Hi. I’m Mateo.
Life has been crazy here. The Mother of Cats spends all of her time playing with yarn while listening to audiobooks, which is…BORING!! So boring. It’s all fine for Hannah because she likes to hang out with the knitting machine while the Mother of Cats works on it, but I need action! I need excitement! I need BUGS!!!
I like to go upstairs to bite on Hannah at least twice an hour to make sure they don’t forget about me, because… did I mention that I have needs? All of this out-of-control knitting is making me go crazy. I seriously need a trip out to the catio and a bug hunt EVERY SINGLE HOUR!!!
Especially after dark, because that’s when the really interesting bugs come out. I like to catch these guys and then I take them inside to play with them. So much fun… until the Mother of Cats catches me and takes my bug back outside. Why is she so mean to me? I worked hard to catch that bug, and then she just takes it away? Does that sound fair to you?
Anyway, let’s talk about the yarn and the knitting. Seriously, I think that we need an intervention!! She has three of the cranking knitting machines now, and she has been steadily producing hats and fingerless mitts every single day.
Do you see this? She now has 34 pairs of fingerless mitts, and 41 hats. All of these knitted things go to her community knitting non-profit next week, and then she will be starting all over again. She is so excited about all the knits and keeps talking about reducing the stash, but this is just CRAZY, right? I think that maybe she should take the knitting machine outside. I need bugs. I need bunnies (don’t you think that the bunnies want to play with me? I’m a good boy. I would never eat hurt one of the bunnies…) There is always lots of fun things to see outside!
Then there are the chickens!! She knitted four more chickens this month (that haven’t been sewn up and stuffed yet), and she mailed away two.
This hen was mailed out Thursday. Why does it have a crown? WHERE IS MY CROWN???
Okay, I guess that is all for now. I feel a lot better for having gotten this off my chest. I’m going to go hunt down Hannah and see if I can get her to chase me around the house for a while.
This is Mateo, the CoalBear, signing off.
>^..^<
Notes from the Mother of Cats:
To be fair to Mateo, there has been a lot of interesting action out in the yard lately. The bird feeder is drawing lots of action with a constant parade of squirrels and birds stopping by. The bunnies travel right along the catio as they transit to the front yard, and you already heard about the bugs. This week Mateo was transmitting extreme concern about something in the back tree, and when I walked out to see what it was, a huge bird erupted out in a crazy swirling tumble of flapping wings and vanished from view as it crossed my yard. Like, maybe it was an eagle? A golden eagle? Did it grab one of the big fat doves at my feeder? I’ve seen them in the neighborhood, but how crazy to have one in my tree!
I’m suddenly unable to watch television but listening to audiobooks while cranking out hats and fingerless mitts on the knitting machines is working great. I’m totally reveling in the constantly growing pile of hats and the obvious dent in the yarn stash. By using the machines for the hats and mitts I’m able to get the chickens knitted without hurting my wrists and hands too much. That chicken pattern is the Emotional Support Chicken, and the chicken in the picture is my 24th one. I found the pattern for the little crown here.
I learned how to make fingerless mitts on the knitting machine, which involves making a thumb hole while the knitting is on the machine. That new skill set off a whole new stack of knitted goods. I’m thinking about another post showing how I do it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Marilyn, I had already begun to worry about you !!! – too long since your last post. Don’t do it again. 🙂
Mateo, I think it’s time for you to stop whingeing about your needs: Hannah doesn’t go on and on, after all. I want you to try to just forget about those needs of yours next time, OK ?! Sighh … I s’pose it’s the Maine Coon in you that makes you so demanding.
A golden eagle, Marilyn ? – well, you are in Colorado ! You lucky thing to have had one in your garden !! … although your photo is not frightfully convincing … 😀
Your charity knitting must be setting records, m’dear – how thrilled they must be with your efforts ! And who knew that you could create fiddly things like thumbed fingerless mittens on a machine ??!!
I’ve been crocheting to audio books for longer than I can remember, now, having long, long since given away my television. I can’t even work up enthusiasm for watching any ad-free drama on my laptop: I think extreme age brings with it extreme intolerance. [grin]
MR, I’m with you on age bringing extreme intolerance! I have to kick my mental shins to get myself in a fit state to venture out to the shops because of all the crabby people who seem to have emerged after the covid lockdown. Although less noticeable, it’s somewhat the same with continuing to teach as a supply/substitute teacher in my active geezerhood.
As for videos on the laptop, I’ve begun to regress – corny, old ITV, Thames TV, and BBC oldies, like Roy Barker comedies, to engage in the sillies that still make me laugh and are without ads, thanks to Duckduckgo.
When I’m in a state of mind to watch dramas found on dailymotion (similar to youtube), there’s nothing like a Henry James, Dickens, or Thomas Hardy tale to make me feel thankful I’m living in this century. I don’t know about you, but I’ve even resorted to the visual meringue that’s ‘Emily in Paris’ for an escape when my eyes are tired of reading or writing.
A toast to ‘extreme intolerance.’ 🙂
I also have discovered that I have extreme intolerance and can’t handle most of what is on television or the streaming services. I just binge watched Emily in Paris myself, as that is about the most I can handle right now.
Wow. This is a lot to respond to. 🙂
I’ve been experiencing some type of writer’s block that I think is due to 1) struggling with my physical therapy and the inevitable fatigue/sadness that is triggered by each session, and 2) being triggered every single day by the crazy statements coming out of the right that makes me think about all the blog posts that I need to write to address those issues. This isn’t a political blog, and I just don’t have the energy to launch a second blog (see above… fatigue), so I am in limbo creating spreadsheets of the posts that I want to write linked to specific triggers/issues. Sigh.
A picture? Are you kidding? I practically fell over when the bird exploded out of the tree, and by the time I said “Holy Shit!” it was gone. It was wrestling with something mid-air and I never saw it with its wings completely out before it was gone from my view. I did see an eagle eating something on a lawn a few weeks back, and this bird was the right size and color…
The charity has a 1,000 hats goal this year, and winter is coming…
I have discovered that YouTube is full of things that you can make with these machines. Little stuffed cats are possible, and very cute, but a little fiddly.
I”m so glad to see your blog return! I was concerned that you might’ve been caught up in the Tren de Aragua debacle in your fair city.
I can empathize with Mateo: If I didn’t have so much to do, I, too, might be contemplating my lilac bush (if that’s what it is), hoping this year it would bypass winter and begin to bud and bloom again soon. Sadly, wishful thinking isn’t reality, and winter is looming with sharpened claws.
Thanks for sharing your lovely completed knitting projects with us. The happy colors are always a gentle lift for the soul.
I felt that I needed to get something out today because it has been so long. I’ve just been really fatigued and somewhat sad with the battle to get my knees under control again. The physical therapy is helping, but every time I do it I have a set back the next day.
My garden is finally coming out of the shock of the summer a little and there are new blooms on some of the potted plants, but as you said, the first snows are right around the corner. I’m already looking at the indoor garden and my grow lights and wondering what can be brought in for the winter, and what needs to go into the ground in the hopes that it will survive the winter and rebloom next year. Lavender will probably come in, and some of the roses will get planted.
Tren di Aragua!! I was VERY disappointed to hear the name of my city in Donald Trump’s mouth during the debate. Here’s the story the best I understand it: there is an apartment complex in Aurora with lots of immigrants and the landlord is basically a slum landlord type who was taking advantage of a vulnerable population. After lots of complaints and citations he said he couldn’t do repairs because the building was taken over by gang members. There was at least one incident in the building. The complex was closed, the landlord is facing charges and is being forced to repair and then sell the building, and the gang members were arrested by the police. The system works, and the issue has been vastly overblown for political purposes.
Thanks for the update on the Tren de Aragua situation. I read about it in the online rag, UK Daily Mail, and the Wall Street Journal, as well. As for political muckraking, I’m done with reading or listening to anything political. My BS receptive meter is full to overflowing, so I emptied it, drilled holes in its bottom for good measure, and shut the lid with a clang.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble with your knees, but happy you’re contemplating which plants to winter over in your house. Just seeing green plants makes me happy.
Today I was online looking for shelves with grow lights for the plants…
Please let us know the outcome of your grow-light-with-shelf search.
So far I’m less than enthusiastic about what I’m seeing…
I just had a funny thought. If Rodin had been an avowed cat lover, he might’ve supplanted the gigantic hunched-over male supporting his head on his right knuckles (‘The Thinker’), with a bronze sculpture of a cat looking very much like Mateo contemplating the contents of your potted shrub. I can just see Mateo in this pose as a sculpture in the Musee de Rodin garden. Even better, if it were placed inside the building it might scare off rodents.
Who knew The Thinker was considering the availability of a fun grasshopper to whap. 🙂
Hahaha!
You figured out the thumb holes! Awesome! My little fabric ones are always within reach. (“Smart” thermostat and I don’t always agree on temperature.)
Mateo, you can sound off here (or to me) anytime. We all need to vent once in a while. Especially when you get older, more impatient, and more intolerant as I and several others have. I think it’s related to my shortening attention span, but that’s just a guess.
I heard somewhere that Trump is planning a visit to Aurora because of the Tren de Aragua story. Ugh, I certainly hope not. The saddest thing is that all those renters were forced out with just a week’s notice. I never heard if anyone helped them find other housing.
Marilyn, the amount of knitting you’ve produced — while keeping up with kitties, birds, squirrels, eagles, garden, etc. — blows my mind. You are amazing.
Mateo: Oh, I will be sounding off on a regular basis!! You wouldn’t believe the stuff that I have to put up with… Hannah bit my tail just tonight!!!
The little knitting machines are just amazing! I am able to do something productive in little chunks of time, like while something is baking in the oven, or I’m watering the lawns and have to get up every 20 minutes to move the sprinklers. i can get two hats done while watering the lawns!!
That makes sense that you can do fingerless mitts on a sock machine but I never thought about it. I will keep this in mind. I’ve been wondering what I’m going to do when I determine that I have more tees/sweaters than I can possible wear. I love the idea of making hats and mitts. Even socks.
I totally have reached the point where I have so many knitted items that it is hard to justify another sweater or large project (ahem… Casapinka or Stephen West MKAL adventures), but there is the small matter of the yarn stash and my endless need to knit!! I was online looking at 64 needle sock machines today, but they are pretty pricy for me when I already have a couple of bins of socks. I gave away 4 pairs of the mitts this weekend to people who are happy to get them, so there is a market. 🙂
Speaking of Casapinka’s latest adventure, it landed her with a bright pink right-arm cast all the way to her knuckles because she fell on a river bank and broke her wrist a few weeks ago. She could use healing thoughts before her wrist bones knit, no pun intended. 😦
Aww… the may need a (hot pink) emotional support chicken!
Yes, Casapinka could probably use a hot pink emotional support chicken, but not at the expense of having someone with cancer or a major family loss doing without one, I’d imagine. You’re so very kind to think of others.
That is my philosophy too. Maybe someone else will make her one. I was recently asked to make one for a giveaway prize attached to a charity event, and I was like… no. I have more requests than I can handle, and they are all going to people dealing with grief or serious challenges in life.
Mateo has a point: You could bring the cranking outside!
I did try to explain to Mateo that the air outside isn’t very good for me, but he wasn’t having it. We have had an endless stretch of red flag air days here in the Denver area. Sigh.
Oh, bad air quality means no outdoor knitting! Mateo will have to concede on that point.
Our air was bad for a week, but now it’s better.
Your kitties are a delight. Congratulations on reducing your stash for a good cause, and for sorting out such a brilliant assembly line production. I love your squirrel pic and your delightful kitties.
I am just thrilled to find a home for yarn that has been languishing in the stash. Skeins bought for a fade that didn’t work out. Leftover skeins from sweaters because I bought extra yarn. Yarn that was gifted to me that is in colors that I will never use. All off to new homes in a good cause.
Fantastic.
I’ve been thinking about that photo you took of the squirrel. It would make a great shirt transfer. The wording could read something like, “Stop burying your nuts for winter. Go VOTE” – or slogans to that effect.
That squirrel certainly does speak his mind!! I think it should be… Winter is coming! VOTE!!!
Even better! Have you thought of entering some of your wildlife photos in any contest? They’d be great with captions or without, and contests abound.
No, I’ve never considered that. They are just shots from my phone! 🙂
Wow! You are really generating those hats and mitts! Sounds like you are having fun with your knitting machines 🙂 Lovely pictures of your beautiful cats, as always ❤
I just ordered a bunch on Malabrigo Rios because I used up the stash! I really am having fun, and last weekend I taught another member of my knitting group how to make the mitts, so the mitt making is proliferating. I just emailed my rheumatologist to ask if they would like the mitts before they are sent to an infusion center.
I’m kind of hoping that the larger version of my Addi machine goes on sale next month when Amazon does its sale days. The machines really have made a possible for me to deplete the stash without ruining my hands, and I am finally catching on to different ways they can be used.
That is just awesome! You are amazing!