Still a Rainbow

Since it's a knit-a-long, I suppose it would be good to show the kit I chose.  It would be even better if I had gotten a better picture, but I'm not great at capturing all the colors.  Anyway, the pastel rainbow is a nice bit of change for me.  Well, I actually think this will not be for me when it's done, but I'm not even sure about that.  I certainly don't have anyone in mind for it, and by the time I put in all the work to make it, I may not be able to part with it.  

So, obviously, the Hue Shift KAL is well underway.  Before we got going, we were discussing ideas and a few details, and I asked if she wanted to set progress goals.  I asked her how many squares she thought she would average in a week, and she guessed at about four or five.  That seems doable for both of us.  At that rate, we will have the main part of the blanket finished in 20-25 weeks, and then all that would remain are the seaming, border, and weaving in of ends (no, we're totally going to weave them all in as we work each square).  That is not a very cheering thought, so I started to re-frame the way I was thinking about it.  I figure, the time it will take for us all to be fully vaccinated and can be together will be about the same amount of time as it takes us to finish our blankets.  So, finished blanket time will be family party time, right?  I'll think of each square as getting closer to getting vaccinated.  That being said, if we finish our blankets on that timetable and aren't all vaccinated, at least we will have our own blankets to huddle beneath.    

Anyway, the knitting is going pretty well.  It took me a few tries to get gauge.  I'm down from the suggested US5s to US2s, and she had to go up to US7s.  There have been misunderstandings along the way.  For example, my sister thought we were each knitting half of a blanket and that the finished piece would be hers.  My misunderstanding was where I thought she had already begun, so I got started.  Turns out, she was still practicing with scrap yarn to understand how to knit a mitered square.  So, I'm a little bit ahead of her.  While we're both on the first section, she's somewhere on the third strip and I'm at the start of the fifth strip.  However, she is ahead of me in vaccinating--she has received her first dose!   

We Were Just Lucky

That's really all there is to it.  I don't much think about luck, as I don't find it particularly helpful.  However, it's about the best explanation I can think of for why we made it through just fine.  The idea that we have some special worthiness or mission to fulfill just seems vile to me, as if others are lacking.  Maybe you just call that survivor's guilt.  I don't know.  I've just found myself thinking about this randomly over the past year.

We took a trip to Texas in February last year to see the daughter and son-in-law.  It was our Christmas present from them.  It is something else to receive a gift from your kids you could not purchase for yourself or for them, but that's not for today.  I remember the concerns I had as we got ready to go.  I was packing a bit differently.  As usual, I had concerns about Bruce's health, but now with the added unknown swirling about.  I wondered whether the trip would be canceled.  I wondered whether we should cancel it.  I wondered whether we would be able to come home.  Some cruise ship passengers had been brought to an Air Force base near them for quarantine.  I was glad that the daughter's job had changed and she was no longer working on that base. 

It's become a bit of a traveling tradition to pick up a few reusable shopping bags local to the area we are visiting

We had a good visit, and parting was sad.  We wondered when we would see one another again, but we couldn't bring ourselves to say those words, whether we were hugging one another for the last time.  We crossed our fingers and tried not to worry as we made our way back home.  You could see it with other passengers, too, with every cough and sniffle ratcheting up the tension.  

Once home, we increased our efforts to prepare and took further precautions.  Bruce was staying home from most errands.  Soon, even my younger brother (who generally puts forth the view that most people's worrying is worthless and that they are overreacting) was checking to see if we were going to stay home all the time.  We had two last nerve-wracking errands to tend to after that call before we did so.          

The more I learned, the more that was revealed, I see how lucky we have been.  Well, if luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, we're doing our best to stay prepared, and, well, this is a heck of an opportunity, eh?  

Now, here we are a year out, and it all just hits over and over again for us.  We've had some extra-for-our-area winter weather, but we avoided much worse.  My heart goes out to everyone in Texas.  Here we are, just watching horrible suffering and no way to stop it.  All I can do is add my few dollars to those of others and keep thinking warm thoughts and praying.