Knitting – Page 2 – Yarn, Books & Roses

Hannah and the CoalBear: CoalBear Adventures

Hi. I’m Mateo the CoalBear.

I woke up Thursday morning feeling… not well. I was walking funny, throwing up (I HATE when that happens) and forget eating. I think that Hannah ate my breakfast for me, and I know she ate my cookies!! I felt too bad to even go out on the catio for more than a few minutes. The Mother of Cats called the vet to see if they could take me.

Nope. They were drowning in emergencies. They gave the Mother of Cats some numbers to call of emergency vets (I hate the vet!!) and she started calling. Nope, nope, nope. I went to hide in the downstairs shower while she figured things out, and then in the afternoon she found a place to take me. She loaded me in the carrier and went to get her purse.

Ha. I climbed out! The side zipper was open. She tracked me down and reloaded me. Ha. I may be sick, but I can move fast if the zipper jams…

Finally, she got me into the car, and we headed off to the horrible Vet ER. THERE WERE DOGS THERE!!!! We waited, and finally I got some xrays. The Mother of Cats was told that I needed emergency surgery (AGAIN!!!), and that we needed to go to ANOTHER ER to have that done. They took more xrays there, and then told the Mother of Cats that I was too unstable for surgery. I got this horrible IV needle in my arm and they gave me lots of fluids.

Hannah: Like, this is a surprise? I already knew he was unstable…

The Mother of Cats went home for the night and LEFT ME ALONE!!! The next morning, she came back and sat with me in the treatment room with all of the people and dogs and machines and everything. It was so scary.

Look at this horrible cage. I was hiding in a corner until the Mother of Cats came to sit with me.

I got an ultrasound at noon and look at what they did to me! All of my beautiful fur got ruined and I have goop stuck in my fur. I smell really funny, and what is up with this horrible tube going into my arm!!!!!!

Guess what, the intestinal blockage was also gone! My intestines are pretty sore and I may have to have a special diet for a while, but they kept me for a few more hours to push fluids and then I got to go home again.

I smelled so bad Hannah hissed at me all night!

The Mother of Cats says I’m getting a haircut next year so this doesn’t happen again, and she is throwing away some of my toys that have strings on them. Life is soooo unfair. Why is everyone being so mean. At least Hannah has stopped growling at me…

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

I told Mateo that he is getting shaved next summer and will wear funky little outfits from now on! The clinic where he finally ended up told me that he was saved by the fluid bolus that they pushed at the first emergency vet facility. Once they got him, they could see that things were improving a little on the x-rays, and since he was still very dehydrated and had developed a heart murmur they held him overnight for the ultrasound. That turned out to be the right call.

Do I have more grey hair. Yes, yes I do.

While all of this was going on I also got some knitting done. Look at my Cloudbreak Tee.

I added a couple of inches to the body before I started the lace section, and I think that was a good decision. The cast off for the body was a sewn one that took 2.5 hours to do, but the result is very nice. See that little bit of yarn that I am holding? That is how much yarn was left when I finished sewing. I WON AT YARN CHICKEN, PEOPLE!!!!

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Thoughts on the Night of the Summer Solstice

Yeah. Life has been busy lately. Last week I managed three appointments for testing and office visits, and then I visited three different Kaiser facilities to acquire the new prescriptions. All of this was done while keeping an eye on the barometric pressure; for half of the visits I had to wear my oxygen. I’m a little sad, more than a little exhausted, and somewhat concerned that all the test results are pointing at my heart. Bad heart, bad. It isn’t quite clear what is going on, so my cardiologist is systemically eliminating possibilities as we edge closer and closer to a return to the cath lab. Oh, boy.

Here is the thing about going back on oxygen. My portable oxygen concentrator only supports me for about three hours. For the most part, I am now homebound. Sounds sad, right. I have been loading up on happy crafting projects that I can do at home, but it is hard to face the isolation of going back into virtual lockdown again.

Of course, I’m not really alone. The cats are great companions.

Then my niece contacted me to ask if I would like to join her is a collaborative writing project online. Yes!! Yes, I would. You guys, we will be writing a collaborative book in the epistolary novel format. What a gift that she came up with this right now!

Then a friend asked me if I would like to join her in a shawl KAL being sponsored by a local yarn shop in town. Yes. Yes, I would love to do that with you!!

That bright pink yarn to the right in this picture will become the shawl.

Then my cousin, the fabulous quilter who produced this Rainbow Zebra Quilt for my support group mentioned that she has the patterns for the quilt that I just ordered to start working on. She is considering joining me in the sewing of the quilt. How fun! We will be doing it together even though we live at different sides of the state I live in.

The Wind in the Whiskers Quilt Kit is from Stitchin’ Heaven, and the package is out for delivery as I type this post. My cousin is still considering hunting through her fabric stash, or if she should order the identical fabrics from the shop where I bought the kit, but we are almost certainly going to launch the joint sew a quilt together project. Isn’t that great?

In the meantime, I have been knitting away on my new Cloudbreak Tee. Look at my progress!!

So here I am, stuck at home connected to my oxygen concentrator machine, waiting for my cardiologist to contact me about the results of the emergency echocardiogram that I had last Friday, chilling out with the cats, working on my computer, and knitting on my sweater that uses the happiest color yarn out there. Alone, but connected to other people who reached out to me, connecting to me though things that I love to do, keeping me in the world that they still are able to move about freely in.

That that, scleroderma!!

Hannah: I’d like to connect to that moth up there!!

PS: How lucky am I? I have already been contacted by three people who are offering to drive me to the cath lab appointment if it happens, and another person is going to go with me to my next cardiologist appointment if things don’t sort themselves out soon.

PPS: Just as I was unboxing my new overlock machine, getting ready to sew fabric tote bags, the mayor of my city posted on Facebook that he was spending Friday nights at an innovative center that is designed to move people from homelessness to employed (and housed) independence. Here is an article about what he wrote. I contacted the head of my community service crafting group, and she is setting up a meeting to see what we can do to help. I’m pretty sure that they can use some of the fabric totes with matching zipper pouches…

Did I mention that I am happy these days?

No matter what, choose to be happy!!

How big is the Zebra quilt? Pretty darn big!

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Thoughts on the Night of the Blue Moon

Almost three years ago there was a blue supermoon in August; it was on the anniversary of my diagnosis, and I wrote about it then. I was feeling pretty good at the time… my concerning autoimmune pneumonia (SSc-ILD) was under control, I had just acquired my portable oxygen and new shoes, and I was full of plans to knit a new sweater. You can read that post here, if you like.

Tonight things are much the same, but also different in important ways. A concerning lung test result a couple of months ago triggered a round of emergency response drugs with follow-up testing. It now appears that my lung disease, always a concern, is stable. Yay! I, however, am not stable. I continue to deal with some concerning symptoms like dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath, edema, and low blood oxygen levels. Oops. It is starting to look more and more like my pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is active again, and there needs to be a medical response. My rheumatologist told me a couple of weeks ago that I would be returning to the cath lab to check the pressure levels on the right side of my heart. My cardiologist, who has wanted to start me on an additional PAH drug for a few months now, will no longer be put off, I suspect. Fabulous. These drugs always come with not so nice side effects. Of course they do.

And yet, just like three years ago, under a different blue moon, I am happy. Every day is busy, I’m brimming with plans for my beautiful yarn, there is new life around me, and I am… happy. I have an unusual response to bad news: I immediately spring into action to acquire beautiful plants and yarns. You might equate this with spitting in the eye of the monster. Yep. Thursday, when the latest testing made it clear that my heart was the problem, I headed straight to the local nursery and scored lots of beautiful plants. Take that, monster!!

I brought home large lavender plants (not cheap, but look at that plant!!), snapdragons, dianthus, and a bougainvillea to hang from the edge of the catio. I’m hopeful that bunnies will leave all of these plants alone.

I hung yard decorations on the fence. I tied the roses up onto the trellis. I made the baby bunnies a little entryway to their home under the deck.

Hopefully that brick doorway will calm things down in bunny-land as Mateo waits right above the bunny hole and triggers a panic response/chase across the catio every single time a bunny emerges from under the deck. Mateo is not happy with me right now, let me tell you. So far, I haven’t seen a bunny go in or out, but it is just a matter of time, right? I hope at least the bunnies will be happy!

As I planted and cleaned up this week, I was forced to prune some roses. Did I throw the branches away? No, of course not! I have a rose rooting experiment going right now at two different locations.

Hey, these are roses that I like a lot! The hot pink rose is from a large shrub along my driveway… I could use another one at that location! The lighter pink is an English rose called Princess Alexandria of Kent and just look at it!!! I have five different rooting efforts going, and I do hope to get another rose bush out of this!

Not to be outdone by roses, the one of the orchids in the indoor garden has decided to have… babies! These suddenly appeared on one of the blooming stems after the blooms all dropped off.

There it is, a baby orchid with roots, leaves, and even blooms.

These orchid babies have a Hawaiian name: keikis. I now have three of them appearing on one overachieving plant. How cool is that?

I have made a couple of outrageous yarn stops lately too. You know, when you get concerning news, it is best to load up on the pretty stuff, right? That’s my philosophy, and I am completely unapologetic about it. Look at this haul of superwash merino, silk, and yak yarn:

This yarn was on clearance. It would be criminal to not take advantage, right?

All of that new yarn has found a project. A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me to join in on a shawl MKAL. Ka-bam!! The four skeins of bright raspberry colored yarn had a project. Wool & Pine published a fingering weight version of the Alchemist Sweater: three more skeins found a home. The light grey with flashes of color is already warped onto a loom, and some other yarns not shown in the picture are destined to lives as socks, cowls, and wristers. I put aside a couple of hours every day in yarny project creation, and I’d like to believe that it is helping me manage symptoms.

So, there it is. I’m in a bit of trouble, there are new drugs and a mobility scooter on the horizon, I need to wear oxygen again when I’m out, but I am happy. My support network has already closed in around me, and I’m working out ways to handle my new limitations. My little world around me is teeming with life, my garden fills me with joy, and I spend my days immersed in beautiful fiber crafts.

It has been almost 12 years since my first diagnosis. I am in the 5th year following my dual diagnoses of SSc-ILD and PAH, and I continue to find ways to roll with the punches and to shine. I’ve been doing better than expected for a long time, and I keep thinking that maybe resiliency is related to finding glimmers in your everyday life. Every baby bunny sighting, every robin in the yard, every single new rose, all that beautiful yarn… glimmers and joy.

No matter what, choose to be happy.

Shine on, blue moon, shine on.

I’m on my way outside to check on you because…glimmer!!

The Scleroderma Chronicles: There’s been a little set back…

Okay, I have been gone for awhile. I’m sorry that I caused some concern for people. I’ve been contacted by a couple of people, and one (MR, I’m talking to you) has reminded me that I need to continue to check in from time to time…

Here is what is happening in a nutshell. I caught the flu, I got over the flu, I felt kind of good for a week or so, and then I began to get steadily worse. I was losing weight, sleeping around the clock, my hair was falling out, I hurt all over, and my oxygen was low. I had an appointment with my pulmonologist coming up, so I just hung in there. About a month ago I finally saw him and had my routine lung testing done.

Oh dear. The testing didn’t go well. I had a 20% drop in my ability to move CO2 gas from my lungs into my bloodstream. Not good. A drop like that is considered highly significant and set off some red flags. My lungs are in trouble, but there is a strong possibility that my heart is the underlying cause. I’m a patient with both interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and the two, like the lungs and the heart themselves, are interconnected. My pulmonologist shot off emails to the other doctors on my team, prescribed three new drugs to treat the immediate problem (lungs!), and ordered up future testing to see if I make some recovery after completing the prescriptions. There were steroids involved, which is risky for scleroderma patients, but I was kind of out of options. Sigh. It took weeks for me to get this sick, and it will take weeks to see if I’m recovering.

These pictures are of my front ash tree. Three weeks ago there was a hard freeze, and the new leaves and buds on my tree all died. Feeling just awful, panting with chest pain, I keep looking sadly at the dead leaves hanging off the tree wondering if it was alive or dead. I began to call it Schrodinger’s Tree: simultaneously alive/dead, and only time would tell. I kind of identified with the tree as I dragged myself out to the catio for my morning latte. Then, as you can see, over the last 10 days the tree has gradually begun to regrow buds, and now it is covered with leaves. I also have slowly improved: no more chest pain, and the panting is much better. The weight loss has stopped, and my sleep is returning to normal.

Last week I went for a specialized CT scan of my chest to see how I’m doing now that I’ve completed the course of emergency response meds, and in another week, I will repeat the lung function tests. I’ve been warned to expect a trip back to the cath lab to measure the pressures inside the right side of my heart, as there is a good chance my PAH has worsened and is at the heart (see what I did there… ha!) of my struggles.

So… I’m kind of in limbo. In cases like these, I find it is best to knit. I pulled out my Weekender Crew sweater that had been languishing in a box under the bed, and slowly managed to knit enough to get it finished. Look at how cute the knitted fabric is!

I have also been buying yarn. Don’t these look like happy colors?

I have lots of plans for this yarn: a shawl, a sweater, a woven scarf, and then a knitted cowl and wristers set for the scleroderma charity auction. With yarn like this it is impossible to feel sorry for myself. I managed to get more (deep rosy pink) yarn wound for a new sweater, and a couple of nights ago, at about the same time that I became positive that the tree was going to survive, I cast on my new Cloudbreak Tee.

It’s going to be great, right?

So, here I am, knitting away, in a state of flux, waiting to see how all of this will turn out. I’m doing everything that my doctors are telling me to do, and I have gotten alarmed about some parts of the emerging treatment plan (there is some discussion about big alterations and new drugs…), but I am clearly improving, and in the meantime, there is… YARN.

Hannah: Be like a cat. Eat the best tuna you can find and then take a long nap.

As I told my pulmonologist… no one ever got better by worrying. Do the best you can, take your meds, and sleep like a cat.

I also told him that I’m not doing another lung biopsy!! He didn’t think I was funny…

PS: I have been looking for all the glimmers. The white pelicans have returned to Colorado. A litter of baby bunnies have emerged from under the deck. I went to the garden center and bought huge lavender plants. My catio is awash with potted flowers and the yard is full of birdsong. My trees are covered with feathery new leaves. The baby eagles at Big Bear Lake are getting huge…

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Complicated AF

February was a good month for little ol’ scleroderma me. I was getting stuff done around the house, weaving lots of new projects, attending social events, and enjoying a sense of improvement. I’m doing pretty great, I told myself! I sailed through my routine medical appointments, had my usual heart echocardiogram done, and didn’t think about it too much. I had some cardiac symptoms last fall, but they seemed to be resolving okay.

Feeling positive and joyful, I bought a lots of yarn in the gloom of winter. Look at all of that pink!!!!

Then the echocardiogram report came back. Oh, oh. I have had some fluid around my heart for several years now (a pericardial effusion) that my cardiologist has been following. It is rather common in systemic sclerosis patients, with about 25% of us having one at some point in our journey. This time the effusion has grown, completely surrounding my heart, and large enough to cause symptoms and to be a concern. Oh. That’s why I was feeling dizzy and experiencing some chest discomfort last December. My cardiologist ordered up some blood work to see if I have active inflammation and pericarditis.

Nope. My inflammation markers are normal. Kind of a bummer, as that means it won’t respond to anti-inflammatory medications, and this is something else. Scleroderma, hard at work. The possibility of broken heart syndrome has been raised. Fabulous. My cardiologist scheduled another echocardiogram for early June. I have kind of a concern that there might be some type of procedure that involves a huge needle that will be required to remove some of that fluid. I just have to be complicated, right?

Then I got sick with some nasty respiratory virus…

I’ve been sick for almost three weeks! This was a respiratory virus, and I’ve been on oxygen for two weeks straight and taking all my drugs while following the directions for home care from my pulmonologist, too dizzy to go to urgent care, but not sick enough to dial 911. Worried friends have been checking up on me, and I’ve been faithfully reporting out my symptoms and oxygen levels every day to them. I started using my respirometer again to get my lung volume back up, I was able to start going off oxygen for a few hours each day towards the end of the 2nd week, and my heart slowly stopped having palpitations. Am I still having tachycardia events? Why yes, yes I am. Stupid crazy heart! In spite of that, I have finally started to feel like myself again this week, and my appetite has come back. The cats, who have been very patient, are overjoyed to have me up and about again, and I’m finally able to make chemo hats and knit again. I even got my little rigid heddle loom warped yesterday!

Doesn’t this all sound ridiculous? Like, why wasn’t I in urgent care sooner? Well… I’m complicated. Going to urgent care is risky as I might be exposed to ANOTHER virus. If I have to call 911 the ambulance will take me to the dreadful hospital that is closest and not in my health care network. The doctors in the urgent care and ERs don’t quite know what to do with a patient like me, and going in usually isn’t productive. Ugh. I instead called in and got advice from my specialist nurses, and they clarified where the red lines were: if I couldn’t keep my O2 numbers up in the 90s, or if I developed significant symptoms of cardiac tamponade, I had to get emergency intervention. In the middle of the second week another scleroderma patient sent me this…

Anyway, that is me. Miss Complicated AF. Everything is just fraught when I get sick. Do I stop my immunosuppressive drugs so I can fight the virus? Nope… those drugs are holding my autoimmune lung disease in check, and as soon as I cut back, I got a lot sicker. Should I use the steroid inhaler? Yep, that helped. Saline nasal rinses? Good lord, what is all this nasal bleeding… Decongestants? Only in the morning. Mucinex? Yes, max dose!!! Finally, over the virus, finally off oxygen, still struggling with some cardiac symptoms, I am dealing with crushing fatigue but still starting to dream of knitted wonders with all of my fabulous yarn. My orchids are blooming again, and the bunnies are dancing in the yard. Last night I saw a great horned owl fly across the street in front of me when I brought in the trash cans from the street. The moon and planets gleamed above me, and the evening was warm with a nice breeze. Glimmers continue to appear around me, and I am feeling the joy again.

Today I cleaned out the yarn stash, and I’m ready to start knitting on some fabulous (pink) sweaters. Some really great patterns hit the Ravelry feed while I was sick, and it is time to cast on some joy.

You hear that crazy heart? Time for some joy. Behave yourself.

PS: Do you wonder what the sweater patterns are?

Cloudbreak Tee by Wool & Pine
Hearthside Pullover by Wool & Pine
Dragonfly Sweater by Elenor Mortensen
Hearthside Cardigan by Wool & Pine

Hannah and the CoalBear: Weaving and Zebra Adventures

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’m hanging out with the Mother of Cats while she works away on her loom downstairs. The Mother of Cats has been fussing around with this thing for days now, and I don’t see the point, but she seems to be happy playing with all of these strings that she WON’T SHARE WITH THE ME!!! I’m lucky that there is this nice bed to hang out on because I’m now allowed anywhere near the loom. Why does the Mother of Cats do these things?

The Mother of Cats took two evenings getting the heddles of the loom threaded and then did some test weaving to check to make sure that she hadn’t made any mistakes. It all looked great to me, but she suddenly burst out with…

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!

… it seems that there was a mistake or two in the threading of the loom…

If you look inside of the pink circle (hey, don’t judge my circle drawing skills… I’m a cat… paws…) you will see a couple of spots where two threads (AKA strings… or if you are Mateo… CAT TOYS!!) are hanging out side by side as they move up the weaving. Oops. That’s a problem I guess. The Mother of Cats spent hours fixing that mistake and a couple of others absolutely forgetting my evening tuna snack. Why is the Mother of Cats like this?

She had to cut out and remove the weft threads on one side of the weaving, and then she pulled out threads to fix some other problems. All of this had something to do with threading heddles correctly so that the pattern would be perfect. Perfect is overrated, right? What do I know… I’m a cat and I have to settle for less than perfect a lot. Have you seen Mateo? What an absolute goofball!! Anyway, as she worked, she found even more problems!!! There was some sighing. She kept ignoring me. WHERE IS MY TUNA!!! Finally, after some not nice words were said, she had everything fixed and was ready to do the next lesson in her online weaving class. She actually paid for all of this misery. I don’t understand humans very well.

In the daytime the Mother of Cats worked on knitting a little outfit for her knitted zebra. This is another bit of silliness that I don’t really understand, but it is nice to hang out with her while she knits. The outfit got done this week and I do have to admit that it looks pretty darn sweet on him.

Well, that is all for now. I’m going to see if I can get my evening tuna snack a little early to make up for yesterday.

I’m going to hang right over her while she types until I get the TUNA!!!

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

I really am learning a lot in the online weaving course. I have also figured out at least a half dozen new ways to fix threading mistakes while dressing the loom. I’m pretty sure that the next time I do this things will go much faster because I have learned about almost every single mistake that can happen.
Next project on the loom: I have to weave a band of the pattern and then cut it off the loom (!!!) so that it can be washed and measured. Oh boy. This is going to be an adventure for sure. I will also get to see if the cotton yarn I have chosen is color fast during washing.
I finished reading The Emperor of Gladness and I’m not sure what I think about it, but I am certainly thinking about it a lot. It isn’t a happy book, but it is a book so well written and crafted it feels like being in a dream. Imagine a group of people living on the fringes, coping with their lives in a number of ways through lies, imaginary realities, drugs, and tightly knit grouping of found family. People who really care about each other, and people rendered down to the essentials by trauma and life. People who feel consumed by the system. People who are vulnerable. People whose lives matter all the same. I’m glad that I read this.
I’m already thinking about how to create a scleroderma warrior edition of the zebra to enter into the annual fundraiser auction for my chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Busy Winter Days

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Look at what the Mother of Cats got done!!

I just love the Hannah mitt that the Mother of Cats made me. So far, there is only one done. She was really happy with the first one, and then she packed it up and… started working on weaving.

The Mother of Cats pulled out her new rigid heddle loom and warped on some really nice pink sock yarn. I think that this color looks really nice with my coat, don’t you? She spent a couple of days weaving on it, and was really happy, but had this urge to knit something, so… she started on a zebra.

I know. I don’t understand why this happens either.

He is a pretty cute zebra, isn’t he? I was just exhausted helping the Mother of Cats with all of this, especially with the sewing and stuffing parts. The zebra still needs his little playsuit to be knitted for him, but the Mother of Cats has the attention span of a mouse because she just jumped off and spent the whole afternoon on the computer watching the first lesson for her online weaving class. Whew. That lady talked, and talked, and talked, and Mateo started to throw a tantrum because he really, really needed someone to play with him. I was getting a little peckish myself and thought that the Mother of Cats should give me some COOKIES, so she had to multi-task attending to our needs while walking around listening to her weaving lecture on her phone. Listen, the Mother of Cats needs to get her priorities straight, right?

When the Mother of Cats is done with her online class she will have woven these projects and will, possible, actually understand what she is doing. This evening, she wound all the warp for the big floor loom, and this week the plan is for Mateo and me to help her get all the strings in the right places on the loom. Mateo is so excited!!! All that string!!! The Mother of Cats says it is yarn, but we know string when we see it!! This sounds like the best cat toy in the world!! Anyway, that is why the Mother of Cats had to listen to the lecture for so long and I was starved of attention and cookies.

What else is going on at Casa de Kitties? The Mother of Cats went shopping and came home with another stuffed octopus. Then the Mother of Cat’s cousin sent her a cute little octopus quilted wall hanging for Christmas. Sorry, Mother of Cats. This is the best little Hannah bed ever!!!!! This evening, she put it up on the wall where it is cute, but I can’t sleep on it anymore. Why does the Mother of Cats do these things???!!!!!! I want my octopus bed!!!

Hey, I forgot to mention that the Mother of Cats is reading every single morning while she drinks her latte. I am her constant companion when that is happening. Hey, if she doesn’t guard her morning toast, I get to snack on that too!!!

Right now we are reading *The Ashes of London* and *The Emperor of Gladness*. The Mother of Cats says everyone reads more than one book at a time!

That’s it for the night.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The online weaving class is located at The Handweaving Academy and is called Overshot Unlocked. I’m really learning a lot of cool things.
I went to the yarn store again and loaded up on lots of fun colors and more parts for my new loom. This may be the year of weaving.
The Ashes of London is really keeping my interest! It’s a political thriller and a murder mystery all wrapped up in 1666 with the Great Fire of London serving as a major player in the story.
The Emperor of Gladness is one of the best books I have read in a while. I’m reading it in bits at a time so I can savor the language, imagery, the people, the story…
Where did the zebra pattern come from? I found it in this book. You can see the little playsuit that I still need to knit in the cover photo.

Updates from the Knitting Front: Mitt Cycle

I’m in the part of my new sweater (another Weekender Crew) that is just stockinette all the way with a slipped stitch every now and then. I’m alternating skeins so I don’t get too much pooling, but the work is still… kind of mindless. Not mentally challenging. Okay, I am bored. No creativity in sight here, even though I want to get the sweater done… eventually. To make things worse we are experiencing unusually warm weather here in the Denver area and I’m not wearing any of my sweaters. I stuffed the sweater into its bin, parked it on a shelf, and started on some small products.

I decided to start on the mitts to match the grey/dusty purple sweater that I just upcycled. Yay. Let’s do mitts, kitties!!!

I decided to make a mitt that offered some options. It has a ribbed top that should go under the lace on the sleeve okay, and then a little panel of lace to match the ones on the body of the sweater. At the edge by my hand is a picot edge that matches those of the lace on the sweater. Cute, right? Sometimes I want a mitt that comes way down over my hand, almost to my knuckles, so I didn’t sew down the picot edge and knitted a long inner lining that can be pulled out. The final bind off is I-cord, giving a smooth finish to the bottom of the mitt. Yay! I like this mitt a lot. Did I cast on to start the second one right away? Well… no… that would be boring, right?

I pulled out the cat arm warmers because they are kind of the poster child mitt for NOT BORING, right? Over the last three days I got those little mice knitted in, and then I did the paws. Yikes. The paws required 4 colors of yarn for several rows. NOT BORING!!!! I learned a few things about yarn management while working on these, and in a nutshell, the most important one is to cut the yarn off the ball so you have a length of color that you can easily pull through tangles with the other colors. It is a lot easier to catch floats when you have a manageable length of yarn with no ball of yarn in sight, too. The knitting was really slow and kind of a nightmare until I figured that all out, but the last half of the paws went pretty quickly. Do you like the paws?

They look that way because that is what Hannah’s paws look like! Cutest toe beans ever!!!

Like everyone else on the planet I have been reflecting on the last year (thank heavens it is finally over) and thinking about plans for the next one (goals are good, right?) It’s a lot, and it definitely involves lots of yarn and books. As I planned this post I thought about what has been going on lately in my life and the world around me, and I finally thought about a plant that I brought in from outdoors this fall. It was a beautiful bougainvillea when I brought it in, bushy with lush green foliage and not a bloom in sight. I thought about leaving it outside but I finally dragged it into the dining room in front of a large window. Over the next few weeks every single leaf on the plant fell off. “Are you kidding me,” I asked the plant. “One little shock to your system and you give up the ghost?” Yes, I do talk to my plants.

The plant has replied by putting out new growth and blooms on every single little branch. It is literally covered with the tiny green buds of new growth, and the blooms, just now starting to grow out, are going to be something else. This plant is going to look amazing in just a couple of weeks.

There is a lesson here, somewhere.

May you all have an amazing New Year.

PS: I bought a new loom!!! Also, dysautonomia continues. May I present to you Crazy Heart 2026.

Updates from the Knitting Front: The Sweater Upcycle Project

Do you see this sweater? I really liked this pattern, knit it in a non-conforming fashion, and then engaged in a hack to make it wearable. I blogged about it at the time.

This sweater is the Lace and Fade Boxy, by Joji Locatelli, and I was trying to make it work with the yarn that I had in my stash. I was really pleased with it when it was finished, but I never wear it. The sleeves aren’t comfortable. I don’t like the lace on the bottom any longer.

I’ve been watching upcycle videos lately as I consider making a coat from an old quilt (that is a whole other post…), and I thought of several sweaters that I no longer wear. Hmmm… time to upcycle some knitted items.

I knit a lace with a color that would go well with the original color of the sweater. This is why my stash is soooo large. I never, ever throw any old yarn away!

I ripped out the lace at the bottom of the sweater; I had added the original lace to make the sweater longer, but it didn’t look all that, well, lacey. This is what it would look like with this new lace, slightly purple, knitted lace substituted for the original stuff.

Oh, yeah. I decided that this lace looked better. I mean, purple, right?! Feeling pretty encouraged I ripped out the lace band on the sleeves and swapped in the new lace. Then, wanting to pull the look together, I ripped out the edging around the neckline and reknitted in the new color.

I will wear this sweater!!

I’m kind of fussing about how to knit some arm warmers to go with the sweater. Lace? No lace? Use some of the lace from the body of the sweater? Which color????? Yeah. I have parked all of those ideas in the corner for now, and I’ve gone back to knitting on my Weekender Crew sweater while I ponder my options and consider what to do with another sweater that I unhappy with and never gets worn.

This sweater is being knit from the bottom up and inside out. I know that it messes with your head, but it does work. The body of the sweater is purl stockinette, but I’m knitting.

The cat themed arm warmers are still parked in a corner but not forgotten. I keep fussing over colors and the order of the colorwork bands. Hannah is anxious to see what I come up with. I think that I will next knit mice, but I am reversing the direction that the mice face.

Sometimes the Mother of Cats can be exhausting…

Notes about the knitting:

That yarn is Tosh Merino Light by Madeline Tosh.
The pattern for the lace is from Juju’s Loops, and the original sweater that used it was called Swoon.
My original sweater was knit in a limited issue color called Ironwood. Since I could not locate any more of the original color I hunted for something that would work with the sweater and my wardrobe. Enter Penumbra, that dark dusty purple layered on grey.
What is a penumbra? That is the part of the shadow cast by celestial bodies like the earth or the moon. When we see an eclipse of the moon, the penumbra of the earth is on the moon. This yarn captures that color.
This new sweater is, obviously, now called Shadow of the Ironwood Moon.
The yarn that I am knitting the Weekender Crew with is from Spun Right Round in a colorway made specifically for the local yarn show where I go. It is called “September”.

Updates from the Knitting Front: Meet the Alchemist Sweater

I finished the Alchemist sweater (design by Wool & Pine) and I am really happy with it! This was an interesting knit for me and I learned new skills as I worked my way though the pattern. I’d like to unpack the whole process a little for you.

It all started with this DK yarn from Hue Loco called Razzle Dazzle.

Look at that yarn!! I had to have a sweater made from it and as soon as the Alchemist pattern hit the Ravelry pattern stream I thought that it would be a good fit. As I knitted along, I felt better and better about the match between the yarn and the pattern. There was a lot to appreciate (and some YouTube watching as I got new skills) along the journey. The first big “aha!” that happened was around the shoulder shaping.

That shaping at the top of the picture is a top-down, seamless, set-in sleeve with a saddle shoulder. It all messed with my head at first until I understood what was happening, but it was absolutely worth the headache. The sweater fits beautifully and there isn’t extra bulk in the sleeve as often happens in my sweaters. Pretty cool, right?

Then there was the ribbing that finished the neck opening. The back of the sweater was a little wonky, and I was not exactly thrilled with how the shoulders were looking at the neckline. I figured that all would become more clear in time, and that’s what happened. The directions on how to pick up the neckline stitches were a little open-ended as the designers give you flexibility in how many stitches to pick up and how deep to knit the ribbing. I picked up the number of stitches per row as suggested, and as luck would have it the stitch count was right on. As I reached the bottom of the front “V” I realized how to balance the ribbing around the center stitch (as it turns out, as long as you mirror the ribbing on the other side everything will be fine…) and the whole neckline pulled things together. The top of the shoulders became perfect, and the upper back of the sweater is formed by the ribbing. Oh. That’s why there weren’t any short rows to shape the upper back. The ribbing takes care of that.

Then there was the side slit in the deep ribbing at the bottom of the sweater. Before it was blocked the ribbing pulled in and the gap in the side was… not flattering. Blocking fixed that.

I did have to do some tidying up at the top of the slit when I did the final finishing, and now that the sweater hangs well, I’m happy with that divided ribbing. I wear long sleeve shirts under my sweaters, and the ease of the open sides is surprisingly comfortable. Who knew?

Finally, the pattern called for a sewn bind off. Ugh. So slow. So much stitching. So much whapping by bothersome kitties while doing it. It is really tidy and stretchy while keeping a nice edge.

Here’s the final sweater, all blocked and ready to head out on a new shopping spree at the yarn store. The color is a little off (too pink) as I took the picture in the room with my grow lights, but you can see how nicely that ribbing and neckline came out in the end.

So, what am I up to now? I cast on some yarn to make arm warmers and started playing with my cat doodle pattern. It’s fun! I’m not sure how to handle decreases at the bottom of the warmer, but that what ribbing is for, right?

Was it fun to knit with four colors at once? No. It was not. Was it worth it? Absolutely!! I also cast on for another Weekender Crew sweater, but that is another post… Next on in the pattern sequence is some toy mice and then cat paws. The next time I go in for medical testing, these will be the arm warmers that I wear!!!

p.s. I am including some jade plant extras.

From left to right: a bloom on a jade plant, a bonsai plant, and the miniature jade plant that I bought to maybe make into a bonsai myself. I thought I would give it a few weeks in its new home before I put it into a smaller pot.