Tabby Road – Yarn, Books & Roses

Hannah and the CoalBear: Crafting Chaos Continues….

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do you see me waiting for the Mother of Cats to start writing?

The Mother of Cats continues to be completely out of control with all of her knitting, sewing, and other crazy crafts. She just keeps moving from thing to thing all day long, but NOTHING GETS DONE! Really, the CoalBear and I would be having concerns about the Mother of Cats, but she did manage to finish one very important thing this week. She built us a new cat tree!!!!

I hung out with the Mother of Cats the whole time she worked on the new tree, and I managed to keep an eye on the front yard bunnies too. Look at this tree!!! The CoalBear and I are spending all of our spare time hanging out on it. So fun. Now let’s talk about the crazy crafting…

She decided to get started on the octopus. Yep. She just abandoned all of shawls that she was knitting, pulled out the bin of octopus yarns, and cast on. Then she spent all of her spare time working on that for a few days.

She is knitting 5 strands of yarn together while making the octopus. That’s a lot of strings to chase, let me tell you!!!! I was just getting used to the octopus knitting when suddenly the Mother of Cats decided to work on the quilt for a couple of days.

The quilt is now three blocks big, and she says that there is a lot more of the tree to come in the next block, and… are you ready for this??? There is a cat that looks just like me on the next block!!!!! I can’t wait to see it, but did the Mother of Cats start working on block 4. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. She pulled out her new overlock maching, had a friends come over to help her, and then she started sewing a pile of fabric totes for donation. Seriously?!!! The sewing machines are noisy, and I stayed on the new cat tree the whole time she was working.

Hey, these totes are kind of fun to sleep on…

After the tote sewing episode the Mother of Cats got busy knitting… hexagons. I know. I don’t understand it either, but here we are. She is knitting little balls of left over sock yarn together to make these hexagons that she hopes to make into laps blankets to take to the infusion center. She likes the colors, and for some reason she keeps casting on JUST ONE MORE to see what the new yarn combination will look like.

I have to admit, the colors are kind of nice. Will the Mother of Cats let me sleep on the hexagons? No. She. Will. Not.

See how busy things have been. I’m lucky if she remembers to give me my tuna on time. She has been so distracted, and busy with all of the building, sewing and knitting, and I’m not even factoring in the new clue that arrives every Friday from Sharon from Security that she uses to knit her Tabby Road mystery knitting adventure. She is in clue 3 now and the shawl is starting to look kind of cool.

It has been growing, hasn’t it. The Mother of Cats can’t wait to get to the colors that more blue, but it is still pretty cool and she is learning lots of new stitches as she works.

Well, that’s most of it. The Mother of Cats has been checking out kits to knit socks on her computer, and I am seriously concerned that this is spiraling out of control. When will it end? When will something get finished? Why is she getting out more fabric to sew tote bags…

I guess that is all for now. The CoalBear (AKA Mateo) and I have to catch another episode of Bird TV while the Mother of Cats works on even another shawl…

This is Hannah, signing off.

Hannah and the CoalBear: We May Need an Intervention Soon…

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I just love hanging out in the catio every morning!!

The Mother of Cats has been staying home with us every single day lately. Why is this happening? Look at what is going on in the afternoons…

Yep. It is really hot, the air pressure is pretty darn low, and the Mother of Cats doesn’t do very well when the air gets like that. Hey, I’m a cat. I just roll with it and spend the day sleeping, but for some reason the Mother of Cats stays awake all day and does stuff.

To be fair, she does give me lots of attention and cookies, but mostly she crafts ENDLESSLY. There is so much going on, and the CoalBear and I are starting to get a little concerned.

She has been working on her quilt. I like the quilting, and I help her as much as I can. Look at the two quilt blocks that she has been working on over the last two weeks.

The next cat that is featured in the quilt will be a tuxedo like me. Not as cute as me, but still, it is nice that she will have a quilt showing how absolutely superior tuxedo cats are. I think that there is also a squirrel and a tree involved, so that is perfect, right?

Now, let’s get to the knitting. That is where things have really gotten out of control. First there are the shawls…

That’s right: four shawls!!! The first one was really fussy and hard on the Mother of Cats hands, so she ripped it out. (Good job, Mother of Cats) She said that she obviously can’t be expected to knit a shawl that was too complicated to let her listen to an audiobook or watch Netflix

Mateo: I’m terrified of Netflix!!! That huge red N is too much for me to deal with. No one should be subjected to the…TA-DUM!!!!

Hannah: but Mateo rushes into the room EVERY TIME the television gets turned on just in case it is… NETFLIX. CoalBears can be so silly.

Let’s get back to the shawls. The Mother of Cats has a lot of yarn. She isn’t making hats right now because it is hot, and there are too many hats at the infusion centers right now, so she decided to make a shawl or two. Since the first shawl was soooo complicated, she started a simple Age of Gold shawl in pink yarn. Then she started a Sharon Show shawl because she saw one hanging up in the yarn store. Then Tabby Road started, so she had to knit on that, right. This is just kind of insane because at the same time…

The Mother of Cats decided to knit some octopuses… Yep. All of that yarn has now been wound. Hold onto your tuna treats, because I’m not done yet. The Mother of Cats, still upset about not knitting hats, and hugging a huge box of left over yarn balls (why doesn’t she give them to me?), decided to start knitting a BLANKET that will be made of a bunch of different octogons that kind of go together.

She made this holding two little balls of yarn together while she knitted. Did she let me chew the yarn while she worked? No. SHE DID NOT!!!!

Do you see why I am concerned about needing an intervention? She has been crafting nonstop for days in a row. Okay, it has been really, really hot for days in a row, but still. NOTHING is getting finished and she just keeps picking up yarns and starting new projects when she isn’t fusing down little pieces of fabric for the quilts. HELP!!!

I’m pretty sure that I need an intervention here.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

There is a giant octopus that I hope to knit in the blue yarns: Opus

Did you want a few glimmers? Check out this picture of the moon and a baby bunny…

I’ve also been reading a lot while sheltering indoors away from the heat, but that is another post. 🙂

All the Glimmers

It has been a week. I had some high stakes (for me) heart testing last Wednesday to see if my pulmonary arterial hypertension has advanced. Since I am already being treated fairly aggressively for PAH, an increase in pressures would be bad news. Nope. Pressures were normal. That would be a huge “YAY!!” everyone. Of course, it also means that there is something else going on that is causing my shortness of breath, but for the time being I’m happy and seeing glimmers everywhere.

This was the moon a few days ago. Glimmer.

There was this bloom on my favorite rose bush.

And my birdfeeder is seeing lots of action!

I’ve been making lots of progress on my knitting, too, since I’ve been staying inside due to the heat and the smoke of wildfires in our state.

I finished my Cloudbreak Tee, cast on a shawl for a knit-a-long that I am doing with friends, and bought some yarn so I can knit the Tabby Road mystery knit-a-long that starts at the end of the month. Did you want some links for these fabulous yarny projects?

I know that it looks like I am in a pink phase (and I kind of am…) but I want to let you know that I bought the Hey Mewed yarn kit from Miss Babs that will be greys and blues.

Did I look for a pink kit. Yes. Yes, I did. I wanted all the colors in the graphic, but finally settled for the sedate Hey Mewed. I smile every time I think of knitting a Beatles themed shawl on a mystery knit-a-long tour (magical!!) that is being run by snarky, flamethrower carrying Sharon from Security. You know, Casapinka’s cat with the questionable attitude, original spelling, and outrageous spunk. I totally need a mystery adventure with this cat!!!!

Do you see what I’m dealing with here at home? Mateo hasn’t figured out snark yet.

I should be kinder to Mateo. His every move on the catio is judged by this squirrel…

So, that was my week. Medical testing, knitting, wildlife (and moon) watching, and some reading on the side. Our heat wave will continue all week, so I should get a lot done while I wait for my doctors to decide what’s next. I’ve been assured that they are actively considering options, and I can hardly wait to hear what is next.

Okay, I am kind of in scleroderma purgatory, but hey… I have the glimmers!!

Yes, this is a bunny that has decided to hang out in an empty pot on my deck right outside the catio. Mateo is beside himself.

Choose to be happy!

I almost forgot this huge glimmer. The bald eagle eaglets, Sandy and Luna, have returned to the nest for yummy fish meals and to spend time together. It makes my heart swell to see them sleeping side by side in the nest after a day flying around. In the days to come they will learn how to catch their own fish.

You can watch them yourself at the Big Bear Valley site online.