Meditation for Social Distancing

I'm on day 3 of staying home, and while that wouldn't be that unusual for me for a normal long weekend, there's definitely a weird vibe. I'd be lying if I said I was completely calm. I was doing okay, but this morning I woke up a bit panicked and ran to Trader Joe's to stock on up groceries right after it opened. Many other people seemed to have the same idea, which didn't help my nerves. But after I got that out of the way, I tried to do as much as possible to self-soothe. Rainbow and I went for a leisurely walk in the sunshine. We used last week's bananas to make two loaves of chocolate chip banana bread. And I did some spinning, which I always find wonderfully meditative. I did quite a bit of spinning this weekend, actually.

First, on Friday, I finished up the singles of the natural Clun Forest. I let them sit on the bobbin overnight (for the non-spinners reading, this makes it easier to ply because the twist rests a bit and so isn't quite so active when you ply, which means less fighting with the singles). On Saturday morning, I wound them off into a center-pull ball/cake, and then I plied from both ends of it. Here's the yarn fresh off the wheel:

You can tell that the ply twist is more active by how much it's twisting back on itself. So it got a nice soak in hot water to relax and then hung to dry overnight. This morning, I had this:

There's still maybe a bit of excess ply twist in there, but I think there's also some floofy bits that just look like too much twist. Overall I'd call it a heavy laceweight/light fingering. I had neglected to weigh the fiber before I started spinning, so I weighed the cake of singles and found that I had 72 g, which is about 2. 5 oz. The finished skein is approximately 218 yards.

I don't have any particular plan for this yarn, though Rainbow and I might try our hand at dyeing it with turmeric or dried marigolds for fun.

For my next spin, I wanted something truly relaxing and in my comfort zone, so I pulled out some Hello Yarn Targhee that I received in a swap several years ago:

I split the fiber into four vertical strips that I am spinning one after another and plan to chain ply, and as I'm spinning my default singles, I really don't have to think much as I spin. This has been the perfect project as I've been reading and trying to finish Lab Girl from the library.

It doesn't look like much, but that's about two hours of spinning time because these singles are very fine; I want the finished yarn to be fingering weight, and Targhee is one of those wools that poofs up when you wash it, so I have to make the singles very fine to compensate. It's drafting and spinning beautifully, though, so it's the perfect thing to help soothe my anxiety. And as both of these spins are on my 20 in 20 list, they're helping me feel like I can be productive even if I'm just sitting at home.

As of right now, it looks like I can expect to spend quite a lot of time at home. Rainbow is off on spring break for the next two weeks, and her school has elected to stay closed for the two weeks after that (all schools in Pennsylvania will be closed for at least the next two weeks anyway, as our governor ordered them to close). Pretty much everything is shutting down, and I'm pretty much expecting to work from home until things start opening up again. I got a call from my orthodontist's office earlier this afternoon to see if I'd be willing to postpone my appointment tomorrow morning, but he said he'd also be willing to see me because I'm due to get my braces off(!) as long as I understood that it might be a bit slow because it would be just him in the office. So that is my one bright point in the near future, and I expect things in this country and the world are going to get worse before they get better. I am trying to make smart choices and am certainly following public health guidelines as much as possible, but I'm also reminding myself that if we get sick, the three of us will likely be okay. It's all very surreal at the moment, and I think it's the uncertainty that's getting to me.

I realize I'm starting to get a bit dark here, and I apologize for that -- I'm someone who generally tends toward worrying and seeing the glass half empty, though I try to be more hopeful. I hope that wherever you are, you're staying healthy and safe and trying not to go too stir crazy!