Saddest Month Ever

It's still hard, trying to get used to being a single bunny Mom. It's been almost three months since my darling boy Licorice passed on. Star bounced back pretty quickly from the loss, with the help of Nut Brown Hare (a stuffed bunny from Kohl's For Kids that's nearly the same size as she is) who sits by her cage to keep her company day in, day out. I still catch myself talking about "the buns" rather than just Star. I always knew Licorice was very precious but I'm still surprised how deep and sore a hole his passing has torn in my heart. I'm so lucky that Star is still here, healthy, happy (can we say even more spoiled than ever?!) and as energetic as always.

We all mourn in different ways, and my way of working through all the grief that still lingers is knitting a big stuffed bunny that (hopefully) will look like my boy. I've finished the head, body, and one arm. Two legs, another arm, and two big floppy ears are yet to go. And I ran out of yarn. I had double the stated amount and I've still run out. Life's just like that sometimes. Must've been the mistakes I made and the flailing around I did to correct them (no, not mistakes--pattern tweaking--yeah, that's it). So I had to do some scrambling. I originally couldn't find any yarn that I liked, so I took two different yarns and combined them into one twisting strand, then balled that. I remembered the base yarn was Caron's Bliss in black but the second yarn was a very soft eyelash yarn that I have no idea... just that I got them both at Joann's. Not having the money to spend on gas to get to my nearest Joann's (a 2 hour drive one way), I went to Hobby Lobby and got lucky with finding a single yarn that was almost the exact match of the two I combined together.

Must add that I have, for a long time now, become a yarn snob. It pains me to even walk into Joann or Hobby Lobby for knitting yarn. Why would anyone buy this commercial junk when they can get gorgeous high end stuff on line for the same price or near enough? Slap me for being elitist. Giggle. Actually, Joann's yarns are pretty cool and definitely have their uses. My real gripe is their lack of any decent knitting needles, since I loathe plastic or disco colored aluminum. They used to have a decent Joann brand of coated needle that was on par or better than my favorite Inox brand with a much lower price tag, but they have since disappeared. It also seems that my Joann thinks knitting involves only needles of 9 and higher because try to get anything under a size 8 and you won't find any. Any at all. If you like to knit socks, Joann has neither needles nor yarn for you, you bizarre knitting rebel you. But let me kick over that soapbox and get back to the topic at hand.

So, I am knitting on my black bunny periodically, usually when I am feeling mopiest. It's not a yarn that you can really see the stitches or hope to do much with unless you are really concentrating, so other projects are getting some more attention when I am in front of the tv (my fav way to knit). Will post pics soon.

I am not alone, I know. The bunny I am closest in the world to, next to my Star, is Patricia's Ivy, who has also just died. Equally suddenly and out of the blue, her heart just stopped. She was at the vets and all that could be done to resuscitate was done, to no avail. Pet deaths are hard enough when you know they are coming but when they just occur without warning...

To top things off, another of my dear friends is going through a rough separation and divorce. Seems everyone I love is miserable and depressed of late. Ever notice that January is like that? The worst month of the year. It makes being far away from my friends and unable to visit (that gas $$ thing again) even worse.

I need some yarn therapy!!

Off to go do some of that... got a bin of unfinished projects to go nosing through but I'll be back again in a few days with pictures.