Heinz or Hunt's?

If you're wondering about the strange post title, it's because I'm feeling a little punny this morning -- this is a catch-up post (get it?). (Oh, and the answer to the question is always Heinz. Always.)

I'm still trying to get Rainbow to pose with her finished blanket, but thus far she's only been interested in snuggling with it. I guess it's a indication of the blanket's success that she's been sleeping with it every single night since it was finished. Blocking went well and squared it up decently, but it also stretched it out just enough that the fabric has really nice drape now. Here it is atop my queen-size bed for scale:

The details: I used Casapinka's Blanket of Calm (Ravelry link) as a jumping-off point to get me started, mainly because it was free and had just been released when I was thinking about starting this blanket. Once I understood the construction, I didn't have to refer to the pattern at all. The entire blanket is double crochet, with about four rounds of single crochet for a border. I used an F hook (3.75 mm) for the whole thing; I didn't swatch, but I knew that I generally use a US 5 (3.75 mm) knitting needle with fingering weight yarn for things like shawls, so I figured it would work well with crochet, too. The very center of the blanket is Holly Press Fibers SHEEPISHsock leftover from my I've Got Sunshine (Ravelry link) socks and the rest of it is Knit Picks Felici. I used two skeins each of the colorways Thunderstruck, Summer Camp, Test Pattern, Goth Kitty, Material Girl, Ever After, and Dark Rainbow (though there's about half of the second skein of Dark Rainbow left because Rainbow declared the blanket Big Enough at that point). Altogether, I used 677 grams -- 2,957.9 yards/2704.7 meters -- of yarn, and the only Felici left in my stash is that half skein or so of Dark Rainbow. I'm quite happy to have all that yarn out of my stash and that big boost to my Stash Dash total (which right now stands at 13,445.5 meters!).

Over the weekend we attended our nephew's first birthday party in the park. The theme was the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I have to say that my sister-in-law did an excellent job on the treats (she ordered the cookies, which, though it's hard to see here, are foods with holes in them, just like in the book):

My nephew, however, remained unimpressed by the whole thing:

(That's Rainbow's hand and drink on the left side of the frame, trying to get his attention so he'd look at the camera. And yes, quite a few people at the party were not wearing masks. My sister-in-law comes from a Faux News family. Le sigh. We were all masked, and thankfully the party was outside.)

The good news is that the crocheted alpaca I made him seems to be a hit. Or at least it passed his taste test. I received this photo from my brother-in-law this morning:

I can't ask for a better reception than that to a hand-made gift for a 1-year-old!

Just Yoking

While I'm sure this won't last for long, because I can already feel my fingers getting itchy, at the moment I have only one knit work in progress, and that's my Torbellino (Ravelry link).

I have now reached and in fact surpassed the point where I have enough stitches to fill a 40 in. circular needle, which is why I'm not able to spread out the full yoke for a photo. I'm really enjoying this, and aside from one mistake from an apparent inability to count to 3 reliably, it's been an easy knit. It's always a joy to knit a pattern that makes you appreciate its cleverness, and it's a bonus when the designer is also a friend. I know the finished sweater is going to be really wearable.

At this point, I think I have one more increase round left in the yoke, and once the yoke is done, it's just single-color stockinette in the round. Perhaps finishing by the end of the month is a stretch, but I might as well try!

Meanwhile, the 100 Day Project is supposed to wrap up this week, but as I've accidentally missed a few days, and seeing as the blanket isn't quite done anyway, I'm going to be carrying on.

I have three more balls of Felici left to add after the current one runs out, and Rainbow is thinking that it might be big enough at that point. We're planning to stretch it rather aggressively in blocking to even out the wonkiness (made worse in the photo by my pathetic attempts to stretch it out, which clearly only made it worse). I will be happy to have this done and added to my Stash Dash total, because there's quite a bit of yarn in it!

A WIP Roundup

As much as I love a long weekend, it makes the following Monday a bit rough, doesn't it? I was definitely dragging yesterday, and I may or may not have grabbed a cat nap or two during the afternoon. The weekend itself, though, was very restful. And I did quite a bit of crafting. You saw the spinning output on Sunday, but how about the knitting the crochet?

Despite the fact that we're in the middle of a verified heat wave with highs in the mid- to upper 90s, I already started thinking about my next sweater. One of the patterns on my 20 in 2020 list is Torbellino (Ravelry link), which I've been intending to knit for a couple of years and even bought yarn for at Maryland Sheep and Wool back in 2018. Kristen is sponsoring a sweater knitalong right now, so it seemed like the perfect time to cast on. So I swatched over the weekend.

Swatch gauge tool from Akerworks

Because the sweater is knit in the round, I swatched in the round using the cheater method. Do you know how to do this? I didn't want to sacrifice any yarn (if I had enough, I would have knit an actual tube and cut it to measure), so I did the faux in-the-round method of draping the strand of yarn loosely across the back of the swatch. Here's what the back looks like:

I used a US 5/3.75 mm needle for my swatch and am ever so slightly off on gauge (I'm getting 21 stitches over 4 inches rather than the called-for 22 stitches) but I like the fabric I'm getting and think going down a needle size would give me fabric with no drape. I have to do a couple of math checks, but I think it may work out to knit a size smaller than I'd intended using my gauge. I still have to wind the rest of my yarn before I cast on, but I'm trying to finish up my TTL Mystery Shawl first (more on that in a moment).

I worked on Rainbow's crochet blanket quite a bit over the weekend and am almost done with the 10th ball of Felici, with four more left. It's currently measuring about 42 inches wide. Once I'm finished with all the Felici, Rainbow will assess the size and decide whether it's big enough or whether we want to dig through the stash for more yarn to add. Though I started this for the 100 Day Project, I know I missed a few days recently, so I'm just continuing to work on it and keeping my own count.

Because one crochet blanket isn't enough, I started another one over the weekend. Rainbow had a giant ball of big box store acrylic that she'd started a granny square blanket with around the same time I started mine, but she recently decided she didn't want it anymore and ripped it out. She then gave me the skein to play with, and I'm using it to crochet a corner-to-corner blanket. Have you heard of this method? It's pretty ingenious and is rather like the crochet version of entrelac. I used this pattern (Ravelry link) to get started, and while the very start was a bit tricky, once I figured it out it's been smooth sailing. And this yarn seems particularly well suited to this method.

My plan is to try to use up all or nearly all of the skein of yarn (which is more than 1,100 yards!) and make a blanket for the couch in our family room, where we've been using two blankets knit by my aunt, one of which is a loosely knit lace blanket she made for Rainbow when she was born (in acrylic, so it's holding up fine, but it's not especially warm). I worked on this new blanket for a while this weekend to get the hang of it, but I've now put it aside to focus on getting Rainbow's blanket done.

Finally, my mystery shawl is WIP priority number one. The final clue came out yesterday, and I spent my crafting time yesterday working on it exclusively. I have one more chart and the bind off left to do, and I'm hoping to get through all that today, but of course work might throw a wrench into the plan.

Once this is done and blocked, I'll be sure to take some better photos -- these unblocked shots really do not do the design justice!

Three Check-ins

First, I want to thank everyone for leaving such nice comments on my last post about the new shawl design. It feels very good to have gotten it out after working on it (mentally and physically) for more than half a year.

Second, it's Thursday (and my sort-of Friday, because I'm taking tomorrow off from work), so I'm joining up with Carole and friends with three check-ins on my leisure activities.

1. Knitting projects

Over the past week, I've been rotating through three main knitting projects. First, there are the socks I started for my sister-in-law in the long-term planning category. They have been worked on while reading and while attending (virtual) meetings. The first sock is now finished and the second begun.

I did wind off yarn when I started the second sock so that the socks would start in the same point in the striping sequence, and I made some notes for myself so I could (fingers crossed) get them to match. My sister-in-law's feet are a bit shorter than mine, so I know I'll have plenty of yarn.

I also have been working on the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl and spent most of the day Monday (in between work meetings and whatnot) knitting up Clue 2. I hope no one is concerned about spoilers, because I'm going to show you what the shawl looks like through this clue. You've been forewarned! (Side note: When I posted a photo of Clue 1 a full week after it came out on my Instagram feed, someone commented that they'd been spoiled and probably shouldn't follow the hashtag for the shawl. If you don't want spoilers, why are you following the hashtag in the first place?)

I'm a bit surprised how much I'm enjoying this, because honestly, if I saw this much of a pattern before buying, I probably wouldn't be interested, but I'm having such fun! The second repeat of the lace in Clue 1 was a bit of a slog for me, but the second clue was completely engaging because of the variety of techniques used. I'm excited to see where Clue 3 takes us!

Finally, there's my Tegna, which I've been working on almost every evening. I finished up the lace over the weekend, so now it's just miles of stockinette in the round, and the only thing I have to pay attention to is switching which strand of yarn I'm working with when I get to the beginning of the round.

I absolutely adore how the yarn is working up and am feeling rather proud for working out the plan when I spun it.

2. Crochet/100 Day Project

It's been a fairly busy week at work, so I think I may have forgotten to work on this one day by accident, but the blanket is continuing to grow. I'm into the first of the last two original skeins of yarn we picked for it, and in the meantime Rainbow and I found six more skeins of Felici in my stash, so those have been designated for the blanket as well.

For a sense of scale, those are 50 g skeins of yarn, and if I lay it out flat(ish), it's measuring about 37 inches across.

3. Reading

Work has gotten in the way of my reading time a bit this week, but I've finished two more books since last Thursday -- but still no bingo!

I listened to A Wrinkle in Time while exercising and doing household chores last week. It's a book I read several times as a child but didn't remember very much about, so I'd been meaning to reread it. I actually bought a paperback of it a while back to give to Rainbow (who, it turns out, is not at all interested, grr), but when I saw it was available from the library on audio, I jumped at it. This particular version is narrated by Hope Davis and has additional "bonus" features in the form of an appreciation by Ava DuVernay (who directed the recent film version), an introduction by the author, and an afterward by the author's granddaughter that gives some background about the author and how the novel came to be. While I enjoyed it, I found that it had lost some of the luster that it had for me as a child. But that's okay. I gave it 3 stars and put it in the "Children's classic" box on my second bingo card.

Last night I stayed up a teensy bit late to finish reading Thin Air, the sixth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series. These books are consistently good and I'm a little sad that I have only two more left to read (though I hear the Vera series is good as well). I gave the book 4 stars and put it in the "Set in a different country" box on my original card. It's also the third Shetland book to fill a square on this card!

It's a good thing I finished that book last night, because when I went into the library app to return it, I discovered I'd gotten two books off my holds: Picnic at Hanging Rock (which has been talked about recently on the Craftlit podcast) and Such a Fun Age. I'm pretty sure I can put the former into the "Historical fiction" box on my card, but I'll have to figure out where to put the latter. In any case, I have quite a lot of reading ahead of me!

I'm looking forward to a long weekend of reading and crafting, and I hope yours is full of the same!

Unraveled Wednesday: WIP Wrangling

I know I don't normally post on Wednesdays, but yesterday's post was pretty heavy and serious. I felt like it made sense to add an extra post this week, so I'm joining it with Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

There has been no actual unraveling this week, but there has been a lot of wrangling of WIPs. I'm normally not someone who has a lot of projects going on at once (usually I have a smaller project that goes with me to work and a larger, more complex project for my evening crafting time), but the crazy times we live in mean that my attention is similarly crazy and scattered, so I find myself with four active yarn WIPs at the moment (I am excluding my spinning from the count).

I'm continuing to work on the crochet blanket for Rainbow as part of the 100 Day Project. We're on day 50-something, I think; I've done my best to check off each day, but I'm not 100% sure I've recorded every day. Yesterday I joined in skein number 7 of Felici, the penultimate skein of the original yarn selected for the blanket.

I'm completely sure now that I'll be adding in more yarn once I get through the second ball of this colorway (Goth Kitty, if you're interested), but I will be letting Rainbow determine what yarn is added and how much. I think I've also figured out that the skewing that's happening is at least in part due to a slight error I've been making in joining as I get to the end of a round which has translated to one less stitch than I should have when I start the next round, but I'm hoping that I will able to block out the blanket to be square enough in the next. Rainbow has not complained about the effect, and if she's happy, I'm not worried about it being perfect.

Late last week I cast on for my handspun Tegna, which is what I've been primarily working on in the evening. It's been a bit slow going because the rounds are long, some of these stitches are a bit tricky (hello, k4tog), and my attention hasn't been fully focused on knitting the past few nights anyway. But I think it will be much faster once I get through the lace chart and am just working in stockinette.

The Through the Loops Mystery Shawl 2020 started this past Monday, and I cast on for it pretty much first thing on Monday morning. I am knitting it using two skeins of Skeinny Dipping Merino Silk Single in the colorways Zingbat and Malaria Dreams. It's very different from the yarn Kirsten recommended for the pattern, but I am loving how it's knitting up. Zingbat, which is the color I've used for the first clue, looks almost like metal wire when knit up; I've included the skein of Malaria Dreams here so you can see how well it coordinates with the speckles in Zingbat.

Finally, I've got a sock WIP. While I have no room for more socks in my own sock drawers at the moment, I like to have a sock on the go, so I thought I'd get a head start on holiday knitting. These are going to be for my sister-in-law, who proved herself totally knitworthy last year when I gave her the first pair of socks I knit for her. I thought of her immediately when I saw these colors.

I'm doing my usual top-down vanilla sock (heel flap and gusset, wedge toe) with the slight variation of working the first round when the color changes as (sl 1, k1). This means that I can't entirely work on this sock without looking -- I do have glance at it from time to time to know when the color is changing -- but at the moment it's the best thing to work on while I'm trying to knit and read at the same time.

My Breathe and Hope shawl is still on the needles (sorry to disappoint those of you who told me to rip it out!). I guess I didn't do a good job of explaining my issues with it before: There is nothing wrong with the pattern itself, or with the yarn, or really with knitting it. It just wasn't what I wanted to be knitting at the time. But I do like the pattern and the yarn and very much would like to have the finished shawl, so it's hibernating for the time being, and I'll come back to it when the mood strikes.

I have not been reading as much as I'd like the past several days, mostly because I've been watching or reading news instead. But I am enjoying my current book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. I can't remember where or how I first heard about this book, but it's been on my want to read list for a while and on my hold list from the library for at least a month. I'm nearly a quarter of the way through it, though I'm hoping to make some significant progress today if my schedule allows. I've read a ton of fiction set during WWII but not nearly enough nonfiction, so it's really fascinating to learn the actual facts that formed the basis of some of that fiction.

Up next on my TBR list is How to Be an Antiracist. I've had the physical copy of the book on my nightstand for months and have been meaning to get around to reading it, but the events of the past week have made it clear that I can't put it off any longer. I'm eager to add it to my Goodreads bookshelf that I've titled My Antiracist Education, a shelf that has far too few books on it. I'm going to make it a real priority to add to that shelf, so I welcome any recommendations you have.

Three WIPs, Three Books

It's Thursday (right? it's hard enough to keep track these days without a long holiday weekend thrown in), so I'm joining up with Carole and friends for Three on Thursday.

First up, let's look at my three current yarny projects (you know I'm still spinning a lot, but I'll wait until Sunday to talk about that):

1. Rainbow's crochet blanket

I'm continuing to work on this a little every day for the 100 Day Project, and I'm making slow but steady progress. I'm currently on my sixth ball of Felici, with two more from the original amount to go plus the additional four we discovered in my stash that I'll likely add on. At the moment, it's the size of a lap blanket on Rainbow, and I'm pretty sure she wants it to be much bigger (especially because the log cabin sock yarn blanket she's been using is starting to get pretty felted in some spots despite being knit out of superwash yarn -- proof that not all superwash is created equal). It would be nice to finish it this summer so I could count all the yarn for Stash Dash, but we'll see.

2. My Breathe and Hope shawl

This project has come to feel like a bit of a slog. I feel like I've worked on it a ton and yet it's not getting much bigger. I've also made a number of mistakes (which I haven't felt compelled to fix), and I've started to worry I'll run out of yarn. I'm not eliminating the possibility that I will rip this all out and use the yarn for something else, because it really is fabulous yarn, but for now I'll continue to slog on. Feel free to encourage me to continue or rip.

3. Socks for my sister-in-law

I still have quite a stash of sock yarn, despite reaching Sock Drawer Saturation Point, so I figured I'd get a head start on holiday knitting now. This yarn was the full skein that came with the Fibernymph Dye Works holiday mini set last year (the full skein was an optional add-on). The colors weren't really me, but I think they'll work perfectly for my sister-in-law, and she was so excited about the socks I made her last year that of course I knew I'd make her another pair. I'm using my basic top-down stockinette sock recipe for these, with the added embellishment of slipping every other stitch on the first round where the color changes. That requires a bit more attention than a plain sock, but I think it will be worth it. I cast on the first sock on Sunday and worked on it a bit that day and Monday while we were spending time with family, so you can see how quickly it's working up.

Those are all my current WIPs, though the number is likely to increase soon as I still have to cast on my Tegna and the Through the Loops MKAL starts next week.

Next, let's talk about what I'm reading. I used to be a reader who would only ever read one book at a time, and suddenly I find I'm reading three!

1. Practical Magic

It seemed logical after reading "book 0" in the series to read the original. I'm listening to the audiobook, and it's my "listen while running/walking" book. I've got about 3 1/2 hours left, which won't take me that long because I'm listening at 1.25 time. When I finish, it will be filling the Magical Realism box on my bingo card.

2. The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

I started this the other night; it was one of two books that my mother dropped off late last week along with some homemade pumpkin bread. She told me that it was a page turner, and I'm finding that to be the case. I'm not terribly impressed, but it's going quickly and will fill the Recommended by a Family Member square on my card.

3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Though I've read works by Charlotte and Emily Bronte numerous times, I've never read anything by Anne, so it seemed like kismet when I learned that the next book on the Craftlit podcast (which I've been listening to since 2007) was going to be Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I had several episodes to catch up on because my podcast listening has been way down (I usually listen to them on my commute to and from work and during my lunch break at work), so I binged a bit this week while spinning and am really enjoying it. This will be more of a long-term read as I'll have to wait for each episode to come out, but the added bonus of listening to it this way is that it comes with the added commentary from Heather, the host, who is a former high school English teacher, so it's a bit like being in a class, and using my brain like that is really appealing right now. I'm putting this in the Written Under a Pseudonym square on my card, because of course all the Brontes originally published under pen names -- as Acton (Anne), Currer (Charlotte), and Ellis (Emily) Bell.

I'm hoping to finish up the first two of these soon because I have two library holds that will be available "soon," according to my app. It never rains but it pours!

I'd love to hear what you're making and reading right now. Please share in the comments!

The Unexpected Joy of a Three-day Weekend

With every day feeling the same and time being a strange construct these days, I had completely forgotten that this coming weekend was Memorial Day weekend until I got an email from work yesterday announcing that the "office" would be "closing" early on Friday as it usually does (in today's terms, that means I can close my computer at 3 tomorrow afternoon). It's not nearly as exciting as being able to physically leave my office early on a Friday afternoon, but given that it's been a busy week at work, it's an unexpected joy that I am fully embracing.

The work that's come in this week has meant less crafting time, so my projects haven't progressed too much since you saw them last. The most progress has been on my cowl, which is just about done -- I think I'm going to knit in the texture pattern for about another half inch and then do the ribbing to finish it off. I'm a bit sad about that, if I'm honest, because these colors are making me so happy.

In keeping with the 100 Day Projects, I'm still putting in about 15 minutes a day on Rainbow's blanket, but as the rounds are getting longer, progress is harder to see, especially when that 15 minutes is the only time it gets each day. I'm nearing the end of the fifth ball of Felici, though, so I know it is getting a bit larger.

It will need some aggressive blocking when it's done to square it up, but the color pooling is so interesting to me!

I finished two books this week, one audio and one digital.

I listened to On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous over the course of several days. I really wanted to love this book, as it's gotten so much positive hype, and certainly the writing is beautiful and poetic, especially when read by the author. But something about it didn't work for me. It's called a novel, but it felt more like a memoir to me, and it didn't really have a linear plot. It's framed as a letter a son writes to his mother, but it's really a series of memories of his childhood, presented in no particular order. I didn't listen to this while running because I felt that I really had to pay attention to it, but even so I found it hard to follow. While Vuong is clearly talented as a writer, I was disappointed -- but don't let that discourage you if you want to read it. Be advised, though, that this book contains some very graphic, sexually explicit scenes. I gave it 3 stars and put it in the "Debut" box on my bingo card.

Alias Grace was a much more enjoyable read for me. I'd been meaning to read it for at least the past year, since I watched the Netflix miniseries (which is well worth watching, too!), but it had always had a long wait. So a couple of weeks ago, when I saw that there was no wait for it from the library, I jumped at the chance to borrow it. I really enjoyed it and appreciated Margaret Atwood's talent. I'd originally intended to put it in the "By an author on your previous year's favorites list" square on my bingo card, but when I realized how long it was (546 pages), I moved it to "More than 500 pages." It really didn't feel like a long book to me because it moved quickly. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm looking forward to having three days to myself this weekend, especially given that the weather is supposed to be sunny and warm for a change. I will likely do some puttering in the garden and may finally take my drum carder out to the porch to process some fleece. I'll leave you for today with a shot of our sunflower seedlings, which are beginning to put out their third set of leaves. It never ceases to amaze me how much power and potential there is in a seed.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of sunshine and potential!

Monogam-ish

I've been thinking a lot lately about routines and how we adjust to them. As someone who has a tendency to worry about things, I like a routine and find comfort in it -- and at the same time, I also get very anxious about uncertainty and not knowing what's coming next. So in times like these, when there is so much that is unknown, I've found it to be very grounding to stick to a routine, even though it's not the routine I was used to before the pandemic. We've all adjusted to a new schedule, and I can't say it's been a bad thing. We're all getting a bit more sleep and we're eating more meals together than we used to. Life feels a lot less rushed because we have few obligations and nowhere to be except in our respective work spaces in our house. My work schedule certainly feels a lot more flexible, given that I'm able to sneak more crafting time in (when I'm in the office, even if I'm not busy, I have to have the appearance of being busy, so I'm limited in what I can do, but now I can spin or knit or crochet while attending meetings or in between projects).

Whereas at the beginning of this stay at home time I felt a bit scattered with my crafting and couldn't really concentrate, I feel like things have settled now and I'm focusing on just a few things. One has been Rainbow's crochet blanket, which I'm continuing to work on for at least 15 minutes a day as part of the 100 Day Project. I am now into the fourth skein of Felici of the original eight, and we uncovered six more skeins yesterday while looking for something else. My foot is provided here for a sense of scale.

Now that the rounds are getting larger, the stripes are starting to do some interesting things. I can also tell that the fabric is skewing a bit, which isn't surprising, but I'm pretty sure I can block the blanket out square when it's done. I also know that Rainbow won't be too picky about it.

For my knitting, I've been fairly faithful to one project, the shawl design that has been on the needles for way too long, and I can see that it's almost done by the amount of the main color (the blue) that's left. I have three rows left to knit in the current sequence and will be weighing the yarn after each one to get an idea of whether or not I have enough yarn to complete one more sequence or need to move on to the border. Either way, it's looking like the shawl will finally be off the needles sometime this week.

I know it doesn't look like much of anything here -- with this shawl shape, it's really hard to get a sense of it when it's still on the needles. So I'm very excited to block it and get the full picture.

Reading is continuing at a good pace, and I should finish up two books in the next couple of days. I was surprised on Sunday afternoon when I found that my hold had come up on Blue Lightning, the fourth book in the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves. I got about 50 pages in that day and then read most of it yesterday while spinning; I now have about 50 pages left and expect to finish it this morning. I also have about 2 1/2 hours left to listen to Ask Again, Yes, which has been my listen-while-running book but has been so good that I've also been listening while cooking, folding laundry, and doing other things. I've been listening to it at 1.25 time, meaning I can get through an hour of audio in about 45 minutes, so those 2 1/2 hours will actually probably take me only about two hours. I ran yesterday, so today will probably be a long walk while I listen.

I'm still trying to get outside every day, and the weekend was great for it, but it's gotten colder here again -- I'm wearing a sweater right now, and they're saying we'll get snow tomorrow! I'm hoping the cold doesn't damage any of the plants, especially because we have some sunflower seedlings starting to come up:

That rosemary, by the way, is from last summer -- it gives you an idea of just how mild our winter was because I literally left it out in the pot and did nothing to protect it! The sunflowers are seeds from the ones we grew a few years ago that grew to be something like 7 or 8 feet tall, with positively enormous blooms. We tried to grow some last summer, but our landscapers mistook our seedlings for weeds and pulled them; this year, when I plant them in their final growing spot, I will be very deliberate about labeling them.

I'll have some more plants arriving this weekend thanks to the annual plant sale our synagogue preschool does annually as a fundraiser. I was worried it wouldn't happen this year, but thankfully they're still doing it, with a socially distant pickup on Mother's Day. I ordered impatiens for the front yard, marigolds for the back (I'll continue to pick and dry them for natural dyeing at some point in the future), three types of tomatoes, and a pot of "Italian" herbs. I'm excited to get the garden going again!

Three Ways to Pass the Days

Well friends, we've made it to the end of April. It seemed to be a very fast month for me, especially in comparison to the glacial pace of March, but I suppose a large part of that has been all of us adjusting to our routines. Rainbow has school online and assignments to complete, and the past few weeks, they've added "lunch" (a special Zoom session with just a few kids and a teacher), "recess" (unscheduled class Zoom sessions), and even sessions with the specialist (e.g, art, music, library) teachers. She still has her moments, and she's still spending more time in front of screens than I'd like, but she seems to be doing better now that she has of a structure to her day and more opportunities to connect with her friends.

I've also settled into a new schedule of sorts. I've been able to adjust my wake-up time to be a bit later now that my commute to work onlyinvolves walking up a flight of steps to my bedroom, and that also means I've had more time in the morning to enjoy my coffee and catch up on blogs and email. I've been working through lunch most days so that I can take my break at the end of the day, and that when I go out for a run or a walk as the weather allows. I've also been showering before dinner rather than when I wake up in the morning, and I've fully embraced the makeup-free, wild hair look. On the rare occasion that I've put on makeup or blown my hair dry, it feels like a treat.

Today I'm joining Carole and friends to talk about three things that are getting me through these strange days. There is my job, of course, but things are strange there, too, and even when I'm busy, work is only a temporary distraction.

1. Fibery things
My knitting mojo is still here, and I've been working diligently on my shawl design sample just about every evening. I can see progress -- the end is in sight now. I'm also finding a lot of joy in working on Rainbow's crochet blanket for at least 15 minutes a day as part of the 100 Day Project. It's been and excellent project during conference calls, which I have several times a week now. Yesterday I joined in the second color of Felici.

The colors are a little loud for me, at least mixed all together like this, but Rainbow likes them, and that makes me happy. I certainly feel good about using up the stash.

I also finished a pair of socks for her earlier in the week that had been on the needles a while and which I'd kind of forgotten about. It wasn't much effort to finish them up in the end.

These were knit toe up using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel template, though I worked the heel a bit differently, using garter stitch and actual wraps and turns, just to try something different. The yarn is Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway Gimme Some Sugar (Cookies), which came in the last shipment of Lisa's Just Desserts club last year. It came with a matching mini skein, which I used for the heels and toes at Rainbow's request. I didn't ask her if she wanted the stripes to match until I was starting the second sock, and though I wound off some yarn to get to the same color in the stripe sequence that I'd started the first sock with, it was sheer luck that the stripes matched up so perfectly.

As you've no doubt seen, I've also been doing a ton of spinning, mainly because my "office" is my spinning corner in my bedroom, where I have my comfy chair set up in the corner with my wheel in front of it and my laptop sitting on the end of the radiator next to me. I have found that I'm able to spin while reading a Kindle book in addition to the usual things I do while spinning (watching a podcast or something else online or listening to sometime).

2. Exercise
My job is very sedentary -- I sit at a desk most of the day -- but I live close enough to my office that I've almost always walked to work, which means I was used to getting two 15-20-minute walks a day. Now that I'm working from home, I definitely miss those walks, so I've been making a point to try to exercise every day if I can (the weather doesn't always cooperate with me). I've been running a lot and yesterday officially hit 60 miles for the month, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. But getting fresh air and seeing other people out and about has been just as uplifting as the endorphins, so I feel extra good about making it a priority.

3. Reading
Several weeks ago I was having trouble focusing on books, but I think the key to getting my focus back was reading something really excellent, and my recent finishes did the trick. I haven't gotten a bingo yet on my card, but I'm definitely filling up more spaces.

Right now I'm in that wonderful yet horrible position where I'm reading two books I'm really enjoying -- one on Kindle, one on audiobook -- and am frustrated that I can't enjoy both at the same time. The Kindle book is Apeirogon, which came highly recommended by Kat and is really unlike any book I've read. I'm not even halfway through and can already tell that it's going to be a 4- or 5-star book for me. The audiobook is Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, which I picked from available audiobooks from the library when I was looking for something new to listen to while running. Though I didn't love Fever when we read it for our virtual book club, I did enjoy Keane's writing and had heard good things about her most recent book. I'm almost a third of the way through it and am really enjoying it as well.

So now you know how I've been getting through these pandemic days, and I'd love to hear what you're doing to keep you sane and calm and healthy.

One Little Word, April 2020

I don't know about you, but I'm in a bit of denial about it being the last month of April. For all that March seemed to last eleven-billionty years, April has flown by. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not, but I suppose at this point every day that passes is one day closer to whatever needs to happen to get us back to something resembling normal life.

Today I'm joining up with Honoré and friends to look back at how my one little word for the year, savor, has been playing a role in my life over the past month.

Last month I mentioned that I thought I'd been pretty smart in my choice of word for the year, even though at the time I picked it, I couldn't have known how drastically life would change. I couldn't have foreseen just how much I'd be focusing on small things in life and getting so much joy out of them. Since we started staying at home, I've joined many of you in keeping a "pandemic journal," reflecting nearly every day with a brief entry (and sometimes with a longer one). Following Mary's lead, I've been listing, at a bare minimum, three things I've gotten done that day and five things that have brought me joy that day. Those five moments of daily joy are where I'm finding what I'm really savoring in my day-to-day life now that I'm spending so much of it at home. These have been things like sunshine, working on sewing masks with Rainbow, watching TV with the Mister in the evenings, or joining Zoom calls with other knitters. They seem like such mundane things under normal circumstances, but in the context of my much smaller world, they are true delights.

One thing I know I wouldn't be savoring if we weren't under stay at home orders is running. I've gotten to the point where I truly look forward to being able to get outside every day that I can (provided the weather cooperates). At the beginning of the month, I challenged myself to run the number of miles in a marathon by the time the Pittsburgh marathon (now canceled) would be held on May 3. I don't really consider myself much of a runner, but the Mister and I generally sign up for two local 5K races in the early fall, so when the weather starts to get a bit better at this time of year, I usually start training. Because my weekday schedule is usually packed, I typically only get to run on the weekends, but working from home has actually saved me time because I'm no longer commuting and I can work through lunch and shift my lunch break to the end of the day (4 p.m.), allowing me to get out for a run or walk at that time. I've been tracking my runs the old-fashioned way and here's where things stand as of this morning:

You may need to embiggen the photo to see it, but I didn't just hit a marathon in running miles this month -- I've actually run the equivalent of more than two marathons. If I can squeeze in one more run before the end of the month, I'll hit 60 miles. I also hit a new PR for my 5K time yesterday with a time of 25 minutes flat, which is crazy fast for me. I almost can't believe that it's me who's done all this -- and that I've done it willingly -- but in truth I am feeling really proud of myself, and I know that all this time moving my body has been playing a huge role in keeping me relatively calm.

I have also really been enjoying the time I spend each day working on Rainbow's crochet blanket as part of the 100 Day Project. I spend 15 minutes on it minimum each day, and today I am ready to join in the second colorway of Felici.

Because we are doing okay financially (meaning we're both still working full time), I've been trying to support some small businesses with purchases where I can. Over the weekend I decided to order yarn from Fiber Optic Yarns for the Casapinka LYS Day pattern, and in some small miracle of the USPS, it arrived yesterday.

Did I really need this beautiful MCN yarn? No. Will I savor it as I work with it? You betcha.

Finally, I've really been savoring my reading, especially the past couple of weeks. After reading a few books that were just so-so, the last two have been really excellent. After The Ten Thousand Doors of January, my library hold came up on the next Inspector Gamache book, A Trick of the Light. I finished it yesterday and so enjoyed it. I put it on my SAH Bingo card under "a comfort read" because that's what Louise Penny's books have become for me. I love getting back to those familiar characters and inhabiting the world of Three Pines again. I've already got the next book on my holds list, though it'll be some time until I get it, and I started reading Apeirogon last night. I also borrowed the audiobook of Ask Again, Yes yesterday to listen to while I run, though I had a technical snafu when I tried to start it and only got a few minutes in. I'm excited to get into both of these books in the coming days.

I'm off now to see how the rest of you have made room for your one little word this month. Stay safe, friends!

In Which My Mojo Returns -- Mostly

Thursday already? The weeks are starting to go a little faster now, which I suppose is a good thing. Work seems to be getting into a more regular rhythm, and I am filling in the less-busy times with crafting and reading. (In addition to not having to worry about putting on my makeup or doing my hair every day, I'm finding a really nice perk of working from home is that I can fit more crafting in, especially during meetings, where now I mainly just have to listen in and no one can see what I'm doing with my hands.)

My spinning mojo has been high this whole time, and I'm seeing it as a good way to work my way through a lot of stash. This week I'm spinning up those gorgeous purple batts that have been in the stash for nearly three years. I'm now on the third and final bobbin of singles.

Crochet, of course, has also been a fairly constant companion. As part of the 100 Day Project, I've been working on Rainbow's blanket for at least 15 minutes every day. It's actually been a fairly good project for my biweekly team meetings, which tend to run about 15-20 minutes. Yesterday I joined in the second ball of Felici, so progress is being steadily made.

The best news is that knitting mojo seems to be back! I've worked on my shawl the past couple of days (but I'll spare you a photo because it doesn't look much different from the last time you saw it), and I also pulled out Rainbow's socks, which I'd kind of forgotten about.

The green stripe I'm about to start should be the last one I have to do before I'm ready to start the heel, so I feel like this pair is in the home stretch. I can work on these while I'm reading or in a meeting because (with the exception of the heel) there is no patterning or counting to pay attention to. Though I was thinking of laying off the sock knitting for a while because my drawers are overfull at the moment, it occurred to me that I can knit socks for holiday gifts now and just put them away for the time being, giving me a very good excuse to have a sock on the go all the time.

Perhaps what I am most excited about right now is that I've been able to focus on my reading again -- and I suspect what did the trick is the amazing book I finished earlier this week.

I know quite of few of you have already read The Ten Thousand Doors of January, so I probably don't need to tell you that it's amazing. This book had me hooked from the first few pages. I found it to be so beautifully written, and for me it's always a real treat when a book not only tells a good story but also gives you ample reason to admire the craftsmanship of it. There's an element of magic to the story, so if that's not your thing, you might not enjoy this book, but I adored it. It reminded me a lot of Erin Morgenstern's books, both in terms of themes in the story and the way the story is put together. I'm fairly certain that I noted in my Goodreads review that this was one of those books that I simultaneously wanted to race through and also never end. 5 stars from me!


In a case of "it never rains but it pours," all my library holds seem to be coming up at the same time. Fortunately Libby, the app I use, has a feature where you can delay delivery of your hold for up to 30 days, so I've now done that with three books. Yesterday I finally started one of them, A Trick of the Light, and I've gotten a couple of chapters read. I'm anxious to get through it because Apeirogon and Blue Lightening are coming soon!

As we head into another weekend, I wish you all the reading and crafting mojo you can use right now!

A Welcome Diversion

I know I've mentioned recently, perhaps more than once, that my knitting mojo has dropped since we started staying at home. I'm not sure why, as knitting has always brought me such comfort in the past (in fact, the only time I can remember not wanting to knit before was when my appendix decided it needed to come out). I've been doing a lot of crochet and spinning, but I missed my love of knitting -- I just didn't feel like me without my needles in my hands every day.

So when I realized I really needed to knit a baby gift, it was just the kick in the pants I needed. A dear friend of mine had a baby late last week, and as this friend is also a knitter, I could not let the occasion pass without making her something. Though I usually make larger projects for new babies so that they'll be able to be used longer, in the interest of time, I decided to go with newborn-sized items that could be used right away. If these look familiar, it's because I knit them as a set for another last fall.

Pattern: Newborn Vertebrae by Kelly van Niekerk
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (80% superwash merino/20% nylon) in That's Not Even a Word!, 0.6 skeins/240 yards
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm)
Started/Completed: April 8/April 17
Mods: cast on/picked up additional stitches under the arms

This is a very popular pattern, and with good reason, because it's adorable, quick to knit, and easy to execute. My only modification was done to make things a little easier for me. The pattern does not call for casting on any stitches under the arm when you split off the sleeve stitches, but I cast on two stitches under each arm because I've found that not doing so stresses that point a bit too much for my taste. So I added those two stitches under each arm and then then did two decreases to get rid of them on the next right-side row. Similarly, instead of picking up one stitch under each arm when I started the sleeves, I picked up five and then did two sets of decreases on following rounds. This helped to close up holes at the underarm a bit. And yes, I did wind off the yarn when I started the sleeves to get them to (more or less) match. I was about a round off, but I'm not sweating that too much.

Of course, I had to make the hat to go with the sweater.

Pattern: From Where You Were Plucked by Corrie Willard
Yarn: FDW Bounce in That's Not Even a Word!, 0.24 skeins/96 yards
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Started/Completed: April 17/April 19
Mods: none

The last time I knit this pattern, I kept making stupid mistakes -- through no fault of the pattern; it was just me being overconfident I knew what I was doing and not actually reading the instruction. This time, I made sure to read and follow the instructions and had no issues (well, I did miss one decrease in the final decrease section, but that's because I was knitting while drowsy, and it wasn't a big deal). I've been known to refer to this pattern as the rude baby hat because when you finish knitting it, the long tube that forms the topknot looks a little like, well, um, genitalia. (Sorry. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.) It's extremely cute when it's tied up, though, so try not to worry about that.

These items are now ready to be dropped off for my friend's sweet baby girl to use, and as we can't meet her in person, I'm thinking of them as a virtual hug for this little one.

I've been continuing to work on Rainbow's crochet blanket as part of the 100 Day Project for at least 15 minutes every day, and I'm getting close to finishing up the first skein of Felici. She is delighted with how it's working up, and I'm enchanted with how the self-striping is working up.

Now that the baby knits are off the needles, I have decided to hunker down and finish up my new design sample. I was really excited about this idea when I first got it, and I can only blame COVID-19 anxiety for diminishing that.

There's no excuse for it being on the needles as long as it has, so I am hereby committing to getting this done ASAP -- hold me to it!

Three More Bobbins and Other Signs of Progress

I'm once again joining up with Carole and friends this Thursday with three project updates.

First, though, I want to thank all of you who offered sympathy, commiseration, and advice about the lice debacle. I think we've finally got a handle on the laundry at this point, and Rainbow and I have been settling into a daily routine where in the late afternoon, once she's finished with school for the day and had a chance to relax a bit, we comb through her hair and then she takes a shower. Yesterday I saw only three nits and she reported that her head was much less itchy, so I think we're headed in the right direction. We'll continue to be vigilant and inspect her head daily, but I'm no longer freaking out about it. The Mister and I also seem to have avoided catching them from her, though I haven't managed to avoid the psychosomatic itchiness that comes with the mere suggestion of lice.

I am continuing to find it difficult to focus on any one particular project, but I do seem to be making some progress as I flit between them. Spinning seems to be the easiest at the moment, and after starting a new project on Tuesday, yesterday I somehow found myself with another three finished bobbins of singles.

As with the last spin, I'm doing a traditional three ply that I expect will come out in the DK to worsted range. This is another Southern Cross Fibre club shipment, last December's Midnight Garden colorway on Falkland. Though I simply split the fiber into thirds, I did a little more color planning this time around and made sure that each section started and ended with a different color so that the colors would be fairly mixed up in the plying. I'm planning to ply as soon as I post this, so we'll see how it works out.

I've also been continuing to work on Rainbow's crochet blanket as part of The 100 Day Project, and though I'm not quite back to where I was when I ripped back, I'm getting very close. Yesterday I finished up the center block and joined in the second skein of yarn again.

Nearly all my knitting time has been on the Newborn Vertebrae, which is almost done. Good thing, too, because the friend I'm knitting it for was supposed to be induced yesterday, so there will be a baby who needs it very soon.

Obviously this is going to need a good blocking!

I worked on the ribbing around the collar and fronts yesterday while reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which I am just loving. I'm about a third of the way through it now and am simultaneously trying to speed through it (because my next hold is coming soon) and savor every word. It's really beautifully written and reminds me a lot of Erin Morgenstern's books.

I'm looking forward to another weekend, though of course we don't have any big plans. I'm hoping to try my hand at sewing some face masks, and Rainbow and I are getting very close to finishing up the 2,000-piece puzzle we've been working on for the past several weeks. I'm also thinking about doing some baking, perhaps some brownies or a galette, seeing as we have ingredients for both on hand (thanks to my mother for the latter; the last time we had dinner with my parents, she gave me a package of frozen pie crusts).

I hope you also have something nice to look forward to this weekend and that the rest of the week goes smoothly!

Pandemic Parenting: It's Not for the Faint of Heart

Like everyone else with young kids, I've found the past month to be challenging. For the first two weeks, Rainbow was on spring break and could do whatever she wanted, but as we were both busy with work, she complained that she was bored and felt ignored because we couldn't hang out with her. Now she's into her third week of virtual school, which gives her a schedule and things to do but has its own challenges, often in the form of technology not working as it should or as we want. Late last week, our governor announced that schools in the state would be closed through the end of the academic year, and that brought sadness over the end-of-year traditions she would miss (her school is divided into three levels -- Lower School is preK-4, Middle School is 5-8, and Upper School is 9-12 -- and the last grade in each level typically has a graduation of sorts).

We've been dealing with the emotions as best we can, but then we got another curve ball thrown at us last night. Rainbow had been complaining about her scalp being itchy for about a week, but it wasn't until last night that I spied something crawling through her hair. You know where this is going right? I feel awful that it took me this long to realize what the issue was, but in my defense, I never had lice as a child and wasn't familiar with what to look for. Also, I didn't think it was possible to get lice if you haven't been around anyone else for a month. I suppose my child is just exceptional in every way! In any case, last night I found myself combing through her hair at about 9 p.m., way past her bedtime, because the thought of waiting until morning to do it gave her the heebie-jeebies. (I can't say I blame her, though!)

So today, in between all the work I have to do for that job I still have, I have many loads of laundry to do and will have to inspect her head again. I expect that will become a daily practice as well for at least the next week. And though dealing with this is a pain, I am extremely thankful that it's relatively minor compared to what it could be -- we are all still healthy, after all.

Knitting and crocheting are continuing, as always. Over the weekend, I ripped back a lot of my progress on Rainbow's crochet blanket because I realized that I was increasing too rapidly and winding up with a ripply edge. I'm not quite back to where I was, but I've been working on it at least 15 minutes a day and it's slowly getting bigger. This is a marathon, not a sprint, right?

I got quite a bit of the Newborn Vertebrae done during the Zoom knitting group that Mary hosted on Sunday and finished the body yesterday -- after knitting about two inches more than I needed to because I did not read the directions very well and was measuring the body from the wrong place. At least it's small!

As you can see, I've already started picking up for the front bands/collar; I decided to start it with the last stitch from the bottom hem to avoid having to weave in two extra ends.

Among my accomplishments from the weekend were my first two finishes for SAH Book Bingo. First, I finished listening to Anne of Green Gables, which had been my running listen, and it was just as good as it always has been. I put it in my "Re-read a childhood/YA favorite" square. I also finished an Amazon First Reads book from a month or two ago called In an Instant. It was just okay, but then I didn't expect it to be anything amazing and I mainly only read it because I needed something to read while waiting for my next library hold to come up. That one did on Sunday, and while I'm only in the second chapter of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, gosh, I am really loving it! I also started listening to Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come while I run. As an extreme shy introvert, it seemed right up my alley and has thus far been interesting to listen to.

I hope the start to your week has been less dramatic than mine! I'd love to hear what you're crafting and reading in the comments.