Hi. I’m the CoalBear (AKA Mateo)
It is sooooo hot today. It is almost 100 degrees outside, and Hannah and I are staying cool in the house. The Mother of Cats has all the windows closed and we’re too hot to look out the windows anyway. Do you notice that the Mother of Cats has been brushing out all of my downy fur? I used to have a huge ruff around my neck, and now it is almost all gone. I look a whole size smaller now. I don’t like getting brushed, but today I guess I am glad that she did it. She also cuts my nails off and I will never get used to that!!
The Mother of Cats has been knitting away on her sweater this week and look at how far she’s gotten! She is done with the first sleeve and halfway down the second one already! She has also been sewing on the quilt with Hannah.
The quilt is coming right along and should be done in just a few more days. The Mother of Cats can’t wait to get it done. Hannah kind of hopes that she is going to get to keep it for her new bed, but I think that the Mother of Cats is planning to hang it up on the wall behind her knitting chair. I ripped the old quilt down a couple of days ago (Hey! There was a moth!) and she didn’t even bother to hang it back up again. Okay, the old quilt was a Christmas themed one, so maybe she’s ready to put it away now anyway. I’m such a good boy; see how I did her a big favor?
A scary man came this week and messed around with the Mother of Cat’s oxygen machine. When he left there was new stuff left behind including this new green bottle with a snazzy carrying bag. Now the Mother of Cats has oxygen she can take with her when she goes out on errands, but mostly she stays home with us because we are so cute! She has been working on her gardens this week and they are starting to look pretty good. The first rose bloomed this week which made her really happy.
See you next week!
>^..^> CoalBear
Notes from the Mother of Cats
- The sweater is GoldenFern by Jennifer Steingass. Hopefully I will have it done in another week or so. I’m really anxious to start another sweater but so far I’m sticking to getting this one done first.
- I know that isn’t a good shot of the quilt, but hopefully I will have a nice picture of the completed quilt to show off next week. Hanging on the wall, where I hope it remains as long as no moths land on it. 🙂
- Not only did I get oxygen-to-go this week, but I also got my injections of Evusheld, which is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies that will give me protection from Covid for at least 6 months. This is huge piece of mind for me since my doctors are dialing up my immunosuppression drug dose this month and have started me on a new immunosuppressant drug at the same time. Yay, Evusheld! With the higher dose of drugs, I won’t be able to make many antibodies of my own, so I’m glad to have the Evusheld antibodies.
- That rose is Princess Alexandra of Kent, and it is pretty much my favorite rose in the garden right now.
- Hannah and Mateo don’t know it but they are heading to the vet for their vaccinations and checkups next week. Sad cat day is on the way…
Yarn, Books & Roses 
You sure did Mateo a favour with that thinning, Marilyn ! – he is one furry long-hair, alright ..
No words sufficient for the jumper .. I wish you would enter your knitting into competitions: it should bloody win EVERYTHING, it’s so beautiful !
Yes, that rose .. hardly a double, eh ? – more like a quintuple ! Scented too ?
AND the quilt. Jesus woman, you just don’t stop ! It’s a bee-yoo-ty !!! Looking forward to seeing it on the wall, and hoping you can find a good position to shoot it from.
Best thing of the week might be the oxygen-to-go .. for a person like you who doesn’t believe in sitting around if there’s something to do, it will be a gift.
Thank you for you really kind words about the knitting. Really, there are so many beautiful yarns and patterns out there now it is easy to look good. 🙂
That quilt is a kit that I bought at a really nice quilt store that is now gone. I bought it because the colors go perfectly in my downstairs family room and it didn’t involve very much piecing. It is mostly long strips sewn around a central panel. I really struggled to sew on it when I first pieced the quilt top, but now I’m doing much better and I can sew for a couple hours at a time. Yay! The new drugs are already helping my breathing. Ironically, the oxygen-to-go has arrived just as I improved enough to stay off oxygen during the day. I’m still taking that portable oxygen with me when I go out because it is really tiring to do those long walks from the parking garage to the doctor’s office!
I am trying to stay busy. I haven’t been getting out all that much, but I am still being productive and busy!
And interesting ! 😀
Just keep those moths away. I do like those David Austin old roses
I really love David Austin roses, too, but I have to really be careful about where I plant them here because of the strong sunlight and low humidity. The scent is wonderful on these!
Wow Mateo, that brushing must have helped keep you a lot cooler. You must be a very good cat to let MoC cut your claws. You and Hannah are just the best and good to hear you are tackling moths still…those naughty things might cause chew holes in all the knitting! So keep up the attacks on them.
I bought the most amazing dematting tool that really dragged out his fur like crazy. Worth every penny. The claw cutting is not going well, but he is getting to be better. He runs behind Hannah (and me) slashing at our heels on the stairs so that was goodbye claws time! I can train him to leave me alone, but Hannah deserves better! The moths are miller moths getting into the house from outside… they are almost an inch long and drawn to light so they always end up in the bedroom at night because that is the last light on of course. I’m pretty sure that if a wool moth showed itself Mateo would take it down!
I live in fear of moth damage in the yarn stash and knitting so I’m super careful about storage and set out pheromone traps every year. Bad moths!!
Mateo, you look so sleek now. Your sweater looks great. Smart thinking to finish it before starting something new. I have three sweaters on the needles!
This morning I woke up with the urge to cast on a cute new summer sweater, but nope, I am going to finish up the one sweater that I have going. It is so hard to resist! Mateo has lost so much fluff he looks too small to me and even his color changed. He is now a shiny black cat instead of the dark charcoal grey/matte black that he was before. It is kind of amazing. I’m glad that I got it all out before this week’s blazing hat weather.
Your sweater is beautiful! My SIL had the same injections. It has changed her life.
Thank you, it is turning out nicely! The fit is just great too, which encourages me to keep at it. The injections have really opened the door for me again, but my doctors are still insisting that I wear a N95 mask if I go inside anywhere.
Your sweater is beautiful! Matteo, you are looking handsome as always – Mother of Cats did a great job brushing out your winter coat 🙂
So glad you got the injections and the new portable oxygen – hopefully it is all helpful!
Thank you. I’m on fire to get the sweater done now. Mateo, hopefully, is less on fire with all that fur pulled out!
It’s like a whole new lease on life getting the injections and portable oxygen!! I am hoping to go to knitting again. 🙂
Hoping for you!
Both the sweater and the quilt look lovely! And such stunning feline assistants you have, too. I’m sure they help the crafting go so much faster… 😉
They were especially helpful today when I trimmed the quilt and sewed the binding on. As in, we can hide under the quilt and whap mom’s toes!!
LOL! That sounds about right. My cat used to love to sit in my lap while I was sewing. I was too paranoid to let her stay there with the machine running, though!