It’s right at 8pm here at my home in Colorado, and I’m typing this listening to a cacophony of howls (haroooo….) and fireworks. The Colorado Howl has really taken off as the Covid-19 pandemic heats up in my state; we also made the national news this week as politics interfered in our governor’s efforts to secure us the supplies that we need for Covid-19 patients. There are some serious outbreaks occurring in the state, and the huge convention center in downtown Denver is currently being converted into a field hospital for 2,000 Covid-19 patients in the days to come. I smile to think of Big Blue looking in the window to cheer up patients in the field hospital, but I wish so much that this wasn’t happening. I hope that everyone else is doing okay and had a good week.
Knitting
I’ve been knitting away on a couple of projects at once; one demands my attention and the other is kind of low level knitting. Check them out:
Once past the heel the tartan pattern is maintained on the top of the sock and the bottom becomes striped. I’m so enjoying this sock and can’t wait to wear it. I’ve already gone stash shopping to find a few more yarn contenders to make some other Tartan socks.
The V-Neck Boxy sweater is constructed seamlessly from the top down, but it has some interesting features. It starts with the back yoke stitches knit down from the shoulder CO, which are placed on a holder once you are ready to join in the round. The front stitches are then picked up at the original CO at the top of the shoulder, and then down to reach the same point as the back stitches. I like this modular approach since there is kind of a “seam” at the top of the shoulder that gives the sweater more stability when you wear it. I’m now knitting the second front section and soon I’ll have everything all joined up for knitting in the round. Yay!
Garden
It was sunny for most of the week so I took the miniature roses outside for some sunshine excitement. They responded by bursting out some new growth.
The orchids are still hanging in there, but the weeping fig tree that I pruned last week is now dropping leaves (!!) and look at what happened in the kitchen…
Books
I still need to finish American Dirt, but it got paused for a while as I was just too sad to read a book about a woman dealing with desperate times last week. I jumped to the newest book by an author that I really like, Jack McDevitt, and cruised right through the latest book in his Alex Benedict/Chase Kolpath series. I really like these books. They are fun and kind of unique; Alex runs a business that deals in ancient artifacts of historical significance, and Chase is his starship pilot and girl Friday. There is always a mystery to solve, philosophical questions to answer (What is life? To whom does history belong?), and a cast of interesting characters. The books are set far in the future, and the historical artifacts that Alex pursues are from people and lost colonies/ships that exist far in our future, but long ago in Alex and Chase’s past. There is astronomy in the books; who knew stars and plants could have all of these things happen to them? Chase takes insane risks and wrecks a lot of flyers. Alex is always a couple of steps ahead of Chase in solving mysteries and has a habit of just whipping out significant details when it seems they have run out of leads. Chase serves as a moral compass from time to time. Alex is a celebrity, and Chase writes best selling autobiographies of their adventures. The AI of the interstellar ship is my favorite as she provides the adult voice warning them to not do insane things, and then has to rescue them when they ignore her. You know, like a mom, or those scientists in disaster movies. Can you see why this is a series that I enjoy a lot?
In this book, Octavia Gone, a research station studying a black hole abruptly vanishes, and an artifact with an unknown language is found in the belongings of one of the lost crewmembers. What happened to the station? Where did this artifact come from, and how are they connected? Is it possible that aliens did this? Was the wormhole near the black star involved somehow? As the team chases answers they run into huge moral and ethical conflicts that complicate their investigation: secrets and promises that have unknown consequences. Eventually they discover what happened to the station, and achieve some resolution to their ethical dilemmas while providing answers to the families of the lost crews.
Well, that’s all for the week.
Please, please, everyone, be safe!
Remember to read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
I am happy to see that you are keeping busy and safe! Thanks for sharing all your projects, sorry about your kale plants.
I hope that you are keeping busy and safe also. Poor kale plants, they deserved better!
thank you! I am keeping busy trying to start plants from seeds and growing baby chicks 🙂 bless you and yours……..
I want so badly to grow some plants from seeds but I’m nervous about going to the nursery. Baby chicks!! You are just rocking spring!!
thank you, yes it does feel like spring with seedlings and chicks. What seeds are you looking for? I don’t have a lot but I would be happy to send you the extras that I do have.
Obviously, Big Blue has history on your blog: I shall have to look him up. He does seem like great fun ! 😀
I observe that you’re one heck of a knitter ! I started reading your description of the V-neck boxy sweater, but my eyes glazed over and I fell asleep .. [grin]
Naw, this is Big Blue’s first appearance on the blog. He is a huge sculpture in Denver where he is set up peaking into the convention center windows. He makes me so happy I had to buy a small replication to hang out on my bookshelf at home. Sorry about the knitting dialogue… just skip over the parts that are annoying. 🙂
NonoNO ! – I was pulling your leg. I’m truly impressed by your skills, BLZ ! 😀
I saw those socks on the Grocery Girls podcast and wondered if one day I’d try to tackle them using the colours in my husband’s surname clan. They look pretty difficult but very effective.
They are easy because you knit only one color at a time and slip the other one. I think it’s called mosaic knitting. I usually don’t like it, but for these socks it is just genius! The pattern is pretty easy to memorize, but she also has nice charts for each size. I’m thinking of using all three charts to make a pair of arm warmers too. Hey, I think that the pattern was free on Ravelry!
There was an offer, they are free with purchase of another pattern, so I bought her Hastings Mitts pattern to which I’d been thinking about already.
Oh. you’re right. I bought a pair of socks that looked really cute too.
I love those tartan socks!!!!
Thanks for sharing your latest crafting and endeavours 🙂
Happy and safe Easter ❤
Happy and safe Easter to you, too. The socks are just too cool for words, huh. Great pattern!
We are well, thank you. We once had some of those frogs which the children loved. Thanks for the memory.
My grandson loves the frogs. I bought them at a conference… so cute!
Sorry about the kale:(
Your socks are spectacular!! I’m going to add those to my queue.
Politics has no place in medical care, ever. We’ve got it going on here too.
Stay well. Stay home as much as you can. Check in so we know you’re doing ok:)
Thanks. I wanted to take a risk and go to my favorite nursery for some seeds and supplies yesterday, but there is a major outbreak at a nursing home just a mile away, so I decided to not risk it. I hate this. Stay safe.
Your socks and sweater are looking great – love that faux plaid on the socks! Sorry about your kale plants, but all the others are really doing well!
Stay safe and stay well 🙂
Thank you. Stay safe yourself. 🙂
Beautiful flowers, beautiful knitting. That book sounds interesting. I think I will check it out.
Thank you. The book is actually the 8th one in the series, but I think that it would still be interesting on its own.
I also had to put down American Dirt – I need light reading right now! Your socks are gorgeous!! 💕
Would you believe that I started “The Splendid and the Vile” as my break book from American Dirt and now I’m in tears reading about the extreme lengths the British government went to preparing for a possible invasion by Germany. The contrast with our current situation in the US is just crushing. Looking for another book…