have my toy pink elephant from my babydom... see.

So, we all know what my next project is going to be, so much for my knit-o-lutions I don't believe I have stuck to any of them. =) Who gives a shit, at long as we're knitting right? Right! I doubt I will be totally finished with my camo blanket by tonight as I claimed yesterday. You see it is 3 PM my time right now and I only just woke up and hour ago. I guess staying up late the last few nights to finish knitting that "N" finally caught up to me and I slept for 14 hours. Oops!

Well I better close for now. I have a lot of the day to catch up on.

Progress Report: Camo Baby Blanket

I am on a knitting high right now. The last 2 nights since I got started on the "N" portion of the blanket kept me from going to bed at decent hours and so I am tired as fuck today. (I have Photoshop class from 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturday's.) But I couldn't be happier with this project it is shaping up to be exactly how I pictured in my mind. The "N" ACTUALLY came out, I am so excited. I am on the last 1/3 of the blanket and might be done by tomorrow night. I can't wait to give it to Erica. I hope she and her husband really like it. After I give it to her I'll get permission to post her pics of the camo baby room so you can see how they go together. For now here are so in progress pics from the last couple days.

Of course the "N" is a pretty easy target for my first Intarsia letter but I am still excited about it. Hopefully, an "S" won't be so bad, cause you know I have to make something with an "S" now. =)

The Alphabet Meme:(ripped from Knit Wit Girly's page)

A - Available or Taken: Taken by my hubby of 1 1/2 years, boyfriend of 5 ½ years, and best friend of 14 years.

B - Best Friend: I have another BF, Elizabeth “Lulu” B. of 9 years

C -Cake or Pie: Key Lime Pie

D - Drink of Choice: Non-alcoholic – Any regular soda that is not Pepsi; Alcoholic – Midori Sour

E - Essential item you use everyday: Toothbrush

F - Favorite Color: Black, Grey, Blue, Purple

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Both

H - Hometown: Sacramento, CA & Long Beach, CA (I can’t explain what this mean but I was born in both these cities. Sac I was birth in, LBC turned me into a person.)

I - Indulgence: CARAMEL, knitting and kittens.

J - January or February: February – My REAL anniversary (not the stupid wedding one)

K - Kids & ages: 2 kittens – Revan & Rayne

L - Life is incomplete without: Tristan, Lulu, Revan, & Rayne.

M - Marriage Date or Most Memorable Date ( and why): marriage 06/04/2005, anniversary 02/02/2000, Revan day 10/13/2006, Rayne day 01/12/2007N - Number of Siblings: 1 FULL brother, 1 HALF sister, 1 HALF brother.

O - Oranges or Apples: Depends on the time of day and whether or not they are soaked in sugar or something

P - Phobias or Fears: spiders & other creepy-crawlies, kittens dying, losing use of my fingers and hands and therefore losing my ability to knit.

Q - Fave Quote: "I can resist anything, EXCEPT for temptation.” – Oscar Wilde

R - Reason to Smile: Tristan is funny as hell always, Kittens are cute as hell always, and people falling down or getting hurt of course, funny as hell always.

S - Season: WINTER, fuck Texas heat & humidity

T - Tag 3 or 4 People: Anyone I don’t want to force someone that doesn’t want to do it.

U - Unknown fact about me: (to my family) Sometimes I feel like a nut, and sometimes I don’t.

V - Vegetable you don't like: everything that isn’t broccoli.

W - Worst Habit: Leaving my stuff on the floor all over the house.

X - X-rays: Sure. Post car accident and of course dental stuff.

Y - Your Fave Food: anything that taste good and has the 5 major food groups, FRIED, SAUCE, MEAT, BREAD, & CHEESE

Z - Zodiac Sign: Sag

Just when I thought it couldn't be any worse

Rayne is nearly on the mend from the Ringworm and I was looking forward to reuniting my kittens, then I looked down at Revan while I was knitting this evening and found that he too has the ringworm. I put him under a UV light (like the doctor's use to diagnose it) and found 3 spots on his head and ears. Now I have both kitten in separate bathrooms and I have to RE-steam clean my entire house after a days worth of steam cleaning the ringworm germs though out my entire apartment this weekend.


What a nightmare! I am losing precious kitten time having my two babies locked up in bathrooms. It has only been 2 weeks but it feels like two months. Now Revan needs to be locked up for probably another 2 weeks. I can't bare it. I have never thought of myself as over emotional but I am reduced to tears every time I hear my kittens cry for attention. Puddle of tears and Sharmane on the carpet tonight I don't have the energy to knit, clean, eat, I just want to play with my kittens but I can't cause they are infectious. When is this going to end!!!!!!

Making some changes...

My code has been all screwy lately cause I have been trying to find a template that screams "KNITTING WITH A VENGEANCE" but I hadn't found that perfect one, until now...I think.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my little Revan. It was perfect, I was taking an in-progress photo of the scarf that my EX-coworker Tanisha had me make and then gave back (but its okay cause Whitney has it now and she loves it) and Revan just walked up and squatted next to it, as if he was guarding it from danger. I decided that had to be the background for my blog. Since this shifted from being a knitting blog to a knitting & kitten blog it seems wildly appropriate. I think this one is here to stay.

As for the blog, you may notice that I am changing my links to have little buttons from your pages. If you already had a button I grabbed it, if you didn't I made my own with your pages titles. If you see it and don't want me to steal the self-made button from your page, let me know and I'll take it down. BUT if you like the button and want it for your own page email me at knittingwithavengeance (at) gmail (dot) com and I will be happy to email it to you. If you don't see one for your page yet, its coming I'm doing this from work so I catch time where I can. (shhhhh don't tell anyone)

I am happy to report that I started the "N" part of the baby blanket and it is looking good so far. I really expected it to be a lot more difficult than it is turning out to be. I may need to sew up the back side a bit just to reinforce the design because I am knitting as loose as I can so as not to make any mistakes. But other than that I feel pretty confident. It is the first time I have felt this confident that the design will go over really well to the person I'm giving it to. Is it wrong to have that kind of confidence about a project? I can say that I'm not having arrogant feeling about it, just excitement that something I put my mind to is actually looking like what I pictured in my head when I tackled the idea. I'll post another picture of it tonight when I get a little more of the "N" knitted up. I'm very excited to get this thing done to give to Erica. I really, really, really hope she likes it.

(Added in-progree pictures later)



Progress after starting the "N"


Close up of the start of the "N"

In other news, I am beginning to plan what I hope will be a huge World Wide Knitting in Public Day. I have put in a request to the official website (click link for more info) and I have sent out a message to my Austin Knitter's Blog Ring in hopes to get others involved. It will hopefully take place on the steps (or at least the grounds) of the State Capitol here. We'll see how the planning develops. I have to see if you have to have permission to have a gathering on the steps an all since it isn't a protest or anything (although I am not opposed to having a KNIT IN of some sort should a good enough cause pop up). I'll keep y'all posted on this. Email me with any ideas if you have any or want to share what you're doing for World Wide Knitting in Public Day.

Current Project: Camouflage Baby Blanket

It has been a long time since I have posted about knitting but I am trying to get back into the swing of things, even though my kitten's health issues are consuming me right now. I am trying to knit a baby blanket for my co-worker buddy Erica. She is the most prepared for a first baby person I have ever met. From the time she knew the gender she had his name picked out and began referring to him as Nathan. SOOOOO, I'm am going to try for the first time to knit an "N" into the center of the blanket. Little Nathan's room is all camo oriented, and I discovered the camouflage yarn from Red Heart and thought it was worth a shot. Here is what I have so far...

I am going to have the tan trim all around with an inner rectangle of the camo, then a tan square in the center with a camo "N." I hope it comes out good. "N" at least isn't too complicated of a letter, it is just a question of whether or not I have success at the knitting of it. I will begin the center in about 5 more lines, so wish me luck!

It is amazing what a few years of experience will do for you. When I first started knitting, I tackled the ridiculous task of knitting my nephew's baby blanket. Except it took me six months and it ended up being his 1st birthday present.

NOW though, I am only a week and a few days into this and I have already completed a third of the blanket. Not that it is a complicated stitch by any means, its just the experience factor here. It is great to have found a hobby that you can REALLY watch yourself grow and improve. I love it! I can't imagine not knitting.

Thanks for the kind words, ladies...

I appreciate the comments, ladies. It was a tough week surely. But Revan got his clear bill of health on Saturday, so we were able to de-cone him and allow him to walk around the house again. Poor thing hated that cone and he was in desperate need of a licking and went to town when we got back from the doctor. I swear I don't think he came up for air for a couple of hours.

I also got the results back from the doctor about how Revan's genetic code reads. He basically had less than .25 (I forget what the measurement was mg or something) for the female cat equivalent to estrogen but for the male testosterone he measured less than a neutered male cat. A fully intact normal male cat measures at 1000, and neutered male cat measures at 100, and Revan measures at less than .50. That makes him almost genderless. Which is bizarre because he has the male organs & he is a hump-er and a half. So, he had to have gotten a nice big dose of testosterone to turn him into a boy on the outside and give him a testicle but somehow the testosterone reduced in his system and so his blood work makes him come up "practically genderless." He is still my little boy, but it is so strange that he measures genderless, cause we all start out female so something had to happen to give him a penis but what!?!?!?!?!

My little one in a million baby is all back to normal behavior though, he is running, jumping, and fighting like he used to which I am glad about. But it is sad cause now that he has access to the rest of the house and Rayne is still trapped in that bathroom. Revan spends most of his time sitting at the bathroom door waiting for a chance to see her or listen to her meow. It is soooooooooooo sad. I already hated that she was suffering in that bathroom, now they both are. Cause he wants his little playmate back. I swear I can't deal with it for another 3 weeks. I've even tried to convince my husband that we should shave her down to get rid of all the patches of ringworm so she can walk around again but we can't do that can we? We can't even know for sure that it would kill the disease on the skin but the spores maybe gone. A cat owner co-worker of mine told me that he put a little cigarette ash on it to kill it in their cats and I was shocked to find out that when I told other people they were all like "Yeah, heat kills it." But they sprinkled ash on their cats!!!! Doesn't that seem cruel? I can't bring myself to do that to my poor baby but I would like the doctor to laser it or something (but she'd be asleep for that).Anyone else have any "non-cruel" ways of killing the ringworm on my baby girl? I gotta get her out of that bathroom.

Okay, I promise I will get pictures of my in-progress knitting projects up soon. I really hope my camo baby blanket comes out good cause it would go with my friend's baby room very well. (Details to come soon)

Tales of Two Kittens

Been out of touch for awhile, a lot has happened . I don't even know where to begin. My poor little Revan went in for his neuter surgery last week. Tristan and I didn't want to neuter him but since Rayne was already fixed and he was trying to figure out how to hump her all the time, we thought it was best for her if we got him fixed. Well, I get a call from the nurse saying the there were complications and that they were going to have to do more invasive surgery because they could only find one testicle. If the other one was in his body cavity somewhere her could get cancer later on in life so they had to go in and find that testicle. I authorized the surgery but was a wreck at work thinking of my poor little boy having 2 surgeries in one day. I couldn't wait any longer I called the pet hospital to ask how he was doing and I get a weird reaction from the nurse. She said, "Um the doctor is just monitoring Revan coming out of anesthesia but she wants to talk to you in person, she will call you right back. Of course I am thinking the worst. He survived but he is brain dead, or he will never walk again, you know BAD STUFF. Then the doctor calls me back and tells me that the reason they couldn't find Revan's second testicle is because he didn't have it, instead he had AN OVARY!

Yeah that's right! He had one testicle and one ovary. He is a hermaphrodite. Well, technically he is a hermaphrodite but in actuality, the doctor said that even if Revan was going to be a girl, and estrogen released to her instead of testerone "she" would have only had one working ovary cause the other one was a dud. And since all mammals are female until testerone is introduced, and he does have the one dud ovary, he is technically a hermaphrodite. He is classified as "mostly male." She said that since he had the one dud ovary all that testerone pumping to his body gave him one BIG testicle. (She thought my husband would be proud to know that.) So, my little baby boy is a hermaphrodite and he has been locked up in our bedroom since the surgery so he can heal without trying to jump all over the place and injure himself.

I was also having trouble with Rayne lately. I came home from work one day to find she had a chunk of fur missing from her head. I first thought Revan and her were wrestling hard but the more I looked at it the more it was clear that was way to big a chunk of fur for one kitten to pull out so I though maybe she ran under the furniture too fast and caught her head on a sharp end. I went looking for this clump of fur but found nothing. And shrugged it off. The a few days later I notice Rayne's eyes had begun to turn outwards (like the opposite of cross-eyed) and I figured I might as well take her in to the doctors too. Turns out my little Rayne came to us with Ringworm. Since she was a shelter kitten, she more than likely picked up a bunch of germs waiting to be adopted. She made Revan sick when she first came and then she turns up with Ringworm. So, I had to isolate her as well.

Already the kittens were separated because of Revan's recovery but now I had to put her in the other bathroom to keep her from dropping ringworm spores all over the house infecting Tristan, Revan, and I. It was hard enough just keeping Revan locked up in my bedroom for a few days, but to have to turn around and lock Rayne up too was just tragic. I spent the first two days crying on my bathroom floor while petting Rayne and telling her I am so sorry that she is by herself. We try to go in and play with her and give her some loving but then we have to wash our clothes and any part of our skin she touched, its really awful. We have 2 kittens and we can't hang out and play with either of them. She'll have to be isolated for about a month while she is medicated to kill the ringworm in her. A MONTH! Now Revan can probably start roaming the house again in a few days but she'll have to hear Revan walking about while she is trapped in a windowless bathroom. It is too much to bare.

It takes me about an hour to feed and medicate Revan, then feed and medicate Rayne. Throw all my clothes into the wash and wash my hands and arms, then get myself ready for the day. So, not a whole lot of affection time. I try to make up for it at night. It's unbearable. It has been 9 days and Revan is recovering great. I'm sure I'll be able to de-cone him soon so he can be a real cat again. Oh its been crazy awful.

There is a whole lot of other stuff going on but all I can think about is the kittens. I'll try to update my blog with all my new knitting projects. I'm making a camouflage baby blanket for one of my prego co-workers. Just bare with me on the blog posts. Thanks.

We got Rayne because we thought Revan wasn't getting enough activity but all these kittens do is sleep, LOOK!

Revan

Rayne

Revan & Rayne

Revan's trying to wake up, Rayne decides against it.

To be fair Revan was sick this week, I had to take him to the emergency room Monday night. They don't know exactly what was wrong but seemed pretty certain it had to do with bringing a new kitten into the house. Especially, since Rayne was a rescue and was stuffed in a kennel with other cats around. Who know what germies lurked in our baby girl.

Reven seems to have made a fun recovery, he was playing, wrestling, eating, and drinking last night so I'm relieved. Although Rayne turned up with this huge gash on her head and a patch of hair slightly larger than a dime missing. The weird thing is that the skin where the gash is looks like it already scabbed over but there is NO WAY we missed this thing on her head! It is simply too huge, so it must have happened yesterday. Maybe from running under a piece of furniture too fast or something. It doesn't seem to bother her if you touch it. But when we sort of stretched it out to make sure it was a cut she didn't like it. These kittens are going to drive me to drink with worry. Revan sick, Rayne injured, now if Tristan (hubby) falls down or something I'm done for.

A Summary of a Few Things

I failed to take pictures of my "Knit2gether" this Saturday but I think it was mostly a success. Okay, so two people didn't show but the two ladies that did came well prepared with a number of projects and yarn and conversation and knitted flowed like wine at a wedding? I don't know where wine flows, I don't drink it. Hopefully, next time, I have one of these thingies I will remember to take pictures. I proved to be a sorry excuse for a Japanese Tourist Syndrome sufferers this weekend, I didn't even come close to taking even a 100 pictures of our new kitten Rayne this weekend.

See my nose is red cause of the failure.

No actually my nose is red because we have had one of our freakish freezes in Austin, and I had just gotten home from a brisk walk to my apartment from the parking lot. I wrote a blog about this "Austin Freeze" last year because I thought it was bizarre. When there is a drop in weather Texans close down shop, everyone gets sent home from work and school, and you hunker down until the frost goes away. Now I agree I never expected cold weather in Texas when we moved here a year and a half ago BUT the closing down town thing is really odd. At least this frost came just in time for me to hang out with my kittens since they hadn't been left alone yet since we got them. In case you don't believe me it was cold Austin here are so photos from outside my apartment.

In other news, I still have not received my damn KNIT PICKS SWISH YARN I bought like nearly two weeks ago. What is the deal? I am trying not to be impatient but I really really really want to get started on my best friends scarf (what ever I decide to knit with it).

Oh, well my newest kitten just came to sit on my keyboard so I guess it is time to wrap up cause she is tenaciously getting in the way right now. More tomorrow cause I am sure I'll still be home b/c of the freeze.

Goodnight my babies.

Finally Friends...I think

After their first weekend together, they weren't exactly two peas in a pod. Revan cut back on the hissing a bit but was still chasing her around the house making odd/aggressive noises at her. It had gotten a bit too quiet for comfort so I went looking all over the house for them. I finally found them snuggled up together on the top level of the cat gym thing. I just so relieved that I didn't come home from work today to a kitten blood bath.

Look at how cute they are together...