On Keeping Calm and Carrying On

I'm now into my second week of working from home full time and have somewhat settled into the new schedule. Because I no longer have to get up and get everyone out the door on time and walk to my office, I've been able to sleep in a bit (only an extra half hour, but it makes a difference). My morning routine isn't so rushed because I'm no longer bothering to put on makeup (my family knows what I look like without it, so I'm saving it). I can linger over my email and blogs and drink all my coffee at a leisurely pace. And then I go back up to my bed room to sit in my comfy chair and log in to work.

The lack of the normal frenetic pace in the morning is helping to keep me calm, as is staying mostly away from the news during the day (I'll still peek at Twitter a few times during the day, but I usually wait until the evening news to see what's happened because it's rarely anything good). And I'm doing as much crafting as I can whenever I can -- I suppose that's one major benefit to working at home, because during my down time I no longer have to look busy. Yesterday after I finished up what I needed to do, I read a book and worked on a sock for Rainbow:

As you can see, I'm now past the heel, for which I used some of the coordinating mini skein that came with the self-striping yarn to do a garter stitch Fish Lips Kiss Heel. The heel itself is a little shorter/shallower than the usual stockinette heel, but it's nice and squishy and I've also made the sock a bit bigger than Rainbow's foot on purpose so that she won't outgrow it right away. She mostly wears her hand-knit socks around the house and to bed anyway, so I'm not concerned about this not fitting in a shoe.

Today featured two other crafts. First, this morning, I did some spinning. Then, during a large conference call this afternoon, I pulled out my granny square blanket, which is frankly starting to get a bit unwieldy.

I've found that I've been reaching for this project quite a lot, probably because it's very soothing and easy to work on. I have officially finished up the last of my holiday mini skeins and have started adding in the remaining sock leftovers I had in my project bag. I also have a small number of minis in a separate bag that I can add in when I get through all the leftovers if I want the blanket to be bigger. I honestly thought this blanket would be in progress throughout the year, but if I continue at this rate, it might be done in another week or two!

The yarn that you saw me unraveling over the weekend has now been washed and caked up, ready to be knit:

The colors are terribly off in this photo, but at least you can see that I have a decent amount -- in fact, not including the half skein leftover from Rainbow's mittens, I have about 1,160 yards salvaged from the sweater, so I'd say probably enough to make about 10 pairs of mittens. I keep thinking about how great it would be to come out of this pandemic (because, let's be honest, we could be at home a while) with a bunch of warm things to donate come next winter.

It's making me feel better to think about helping others, and having something like this to contemplate and plan for gives me a little sense of control. I'd say feeling like there's nothing I can do to stop or help with the crises is what's most stressing me at the moment (well, that and not being able to see my family in person). As of 8 p.m. last night, my county is officially under a stay at home order, so at least I know everyone else is stuck, too! I will say this for these extraordinary times: Thanks to the current situation, I was able to have a virtual meet-up of my old knitting group last night, something we haven't managed in person in many years!

So how are you doing? Are you finding comfort in yarn? Do you miss going to places? I hope we can continue to support each other for as long as this crisis lasts.