I hope he knew

how much I loved him.
I met Peter (Penguin) at an Indy car race at Monterey about 15 years ago.  At that time I lived in So Cal and had no idea how important to my life he would become.  We saw each other at the occasional race over the next few years because of mutual friends.  When I finally moved north about 10 years ago, he opened his heart and his home and his friends to me.  He was always there if I needed to move my whole house or just a big pot in the yard.
He drank and smoked too much, but he didn't have a mean bone in his body.  In fact, he really didn't know how to say no to anyone.  He took great pride in his beautiful yard.  Was always puttering and planting, mowing and weeding.  Putting in a walkway or building a gate. And Christmas!  OMG, at Christmas, he did love his lights!  The house had more lights than an airport landing strip.
He started getting sick a couple of years ago.  They tested & tested.  Couldn't find anything wrong, but managed to puncture his bowel doing a colonoscopy. It has been all downhill from there.  He never really recovered from that and then was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer not all that long ago.
I regret we didn't make the Giants game or the Reba concert that we always talked about. I regret that I didn't make the effort to spend more time with him this last few months.  I talked to him on the phone, but that is not the same as sitting in the back yard sharing a beer.
And I'm angry that a disease like cancer can take such a good person from his friends and family and leave perverts walking the streets. It's not fair and I don't like it.
Peter's leaving this world has left a huge hole in my heart.

Amigurumi Class a lot of fun!

I had 2 ladies sign up for my amigurumi class at PYA on Sunday.  They were both in Peter's Intro to Crochet class on Saturday.  When I found out what their skill set was, I had to kinda rethink how to teach them.  I created this lovely lady for the class project, hoping they would be able to complete her in the allotted 3 hours.  Not quite, but with their limited crochet knowledge, I was so impressed with how much they really did.  They have the sc down pat.  Also very good at increasing.  They had done a couple of rows of dec before we had to leave, so hope they are doing OK. The thing I was the most impressed with was they both caught onto the pattern reading in a snap!  Deena is a knitter, so does have pattern reading skills, just learning a new language.  Mona is a new knitter, so is learning both languages at the same time.  I've always said the hardest thing about learning to crochet is learning to read patterns. I heard from Deena and she still seems enthusiastic, even tho she hadn't had any time to work on Hilary.  Haven't heard from Mona, so hope she has finished her project.  BTW, this pattern is called Bad Hair Hilary and she will be available for purchase in my Ravelry pattern store.

Amigurumi, anyone?

Amigurumi is the Japanese name for toy making that a lot of us have been doing for years. I was asked to do a class at Piedmont Yarn this month, so decided I should brush up.  I also wasn't 100% positive that there wasn't some new thing going on that I didn't know.  So I borrowed from the store the book "Tiny Yarn Animals" by Tamie Snow.  If you are afraid to make creative decisions on your own, this is not the book for you.  The pictures are very good, but there are no assembly instructions.
Well, I did 2 that I thought were cute.  I did the owl as instructed, but made a couple of changes to the turtle.  With all her feet, the turtle is front heavy and falls over, so I eliminated the back feet.  Now she stands up just fine.
I will not be doing anymore of these.  You need to crochet very tightly, and my poor old hands just couldn't take the pressure.  Cramps! and more cramps.

Going to take them in to the store on Tues when I go so they can be displayed and hopefully inspire some folks to sign up for my class.

A kitty with good taste!

We have 3 cats, all with their own unique personalities.  Nakoma is old, about 17. I rescued her from a drunk in a bar when she was about a month old.  She follows me around like a dog.
Mango is an orange tabby that we adopted from a pet drive at PetSmart.  She is lovable and quiet.
Then there is Annie, our white tornado.  She and Mango are about the same age, but Annie is a real pistol.  She will play with anyone or by herself.  Makes no difference.
Most of the time, the cats show very little interest in our yarn, except to try to lay on our projects while we are working on them.  Once in awhile, they get a little excited when I am winding yarn.
About a year ago, I was using alpaca for 2 different projects. I got up one morning to discover Annie sleeping with a ball of the alpaca that she stole out of my tote. The second time this happened, the project got put into lidded container that I could close when I wasn't working on the project.  I haven't worked with any alpaca recently, so had forgotten this incident.
We have a large dresser in the den where I keep my better yarns or things already designated for projects.  A couple of evenings ago, I pulled a ball of wool out of a drawer and went in the kitchen to show Penny.  All of a sudden, she looked up and said to me to look in the den.
There was little miss Annie in the drawer that I had left open.  Of course, couldn't find the camera that quickly. It then dawned on me that that is the drawer where I keep the alpaca.
Not only does she really like alpaca, but she likes the natural colors more than the dyed. A girl after my own heart.