As I’ve said before, patience is not my strong suit, and while my days are not measurably different than they were before the “stay at home” order, I somehow feel like my brain is diminishing in capacity. We have tried to reduce news input (since its overwhelming stupidity is clearly contributing to a general loss of brain cells), but I’m beginning to feel the isolation from what is really happening in the world. Some mornings I think this guy would be helpful in getting me out of bed. Instead we have a pair of doves cooing outside the window. They do wake me up, but don’t encourage jumping out of bed quite in the same way as a rooster!
My sister-in-law sent me a video on the best way to handle produce in a pandemic. It involves lots of washing, and in the case of the cilantro, a dip in alcohol.
Waiting in line to get into the store yesterday — everyone 6 feet apart and masked — was a bizarre experience. Nobody speaks to anyone else. And then inside there is the highly choreographed shopping cart ballet. The stores are even more quiet than a library! The shopping trip with waiting in line took the entire morning. Another sign that the “new normal” is anything but normal.
I do spend more time thinking about food these days, and that’s likely because I’m trying to think of new things to try. The dish drainer here contributed to asparagus soup. The carrots buried underneath, became ginger and carrot soup — that was really good.
Here is where I left off on the sweater. I do like how the sleeve is turning out, and I may get back to it at some point. My issue really is with the yarn that gets too fuzzy with this much manipulation and handling…not a good sign for how the sweater might hold up during wearing. Should have known. Working with singles is risky.
In the end, I decided that as much as I like the idea of this sweater, it is actually causing me too much stress, and I’ve decided to put it aside. That means I won’t finish my expert knitter certification in June. That’s ok. My decision really had to do with feeling that it’s very important to be proud of what I’ve done rather than just “getting it done.” Expert should mean something.
Knitting for the book projects continues. This pattern from Ann Linderhjelm will be included in the pattern section as will be my version of Hermanna Stengård’s beanie. Right now I’m working on a mitten on size 0 needles, and there are a pile of swatches waiting to be described.
Clearly, although I’ve not been blogging, I’ve been busy. I’m sorry to have stopped communicating for a while, but as I said at the beginning, it feels like my brain capacity has diminished along with my outside contacts. And then there is the matter of today’s weather:
Always a pleasure reading you writing Sara.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and work.
Remember, and this too shall pass,
Nancy