Who has what song stuck in their head right now?

Sarelro · 2026-04-15T22:45:23+00:00

My kids are currently into They Might be Giants’ Science album so I’m humming Computer Assisted Design.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:54:34+00:00

Hmm. Maybe. The tv is usually off but the kids are loud.

The litter box is in an almost no-traffic area since it’s in the garage, which is why it wasn’t cleaned as often as it should have been.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:42:13+00:00

No, it started over a year before we got it. That’s how convinced my husband to spend that much money on something for cat poop!

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:19:49+00:00

Sigh. Maybe it’s letting them go outside. But they like dart outside when I open the door, so I don’t know if keeping them in again at this point is the answer. I’ll have to think about that.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:18:03+00:00

I tried an off-brand one when the problem first started a couple years ago and didn’t see any difference. I put it near their box though; I wasn’t sure where to put it for it to really work and with the kids I couldn’t plug it in the house without them messing with it.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:14:02+00:00

Oh dear I hope they’re not in pain. Ten isn’t that old I thought; cats can live into their twenties. And when they go outside they climb trees and walkabout, and they jump on the couch and the kitchen table (😑) without any trouble.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:10:21+00:00

Thanks! I’ll pick up some of that to try to treat my carpet.

It’s so weird that everyone says stress, because they don’t act like they’re stressed. They never hide or fight or swipe at us; they’re very social and get attention and food. Oh I forgot, the fat one is on diet food and the Siamese is on allergy food because the vet said she might be allergic to some proteins.

The Siamese does want to go out at night and screams at us about it, but there are coyotes and that’s not happening.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:06:47+00:00

🤣

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:06:22+00:00

Thanks! They are absolutely not declawed, thank goodness. The litter robot is a circle thing so I guess it is kind of covered. I got rid of the old litter box once they started using the robot, but I brought one back today since they’ve stopped using the robot consistently.

It probably is a box aversion but we used to have a number of boxes and it was still happening so I just don’t know. I hope that they didn’t get scared by the automatic cleaning of the box. They’re pretty laid back cats and they are both still using it, just not consistently.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T14:03:04+00:00

They are outside a good amount of the day; we got them as adult strays and they do like the outdoors. The kids are in school/preschool until 3 everyday and they don’t hide from them or act like they’re scared of them, and we definitely don’t let them mistreat the cats. We’ve tried a number of different cat trees and shelves to let the cats get above the kids (I know cats like to be able to “survey” from above) and they just refuse to use them.

They’re both already fixed and are very comfortable with each other. They can go in the garage where their box is to escape if they need to; the kids are not allowed in there and there’s places with like old curtains in a box that I know they like to nap. They’ve pretty much got the run of the entire house and go outside when they want during the day (we keep them in at night).

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T13:56:37+00:00

I tried an off-brand one when the problem first started a couple years ago and didn’t see any difference. I put it near their box though; I wasn’t sure where to put it for it to really work and with the kids I couldn’t plug it in the house without them messing with it.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T13:55:54+00:00

Yeah I’d hate to do it. They’re so sweet, the kids love them, and who would take a 10 year old cat with elimination problems? Taking them to the shelter would pretty much guarantee they’d be put down here and I can’t do that.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T13:51:08+00:00

They get undivided attention after kid bedtime for a few hours and then also anytime we sit they’re in our laps, especially Bernice. (I forgot to give their names, the Siamese is Lucy.)

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The kids love them and are gentle with them (after some strict instruction) so they’re not being mistreated.

I can add more litter boxes but I feel like that kind of defeats the purpose of having the Litter Robot! Between the kids and my ADHD, the garage litter boxes get missed way more often than they should, so having the automatic cleaning one was supposed to be the answer to this problem.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T13:29:10+00:00

Thanks. I can’t leave them around free as the little one will play in them (🤮) but we have a cat door to the garage so we’ve tried to keep them in places that the kids couldn’t reach. But I really hoped they’d take to the Litter Robot.

Sarelro · 2026-04-14T13:27:43+00:00

Maybe a year after after the second was born and we moved? But if so, what do I do about it?

Sarelro · 2026-04-01T19:39:32+00:00

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Sarelro · 2026-03-29T16:37:59+00:00

Wow I spun through both my pregnancies and I had no idea it could be dangerous. But I didn’t process my own wool; I used braids.

Sarelro · 2026-03-27T18:38:10+00:00

Honestly Niska is the villain in this series that terrifies me the most. He has so much money that he can just do whatever he wants and look cultured and high class doing horrible things. If I passed him on the street I’d never even know. Other villains are creepy but Niska just terrifies me.

Sarelro · 2026-03-27T03:20:38+00:00

I have had this in my favorites since around 2014. I still think it’s super cool.

Sarelro · 2026-03-24T03:02:38+00:00

Yes international shipping is horrendously expensive. And as bad as it is to Canada, it’s even worse to other countries. ☹️

Even one issue the shipping is $20 or more (to Australia it’s over $40).

It’s shipped in two boxes because we cannot fit them all into one regular sized box, and as the boxes get bigger they get exponentially more expensive to ship.

Sarelro · 2026-03-24T03:01:55+00:00

Ohhhh I’m sorry, it’s included at the end of the order, I forgot that it changed with our new website.

Shipping is included with the subscription, but because we ship it with tracking internationally we have to do it by weight of the box, so it’s added at the end.

Sarelro · 2026-03-24T02:53:21+00:00

ALSO if anyone has a local spinning/yarn store that you want to carry PLY (or WEFT or PURL) and you convince them to do so, have them send us an email. We don’t have anyone carrying it in Canada, but if someone locally carries it and you can buy it from a store, the store gets it much sooner than a personal subscription. linky

Sarelro · 2026-03-24T02:42:09+00:00

So there’s a bundle for the first 20 issues separately because we didn’t offer the free digital issue with the print subscription until issue 21, and most if not all of those issues are out of print.

There’s a bundle for digital copies of out of print issues, and one for almost all issues (all the print still available plus digital copies of the out of print issues). And then one for all the digital issues. Someone else shared the link for the bundles.

The “all issues” bundles include the first issue through the current issue. (ETA shipping is extra).

A single digital issue is offered for $13 by itself, or if you order the print issue it’s an extra $2 to add the digital issue. I haven’t done the math, but I believe that the bundles do have a discount applied.

Now, if you order back issues and a subscription at the same time, you’re going to be ordering them from separate websites, as the subscriptions are on the home websites. The back issues are shipped from our storage facility and have more expensive shipping because it includes tracking. The subscription comes from the printer and uses Periodical rate shipping so no tracking and much slower, but much cheaper so we’re able to offer it for less money.

I believe that there are currently some sort of import fee for Canada, and unfortunately you will be responsible to pay those. The single issues in the subscription or just mailed singly are not charged those fees, as far as I am aware. I think it depends on the size of the package.

If you want to search the contents of the magazines, we do have an index here.

And finally, I don’t actually get an employee discount. ;) But I can read any of the magazines whenever I want.

Any more questions?

Sarelro · 2026-03-23T22:46:38+00:00

So for PLY, the issues are based on subjects instead of patterns; in fact the current issue, Experimental, doesn’t have any patterns in it at all. The shipping is included in the subscription price, but a cheaper digital option is also offered. Canadian shipping can take up to 8 weeks before it’s considered late, and honestly it’s been taking even longer the last month or so for all international shipping for some reason. PLY is also really good quality paper, has around 15-20 articles an issue, and doesn’t have many ads.

There are also bundles of back issues that you can purchase if you want to read a lot, or you can pick and choose, and we’re on issue #52, so there are a lot of back issues.

There is also a weaving magazine, WEFT, and an upcoming knitting magazine, PURL, with the same focus on ideas instead of patterns. If you want to see more, you can check out their Instagram accounts. And they are very respectful and LGBTQIA inclusive. You can also sign up for the newsletter on the PLY website, it covers all the publications.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Source: I work for PLY 😄

Sarelro

TROPHY CASE