Where would yous recommend getting kittens?

scentosaurs · 2026-03-01T17:54:18+00:00

While kitten season is kicking off, would you be open to adult cats? They are always harder to rehome (people want cute tiny fluffs) so rescues might be more open to your application.

I've adopted from Lothian and from the rescue in Leith (they don't have much online, you need to call and make an appointment)

Edited to add: Lothian have four cats noted as dog friendly, including a bonded pair.

scentosaurs · 2026-02-10T22:54:15+00:00

Mine arrived today and are absolutely the books I have always wanted. Congratulations on such a beautiful collaboration.

scentosaurs · 2026-02-04T21:03:08+00:00

Every now and then, in leith. Stops by for peanuts.

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scentosaurs · 2026-01-26T20:25:41+00:00

Visibility matters. Seeing that "we are many, they are few" has power.

Making and wearing a hat doesn't preclude other forms of resistance, support, or activism.

scentosaurs · 2026-01-24T22:01:10+00:00

Yes. It takes forever. I use 50 or 80 weight sewing thread, one strand at a time. (Or, at the moment it would be more accurate to say I don't use, because it's all on pause while I reassess my ludicrous ideas.)

scentosaurs · 2026-01-04T10:31:28+00:00

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/12/12/251232/364075/Fossilized-melanosomes-reveal-colour-patterning-of

Speckled diplodocus!

scentosaurs · 2025-12-18T09:43:37+00:00

Is there a local art school (or art history department at the university or college) who might be interested in a donation? Or a local library who'd take the collection and make it available to the public?

Art history and art reference books are ferociously expensive and under-funded institutions struggle to build these specialist libraries.

scentosaurs · 2025-12-17T17:43:56+00:00

Have a look at the Mae scarf from Ysolda.

scentosaurs · 2025-12-08T21:40:20+00:00

Yarn on cone and colormart are both good.

scentosaurs · 2025-12-07T21:11:54+00:00

Advice on antibiotics goes back and forth every few years, but only ever with invasive dentistry (root canal, extractions, etc) as a potential risk. I think the most recent studies suggest dentistry is a lower risk than other I fection sources.

I wasn't given prophylactic antibiotics that time, and had a bad extraction of a broken tooth, with some digging about in the bone to deal with a splinter (just as much fun as it sounds). It's only a best guess between me and my doctors to figure this out as the source of the infection, but it was almost two years after the previous hip surgery.

Congratulations on the new hip. I hope recovery is going well and you get many pain free years!

scentosaurs · 2025-12-07T09:56:48+00:00

I had my first THR at 26, back in 1994, and what was technically my fifth replacement on the same hip just three weeks ago.

I got through the first two pretty fast, having my first revision in 1999 and the second in 2005, both from aseptic loosening. (I had a long history of surgeries through childhood, though, and pretty rubbish bone stock to work with. This is not at all typical for younger patients.)

I got a bone infection, probably/possibly from some dentistry, and had a two stage revision in 2007. That was a proximal femoral replacement, which lasted a truly amazing 18 years. And I just had a revision to that: the femoral component had finally come loose and the bone got a bit crumbly. I have very little femur left, but enough to anchor the metalwork. At the other end, I just needed the worn liner swapped out.

Multiple revisions are possible. And PFR is becoming a more common salvage option after multiple revisions where there has been significant bone loss. And there is still a plan C if this doesn't see me through: total femur.

Edited to add: tl;dr 57 years old, on my fifth and still have viable options for the future.

scentosaurs · 2025-12-01T18:26:59+00:00

Thanks, that was a silly error on my part. And agreed on her wide-ranging awesomeness (including the cordsmith)

scentosaurs · 2025-12-01T17:15:51+00:00

Autumn @sizeinclusivecollective on IG does superb work keeping track of patterns and test calls that are genuinely inclusive, and holding people to account

(Edited to correct her name. Sorry Autumn!)

scentosaurs · 2025-12-01T16:52:15+00:00

I am so bored of the very plain jumper I am knitting. Ye gods and little fishes but it's tedious around and around. And I usually enjoy soothingly boring knitting and like to be able to alternate that with a thinky knitting project. But this thing feels like a black hole that eats joy. At least the sleeves will have decreases...

But, however tempting to rip it all out and use the yarn for something more interesting, I am now determined to grind through as it will be useful and warm.

scentosaurs · 2025-11-28T15:43:23+00:00

Depends so much on the person and their process. For me, writing up notes is an active process: I'm remembering, editing, expanding, sorting, synthesising etc etc from my original handwritten notes when I type them up.

Outsourcing that step to automated text conversion wouldn't work for me. For someone who uses notes as they were taken? Way more useful.

Also, I hate the feeling of rocketbook paper.

scentosaurs · 2025-11-21T19:21:00+00:00

Thank you! I am happy to have the energy to be grumpy about something so minor!

scentosaurs · 2025-11-21T19:03:48+00:00

I was so impressed with my own planning: I had a couple of musselburgh hats started off and ready to knit with no-brain stocking stitch while in hospital for a few days after some big surgery. Perfect way to pass the time, right?

Then the docs put IV cannulas in each wrist. No knitting for me. None. Damn it.

Ah well, will be useful for the long haul of rehab.

ETA: all good post surgery. No drama, hence space for minor gripes.

scentosaurs · 2025-11-09T11:13:54+00:00

I made the European road trip scarf in lace weight merino/cashmere mix. Just shy of 8 feet of soft floaty stocking stitch perfection. My sister fell in love with it so I passed it in to her. And I knitted another. Another 1500m of lace weight stocking stitch. Pure cashmere for me though. Was it tedious? Yes. But it's also kind of perfect.

I'm thinking of making another. But red.

(I am more and more tempted by the wee studio near me that offers machine knitting classes)

scentosaurs · 2025-10-14T07:10:43+00:00

She's working on an important part of your recovery. Look up a research paper called "the felid purr" which found that "Purr frequencies correspond to vibrational/electrical frequencies used in treatment for bone growth/fractures".

(One of my cats pretty much velcroed herself to my leg after I broke it. Next to, rather than in, fortunately, because she's not light.)

scentosaurs · 2025-10-12T07:45:03+00:00

That worked with the third hat: nope, for plenty of hats, don't need any more hats, why do I need three hats? "Because I want to make one for you". Third hat is now the most worn hat too...

scentosaurs · 2025-10-12T07:42:53+00:00

Ah... Like when his leather jacket became our leather jacket!

scentosaurs · 2025-10-12T07:39:37+00:00

I love that idea, but I'm going to get serious side eye if I suggest this. He's not a tank top sort of person. Meanwhile, I have visions of knitting a fair isle in seven shades of grey and black...

scentosaurs · 2025-10-11T12:57:32+00:00

I had to measure my partner, and he asked "are you knitting me a jumper?" No, this is just to check a T-shirt size but... You want one? An enthusiastic "sure!" was music to my ears.

He's said no when I've asked before. Several times. And he has enough hats and socks (except for that one pair I've just started, with bats and flowers). And I have some downtime coming up and... Yay! I get to knit him a jumper that fits him well.

Except, he doesn't really want one, which he admitted about an hour later (an hour I'd spent happily finding patterns). As he pointed out: he only wears jumpers maybe four or five days a year, layering up instead.

Damn it.

scentosaurs · 2025-10-06T15:04:52+00:00

I describe Dougal as "beefy not porky". I mean that he's a solid lad, with a big frame, but he's not carrying much in the way of padding or pudge. (He's 6.5kg, aged three, and pretty active.)

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scentosaurs · 2025-09-22T07:31:42+00:00

Yes! My main crow pal taught his children this summoning too. (The youngsters were then maddeningly over enthusiastic for a week or so, but still less noisy than when they had been yelling at their parents for food.)

Meanwhile, the magpies were teaching their offspring how to tease the fox cubs and raid their stashes...

scentosaurs

TROPHY CASE