A Blessing in Disguise?

 

How many of you are getting totally bored with staying home with the kids, working from home, not being able to eat out at a restaurant or go to a movie? Raise your hands. This darn Covid virus has changed many of the ways we live our lives, and since it's an inanimate object--or at least, it's alive but dumb as a post--we can't reason with it or bribe it to go away. All we can do is hope for an effective vaccine, and try not to go nuts in the meantime. So, we're left trying to find ways to entertain ourselves. and our kids or whomever we still have contact with. Here are a few suggestions for what to do with your time when you get bored.

Suggestion #1: Think about something you've always wanted to learn how to do, a hobby, but you didn't have time. Well, now you do! Order the supplies you need for watercolor painting, woodworking, or baking an extravagant wedding cake. While you're at it, order a "how-to" book to help you get started on your new activity. When you're done, post pictures on your blog.

Suggestion #2: Write a series of love poems to the special someone in your life. Print them out on pretty paper, enclose in a fancy folder, and present them to your sweetheart over a delicious homemade dinner. I guarantee, it will become an heirloom that will be viewed with delight for many, many years.

Suggestion #3: Learn to play an instrument. There are several instruments that you can teach yourself to play. For instance, you can order a recorder online: https://smile.amazon.com/Soprano-Recorder-Instrument-Cleaning-Instruction/dp/B07672X8KR/ . It's easy to learn on your own and comes with instructions. If you have kids, buy recorders for them, too and you can play duets!

Suggestion #4: Decide you're going to read all of Shakespeare that you can set your hands on, or Chaucer, or all the Sherlock Holmes stories. Even more fun: recruit some friends or relatives to read the same things that you do, so you can discuss the books with them as you progress. You'll never be sorry you did.

Suggestion #5: Go to your local hardware store and pick up a couple gallons of indoor paint, plus paintbrushes, paint trays, and masking tape. Use it to paint one room in your house, changing the atmosphere and feel of that room. And who knows?...when you're finished with that room, you might decide to do another...and another.

Suggestion #6: If you know how to knit or crochet, create something special, something you ordinarily wouldn't make. Perhaps a knitted lace dress for your friend's new baby, or a crocheted shawl made of cashmere or alpaca yarn. The fancier it is, the more you'll enjoy wearing it, or giving it away to a good friend. When you're done, post pictures on your blog.

These are just a few thoughts. I'm sure you can come up with many more. There's no reason to be bored, even under the current social distancing circumstances. Go for the gold!

Masking and Washing and Six Feet Away, Oh My!

Normally I write about knitting and/or crocheting in this space. But what with the world turned inside out from the coronavirus, it's become not only difficult to amuse yourself or hang out with others...it's actually dangerous and life-threatening. People are told to wear masks (and gloves) when they go out, and to keep the socially acceptable distance from person to person of 6 feet. But do they? Noooooo.

I've heard teens and twenty-somethings say, "I don't need a mask. I'm healthy and young. I won't get the virus. Or if I do, I will fight it off."

Of course, going along with that belief means you think the masks are to protect YOU. But of course they're not--they are there to protect everyone ELSE from you.

Or they say, "I won't catch it. No one I know has it."

Ah, but you can be contagious days before you show other symptoms...so that excuse won't hold water.

Or they say, "If there are people out there whose health is poor, they should stay indoors with a mask on. Why should I have to suffer to keep them safe?

Because WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME PLANET TOGETHER, DUMMY!

Oy.

Liz Can't Knit

Lately I've been having no end of trouble with knitting and crocheting. I have been knitting since I was 5 and crocheting since I was 13, and taught myself to tat at around 16. So you'd expect me to be pretty good at it, wouldn't you? And until recently, that was true.

But suddenly it seems I can't figure out patterns...they come out with too many or too few stitches, or the wrong row(s), or the gauge is off, or they just don't look or fit right.

There could be lots of reasons, such as I'm distracted when I work, or I don't do gauge swatches (well, I *don't*), or I'm still making a size 12 when I haven't been that size in...let's just say it's been a long time.

Plus, when I find that there's a mistake in my project, after I've ripped it out, shouting and scowling, and I re-do it only to find out there's another mistaken, at that point I give up and put the project in the "Corner of Shame."

Has this happened to you? If so, what do you do? Frog it, pretend you didn't see the mistake, try to work around it?

All sensible ideas welcome. Heck, all silly ideas too!