Ricky's back home

If you don't want to hear about my cat woes, skip to the pictures below for some knitting related content.

I had to make an emergency trip to the vet on Monday morning. Ricky hadn't been eating well which is a sign that something's wrong. He usually eats all his food and tries to steal Phoebe's while she's having a drink of water. Plus he was passing some nasty gas. But Monday morning's litterbox contents made me drag him to the vet. He's stayed overnight where he was fed a different food and he was watched closely. The vet thinks the venison didn't agree with Ricky and that there's nothing else wrong with him. I just picked him up and I have different prescription food for him now - duck, duck liver, and rice.

Onto some knitting related blogging... I am a quilter so I like to do my own "utility" sewing (i.e. I'd rather make it myself than buy it). I've been searching for the perfect sock project bag that I could make quickly and scale easily to suit my needs. My first one had a zipper and I gave it to my co-blogger for her birthday. I hate sewing zippers so I will never make another one like it. I made a second one with a square bottom (so that it would stand up on its own) and a drawstring closure and gave that to her as well. It was a little time consuming to make. I made a third one using a spring clasp closure but the clasp is really hard to sew in. Plus it makes the bag top-heavy so it's a little tippy when open. I found this bag tutorial a few weeks ago. I liked the construction of the casing for the drawstring plus it's reversible but I didn't like the method for attaching the bottom. I made a prototype without the square bottom and the bag's ok but it doesn't stand up when it's open. So this morning, I took the bag bottom technique that I liked from #2, used the casing from #4 and voila. I'm not sure about it just yet but from a construction point of view, it's my favourite.

I've been knitting on my Louet Gems sock a fair bit. I thought about doing something lacy on the leg but I think the marl is too distracting. So it's just plain stockinette for these socks. I know I said that I wouldn't do anymore plain stockinette socks but it was the best option for this yarn.

I haven't done much other knitting. I've been distracted by a small stained glass quilt project plus I've been reading the Benni Harper mystery series by Earlene Fowler. I've got one more book to read and then I'll have to track down the other 8. All 12 are available as one lot on eBay but the current bid is way out of my price range.