the Akamai Knitter

First off, I wanted to thank you all for the wonderful comments and emails of condolences regarding Onyx’s passing. You have all helped make this difficult time for me so much easier. I can’t say that I’m back to 100% but I am feeling a little better and I have been able to do a little bit of knitting.

Not much progress has been made on my Seaweed Lace Socks (Ravelry Link). I only managed to get past the heel. It hasn’t been much of a priority since this pair is for me and I’ve got to get some other things done first.

I did manage to finish up the Anemoi Mittens to the point of where all that’s left is the thumbs. It’s a good thing too as I’d hate for my friend Dani to leave the islands without these because it’ll be quite an adjustment for her. She’ll be going from temperatures of 80F to 50F. Brr. (Yes, I’m a total wimp.)

There is one project that I’ve been working on for myself and that’s the Something Tweedy. It’s a completely mindless knit, which makes it something akin to comfort food. I find it perfect for those times when I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by my feelings of grief over the loss of Onyx. Though I have to admit that it’s also great football knitting too. (Go Warriors!)

Right now it’s at the point where it actually looks like a sweater, instead of a brown blob of ew. I was a very good girl and took the sweater off the needles to try it on and it fits! There’s nothing like having the confidence in knowing a garment fits to make the knitting all the sweeter.

Another great comfort has been my other two cats. Pressie and Quincy have been wonderfully affectionate since Onyx has been gone. I don’t talk much about Pressie here on the blog because she’s always been more my mother’s cat, but lately she’s been sticking to me like velcro whenever my mother’s out of the house.

We adopted her back in 2001 (at least I think that’s the year) and she was already an adult at that time. She had been a feral cat when she had been rescued. At the time she was rescued she was also pregnant with two kittens. By the time we came into the picture, Pressie’s kittens had already been adopted out.

Pressie didn’t have such good luck. I think it was mostly because of her appearance. She had to have her ears cropped because of some cancerous growths. She also has some really horrible eye allergies which makes it seem like she’s crying blood. So she sometimes looks a little like a demon cat. In fact she’s been known to strike fear in the hearts of men.

(I kid you not. Once, she really scared one of the strong hurly burly workmen we had working on the house. He was afraid she might attack him and she only weighs maybe 7lbs and he was at least 180lbs of pure muscle.)

Regardless of her appearance to others, she is one of the sweetest cats I have ever had the privilege of being with and I thought she deserved some time on the blog.