Back to Normal...Kind Of...

So it took me a week to get back into a normal sleep pattern and be remotely productive at work. A little difficult to get out of the sleep-late-relax-drink-until-2am vacation mode. But to help out with that, we have some great friends who had us over for late-night drinking on Friday, then Joe helped some other beer buddies build a deck on Saturday (I came along to knit and, well, to drink beer). Today is for catching up and going through the mountain of mail I've been avoiding. But first...

Willow is not only out and about, but she's got a snazzy new collar. We started letting her out for supervised chunks of time, and today is her first full day out. It's not going badly, but we still have issues. She has a tendency to sneak around and startle one of the older cats, causing howling, spitting, and a fight or two. Hence the collar - it has a bell. We'll see if this keeps the spitting to a minimum. They all seem to still be intrigued with each other, but I'm not forcing anything. I know it'll take time. I just wish Dobby knew how much fun she could be - they'd be having a blast by now...

In the meantime, I've made some sock progress (gasp!). The pattern is rpm, but I call them my Big Bird socks. Hard to imagine why...

I love the yarn and pattern combination. I'd been trying to avoid the silliness and striping, but when I embraced it, I came to find a very happy sock.

This is a double eyelet rib from wendyknits - I love how it's working up with the yarn (Mountain Colors Bear Foot). This was another yarn I just wasn't finding the right pattern for, but it's really working well now. I knitted on these all throughout Tuscany - on plane, bus, hanging out by the pool...they will hold such lovely memories.

Both of these socks are for ME, because I wanted to make something for me again. And something small. I need to whittle the sock stash down a bit before I blink and it's Rhinebeck time again. I think I need to put myself on a deadline - like finish these two by September, and finish another pair by October. Then I have to work on some Christmas gifts that I had promised last Christmas. That's the thought, at least.

Well, I have some bills waiting to be paid, and some cats waiting for some attention...