Knitting – Page 7 – Yarn, Books & Roses

Weekender Crew Touchdown!

What a knitting journey this has been. The minute I saw The Weekender Crew by Andrea Mowry I wanted to make one. It’s a big, comfy sweater with some cute stylish details (pockets on the front) that I thought would be my best friend all winter long. Dropped shoulders. Long sleeves. Split hem. DK weight yarn. Deep ribbing on a perfect crew neckline. I mean, this was an ideal sweater for me. I went on an online hunt for the yarn and my son drove me to a yarn store up north of me for a birthday yarn shopping event.

Isn’t this just the perfect yarn? I’ve knit with this superwash merino before, and I’ve found it to be soft and squishy with almost perfectly matching skeins.

I cast on in late September and immediately ran into trouble with the cast on. Tubular cast on, to be specific. I think that I’m a pretty accomplished knitter, but definitely that new cast on required a learning curve. I blogged about that whole adventure here. The edge created by the cast on looked really nice, so I patted myself on the back for hanging in there and mastering a new technique and enthusiastically knitted on. I should have realized that the cast on was a harbinger of things to come. This perfectly simple weekend sweater was a great vehicle to learn many new things.

Behold: tubular bind off. I’ve done a type of tubular bind off before, but the one in this pattern required set up rows and a rearrangement of the stitches on the needle to create a perfect, sturdy (stunning) edge that matched that cast on that the sweater started with.

So, now I’d learned a new cast on and a new bind off. Cool. I managed knitting the rest of the sweater and arrived at that wonderful moment when the whole thing gets blocked. This sweater had obvious ripples in the fabric at the transitions between ribbing and the stockinette, so it really did need to be blocked.

Do you see how puffy the body of the sweater is above the ribbing on the bottom? Not the look I’m wanting in the final sweater.

Andrea gives good directions in the pattern on how to block using a good soak, sandwiching the sweater between towels, and then walking on it. Who are you??? I wondered. Have you been channeling my mother… she absolutely would block like this, but there was no way I was walking on my beautiful squishy (expensive) yarn. This yarn is superwash; I’m nervous about it stretching during blocking. While thinking of mom, I suddenly remembered her explaining how to steam the gathers out of a pinned sleeve before sewing it when I was a nervous teenaged seamstress. I decided to go with mom on this blocking adventure… I laid the sweater out on the blocking mats, misted it well with a spray bottle, and then gently steam blocked the gathers away with my iron while the yarn bloomed and the ribbing opened up. Yay!! I covered the damp sweater with towels to dry, and Hannah immediately moved in.

Hannah: Don’t you just love the smell of wet wool in the morning?

Here’s the blocked sweater. Hmmm…. pocket sewing isn’t exactly my forte…

Yep. Time to learn a new skill. Andrea linked to a tutorial on pocket sewing that was extremely helpful, and after letting the sweater sit in a corner over-night, I pulled myself together and tackled the task.

I used a lace weight yarn to outline the exact row of knitting that I was going to stitch into while attaching the pockets with mattress stitch. What a good idea, right? I also followed the tutorial directions in attaching the pocket bottoms, which gave me a perfect bottom edge. Wow. An old knitter can learn new tricks!

Ta-daa! I have the perfect oversized, comfy sweater with lots of polished details that I am going to wear all winter long. I kind of wish that I had made a smaller size now that it is done, but I can always make another one, right? Altogether, a great knit and the perfect birthday project.

Hannah: she couldn’t have done it without me!

The BioGeek flirts with Long-Hauling

It’s been over a month since I first developed Covid-like symptoms and began to spend my days in bed. Like, my bed became my little nest with the detritus of a prolonged illness littering the floor and shelves around it. Outside the world moved through the end of summer; my tree lost all of its leaves, and the garden moved into dormancy. The birds disappeared. The squirrels have remained on the crazy side, but the crickets are now silent. The cats are chasing the last few grasshoppers of summer, but they are almost too cold to hop anymore.

Mateo has used my down time well, destroying his cat tree, removing push pins from the wall hangings, and just being an agent of mayhem in general. Hannah is not impressed.

While the symptoms of “whatever the heck that Covid wannabe virus was” are mostly gone, I’m still struggling big time. Everything, and I do mean everything, hurts. Tendons that I didn’t even know I had are now too painful to touch. Random shooting pain and muscle cramps have become routine. Did I mention the chest pain? I can’t concentrate enough to read; brain fog is driving the bus these days. I can’t knit for more than a few rows at a time as my arms get too heavy to hold up. I am kind of weak and shaky. I’m starting to stare down the depression monster for the first time in years. Did I mention that the fatigue is unreal? Ugh.

Hannah has been supporting my knitting efforts. I’m slowly making progress on my Weekender Crew sweater.

So, there hasn’t been much blogging. There has been, however, some medical testing and trips to doctor offices going on.

Yesterday I finally saw my rheumatologist. “This is just awful,” I told her. “This is fibromyalgia!” she replied. In her opinion, what I’m experiencing is a pretty severe episode of fibromyalgia. I’d already been diagnosed a few years ago, but I’ve never experienced symptoms as bad as this. Sigh. Remember the 15% rule in scleroderma? It says that about 15% of patients with systemic sclerosis (the type of scleroderma that I have) will also have a second autoimmune disease called Sjogren’s. Check, got that. Since Sjogren’s symptoms can look like fibromyalgia I always took that diagnosis with a grain of salt. Now it’s pretty clear that it is a separate condition, and my fibromyalgia is running wild. Like a squirrel. Or Mateo.

Feeling particularly unlucky I drove home thinking about writing an autobiography called Outlier: My life as a singular data point. Seriously, who in their right mind would ever want to be so far off the bell curve? Then the BioGeek emerged, and I thought about Covid long-haulers. I have met some people who have been diagnosed with Long Covid, and I did think at the time that what they were dealing with was an awful lot like one of my flares. Like, an awful lot. Yep. According to this article about a third of Covid long-haulers have “FibroCovid”, a condition that pretty much looks like fibromyalgia. Fabulous. This article suggests that Long Covid is just another name for fibromyalgia. Another article explored the benefits of applying lessons from fibromyalgia research to Long Covid. Thanks, nasty virus that acted like Covid but refused to test positive. Thanks for acting like a nightmare houseguest who leaves a huge mess behind…

This is crazy, right? Covid shares similarities with systemic sclerosis, and long Covid shares similarities with fibromyalgia. The BioGeek in me is interested in all of this, but let’s hope this doesn’t drag on for months.

My rheumatologist has started me on a course of narcotic painkillers as that sometimes pops people out of fibromyalgia flares. I’m taking magnesium as that can also help. My rheumatologist has some more tricks up her sleeve if this doesn’t do it, but I’m relieved to finally have a name for what is happening.

The dedication page on the book I started reading this weekend. I haven’t gotten very far because… brain fog.

Time to kick this thing to the curb (like a zebra!) so I can get back to knitting!!

A Little This, A Little That

I haven’t posted for a while, and the stuff that I keep thinking that I should write about are piling up. I have all of these great books that I think I should connect somehow and then write about. My medical adventures continue. I’ve been driving around looking at the ~~weeds~~ plants in the fields hunting for great prospects for a BioGeek post. The weather has been beautiful: crisp, cooler in the evenings, and perfect blue skies. The trees are flashing their fall colors, and the squirrels are going wild. I pulled out the sewing machine and started using it again. I’ve been working on the catio. Oh, yeah. I’ve also been knitting.

Knitting

The arm warmers are done and I’m still knitting away on the sweater. Oh, you can’t see the sweater in the picture? Well, there isn’t much to see at this point… it is just a huge pink blog. Isn’t Hannah cute?

Catio

I also bought a cheap screen door for the catio and my son came down last weekend to help me get it installed. Today I managed to get a coat of paint on it.

Now I have easy access to the back yard that is Mateo proof. I think. Mateo is pretty tricky and has gotten out of the catio a few times now.

Mini Waffle Mania

I bought a little waffle maker during Amazon Prime Days last summer. It is really cute, makes the waffles in just a couple of minutes each, and I have been making a batch at a time and freezing the extras.

What can I say. These little waffles are really nice (and cute!). I shared the fun and wonderfulness of mini waffles with my family, and my niece bought a mini waffle iron. Then she sent one to my sister. As of this evening, we are now officially the Mini Waffle Mafia. Don’t ever question the power of waffles!

Pig Gone Wild

Yep. This happened this week, too. The governor of the state finally sent us the update that we had all been waiting for: Fred had been run to ground and captured in a parking lot by my Kaiser Clinic. Isn’t he cute? I wonder how he feels about catios?

Indigo Sunflowers

I have this wonderful batik fabric that was designed for Colorado: sunflowers, grain, aspen leaves, and a sky full of stars.

I have been sewing in the early afternoons and so far I’ve produced a couple of hot pads and a place mat.

I’m not sure if I love that place mat… I may make one more to match the one that I have, and then I can change the borders on the next two. It is nice to be sewing again, and Hannah is thrilled to have the machine out. Seriously, she must remember it and is displaying a lot of the kitten behaviors that she had when I last sewed in this room like… standing on the machine and pulling the wall hanging off the walls. Trilling and rolling around under the table. Carrying off the pin cushion. Knocking the scissors off the table. It is so nice to see her perked up like this… (yes, this is snark!)

Well, that is enough catching up for now, don’t you think?

I’m off to make some more waffles.

Laters!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Caturday Updates

Hi. I’m Mateo.

I’m all grown up now. I should be trusted outdoors on my own, right?

This has been a busy week at Casa Mother-of-Cats. The shower broke and she had to get a plumber to fix it. Hannah practically teleported into the closet for that! Then the Mother of Cats had to go get some blood work done for her crazy scleroderma and she has been dragging sadly around the house waiting for the doctor to call. Finally, the Mother of Cats pulled herself together and went to the garden center to buy roasted green chiles: Yeow! Those chiles are stinky!! Hannah refused to go into the kitchen while the Mother of Cats was packing them up for freezing. Late in the week the Mother of Cats got some knitting done and early this evening the doctor messaged her, and she has finally perked up.

Through the whole week she took a lot of pictures, so here they come:

There is a bunny hanging out in the front yard that makes the Mother of Cats happy every time she sees it.

These mums came home from the garden center with the green chiles.

The leaves are starting to change on the trees.

I managed to escape from the catio last night and ran wild through the yard under that supermoon for a couple of hours before the Mother of Cats came looking for me. So. Much. Fun. I looked everywhere for that bunny, but I couldn’t find it. There was a garter snake in the yard last week too, and that sounds like a lot of fun, but I couldn’t find it either. Unable to have really outstanding fun ~~or a bunny snack~~, I just ate a bunch of bugs and threw them up on the bed after I came back in… why does the Mother of Cats get worked up so easily?

Hannah: I was a good girl and stayed on the catio.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. There was a lot of knitting that went on this week, too.

This heap of pink mess is the beginning of the new Weekender Crew sweater. I’m sure that it will actually look like a sweater some day.

The sweater is being knit inside-out, so the Mother of Cats tried to pull the knitted tube open so you could see the part of the sweater that will be on the outside. It is totally a mystery to me, but hopefully you will kind of get the idea. The color is nice, right?

The Mother of Cats really made progress on the new arm warmers. The first one is done, and she has started on the second one; they are so long they go up above her elbow. The next time she had a medical adventure they should help keep her nice and warm!

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to carry on downstairs for awhile to see if I can get Hannah to come chase me.

Hannah: that would be a big NOPE!! CoalBear. It is bedtime for me…

Happy Caturday, everyone!

This is Mateo the CoalBear, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The last few weeks have seen the emergence of new symptoms: my hair is falling out, I have more edema, bruises are popping up everywhere, and I get sudden muscle cramps. Itching has become a problem, and cuts are slow to heal. Fatigue is back in a big way. I finally contacted my doctor, and she ordered some testing to make sure I wasn’t going into kidney failure.

Kidney failure!! Cue the panic sirens!!!!

Seriously, one of the things that I fear most is kidney failure. Last year, when my lung disease was so bad, letting my kidneys go to save my lungs was an actual topic of discussion; I was a hard no on that treatment option. Ironically, a low kidney function test was one of the first clues that led to my scleroderma diagnosis, but my kidneys have improved over the last couple of years to a comfortable stage 3 level of disease. Discussion of kidney failure again seemed like a huge blow, and I have been sad this week. I cast on the arm warmers during the afternoons when I’m stuck indoors on oxygen during the heat.

The message from my doctor today was reassuring. My kidney function has maintained, but I am very low on protein levels in my blood. This is kind of a scleroderma thing too, as digested food doesn’t get absorbed well through fibrotic intestinal tissue, but I’m so immunosuppressed, it might be because I can’t make antibodies. More testing is on the horizon, but I’m not losing any sleep over this. I am, however, going to be much more careful about wearing my mask!

I’m making good progress on those arm warmers… if I hurry, I can cast on another project like maybe those pressed flowers socks early next week. 🙂

Have a good Caturday!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Knitting Time!

Hi. I’m Hannah.

The Mother of Cats gas been busy organizing all of her knitting for the rest of the year.

First of all, let’s show off the knitting that she just got done: 16 PICC line covers and 9 hats for Frayed Knots.

She even turned in the unbelievably cute hat on the bear.

Now that the Mother of Cats has made her donation for the month she has shifted her focus to organizing her projects for the rest of the year. Oh, boy. She has a lot of projects in mind. Like, a crazy amount of knitting is in the future. Yay. I like to help with the knitting.

First, she wants to get going on her new Weekender Crew, so we wound all of that yarn, and then she cast on. Then she ripped it out and cast on again. Another rip. Another cast on… Finally, she managed to get a few rows done, but she dropped a stitch, so she had to rip it all out and cast on AGAIN. Luckily, we had lots of cookies in the house while this was going on because she made three different trips to the kitchen to get them, and I talked her out of more tuna and even some kitty treats while she was down there. Finally, finally, she managed to get the sweater off to a good start.

The problem was the type of cast on. This is called a tubular cast on, and the Mother of Cats now loves it, but the learning curve was worse than learning to catch a fly in midair.

We also winded up all of the yarn for the new La Prairie sweater last week. I helped with that, too.

Did the Mother of Cats stop with these two projects? No, she did not. She also got out the yarns and organized for several other projects.

Here are all of the yarns that she has organized for her projects. The purple yarns at the top left are for another pair of Pressed Flowers Socks. The pink yarn on top of the magazine is to make a fancy lace capelet. Then there are the yarns laid out next to a striped arm warmer on the top right: those yarns are to knit a new pair of arm warmers exactly like the one laying right next to the yarn. The important detail here is… only one arm warmer! Those arm warmers are the Mother of Cats lucky pair and she has worn them to every hospital stay, ambulance ride, and scary trip into the cath lab. One of them GOT LOST and she absolutely, absolutely needs to make herself another pair right away. Or, at least, before the next serious cold snap. She is thinking of doing a tubular cast on for these mitts and will have to learn how to do the cast off too so the ends match. Learning curve: get the cookies ready!!!

Okay, now let’s talk about the bottom row of pictures. Those two yarns on the left are going to become an Alpine Bloom hat, and there on the bottom right is a reminder that the Mother of Cats needs to FINISH MY BLANKET!!! You know this blanket. We were making really good progress on it when the Mother of Cats stopped knitting because she was concerned about me getting sores all over my tummy. I’m doing much better, and the fur is growing back on my tummy, so the Mother of Cats thinks that maybe we can restart the blanket and we’ll see how I do. Yay! I like that blanket!

I need this blanket for the cold nights to come!

So, that is all the knitting news for now. Let’s go back out on the deck where the Mother of Cats has been waging a war on wasps after Mateo got stung by one of these ugly suckers.

Mateo: Hey! No one told me that those wasps were dangerous! I was just practicing my fly catching skills. You know, catching flies in midair…

Hannah: Whatever, Mateo. Because you are such a dimwit the Mother of Cats had to hang up that goofy wasp trap on our catio. Good thing it appears to be working!

We’re planning on knitting as much as possible out on the catio this fall because it is really, really nice out there. Yay, fall! Did I mention that there are a lot of bugs lately? The crickets are the best!!

That’s all for now.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

Poor Hannah’s tummy sores have been a problem for some time, but I think that we have turned the corner at last. I’m pretty sure that she was allergic to her kitty treats, so I switched to all natural treats, but I also did every practical thing that I could think of. I put towels down on the carpet in the closet where she likes to sleep in case there was something in the carpet; I wash the towels every couple of weeks to keep them clean. I installed a calming diffuser which seems to be just helping the two cats in general as they play and chase each other more than before and some of Hannah’s kitten behaviors have come back. I switched to sensitive skin food. Hannah has gotten a couple of baths. Her fur is growing back, and the rash seems to be gone.

Yes, I did notice that almost everything is pink or purple.

Heading into a Pink Autumn

Autumn is right around the corner now. I love this time of year! The light has softened, the plants are recovering from the heat of summer, and wildlife is on the move again. A flight of geese flew over me last night, barely clearing the treetops, and this morning a hawk supervised my watering out front. Butterflies are everywhere, and I am suddenly seeing a fresh rush of life in my garden. The squirrels are standouts in this: they are going crazy digging up my planters and the flower beds as they create caches of peanuts and other goodies for the coming winter.

Mateo caught that leafbug (katydid) as soon as I let him out onto the catio after returning home from a weekend away. Poor thing! He definitely did the bug some damage (part of a leg is now missing…) but I put it into a nearby bush hoping that it would survive. The next morning, he caught another one. I’ve never seen a leafbug at my house before, but it is part of the resurgence of life that I’m seeing after our very wet spring this year. Look at what is happening in the garden:

Okay, Hannah isn’t exactly in the garden, but she kind of fits into the theme of the day, don’t you think? Everything is in shades of pink at the moment. The standout star is the stonecrop (upper left photo) that has been blooming like a champ for a couple of weeks now to the delight of every dang bee in the vicinity.

It was my birthday this weekend and I spent it up at my son’s place. He drove me up to The Loopy Ewe so I could find some yarn for a new sweater, and the drive took us up north through the countryside past fields of corn and sugar beets. Hawks sat on light poles, and the ditches were filled with flowering plants and some pretty interesting weeds that I wanted to get some cutting of (I know, I know… this sounds strange but… biogeek!) I had my portable oxygen machine with me and it served me well as I searched for the yarn to knit a Weekender Crew this fall.

I had to get that dellaQ bag to go with the yarn. Perfect, right? The color of the yarn isn’t quite as bright as it appears in the picture, but it is a nice happy color called Wilted Roses. Just what I need for fall, don’t you think?

I’m kind of stuggling with getting started on the new sweater. I have been knitting PICC line covers and (pink) hats like crazy the last couple of weeks, and I’m finishing out the week with a set of large sized PICC line covers that I plan to turn over to Frayed Knots on Saturday. Then I can knit sweaters!! I am going to wind the yarn for my La Prairie cardigan and the Weekender at the same time, and I’ll be knitting away on them both I think. If it snows, the Weekender. If it is warm, La Prairie. If I feel like purple, La Prairie. If I feel like pink… well, you get the idea. Knitting options. They are really important. There are also some socks, hats, and scarfs calling my name. So many projects, so much (pink) yarn, so little time. It’s like I’m making caches of knitting projects for the coming winter. Did I mention that several of the projects involve pink?

I feel a little bit like those hyperactive squirrels in my yard.

The Autumnal Equinox is this Saturday. Happy Autumn everyone!

Embrace the pink this fall.

I’m having a little trouble letting this hat go because it is so darn cute! I’m struggling with an urge to get more yarn to knit booties for the bear too.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Babes Hats!

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do I look annoyed? Yes, I am! That dang Mateo is whapping my tail!

Excuse me while I take a moment to put that young man into his proper place. The CoalBear has been a handful all week long. He chased the bees on the catio and there were some close calls. He catches grasshoppers and brings them into the house to play with. The Mother of Cats especially didn’t like that! He runs wild with his toys at 3am. He has been attacking the Mother of Cats’ knitting.

There has been no end to his mischief all week long!

The Mother of Cats has been knitting hats lately. It all started when she bought a box of yarn at her favorite yarn shop that were dyed in Barbie world colors.

The Mother of Cats thinks that these are happy, happy, happy colors. She is using all of the yarn to make hats for her community knitting group called Frayed Knots; the hats need to be done in the next two weeks before the next meeting, so she has been knitting a lot.

I’ve been lots of help with the whole knitting effort as she cranked out the hats. Today she finished the 4th hat, and there are two more to go. Look at how nice they look!

Today has been cold and rainy all day so we didn’t even get to go out on the patio. Mateo is just beside himself and causing trouble endlessly. He knocked over an orchid plant. He pulled the tablecloth off the table. He dragged off one of the knitted hats.

Seriously, I’m almost ready to rent him a kitten!

Well, that’s all the news. Time to go help the Mother of Cats with her next hat.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

That box of really cute yarn came from Spun Right Round. The yarn is Squish DK, and it really is wonderful to knit with. Don’t you love the Barbie-esque colors?
The hats will be given to patients at either the Kaiser infusion centers in the Denver area or to the patients at a cancer treatment center that Frayed Knots also donates to.
The hat pattern is Barley by Tin Can Knits.

Hannah and the CoalBear: The Alpine Bloom Sweater is Done.

Hi. I’m Mateo.

I’m also known as the CoalBear. Don’t you think that I’m really handsome in my summer coat?

I’ve had a busy couple of days. The Mother of Cats has been knitting and knitting and knitting on her new sweater. Okay, the knitting part was pretty boring. I don’t get to go outside as much as I like, and she doesn’t let me play with the yarn. I tried to hang out on her lap, and that didn’t work, either. To make up for things I got extra tuna and she let me chase the laser light at least three times a day!!!

Mostly I slept in my box while the Mother of Cats was knitting.

When I did get to go outside, it was really exciting. THERE ARE A COUPLE OF ADULT RABBITS HANGING OUT IN THE YARD!!!! They aren’t even a little afraid of me, and they run all around the yard kicking their feet up into the air and chasing each other. Hey, I wanted to run around in the yard chasing them, too, but the Mother of Cats was like…. no, Mateo. She says that I don’t play nice with the bunnies. Hey, there was just that one bunny that I caught and snacked on, and now I can’t ever, ever play with them again? How is that a reasonable policy? I want to lodge a protest.

Here, bunny, bunny. I want to ~~eat~~ play with you!

Then there were the bugs that got into the house this week. Yep, exciting!!!

Okay, back to the sweater. This is what the journey looked like:

This is the finished sweater. Didn’t we do a good job?

Now that the sweater is done the Mother of Cats is talking about winding some more yarn or maybe warping the loom. Wow. That sounds like a lot of fun!!!! Winding yarn is one of my favorite things to do.

Bye now.

I hope that you had a great weekend, and if you are in the US where I live, have a great holiday tomorrow.

This is the CoalBear, signing off.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Kitten Invasion and Finished Socks

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’ve been hanging out on the catio as much as I can these days.

The Mother of Cats has been really busy reading books and knitting lately, and she likes to go out on the catio so that is perfect for us. Mateo loves the grasshoppers, and I am a huge fan of the butterflies. The last couple of weeks have been just perfect until about a week ago when the Mother of Cats went off to her son’s for the night, and then they both came back over here with ALL OF HIS CATS!!!!!

Mateo vanished into the closet. Thanks for the backup, buddy. What a baby, right? We were pretty safe because the Mother of Cats put up a barrier at the top of the stairs to keep us safe, which was a good thing because those invading cats took over the whole house!!

Yep. Those kitties got the entire downstairs and THE CATIO while the Mother of Cats stayed upstairs mostly with us and knitted away on her new socks. It wasn’t all that bad, except for the little Siamese kitten who would run up the stairs and try to whap us through the gate every time he saw us. The Mother of Cats said that he was just trying to play, but it is kind of rude, whapping, don’t you think? Mateo certainly thought so!!

Anyway, lets get back to the knitting. Check out the finished socks.

The Mother of Cats is really happy with how the socks turned out. Let’s look at some of the details:

Do you see how thick and cushy the knitted fabric looks on the inside? This is one comfy sock! Look at how nice the afterthought heel is, and how about how the flowers pop out from the background on the outside of the sock? Seriously, this sock is nice! Even Mateo thinks so. (No, Mateo. You don’t get a knitted bunny made in this pattern…)

Back to the invading cats; look at how they acted on the catio!

Yep, that is one of our toys in the paws of THE MONSTER. The Mother of Cats had to move several of the plants, and the invaders even got to eat some of OUR TUNA!!!! They practically destroyed the downstairs cat tree, and whoo-boy, was there ever commotion going on down there every night! I think that a fly got into the house, and to be frank, that little Siamese kitten can practically fly… Just when I thought that the accumulating outrages would never end, the Mother of Cats left us Thursday night and drove to the airport to get her son back. Whew! As soon as he got back the Monster perked up and the kittens calmed down. Mateo even went through the barrier to play with everyone on the catio, but I stayed safely on my side of the gate. The next day all those furry invaders went home to their own catio and Mateo and I returned to bunnyland.

Today the Mother of Cats is back to knitting on her sweater, and before you know it she will have it done and we’ll be hunting for more yarn to play with. Life is good.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The socks are the Pressed Flower Socks by Amy Cristoffers.
The sweater that I’m working on is Alpine Bloom by Caitlin Hunter. I’m getting really close to finishing up the body of the sweater.
My son was working at a convention for his company. That’s him on the right, talking to a customer/attendee. Oh, you can’t see him? Well, you get the idea: stand for hours and talk to conference attendees in a dimly lit and high tech environment.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Black cats rock and we have a new sock!

Hi. I’m Mateo.

Do you see how beautiful I am? This is how I looked when I was a year old.

This is how I looked in the kitten room when the Mother of Cats first saw me.

Didn’t I turn out nice? I was the sweetest kitten in the room, and I was very brave and friendly when the Mother of Cats first met me. The Mother of Cats absolutely did not want to get ANOTHER black cat on that afternoon (she kind of wanted a buff-colored kitten…), but I was so insistent that she really, really needed me that she finally filled out the paperwork and brought me home.

and before you knew it, Hannah and I were best friends!!

Today is National Black Cat Appreciation Day, and there is a day like this because sometimes people think black cats are unlucky and they get left in the shelter and don’t get a home like they should. That is just crazy, right? Look at how cute I am!! The Mother of Cats keeps telling me how good I am, and I AM! I’m a GOOD BOY, and every day, I get lots of attention and tuna because I absolutely deserve it. Also, I am really good at catching bugs, which makes everyone happy around here.

Okay, onto the sock that we have been helping the Mother of Cats get knitted this week.

The Mother of Cats can be kind of lazy when the weather is hot, so this is the sock without the ends woven in or the hole at the heel closed. Just ignore that stuff… isn’t it cute!! The sock has some extra ends that need to be woven in because Hannah kind of went wild and chomped the yarn into pieces twice, but the Mother of Cats still gave her tuna. I’m pretty sure that I should have gotten all of the tuna, but for some reason the Mother of Cats just lets Hannah get away with EVERYTHING when I have to get my claws trimmed all the time, and Hannah never does.

Oh, never mind about all of that. I was supposed to tell you that the socks are the Pressed Flowers Socks and that they fit really, really well with lots of stretch. Hey, I like that pattern and maybe it can also become a little knitted bunny for me to play with? I always can use a new toy and I just LOVE BUNNIES!! (Note from MoC: Mateo, you love to eat bunnies. No. No knitted bunny!)

Fine. I’ll just (sigh) play with the old toys that I already have.

This is Mateo, AKA the CoalBear, signing off.