Where are my Widgets?

 Don't know where they've gone.  This blog is so neglected.

Lahaina is Gone

 My mom spent most of her childhood in Lahaina, the child of immigrants.  Her father came from Korea espcaping after losing many of his family during the occupation.  Her mother came from Puerto Rico, where her family had immigrated from Spain.  She went to Kamehameha 3 school and Lahainaluna for a few years.  While her home was already long gone in Lahaina, she has memories of the harbor and banyan tree.  Her dementia has hidden the loss of the town from her despite the devastation shown on tv and in the newspaper.  Kamehmeha 3 School was completely burnt to the ground.  The Maria Lanikila Church where her baby sister is buried remains standing.  A small mercy.  

It's hard to fathom the grief the survivors are facing and the seemingly impossible task of going forward.  

There continues to be a great outpouring of support and donations, while the grim task of finding and identifying the missing continues.  Friends have inquired about how they can help.  If you don't already have a charity you contribute to in times of disaster, there are two on Maui that you can consider.

Maui Strong Fund

Maui Food Bank

Mahalo

July, Trigger Thumb, What's a girl to do?

 Sigh.  Here it is July.  I knit like a madwomen in the last year and I'm now paying the price.  Carpal tunnel, lateral epicondylitis, cervical radiculopathy and trigger thumb.  I stopped knitting completely for 6 weeks now, splinted everything and started my NSAID.  I got it down to very mild symptoms, but the thumb is still triggering.  I have an upcoming appointment for the shot.  Hope that will be the cure.  

So no Tour de Fleece for me.  In fact I've been toying with the idea of giving up spinning as I have too much yarn as it is.  I went crazy on Noro purchases and have a project lined up when the trigger thumb resolves.  I have watched the Knit Star's episode on ergonomics by Carson Demers, and will try some of his techniques for preventing overuse injuries.  I promised myself.  

On the Kiko scene, she is back sleeping on the "bed" I made for her on my bedroom floor.  You should see the looks she gives me when I have to wash it.  No more jumping on the bed.  I invite her and she looks tempted, but no go.  

I rewatched most of Star Wars and have caught up on all the animated series and spin-offs.  I am now rewatching the orginal series to see how the pieces fit together.  Rogue 1 and Mandalorian are still my favorites. I also enjoyed The Expanse, and Stranger Things.  Most things are on hiatus now, so You Tube is filling in with Hoof Trimming and Seal Rescues in Nambia and also Endeavor on PBS.  Who knew hooves could be such a problem!

So the only projects I have managed besides a little stash organization and cleaning is some jewelry and luceting.  The example is Koigu sock yarn.  I am also using my Kreink Custom Corder to make twisted cords.  I have used them as drawstings in bags, booties and for wrapping packages and treat boxes.  

The lovely walnut lucet is from RightWorkWoodshop on Etsy.  

I learned to make twisted cords from my knitting teacher Tubly.  The custom corder allows me to make the cords faster by myself.  The length is limited by my already short stature sitting in my wheelchair.  Making them is rather addicting and it's fun to see how the different yarns twist up.  

I am reading Fiona Hill's book.  I found out Echo will read it to me and I'm rethinking the audio book thing.  It sure is a help for my carpal tunnel to not have to hold my phone to read.  

The Kiko Saga so far

 I inherited my mom's cat, Kiko, when mom broke her hip and could no longer care for her since she is an indoor cat.  Dad chose Kiko at the shelter even though he was only going to look.  Her predecessor, Lovey, was a friendly, cuddly cat, and it's hard not to compare.  Kiko spent may hours sleeping with my dad in the four years before he passed.  She sat next to his urn as if she knew.  

Kiko is an unusual cat compared to Lovey and all the Siamese cats I grew up with.  She only allows 3 pets then she bites.  She is not big on brushing although allows a few brushes.  She would only sleep curled up near my legs.  She was a finicky eater and a vomiter. The vet had seen her several times for this problem and everything was aok.  

When she came to live with me she had a protracted vomiting episode and was diagnosed with cholangiohepatitis and mild colitis.  My son and I try as we could could not get her to take her oral medications.  I watched numerous you tubes and all those cats loved to take medications.  Luckily for me she responded to the parenteral antibiotic without side effects.  During this time I tried whatever the Pet store had in the way of foods and snacks, trying to entice her to eat.  I tried all the novel proteins like her first vet recommended.  She tasted but then refused.  Finally she would eat Hills roasted chicken, but spit out the carrots.  I found out cats are obligate carnivores but the pet industry thinks cats should have carrots or pumpkin or brown rice.  Fiber you know.  When she refused that, I switched to Sheba since the feral cat next door loves her Sheba.  Kiko liked the chicken, whitefish/tuna and salmon shrimp.  They all smell bad.  ick.  She also went back to eating her kibble and some days she only wants that.  So life perked along.  She had one vet adventure with an abscess that healed nicely with drainage and the parenteral antibiotic shot.  

A few weeks ago she suddenly became afraid of me.  She abandoned me for the upstairs room with the rug.  The downstairs has no carpet because it's easier for me to get around with my walker and wheelchair.   My son lives up there and he took videos of her rolling on the rug, trying all of them include the one around the toilet.  At first I was worried, but she clearly is not physically ill.  She is not a total cave cat, because she continues to come down to eat, drink water and use her kitty litter.  She likes to sit by the front door.  She creeps around my room, but started "speaking" to me in demanding tone, as apparently she can't stand the sight of an empty food dish.  I'm ignoring her until she get's bored with upstairs.  It's kind of nice not to worry about her vomiting on my bed.  

I did crochet her a cat pod, which she has ignored so far.  I love how it turned out.  Maybe it's too small?

Pattern:  Cat Pod/Cave by Alley Cats and Angels of NC

Yarn:  Megaball Aran, by Hobbii

I put her blanket in it and my son took upstairs to the carpeted bedroom and she poked her head in it when he scratched it on the outside.  Oh well, I should be glad she is not a cave cat, as according to the Cat Whisperer, there is nothing more sad then a cave cat.  

So that's how it stands.  I will fess up and say I have bought cat junk food for her.  Not sure what Greenies have in them that makes her love them so.  I'm limiting her to 3 a day!  Well maybe 4.  

Besides the catpod, I crocheted Astri Throw.

Pattern:  Astri by Arne and Carlos.  

Yarn:  Rainbow Cotton 8/8 from Hobbi.  This is 100% cotton and comes a wonderful springy colors.  It made for a heavy throw.  I meant to make it smaller but making the flowers was so addicting!

The flower are similar to the African flower since it ends up being a hexagon.  Thus my final throw is and elongated hexagon.  The geometry still blows my mind.  Why can't a hexagon make a square, lol.  Pythagoras would know.  

Finally for fun, Mint Chocolate Chip, or Chip for short, from a galaxy falr away.  

Pattern:  Baby Yoda by Kim Konen

Yarn:  Rainbow Cotton for body and Vanna's choice for his garb.  I made him a bit smaller since Rainbow cotton is more of a DK weight, and used to size 4 needle to knit him.  I also knit a base and put some polybeads in the bottom to give him a bit more weight.  Shorted the ears by a few rows, and gathered the back of the shawl to fit him better.  

Blue Hats for Hat not Hate

 All acrylic all the time

Pattern and yarn details on Ravelry.  I tried some crochet patterns and enjoyed the bucket hats but found out HNH prefers beanies.  I'll find somewhere else for the buckets and newsboy caps.  Crocheting was so fast, but it is not as stretchy.  

The other hats, not blue and not beanies.  The last hat is the Oslo Hat with a a 3 thickness brim.  Unfortunately it is a little small and too hot for Hawaii. It will be in limbo for awhile.  

So far the carpal tunnel isn't too bad with all the knitting and crocheting.  I got new braces just incase.  The plan is to get the spinning wheel out in March.  In the meantime, in a bit of stress-induced shopping shop therapy yielded some patterns from Arne and Carlos and some new yarn to start an afghan.  I also have a megaball of black and white from Hobbii which may become hats with a skull theme.  I also bought a few crochet hooks from this Anniesgottacrochet on,Etsy.  The owner will be retiring and has her stuff on sale.  

Marrietta's Halloween

 After being Judge Ginsberg for quite awhile, Marietta decided to dress up for Halloween.  She has a new shawl and hat.  

The shawl is a shortened version of Skull shawl/Döskallesjal by kungen och majkis.  It doesn't show up that well on her, but she needed something to tone down the purple T.  I used a size 3 metal crochet hook and some very ancient, thrifted crochet thread.  it bled a lot when I soaked it.  

The hat is made of felt.  I followed How to Make a witch hat for any size doll on Lomi's Playground on You Tube.  Math was involved and it was also metric.  Minimal hand sewing was involved.  I had some black wire ribbon in stash and attempted a bow.  I used some left-over green scrubbie cotton.  It is a sorry decoration.  Hope I get more ideas later.  

After shopping for the proper pin, I found a cat pin in a drawer labelled Pins.  Thank Marie Kondo for that, lol.  I'd forgotten I had such a drawer.  I suspect this came from mom's stash.  

On the knitting scene, another Musselburgh is happening with a lovely blue yarn hand-dyed by Nanea of the now closed lys, Aloha Yarns.  I really miss that place and it's lovely vibe.  

Such an exciting life I lead.  

Random Thoughts in Time of Covid

 It ain't over yet.  Darn you Delta (not the airlines)

Life is in a little valley.  Thank goodness they aren't as deep as they used to be.  I owe it to age in which I have become better at drama mitigation.  

I'm struggling with Noom.  Like every other "diet", it's success or failure depends on me.  In Hawaii, there are so many ethnicities.  My barrier is the food diary.  Many foods I eat do not conveniently come up in the food list, so I either have to calculation everything in the recipe or "estimate".  My perfection issue causes guilt when I estimate.  One step into the valley.  

I have used up some brain cells wondering about that cotton ball that used to come in pill bottles.  They seemed to have disappeared one day, never to return.  From what I can glean from the Net, there were contamination issues, and since pills became more travel proof, cushioning was no longer needed.  I thought it was more recent, but seems like it was in the late '90s when drug companies abandoned cotton balls.  Of course by then, cotton balls were replaced with synthetic materials.  

Which reminds me of a story mom told about her dad growing up in Lahaina.  He used to pick the cotton from the bush and kept it in a jar in the bathroom for them to use.  I remember dad (a doctor) used to make his own "Q" tips with a cotton ball and stick.  He would break off the used tip and make a new one.  Now sanitary standards wouldn't allow this, but heck you can do it at home.  

I did not know there was a native cotton, ma'o.  I do know that a project to grow Sea Island cotton commercially on the side of  Punchbowl failed.  That's the plant growing in may yard.  I have not kept up with spinning.  The birds like it to put in their nests, which is better then plastic.  

Life is so exciting that I track packages like it's a job.  My shirt traveled through 7 states and made 4-5 stops in some of them.  It is more traveled then some people I know.  

I did what any Noro loving knitter does, when the going gets rough, knit some Noro.  

I can't imagine anyone I know who would wear these colors but I certainly enjoyed knitting them.  I had one partial skein of Taiyo #32 when I started the scarf and used up 2+ skeins for the scarf.  I used the partial skein for the hat and had one skein left.  Yarn math.  So another hat is underway.  At least the new yarn was on closeout at Webs.  

My life isn't really rough, just in a small valley.  I have much to be grateful for.