How you doing?

So, how are you doing?  I've got to admit, this whole COVID-19 thing is starting to get to me.  As introverted as I am, thirteen days without a break from my family duties or a visit with a friendly face is pushing my limits.  

The news just continues to get worse.  As of yesterday, my state has 254 cases and seven deaths.  The Governor closed certain businesses, one being my son's (so the new dad is now out of work for a minimum of 30 days,) and the public schools will be closed for the remainder of the school year.  I'm not even embarrassed to admit that I shed a tear when I received back to back emails saying that (1) my LYS is basically shutting down and will only be open by appointment only and (2) Knit Picks, my favorite online yarn dealer, will no longer be shipping orders as of last night.

The reality is, I have enough yarn stashed (and maybe an order or two out there on a truck somewhere) that at least three of you could come over and all four of us could knit 24/7 for the rest of our lives and probably not use up all the yarn.  But that's not the point.  The point is, I no longer have a yarn on demand source.  No internet, no meat, no paper towels (we did find toilet paper!) and now no yarn.  I think I'm gonna die!

As for the toilet paper situation, we scored a pack!  Actually, my daughter did.  She was on spring break and drove 132 miles to visit a friend who now lives in an even more remote location than us.  While visiting, they went to the grocery store and, yowza!  Toilet paper!!  Twelve whole rolls worth!  It's party time over here now!

So, in an attempt not to commit harakiri out of boredom/stress/loneliness/too much family time, I've of course been knitting.

Wave Ragland Sweater

I finished the Cascade 220 Wave top-down ragland sweater.  It's a pretty big sweater and start to finish, it took me 20 days.

Colorburst Ragland Sweater

Next, a miniature top-down ragland for Hayden to wear in a few years.  Per the calendar, that one took me four days but in reality, it was two days and about three hours.

Petal Hitchhiker

And yesterday I started another Hitchhiker.  I'm a bad Grandma!  I'd bought this Special Reserve Stroll Gradient Tweed from Knit Picks with the intention of knitting Hayden a little dress but....  I'm not normally a big fan of pink but this is really more of a coral and faded bricks color. Knit Picks calls it Petal.  Whatever color you call it, I love it! 

Oh, we did have a bit of excitement today.  I think I've mentioned before that our house is beside the railroad tracks.  Well, the railroad folk have been repairing the tracks and replacing the ties.

They had a huge, giant pile of the old ties stacked up.  And for the past few days, tractor trailers have been driving down our road, picking up loads of them to carry away.

Our road is pretty narrow with our yard and mailbox on one side and the swamp on the other.  Well, today, the railroad people didn't time things too well and two tractor trailers had to pass each other.  It was quite exciting watching them try not to damage our yard or drive into the swamp.  Of course, I didn't think to take a photo until the excitement was over.

Well, that's all the news I have.  I'm going to try to keep to my normal blog posting routine but if things get spotty here, it's due to the lack of internet.  We have a couple of jetpacks that we use for email and light duty internet but for the bigger stuff, or anything that streams, we've always gone to the library or Dunkin Donuts to use their free wifi.  But now with everything closed....  We managed to use a whole month's worth of data on one of the packs in less than three days so....  Things may get pretty hairy around here.  

So... In the infamous words of Elizabeth Zimmerman, "Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises."