On Cats and Gardens and Other Projects

 Yesterday my poor kitty was unhappy.  He's fairly routine oriented and his routines have been pretty much shattered of late.  I woke up yesterday to a kitty who I think was showing major signs of separation anxiety.   At one point he was actually hanging on my arm and trying to pull me toward him.  This is a cat whose human touch needs are fairly minimal.    He wanted non-stop attention and even when he'd settled a bit, if I'd move away from "my" chair, he'd give me the evil eye and stare at me until I'd sit back down.   If I didn't he come beside me and fuss.   This morning however, it has paid off and he seems to be back to his old, active, talkative self and his routines are back in place.  Now to deal with a day and a half's worth of emails and other chores.

I started a new pair of socks.  The colourway is nice enough, though I'm not sure about the pastel greeny blue colour.  If I were dyeing it, I'd have likely used purple there.  The last pair of 3/1 ribbed socks I made with 64 stitches, turned out a tad looser than I like, so I made these with only 60 stitches.  Of course they are a tad tight.  I 've had to redo the toe 3 times already, so this one better work.  I could have left the last one as it was a fitting issue.  However then the socks would have fitted my daughter, rather than myself.

Cotton seedlings are on top with the large, round leaves.

I found the small packets of cotton seeds that the Master Spinner 2 class had been given.   There were green and white cotton seeds.  Because we live in a cold climate, where cotton cannot be grown as a crop, there are no issues with growing coloured cotton here as it won't contaminate anything.  They'll pretty much be house plants anyway.. big house plants hopefully and with any luck, set a few bolls later this fall.  I've no expectations that they will produce a lot, but I hope they'll grow and survive long enough to produce something.  It could be a fun experiment. 

I'd planted Wild Indigo, but nothing has germinated.  Some Weld has germinated, but I don't know whether it was purchased seed or donated seed as I planted both.  Woad, both regular and Chinese are growing and Dyer's Knotweed seed has come up although somewhat unevenly.   The Purple Calabash and Black Cherry tomato seeds did nothing, but the Black Krim, Red Robin and Orange Sun Salad toms are doing well.  I'm a bit disappointed in the germination of the peppers as only 3 hot chili peppers germinated out of 9 pots and only 7 of the mixed colour sweet bell peppers.  Coreopsis, some herbs and some buttercrunch lettuces are doing well.  It's still too early to plant the cukes, pumpkins and zuchinnis.  Anything else I need, I'll buy.  I planned that in this year as the allure of garden centres is always too much for me to ignore.

The fabric store was having a sale of cotton yardage for $6 a metre.  I loved the black print and have been eyeing the blue with brown dots for a while.  They went nicely together and I added the others.  The little square print is an animal print which I would normally avoid like the plague, but it had the right colours and was the only thing I could find that worked.  I would normally not choose these colours for myself, but I've found that stretching colour choices can be a very good thing.   I've been wanting to make small project, just to practice machine quilting skills.  It's easier on a small quilt.  This will be a table topper, just under 1m in size. 

The blocks are half done. They still need trimming before I can assemble them.   The colours are pretty and work well together bu for the life of me, I cannot think of where I would put this piece.  I guess I'll have to wait until it's done.  I am a little ticked because although I measured at the machine, the seams are a tad too wide.  The 8 1/2 inch blocks will have to turn into 8 inch blocks.  I wonder if they still make feet compatible with this old machine as a 1/4 inch foot could be useful.