Those of you who live with a feline personal assistant will know of what i speak: stitch one, tug two, is, very literally an everyday occurrence in my studio. Magellan the MagnifiCat came to us as a rescue cat slightly less than a year ago. We were warned when we adopted him(we actually had to take a "quiz") that he was a high maintenance cat, a personal assistant so to speak. Since we had both recently retired and had no plans to be away from the boat for extended periods of time we thought this would be cool. It is. But…. everyday, everyday is a struggle for primacy. Who's rocking chair is it? We even went out and bought him his own chair so he could sit with us at the table as we surf the internet, discuss politics, Magellan is supporting Bernie! He even often joins for meals, no he doesn't eat off the table; he just likes to be with us. Like i said, he's a personal assistant.
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| My chair. My sunbeam. Mine i say |
So. Stitch One, Tug Two developed from this summer's game of Girl On A String. There is a YouTube video. Ahem. Once we moved back inside with the advent of the colder weather Magellan figured out that there was endless opportunity for attention when i was in the studio stitching on my latest project. Now mind you, he only has one toy. At least he has only one toy he plays with that we actually purchased for him. Even that has been modified through use. The fuzzy balls and ropes were originally attached to a plastic 'fishing pole'. That of course became steadily shorter as it broke off during vigorous play time. Hey i'm a creative person; he really likes it, so i just re-purposed it with a very long boot string.
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| Please note the great diagonal tension created here. |
Voila! A new lease on life, and a far more convenient attachment. For me at least. He will literally play the tug game for a half hour or more at any time. This can be very counterproductive when it comes to getting things done in the studio. It is after all extremely difficult to embroider while playing tug. Since i am not an alien, nor a Hindi goddess, not having more than one pair of hands i had to improvise.
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| Don't know about you, but i'm not done |
Lucky for me, the embroidery hoop i use is on a stand, which works pretty well as i have both hands free to stitch with, although not another pair to play with the cat. The solution was actually pretty simple. I tied my end of the string to the stand of my embroidery hoop. Mungo tried tying the string to my toes. That didn't work very well, besides it is to cold to be barefoot right now. Being tied to the embroidery hoop keeps a nice tension on my side of the string. All i have to do is reach down and tug occasionally to keep him pacified. In the meantime i get great 'love paws' massage on my feet.
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| What can i say? Off? |
Oh ya. We often have these most amazing dialogues about Marcel Proust. Did i mention my studio assistant is a talker? Meorrw!
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| You can see how helpful he is. I should hire him out! |
Finally finished another leaf on the Green Man. Only five to go.
More later,
Morgainne
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