Week 7 of the Stay-At-Home order has come to a close. A couple days ago the governor announced it is being extended to May 29, Oh, let me be correct, the Stay-At-Home order is done. It is now a Stay Safe Stay Home order. Whatever they want to call it, we are still all stuck at home. Some businesses are allowed to open their doors a week from Monday, but many are still not. Those that are not are primarily the small businesses that are suffering the most: hair and nail salons, gyms, etc. My husband and I continue to work from home. His company is permitted to resume work from the office on Monday, but they have decided to wait until the end of the month before phasing back in. I contract for the state and it is obvious the governor is in no hurry to get the state staff back in the office.
I actually like working from home. I think I am more productive. I'm not interrupted by someone popping by my desk or distracted by random office chatter. The team I work on has demonstrated that we are more productive working remotely. I do miss seeing them, though. If restaurants open before we are permitted to go back in the office, I'm going to suggest we all meet up somewhere for lunch or an afternoon team meeting.
Well, I do occasionally have someone popping by my desk. But she tends to not stay long. She'll jump on the table, walk across my keyboard, demand a few scratches and wander away to take a nap in a chair. She leads a very difficult life.
Last weekend I was able to transplant some succulents I've had growing in the same pot. They are now separated and being monitored to see that they survived the ordeal.
I'm not too worried about this one. It grows like a weed. When it drops one of its leaves onto the soil, it roots and sends up another shoot.
This little guy and his brother were started by seed when Trisha was in kindergarten. They were among the many cacti in the pot and I think suffered the most from the overcrowding. Now that they are in their own pots I expect them to grow faster.
This is the one I am most concerned about. My parents gave me this cactus back in 1987. It was only about 1 1/2 inches back then. When I transplanted it I found out that all of its roots are on the one side. I couldn't get it centered in the pot and I don't have another pot large enough to accommodate it. I'm also worried that if I move it again it may be traumatized. I'll leave it go for this year and try to find a wider pot next year.
My Birds of a Feather is coming along. This picture was taken a few days ago. I am done with the first part where stitch count increases. There are 8 sections in the static part. I'm in the middle of 2 out of the 8.
I've mentioned before how I get easily enticed by knitting I see others do. A few weeks ago while watching a podcast I saw the City Limits sweater by Tanis Fiber Arts. I realized that I had enough stash yarn to make one for myself. After several stash dives, a few consultations with my knitting enabler and one small order to Miss Babs to round out the palette, I came up with this scheme.
Starting from the top, colors 1, 3, 4 and 5 are Miss Babs Tarte fingering. Color 2 was purchased last year at the Pittsburgh festival and was a special colorway for the event from an idie dyer. Color 6 is Fiber Optic Footnotes. After a few rounds of debate with the enabler, it came down either this scheme or one where the blue and green are swapped. I think I prefer the green next to black so I'm going with that. This will get cast on once I finish Birds or one of my other WIPs.
While searching for needles for City Limits, I came across a WIP I began two years ago on our trip to Iceland: Stonecrop Top. This project got relegated to the UFO bin because the yarn was not making me happy. It is a chain plied cotton-linen blend. It has a tendency to unravel, forcing me to cut the yarn and tie where it is good again. When I saw it in the basket I pulled it out and decided to give it another try. It is a good knitting project while on teleconference calls. I now have the back finished and am close to a quarter of the way through the front. My only fear is that I may not have enough yarn to finish. I see a serious game of yarn chicken coming my way.
Since being at home, I am getting more knitting time. I've decided to designate my projects either work knitting or home knitting. Work knitting are those projects that are primarily stockinette, like Stonecrop or the Discovery poncho. Home knitting are those that require a bit more of my attention.
At some point later this year, I'll report how many UFOs I finished and how much of my stash was used. 2020 is the 'make do' year. Sort of. Only because the fiber festivals have all be cancelled.
No comments:
Post a Comment