And then my arm fell off

So, remember the needlepoint I just finished and how I was excited about how quickly the project had gone so I was going to start another?  Remember how I'd said my arm was so sore from the repetitive motion of pulling the tread through the mesh?  Apparently, I did not remember that until I started the newest one.  It didn't take long to remind myself.  Ouch.  

So I decided to focus on knitting instead.  

But it's too hot to knit.  And since I'm spending most of my time outside on the deck because there's no TV or internet... and it's been 95 degrees and crazy humid.... It's just too hot to knit.

So what do you do when it's too hot to knit and your arm feels like you've had six flu shots in one day?

You begin a giant, single granny square, stash busting blanket.  Of course you do!

Although I had to resort to Google's help to remind myself how to start a granny square, the project was going well.  It was going well until I remembered that I'd stopped crocheting years and years ago because it irritates my carpal tunel so badly.  A few stitches and I can't even pick up a pencil for a week.

In other words, it was going well until my arm fell off.

Rambling

I hope everyone had the best possible Mother's Day that they could have this crazy year.  I know it was pretty disappointing for many.  Mine was disappointing but it could have been much, much worse.  We had big plans this year because for the past eight Mother's Days, I was at work and didn't have a celebration.  No work for me this year!  But, at the last moment, my husband ended up working.  And his coworker's wife was hospitalized with covid-19 symptoms (thankfully her test came back negative and she just has 'regular' illness.)  And the MIL was taken out gallivanting around the state a few days before. Between the chance of the MIL being infected while she was out and not knowing what the status of the co-worker's wife was, and having a preemie newborn (seems like Hayden has been with us for ages but she's still considered a newborn) my son couldn't attend.  And I certainly understand that decision.  Don't mean to sound like I'm guilting him here.  I'm really not.

So our party was shrinking.

And then for reasons unknown, I had an allergic reaction to my towel when I stepped out of the shower and dried my face off Sunday morning.  In less than 30 seconds my face began to burn and itch and sting and it turned all red and got all....  well, it looked like I had 100's of zits popping up.  Not fully up, but coming.  You know the type.  The type you'd get when you were 16 or 17 and had a hot date for prom and you'd wake up with a red spot on your chin or the end of your nose.  And it burned!  And felt like 1,000's of bees were stinging me.  It was horrible.

So I called off the Mother's Day celebration completely and hid in my room.  Alone, with just my knitting and Kindle for company.  Honestly, it wasn't a bad way to spend the day.  Instead of having the BBQ my brother-in-law was going to bring, I ate a bag of chips for lunch.  A giant bag.  No fear of starvation here!  And my husband brought fried chicken home for dinner.  And my daughter made a cheesecake.

The cheesecake was delicious and frankly, I'm okay with skipping the Mother's Day thing this year.  It meant more cheesecake for me!

Rambling Rows Afghan

And what did I knit while hiding in my room?  Rambling Rows.  I can't stop knitting on this thing!  Before casting on, I'd set a self-imposed schedule of knitting five blocks a month.  It's only been 14 days and I'm already on block 15.  I am way ahead of schedule.  I don't get to say that very often!

Knitting Polygamy

It's hard to make much visual progress when you practice knitting polygamy.

Cabled brimmed Hat

The new design for a cable brimmed hat is coming along, albeit slowly.  The cabled band has been knit, stitches have been picked up and I'm working on the crown.

Hitchhiker

The green, Stroll Tweed watch cap is another inch or so of ribbing further along and the Hitchhiker has 16 teeth and two not very noticeable errors.  One error is extremely minor - one tooth has an extra garter rib in it.  The other error is only noticeable when the teeth lay pointed to the left.  For reasons unknown, I switched from garter stitch to stockinette stitch for about 15 stitches in the center of a row, way back near the beginning.  As long as the teeth point to the right, you can't see the mistake at all and I'm okay with that.

And the mitered square afghan has quite a few more squares now.

Mentally, I'm struggling with having all these projects going at once.  Normally, I prefer to have only a Current Project and a simple, Stockinette in the Round project on the needles at one time.  I like to keep a simple stockinette project handy to work on while reading or in-the-dark movie watching, while the Current Project is the 'real' thing I'm knitting at the moment.  Last week's blizzard caused a bit of cabin fever, I'm afraid, and the result was a few too many projects going at once.  And now, I'm caught in that 'I can't decide which to work on' trap.  I'd like to finish the hats so I can list them in my Etsy shop, I want the Hitchhiker done so that I can wear it this season, and I want to work on the mitered squares afghan because it's fun, colorful and I'm using up scraps.  The result of that indecision is that I've been logging way more time playing computer solitaire than I have been knitting.

Ugh!  Knitting Polygamy.  It's a knitter's worst nightmare.

Music week - songs to boost your mood

Have you noticed that most of my posts lately have been super short?  It's not my normal style but I've returned to work at the local theme park for the summer.  I count the money.  And since I love to count money but have none of my own,  it's the perfect job for me.  But the hours are long and it doesn't leave me a lot of time for blogging or knitting.  Thus, all the short, not necessarily knitting related posts.

So, this week, since I'm starting to feel the affects of working every day for someone other than myself, I thought I'd post a link to one of my favorite mood boosting songs each day.  No matter how tired, angry or depressed I may be, the songs I'll be linking to always energize me & make me feel better about life.

Today's song, What I Like About You by The Romantics.  There's just no way I can sit still when this song comes on.  Enjoy!

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

That rascally groundhog lied.  Phil promised an early spring.  Instead, we have this:

For the 4th or 5th time since he made his early spring prediction, we found ourselves driving to a bowling tournament in the snow yesterday.  Today, the snow continues.

Despite the weather, it’s been a busy week with lots of little accomplishments or experiences.  First & most exciting, I went to bread baking class last week.  For the life of me, I can not bake bread.  I end up with cinderblocks every single time.  Even with the bread machine, if I take the dough out & make rolls, I end up with hockey puck shaped cinderblocks.  My lack of ability makes me absolutely crazy.  So, I turned to a professional.

First, she taught me how to make & knead the dough.

Second, she was great about not making me wait for it to cool completely before cutting into a loaf.  Yum!

I haven’t had the opportunity to try making bread all by myself in my own kitchen yet, but I’m looking forward to the chance.  Maybe tomorrow if things go well.  

I finally blocked the Pond Water shawlette that I mentioned here.

A close up:

I absolutely love how it turned out and am going to have a hard time listing it for sale in my shop  but I promised myself I would, so....  If the sun ever shines again, I’ll get it properly photographed & listed.

Meanwhile, my fish tank of little, tiny balls of scrap yarn reached the over-flow stage so I started another mitered square afghan.  I really do love making them.  Even the ones knit in all garter never get boring because of the constant color changes, plus, I feel very self important by being all green & frugal while using up scrap yarn.

I had hoped to be a lot further along with it by now, but I found myself in the driver’s seat all weekend instead in the knitting seat.  Normally, my husband & I take turns driving my son to the bowling alley (he bowls Friday, Saturday & Sundays.)  But this weekend, my husband got called away for work.  It wasn’t even the good kind of called away where I get a few days vacation from cooking (the kids would just as well rather eat sandwiches or frozen pizza than a real meal.)  Instead, he got the call around 11 p.m. on Thursday that he needed to go to NY on Friday.  He left Virginia mid day on Friday, drove to upstate NY, did the requested repairs on Saturday morning, & drove home that evening.  By 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, he was home & wanting to know if there were any dinner left overs.  Argh!  I am glad he got home before the most recent snow storm hit though.  But the point of this was, I ended up having to drive to the bowling alley each day.   And to make life even more fun & less knitty, my son was bowling in Richmond while my daughter had places to be in Fredericksburg, 60 miles in the opposite direction, each day.  Basically, all I did all weekend was drive up & down 95.  And for once, I didn’t even hit any horrible traffic jams where I could pull out the knitting & get a few rows in before traffic moved again. 

But, if I stop rambling & wrap this post up, I can go knit for an hour or so.  

So......