Post 44: Making New Friends in a Post COVID World, and a Sweater Update.

 For those here for the sweater updates, here's a snapshot of the sweater progress. I just have one sleeve left.  I worked on it when the kiddo had a pool party for a friend. We stayed two hours+ while all the kids had a great time swimming and celebrating.

I was going to go into a long monologue about how difficult it is to make real friends as an adult, especially post pandemic. I once had a close friend, a "soul sister" as I always proclaimed, for almost two decades, but they have left the area and changed paths that no longer intersect with mine. It's been incredibly hard.  I'm not ready to show that pain to the world, nor would i disrespect their privacy so details are not going to be shared. I keep hoping it will get easier. It has been about a year and two months now since things felt remotely normal in that space. Grieving the living wears on my heart and makes everything really hard. It hurts me that such a decision was so easy for that person. In the back of my mind, I will always wonder if I am the "thing" that was easy to let go because maybe I held them back from being who they wish to be.  It is natural for things to end, I just never expected it.

I've talked of this too long tonight. I'm going to let it rest. 

Post 43: The Cold Sweater Weather

 Its been around zero degrees Fahrenheit, and finally warming up this week into the twenties. Our furnace went out and had a repairman look at it for a few hundred bucks. It was fixed in under an hour and our home went from a brisk 54 back to 68. We took a lot of time to declutter the house and get rid of our excess (if you dont count the kiddos room which is full of toys and most certainly next..one of these days).  Everything is a little more clean, and theres a lot more space to breathe. That has been incredibly nice and therapeutic. Something about clearing physical clutter clearing the mental clutter...I dont know.

And there has been time for sweater work. The yoke part is completed, now just working up the body and arms. It is a quick make, mostly due to the smaller kid size.

 It needed a little but of spunky brightness (and some ruffle cinching) so i hit it with two lines of surface slip stitches around the collar. More will be added to the sleeves. The first was a stitch in each, the larger circle was a slip stitch two together each stitch.

The body itself, a 100% baby alpaca wool. Most certainly a hand wash only sweater, but what better way is there to teach her to care for a sweater?  Let me know what you think by dropping a line on Instagram or the book of faces. See you next time. ✌️ 

Post 42: Cold

 It has been hovering near zero degrees Fahrenheit where I live, for a few days. Our old home wasn't ready for winter. We knew it was on the way, but didn't prep well. So today we put plastic on windows and did our cold weather dance--the baking and snuggling under the covers. And sweaters. And socks, scarves, booties. Truth be told I thought we handled cold weather well but we are a bunch of babies ha!

I crocheted a bit on the new sweater of baby alpaca fiber yarn from knitpicks brand, for my daughter in a heathered purple. I finally got the ruffles to lay flat, but not much else in the way of progress. Baby steps. Pictures next time.

Until then, stay warm.

Post 41: Muttling Through

 Muttling through the chilly days of January. The new year energy is wearing off already and it is back to living the day to day routines.

This weekend we planned a chilly zoo trip, but ended up getting snow and changed our plans. We kept our hotel reservation and enjoyed their heated pool and then watching the snow fall into the night. It was very pretty, but certainly wasn't the safest to be driving in so it was nice to be in for the night. In the morning we built a snowman at a local rest area and enjoyed an hour or so throwing snowballs and making angels. We later did some thrifting, but kept plans light by returning home shortly after.

I finished my version of the scarf for the Hallmark warm up America campaign created by TwinkieChan. It's a cute pattern, but I made some modifications to use a larger hook and stitch faster. It's hard to make time--full time QIDP, foster mom, and a handful of other hats I wear at random.  Here's some pics of the scarf below. Now to start the alpaca sweater for the kiddo. I'm not going to use a pattern this time, I'm just going to wing it and adapt it to size. More to come with the sweater, but until then, enjoy these pics!