Friday, August 7, 2009

Fell into a Black Hole

Oh my, it's been forever since I did a blog posting. I was organizing some papers after my father's death and realized I knew little to nothing about his family so did a bit of research. Luckily, I found some distant cousins through the internet and was able to fill in a lot of the blanks back to the old country, or countries as it were. Deciding to write all that down somewhere, I started a family tree with an online service. One thing led to another and I pulled out the incredibly extensive genealogical notes of my maternal grandfather and thought I would just add some of that in, too. Then there were the stories that had to be told and the photos of great-great-great-great grandparents to be scanned and before you know it, you are spending 24 hour stretches entering data. It's addictive! It's a serious black hole. It took real fortitude to finally shove all those papers aside for a while.

And yes, of course I was doing a bit of knitting, but it seemed I made mistakes on everything I did. I've been very distracted for some reason. These Kiila Socks, a mystery pattern for Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry designed by the fabulous Yarnissima, truly kicked my butt. You couldn't find a more detailed pattern, and it was really quite simple. The gusset/heel section was ingenious. But I knitted and frogged and knitted and frogged until I could have knitted six socks in the time it took me to knit a pair. The yarn is Wollmeise Twin in Single Malt, which held up beautifully to all my abuse. After several attempts, I am still not very fond of toe up socks.
Then I knit these fabulous Shurt'ugals as a KAL in the Socks That Rock group on Ravelry. Knit on a deadline, these turned out beautifully, a pattern I will certainly do again, and again. The STR Lightweight in Pond Scum was a dream to knit with and produced a very dragon scale look in a well fitting sock.And then of course I started this amusing scarf in Kureyon sock. Fascinate is a one skein project and a totally addictive knit, perfect for on the go knitting.
There was more knitting and finished projects, but I will save those for later.

Today, I need to find a home for this sweetheart of a Persian cat. This is Grand Champion, Regional Winner Black Jack of Jude. My friend Judy is moving across the country in a couple of weeks. She breeds champion Persians and Himalayans. Her new home will be much smaller than her current one, and she needs to find new pet homes for several of her prize show cats. I've known this boy since he was a kitten. He is about 3 years old now, neutered and out of the breeding program, and he really wants to be a lap cat. He's gorgeous, has a gentle loving nature, and needs someone who will adore him. Is that you by any chance? You can see Judy's beautiful cats at http://www.judepersians.net/.

Look at BJ's blue eyes and those curly white whiskers. He's famous for those whiskers.
There are about six others who need homes, too. Two lilac point Himalayan girls about a year old. A 3-4 year old Calico girl, beautiful and regal, quite the ornament. A precious one year old black and white boy. Judy lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area now, but not for much longer. If you love Persians and have room for one of these beauties, do let us know.
I couldn't resist. I took a one year old rare Lilac Tabby girl, Talullah. She's very small, as wide as she is long, with huge copper eyes. Pictures later when she has settled in. Her little legs are so short, she can't get off the floor as much as she tries. Pretty funny.

4 comments:

Lynn said...

I know all about getting nagged by dead relatives. I'm guessing that your other LDS friends have told you about all the free assistance and resources you can find at the family history center at our meetinghouse on Alta Mesa.

Bea said...

My grandfather was very big into genealogical stuff. I'm thankful my sister took all that over and started entering it into the online databases. Frankly I'm not sure I would want to be the one to get buried in all of it!

All your knitting projects rock and I really love the Shurt'ugals. Pond Scum Rocks.

Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns said...

DH has been into the family history for years. He gets totally sucked into the black hole whenever he goes into that programme on his computer.

Will you please NOT show such gorgeous pictures of cats that I can't have. No, on second thoughts, will you please NOT tell us about your new baby lilac and NOT show pictures! The heck with settling in, she's going to be a diva, so she's got to get used to the camera. NOW!

Love the socks. Unsure about this 'Pond Scum' colourway name that you all (yes, including Knitspot Hanson) love so much. The hue is great, the name....

sillyewe said...

Hey There!!!! was thinking about you recently when I played East Texas and Mr Holt was there. :) he's a character. Lol. I am so sorry about your dad! I lost mine this summer....same day as my brother 2 years ago. Didn't have the heart to blog in a long time. Also missed the Fair entries as I just couldn't finish......sometimes life can really be painful. The irony.
But I hope you are doing well and getting along. I am still hoping to come and meet you guys sometime!!!!!! Really!