Monday, September 20, 2021

I've Got Rhythm

Yeah, so "rhythm" isn't something much associated with me, but I've found it with a knitting project.  Hmmm?  What's that?  Yes, I'm knitting.  The Hue Shift Afghan was crawling along, abandoned for stretches of time, and decidedly ignored.  Then my sister mentioned she was working on hers again, so I pulled mine out of hibernation and got going.  I was still on the first column in the second quadrant, and when I began column two, a new color (Alfalfa, in case you were wondering) came into play, and it must have been too much excitement, as I purled a quarter of a row.  I mean, come on, it's a garter stitch blanket.  What was going on with me? Anyway, after that, I was just clicking right along, knitting like I used to knit.  At one point, when my mom was over, she stopped watching the movie we had on (to be clear, she had already seen it and wanted us to watch it) and was just watching me knit. 

Back of Second Quadrant of Hue Shift Afghan with ends not woven in yet
The biggest challenges (if you can even call them that) are at the start of the second through fifth columns on a quadrant, and they really aren't much of a challenge.  I just keep knitting along, picking up stitches for the next squares, and have all the yarn (except the border) in a bag next to my seat in the living room.  No longer do I trudge through each square.  I'm cruising through them.  In fact, not only did I finish the second quadrant, I'm about one-third of the way through the third.  When I complete it, I will weigh the remaining yarn and take a guess at if I will need more.  And you know what?  I'm really not worried about that, either.  If I need more yarn, I will just get it.  I'll bring my digital scale over to my sister's and see if it looks like she'll need more, and put in the order.  

So, yeah, there are a lot of really not awesome things happening, but I think this is going well.      

Monday, September 13, 2021

Back to School

Fine, so the kiddos here have been back in school for over a month, but August was a bit much, so here we are.  The whole return to school is still more than a bit much, but I'm managing my anxiety about it a bit better than I was six weeks ago.  I still hold that the nieces and nephew could all come over to my house to learn arts and crafts, cook, play Big Brain Academy*, Wii Sports, Wii Fit Plus, and Wii Sports Resort and they would come through just fine.  Add in some Duolingo for the oldest niece to keep up with her foreign languages and we're soaring above the trees.  If we're feeling especially ambitious, we can add in the less glamorous home ec stuff and do a bit of cleaning and laundry, and there will always be yard work that needs doing.  

Ah, but that is not how we are doing things, and I understand why it is not.  My inability to take care of them all five days a week not being the least of it.  I'm mostly joking about keeping them all out of school, but with the way the world is going, I'm kind of not joking at all.  Anyway, I do what I can, and I can make masks.  I sewed a bunch and then sewed a bunch more for my older brother's friend's kid.

Many face masks that I have sewn from patterned fabric including:  Rainbow plaid, Avengers, Care Bears, Marvel Superheroes, Legend of Zelda, Hot Peppers, Hearts, Outer Space, Poppies, Hedgehogs, Dragonflies, and Flowers


Another bunch of face masks I have sewn from solid or semi-solid fabric including light purple, dark purple, white, sparkly light pink, and aqua. 

In the meantime, it's medical stuffs running amok, a bit.  We were in the hospital last month (non-COVID) and it was wild and they wanted us out of there as soon as possible.  I mean, he was admitted due to dehydration, and when they first got ready to discharge him he had unexpected vomiting, and if we could have found a way to get him to the car they would have had him go home, even though he couldn't even hold down a sip of water.  Did I mention that we were one room away from one of the plastic-ed-off COVID units?  The icing on the cake is that the unimportant (temporary--it was done and gone a day later) vomiting is now what some of the healthcare providers have seized upon as very important and they've changed up medicines and we have not had good results.  It's all a bit tiring, and healthcare folks are tired, too.  We're all just doing our best.  

Anyway, in spite of it all, I think were doing decently okily-dokily.  I'll be back soon, and I even have knitting.  I'm just as shocked as you are.  

*Did you see that their will be a Switch version of Big Brain Academy coming out in December?  I can't wait!