R.I.P. my little friend

Today I lost one of my closest companions. From the 4 cats I have there was only one that would spend his days in the house with me, lay next to me on the couch and sleep with me on the bed. He could open every pot in the house and would steal what he could, but that was just my little big man. He was close to a dog and loved going out back with me to the horse. He would greet me and talk to me. He didn't mind the dogs though he knew to stay away from them.

Last night something went wrong. I have no clue what, but my boyfriend found our guy laying wet in the mud, with our 2 dogs standing around barking. They for sure attacked him as he was really hurt and you could see the bites everywhere. He was alive but barely. We took him to the vet, wrapped in a towel on my lap. He watched me with his big eyes, totally trusting me. I knew deep inside that he could never make it, but he was a fighter from the day we got him and I was hoping he would make it. He fell asleep after getting a sedative, with his head on my hand.

This morning I called the vet and he was still fighting, but around noon he lost the fight. He was probably bleeding internally. I'm now hating myself for leaving him there. I should have been holding him when he died, but I'm hoping he didn't have any pain and was to far gone to realize he was all alone.

I now realize I lost one of my closest friends. I just cannot imagine not seeing him anymore. Tonight we will pick him up at the vet and put him to rest in my moms garden. He was my little fighter, and I will always remember him.

Rest in peace my little friend, hope you will forgive me.
Love you forever, will never forget you

Angel
2003 - 2009

Moving on from socks

The last couple of years I've been pretty obsessed with socks. I mean, if you look at what I knitted, it's mostly socks. About 50% maybe? I have no clue, but it'll be close! Here's the last pair I finished and am really proud of :

These socks were in the makings for ages. I knitted them for last years project spectrum, the first theme. I was planning on knitting a black pair for every section of PS and them embroider them appropriately. Never made it though. I finished the knitting a few months ago but then was to scared to start the embroidery. Oh well, they are done now and I love them! The fit of the socks could have been better, but the embroidery is super and I like them a lot.

But, what I was saying. I won't be joining the third round of the 52 Pairs Plunge. I think I got about 30 pairs done in the second round, and I always feel pressured to get the amount done. So, no more of that (I will never get 52 pairs done anyway, not with my current busy life). I will be joining the Knitters Anonymus Sockdown again, but I might skip the last month now. I don't mind joining that one as it basically only requires one sock a month which is doable!

The reason? There are a ton of other things I want to knit and I know knitting those socks is keeping me from it. There were about 3 sweaters I wanted to knit to take with me on my trip to the US, but as there's only one more month left before we leave there is no way I'm going to be able to get them done. And that is really sad. None of these sweaters were complicated or tiny gauges. Oh well.

There are about 100 sweaters I want to knit (and I have the yarn for!), even more shawls, scarfs and other things. Many of these things are portable enough to replace the socks. I do most of my knitting during my work commute, but I don't plan on taking a whole sweater with me (ok, right now there are 2 socks OTN in my handbag and a lace shawl in my computer bag ... Like I ever knit on all of them!).

So it'll be hard, and there'll be a ton of sock yarn hibernating in my stash, but I need to get some time to knit other things! As the Summer is quite close, it also means Autumn is getting closer again and I really will need more warm sweaters to wear to work next Winter. My boss turned off the central heating quite some weeks ago (and I'm cold quite often ...) and he never puts the termostate very high. Plus he wants us to turn the heating off in the evening so it only starts getting warm when I arrive (refuse that though ...). It was super cold last Winter so I want to be warmer next Winter!

So, hopefully there'll be more sweaters here in the future. There are currently quite a few socks on the needles and there is a test knit of socks in the near future, so those'll be posted here too. But I hope I'll be able to keep away from casting on a ton in the near future (except for the socks I promissed my grandma, but those should be quick). Keep your thumbs up!