Knitting – Page 5 – Yarn, Books & Roses

Hannah and the CoalBear: Chickenitis Continues…

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’ve really been keeping a close eye on the Mother of Cats.

The Mother of Cats has been completely out of control for a few weeks now. She spends all her time working outside and hunting for lavender plants to put in the garden. I mean, there is a lot of lavender now, and it kind of smells funny. What is up with that?

See. Lavender. She now has five different types of lavender growing in pots on the deck along with the baby roses that get way too much attention. Why does the Mother of Cats play with plants when I need her to play with the CoalBear so he doesn’t bother me?

The only good thing about the gardening is this wagon that the Mother of Cats bought for us to play in. Then she took it outside. Why does she do these things?

When she isn’t outside working in her gardens or hunting for more lavender, she is knitting CHICKENS. Lots and lots of chickens. I really don’t mind that she is knitting, because I really like to hang out with her while she is working, but this is getting ridiculous. The chickens are starting to take over all of the room on the back of the loveseat where I like to sleep.

Do you see this? One more chicken and I won’t be able to fit on up here. Why is she doing this????

To make things worse, she saw some photos of LITTLE chickens on Facebook that made her go crazy in the yarn stash pulling out yarn for chicken construction. Then she had some people ask for chickens. Then the people who got the chickens had friends who DESPERATELY needed a chicken for themselves. I think that the Mother of Cats should charge people for the chickens (TUNA FUND!!) but so far, she gives the money to her community knitting group, Frayed Knots. Why is she doing this? Now I’m getting pushed all around by the chickens, and I’m not getting any tuna out of the deal, either.

Here all of the finished big chickens to date. She has a couple of other chickens that still need their stuffing.

The three chickens in the individual chicken photos (did you notice the big lavender plant behind the chickens?) were mailed out this week. The blue one with the little shawl went to a lady whose husband is battling cancer, and the other two flew to members of the Mother of Cat’s family. Good riddance!!!

Sigh. Is the chickenitis getting better now that some are gone? No. No, it is not. She’s determined to make even more for some people she met on Facebook. Then she went away in the car for an afternoon a week ago and returned with EVEN MORE YARN for more chickens. She says the place where she went for the afternoon needs the chickens.

She says that chickens need to go here. I hope that they take flight soon!

I guess they asked for the chickens. She showed them pictures, and they got really excited when they saw how cute they were. I’d be happy to send them Mateo to keep patients entertained, but they weren’t interested in a cat. Just chickens.

So, that’s all I have to report for the last three weeks. Gardening, knitting, and chickens.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Happy Caturday, everyone!

>^..^<

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The chickens are knitted from the Emotional Support Chicken pattern on Ravelry. I’ve lately joined a KAL group on Facebook, which is feeding me lots of ideas for more combinations. Today people started posting little hats and shawls that can go on the chickens…
I visited the Kaiser Infusion Center last week to get Reclast to treat my osteoporosis. This is the infusion center that I knit PICC line covers for, and when I told them I was one of their knitters a whole party broke out! There was cheering and general excitement all around, and when I mentioned emotional support chickens, they insisted on seeing the pictures. Yep. They want chickens.
One of my Facebook friends with systemic sclerosis has been accepted into a CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial. She will be receiving chemo and I’m going to send her a chemo hat and, (wait for it), a chicken!
What is CAR T-cell therapy, you ask? It is new technology that is now being adapted to address some autoimmune conditions, including systemic sclerosis. The video in the link above explains how it is used with cancer.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Baby Bunny, Robins, and Chickens!! Oh, My!!

Hi. I’m Mateo the CoalBear.

Do you see that I’m being a good helper?

This has been kind of a busy week in Mother of Cats Land. We’ve been outside most mornings checking on how things are going in the yard. The plants in the pots on the catio all look good. The bugs have been hopping around and they are SO MUCH FUN to chase. There were a couple of huge developments in the yard that I want to report to you:

The adult bunnies that used to live in our backyard are now gone. We were little worried about them, and wondered if there would be any baby bunnies this year when a single tiny bunny suddenly appeared in the garden by the deck. So cute. Hannah and I spend as much time as we can watching this little guy, and we are happy to report that he is growing like a weed and cavorting around the yard like a big boy. He isn’t even a little afraid of me and I get to get right up within inches of him,,, if it wasn’t for the chicken wire we would be having a great time.

Hannah: knock it off, CoalBear. We all know that you want to eat the bunny…

Shut up, Hannah. I’m telling the story today! The other thing that happened this week is all the leaves popped out on the trees. The Mother of Cats says it is called budburst, and it means that it really is spring now. I think that the robins know this too, because they have been singing like crazy all day and night. Literally, all night. They go crazy at 3am for some reason. I try to get the Mother of Cats up to let me out, but for some reason she won’t get out of bed. Lazy, lazy, Mother of Cats! Be like a robin! Get up and let me outside to see my baby bunny!!! This is what the robins sound like!

Hannah: CoalBear! Get on with talking about all the knitting and the chickens!!!

All right, Hannah. Why are you being so mean to me? You should go convince the Mother of Cats to give you some tuna and then maybe you can take a nice little nap. Outside where you won’t bother me!!

Now that I’ve put Hannah in her place, let me get back to telling you about the week. The Mother of Cats totally snapped, put her La Prairie sweater into time out on Sleeve Island, parked her dragon book back on the bookshelf, started a different book, and cast on a new Emotional Support Chicken. She has been completely out of control!!!! While she has been knitting the new chicken, she has dreaming about more chickens made in different colors; she keeps dragging yarn out of the stash and winding it up into little kits for MORE CHICKENS!!!! This is so out of control. What should I do? I’m just a little cat and it looks like we are having a huge outbreak of Chickenitis. Help! Who should I report this to? Hannah is no help at all. The only phone number she knows is 1-800-SND-TUNA.

Mateo: I have to admit that I have been helping with the knitting. Maybe that will help her get through this crisis… actually, I just like to chase yarn.

This is the chicken that she is working on now, but there is a dusty rose chicken on the way right after this one… and a sparkly blue chicken, and a rainbow striped chicken, and a chicken in fall colors…

It’s another handspun, handknit chicken to go on the couch downstairs.

The new chicken is kind of cute, right? Anyway, that was the week.

This is Mateo the CoalBear, signing off.

>^..^<

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

So, I spun out of control with the reading and knitting this week in response to sudden challenges. I had borrowed an e-book from the library that had to be returned in a couple of days. Oops. Emergency reading time! I have a couple of friends who are struggling with medical nightmares at the moment: obviously, they need chickens!! My cousin contacted me asking to buy a chicken to give a friend whose husband was just diagnosed with a serious illness. My phone blew up Thursday with the news that a member of my family was back in the hospital. The sweater was immediately parked (I was struggling with all the purling on the sleeves anyway…) and I launched the beginning of a flock of new chickens.

What was the book I was on fire to read before it was snatched off my Kindle device by the library?

This is a book that I kind of feel should be required reading for everyone, but on the other hand, it is so brutal and reality-altering I feel that it will be banned in as many school districts as the distraught (and completely misguided) ~~Karens on Steroids~~ Moms for Liberty can get to. If Charlotte’s Web, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games are too much for these people, this book will make their heads explode. I hope that they read it anyway.

So, this is the book: Chain-Gang All-Stars really made an impact on me. Imagine a system where convicted felons facing life in prison, or who received the death penalty can “volunteer” to join a system that is a reality show where the felons are on teams that compete against other teams and engage in gladiator to-the-death matches in arenas full of viewers. The teams, and individual players, are wildly popular; lots of merch is sold. Any player who survives three years will be freed, but it goes without saying that almost everyone will die. It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the members of these teams are more likely to be minority citizens or people who lived in poverty: that is the current prison population.

Everything about this book is crushing in its believability. I am crushed by the possibility. I can see that this could happen in a world where incarcerated people are seen as less than full citizens and without rights. Think of the wildly popular Survivor reality shows. Think of American football, where evidence of concussive brain injury in players was covered up for years. Think of the laws that strip felons of some of their citizenship rights like voting. Think of the wildly misbehaving attendees at some of our political rallies. Think of the horrendous deaths of minority population members (sometimes in public with citizens begging the police to stop) at the hands of law enforcement. Think of for-profit prisons that work their inmates as almost-slaves. Think.

I highly recommend this book.

I’ve returned to A Day of Fallen Night again and I’m quickly finishing it. It has dragons, after all.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Snowy April Caturday

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’ve been keeping my eye on the Mother of Cats all week long.

It is really cold and snowy outside. I mean, the really wet sticky snow that gets on your paws and squishes up between your toe beans and is just the kind that all cats everywhere hate. Mateo went out a couple of times today and that boy was back inside within 60 seconds flat. Anyway, the lavender and other cute flowers are all safely in the garage, Mateo is safely indoors, and the Mother of Cats and I have been really productive.

Right now, the weaving is a long, long scarf that has some fringe on it. The Mother of Cats washed it last night and it is done for now. Mateo likes to sleep on it, and since the fabric is a little scratchy the Mother of Cats is totally okay with that. She has been talking about cutting it up and sewing little stuffed cats from it, or maybe a sewn bunny, and frankly I don’t care as long as there is catnip involved. A pillow would be kind of nice…

She also has made a lot of progress on her La Prairie sweater. Now she is working on one of the sleeves and is pretty happy with how it is looking.

Looking good, right? This what happens when you get quality cat assistance!

The body of the sweater is a little longer than it should be, but she is happy about that. The sleeves are kind of a problem because she doesn’t want them to be soooo long, so after doing some funky math and checking out what other knitters did, she has shortened up the blocks of solid knitting and now we’ll see how it all works out. She does seem to still be a little stressed about the whole thing. She keeps muttering… I hope I have enough yarn… I hope this won’t be too long… thank heavens there aren’t so many bobbles on the sleeves… I don’t care. I’m a cat. As long as the tuna keeps coming, I’m happy to support any knitting that is going on.

So, that’s it. It has been a pretty good week. The weaving is done, the sweater is moving along, and the Mother of Cats is also halfway through her book about dragons. Someday soon the snow will stop falling, the Mother of Cats will put our lavender back outside, and we will visit the bunnies again in the mornings.

This is my favorite pose after watching Dune: Part Two with the Mother of Cats this week.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Notes from the Mother of Cats: the book Hannah mentioned is A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon.

I’m chomping at the bit to get all these lengthy projects finished up so I can knit more Emotional Support Chickens!! Also, I have books lined up from the library that I need to get read before next weekend…

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Updates from the Sclero Front

It’s spring here in Colorado. The first baby bunny appeared this week, and the plants in the yard are starting to burst out in green buds. The roses are looking like they are going to do really well this year (except for that one that the bunnies ate…) and there was a huge outbreak of my little bulb flowers in the front garden. I have new cushions for my patio swing, and I sit in the sunshine, reading and drinking my morning latte, every warm morning. On chilly mornings I wrap in a favorite shawl and stay out with the cats as long as I can. The first grasshoppers of the year have arrived for the cats to chase, and the air is filled with birdsong. There are even blue jays!! Good days.

The phlox in the front is looking great!

A couple of day have been so warm I couldn’t stay in the sunshine long and I’ve had to deploy the umbrella shade. Then, the next day, there may be snow. This is spring in Colorado: rapid changes and big temperature swings. The same is true for the barometric pressure; look at what happened this week.

My emotional stability has been a little like the air pressure the last couple of weeks as I’ve gone through a round of testing and doctor’s appointments. I was very upbeat when I went in to get my blood draw to check my iron levels, and the bone density scan last month was just routine. I mean, I’ve been feeling soooo much better: more energy, sleeping better, more mentally alert and even my appetite has improved. Suddenly my gut doesn’t hate me, and I am getting out of the house more. I went to my knitting group for the first time in months! I was positive that my test results would reflect the improvement.

Not so much. After weeks of eating iron-rich foods and downing my iron supplement there was absolutely no change in my test results, and in fact, the test that measures the concentration of hemoglobin in individual red blood cells (MCHC) got worse. Seriously? The only gain was one value of 25.5 that went up to 25.6; still too low. After all that red meat, salmon, iron pills, avocado, and spinach all I got was 0.1 improvement? Kind of disheartening as this means that I have to have some invasive testing to see if I’m bleeding in my stomach (it’s a scleroderma thing), and I don’t think my doctor will put it off much longer. (It’s called watermelon stomach) (fabulous) (of course this is rare) (my zebra self is not happy).

Then the bone density scan results arrived. I have somehow developed a fairly serious case of osteoporosis in a short time span; the report says to start immediate treatment. Then I did some googling and found out that the diuretic that I take can cause osteoporosis, and I absolutely shouldn’t have been taking it because I have a strong family history and I’m kind of high risk. (Of course I am) (I stopped the diuretic) (now my feet are swollen) (my zebra self is crying).

I have to be honest. I was kind of crushed by the bad news that I absolutely did not expect. Then I mentally slapped myself around, did my exercises, potted some lavender plants, and went shopping on Amazon for some cheer-me-up jewelry. Just what I needed to pull myself together. One day at a time, right? I already have more than my share of challenges, so I shouldn’t waste any energy on things that haven’t happened yet. Next week I have an appointment with my internist, and we’ll work out a treatment plan for the osteoporosis and next steps for the anemia. (I took another iron supplement) (my inner zebra has pulled itself together again) (the zebra wants to point out that its lips aren’t as blue as they used to be).

I also pulled out the La Prairie sweater and knit steadily through the sadness until the body came off the needles. Gosh. It looks really nice so far. Something has gone right this week…

Today I woke up to a snow/drizzle mixture that was too unwelcoming for even Mateo to go out on the catio. All my joints hurt, and my muscles weren’t sure if they were going to play nice either. Of course, I had to drive across town to get lung testing and a sit-down appointment with my pulmonologist to go over all my results. I put on my cute Weekender Crew sweater, wore my new “in your face, scleroderma!” jewelry, and headed off for the testing. It hurt to breath as I walked into the building. I convinced myself that it was just the cold air; after all, I feel pretty good, and I was overdue for some good news.

The lung testing specialist is now my friend. We laughed and talked and caught up as she got me ready for testing, and then I breezed through all the parts of the pulmonary function testing and the 6-minute walk test. Every single result was cause for celebration as Stephanie (my technician) became more and more excited with the little graphs and data appearing on the computer screen. “This is better!” she kept saying. By the last test she was practically jumping up and down with excitement. “This is great! This is great! she crowed as she walked me to the exam room to see my pulmonologist. “I’ll let him know that you are here.”

I love this pulmonologist. He is the doctor who first listened to me and picked up on the fact that I had a hole in my heart and pulmonary hypertension. He held my hand and told me I could cry when my interstitial lung disease was first diagnosed. He has always been the doctor who was most honest with me; he told me last year after the tide had turned that they hadn’t been sure I would make it a year. He supported me when I halted the anti-fibrotic drug due to quality-of-life concerns. Today he was all smiles as we went over the results and my exam. My lungs have maintained on the scans. I have regained some lung function. The decision to halt the drug was the right one; there is no obvious sign of fibrosis right now. This is the best possible outcome right now; everything that he hoped for. I was the last patient he saw today, and he was pleased to have such a good one. “Best appointment of the day!” he declared as he walked me out. We were both enclosed in a bubble of joyous happiness as we walked.

I took this picture outside the building.

Outside the clinic the parking lot was almost empty. The cold drizzle was steady, the sky was full of sad lumpy grey clouds, and the gloom of early evening was creeping in. Around the building some ornamental trees were just beginning to open their flower buds, but in the shelter of the courtyard on the south side, the sunniest location, one tree was covered in blooms. Kind of a metaphor for the last couple of weeks. Sit in the sunshine and bloom, no matter what is going on in the world around you.

On the drive home, in my mind, my zebra self was dancing for joy.

Hannah and the CoalBear: We have Lavender!

Hi. I’m Mateo.

Do you see how grown up I look? I turned THREE YEARS OLD last week.

The days here have been nice, and the Mother of Cats has been letting us outside on the catio every single day for a couple of hours. It has been just great. She bought some new plants and put them out for us. The backyard bunny comes out every evening to visit with us. We had a crazy eclipse that made all the birds go to sleep, and then when it was over they woke up again and we were so excited!!!! It was just like two sunrises in one day! Oh, I almost forgot to mention… there are GRASSHOPPERS flying around. Look at how happy we look in the great outside. Isn’t my new lavender plant nice?

Everything was going great until the Mother of Cats discovered that I had been testing the catio wire for weak places. Hey, there is a bunny right out there that absolutely wants to play with me. Well, actually, it is more a matter of me wanting to play with it, but you understand, don’t you? I wasn’t actually going to hurt ~~eat~~ the bunny…

Mateo: when the Mother of Cats found this, I lost my independent catio privileges…

It was kind of hard for her to miss a hole in the fence this big, especially when it is a perfect Mateo-sized gap. Sigh. She’s pretty sure that I was actually outside of the wire trolling for bunnies in the yard, but we’ll never tell. Hannah and I are in total agreement about keeping our mouths shut. I have to give her a few days of my tuna, but it’s totally worth it. We’ve reconciled ourselves to just spending time with the lavender plants in the indoor garden instead of being outside with the new lavender, the grasshoppers, and the birds. And MY BUNNY!!!!

The truth is, Hannah and I kind of fight over the spot right by the lavender plants and seedlings in the indoor garden. It’s a really nice spot, don’t you think? The turtle is nice company, and we still have our lavender so that’s good. Anyway, where I’m going with this is that we are pretty much on HOUSE ARREST and can’t go out unless the Mother of Cats goes with us. She has been weaving, and knitting, and reading, and planting more plants all week, and she hasn’t managed to get anything finished yet. Not one thing. It is kind of embarrassing. We do try to hurry her along so we can go out in the afternoons, but she gets busy with her little hobbies and forgets about how much we need to be outside. To make it worse, did I mention, she still doesn’t have anything done!!!!!

This is what I’m talking about. The Mother of Cats is far enough into the book now that there are dragons. She likes dragons. Has she finished the book yet? No. She isn’t even halfway through yet. She should spend more time out on the deck reading, don’t you think? Then there is the sweater. Do you see how long it is now???? She still isn’t down to the bottom of the body yet, and she is starting to seriously worry about running out of yarn. The weaving is almost done, but is it off the loom yet? No. No, it is not. She’s now considering knitting some lace to attach to the ends of the woven strip (scarf thingy) to make it spiffy. That means that it won’t be done for even longer.

Sigh. Somehow, she needs to get this endless crafting under control…

Still, the Mother of Cats did get us more lavender this week. Lavender is nice. Now we have 4 different kinds growing in the garden and on the deck. I’d really like to check on the progress of the lavender in the gardens, but the stuff on the deck is enough. I guess.

Have a good week, everyone.

Notes from the Mother of Cats: The endless cardigan that I’m knitting is called La Prairie by Joji Locatelli. I’m very close to the bottom of the body. I’m considering leaving it short sleeved…

Look at what these cats have done to the knitted pika I made for them!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Purple Glam Caturday

Hi. We’re Hannah and Mateo (AKA the CoalBear).

We’ve been hanging out with the Mother of Cats today.

The Mother of Cats has been friskier lately. She’s been working with her indoor garden, and went shopping to buy a whole bunch of new flowers to put outside. She did a lot of cooking. She expanded the indoor garden and repotted a bunch of plants.

The indoor garden now has three shelves. The bottom shelf has the miniature rose, some lavender plants, and the seedlings. The middle shelf is mostly African violets and the baby fig trees. The top shelf is mostly orchids, but there are a couple of African violets up there too. We really like the new shelf and extra space, and Mateo especially is walking around among the plants keeping tabs on how they are doing. The Milkweed is growing great! The baby lavender seedlings are growing more leaves. The planted rose seeds: NOTHING!! The Mother of Cats also fixed up the catio some and has been reading outside with her morning coffee with us every morning. Things have been kind of great lately. She took some great photos of us.

Don’t we look great? The Mother of Cats says these are our glam shots.

The Mother of Cats then spoiled everything by going off and leaving us overnight while she visited her son. What is up with that?

While she was gone, she read this book about dragons and made two PICC line covers with yarns that have dragon colors: the green is called Green Dragon and the purple is called Purple Dragon. How come she went playing with dragons and left us alone? Did the dragons get OUR TUNA?

We absolutely were not surprised to see that she knitted with a purple yarn while she was away. Everything has been kind of purple lately.

Her new sweater (which is kind of purple) is getting longer. It is so big it covers her legs and Hannah while she’s knitting on it. Hannah really like the sweater and want one of her own.

The Mother of Cats say that the name of the sweater is La Prairie. What a crazy name, right, but the Mother of Cats likes it because we live right at the edge of the prairie and that is why there are so many wild things in our yard.

Her weaving is getting bigger and now the weft has changed to a purple color. The CoalBear likes to whap at the purple yarn while the Mother of Cats is moving the shuttle back and forth.

So, there seems to be a lot of purple lately. Enough with the purple and the Mother of Cats. It’s time to talk about us, right. After all, it is Caturday!!! Look at how big our bunny is getting in the back yard. You can barely see it in the first shot of us watching it (it hangs out at the bottom of the tree) so the Mother of Cats took a closeup of the bunny. Look! It looks just like the tree! What a clever bunny! Besides the bunnies, there are lots of birds and GRASSHOPPERS outside and it is kind of exciting on the catio now. The Mother of Cats even moved out some plants for us.

So, that’s about all. Guess it is time for us to go pester the Mother of Cats to get up and play with us. She’s been more active lately, but we still like to keep her busy taking care of us. Hannah is pretty sure that we need TUNA because we were left alone one night last week.

But first we are going to grab another nap… Did you notice that our blanket is purple?

This is Hannah and Mateo, signing off.

Happy Caturday, everyone!!

These are a few of my favorite things…

Hannah is taking the week off, but she would like to remind everyone that they should have a good Caturday. Go outside and listen to the birds! Roll around and coat your fur with some nice dust to take the oil off. Look for a bunny. Demand tuna!! Run wild through the house, chase your brother, and sleep in a sunbeam.

I’m still struggling with fatigue, and even though I’ve been trying to eat iron-rich foods, my doctor has decided that I need supplementation. Ugh. I’ve discovered that iron supplements are pretty much evil. Seriously evil! Like, the awful goes on for at least three days after each supplement, but I am starting to feel better. I sleep better. I have more energy. My GI symptoms are starting to calm down. I’m more mentally alert and have an urge to write. Huh. Anemia. There is another post in here somewhere, but not today. Today is about my happy place, the crafting room.

For some reason that I don’t understand, Hannah has decided that I need to spend all my waking hours in the crafting room. She trills and carries on (like, she scratches the woodwork around the doors to make me come running…) until I come back to the room. She is okay if I’m up and moving about, but if I try to read in bed, she intervenes and makes me get up. Okay. Transferring my reading to the craft room… huh… there is lots of sunlight in this room. I have a little loveseat along with the indoor garden, my loom, and a television, so this is actually a good place to hang out while I’m iron-loading. Did I mention that there is a walk-in closet attached to this room with all things crafting inside? Maybe Hannah knows what she’s doing. Over the last week I’ve been gardening and moving things around, and I realized that I really have made a happy place for myself in this room.

Here’s my loveseat with my emotional support chicken, my knitting, and one of my favorite shawls.

Did you want the links for those knitted objects? Just in case you do, here they are. The sweater is La Prairie by Joji Locatelli. The shawl is another Joji creation called Julie’s Wrap, and here is the link for the Emotional Support Chicken.

Do you see all the popcorns on the edging of Julie’s Wrap? It took FOREVER to make all of those, and you would think that I’d learned my lesson, but noooo…. I went ahead and made those popcorn stitches on the La Prairie. Do I regret this choice each time I come to that row on the chart with the popcorns? Why yes, yes I do. And yet…

Look at how cute they are in this cardigan!!!!

If you commit to knitting this sweater, and it is a serious commitment, you might as well commit to the popcorn. I’m really pleased with how this is looking. I’m into the third color of yarn and can’t wait to get to the fourth one. This is going to be a fun light cardigan later on this year.

Back to the happy things. They have pretty much piled up on the table in the room that usually has my fabric cutting station on it. This is what has moved onto it over the last week or two.

That teddy bear is the one that my son gave me in the ICU after my lung biopsy. He’s wearing a hat that I’ve knit for Frayed Knots donation, and the little zebras are ones that my niece sent to me as happy surprises. The Amazon Echo on the table reads my audible books to me while I knit. Happy. This is happy stuff.

Did you notice the green cat tail in the last photo? Here is the knitted cat, in fun spring colors. He’s propping up my current dragon/octopus books and doing a great job at it, too. Those books make me happy! The watercolor painting in the background is one I bought with a girlfriend at an art sale one perfect fall day in Golden, Colorado. My friend died two years ago, but the memory of her and that perfect day lives on in the painting.

Some of the plants from the indoor garden have overflowed onto this table. (Actually, that’s what set off the rearrangement of happy stuff.) This white orchid is a rebloom on a plant from last year (yay!), and in front of it is one of the new little fig trees. To the right, in a little terrarium that MAKES ME HAPPY is an African violet that is blooming its heart out. Above them you can see a bit of the quilt that my cousin made and sold to me a few years ago. Hey, doesn’t this make you happy too?

If you are interested in knitting your own cat, the pattern is Grey Kitten, Calico Cat by Claire Garland. I think that some more things will be joining this assembly on the table. I have some little statues that were put away because… Hannah… that I can now take out and arrange with the flowers. I have some special skeins of yarn that might be fun to display. Maybe I should focus on weaving a little wall hanging on the loom.

Tomorrow it will snow again, but I will be safely indoors with Hannah in the craft room, embracing the popcorn stitch, and enjoying all the little happy things that have been collected in here that are emblematic of friends, family, favorite knits, and happy memories.

There is a little take-home lesson here somewhere. If you are struggling with extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and everything hurts, just go with it. Make yourself a happy place. Make something beautiful. Hang out with your cat. Embrace the popcorn stitch. Read in the sunshine.

Don’t forget to take your iron supplement, though, no matter how nasty it is!

Hannah wants me to mention that the Chewy tuna fairy visited us yesterday.

p.s. MR, how could I have forgotten to post the picture of the whole quilt? Here it is, a ribbon winner by my wonderful cousin Ruth Ann. Ya’ll, MR is at Downunder with Boodz and sets me straight whenever I wander from the straight and narrow…

Hannah and the CoalBear: Snow Days, Indoor Gardening

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’ve been hanging out with the Mother of Cats in the craft room all week.

There was a big snowstorm this week. It just snowed and snowed and snowed and Mateo got more difficult to manage than usual because he was so frustrated…

The snow kept up for so long the Mother of Cats went out and whapped at some tree branches with a stick to make the snow come off. The trees are all okay, so that was good! There was so much snow in the end it was taller than Mateo. Did I mention that he was grumpy and frustrated? He chases me way too much when he is grumpy… Lucky for me the Mother of Cats had just ordered more chirpy toys for him along with a second automated laser light so there is a fresh one for him to play with while the other one is charging. Sometimes the Mother of Cats is kind of smart. Sometimes…

You can see how much snow there was with the bear. When the awful stuff finally stopped coming out of the sky there was almost 15″ of it on the ground. I absolutely refused to go out onto the catio with Mateo the Idiot, but the poor Mother of Cats had to go out to shovel it twice to get the sidewalks and driveway cleared. Poor Mother of Cats.

Mateo went on the catio while she was shoveling, but I’m too smart for that!

Mostly we stayed indoors and knitted away on the new sweater and listened to an audiobook when we weren’t playing with plants (that’s coming up soon…) or suffering in the cold whiteness.

Look at how much sweater got done! The Mother of Cats is listening to The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi while working on her La Prairie cardigan. She really likes the book (but so far there hasn’t been even a single octopus in the story…), and she is below the armholes on the sweater and getting ready to start using the third color of yarn. Whew. That is a lot of knitting. I’m a really great support for the Mother of Cats while she’s working. I deserve more tuna for sure!

We also worked a lot with the garden plants this week. The Mother of Cats planted her little fig tree seedlings, and they are looking great.

Now there are 4 new fig trees growing in the upstairs garden with the orchids. Speaking of the orchids, another one started blooming this week!

There are some other projects with plants going on which I don’t understand all that well because… I’m a cat… but the Mother of Cats seems to be really happy with the way they are going. The milkweed seeds came up out of the ground this week and the snapdragon seedlings are so big the Mother of Cats is going to have to put them into bigger pots soon to get them ready to go live out on the deck.

The Mother of Cats was really excited to see the milkweed sprouts, but I think that she is a little silly. She thinks that the milkweed will make butterflies come to the garden, which I guess is good because I like to chase them a lot, but it is hard for them to get into the catio. Maybe she can put some of them in pots on the catio? That would be nice!

She is going to plant some more rose seeds this week (they have been in the refrigerator for 6 weeks) and this time I promise to not knock them down onto the floor, and hopefully there won’t be any nasty mold. She is also trying to get the jade plants to bloom, but so far there isn’t anything happening on the plants. Well, they may be growing more leaves, but that isn’t exactly what the Mother of Cats was hoping for.

Not my jade plants, not my problem. I’ll be more excited when she plants catnip.

This is Hannah, signing off.

>^..^<

Notes from the Mother of Cats: The lung CT scan results came in. I still have lungs. They still look the same as they did 6 months ago: not better, but not significantly worse, and I have less fluid around my heart. I’ll take it!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Portly Mouse Caturday

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Did you know that spring is right around the corner?

That’s right. I can tell that spring is coming because there are more birds in the yard now. The robins are back!! There is more sun in the afternoon. The flights of geese over the house seem to have stopped. There are THREE BIG FAT BUNNIES in my backyard!

These bunnies are really big! Mateo the CoalBear and I watch them every late afternoon when they come out into the yard to play. The CoalBear is chomping at the bit to chase them, but so far he hasn’t managed to escape from the catio. The bunnies are also eating the Mother of Cats lawn, but she doesn’t seem to care that much. She’s just happy to see some green grass after the long winter.

Anyway, the Mother of Cats made me this mouse to play with since I can’t go out to chase the bunnies with Mateo.

She stored the mouse in the catnip jar to make it smell good. I’ve been hogging it for myself because that dang CoalBear plays with all the chirpy toys and never, ever lets me have fun with the ping pong balls. He just acts like all the toys belong to him and I never get to play with anything anymore, so this mouse is mine! Besides, it doesn’t chirp, so he isn’t that interested in it, and he doesn’t like catnip.

I eat his tuna when he isn’t looking because he is a total toy hog. It’s only fair, right?

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats: That portly mouse is made from this pattern on Ravelry. I used same homespun yarn that the chicken is made from, and Hannah seems to be roughing up the mouse more and leaving poor HanPeck along.

I kind of think that this mouse looks like a pika. What do you think?

Image copyright usgs.gov. Downloaded from https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/american-pika-collecting-food on 3/9/24

Welcome the Emotional Support Chicken!

She is done!!

This was a fast, fun project. The entire chicken was knitted in one piece except for the red parts and the underneath section. All garter stitch made it easy on my hands/wrists to knit, and the change in colors helped me keep moving along. Here’s the pattern for the emotional support chicken on Ravelry: I just noticed that there is a tutorial available with the pattern.

The red comb is knitted separately and was quick and easy to attach. The beak was finished in a grand total of about 4 stitches, and then it was pretty straight forward to seam the underneath to the two sides of the body as I closed the chicken. It was amazing how quickly the bird came to life.

The base is nice and wide, letting the chicken sit in place without tipping over.

I really am happy with the final product. This chicken is made solely from homespun yarn, and it makes me even more happy to see this yarn being used well. Here’s the problem with my homespun yarn; it is a little rough on my skin and as a scleroderma patient I’m giving my skin whatever it wants. So… I’m not wearing my homespun anymore, and it is even a little hard to knit with it. The chicken goes quickly, however, and I can have a beautiful, finished chicken to admire and then take a few days to let my fingers recover from the knitting. I’ve already gone stash diving to pull together ideas for another chicken or two or… don’t you think that it would be nice to donate a few emotional support chickens to patients at the infusion center or maybe to Ronald McDonald House? That’s what I’m thinking now. It depends on how well my fingers tolerate the knitting. It makes me so happy to get the homespun out and put to use; each skein and color is a memory, and it makes me feel so good to think of putting them to a good use.

Last night Hannah attacked the chicken and dragged it around, bunny kicking it from time to time. Poor chicken, it was defiantly Hannah pecked.

It is therefore named HanPeck.

Welcome, HanPeck. Hang on, the rest of the flock is on the way.