I think that I am just about done with 2020. Never, ever has there been a year so ill behaved in my own memory. Today we hit a record high of 100° F where I live, and on Tuesday it is expected to snow. We had another case of bubonic plague in the state. A geyser in Yellowstone National Park, long dormant, has suddenly returned to life. Covid-19 cases are spiking in the states that surround my own. The nightly news continues to be a horror show, and some of it is just downright triggering. There can be no longer be doubt that the current administration is taking action to accelerate the Covid-19 infection rate in the US; stay tuned, folks: our fatality numbers are going to be astounding. Every day brings more tweeted lies and misinformation meant to contribute to racial tensions and general chaos, and the words “civil war” are popping up more often in my social media timeline. The president was reported to disparage war dead as “suckers” and “losers” this week, and also encouraged his supporter to vote twice. This is just plain historic, but also very painful. I’m totally over living in interesting times.
Some days it is hard to stay cheerful.
But Hannah and I are doing our best. 🙂 Also, I’ve told Hannah that she can’t play with the squirrels because… plague!
Knitting
This was a hugely productive week knitting-wise. Well, nothing got done, but there was a lot of knitting going on! I am working on a second Far Away Dreams shawl with more yarn from the stash. This mindless garter stitch shawl is perfect and easy to handle while knitting in bed, sucking down oxygen, and listening to an audiobook.
I also went crazy and cast on a sweater in the middle of the week.
Misurina has it all going on… cables, lace, colorwork, and some texture too. The original sweater was knit with a single stranded yarn containing a little linen and the gauge was pretty large… 20 stitches per 4 inches. I settled on two colors of single strand yarn that was pretty lofty in my stash and recklessly cast on using size 6 needles last week.
In the background, being knit in chunks when new clues arrive, is my The Sharon Show shawl. If you don’t want to see this, I’m sorry. It really is too good to not show off. It is finally long enough to drape around my shoulders like a shawl which gives you an idea of all the colors and textures going on while this is being knitted.
This shawl and the whole MKAL experience has been the perfect antidote to the crazy world outside my doors. Peace. Joy. Color. Admonitions from Sharon to not be self-critical and to weave in all of the ends!! Did I mention that each clue comes with a cocktail recipe? One of the best parts is seeing all the color choices of the other knitters: I am so going to have to make another one of these in blues… and maybe earth tones… My Ravelry notes are here.
Garden
The weather was cool for several days before the thermostat went back up into the high 90’s. Many of the potted plants were able to recover over the last week, and things are looking pretty cheerful out front again.
I’m going to bring all the potted plants into the garage for a couple of days and then will go to heroic lengths to cover and protect the front roses to get them undamaged through the cold front and snowfall on Tuesday. Poor roses. The plants took a lot of damage in the spring from a late hard freeze, and here we go with an early one in the fall. 2020, knock it off!!!
Books
Okay, I lost a couple of days reading a book for my book club that was… not good. I refuse to post its picture online and I’m not going to say anything else expect that I’m pretty much done with my book group. NO one else read the book, and they decided to just get together at a restaurant for happy hour and a return to the days when we used to meet in person, and of course that isn’t something that I can do. I was already pretty disgusted with the week when this happened, and not being able to recover the two lost days of my life BECAUSE I READ THIS STUPID BOOK THAT THEY CHOOSE!!! I headed online looking for options. Hey, Barnes & Noble has an online live book club meet up that I could join. They picked a book that I want to read, and people are already online talking about how excited they are to have the book, and that they are reading the book, and that they can’t wait to talk about the book… I’m in!! I love books, and I want to hang out with other people who also love books, and I would also like to talk about the books!!
This book is set in Ireland, during WWI and the Great Influenza pandemic. Our heroine is a nurse taking care of young pregnant women who also have the flu in an isolated fever ward. The book is also crazy timely as the disrespect of WWI fallen troops is a hot item in the news this week, and we all know about the pandemic… I’m only a couple of hours into the book, but it is engaging and interesting; I’m a fan! I’m looking forward to the actual meeting and discussions. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Late Update: Just got a warning on my cell phone that there is a MOUNTAIN LION wandering through my neighborhood. Of course there is. It is 2020.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Oh gosh, what a time you’re having, sorry your book club hasn’t turned out too nicely, hope the new one is better! Also hope the lion gets found, think we’ll all be glad when 2020 is done with.
We have a big green belt with a stream that travels through the neighborhood… let’s hope the mountain just moves along down the stream. 🙂 The book club ladies have been wanting to just focus on the social aspects of the get togethers, so it was coming. I’m really enjoying the new book, so I’m glad that I went online to hunt for something else.
Lovely 🌹🌹 and cats and knitting. We beat temp at 117 last Saturday and are now awaiting wind to go with the fires. Yes, 2020 can go have something rude happen to it. I finished the latest 🧦 that might have languished awhile in Mermaid and heathered purple. Ah, and some public folks you mentioned can go with 2020! Read, and knit on.🐅🦋🌻❤️
Thanks! I’m thinking that you might be in California… My niece in Escondido sent me a picture of the car reading 113 degrees and I know that it got higher in the LA area. The fire situation is just horrifying; one of our fires here in Colorado exploded overnight Saturday and I woke up with the house full of smoke; it rained ash all day. I can’t imagine how bad it was closer to the fire, and then there are the firefighters. Tonight it is snowing outside and I’m nervous about the trees breaking, not to mention the poor roses freezing. I just came in from covering them all with sheets and boxes. 2020 is absolutely out of control!! Thank heavens for the book and yarn stashes. 🙂
Your Sharon Show turned out great! I really like your color choices. I was wondering if you were going to cast on the new pattern from Caitlin Hunter. You are turning into her super fan. 😉 I’ve lost count of how many of her sweaters have you knit. I’m hoping to get a few of hers knit up.
My Sharon Show is paused at clue 2. The September 15th tax deadline is just around the corner…no knitting until I know I’m in the home stretch.
Sorry about your book club. Mine picked a book I decided not to read. Based on the description and the trigger warning, I decided it was not the energy I wanted around me, given all of the challenges 2020 has presented. I still haven’t finished the July book so I will read that instead.
I hope your roses survive the coming snow. That’s a lot of work to cover them and move all your potted plants indoors for a couple days!
The Sharon Show is just so much fun. I am often tempted to try something different with the colors but once I draped it on I can see how she balanced things. By the time you get your taxes filed you will have the benefit of seeing the whole product and will be able to move colors around if you want. 🙂 Yikes. The taxes!! I got mine done in July and the relief was enormous… hope you finish up and get them filed soon. Anyway, back to the knitting. I’m almost done with Clue 5, and then I’m back to Caitlin’s sweater. I can’t wait to see how the colorwork turns out. 🙂
I have been working up on pulling the plug on the book club for some time. It is just crazy how we don’t talk about the book for different reasons. If someone doesn’t like the book, they will crush down any discussion. If someone hasn’t finished the book, we can’t talk about it. Seriously, this is kind of bullying behavior and I do need to take better care of myself. To make it worse, many of the books were about women trapped in situations where they were were in danger, unable to control their fate, with possible deathly outcomes. Gee, not a good book for the person with an incurable disease that is stealing her life during a pandemic… Need more positive energy!!
The roses should be fine as long as it isn’t a hard freeze. It’s a little shocking that this is happening so fast.
No knitting yet. Hopefully, Friday. ☺
I love my clients but I find it frustrating that some of them can’t seem to get it together, until they have run out of extensions and there is a tax deadline staring them in the face. After Sept 15th, just one more tax deadline to go.
Sorry your book club turned out the way it did. I agree with you – just positive energy! You have enough to cope with. A book club should be adding joy to your day not creating disappointment and stress. Maybe you’ll be able to find a virtual book club that fits the bill. 🤞
Hope your little taste of winter isn’t too bad. I guess the upside is it’s sweater weather. Time to break out all of the wooly things. 😊
I hope September 15th comes soon for you with the minimum of drama from your clients. I don’t understand it myself… I always walk into the office with a spreadsheet of all of my expenses all worked out for my preparer. I think I should have gotten a discount!
The online book club was really nice, but you weren’t allowed to give any spoilers, which means you couldn’t actually talk about the book. Say, what?!!! I will continue to hunt for what I want, or will write them to ask for another group where you can actually talk about the book!!
I had to start the furnace today because I was too cold and Hannah was hiding under the bed covers. I’m totally rocking a new sweater, tho, so there is that, and I started wearing the wool socks yesterday. The poor trees outside has just started beginning to turn, and now the leaves are frozen, so I’m not sure how much fall color we will get. Oh, well. The least of our worries. The weather should warm up again in the next couple of days and then the plants will be heading back outside for the last days of warm sunshine.
I read a Guardian article the other week about where WWIII is most likely to break out in 2020 and since then I’ve tried to avoid the news. I’ve reached my limit on what I can handle. Anyway, on to your knitting. The shawl has so many techniques I have on my list to learn, it looks so fun. Meanwhile keep your spirits up with that cute kitten and her antics.
I saw an article about North Korea today and I seriously think that I just can’t handle any more news for a few days. I can’t even begin to think about WWIII… Best to concentrate on the things that I can control like my knitting! Hannah is approaching the 6 months mark so I’m thinking that I need to get together a post about her antics. Lately she is “mommy’s little helper” and into everything that I’m doing. Trying to print a pattern from the computer is a riot!!
Snow, the plague and a mountain lion! Who dared 2020 to get worse?? Fortunately 2021 is right around the corner if we can get through the election and the holidays:)
Your knits are fantastic!
I know. Don’t you think that the 2020 Bingo card should be full by now? This is just stinking crazy!!
Thank you for the compliment, but your knitting is also fantastic!! 🙂
I so admire your good spirits in spite of all.
It’s like a magic trick. I try to be fearless in facing down reality while refusing to worry about things that I can’t change.
There’s no trickery in that.
Oh. My. Days. 2020 has been a nightmare. Here in the UK we are transfixed by the US antics and feel for you all. Not that our government is much better. BoJo is just such a clown. Love your knitting. Love your kitten! I avoid the news as much as possible because it is just so damn depressing. I’ve been reading a lot, too, and it’s a real boon because the book draws me in to its world. On a Maeve Binchy binge read at the moment on my Kindle (printed books are difficult for me to handle) and loving it. Snow! wow! we’re just easing gently into a (hopefully) beautiful autumn. Knitty and virtual hugs.
There has been a lot of craziness, that’s for sure! The knitting has been just a wonderful, meditative anchor through all of this and the kitten is turning out to be a fabulous companion. The horrible book that will not be named was set in Ireland as is the one that I’m reading and enjoying now. I haven’t read a Meave Binchy book in some time: I should check her out again! I also am reading on the Kindle as it is hard for me to handle the heavy printed books, and on the days when I am having eye issues I can make the Kindle read to me. It is wonderful that this technology is available, isn’t it! I’m still in shock thinking about the snow. I’m just not ready for it yet, but we will rebound to warm days later in the week. Crazy weather!!
2020 is the worst. I listen to the news on my walks and I’m routinely annoyed that I did because I get so frustrated and worried. Your knitting looks great (as always). I love your new sweater!
I keep thinking that I’m going to stop the news, but then something happens that can be impacted by public outcry like the post office situation, so I keep listening. Worst. Year. Ever. Thank heavens for the knitting. I’m finishing the latest clue on the Sharon shawl today and then it is back to the sweater. I’m so happy with how it is going.
Yikes! At least your knitting is stunning. And Hannah is adorable.
It is good to make happy knitted things in times like these. 🙂 Hannah is just the cutest thing ever in my opinion, but of course I’m biased. I continue to be amazed that she was the last kitten in the shelter and had been returned from a failed adoption. Lucky me!!
Your shawls are both lovely, and that is beautiful yarn you have picked out for your Misurina!
Thank you. The yarn has been in the stash forever because I loved it too much to use. This is the right project for it!!
A mountain lion??? Wow!
You have some beautiful knits there!!
I haven’t heard anything else about the mountain lion (it was caught on a front porch by a ring camera) so hopefully it is going. Thanks for the knits compliment. 🙂