Goodbye, Max.

For a long time I've been reluctant to tat at home, especially a piece intended for someone else. See, I had this cat. Max. Max was furry. His white fur was just as fine and clingy as any spider web. I'd be tatting along and not notice until I was done that Max's white fur was tatted into the piece. It probably didn't help matters that Max liked to sit in my lap in the evening, so his fur was on my clothes, on the fleece throw, on the chair, in my eyes.... Always in my eyes. Since Max was getting older, I didn't want to deprive him of a warm lap in the evenings, so tatting was relegated to break time at work.

A few weeks ago Max's diabetes started to get out of control. The vet advised upping the dosage, then lowering, then increasing, but we couldn't keep his glucose steady no matter what. Last Tuesday he was lying on the bed, rubbing his face against the blanket and moving his legs back and forth. It was the same behavior as when his blood sugar crashed a few weeks ago. I grabbed the bottle of Karo syrup and gave him three different "shots" but he stayed the same. I took him to the vet and asked that they keep him for observation even though his glucose was reading 75. I checked back on him at dinner and was allowed to take him home. I opened the crate for him and left the room; when I came back a couple of minutes later he was in full seizure. I took him back to the vet and they decided to keep him overnight. I visited him about 9:30 pm and he was still swinging his head back and forth, but not so much. He didn't seem like he knew I was there, though. The vet said he may have had some cerebral edema, but she wasn't ready to give up on him yet. I stayed about 20 minutes, until the office closed. I called the next morning and they told me to check back later that evening. When I stopped by to see him I had hopes of taking him home, but I could tell he was worse instead of better. I made an appointment with the vet for 8 pm, and went to my sister's house to talk it through, but I knew what needed to be done.


Goodbye, my friend.

Day 11 of the TIAS project is complete. I had to do some studying to make sure I was using the right shuttle and even took out the last lock chain and re-did it, but I think I have it right now. And look! Scissors! I'm in love. What a cute pattern, and a sweet little learning process to boot. I still have trouble with the very small picots, but I don't usually work in size 20 thread. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.)

I didn't make as much progress on Sunday as I had hoped, and after working on it again today I'm really frustrated with the Sine Wave bookmark. I don't know if I have misread the pattern, or if my tension is too loose, but it's just not coming together right. I'm definitely going to redo that last chain, though. I've told myself that I need to finish it, if nothing else so I can figure out how to change it for next time. But honestly, this is a very frustrating project. It's a pretty simple design and should look a whole lot better than it does.

Sunday I wangled this heirloom from my sister. It's yards and yards of Grandma Deck's tatting. The colors didn't photograph quite right, but it's a lovely variegated yellow and purple thread. There are some places where she obviously ran out of thread, tied on a new piece and kept on tatting. I suspect this was something she did in the evenings and her fingers just tatted along without her brain having to be involved. I'm struck by the evenness of the picots, the consistent spacing between rings, and the sheer quantity of it. I really wish I could have seen her tatting, but she lived too far away and I hardly knew her.