Raise your hand if you are a little bit sick of the pandemic… (I’m waving wildly.)

Raise your hand if you are little bit sick of people in the community ignoring precautions… (I’m waving wildly.)

Raise your hand if you are tired of loading and unloading the dishwasher 80 times in a week… (I’m waving wildly. There is only TWO of us!)

Raise your hand if you need a little break from your family… (My hand is firmly down. I love being home with Paul ALL. THE. TIME. )

Raise your hand if you want to see some of my knitting…

The Knitting…

I thought I’d be doing a lot more knitting than I did before the pandemic but it turns out I’m doing about the same. We are not big socializers around here, so, aside from not being able to go to all the stores, out to eat, and on vacation, we are doing many of the same things we did before.

Project #1

First project up is the in-process blanket for the youngest of my sister’s boys, who is off to UCONN this year (Go Huskies!). I made blankets for the other two (Columbia University and University of St. Joseph) and they are all different.

So, UCONN of course meant a blue and white blanket. I decided to go with stripes and just plain old knitting every row to make it a nice and easy pandemic knitting project. Ten balls of yarn and I was ready to go.

Somehow I thought 280 stitches was a perfectly acceptable cast on number to make this blanket wide enough. Boy was I wrong. Turns out, it was a perfectly acceptable cast on number to make the blanket LONG enough. I cast on so many stitches that the blanket is 82 inches wide. Which means it is now a vertically striped blanket instead of a horizontally striped blanket. Doesn’t matter. I was wondering why it was taking so long to get the length I thought I would need. I was about to order many more yarn balls before I decided to measure it. It will still be nice and cozy and I’m sure he’ll love it.

It’s hard to tell here exactly how wide long it is in that picture because of ALL THE STITCHES scrunched up on the needle. When it is long wide enough and I can bind off, I’ll show another picture.

I was also hoping to have this done by the time E left for school, however because of the pandemic, he went two weeks early. I still have about 4-5 balls of yarn to go… just about two weeks worth of knitting (maaaaaybe?).

I’ve got a bunch of other stuff on the needles, but I’ll just show two finished projects for now.

Project #2

My Hattu socks by Nicolas Susen:

Made these during a mini Knit-A-Long (KAL) with some of my knitting peeps. Fun pattern, unusual construction.

Project #3

And my emPower People bandana by Casapinka:

From Casapinka’s Ravelry description (which you can read more of if you click on that link up there): “emPower people is a purple colored craftivism project aimed at uniting crafters to spark conversation, engagement, and action. Wear it when you vote, grocery shop, march, or knit in your socially isolated bedroom.”

Quick, easy pattern and I love it. I will be wearing it to vote. (VOTE!!)

The Non-Knitting…

Also, I’m drowning in a sea of pickles.

This is one third of my crop. Paul counted at least 21 baby pickles growing out there. The pickle plant story is one I will save for another time. (Yes, I know they are cucumber plants and not pickle plants. I don’t like cucumbers and neither does Paul. But, we like pickles, so these cucumbers will never be anything other than pickles.)

How are you surviving during the pandemic? Are YOU knitting?