Yarn, Books & Roses

Hannah and the CoalBear: Tabby Road Ends

Hi. I’m Hannah.

The Mother of Cats and I have been knitting and knitting and knitting. She worked on this shawl called Tabby Road for days, and then she said she was worn out and took a break to make a… chicken. I know. It doesn’t make any sense to me either, but she said that she wanted to get something done for a friend, and that at least it would be finished in just a few days. Anyway, here is the chicken.

It’s okay, I guess. The Mother of Cats won’t let me play with it, and she already put it into the car to deliver to her friend. Fabulous. If it goes away, it is like it never happened, right? I spent a WHOLE WEEK helping her with this fowl, and now it is gone. While I’m talking about things that have gone missing, let me mention what happened to the knitted cats!

There was a moth in the house. I tried to tell the Mother of Cats that it came with the bird seed, but did she listen to me? NO!! She went completely crazy and washed all of the knitted things that had been out in the house, and then she did this to the knitted cats. I could hear them crying from the freezer, seriously!!!

Especially this one. Meeeoooowwwwwww!!!!!!!

After all of the washing and freezing the Mother of Cats decided to clean out the yarn stash. WHY DOES SHE DO THESE THINGS!!! There were boxes of yarn everywhere and I didn’t get to play (or chomp) even a little bit of the yarn. She didn’t even find one little moth during all of that which made it even more boring.

Finally, the Mother of Cats went back to knitting on Tabby Road. Every single day last week she got up and said… I’m going to finish today!!! Every day we knitted and knitted and knitted, and after all of that she LOST AT YARN CHICKEN!! (Okay, I was looking all around for another knitted chicken, but I guess this was different. There was no knitted chicken. There was, however, another trip to the yarn stash while the Mother of Cats went through all of her yarns looking for a good color to use to finish up Tabby Road. Finally, she decided on a berry-colored yarn that didn’t look even a little bit like the other yarns. I did everything that I could to encourage the Mother of Cats to pick a nice black yarn like my coat, but some days are more difficult than others. She stuck with the berry yarn.

The Mother of Cats was at the end of the shawl when she ran out of yarn, so she had to knit another two rows with the new berry-colored yarn (to make a ridge, whatever that means. I don’t know. I’m a cat. I know tuna and bugs…) After that she bound off the shawl and it was done. Yay!!! I never thought I would get to this day. We have been knitting for weeks!

Ta-daa!!!! May I present to you Tabby Road.

There is still the matter of a few loose yarns to weave in, but the Mother of Cats hasn’t done that yet. Still, it is pretty nice, right? The Mother of Cats says that she is so glad that she didn’t quit on the shawl, and she really likes the look of the berry yarn at the end.

So, that is what has been going on around here. The only other exciting thing that happened this week was some of the plants from outside are back in the knitting room. The CoalBear is so excited because some ladybugs came in with the plants. He loves the bugs!!!!

Hey, the plants kind of go nicely with Tabby Road too. Kind of cool how things worked out, isn’t it.

Well, that’s all for now. It’s time for my late-night snack and then I’m going to chase the CoalBear around for some exercise. After that it will be time for… Cat TV!!! We get to watch every single night while the Mother of Cats reads in bed. Isn’t life good?

This is Hannah, signing out.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

Tabby Road is a MKAL run by Sharon from Security, a self-confident cat with an attitude, squad car, and flamethrower owned by Casapinka. I knitted mine using the “Hey, Mewed” kit from Miss Babs. It may be my favorite shawl ever.
The chicken is an Emotional Support Chicken. It is one of two that I agreed to knit. The next one is for an autistic child, and I’ve been pondering about how best to make it. I’m deciding on using yarns with different textures and then adding flowers and tassels to the chicken. Maybe some buttons, too? What do you guys think?
The medical testing continues, as does my extreme fatigue and weight loss. I had a pulmonary function test a week ago, but I don’t get the results until the end of the month. Fabulous. I asked Google Gemini about my symptoms, and she said to call my doctor right away. I answered that I had already done that, and that I was told to get more exercise. Gemini actually answered me with… “I’m sorry. That must be frustrating.”
Gemini, you have no idea!!!
The knitted cats are now out of the freezer. Poor things, they are going back in next month just to be safe.
The plants that I brought in are all safe from Mateo the Chomper. Even bunnies won’t eat geraniums and lavender! Mateo also ignores them, but he does love the occasional hitchhiking ladybug.
You can find live stream videos for cats on YouTube. My cats just love them!
We had an election last week here in the US. Do you like the shirt that I wore to drop off my ballot?

Hannah and the CoalBear: Bugs, Yarn, and Golden Leaves

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Have you seen Project Hail Mary? Bump My Paw!!!

It has been crazy wild around here lately. The Mother of Cats has been making lots of trips out of the house and some strange people have been stopping by to do worker-man stuff. The Mother of Cats told me that it was the sprinkler system getting winterized, and the furnace serviced, but whatever. No one brought me tuna, so they are just bums, right? The CoalBear and I spent a lot of time in the closet and under the bed, let me tell you! We should have gotten double tuna for the trauma, but no, that did not happen… Then there were days of rain. Now the leaves on the trees are turning golden yellow, there are flocks of birds in the yards, and lots of bugs for the CoalBear to chase have appeared in the fallen leaves on the catio deck. Does The CoalBear (AKA Mateo) bring leaves into the house on his fur… yes. Yes he does!

The CoalBear and I were forced to watch Cat TV on YouTube while it was raining because the Mother of Cats wouldn’t let us go out on the catio.

I am a little concerned to report that the Mother of Cats is still engaged in crazy sock knitting, but she also took a few days to make baby booties and a baby hat for a friend. I did like that yarn a lot, but nope, nope, nope… I didn’t get to do any yarn chomping. Anyway, here is what it looks like now that the baby stuff is done.

The Mother of Cats tried to get me to model the baby knits, but I didn’t get any double tuna, so that was a big NO!! This Starbucks bear had to do the deed.

Okay, even I have to admit that they turned out a little cute. Do you see the yellow leaves in the picture? That’s because the crazy leaves on the trees are also falling off!!! I don’t understand what is happening here…

Then there is the sock knitting. She is more than halfway done with ANOTHER pair of socks.

The Mother of Cats is also reading that book while we are out on the catio every morning. She says that it is really good, but I’m a cat, so what do I know.

So that has been life. Lots of commotion, lots of knitting, scary people coming into the house, and…

The Mother of Cats has been busy inside the house too, moving furniture and cleaning closets. When will things return to normal? She says that she needs to make room for the outdoor plants when then weather gets colder and they move inside. Oh boy! Maybe there will be more bugs? Last year some ladybugs came in with the plants. I loves the ladybugs!!!

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The baby bootie pattern is one that has been in my family for four generations and is published on Ravelry as Christine’s Stay-On Baby Booties. I modified the top with some ribbing and made a baby hat to match.
I scored some great homemade tamales at the Fall Festival where I got the pumpkins.
I’m going to try to cook at least one of the pumpkins to make puree for soup and breads. I’m thinking that the crock pot is my best friend in this upcoming adventure!
My routine colonoscopy/endoscopy was more adventurous this time as I had to be hospitalized and placed onto a high flow machine for the procedure. (The machine was amazing!!!! It was so much easier to breathe!!!) I’ve been steadily losing weight for months and my iron is low, so it was time to look for a cause. All is fine cancer-screening wise, but I have acquired a new doctor, they discovered some new scleroderma-related complications that are impacting my ability to eat meals, and I am on a new medication to treat an infection. The new drug is making me a little dizzy. Systemic sclerosis: the adventure never ends.
How have I responded to the results… must knit more socks!!!!
What can I say about Cool Machine? There is a reason why Colson Whitehead has received the Pulitzer Prize more than once. The imagery and wordcraft are amazing, the City of New York fills the story, and I am enjoying the experience immensely.

I Remember.

It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego.

Donald Trump, 10/5/26

Palm Avenue, Imperial Beach, California. I used to live on this street.

I came to age in San Diego. Today I heard what had been said yesterday by the president, and I have been flooded with memories all day. This is the San Diego that I remember.

I remember sitting on Point Loma, between Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and the lighthouse, on a beautiful summer day, watching a stream of naval ships sail out of the harbor, past the point, and into the Pacific Ocean. The South Bay stretched out before me, and I could see Coronado Island where my sister used to work as a civil servant, where I learned to drive, and where I went to parties on the beach as a teenager. I could almost see to the south of the bay were I once lived and went to high school in Imperial Beach. I could see the submarines moored along the point, the ships at the docks, and the shipyards along the bay. I remember.

I remember Balboa Park, the Zoo, the Presidio, and the Mission. I remember walking through Old Town and buying churros from a vendor on the street. I remember the Embarcadero and touring the USS Midway there with my son. I remember attending theater in the park. I remember the rich history and cultural heritage of San Diego. I remember.

I remember flying into the city, swooping over the city and freeways right before touching down at the airport. I remember the take offs, the planes clawing their way into the sky above Shelter Island and the point. I remember.

I remember the years at the University of California, San Diego where I received my biology degree. I remember how beautiful the campus was. I remember the eucalyptus trees and swallows. I remember all of my incredible experiences there, and I remember the wonderful friends that I had. I remember the cove in La Jolla, the pier at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and I remember dragging my son out of the surf at La Jolla Shores. I remember living in student housing, watching jet fighters screaming west towards the ocean after taking off from Miramar Naval Air Station. I remember.

I remember working in a research lab in La Jolla after graduation, and jogging past the biotechnology centers and the Salk Institute on my lunch hour. I remember coming out of the building at sunset, the hang gliders sailing above me as they flew in the updraft from the oceanside cliffs to the west. I remember.

I remember going with my mother to University Hospital in San Diego for a consultation to see if she qualified for inclusion in an experimental cancer treatment program. I remember.

I remember sitting by my mother’s grave on a hillside in San Diego, under a podocarpus tree with wind chimes hanging from it. All around me were the hills and valleys of the San Diego valley. I remember.

I remember a swanky hotel along the harbor, a weekend running wild with my cousin and aunt, attending a beautiful wedding for my niece at a country club, the lights of the city in the hills around us. I remember.

I used to be a biology teacher in a large high school. I remember one particular homecoming assembly in the gym there, the wild energy pulsing through the air as I climbed the bleachers towards the top of the gym, the students a crazed, screaming wave around me, confetti in the air, pounding music and glitter everywhere. I remember the student body president on the floor, a young man of 17 with incredible presence, announcing the class standings of the spirit week contest. At one point in the celebrations, as the winning class was announced, the collected freshman class began booing.

That student body president, without hesitation, stopped them. “No,” he said. “We don’t boo. We cheer for our own teams, but we never boo others, because we are ALL PROUD RAIDERS.”

And there it is. We are all Americans together. We push for our agendas, seek to persuade others to share our beliefs, and cheer for our own team; never, ever, should we accept the loss of an American city to be a small price to pay.

Never.

Because we are ALL. PROUD. AMERICANS. Together.

Vote, my good people. Vote.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Transition into Sock Chaos.

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Look at the quilt the Mother of Cats is making!

Things continue to be busy here at Casa de Mother of Cats, and there has been lots and lots of knitting going on. I loves the knitting because… yarn chomping!!! The Mother of Cats keeps her eye on me, so I don’t get to partake in my favorite yarn related activity often, but you never know… Anyway, before I show off the knitting, I think that I should show you all this quilt that we have been working on.

This is an art quilt that involves fusing lots of fabric pieces of fabric together to make a picture. This week the Mother of Cats and I got the biggest part of it done.

Look at what the quilt is looking like now that all of the pieces are attached. Some of the pieces will be hung on a string that isn’t on the quilt yet, but all of the fabric pieces are in place so you can see them. Look at how cute this is!!!! Do you see me on the quilt? Of course you do, because I am the most special part!!! Here are some of the cute details so far:

The Mother of Cats says we need to use the sewing machine to sew all of these little pieces down next. Yay! I also loves the sewing machine. This is going to be fun.

Now, let’s get to the socks. I’m pretty concerned about all of the yarn that is piling up to make socks.

When the Mother of Cats cleaned out her yarn stash last week, she found lots of fun yarn to make socks. Then she bought some more yarn to go with the sock yarn that she already had. Then she found some more yarn to buy. She is so happy about fall, and loves all the trees changing colors (whatever… I personally like the crickets and the birds that flock in the yard) and has decided to focus on socks for the next few weeks. SHE STILL HAS SOME SHAWLS TO FINISH!!!!! Is the Mother of Cats being reasonable? No, she is not. Look at what she has been up to…

She loves these colors and wants them to be socks right away!!! She keeps saying stuff like… so cute, so cute…

Mother of Cats, you only have two feet!!! This is kind of crazy…

Is the Mother of Cats listening to me? Not so much. This is MORE socks!!

So, the Mother of Cats is ramping up to do some major sock knitting. There is all of this yarn. Then she thought… I wish that there were more greens and reds in the colors… and she bought more yarn. This is out of control. But… this is also going to be so much fun as I try to get some yarn chomping in. I wonder if she will remember that there is some nice purple in the stash, too.

So that was the week. We got the quilt through the “make all the pictures” stage, and now we will start the sewing stage. The Mother of Cats is getting ready to make ALL THE SOCKS, and the CoalBear and I are just a little concerned.

This is Hannah signing out.

Send tuna!

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The quilt is Wind in the Whiskers by Pine Needles. I’m debating about whether I want to make the two lower blocks for the quilt. It is already pretty large, and I like the story with the tree as the central character with the cats.

I did finish a shawl!!! Here it is, the Age of Gold done in pinks.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Sock Season Arrives.

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do you see how calm I am? It has been quite the week.

It has been a crazy week. There have been thunderstorms. The Mother of Cats decided to move a bunch of furniture. The Mother of Cats replaced the broken television in the downstairs room with only a LITTLE help from me. Then the washing machine broke during a big thunderstorm. Strange men took it away and installed a new one on Friday while the CoalBear and I hid the whole time (Hello… strange, scary men… hey, we helped with the television, right?) Then the Mother of Cats decided to reorganize all of the yarn in the craft room. Yay!!! We went crazy wild helping her with that!!! She says that it is time for Fall Knitting!

Listen, I am a fan! I loves the yarn!!!

There is a lot of yarn for socks, so the Mother of Cats decided to focus on sock knitting for a while. She is also concentrating on a shawl (while ignoring two other ones), and there is yarn for a new sweater, too. Do I believe her when she says she is going to concentrate on socks? No… not really. But it is cooler now and she is wearing socks again, so I guess it is sock season.

She finished one pair and is making progress on a second pair. She says that the yarn on the purple sock is purple zebra yarn because it has black stripes in it. Whatever. Who cares about zebras? Cats are better right?

After looking at several different pink, grey and purple yarns the Mother of Cats picked this pink to be the lace trim on her new shawl.

The Mother of Cats also chose this berry-colored yarn to go with her new Spincycle yarn that she will knit into a sweater.

While the Mother of Cats was deciding on yarn color matches and taking the pictures the CoalBear and I looked for bunnies. No bunnies! No raccoons!! The backyard is getting pretty boring now that the weather is getting colder. Good thing there are still birds and squirrels…

So that was kind of the week. Lots of things moving around and general commotion as the new television went up and the washing machine left for a new home. There was some knitting, and we got to play with yarn. The Mother of Cats moved all of our cardboard boxes around so the CoalBear thinks that they are new toys (not too smart, that boy!) and I mostly helped with the knitting and tried to chomp yarn.

The Mother of Cats is also thinking about working on her new quilt again now that the octopus is done. I love the smell of freshly ironed fabric, don’t you?

This is Hannah, signing off.

Time for tuna!!

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The shawl is Age of Gold by Joji Locatelli.
The sweater that I am making with the Spincycle yarn is Antipodes by Andrea Mowry. I found that berry-colored yarn in the stash and I’m hoping that it will knit okay with the bouncy Spincycle yarn as it is a slightly lighter gauge. The Spincycle’s name is Dirty Little Secret. 🙂
Those are Frankensocks made from a mish-mash of other patterns and tricks picked up over the years.
I had to take a couple of down days in the middle of the week because of a covid-vaccine triggered flare. This time the shot hit me pretty hard, but the upside of a new covid vaccine should be a couple of weeks feeling pretty good as my autoimmune disease usually calms down: Vaccine Holiday!! Why does this happen? I think that triggering an immune system response with the vaccine disrupts the sad little inflammatory feedback loop that is part of my chronic autoimmune disease (systemic sclerosis). It doesn’t last more than a couple of weeks, but it is nice while it is happening!! For some reason the covid vaccine works the best.

Seven Strands, Eight Arms, and One Octopus: He’s Done!!!!

It has been quite the adventure creating my version of Opus the Octopus. The designer, Cate Carter-Evans, notes in the introduction to the pattern that he is modeled after Octopus vulgaris, but without the scary beak. My octopus has a backstory that is kind of meaningful for me, but before I go into it, here is how he looks today in all of his finished knitted glory.

Isn’t he pretty darn cute? He doesn’t have a name yet, but I am a huge fan of Murderbot, and I’m tending towards Octobot.

I bought those blue yarns that make up his body years ago at a fiber festival in Estes Park, Colorado. I love Estes Park, and I used to look forward to going to this show every single year, loading up on lots of yarn, cool fleeces, and an infusion of creativity as I ran amok with my friends.

Estes Park is the front door to Rocky Mountain National Park. Look at the view!!!

One year, I bought all of this yarn from a vendor that I liked, and it languished in my stash for years as the colorful vest that it was originally dyed to create no longer interested me. Poor yarn. I began to joke that I would knit a big octopus out of that yarn. In a fit of unbounded creative craziness this summer, I wound and cast on the body of the octopus with this yarn.

The 5 strands of the yarn (4 merino lace strands, and 1 silk sport weight) were all hand-painted in blues, greens, and purples: all of this created a complex knitted fabric that could be the envy of any fashion-minded octopus.

I was slowly working on the octopus along with several other projects (okay, a lot of other projects…) when suddenly a couple of tough days hit. My cat needed to be rushed to the vet for ANOTHER bowel obstruction, and I hit a low spot emotionally as I struggled through a number of doctor appointments to rule out every conceivable cause of my profound shortness of breath episodes (while ignoring the actual conditions that I am ALREADY DIAGNOSED WITH!!!!!) A nurse suggested that I was to blame for the struggle because I was not handling my heart failure well. (First time someone told me I had heart failure… it seems a stretch to chastise me for mismanaging a condition that I didn’t know I had and no one educated me about handling… just saying…). I was told to always wear oxygen while up and about. I was told that wearing oxygen like that would hurt me. I was fussed at for not drinking enough fluids (kidney disease) and then informed that I was drinking more than I should (heart failure). Doctors batted me back and forth as they debated whether my heart or lungs were to blame. The most probable scenario was outright dismissed by one doctor because it was *too rare* while another doctor confirmed the hypothesis: it is a form of my activity-induced pulmonary hypertension complicated by a hole in my heart. They debated stopping my immunosuppressant drugs, then decided to not do that after all after looking at my latest lung scans. Finally, since there is literally nothing that they can do to help me, they decided that I just NEEDED MORE EXERCISE.

Look, I was ready to bite someone at that point. Instead, I began to knit on the octopus around the clock. Knitting is exercise, right? Certainly, the mental health benefits of knitting would help.

So, here is the whole octopus journey.

Each arm was knitted with 5 strands for the upper surface, and two purples held together for the lower surface. I did learn how to handle the twists of yarn at the color changes effectively without using bobbins because that would have just been crazy right?

The arms, knitted but not yet stuffed and stitched shut, looked so great I took the octopus out for a little snack.

Pulling myself together, I finally finished the arms by stuffing them with merino roving torn in three different lengths, and then stitched them together using mattress stitch.

And just like that after knitting for days and days, he was done. He is sooo cute, and did you see the little purple gleam in his octopus eyes?

While all of this knitting was going on, I gradually improved and no longer had to use daytime oxygen. I read all of my test results carefully and found a note about a possible ischemic event in my heart imaging (as in a heart attack?). I made an appointment with my primary care physician (an internist) and went over the whole medical misadventures of the last few months with her. She agreed with my assessment of the situation and ordered up a slew of new tests that continued to eliminate things that might be contributing to my shortness of breath. Iron is still low, so we are working on that. My potassium is a little low, but the supplement I started a couple of months ago has made a positive gain. Exercise… yeah. That is a problem as I struggled to not pass out on my last 6-minute walk test, and the recommended exercise options (walk, bike, swim…) were not good ideas for a plethora of reasons. We decided that I would work with my Fitbit in a mindful way, making sure to hit the recommended number of fitness and cardio minutes each week without doing dedicated workouts. That is working! Slowly, week by week, I am completing the minutes with one eye on the Fitbit, and the other on my readiness levels, and I am getting better. The Fitbit (that sly rascal) increases the goals as I successfully meet my numbers and gives me reminders to not overdue things.

Yesterday I mowed my lawn and watered: 61 cardio minutes!! Yay! Carrying in groceries and putting them away: 15 cardio minutes. Knitting: NO CARDIO MINUTES!!! I guess you can’t have anything, but it is great for depression, and anxiety and facilitates decision making.

So it goes, little by little, getting better week by week. I still struggle with low oxygen levels with every low atmospheric pressure event, but I kind of know what is going on now, and my doctors are right: doing what I can to improve my exercise tolerance is helping. Did I mow the lawn on a day with high atmospheric pressure? Why yes, yes I did!! That is smart management, too.

Don’t you love this sunflower from my local garden center?

That is my octopus story. I made him during a difficult recovery time, and today he is done and I am more than pleased with how he came out!!

What does this Fitbit and atmospheric data look like? Here it is:

Did you miss Hannah? Here she is!

Hannah and the CoalBear: All the Cute Photos

Hi. I’m Mateo the CoalBear.

Yes, I am standing in the trash basket. I don’t want to talk about it.

I’ve been really busy helping the Mother of Cats as she works on her little projects. She quilts sometimes (and I have discovered that if I am in the trash under the sewing machine she will spend lots and lots of time talking to me!!), she sews bags for donation, she knits, and she spends time out on the catio reading her books while I hunt for grasshoppers and stuff to chase. I just love it out on the catio! The Mother of Cats took an old cat tree out there for me to hang out on, and that is even more special. Look at how cool I look!!

I keep my claws sharp on this old cat post!! Do you like my handiwork?

The last two weeks the Mother of Cats has been making lots of trips out of the house, and when she stays home with us, she works on her octopus. Hannah loves the octopus!!! She always visits while the Mother of Cats is knitting to try to get a little taste test of the yarns. Hannah is really tenacious (Hello! She’s a cat!!!), but so far, she hasn’t actually been able to actually chomp any yarn and the octopus is safe. Do you want to see how he is looking these days? The Mother of Cats took him out for a little trip to the rock stream in the front yard.

He has 3 and a half tentacles done now, but he is starting to really look good, huh!

The Mother of Cats has been taking lots of pictures lately of fun things, so I thought that I would spend the rest of the post today showing off the pictures. Are you ready? Here we go!

Hannah always watches the Mother of Cats when she goes outside. Here she is at the front screen door watching the octopus on his outing this morning.

Or maybe she was watching this rabbit hanging out in the front yard…

Anyway, let’s get back to the silly stuff the Mother of Cats does. She bought these fish for her rock stream in the front yard. I want a real fish!!! Why doesn’t the Mother of Cats pay better attention to my needs. Tuna fish would be best!!!

While we’re talking about fun… do you see who came to visit me out on the catio? The Mother of Cats wouldn’t let me play with him… Why does she act this way?

Well, that is all for the day. The Mother of Cats just took the octopus out again EVEN THROUGH IT IS TIME TO GO OUT ON THE CATIO and I’m going to go have a few words with her about her priorities. Maybe there are some grasshoppers out there, and if we wait until it gets dark my raccoon buddy might stop by.

This is Mateo, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The octopus is Opus the Octopus.

The bunny has a beard growing on his face that is a viral infection that is benign and not contagious to cats and humans. I call him BlackBunny.

I’ve stopped putting out seed for the birds because… raccoons!!! There were five of them in the yard the night I took that photo.

What is a rock stream? This one travels down my front yard carrying water from the downspout to the street. Cute, huh!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Octopus Days

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I have been helping the Mother of Cats for days and days while she knits on her octopus. It has been a lot of work, and much more fun than you would think. The Mother of Cats is using 5 different strands of yarn at once!!! I love to taste test the yarns from time to time (Yep. They taste great!!!), and if the Mother of Cats doesn’t keep her eye on me I climb into the yarn box to sleep with the growing octopus and all of his yarns. I love the yarn!!!!!

There are three colors here and two different types of yarn. The thin ones are merino lace, and the shiny one is a silk blend. Whatever. They all taste great!

For some crazy reason the Mother of Cats decided to use a combination of 5 of these yarns to make the octopus. This is what it looks like:

Do you see how the Mother of Cats is managing this? Lucky for her, the little yarns like to stick to each other, and because they are doing that the silk behaves itself. (I wish that the CoalBear would behave himself!!!) The Mother of Cats has all of the yarns organized in the plastic yarn box and the strands behave themselves when she pulls out more yarn. Well… they mostly behave themselves. I have to help her every single time they get a little tangled. Why does the Mother of Cats get grumpy so quickly? She is soooo lucky to have me. I needs some tuna…

This is how things have been going with the octopus all week…

Look at that!!! Last night he got some eyes!!! The Mother of Cats is really happy with him, and today she pulled out the yarns to knit his underbelly and the bottoms of his tentacles and wound them up. He is going to look just fabulous!!!!

Can you see that the octopus has purple eyes? Of course he does!!! He is so excited about the new yarns that are going to be his underneath. I’m so excited to taste test that violet colored yarn!!!!

This is Hannah, signing off.

Note from the Mother of Cats:

After a couple of uncharacteristically quiet days I had to rush Mateo to the emergency vet again this week; a lot of the body of the octopus was knitted in the car in the parking lot outside of the emergency facility as I waited to find out if he would need surgery again. The vet carefully prepared me for a possible need to euthanize him if it was too bad. In her opinion, the obstructions are happening due to adhesions from his emergency surgery last summer, and this may not be something that can be managed. Sad octopus knitting time in the afternoon heat…

After a 4 hour wait, he finally got his ultrasound, and in the time while he was waiting for his turn the IV fluids and pain killers made all of the difference: the obstruction was gone!!! The vet had his tummy hair completely shaved off, and most of his fur on his rear end is also now gone. I swapped out all of the litter in the cat boxes to the non-clumping type, and the vet feels that the best bet now is to keeps his fur shaved and to put him into little playsuits to stay warm in the winter. He is already on a special diet, and I am very careful about keeping all strings and whatnot out of his reach (did you notice that my knitting is in a latched plastic box? Yep. Cat-proofing.)

Tonight Mateo is completely back to normal, if a little odd looking with shaved parts.

Little does he know that a shaver is on the way to our doorstep…

No, I don’t let Hannah chomp the yarn, but she does keep trying…

Hannah and the CoalBear: Crafting Chaos Continues….

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do you see me waiting for the Mother of Cats to start writing?

The Mother of Cats continues to be completely out of control with all of her knitting, sewing, and other crazy crafts. She just keeps moving from thing to thing all day long, but NOTHING GETS DONE! Really, the CoalBear and I would be having concerns about the Mother of Cats, but she did manage to finish one very important thing this week. She built us a new cat tree!!!!

I hung out with the Mother of Cats the whole time she worked on the new tree, and I managed to keep an eye on the front yard bunnies too. Look at this tree!!! The CoalBear and I are spending all of our spare time hanging out on it. So fun. Now let’s talk about the crazy crafting…

She decided to get started on the octopus. Yep. She just abandoned all of shawls that she was knitting, pulled out the bin of octopus yarns, and cast on. Then she spent all of her spare time working on that for a few days.

She is knitting 5 strands of yarn together while making the octopus. That’s a lot of strings to chase, let me tell you!!!! I was just getting used to the octopus knitting when suddenly the Mother of Cats decided to work on the quilt for a couple of days.

The quilt is now three blocks big, and she says that there is a lot more of the tree to come in the next block, and… are you ready for this??? There is a cat that looks just like me on the next block!!!!! I can’t wait to see it, but did the Mother of Cats start working on block 4. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. She pulled out her new overlock maching, had a friends come over to help her, and then she started sewing a pile of fabric totes for donation. Seriously?!!! The sewing machines are noisy, and I stayed on the new cat tree the whole time she was working.

Hey, these totes are kind of fun to sleep on…

After the tote sewing episode the Mother of Cats got busy knitting… hexagons. I know. I don’t understand it either, but here we are. She is knitting little balls of left over sock yarn together to make these hexagons that she hopes to make into laps blankets to take to the infusion center. She likes the colors, and for some reason she keeps casting on JUST ONE MORE to see what the new yarn combination will look like.

I have to admit, the colors are kind of nice. Will the Mother of Cats let me sleep on the hexagons? No. She. Will. Not.

See how busy things have been. I’m lucky if she remembers to give me my tuna on time. She has been so distracted, and busy with all of the building, sewing and knitting, and I’m not even factoring in the new clue that arrives every Friday from Sharon from Security that she uses to knit her Tabby Road mystery knitting adventure. She is in clue 3 now and the shawl is starting to look kind of cool.

It has been growing, hasn’t it. The Mother of Cats can’t wait to get to the colors that more blue, but it is still pretty cool and she is learning lots of new stitches as she works.

Well, that’s most of it. The Mother of Cats has been checking out kits to knit socks on her computer, and I am seriously concerned that this is spiraling out of control. When will it end? When will something get finished? Why is she getting out more fabric to sew tote bags…

I guess that is all for now. The CoalBear (AKA Mateo) and I have to catch another episode of Bird TV while the Mother of Cats works on even another shawl…

This is Hannah, signing off.

Hannah and the CoalBear: We May Need an Intervention Soon…

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I just love hanging out in the catio every morning!!

The Mother of Cats has been staying home with us every single day lately. Why is this happening? Look at what is going on in the afternoons…

Yep. It is really hot, the air pressure is pretty darn low, and the Mother of Cats doesn’t do very well when the air gets like that. Hey, I’m a cat. I just roll with it and spend the day sleeping, but for some reason the Mother of Cats stays awake all day and does stuff.

To be fair, she does give me lots of attention and cookies, but mostly she crafts ENDLESSLY. There is so much going on, and the CoalBear and I are starting to get a little concerned.

She has been working on her quilt. I like the quilting, and I help her as much as I can. Look at the two quilt blocks that she has been working on over the last two weeks.

The next cat that is featured in the quilt will be a tuxedo like me. Not as cute as me, but still, it is nice that she will have a quilt showing how absolutely superior tuxedo cats are. I think that there is also a squirrel and a tree involved, so that is perfect, right?

Now, let’s get to the knitting. That is where things have really gotten out of control. First there are the shawls…

That’s right: four shawls!!! The first one was really fussy and hard on the Mother of Cats hands, so she ripped it out. (Good job, Mother of Cats) She said that she obviously can’t be expected to knit a shawl that was too complicated to let her listen to an audiobook or watch Netflix

Mateo: I’m terrified of Netflix!!! That huge red N is too much for me to deal with. No one should be subjected to the…TA-DUM!!!!

Hannah: but Mateo rushes into the room EVERY TIME the television gets turned on just in case it is… NETFLIX. CoalBears can be so silly.

Let’s get back to the shawls. The Mother of Cats has a lot of yarn. She isn’t making hats right now because it is hot, and there are too many hats at the infusion centers right now, so she decided to make a shawl or two. Since the first shawl was soooo complicated, she started a simple Age of Gold shawl in pink yarn. Then she started a Sharon Show shawl because she saw one hanging up in the yarn store. Then Tabby Road started, so she had to knit on that, right. This is just kind of insane because at the same time…

The Mother of Cats decided to knit some octopuses… Yep. All of that yarn has now been wound. Hold onto your tuna treats, because I’m not done yet. The Mother of Cats, still upset about not knitting hats, and hugging a huge box of left over yarn balls (why doesn’t she give them to me?), decided to start knitting a BLANKET that will be made of a bunch of different octogons that kind of go together.

She made this holding two little balls of yarn together while she knitted. Did she let me chew the yarn while she worked? No. SHE DID NOT!!!!

Do you see why I am concerned about needing an intervention? She has been crafting nonstop for days in a row. Okay, it has been really, really hot for days in a row, but still. NOTHING is getting finished and she just keeps picking up yarns and starting new projects when she isn’t fusing down little pieces of fabric for the quilts. HELP!!!

I’m pretty sure that I need an intervention here.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

There is a giant octopus that I hope to knit in the blue yarns: Opus

Did you want a few glimmers? Check out this picture of the moon and a baby bunny…

I’ve also been reading a lot while sheltering indoors away from the heat, but that is another post. 🙂