I promised you a post a month, minimum, and here I am second month in, almost late! Yikes!
I just reread August’s post to see where I left off.
It was hot.
Well, it isn’t any more! I am sitting here in t shirt and shorts and sandals, feet freezing because, damn it, it is September, not winter! But it is fall, and I might have to yield and start wearing shoes.
I was still working our my COVID19 banishment from work.
We were good citizens and isolated as much as we could while remaining gainfully employed, and neither of us got sick. So now we are back to our normal pandemic schedule – I work from home two days a week, in the office three days. My office mate also works from home two days, so we are only in the office together one day a week. She isn’t into the whole mask thing, but I wear one whenever I step away from my desk. That is our company policy, but most people take that to mean when they step out of their office. Whatever.
A has been working straight out all summer, as she has done ever since going out on her own. But her busy season is now officially over, and she is on vacation today and most of next week. I am contemplating taking a day off, but haven’t sorted out yet which one it will be – likely Friday. Perhaps I will prepare you a Friday list, as in days of old when I had my wonderful 4 ten-hour day schedule. Please don’t hold your breath, though. She has a possibility list, which is ever so much more vague than a to do list. She might replace the front deck. Or maybe just remove the old one. Or maybe clean up the cellar. Or maybe build the planter boxes she promised my mom for Christmas last year. Or maybe make jam with all the berries filling the freezer. Or maybe read a book. Right now the book is winning.
What I have been working on is those four WIPs I had left on my needles the last time I wrote. A scarf, which is a year long KAL that I fell far behind on. I am now pretty well caught up, just finishing up September’s clue.
A wrap, Ocean Currents from Purl Soho, which I work on a few rows here and there, but which I really need to focus on. I am not quite halfway through with it. I have at last memorized the pattern, and so am able to do less than 4 rows at a sitting and not lose my place. That is progress.
I have my sweater inching along. I joined the 2 Knit Lit Chicks sweater KAL to help motivate me to work on it. I think that is working, though it hasn’t improved my counting. I had to rip 3 inches of sleeve last night because I was decreasing in the 4th round, not after the 4th round. I am fussy, and do want my two sleeves to be as identical as possible.
Then the mittens – they are coming along, actually. I am near the decrease section for the color work half of the second mitten. Once that and the thumb are done, I start on the linings, and they should go faster. I won’t need the pattern in front of me the whole time, anyway.
That is all four WIPs, all being properly cared for. I also did a quick knit hat for charity, which gave me an FO this month. That felt really good!
But my big crafty news is that I did a HUGE pile of spinning at the end of the Two Ewes Podcast Summer Spin Along – I FINISHED all the spinning for the nightshift shawl!
now looks like this!
I squeaked that last one in on the last day, spinning the whole 4 ounces in one day. I had very sore legs at the end of it all, but I am so happy with the results. I haven’t swatched it yet to see if the colors really work well together, but I will get to that when I am closer to being ready to cast on. Just happy that I spun all that yarn in one month! As a treat, I allowed myself to purchase some fiber from Three Waters Farm to fill the void left in the basket by all those braids being gone. 🙂
I have also been sewing – I kind of can’t believe how much! I have made a pile of skirts this summer, most with matching masks, as I mentioned last time.
My matching masks get lots of comments at work. My boss likes to ask me where I bought them, though he knows perfectly well that I made them. My next project is jumpers – I have three of them planned. Just have to put the pattern together, then I am off. It is the York pinafore from Helen’s Closet. I have made 4 of her Donovan skirts, and love the fit, so I am hopeful that the jumper will work as well.
That is really it on the crafting front, it has been slow and steady progress on the knitting, and since the blaze of glory on the spinning, I have been procrastinating finishing up a WIP there. I have two ounces of Targhee left to spin as part of a combo spin I started a long time ago. I am making myself finish it before I start anything new. I am hopeful that the pretty Three Waters Farm fiber will motivate me. But I also have some sweater quantities of Purple Fleece fiber that I might need to spin soon. 🙂
Life goes on, day by day, very dull and boring with the pandemic keeping us at home or work. No travels! But at least I have some crafts to keep me busy, and work to keep me out of trouble. How are you doing?
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