Tigress 3, humans 0

The last few days have been busy but terribly creative (thus the radio silence). I made a batch of sour cherry preserves, and started a batch of candied sour cherries. I cleaned a LOT of house, something I almost never do. And I am finally more or less caught up on email.

I also helped my friend Lieven with his photo shoot – it was really neat to see his creative process at work. Blog post on that coming up soon, I promise! Tallest Silver, the model for the Poison Ivy photo I wove at Sandra’s, was there. I gifted her with Poison Ivy, and she was so thrilled she actually squealed! Here are two photos, one of her with Poison Ivy and one with the two of us:

As you can see, she’s dressed for the photo shoot, as a character out of the Disney film “Frozen”. Since I am apparently the only person on the North American continent who has NOT seen “Frozen,” I can’t tell you who she is – but I’m sure any of you with small children know, and can probably quote the dialogue verbatim by now.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to give it to her! I kept the samples, which are the valuable part for me, and she has something that will delight her for a long time to come. And Poison Ivy will get out where she can be seen, rather than living in my drawer indefinitely. Sometimes I think half the fun of making is in the giving.

I have also been working on my feature comparison of the TC-2 and Jacq3G jacquard looms. I’ve written a separate page for each loom, comparing features and the weaving process on both looms. I’m waiting for AVL to finish their technical review, and then I’ll post it, along with my thoughts on the pros/cons of each loom.

Finally, the cat drama. Oh, the cat drama! You may recall that Tigress has a fondness for toilet paper. Here are photos of Round 1 (unrolling) and Round 2 (shredding):

This has turned into a technological arms race between the humans and Ms. Clever Kitty. Here is Round 3, wherein we armor-plated the toilet paper:

This worked – for about 36 hours. Then, in the wee hours of the morning, Tigress figured out how to reach up with a paw, open the armor plating, sink her claws into the shivering-in-terror roll of toilet paper, and extract it from the armor. We woke up at 4am to the sounds of ecstatic toilet-paper shredding, and I emerged sleepily from the bedroom just in time to catch her in the act:

Confronted with an upset human, of course, she immediately played the “cute” card, covering up the toilet paper roll and looking as adorable as can be:

I didn’t have the heart to yell at her, but I did extract the tattered remnants of the toilet paper roll and give it a decent burial in the nearest (covered, thoroughly out of feline reach) trash can.

The score now stands at Tigress 3, humans 0. What will come next? We’re not sure yet. More research into toilet-paper defensive armor is needed. But for now, the toilet paper is stored in a cabinet under the sink. Heaven help us if she ever figures out how to get into that!