It's been a while

I'm alive!  I survived Covid and have been back to work for several weeks now.  I still tire easily, I can't taste or smell anything, and thankfully my vision is better but still not 100%.  It's such a strange disease.  Three other people in the house hold got it but thankfully Sarah, who was playing nurse maid to me, did not.  She stayed healthy through it all.  Miracle of miracles because she can catch colds from comercials about cold medicines.  😛

Thankfully my too-tired-to-knit symptoms didn't last long and I was able to spend the last couple of days of quarantine knitting pretty much non-stop.  Non-stop except for those afternoon naps and early bedtimes I needed.

I started a beaded infinity scarf last month.  There's no pattern, I just cast on a whole bunch of stitches and started knitting.  I didn't even count the stitches, just cast on enough to bunch up on a 24 inch needle.  Figured it would be plenty.  Yes, I am definitely a lazy knitter.  I knit five or six rows then do a row of randomly placed beads.  I'm using Palette from Knit Picks.  If this turns out as well as I hope it will, I plan to knit several of them for my Etsy shop.  It would be a great way to use up some of the thousands of Palette skeins and beads I have.  

I finished the granny square afghan I've been working on for what feels like forever.  Remember  me talking about knitting market bags to sell?  That turned out to be a huge NO!  I did not enjoy knitting them and it took me forever to make one.  Probably because I didn't enjoy the knitting.  Anyway, I used all, well, almost all, the yarn I'd bought to make market bags to crochet the granny square blanket.  I started with two small squares sewn together so that it would make a rectangle but I should have started with three.  It still looks like a square when laid out on the bed.  But it's colorful and I used up a bunch of yarn so I'm happy.  

Despite my continual yarn purchases, my goal in life these days is to use up all my yarn.  Okay, not all.  That would never happen.  I couldn't use it all if I knit 24/7 for the next 25 years.  I guess the real goal is to use up a noticable amount.  To empty a few of the giant Rubbermaid containers my yarn is stored in.  Heck, I'd be happy if I just used up a few of the shoe box sized boxes of yarn.

And, despite covid brain fog, I designed a slip stitch hat pattern that I can not stop knitting.  I'm totally obsessed.  That's hat number five.  And, umm, there may be another giant box of yarn on it's way to me that will allow me to knit 42 more hats.  42!  I definitely have a problem!  I keep telling myself what I have is an Etsy shop, but truthfully, I think I probably just have a problem.  I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever receive the yarn though.  According to the tracking, my box has been sitting in a post office in New Jersey for over 10 days now.  The tracking did finally update last night to show it will be delivered later next week.  We'll see.

And, thankfully I was feeling better on July 4th.  It was my last day of quarantine and I sat far, far away from the rest of the family while they shot off fireworks.  I'm so happy Hayden loves fireworks and isn't afraid of them.  She also loves thunder storms.  Absolutely LOVES them!  Her eyes get huge when she sees the lightening and she thinks the thunder, even the sudden, loud cracking kind, is hillarious.  She just laughs and laughs.  

And that is pretty much a recap of my life for the last 22 days.

I hope you are all well and don't catch this new covid strain.  It seems to be insanely contagious.  

Stay healthy and keep knitting!

Ugh!

Sadly, not much knitting is happening here.  Covid caught up with me and between the INSANE exhaustion and the confusion/fuzzy headedness, knitting just isn't happening.  I tried to keep knitting the first day but I kept dozing off and then the stitches would fall off the needles. I wasn't making enough progress or enjoying the stitching enough to make it worth the effort so...

I pulled out a puzzle.  The puzzle seemed to help me focus a little bit better.  Focus is a huge problem at the moment.  Not only is my brain fuzzy and unfocused, I can't see properly.  Anyone else out there had problems with covid affecting their vision?  No matter how many times I clean my glasses or wipe/rub my eyes, I feel like I'm looking through a layer of Vaseline.  I can read large print books, but my phone, the computer and TV screens are blurry.  I can see the groundhog out in the yard 100+ yards away but I couldn't tell if it was a fly or a wasp in my room.  Normally it's the complete opposite.  It's very strange and I sure hope it's covid and not a new normal for my eyes.

Despite my new found blindness, I'm doing okay.  I don't feel great but there's no concern about needing a trip to the hospital.  I'm going to live through it.  Not sure what my mental state will be after five days of being shut in a room by myself but....  

I am very thankful that my husband was out of town when the symptoms started so I didn't have to worry about him.  The bedroom has it's own private bath and a huge closet full of my yarn, various craft supplies and of course, puzzles.  I have a TV in here as well as several full bookcases and a well stocked Kindle. We have a spare coffee pot so I set that up in here too.  And, Sarah has been great about bringing me food and drink... on paper plates so no one has to wash my dishes.  All in all, it's not a bad set-up.  A little lonely but I have everything I need and the family is safe from me.

And now, I think I'll go take another nap.