No Fooling

I very much intended to write a post yesternight, to have at least two per month, but March is the end of my company's fiscal year and I was flat-out to get a deal done - and then we had annual HR training to complete.  So I was trying to get that done by midnight as well, after an all-nighter on the deal.  At least in business, March was a lion all the way through.

April definitely is starting with showers, which are not as photogenic as snow, so you'll have to trust me for the weather report.  Farmstands and nurseries have flowers for sale, and I had some brave purple crocus on Tuesday, poking above the leaves and branches from last weekend's storms.

Last night was the monthly Cooking Club, and while I'd planned to bake something, I then remembered it's Passover plus the yearend madness, so I made Chili Colorado, called that because it is supposed to be red.  Mine came out more brown, because of the chilis I used.  They were from a friend who grows them and sent some dried ones a couple summers back that I hadn't completely used.  I nibbled one and it didn't seem very hot, so I threw in a handful of pieces that looked about correct.  I must have gotten a very cool corner to nibble.  Luckily I am a chili-head, but BOY!!  I am going to add some potatoes when I reheat the stew, to help mitigate the punch.  The meat is bison from a local farm, and while it was a bit annoyingly chewy when I took some out for the cooking club, the meat I left simmering in my slow cooker (handier for me than the recommended dutch oven, especially as I had only a pound of meat and so had to scale the recipe a bit) absolutely fell apart on the fork.  Definitely a winner, and I recommended that if you don't like heat, put in a spoonful of paprika instead, to get the flavour.

March Mini-Resolution Closing Report

Small progress made on the Omega Shawl, partly because it's in the loooooooong rows phase and it's difficult to notice progress.  I put a small safety pin every twenty rows (ten eyelets) on the leading border as a way to keep track.  No progress on any other UFO.  Some reading done, but no book completed.

I did finish the BLUE project for the KnitTalk Q1 Make-Along, and tomorrow I announce the theme of the Q2 Make-Along.  People are speculating like crazy.  Here's the finished hat:

I am going to donate it to Mittens for Akkol, and there's enough yarn left (Koigu Premium Merino, long in the stash) to make a pair of matching mittens, I think.  Those probably won't have the dots pattern because I don't feel like figuring it out to match the mitten stitch count.

I started a couple more hat-and-mitten sets for them as well.  Because of travel bans information about the grads was handled via email and phone, so we don't have their colour preferences and people who knit sweaters just assign them, then people can make accessories to match.  I had a couple of sweaters done "on spec" - really to try a top-down patternbook, which I can definitely recommend - so I assigned those to grads and looked for yarn to march others' sweaters.  This is giving me a chance to make something of very old New Zealand yarn (it was in my stash before I went there) so I am enjoying the feel of it even though I wouldn't wear the colour.

April Mini-Resolution

Now that the weather is a bit more reliably warm, I want to get out and do a long walk at least once a week.  I did manage to fit one in the weekend before last; last weekend I worked almost the whole time, and during the little gap I had the weather was not my idea of pleasant.  I'm not that dedicated.  It felt very good to get in the one long walk and I want to get back to those.

Since DFW Fiber Fest is again not occurring - it was one of the first events cancelled due to the pandemic last year - and usually occurs in late March or early April, I decided that this week I would knit something from yarn I purchased in their virtual vendor hall last year.  My social media feed has been full of pictures I took in past years of class projects, the yarnbombing, and my acquisitions in the vendor hall.  Of course I haven't had much time, even for a very simple item, but I started this:

Then I frogged and re-started because (1) the collar rolled and I needed to do it on much smaller needles, and (2) the circular needle's cord was very twisty and I was tired of fighting it.  A couple quick dunks in very hot water and holding it taut helped to relax it a bit.  I would like to finish this so I have it to wear next year, and hopefully this summer.  The colourway is Fiberlady's "Oh Happy Day", which was a special fundraiser for DFW Fiber Fest during the virtual vendor hall.  It seems so appropriate to work on right now.

Also to make progress on at least one of the official UFOs, although I suspect that the other items for Mittens for Akkol will take over the time, so I can get those done and shipped.

Spring has Sprung

 Today is the first day of spring, and the title of this post comes from a very silly poem:

Spring is sprung / the grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies is?

Silly and ungrammatical, but we take what we can get these days.

It's heartening to hear about so many more people I know getting vaccines.  Some I would have thought would be a higher priority due to pre-existing conditions or age are still waiting; some younger ones have gotten lucky by being available to take a dose when somebody didn't make their appointment and the location had extras that needed to be used.

Work is still grinding on, with long hours, and people have told me they appreciate it, but hey - it's my job.  I'm glad when I can get some time away from it, but this month there isn't much.  Unlike last year, I didn't have time to make special meals to recognize the holidays this week.  I did make Chicken Cacciatore today, mostly from watching my mother make it when I was a child, and remembering, and a quick look at what I hoped was a reasonably close recipe for reassurance that I was on the right track.

It was soooooo yummy.

Going into the end of the month and the huge work push that it will entail, I am trying to eat better than I might have under past times.  Of course, in past times I might have been onsite eating brought-in sandwiches and pizzas most of the time, with breakfast at the hotel buffet and supper might be nibbles from the happy hour or another brought-in meal as we worked into the night.  A good thing about being home is that I have a bit more control, although I am subsisting more on dried fruit and granola bars and nuts than perhaps I should being at home all the time.  Earlier this week I took the recipe I'd planned for St. Patrick's Day (chicken with a mustard-cider sauce) and turned it into a slow-cooked stew with the addition of potatoes and onions.  It was very, very good also.

A third portion of the package of chicken (from a local farm) was stuffed into a jar of leftover pickle brine and popped into the freezer.  I'll thaw and cook it towards the end of the month.  I've heard of brining chicken in pickle juice and I think it will be tasty.

Today I went to the local farmstand for their spring preview, and while they didn't have much other than plants, jarred things, chocolates, and fresh bread, I was able to buy some beautiful eggs from their chickens:

I almost hate to eat them.

But I shall.

One Year

Of course the news and our social media feeds have been full of the beginning of the lockdowns, or the last events we attended before the world shut down.  Quite a bit of "we thought we'd be closed for two weeks", or a month.  People being sad at the reminder of how long we've had to be inside, away from loved ones, missing occasions and each other.

It's overwhelming.  I don't want to say too much, because I don't have words that won't sound exactly like everybody else.

One year.  Over 540,000 dead in the USA alone.  No telling how many people who caught the virus and survived will never be the same in terms of health and ability.

Over one year since I have seen any family, other than two Zoom calls.  I can count on one hand the number of friends I have seen in person in that time, all at the proper social distance with a mask in place.

One year.

Midmonth Mini-Resolutions Update

As you may suspect with my comments about work, I haven't made much progress on UFOs and most days I am too tired to read, or I read at most a small page.  I needed some less-focused needlework so did a plain hat from some handspun I'd been given, and now I am well through another mostly-plain (one cable) hat.  I have made progress on the KnitTalk challenge BLUE item, and will have a photo before the end of the month.  Maybe I'll get back to the Magical Miniskeins sock by then also.

The longest short month

This February has certainly seemed that way.  It's been almost a year since I traveled - the last trip I went on included the North Texas Irish Festival, which will be virtual next weekend.  I remember my mother being worried and I joked that Chinese people didn't tend to come to Irish music festivals.  One woman at the festival wore a mask with "ALLERGIES" written across it, but most of us didn't wear masks.  We did avoid getting too close, although I didn't resist a hug from a friend of mine who came to the festival using a free ticket I had and enjoyed himself immensely.  The festival is dog-friendly and he has a friendly dog, and we were planning to repeat this year.  Well, we'll do it next year.

Work is incredibly busy.  I had a 16:45 hour day last week, according to my work tracker.  It involved some midnight work with people in China and Japan, including my having to fill out a form that was mostly in Japanese.  I was pleased that I made only one mistake, which they corrected on the other end.  I've worked part of each weekend day this weekend, and last one, and it's likely to continue through March.  My boss approved for me to take time off in April.  I haven't had a vacation since April 2019; last year's was cancelled due to the pandemic, and I didn't do a staycation.  I can think of only one day I've taken that wasn't a national holiday, and I've worked on some of those as well.  I guess I'm a workaholic, but between the weather and the pandemic, I don't have much else to do.

Except cleaning and sorting stuff, recycling, donating to the thrift store, etc.  According to my records, I donated 836 items to the thrift store this month.  They ranged from small items such as a card of buttons to large ones such as the carryon that had seen quite a few flights and road miles before travel stopped.  Books, clothing, housewares I wasn't using, or which I hadn't taken out of their packages.  And so on.  I'm not a hoarder, not the kind you see on television or read about, but I am definitely acquisitive.  Now that I've been around my stuff so much, it's clear what I really need, what I want, and what has no further purpose, at least not for me.

If I'd been doing the Minimalism Game I would have donated 406 items, so I am well ahead.  Yes, it's really a thirty-day challenge and February has only twenty-eight days, but if you add the additional 59 items it's 465, well under the 836 I donated.  I call it good.

I do find items that I'd forgotten, such as this guy:

  

Many years ago the Yarn Harlot wrote about learning to make a monkey out of leftover sock yarn at a retreat.  I thought it looked cute and based upon the photos, made one.  I showed it to her at an event and she was very dismissive.  He does look a little crazed, due to the yarn and my embroider-on-knitting skills.  He's still cute.

I missed the monthly cooking club, also due to work running over, but I emailed a photo of my meal:

The assignment was to cook something from the Pioneer Woman's blog and I chose the Crash Potatoes because I could do them with things I had already.  I changed from cheese on top to slices of lemon, which I needed to use up and I thought it went better with the glazed delicata squash and eggs.  Not a food-blogger-pretty plate of food, but it was very tasty.

Overall, it feels like an incredibly long time, and it's hard to believe that February is the shortest month.  Maybe because work has been so overwhelming, or because I was able to do two trips to the thrift store, or just because the days blur because I am not traveling or even going to local events.  Some cinemas are open, with limited attendance, but I haven't felt like going.  There aren't concerts or other performances in person, not to speak of, and there's still too much snow for me to get in a walk.  The rare time I have the opportunity during daylight it's too cold, or raining.  Yes, tons of excuses.

It's also been over a year since I've seen any of my family, except for a couple of Zoom calls.  I speak to them, and email, but it's not the same.  I haven't seen a lot of my friends in at least that long, except for the ones I saw at NTIF last year.  We keep up via email and social media and a very rare Zoom call, but again - not the same.  I really miss seeing people for more than a distant front-stoop chat, or the routine of post office and weekly CSA or farmstand shopping, or the less frequent food delivery.  It will be nice to sit across a table with somebody and share a meal.  It will be fantastic to hug my family again.

Mini-Resolutions Status

I finally started the second sock, although I haven't gotten far.  I'm well on the way with the BLUE hat for my KnitTalk Make-Along challenge:

The multi has some blue in it that may be too close to the solid, but from a distance it looks better than it does when I am knitting.  I didn't do the deep ribbing the pattern has so I am leaving off one of the rounds of the full-sized dots to compensate.

I haven't finished any of my UFOs, nor a single book.  I am behind on the reading, as I would have to finish an average of one book every two months.  Maybe I need to choose a different book.

More things upended.

 Due to COVID-19, Mardi Gras today was mostly cancelled in favor of safer experiences such as "Yardi Gras".  A colleague of mine who lives in N'Awlins told me this morning that it's one of the coldest Mardi Gras on record there, so he doesn't mind that everybody is supposed to stay indoors.

I added this as my Teams meeting background today.

Here are some shots of the snow that fell at the beginning of the month, after I delivered the social justice committee donations:

  

  

The total in my area was about 8-10", but we'd had some a few days before and then we got more a few days later.  I uploaded one as my new TEAMS background:

In better weather I might eat lunch out there, but not these days.

Midmonth Mini-Resolution Update

No progress to report.  Still reading.  Work is stressy so I've switched to simpler things, such as a garter stitch scarf of  Red Heart Super Saver in "Americana", which I will donate to the Knit Your Bit project at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.  They are receiving packages again.

I took a load of things to the thrift store on Saturday.  It's good to be back to sorting and clearing out things.  I found a bunch of unusual knitting needles and crochet hooks and posted them to eBay, and they are selling.  Not for what I paid, but it's a little money in which isn't a bad exchange.  Similar to putting them out at a yard sale.  For specialty items I like to do eBay because they have a better chance of going to somebody who really wants and will use it.  I did the same with trims I'd gotten long ago for SCA garb, and some stationery and such.  Those sold also.

In past Februarys I've played the Minimalism Game, where you try to get rid of one thing on the first, two on the second, and so forth.  I forgot about it this year, but I seem to be doing quite well anyway.  Maybe I'll report at monthend on what I've donated, recycled, etc.

Donations before the storm

My congregation's social justice committee decided to collect items for the South Park Inn and worked with Hands on Hartford for some programming.  This gave me incentive to finish a few items.  These hats were made from Red Heart's Heat Wave yarn, which is a manmade fiber that absorbs heat from sunlight or other UV light.  I picked three colours that I thought look happy together.  The first hat I made is the V-stitch one, and then I decided to try the Ugly Christmas Sweater Beanie.  It was more fun than I thought it would be to make.  These photos show the colours fairly reaslistically:

I had enough yarn left over to do a second hat, for which I reversed the Blue Skies and Beach Ball, leaving Radio in the same position.  Unfortunately, the light was different enough when I photographed the two together, so the colours look very different:

In addition to the hats, I had ten scarves I'd made and was waiting to donate someplace (often I would take them when I went on trips back to North Texas, sending them to the Samaritan Inn, but of course I haven't been there since last March).  I'd forgotten about some of these:

They also collected toiletries, so I gave them all the little things I'd collected over my travels in 2019 and early 2020, plus some bars of soap because when I organized the bathroom cabinets I discovered how much I've acquired.  Well, I love pretty soaps, and certain scents, and I tended to stock up, but with all the travel wasn't home to use it.  In the last year I've made definite inroads to my collection, but there's more than enough to keep me clean for quite some time.

The elder daughter of the social justice committee's leader hosted an educational program on Martin Luther King Day weekend, when our congregation does service activities, showing us how to arm-knit scarves and blankets, and how to make blankets of fleece.  I still had some fleece blanket kits from when I made them for a dialysis center (donations suspended due to the pandemic) so I made two of them.  Forgot to take a photo!

I packed everything up and dropped four large bags at their home, because the leader was willing to make a collection and drop them at South Park Inn.  We're supposed to get a big snowstorm this weekend and I wanted to be sure she has them; awaiting confirmation.

Mini-Resolution Update

I've knit a bit more on the Omega shawl but otherwise am not making much progress.  I still haven't made 7/7 on my tracker, in part thanks to work (when you have to stay up until midnight work work with somebody in Japan, it's hard to get the required hours of sleep) and in part just because.  But I have a year to do it, so I'm not yet discouraged.

I noticed that I am completing every month on Microsoft Games Solitaire, something I rarely did.  I realize that it's because I am home, because you have to finish all the days by the last day of the month, and while you can do catch-ups for missed days, it's the last day that I was often away.  Now I've been home and am racking up month after month of completion.  It feels good - and weird.

Challenge Issued

As last year wound and we continued to be in various degrees of isolation, a number of knitters and crocheters I know got into make-alongs, where a designer issued a pattern and people did it and reported progress.  Sometimes you could get a prize for completing, other times it was just the finished item.  Most of the time these are mysteries, where you work a step and then another and at the end hopefully have a finished object that looks as it should.  I don't like those because I worry that I will put much time into something that isn't to my liking.  Also, the immediate time commitment can be pretty daunting, and not always possible depending upon what work requires.

They do seem to be a way for people to strengthen a community, so with the isolation requirements stretching into this year I thought of trying a make-along for a (mostly) knitting group I founded online in 2005.  Given how I feel about make-alongs, what would I do?  Not everybody wants a shawl, or socks, and I didn't want to design a pattern that would intimidate people or have "I don't like that style" responses.

And given how the year is likely to go, I wanted to develop a series of make-alongs that people could do, but without requiring one in case somebody joined the group later or didn't have time for one, or was on medical time-out, or any other reason.

So today I announced the first make-along for 2021, with the theme of 

Make Something Using The Colour BLUE.

And that was it.

No restrictions on shade, except that it has to be clearly BLUE.  No restrictions on design, except that the BLUE must be evident and not just a row or a few stitches or a button added.  Something new, something in progress, doesn't matter as long as it contains BLUE.

None of my in-progress items contains a clear blue; the "We Knit In Texas Y'All" vest contains grey-blue but I want to use something definite.  So I cast on the Dots hat from Berroco using these supplies:

I've had the KFI yarns in my stash for a long time.  It's thinner than the yarn the pattern calls for, but I knit a bit loosely when in the round so hopefully it will be fine.  If not, I'll frog and try something else.  Not as if I am lacking for yarn.

Midmonth Resolution Report 

I've done some reading but not finished a book.  I have worked on the "Omega" shawl, spending two days untangling the current ball of yarn as it collapsed badly near the end.  I've work in the remainder and am now on the second ball of yarn and somewhere around Row 50 of the seventy-six or so rows of the last plain (mostly stockinette, only the single increase at each edge) section.  I may make it slightly longer before I do the border.

A personal resolution I didn't mention was to achieve 7/7 for my tracker: one week (which starts on Monday) of at least 6h30m of sleep each night; getting at least 250 steps each of the nine assigned hours (during workday, which can be more difficult); achieving my minimum exercise minutes; and if possible meeting the new metric of "mindfulness".  Last year I had exactly ONE week where I met the three metrics that existed:  Sleep, steps per hour, and minutes of exercise per day.  Often I miss out on sleep or steps, especially when I have a lot of cameras-up meetings - or in the before times, when we were doing in-person meetings.

This week I was 7/7 on the first three and 4/7 (but I am assigned for only three days, so in a way it was 4/3) for the mindfulness.  Next goal will be to get 7/7 on all four metrics.

Not that I want this blog to be political, but.....

It's a rough time for many of us, not just in the USA, but since I live here, it's what I know about the most.  The abovementioned online group has people in other countries which are also going through elections and other political activity, on top of the pandemic.  We have people who work in the USA government who are having a lot of distress right now.  And since the group is not limited in the type of persons allowed, we have differing political opinions.

I had to ask people to back off a bit after the events of January 6th, which got some upset, and one demanded that I remove her.  I said that I don't remove people but she could leave if wanted, and in the end, she didn't.

Another person did leave.  Somebody posted about the "Inauguration Celebration" shawl pattern, and this person responded only "Why would any thinking person celebrate the inauguration?", without signing the message.  While not forbidden, I ask that people include knitting or other fiber-working content in their messages (so, a shawl pattern is fine, a response to it might not be) and to sign their messages.  I politely asked the person to send her message directly to the person to whose message she was responding, or to repost it with some knitting content ("OKC" = obligatory knitting content) and her name.

No, instead the person left.  I'm a bit offended as I wasn't telling her that she couldn't voice her opinion on the list, just asking her to follow some simple rules about posting.  I have friends all over the political spectrum, some of whom believe that the certified results of the USA's November 2020 election are not accurate, and some who believe that the president-elect isn't going to do enough for the country.

As for me, I will do what I can, where I can.  I'll get the vaccine when they finally get to my group.  This weekend, I am participating in some Day of Service activities in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  So I think I'll end with a quote of his:

And given that this week's parsha or Bible passage for my religion is Vayera, this seems appropriate as well:

Looking at the year ahead.

 "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." 

 ~ Lou Holtz

That seems an excellent motto with which to start a new year.  Also, this contemplation:

So many people make resolutions, or set intentions, this time of year.  I've found it much easier to do a month at a time, but here are some goals for me this year:

Read (or finish) six (or more) books. 

Complete three specific UFOs:

    

Make a cardigan I've been thinking about for some time.

Make another cheese soufflé.

Given how this past year went, I think any more definite or additional plans are frivolous. 

 

While I don't generally wear my religion on my sleeve, this resonates with me:

A New Year's Prayer by Rabbi Naomi Levy

I'm good at making resolutions, God.
But I'm not very good at keeping them.
There are so many goals I'd like to achieve, so many changes I'd like to make.

I pray to You, God, for strength. I want to live a meaningful life, God.
I want to comprehend my true promise.
I want to understand why You have put me here.

Help me to see, God. Show me the person I have the potential to become.
Let me find my passion, God.
Teach me to resist temptation, to conquer self-destructive habits, to overcome selfishness and pettiness.
Give me the humility and the courage to repair relationships that pride has destroyed. Show me how I can bring hope and healing in this world.

Let this be a good year, God.
A year of health, a year of blessing, a year of love, a year of peace.
Amen.