I Didn't Know Legos Could Knit

Just go take a look. Better to watch the video--super creepy and, as the designer says, mesmerizing.

Next time, I'll share with you Shannah Rocks! A very dear friend who is an excellent spinner and hand-dyer created a beautiful merino roving and named it after ME! (That's Shannah to rhyme with Donna, in case you were wondering.) Shannah Rocks. It's gorgeous, I just gotta get a photo so you can see it. How cool is that?

Home Again & Friday Night Videos

I'm home safely, belly full and fiber happy. Tomorrow (Saturday 12/1) at the Spinning Loft Beth is celebrating her one-year anniversary with snacks, lots of door prizes, and gifties for everyone, so I'll be there all day for the Open House. Should be fun.


I'm too lazy to get my camera out, so you're getting recycled photos. That's me on our honeymoon trip to New Mexico in 2002. We went to Roswell, if you hadn't guessed. Because, you know, if you're in NM, you just have to go to Roswell.

I've been talking to Mr. O'Kitten every night and getting long letters from him. He sounds like he's making some improvement and may get out in about a week. We all have our fingers and paws crossed here.


This is one of my favorite pictures of Isis. She was very small back then. Of course, she is quite big now. But I still love this photo. She is fearsome despite her small stature. She already had the enormous feet, though.

Lately she's been sleeping stretched out next to me under the covers. She kneads me with her oversized paws and purrs until she falls asleep. Sometimes she does that little twitching-in-her-dreams thing. I love that. Emma sleeps next to my pillow, facing Mr. O'Kitten's pillow. She keeps looking at me expectantly, as if I could just bring him home by wishing it so. Ah, if only.



Friday Night Videos

While watching The Wombats over and over again last weekend, I was recalling how much I've always liked videos. When MTV went on the air way back when, we didn't have cable at my house. In fact, we only had four channels--ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS (which was on another dial and usually rather fuzzy).

Hard to imagine this now when TV comes in the hundreds of channels. Not that there's anything better to watch than X-Files and CSI re-runs anyway. But I digress.

I was saved from my cable-less predicament (and hence, no MTV) by the advent of Friday Night Videos in 1983. For a full 90 minutes late Friday night, and on regular network television at that, I could watch Duran Duran prowl the jungle Hungry Like the Wolf and see Kim Carnes' Betty Davis Eyes. It was a godsend.

So, now--thanks to YouTube and this interweb thingamajig--I will inflict upon you my own Friday Night Video, which you can expect to be a regular O'Kitten feature (as much as I can manage to do anything regularly).

This week's feature is The White Stripes' "I Fell in Love With A Girl" and it renewed my hope for video a couple years back. And who doesn't love Legos?

Hellooo from the Loft

Just a quick note to say Hi. I'm snowed in at the Spinning Loft--bummer! lol

I came out to Howell to give Beth a hand and get a dose of sanity, and the snow began. Now I don't trust the little car (remember the demise of the 88 Bronco last spring?) on the increasingly icy roads, and Beth has kindly offered to put me up for the night. AND feed me pizza. (Yes, I work for food.)

Fortunately my parents have once again generously offered to tend to the animals (including my hungry felines) and I have the liberty of a night away from the farm. So it's all good.

I just wish I had my camera.

More to come.

Let's Dance to Joy Division

Celebrate the irony with The Wombats.

This song makes me So Happy. So Happy.

Fall Cleaning

Yes, it's Obsidian Kitten. If you haven't been with me for awhile, you may well be wondering what obsidian actually is. I once attempted to explain, with many pictures, here.

I lost a bit of my excitement about Ravelry when I realized I needed to upload all my photos to Flickr. Yes, I have a Flickr account. No, there is nothing in it. Yet.

For those of you who were sweet enough to make the lonely okitten your friend on Ravelry, I thank you--a bunch. Because now I have some Ravelry friends and I feel like one of the cool kids. Very soon I'll be able to move that silly list of FO's cluttering up my sidebar over there to Ravelry...as soon as I put the pics in Flickr. Feh.

Instead of playing with Ravelry today, I engaged in some fall housecleaning. I did laundry (even sheets and bathmat) and ran around the house with big black trash bags throwing things out. Even bedroom closets and under the bed. You know, worn out clothes and pants X sizes too big and thrift store shoes I never wore. I even hit the basement and cleaned the litter boxes. I actually had to run to the grocery store for more trash bags. It was that kind of a fit.

Emma always likes to help with the laundry.
And guess what? I have 100 hearts on etsy -- kind of a nice landmark to hit...it means that 100 etsians have bookmarked obsidiankitten.etsy.com. I haven't had many sales lately, but neither have I added anything new to the shop in awhile. If I could just get myself together enough to get my camera out, I do have a lot of new things to add, especially since I didn't really sell anything at the craft sale the other weekend. Things (including a funny holiday tree) kind of like this:

By the way, I've been talking to Mr. O'Kitten every day and he is sounding a bit better with each day that passes. Thanks to all of y'all for your many well-wishes and good healing energy. It must be working, so please keep it coming.

Now I must to bed because tomorrow I'll be at the Spinning Loft enjoying the company of my dear Beth and attending to (hopefully) some holiday shoppers. Plus--there'll be spinning. And thank goodness for that.

Spinning and Bunnies and Birds and Stuff

Thanks to all of y'all for all of your good healing energy and loving thoughts. Mr. O'Kitten flew back home for the holidays and is now in the hospital in NYC. Maybe the doctors out there will figure out something that the Michigan doctors haven't been able to. Fingers and paws all crossed for luck and healing here.

Meanwhile, I took refuge at the Spinning Loft with Spinning Spider Jenny (she was so wonderful and what a treat to make a new friend and learn SO much) and dear friends like Beth and the new spinning buddies that I made over the weekend. This has been my thread to sanity and thank the spinning goddesses or I'd likely be in the hospital by now, too.

There are pics of our Wool Shop Sleepover and other excitement here at Beth's blog, including what seems like an inordinate number of pictures of me making funny faces and gesticulating wildly and the like. But all in all you can see what a fantastic time we had -- at least I suppose you can; maybe you just had to be there.

Since I didn't take my camera to the Spinning Loft--not even last night when Sean and I went to see Michelle's baby bunnies--I will insert here some of my birds. You know, just for fun.

These are my last incubator hatch. The black one with white speckles in the middle was an unusual all-black chick that Mr. O'Kitten named Johnny Cash.

They are getting very big already; I've heard a couple of them trying to crow.

Now I have to go and do my profile and stuff on Ravelry at long last because that's what all the cool kids are doing. My ravelry name is okitten if you wanna find me there. Woo-hoo!

Sad Girl (CoT postponed)

Sorry, no Cats on Tuesday today. Our regularly neglected featured is being side-lined until I'm in a slightly better humour.

My dear and much-loved spouse (generally referred to herein as Mr. O'Kitten) is back in hospital as of yesterday. The girls are certain I've once again left him high and dry at the watering hole; Emma sits on his side of the bed, alternately staring at his pillow and glaring at me, extremely puzzled and thoroughly annoyed by his absence.

I'm generally having a rather hard time of it; hopefully spinning workshops later in the week with Spinning Spider Jenny will perk me up a bit. By the way--if any of y'all are in the mid-Michigan area, I think there's still some room left. And you should come, because it should be fun. Check out the workshop list:
Thursday Nov. 15 ... New Wave Fibers (i.e. soybean, corn, milk, nylon and mylar)
Friday Nov. 16 ... Thick, Medium and Thin - Spinning for a Specific Yarn
Saturday Nov. 17 ... Wheel Plying Techniques for Beautiful Yarns

Oh, as for the craft show...hardly anyone came on Saturday. But I hung out with some really nice people (and my mom, yay!) and got a lot of spinning done. Plus I have a lot of new things to put in the etsy shop -- if I can just motivate myself enough to take some pictures and get the stuff posted. With everyone seemingly getting into the holiday shopping mood, now's the time...even if I'm not in the mood myself.

Please send some healthy healing vibes our way--me and Mr. O'Kitten are in need of them again. Especially Mr. O'Kitten:

Mr. O'Kitten

Llama Stuff

Saturday, November 10 I'll be at my first llama craft show! So if you're in the mid-Michigan area and are looking for something to do, please drop by for a visit.

Some of our Graty and Lacey/Switzer fiber will be for sale.
It's sponsored by the Michigan Lama Association and promises to have lots of lovely gifts and handknits and handpuns and rovings and who-knows-what-all -- all from llamas and alpacas and mostly from small local farms. Here's the specs:

10 am - 4:30 pm
Alaiedon Township Hall
2021 W. Holt Road
Mason, Michigan 48854
517-676-9277

I've made some needle-felted baskets (and a tentacle holiday tree, too!)...

...handknits...

...and handknits from my own handspun. Plus really cute llama pins and cards, too. Come and say Hi if you're in the area!

My Hamburglar

If you put Odo (our Ameraucana/Easter Egg rooster) and Kira (a silver-spangled Hamburg hen) together, what do you get?

A Hamburglar. He's my favorite of our cockerels, small and compact like his mamma, with her lovely black speckles on his chest and slate grey legs and feet.



Likely my fondness for him means he'll be the only one of the the young males that will escape the trip next week that will culminate in our freezer. Isn't he handsome?

The Hamburglar (at right)

There are two Kiras, who've long been favorites around here. They're small and sprightly, like little roadrunners.



A lot of this year's pullets are showing signs of Odo's Ameraucana parentage, like these distinctive "ear muffs" and beards. I think it makes them look a bit like Muppets, but it's very endearing.

But the green and blue-green eggs have become a daily treat. Yay for Odo!

A Blog Post a Day...Plus Cats

I've been such a lousy blogger lately that I saw this and jumped on the bandwagon. In the vein of "National Novel Writing Month," it's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month--novel, right?) and I'm on board. So hopefully you'll be hearing from me just a teensy bit more regularly. At least for a few days.

And now for our regularly neglected weekly feature:


Cats on Tuesday




Emma Makes Nice

I caught Emma sharing a chair with Isis...

...and fast asleep with Morgan.
Just don't tell anyone, lest you ruin her reputation.


Isis Makes Faces

It's really hard to capture her expressions,
but Isis really does make some of the best faces.






Morgan Wouldn't Sit Still

And that was that.


And Emma Refuses the Paparazzi Altogether









The End.

Handmade for the Holidays

How Does One Get From Here to There?

Despite the fact that they are rather small, Icelandic sheep need to be sheared twice a year. Here Tyr had just enjoyed some fresh pumpkin.

YES! He IS too a sheep!

This wooly fluff-ball is all too happy to show off his five-months' growth of wool. (He's no idea what's about to hit him.)

Not to worry, I did have help.





He had quite an incredible beard, like some strange gnome.



It only took Sean two hours to remove nine pounds of wool with hand shears. (Did I say nine pounds? Yes, 9 lbs--4 kgs--and bear in mind that Tyr was just sheared in May.)

He got his feet trimmed while we were at it.

Look! We found a sheep underneath there. Now he gets a tasty treat of Nutri-Drench. Yummy! (Fortunately, he thinks it's yummy. First of all, it comes in a bottle, so it must be good. Secondly, it smells rather like spaghetti sauce, which holds some weird appeal.)


More fibery goodness--this in the form of a delightful package from Bellamoden: both hand-dyed yarn like her Fahrenheit 451 (I particularly love the literary title, as if the colors weren't enough to make me swoon) as well as beautiful rovings.

And as if that weren't enough to make me feel like a spoiled princess, needles galore! Miss Isis personally inspected every portion of the package with great attention. (Yarn was promptly removed from her kneading paws and wandering tongue, but she was much entertained by the little star that came out of bellamoden's hand-cut card.)









How cute...she huffs and snuffles the fiber just like I do...

Please note: No animals, fibers, or knitting notions were harmed during the filming or writing of this blog. What happens now is anyone's best guess...