Friday, March 27, 2020

flowers and flurries

Well, a lot has changed around here in the last couple weeks. As I was writing my last post, my concern was growing about the new coronavirus. The next day, Dan got an email recommending he work from home. Fortunately, that allowed us to pull Mae out of day care, since she is usually the patient zero of most illnesses in our household. But it also meant Dan was pulling double duty, working and parenting, while I went to my job which can’t be done remotely. I started feeling sick over the weekend (not coronavirus) and tested positive for strep on Wednesday, which allowed me a little break from the office. My anxiety about leaving the house was increasing by the hour. By Sunday, lots of businesses were closed including bars and restaurants. Mae’s swim lessons were cancelled, which I both expected and agreed with but still had a good cry about. (She was excited about them and so proud of her progress in just 2 lessons!). I started picking up another assignment that can be worked remotely and tried to limit my time in the office. Last Friday I found out that someone in the building had tested positive, and I told my boss I’m just not comfortable being in the office any more. There’s so little data on how this virus affects pregnant women and babies, that I want to be as cautious as I can. Since then I’ve been trying my best to work from home on the new assignment, while battling computer issues and juggling work and parenting. We are getting by with homemade worksheets, Cosmic Kids yoga, the Cincinnati Zoo’s home safari, lunchtime doodles with Mo Willems, and FaceTime with grandparents.



Fortunately, we’ve had a few beautiful spring days mixed in with the drizzly ones. At least when we can get outside a couple times a day, the isolation and anxiety seems a bit more manageable. Wednesday afternoon, we walked to the park for a little creek stomping. It was crowded, but we did our best to maintain social distancing. It’s a hard concept to explain to a toddler... why we can’t go to day care or swim lessons or the playground. She knows people are sick, and we are keeping distance so no one else gets sick. But she doesn’t understand why we can’t visit friends across the street when we are both apparently healthy.




The cherry trees were almost in peak bloom, so I had to take a few photos.




Lastly, just wanted to share this snowy photo I discovered while reviewing my park photos. This is from February when mom visited while Dan went to the Oscar movie marathon. I feel a little cheated on snow this year (no sledding!), so I’m glad we got to at least build a small snowman. Also, you can see a sneak peek at new landscaping (or rather, the lack of old, overgrown landscaping). Excited to see how all the plants come in as the weather warms up now! Stay home, stay healthy.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

jednorozec

When Dan traveled to Poland for work last year, I sent him on a side mission to bring home some unique souvenirs. He dutifully returned with some little Play-Doh toys and a Polish children's book for Mae... and two different colorways of this Woolly and Warmy Papatya Batik yarn for me!

I decided these yarns would make for cute knit animals. The first yarn colorway shifts from white and gray to purple and blue, perfect for a little knit unicorn. I split and rejoined the yarn multiple times to organize the colors the way I wanted: body in mostly white and gray with the hooves, horn, mane, and tail in purple and blue.


While this wasn't a quick knit (toys are surprisingly time-consuming because of all their little bits and pieces), it was a fun and rewarding project. The pattern was very well-written, so I made no modifications. I made one error with placement of the head decreases (just me being spacey), which was easily remedied by re-knitting the face portion. The plastic safety eyes are from Joann. I love the personality that big plastic eyes add to soft toys!


I still have the other colorway, which shifts from magenta and gold to pink and white. I think it will make a lovely knit octopus someday, but I'm currently knee-deep in projects for Mae's bedroom and the baby's nursery!

Project details on my Ravelry page.


(Oh, by the way, jednorożec is the Polish word for unicorn. And yes, I had to google how to make that little dot show up on top of the z.)

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

breathing space sweater


Usually, I start my knitting projects by sifting through patterns and then hunting down the perfect yarn for my project. So, it’s a fun challenge when I am gifted a beautiful skein of yarn and have to find a pattern to showcase it!

The speckled yarn I used for this project is Lolodidit Loriginal sock from the Harry Potter-inspired collection in the colorway “Florean Fortescue,” which I got for Christmas last year from Kathy. I could have made socks, but I really wanted to show off these beautiful teals, greens, and little purple speckles! I paired it with Frabjous Fibers Cheshire Cat yarn in the colorway Too Much Pepper, which is a slightly variegated dark gray. My row gauge was off, so I knit extra stripes before splitting the body and arms. I used German short rows instead of wrap & turn, which worked nicely in both the yolk and body.


I love the fit of this sweater. It has “breathing space” without being baggy. The diagonal stripes and asymmetric hem are juuust hiding my baby bump in this photo that was taken back in January. I’m quite a bit bigger now! I finished knitting this in September, and I’ve had a few chances to wear it before my belly outgrew it! Looking forward to putting it on next winter!


Project details on my Ravelry page.