Our local Interfaith ministries was looking for some stools and cushions for their new yoga and mediation room, so I volunteered to make them a pouf. I found the Red Heart Stylish Pouf pattern for free online. The yarn was no longer available so I found some super chunky Paintbox yarn from LoveCrafts. I chose a light blue and light grey, which really didn’t have a lot of contrast. If I could do it again I’d go for more contrast with the colors.

I bought a 10 mm hook for the pouf, but this hook was really disappointing. There was a rough ridge under the hook that kept snagging the yarn. But my swatch was too small so I ordered this 12 mm hook instead and it was so much better to work with. The pattern calls for filling the pouf with a bean bag. Instead of just buying a bean bag to fill it I decided to make a bean bag. I bought the bean bag liner and filling on Amazon. The Styrofoam beads are horrible to work with. They are filled with static so they either stick to everything or repel against each other. They spilled on the floor and trying to pic them up was a big mess, especially trying to keep them away from the cats. The pouf wasn’t full enough and I decided to fill it with more filler, but this time I chose shredded foam. I still wish it was fuller, but I already spent $50 in filling and didn’t want to spend more.

I also decided to add a zipper to the pouf so the cover could be taken off and washed or refilled if needed. This was my first time sewing a zipper on my work and overall it was ok, the hardest part was lining up the two sides of the zipper, so pinning the zipper to the work helped to keep the zipper sides even.

I was able to donate the pouf along with some baby blankets before Christmas. I hope they are able to enjoy it in the new meditation space.

I decided I wanted to make Santa hats and scarves for my gargoyles. I had some extra yarn around. I searched for a Cat Santa Hat pattern and found one. I got to round 12 before I got lost in the pattern. The counts and instructions stopped lining up, so I fudged the rest of the hat.

The scarf was just freehand. I made two of each for my little gargoyles all in one day.

I finished up the year with 3 crochet project. The Guardian Dragon Crochet Wall Hanging was a pattern I purchased over the summer from Etsy. The pattern is by SRO Austin. This pattern was intense and is definitely an intermediate/experienced level pattern.

To start off, this pattern has 3 PDF exports and a long list of interesting materials including plastic canvas and Polyurethane. My first challenge was with the nose. My stitch is short, so I had to make extra rows to get to the end of the plastic canvas frame.

The PDF pattern has tons of step by step pictures, but they are small, so it’s best to read the pattern off the computer or at least zoom in on the pictures. Another hint, don’t print the pattern in black and white, because then the pictures are really hard to see.

The hardest part f the pattern, for me, was the reverse single crochet (crab stitch) in front loop only. I could not figure this out for the life of me. I was trying to look it up online, but still had trouble with it. It doesn’t help that I’ve never quite gotten the crab stich ether. Mom to the rescue! She told me the stitch is called Knurl stitch. I found a tutorial online that really helped.

I wasn’t crazy about the eyes and I bought some safety eyes to use for him, but the ones I bought were too small, so I stuck with my crocheted eyes. The final dragon was gifted to my friend Dawn as a Christmas present. I waited until she got the gift before writing this up. This was an incredible pattern and I highly recommend it. It’s just very clever all the pieces and how they come together.

It’s been two weeks since the 2022 Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival wrapped up. It’s starting to be a bit exhausting going to all three days, but still lots of fun.

I started the festival on Thursday with volunteering again. I kind of enjoy it, I get to meet people and spend time at the festival without spending too much money. lol It also gave me time to complete the Sunseeker Pullover I was working on, so I could wear it on Friday. And I got some time on the floor to shop, and spend money. Thursday I wore Charles Voth’s Serengeti Tank and got a lot of compliments on it.

Mom came into town this year to attend on Friday and Saturday and we took four classes together. We started out with Tunisian Crochet for Absolute Beginners taught by Toni Lipsey! This was my third attempt at learning Tunisian crochet. I started off ok, I can do the simple stitch easy, then we switched to a honeycomb stitch. That’s when it all fell apart. I wanted to cry, I fell behind. I thought, this is the last time I’ll try Tunisian crochet. But I will keep trying. I bought Toni’s book and got it autographed. I also ordered a new set of hooks, so I want to try again on my own, with her book.

Friday afternoon we took Big & Bold Cables with Bonnie Barker. I was able to keep up in the cables class much better. I’ve done cables before, but getting those cables that go underneath are always challenging. Bonnie was funny, she took a break every hour to sing a funny crochet song on the guitar.

Saturday we started our day again with Toni Lipsey for Color Theory for Crocheters. I wore my Summertime Tee for Toni. Other students also wore some of her works as well. I still struggle with color theory, but she really helped to break down some of the ways to come up with a pallet for our projects. I’ve learned that I’m drawn to pinks and purples, with some blues. I like comforting colors, that make me feel calm and serene. It was a really great class, not just about colors and how to pick them, but how they make us feel and how we can try to expand and challenge our color choices.

We finished up the festival with a final class, Crochet Corner to Corner Graphgan for Beginners with Elaine Belfer Raucher. I’ve never done Corner to Corner (C2C) or graphgans before, but I wanted to try, especially to learn about color changes and bobbins. First we got a crash course on how to C2C, which was relatively easy to pick up. We also learned how to create the patterns on stitchfiddle. We’re making a little bunny and I plan to post about it once I finish it.

I always enjoy this festival every year and learn so much. I just want it to keep going and I hope we continue to get great teachers and creators.

Coming next, a post on the Sunseeker Pullover that I finished last week, once I get some good pictures of it. I’ll also post my C2C little sampler blanket. And right now I’m working on my Halloween decorations for the year, Stranger Things Season 4.

We know that sometimes cat introductions go bad, and they can stay bad, nothing seems to work out, and then you give up. But then sometimes they can go right. And sometimes they can even fix those bad introductions.

I’ve told the story of Georgie and how nothing worked out in the end. Tuna was sick and we just couldn’t get things to smooth out in the house. Well, Tuna passed away last December and soon after her passing we adopted 3 kittens. What are we crazy? Why would we adopt 3 kittens with all the cat turmoil in the house?

Well, to tell the truth, things were pretty settled in the house with Georgie. He had his side of the house and he seemed to be pretty happy and he loved us. Plus my husband and I always talked about getting 2 kittens when our cats passed because we figured we were older and this would be the last opportunity to adopt kittens. Notice I said we wanted to adopt 2 kittens? Well of course we came home with 3. We named them Jaina, Jacen, and Mara Jade (Star Wars names).

We were going to adopt 2 little girls, but their brother was with them when we went to pick them up. He was a cutie pie, and the rescue said, want to adopt him too? No fee. Well this wasn’t really a rescue, more of a pet clinic/charity and sometimes they help cats find homes. They didn’t have anyone to adopt the little boy and they asked us if we wanted to adopt him also. Well if you ask me if I want a kitten, chances are I will say yes. My husband is the same way, and so we came home with three kittens.

Kittens are a lot of work, and three at the same time? It’s a bit insane. It was hard to keep the three of them separate in a room for a week. Finally they broke out and met Pumpkin and Nathan. Well, Jacen is what I call a big ball of love. He is fearless, and curious, and wants to meet everyone. It can be a bit scary as a cat mom to have him so innocent and naïve like that, but it worked out. Nathan was ok with him and so was Pumpkin. Soon after the girls introduced themselves and they all were really good with each other. So success!

Once the kittens were a little bit older, they were determined to jump the gate to Georgie’s side. Mostly Jacen, but Jaina tried too. We’d close the doors and rubberband the doors closed. Then they’d get stuck between the gate and the door. My husband and I were beside ourselves, we didn’t know what to do. I was so afraid that George might be aggressive with the kittens. We decided to introduce Jacen to George first. Jacen pranced in like he owned the room, like always, and instantly was getting a bath from George. They were fine. Mara Jade and George are ok, they’re not friends and not enemies. Jaina hisses at George all the time, or most of the time now. But they also did well overall. George was now integrated with the kittens, and the kittens would jump the gate whenever they wanted, so they owned the house.

After some time, George would break free at the gate and go run to eat the other cat’s food. He would run into Nathan at times and they were fine together! But he still had a bug up his butt about Pumpkin and would try to attack him. Pumpkin was old and dying of cancer at the time. So we were very protective of him. We thought, well if nothing else, once Pumpkin passes things will be ok.

Slowly over time we got to the point were we would let Georgie stay out in the Livingroom with us but he’d still sleep on our side of the house. He was getting better with Pumpkin over time and Pumpkin also started to stick up for himself as well. Then we got to the point where we’d leave the gate open at night. We kept Georgie behind the gate when we went out or when we travelled because we didn’t fully trust that things were good. But once we got back from vacation in July, the gate has pretty much been open the whole time. There was one recent scuffle with Nathan, George started to get worked up and a little too playful/aggressive (he was stalking Nathan), so we gave him a time out on the other side.

As for George’s peeing on the bed? It was practically over for about 6 months, but when we went away for a week in June, I came home to a puddle in the bed. So the tarps went back on the bed. He was really upset about us going away. The tarps stayed and he still had some accidents until we got back from vacation in July and since we’ve been home the peeing on the bed has stopped again.

Believe it or not, we are all one big happy family again. Unfortunately, we had to put Pumpkin to sleep this week. He was the last of our original six cats. Now we have 5 cats, all younger, so thankfully we won’t have to deal with loss for a long time now.

So this was the story of Georgie, and how this sweet, sensitive cat had a hard time integrating into a home with many cats, until one day, when this little kitten named Jacen, a big ball of love, came along and made friends with him. Now all the cats are living together peacefully and they lived happily ever after.