Yarn, Books & Roses

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.

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Thoughts on the Night of the Blue Supermoon…

Did you look at the moon tonight? It is just huge, shining in the night like it knows that it is something special. Well, it is. This is the Blue Supermoon of 2023, my friends. Not to be seen again for 14 years. Just the sight of it makes me feel happy.

This is also the anniversary of the day that I was told that I had systemic sclerosis and Sjogren’s Disease. Actually, it is 9 years and one day since I drove to my first rheumatologist appointment; I was a little emotional that morning as I passed fields of beautiful sunflowers, their faces glowing in the light of the morning sun rising behind me. You’d think that the date would be kind of a bummer, but nope. As it turns out, there are lots of things that are making me feel happy at the moment.

Do you see that black bag with my purse and cane? That is my portable oxygen concentrator!

That’s right, after languishing for 18 months on the waiting list, my name came up for the portable oxygen concentrator that I have been desperately needing. Look at that baby!!! It only weighs 5 pounds, it works great, I can adjust the level of flow on the fly, it can charge in the car, and it is exactly what I need. Yay!!! I got it yesterday on the exact 9-year anniversary of my diagnosis.

So happy, feeling absolutely empowered, I headed to the yarn store after picking up the concentrator. Time to take this baby for a spin, right? I have been struggling for months to make a decision about the yarn for the La Prairie cardigan that I want to knit next. I bought a kit of yarn to make the cardigan, but I’m not happy with it. I needed a new skein to go into the mix…

The yarn picture on the left is the original kit. The one on the right is the new variation that I’m not completely happy with. Feeling hopeful and more than a little determined, I sat on the floor in front of the most likely candidate yarns and, rocking my new O2 concentrator, holding up my phone with the yarns on the screen, I kept looking at different ideas for the fade…

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I suddenly realized that the Stitch Together yarn (second from the top) was exactly what I was looking for. There it is. I asked others in the store what they thought, and the consensus was that I had nailed down my fade. Yay!!! Finding that yarn made me happy.

So, I also bought the special edition Babe set from Spun Right Round.

I’m going to make that Barbie pink yarn into hats for the community knitting group that I knit for because… wait for it… the color makes me happy!! I had one of the original Barbie dolls, and just the thought of Barbie makes me… happy!

On the way home from the yarn store, still sucking down oxygen in the car and feeling pretty good, I stopped at the grocery store to buy some tiramisu because I was absolutely having a tiramisu kind of day, and there at the front of the store were sunflowers. You know, it is the end of August, and it is sunflower time. Shine like a sunflower!!

Pretty good looking, huh. Sunflowers are used as a symbol of scleroderma hope in some parts of the world (Hello, Australia! Talking to you!), and you know I bought these too.

By the time I got home I was tallying up all of the things that made me happy. The leaves are starting to change on the trees in town, and the ornamental grasses are covered with rich golden plumes atop bright green stems. That makes me happy. Pumpkin spice is back at Starbucks. The kittens loved the new toys that I bought them. I ordered new clothes this week that fit great even though they are a smaller size than usual. I found new shoes to wear that are really helping a lot. Happy. I am happy.

The shoes are shaped like walking boots on the bottom, but inside there is great arch support and a cushy insole. I am walking now with much less pain. Did you notice the purple detailing and the silver loops for the laces? Happy. These are happy shoes.

Once home, I headed outside to the catio with my yarn, the tiramisu, and a cup of coffee from my new Keurig machine (yep… happy), and as I set the plate and coffee cup on the table, a pair of adult cottontail rabbits raced around the corner of the deck and zoomed under my side gate. Looks like I will be having baby bunnies again. I am happy.

Nine years ago, I asked that first rheumatologist what my life would be like in five years time. He refused to answer, and it was my first clue that I might be in some trouble here. 18 months ago, my pulmonologist told me it was okay to cry when the first lung scans showed serious interstitial lung disease. One year ago, my pulmonologist told me that they were very worried about me after my lung biopsy… nothing was working, and he wasn’t sure I’d make it. Last month, the technician who did my latest pulmonary function test told me that I was too bad to walk any longer without portable oxygen. I came home, looked at the bottles that are too heavy for me to carry, and cried.

Tonight, under the blue supermoon, with sunflowers on my table, I am happy. One month later, I have my portable oxygen. 18 months later, my lung disease appears to be stable. 9 years later, I’m still here, rolling with the punches of new complications, facing down the monster, and finding ways to shine.

I am happy.

Shine on supermoon, shine on.

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.

Hannah: Don’t forget that tomorrow is Caturday!! Also, I’m kind of a black cat, too, so I should be getting extra tuna for sure!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Trail? What Trail?

Hi. I’m Hannah.

This has been a kind of strange week. The Mother of Cats came home on Monday after spending ANOTHER WEEKEND WITH THOSE KITTENS!!! and then she tried to make it up to us by being really nice all week. She fed us tuna twice a day and played with Mateo with the laser light more than usual. Like that would make up for sneaking off to spend time with these furry little guys instead of US.

Okay, they are kind of cute. Still, they aren’t as cute as Mateo and I were at the same age. Just saying…

Anyway, back to the strange week. The children in the neighborhood all went back to school (whatever that it…) this week and it suddenly is quieter in the backyard. A huge flock of geese flew over the yard yesterday, and today the Mother of Cats noticed that some of the berries on the bushes are turning red. The squirrel is more active than usual, and the moon was out in the daytime. Crazy, right? Here are the pictures.

The Mother of Cats is also excited about something called Pumpkin Spice. Is that a type of tuna?

Anyway, let’s now discuss the Mother of Cats and her COMPLETE ABANDONMENT of the Sharon on the Trail MKAL. She didn’t even bother to open up the emails with the pattern updates. She says that she hates her yarns, and she doesn’t love the pattern, and she just wants to knit the stuff she already has and to make some little knitted kitties to give away. I’d be concerned about her, but she is really happy with the stuff that she is knitting now, and I have to admit that it is looking good.

She put her sweater back onto the needles this week and got several inches of the body knitted. Looking good! She says that the funky looking new stitches are that way because they aren’t blocked yet. Mateo isn’t convinced.

Mateo: I’ll reserve judgement until I see that new knitting blocked. Call me Doubting Mateo.

She really spent some time on the new socks that she is making, and she really likes the way they are coming out. I think that has something to do with how she just UP AND ABANDONED Sharon from Security in her quest to apprehend that villainous Keith…

She likes these socks so much she is already dreaming of which yarns she will use to knit the next pair with. Poor Sharon, I’m pretty sure that the Mother of Cats will never return to the trail. She has her eye on some purple yarns for the next pair of socks…

Well, that is it. I hope that you all had a wonderful Caturday.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The sweater is Alpine Bloom by Caitlin Hunter.
The socks are Pressed Flowers Socks by Amy Cristoffers.
The abandoned MKAL is Sharon on the Trail by Casapinka. I have decided to wait for the finished shawl before I put any more knitting time into it.
The weather has been playing hell with my breathing. A couple of lows tracked right over the state and in the low pressure I don’t do well at all.

Do you see the low? That’s the place where all the wind arrows are swirling together just east of me in the state (I’m located just east of Denver). Fun and games for people with lung/heart conditions!

Behold Hannah and Mateo as kittens… they were pretty cute!

Hannah and the CoalBear: and she’s already fallen off the trail…

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Hannah: I bet you wished that you had a catio…

In my last report I shared how the Mother of Cats left us for the weekend to go play with her son’s kittens. Hello! We’re kittens too, right?! Well, in our hearts we are. The Mother of Cats says that I’m getting chunky and that I’m hard to pick up now… what is up with that?! If she would let me bring grasshoppers into the house so I could chase them without burning my little feet on the hot deck I’m sure I would slim right down, but does she let me have any fun? Nope. Not so much…

Anyway, the Mother of Cats finished up her first clue of the Sharon on the Trail MKAL shawl and then put it away to wait for the next clue.

I gave it a little grooming before she put it away, and we both thought that it was pretty cute. Then the second clue dropped last week and the Mother saw what it looked like knitted up… and immediately decided that she didn’t want to use these yarns anymore. She never took the shawl out again all week and just worked on her new sweater.

Okay, I have to admit that it is looking pretty darn good, right?

She steam blocked the part that was knitted in the sweater (it is called Alpine Bloom) and while it was drying she hunted and hunted for new yarns to knit the Sharon on the Trail again.

What do you guys think of these yarns? She’s still thinking of using gold instead of that mauve color…

I personally don’t care because it is really darn hot here and we spend every afternoon just waiting it out. The Mother of Cats reads books and I just sleep in any coolish spot that I can find. My favorite spot right now is on the paper from the Chewy box in front of a fan.

Do you see where I had a rash on my tummy? I had another bath (YUK!!!) and now the fur is growing back.

Anyway, once the Mother of Cats had located her new yarns for the MKAL you’d think that she would have cast on and gotten busy knitting, right? Nope. You would be wrong. She saw a sock pattern and went crazy casting on to start them. Then she got an email from her community knitting buddies that made her knit some more PICC line covers and start hunting for yarns to knit little toys and hats. SHE IS COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!!! Like, she is worse than Mateo at the moment.

Here’s the start of the socks. These will be Pressed Flowers Socks after a whole bunch of time the way she is going.

So, I’m just kind of going with the flow and hoping to get some tuna soon while she is ignoring the shawl, pretending that it is TOO HARD to put that blocked sweater back onto the needles, and saying things like… why should she knit socks when it would be more fun to make some toys (hearts and little mice and maybe some tiny kitties…) to go to with the PICC line covers in a couple of weeks when the next Frayed Knots meeting happens.

Sigh. She should make me some knitted mice!

Mateo: don’t forget that tomorrow is Caturday!

That’s all for now. I’m going to go find another cool spot to sleep in…

This is Hannah, sighing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats: I’ve been reading like crazy because several books arrived in my library account all at once. Yay!

I’ve been reading All the Sinners Bleed as an audiobook while driving around in the car. The main character is still dealing with the trauma of his mother’s death from… (wait for it) …scleroderma!! I heard that part of the book while driving back from my rheumatology appointment this week. Crazy. In the book the mother suffered from extreme muscle pain, and I had just finished talking with my doctor about increasing my immunosuppressant dose because of my continuing muscle/tendon pain.
I also raced through Killers of the Flower Moon recently. What a great book!!! It’s about a cluster of abuses and murders linked to conspiracies to steal the oil generated wealth of Osage Nation members in Oklahoma. The center of the Osage territory is located in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a place I’ve been to since I have family located there. While flipping through all the footnotes in the book an interview with the author, David Grann, came on the television. How crazy is all of this!! He has written a new book called The Wager that I already have a library hold on.
I continue to be stalked by synchronicity, obviously.
The community knitting/crocheting group that I knit for has been expanding. We now are donating to other medical centers that have requested sewn PICC line pads for seatbelts in cars, heavy winter hats for homeless shelters, and now we are partnering with the Denver STAR program that provides emergency (non-police) responses to people in mental health crisis, or who are homeless, or any emergency that is not violent or criminal in nature. They need blankets, amigurumi, health items, and hats. Lots of knitting (and crocheting and sewing) needs to be done!
Do you see why I just fell off the trail? For something like this I might even try to crochet some little amigurumi.
Now I’m reading The Covenant of Water. Holy smokes, this is looking to be another really good book! Do you see why the knitting has stalled?
Hannah: Get off the computer, Mother of Cats, and get me come tuna!!! Also, a knitted mouse would be nice…

Hannah and the CoalBear: I’m Hitting the Trail!

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’m hanging out on the catio before it gets too hot.

Did you notice that yesterday was Caturday? I had to stay in the house all day long because the Mother of Cats drove off and left us all alone for the weekend. She has been a little crazy lately, that Mother of Cats… She decided at the last minute to do the Sharon on the Trail MKAL and dug around in her stash to find some yarns. Okay, it was like a yarn explosion, but that is fun, right?

Has she finished her Alpine Bloom sweater yet? No, she has not!!

So she left us and went to her son’s house for the weekend because… he has new kittens!!! How could she leave us? Why did she ever think that she could knit while she was around KITTENS!!! She needs to come home right away!!

She did take out her yarns for a picture showing the order that she wants to knit them, but that is as far as she was able to get because…kittens!

So, the Mother of Cats hasn’t gotten any knitting done at all, which means that she is behind everyone else in the MKAL. Sharon from Security (Casapinka’s employee who needs a raise!) is in France hunting down Keith the Hiker who has (probably) stolen a mysterious paper wrapped object, stuffed it in his backback, and is currently on the trail with Sharon hot on his tail. The Mother of Cats needs to come home today so she can get some knitting down and we can get some COOKIES!!!

You know, I don’t think that the Mother of Cats can do much hiking, so I told Mateo that he is going to have to hit the trails with me if we’re going to help Sharon get that mysterious package back. France. We can do France.

I’m getting some rest so I’m ready to go!!

I hope that you all had a great Caturday, and that you weren’t abandoned and left all alone in a hot house with a crazy Mateo…

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

My son lost his beautiful cat Maya (who controlled the weather) and his remaining cat has been sad since then. Today Jonesy is looking happier than he has in months. Okay, maybe he’s still a little stressed, but that’s life with kittens for you…
The kittens are a Siamese mix and a classic tabby. So cute!
The yarns for the MKAL are from Indie dyers across the US: Texas, Colorado, Montana, and New York. How fun is that?