Emptyknitster

Today is Sadie and Denali's birthdays. (I hope the beloved granddaughter is still tickled they share a birthday) Denali is even more Hubby's cat than in the past. She hardly looks at me. She will sit on his lap for hours and NEVER sits on my lap. When hungry, she only begs him for food. When lonely, only wants his attention. Hubby totally indulges her and will keep the window open for her to sit in even when the snow flies. Denali 5 years old today!

  Today Polly Pickett has been in our lives for an entire year! She is the sweetest little kitty ever. Always purring, and humming at us for attention. An endearing trick she has is to run ahead of us as we go from room to room and then flop down in the entryway, doing somersaults and begging for a little loving. She recently has been asking to go out the front door,  so I put her in a harness and on a leash allowing her to take ME for walks! She now sits in front of the door whenever she sees the harness and is quite happy to wear it. It's taken about a year but Polly and Denali are getting along and even have a morning chase around the house. Polly never knew there was a problem but Denali lost her kingdom last June and now doesn't rule anywhere but under the bed and is just beginning to understand Polly is here to stay.

The NorDak Family haven't posted about their new kitten yet. They've had this beautiful little, now 13 week girl, for two weeks and I just can't wait any longer! She is one of the most unusual kittens I have ever seen, she's polka-dotted and I already love her from afar.... Look at that mustache... And the dots.... I even love the reverse widow's peek, Telling everyone to check out the spots! Her name is Lucy and even Charlotte thinks she's a keeper.

How quickly the year has gone by, Sadie Lou and Denali Jane are another year older...... Denali had been sitting so pretty on the couch, Hubby went to get his camera. But when he got back she was sitting in his chair. In typical Hubby behavior he didn't disturb her....   Bengal pelts can change color for three or four years. I wanted to update her coloring on the blog.    A big change from when she was born three years ago....

  For over sixteen years Grace, my constant companion, has been at my side. On the deck enjoying the summer sun, sitting on the couch next to me while I was knitting, or sleeping on my legs at night. When taking pictures of my finished knitting projects there was Grace. The two of us got along fine. But from the beginning she didn't like being second fiddle to an older and established kitty in the household. She really didn't care for Nikko and didn't mind letting her know. With a constant chip on her shoulder she would often allow this to carry over to humans, the daughters and grandkiddos often got the brunt of her frustrations. The last few years brought us closer. Becoming "Top Cat" allowed her to come into herself. To a non-catlover this may sound strange but others will totally understand. Grace had my total and complete attention. She knew she could sit on my lap without invitation for hours and in the last year, if I wasn't looking adoringly...

I'm a proud new kitty grandma.... Yesterday The Chick drove to Bozeman to adopt her new kitten. She is nine and a half weeks old (born May 11, 2016?) and a very playful feline I'm told!

Guess who's having a birthday today...  Sadie Lou's of course!  Happy day dear granddaughter! And there is a little kitty in this house that's two today... Denali Jane

Denali's second Christmas. One and a half years old

Denali, our little kitty, continues to travel with us. When we go to Griz games she hops in the car and happily arrives at the Chick's house to raise a little heck with Abby. Interestingly, the trip home is a little testy. I think she's just on overload after a weekend of fun and games with her kitty cousin!

I was fiddling on my iPhone and took this pic of Denali - just wish it had been on the good camera! Denali - 4 months old She has grown so much in the last two months, her markings are changing and getting darker and her legs are getting so much longer! She has loved having the kids around but last night when things settled down she slept on my lap for an hour, something I've been missing! What a great little kitty!

The Pirate has only been around grumpy old cats, ones that only see kiddos as unnecessary interruptions in an otherwise perfect live. Over the years he quietly wormed his way into Nkkos heart with his gentle ways but it had taken years and The Pirate growing up. Now there is a new kitten and it took only a few days for them to form a bond, kitten learning "The Boy", for I'm sure this is her name for him, could be trusted and "The Boy" learning he could touch her without a lightning quick paw scratching an outstretched hand. The kitten is happy with me each morning - until she hears footsteps on the stairs and at that moment she rises up on her hind legs, her neck extended just waiting for her first glimpse of "The Boy"! He is learning her daily habits and is waiting for her after the daily three and half hour morning nap with a quick snack and her favorite toy. There is nothing sweeter than a boy and his cat!

Life around here is really changing for our Gracie Gurl! She's taking a lap anywhere she can find it these days. Note how Chloe is taking precautions to keep her all her fingers!

I've known for a week both Denali and I have a love of fiber: Its cute now but as soon as I have yarn chewed through or a snapped  cable on my needles it won't be near so sweet. This morning both cats got in on the action. I walked into the fiber room and found this: My bag of fleece had been dipped into and the current fiber on the wheel slightly displaced. Suddenly the culprit pounced out from under the table to nab more roving! "Oh, oh, we've been caught..."  "Kittens will be kittens, it wasn't me Mom. Honest!" Grace continues to claim she had nothing to do with this mess and is beginning to enjoy pointing a paw at someone else!

There is an old saying:  The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Seems to apply to more than man. The way to this beast's heart is through her stomach.

Hubby and Denali arrived early Saturday morning from their whirlwind airplane trip. Our kitty remained "free" but cost Hubby a plane ticket to Alaska and back. Typically, in hubby fashion, he didn't make a few last minute arrangements and stay a few days but flew up Thursday and back Friday seeing very little of Anchorage. I was told that Denali was an outstanding traveler. The trek back took twelve hours and if you didn't make eye to eye contact with her she'd stay quiet in her little pet carrier. We want to continue this pattern of delightful traveling with Denali, so yesterday less than a week after her arrival, we popped Denali in the vehicle and off we went driving over the Beartooth Mountains. This pass is closed all winter and opens each Memorial weekend if the snowplows can make it through. When we've driven this in the past we've only gotten to the little store located at the spot known as "The Top Of The World". This year our trip was...

It has been two weeks since we've had any news about our new little kitty and then we were surprised with video and a photo! Just look at how her spots and stripes are beginning to show up! The kittens are now six weeks old and had their first solid food. A step closer to the kitten coming to her forever home!  I think Hubby might just like the name Polly Pickett!

It looks like this household will be getting a new kitten in the next couple months. Hubby has been researching Bengal cats and is ready to make the change from Manx cats to Bengals. A friend has a Bengal kitten produced from his Mom's Bengal cat "Mama" which may have been the reason this whole adventure started. "Mama" had a litter on March 19th and we have been told we could have the pick of the litter! It has been so much fun to receive photos and videos of these little guys. Over the years we have developed a list of must for a family cat: *female *short haired *tailless So at this time it looks like we will be getting the little kitten on the right of the bottom photo. Female, short hair and a plump little girl!!

I haven't made a New Year's Resolution for years and really don't want to start down that slippery slope now! Most resolutions come and go without being achieved and I really want to accomplish a skill I've longed to do for thirty years. So this year I've decided to set a goal , to become a spinner. In October of 2011, I took a class on spinning and bought a spinning wheel the same day. Since then I've spun off and on but not consistently or well. I've begun to get a pretty nice single thread of yarn but the plying has always been disaster. Last Saturday I went to a refresher course provided by the Prairie Spinners Guild. I learned several things, beginning spinners should not use merino roving and a few tips on plying.  Now, my plying of yarn is much better and I'm very encouraged. I've signed up for a workshop on February 2nd. Jane Fournier is a native of New Zealand and author of I n Sheep's Clothing, A Handspinner's Guide to Woo l. W...

Roving turned into yarn right before my eyes! It was a bit of a surprise not to begin spinning perfect yarn. All the years I've been knitting allows me to know exactly the yarn I want to use. Shouldn't I be able to spin it instantly? For a while I thought the yarn would only be used for a pillow for Nikko!   When Rosalinda arrived at the house, I vowed all yarn produced would be knit into items. Quickly I learned to order 8 ounces of roving or braid. It isn't easy to find something to knit when you have less than 200 yards of yarn! Thanks to Ravelry, I found two patterns for the new spun yarn. Monkey Mitts Fingerless Mitts by Alisa Bluesunflower Needle size: US 6 MY handspun yarn: 80 yards of Marl, just a bit of Ivory and Red Miss Sadie's Scarflette by Sara Kay MY handspun yarn: less than 130 yards Needle Size: 13 I thought this garter stitch cowl pattern would "cover up the yarn's flaws" but I think the stockinette stitch in the mitts made a b...

If you are a science buff or live around Yellowstone Park, you know that there is an emerging volcano and hundreds of earthquakes have occurred in the past few weeks. Yesterday when I got home from work I was greeted with a picture that my mom had painted on the bedroom floor. The self proclaimed Cat Whisperer, aka: Hubby, had been home all day, so I figured he had a good reason for taking things off the wall. While cooking dinner, he asked me if I had noticed the fallen picture and then told me he’d been reading in the living room when he heard a horrible crash in our bedroom. Abbie came tearing out of the bedroom “scared because of all the noise”. When he went to see what had happened he saw that the picture had fallen and taken the hurricane lamp and several other pieces of glass to the ground. He was sure that it hadn’t been Abbie jumping up on the desk but the nail falling out of the wall because of my poor job hanging the picture. Last night, in the middle of the night, there ...