Three Things Making Me Happy

It's Thursday, so a full week since I started working at home. We've settled into a bit of a routine, and one thing I will say that I really like about this new routine is that I can sleep in an extra half hour and have time to drink all my coffee in the morning. Plus, the commute is pretty easy, too.

Today I'm joining with Carole and friends to focus on some things that are bright spots in an otherwise pretty grim reality. I'm trying to limit my intake of the news, but I'm also the type of person who needs -- no, craves -- information to battle the anxiety of uncertainty, so I'm probably still watching and reading more than I should. To counteract that, I'm trying to focus on the moments of pleasure, and today I'm sharing three of them with you.

One thing that's been giving me lots of pleasure the past few days has been my sock yarn scraps granny square blanket. I was ignoring it for a while to work on knitting projects, but I pulled it out again a few evenings ago, and it's really been the best thing when my brain has been completely fried from work.

It's gotten quite a bit bigger! You may have seen my last Instagram post, where I noted that it's now big enough to cover me while I work on it, which is just fabulous. Also, as of right now, I have only two minis left from my Fibernymph Dye Works holiday minis set! I have some additional sock scraps in the project bag that's been (mostly) containing the blanket, so it won't be done just yet, but I think I will call this big enough soon.

The second thing is spinning. I always find spinning to be a relaxing, meditative activity, and that's especially the case when I'm spinning my default yarn and can completely zone out. It's a bonus when the fiber is beautiful and well prepped, and all of that's the case with my current project.

These particular colors look like the ocean to me, and what's more relaxing than thinking of the ocean?

Finally, I've been experiencing some joy in the form of collaboration with Rainbow. Quite some time ago, long before we knew we'd all be cooped up together for an extended period of time, she told me that she wanted to knit a cowl for her art teacher, who only teaches the elementary kids (and so this is Rainbow's last year with her). We dug through my stash and found some handspun from 2017 that was the same colorway in batt and top form. The teacher is very fair with red hair, so the cooler pastels will suit her well. We decided to hold both yarns together, and I cast on and knit the ribbing for Rainbow so she could do the stockinette in the round.

I love the effect we're getting -- and this is making me look at my stash in a whole new way! This seems like an excellent way to really bust some stash, particularly if I'm trying to whip up some things in a jiffy. I expect that if we're stuck at home for a while, I can take care of holiday knitting and do some decent charity knitting at well.

Now I think I'm going to go cast on a new project, which you might get to see if you join us for a virtual knit night tonight that Mary is hosting. Hope to see you there!