No Foolin'

As the lockdown increases, and more people are voluntarily staying home for as long as possible, I've seen a lot of suggestions about how to "stay normal" such as continuing to follow a normal routine to get ready for work in the morning, if you now work at home:  shower, breakfast, dress, hair, makeup, jewelry, whatever.  My routine has been a bit less normal, as I have made pancakes or waffles more often than not, and my usual workday breakfast is cold cereal and yoghurt, maybe fruit, a granola bar.

Pumpkin pancakes with blackberries.

Wild blueberry waffle.

Yes, I am still eating at my laptop, but it's much nicer than I usually consume.  I am trying to make a point of not "going to work" until 8:00am unless I have an earlier meeting or a hard deadline, and this gives me a bit more time to cook breakfast instead of grab-and-go.

One sadness is that today I should have been on my way to Texas for DFW Fiber Fest's Quinceañera, but like so many things, it was cancelled.  

It's a huge amount of work to put on an event like this, and just as much to tie up all the loose ends from cancelling it.  One loose end was the vendors and their wares; many planned for DFW Fiber Fest to be a major part of their income.  And yet, wonderfully, many are contributing to DFW Fiber Fest (which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, if you'd like to contribute also) some portion of sales, either from their commemorative colourway or otherwise.

So of course, I took the money I didn't spend on airfare (well, I have a credit that I'll use for a future trip), hotel, and car rental, and put it to purchasing from the vendors:

A Thing for String's show colourway,
on two different bases.

Crafting My Chaos.  The two on the
left will get worked into one garment.

Fiber Seed.  Such bright yarns!

Fiberlady - they got their start at
DFW Fiber Fest #2, and this is their
fundraiser colourways, all three of them!

        

Forbidden Fiber Co.

The colours in their Pandemic Survival set.

   

Hill Country Weavers - commercial
yarns, but they give discounts to fiber
people in need.  I paid full price.

Lazy Cat - my favourite show colourways.

I loved Leading Men Yarns' tote.

Mahogany Sheep does pins, including
sheep doing yoga.  We need yoga.

Schmutzerella

The Sexy Knitter.  Socks plus ?????

   

WhimzeeStitches one-off colourway.

I also picked up a few patterns from some of the teachers.  So now I have decided that since I cannot go to DFW Fiber Fest this year, I'll wallow in it by wearing, for the next four days, one of the fiberstuffs-related T-shirts and leggings that I would have worn had I gone.  And I am putting aside other knitting to work on yarns from DFW Fiber Fests past and cancelled.

Speaking of putting aside my knitting, given that my March mini-Resolution was to make a baby blanket for friends, and then finish items for the Mittens for Akkol grads, how did I do?

Well, the baby blanket is partly done but not finished.  I was going to hand it off to friends to deliver, since baby and parents live overseas, but all that was upended in mid-March.  So I'll finish the blanket and send it when it's ready.  Maybe later this month.  Photos to follow.

The grad items are done and not-done.  On Leap Day I set the intention to make four items:  a sweater and coordinated scarf in red and yellow or gold; a purple scarf; and a blue-and-orange hat.  While updating my progress of the items on a Google-docs chart, I noticed a couple other items that needed makers and which would also use up stash: a hat to go with a dark pink sweater, and another to match a navy/colours set.  I had some yarn that I wanted to use up that fitted both of these, so I claimed those and made them and mailed four items:

I'd planned a different pattern for the orange-and-blue hat, but couldn't find it, started what you see, and by the time I found the pattern I was well into the first band of slip-stitch and the stitch count was too different to switch, so I stayed with what you see.  The scarf is a lot of Shaker rib stitch in different shades of purple (hard to see, but different) and the pink hat is a slip-stitch honeycomb with a solid single-ply over a handdyed.  The other hat was the last ball and a half of an Italian yarn that feels lovely soft, and I did a bit of rib patterning.

The sweater is close to being done: 

MarlyBird was doing a knit-along, and while I knew I didn't have time to work on the sweater then, I liked one of the patterns and decided to use it for this sweater.  It's zooming along although I have to pay attention to the patterning.  You use a slightly larger needle to help compensate for the drawing-in that often happens with colourwork like this.  I like that there will be very little sewing-together at the end, just some underarm grafting.

So, I'm calling it good enough.  I should be able to finish the sweater and scarf in April.

For my proper

Resolutions for April

I plan to finish one item FOR ME, and out of yarn from a DFW Fiber Fest vendor.  With luck, I'll finish more than one.  As you can see, just from this year's shopping I have an embarrassment of source material, so to speak.

And I need to make at least one shawl for my grandmother, so I can mail it in time for her to receive it for her birthday, which is at the beginning of May.  But that's not really a resolution since I'd do it anyway, provided I select among the yarns and patterns queued.

Still no progress on the books.  There's too much to read online, plus work was madly busy between having to assist customers whose businesses are heavily affected by COVID-19, and it being the end of our fiscal year, so my eyes usually had enough reading by end of day.

Instead, I've been indulging in all the cool stuff available online, from the Met Opera and Playbill's weekend free musicals, to The Globe Theatre and National Theatre in the UK.