Well That Was Certainly a Week!

I don't know about you, but last week was one I don't care to ever repeat the like of again. Between personal changes, my own health stuff, and an emergency with a feline household member I have no nerves left. Poof! Gone!

Less said the better on the first point, I think. I will say the timing couldn't have been worse seeing as how I was finally staring down the final hours to the specialist appointment on Thursday that was kicked off by my October of last year overnight trip to Town. Talk about your emotional rollercoaster!

The appointment/procedure on Thursday could've been worse. I was thinking it would be. Not something I care to repeat mind you, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been and I'm really trying hard not to look on the bad side. Now it's a hurry up and wait situation to get back the results, roughly 6 weeks. In that time I need to get bloodwork done (I might be anemic again. Talk about your throwback moments! I was on iron a lot of high school because my body liked to throw that at me on top of everything else), and the Drs (I saw a tandem team; both were great to talk with so that was a definite plus) were going to book me for an ultrasound, which I'll probably get a letter in the mail about as that's SOP for our health region.

So enter Thursday evening, and I'm sore and tired and already emotionally wrung out, when my precious feline nephew comes up from the basement and howls. And then only eats a few licks of his canned food that night, and barely has any water. And already tired Auntie slept in fits and starts to keep a watch on the poor little guy.

Long story short (for probably the first time ever!), he had a scab from his surgery site migrate, and block off the new opening causing him to react the same way as the first blockage. His vet had never seen the like happen before! Thankfully, after another overnight at the vet's and a catheter in place for another week, Jakey has been perfectly fine. He's even been trying to steal food! Not his usual modus opperendi but he's so cute so it's tough not to give in.

This has really been a week for comfort knitting and I've turned back to a shawl design I call Hap-Hazard. It's my go to when everything around me goes completely haywire, like the last 5 days! I'm hoping to have it in testing this summer. It involves a garter stitch center and picked up stitches with lace borders. I think you'll really like it. It's "moose lace" (and doesn't that conjure up a funny picture in your head!), that is I've used worsted weight wool (Briggs & Little Heritage for my sample) on 6.5mm/ US 10 ½ needles. It's big and squooshy, and feels like a woolly hug around you. Stay tuned for more on this one!

Here's hoping for things to go more quietly than this week from here on out!

Yours in yarn and sleeplessness,

Síle

What to Do During the Green Out

I can't be the only one who's thought "It's not easy being green" during the green out

If you've been anywhere near #KnittingTwitter or Instagram, you're probably aware of the green out. The grand logout from Ravelry that was originally March 31st to April 3rd, and is now going until April 6th, to silently(?) protest the continued dismissal of the accessibility issues with NuRav and show solidarity with those who've been hurt, and then gaslit, berated, etc. I logged out late on the 30th for probably the only time ever since acquiring my first smart phone.

Sadly, a lot of people were caught unawares on the 31st when Classic Rav was no-more around 9am Central time. The assumption had been that Classic Rav would go away after the 31st not on it. I sincerely hope no one was severely hurt by that completely petty move. 

I'm making do with the screenshots I took of my last few (I think there were 6 or 7) projects from 2010, and getting those put up on my project notebook blog. I've even started a couple projects lately so now I have an "in progress" tag for those.

I'm actually having fun going through my old projects and photos, and I look forward to going into Ravelry, for the brief amounts of time I can tolerate it, to retrieve more of them. I wish I'd thought of this idea to make a blog notebook sooner, but hindsight is truly 20/20 sometimes.

What are you doing during the green out? Are you finishing WIPs? Casting on new projects from patterns you've had in your library for awhile? Humming along with Kermit? Keeping on as you have been? 

Brief update on Jakey: In case you're wondering about him, my furball nephew is doing really well. Well, other than his latest stunt of trying to get in my bedroom window while still wearing The Cone. Um, yeah, furry nephew landing on me while I was asleep at 7am on a Sunday morning was not how I thought I'd be waking up today. As you can see though, he's none the worse for wear:

Silly boy. He'll be very glad to be rid of The Cone later this week.

A reminder: all of my patterns remain on sale for 25% off with the coupon code Jakey to help Jakey's Mom with his vet bill. You can shop directly from the pattern tab above.

Yours in yarn and sleepy furry nephew purrs,

Síle

What a Difference a Week Makes

To start, I hope this week goes much more smoothly than last week! There was a medical situation here, for one of the smaller members of the household, that thankfully ended with smiles and purrs.

So, last Tuesday Jakey, of the black and white floofy fur, started crying quite plaintively. This was not his normal "Hey! Look at me! Pet me!" kind of meowing, this was "I'm in serious pain, help me" crying. After conferring with my roommate aka Jakey's Mom, I phoned our local vet clinic and we brought him in despite that it was after 5 when we got there.

After a fairly quick examination, the vet told us that Jakey had a blockage in his urinary tract and he was having trouble getting a catheter past it. Thankfully he was able to draw fluid right from Jakey's bladder and there was only a tinge of pink; there wasn't substantial damage and if he could get past the blockage, Jakey would be fine. We left Jakey overnight in hopes that once Jakey relaxed a bit it would be easier to get past the blockage. Jakey despises the outdoors, car rides, and generally anything that involves him leaving the house. He is terrified of wind, birds, shadows of leaves waving in the wind... He could've been named Scooby Purr for the way he over reacts to everything. So we completely understood hoe the little guy was most likely stressed with being brought to the vets.

Wednesday morning, we returned to the vet office to see how Jakey was faring. Unfortunately, the vet was still unable to get a catheter past the blockage. And the blockage was quite extensive, moreso than originally thought. Jakey's only hope was a surgery called an urethrostomy; basically it would create a new place for him to pee from. Fully fearing her floofy boy wouldn't survive, Jakey's Mom agreed to them doing the surgery.

Thankfully, Jakey came through just fine and we were able to bring him home on Friday, with catheter, cone, and stitches in place. The weekend wasn't overly fun for Jakey or me as I got to supervise him and keep him from biting/tugging at the catheter, biting/licking his stitches, and just generally being a major meanie to my darling furry nephew.

We brought Jakey back to the vet  Monday morning and the catheter was removed and they observed him to make sure he was peeing without any pain or straining. When we returned for him in the afternoon, he was all purrs and we were told to keep the cone on to keep him from aggravating his backside, but other than that he was fine. And happily he's pretty much back to his usual happy go purry self.

Now of course, there's a large vet bill for Jakey's excellent care. Jakey's Mom started a Facebook fundraiser, and many people have generously contributed. 

Jakey is very special to me; my late ghirlie Maureen mothered him when he came to us as a scared 10 week old kitten. She washed him, scolded him, and cuddled him. She really taught him to cat. He does so many things that remind me of her. And he's been a constant companion to me since she passed in April of 2018; a bit over a month before her 20th birthday. That floofy, silly boy has been a real lifeline for me. How could I help with his care? A pattern sale, that's how.

All of my patterns are on sale for 25% off using the coupon code: Jakey. Everything outside of the platform and Paypal fees will be transferred to the vet office to help pay down the bill. The sale will stay in place until the bill is completely paid off. I've shared this with my twitter, Instagram, and Facebook page followers, and now with my blog audience. If you've been eyeing a Knit Dance Repeat Designs pattern, here's a chance to save a bit and help out my furry nephew at the same time. The Pattern tab is at the top of your screen. If you're not looking for a pattern but know a friend who might be, pass the sale info along. If you're on Twitter you can retweet my pinned tweet (link in the sidebar); on Instagram, you can share my post with Jakey snoozing under my tan fleece blanket (again, link in the sidebar). I really appreciate all the shares and patterns bought so far. And so does this guy 

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I logged out of Ravelry earlier this evening. I've been one of those crafters that Rav has always been an open browser tab on my smart phone. Until now. I'm taking part in not using Ravelry as "Classic Rav" disappears tomorrow. I believe the dates to avoid are today (March 31st) through April 3rd. Next week I'll only go into my notebook as I continue the work of transferring my photos and notes to my secondary blog, Síle's Notebook (link in the sidebar; it's an interesting crafting journey, and any links only go to off-Rav spaces except for one that I've very clearly marked until I get the linked to page moved over as well).

I'm upset that it has come to this. I really wanted to believe at the beginning that if we let them know that things weren't good, that we were being hurt by the site we loved, that they'd listen and work with us to fix it. I didn't expect the locked threads, the Main 6 bans, the gaslighting, the insistence that we were to blame somehow, that we were lying about what was happening to us. I never dreamed that I'd be exploring other pattern sales platforms last summer. Or that I'd be learning to integrate Payhip with this blog to form my own little hub. I never dreamed I wouldn't be selling on Ravelry, the platform that made it possible for me to start designing in the first place.

But here we are, nine months later and so many, too many, crafters have lost their communities, their safe spaces, their means of self expression. And tomorrow many more will. The past few days on Twitter I've seen an uptick in crafters saying they've deleted their Ravelry accounts. That they've gotten their libraries and project information, stashes and needles/hooks inventories, and said their goodbyes. 

Will it mean anything to TPTB? Sadly, I don't think it will. It's the only option for a lot of people, and I sadly don't believe it will even give them a pause. They've proven by their inaction that they don't care. Don't get me started on that glorified ad of an "article" published a few weeks ago. I've seen large fans for stage productions that blew less hot air than that puff piece of biased rah-rah-rah.

As I've stated before, I won't be closing my Ravelry account. But that's only to keep control of my pattern pages; there are too many editors that like to mess with off-Rav listings, and I'm much too small of a designer to risk having traffic misdirected. Once I complete the work of transferring my notebook, and library contents, I'll be on at most 10-15 minutes a week. A far cry from the literal hours a day I used to be there before last June, or even the 15-20 minutes most days since "Classic Rav" was brought back!

I'm making my peace with this. I don't like it, but I'm making my peace with it. It's not within my control to make the changes that are needed, much as I might wish I could. For my own mind, I have to walk away other than holding onto that bit of control of my pattern pages. My group was marked for deletion months ago, and I haven't posted there since. I've already withdrawn from groups I wasn't active in. When I go in next week, I'll withdraw from the remaining few as well. I didn't think of it when I logged out of Ravelry during the intermission of the hockey game.

I hope you've found a new crafting home on the internet if you've walked away from Ravelry at any point in the last nine months. I think most crafters are community people, but not all communities fit all crafters. I'm lucky in that I've always been a Twitter knitter (I joined Twitter almost 6 months to the day before I joined Ravelry; March 2009 on Twitter, September 2009 on Ravelry), and I've discovered a few Discord channels that I really need to jump back into. I'm not as active over on Instagram as I once was; it's hard to chat there, although it is the best spot for looking at photos of new patterns and yarns. And cats. I'm reading a lot more newsletters lately, which is quite a handy way to keep up with different designers and yarnies.

I think it's going to be very important for all of us fiber crafters to find new "homes" this next while. Something tells me this isn't going to be the last shake up in our little corner of the world; no, I don't have any insider knowledge, it's just a nasty feeling in my gut right now, an uneasiness that gingerale doesn't soothe.

Until next time, I remain yours in yarn and recovering Jakey snuggles,

Síle