Korora Knits

Beloved and I got vaccinated on our wedding anniversary. The people vaccinating us thought it was very funny. We were just thrilled to get access to a vaccine and feel like we would be protected soon. We had takeaway pizza for dinner and our second anniversary meal with Nutmeg who was quite put out that she never got to go with us to previous anniversary meals. My anniversary goal for next year is to get to a nice restaurant and wear a dress. Probably not heels though. I think COVID has killed any desire for me to wear heels ever again. Meanwhile our tardy tree decided to finally blossom and go all out this year with big fat pink blossoms. We had two weeks of blossom before they fell off, which is amazing!

How’s the knitting?

I’m still working on the Rheinlust shawl. This has been a great project and I expect to finish it soon. I’m on the decreases and so can see the finish line with every row. Once blocked, this shawl is going to be amazing. I’ll make sure to post photos of pre and post block to show the difference.

Meanwhile the fireweed socks that I moaned and got all caught up on have done really well on downloads across various platforms. I’m very chuffed. On Ravelry I’ve seen a couple of pictures of the socks being made and they are picking some fabulous wool and making so gorgeous socks!

Pattern releases

The next pattern release, sometime in May is going to be the Bad Hair Day hat. This is a Fair Isle hat using two colours only. I’m still working through the crown. I can’t decide between a slouchy hat or a more fitted beanie. Maybe give an option for both?

It’s been a lovely week of daffodils and springtime and hope. Our public health officer is letting groups of up to 10 (has to be the same people each time) gather on back decks and in parks. My Mum had her first shot moved up and got her first dose yesterday. Our vaccination schedule is moving a little faster than anticipated. All in all a time of great hope and excitement. The fly in the ointment is the clocks going back. But for once it has lined up beautifully and it is spring break so we didn’t have to get up at truly unpleasant o’clock.

Today’s spring break activity is creating stories based on the vast Lego Hogwarts that was been built over the Winter on a table downstairs. Nutmeg and her friend are hard at work spinning tales of magic and mystery while the two cats look on bemused. There will be french toast and raspberries for lunch and it will be a good day.

Knitting wise I’m expecting to finish the fireweed sock today or tomorrow and publish the pattern by the end of the week. Then it’s on to the Bad Hair Day Hat and Mme Vastra’s gloves. Then two more socks and a wrap. The big project coming up for publication later in the year (September/October) is a Minoan inspired sweater. But March is a month of taxes and being buried in work from my other life and sometimes I want to do a pattern that I don’t have to work out and write and plan. The pattern that I’ll be starting for March and posting updates on as I work through it is the Rheinlust shawl by Melanie Berg. I’m doing it in a lovely colourway from Songbird fibres called European Starling. This one is going to be exciting!

I’ve had no time to knit and I hate it. It affects everything.

I put on tomato soup in our instant pot for dinner and was making a much bigger batch than I’d ever made before. Somehow I set the delayed start but thought it was actually going to take 6 hours to cook! Mad panic while I searched around for another meal to make. Finished that, realised the mistake and made tomato soup as well. Utterly exhausted from it. No time for knitting.

Boxes of client paperwork, confusion over allocations of expenses and trying to get people up to date for tax filings. A day of zoom meetings. Exhausted. Collapse into a bath and then bed. No time for knitting.

Wake up this morning, appalling headache right behind my right eye. Drugs, back to bed, get to a place where I can function. I still have lots of paperwork.

Will there be time for knitting?

There needs to be. I need to read books and I need to knit for my own well being. It is the cheapest most enjoyable form of therapy for me. Not just the designing a pattern or poring over websites and books looking at other people’s patterns and finished works. The physical act of knitting, of moving my hands, of feeling yarn move through my fingers and watching something come together is incredibly rewarding. Like reading where I am escaping into another world in a book, I find knitting restorative. So even if I can’t get a good long stretch of an hour or three in, I need to knit for twenty minutes (a meditation time) just to maintain.

I’m sure other people have this problem too. No time for knitting, especially if it is complex lace repeats where one repeat might take an hour to do. Or a large jumper where you aren’t really moving forward on and don’t want to stop at a funny point.

Even worse are the smaller projects. I think of socks in sections and can’t put them down until a section is finished – top, leg, heel, foot, toe. Most of which are going to take more that twenty minutes when knitting time is scarce.

Solutions!

Leftover sock yarn dragon scales blankets. This has two benefits. You can make a single scale and feel like you achieved something, you are using up little bits of leftover sock yarn and tidying your stash while making something. I have a whole bag where little bits of sock yarn go just for this purpose.

The other solution I have is granny squares. Make a crochet granny square and move on with the rest of your busy life.

Eventually you’ll have finished a large project that kept you sane while you were making it.