Good morning friends! I hope you are well. I’m doing okay. Still on the coronacoaster and, like anyone, have good and bad days with it. Lately I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed by work, and haven’t had a lot of mental energy to deal with much else. I’ve been drawn to simple, cozy projects at nights when I’m exhausted.

I’m still working on my Little Box of Knitting shawl. I think I mentioned that I’ve basically given up on the idea of perfection with this project, and decided to treat as a learning experience. The “learning experience” aspect of it is easy to see when you look at the picture:

Ah yes. Holes in the work, curling at the edges, BEAUTIFUL. This one is taking foreverrrrrr. I think I’m at 270-something stitches (I think…I stopped counting…EEEK). It’s supposed to be at 329 before I start the stripes, THEN there is a whole lace section.

I also picked up this project, which has been sitting in the WIP pile of shame for 2 years.

The Speckled Squares blanket! Oh goodness, I don’t think I’ve worked on this since passing my PE exam. I’M FINALLY ON THE THIRD ROW Y’ALL. This blanket is…an investment, which I don’t think I fully appreciated when I decided to make it. I am using Spun Right Round in Squish DK, and it’s the squishiest yarn I’ve ever felt. It’s so, so, so, squishy. Naturally, I started eyeing more skeins to add to the blanket…but like I said, INVESTMENT, so I’m going to see how far I can get with my current stash.

I was proud of myself for my maturity. We’ll see how long that lasts.

On another note, the blanket is going much faster now that I don’t have to refer to the pattern with each square. I’ve gotten much better at reading both my work and understanding patterns, and that’s helped me with my enjoyment of this blanket.

But that being said, I am working on another project that said that the first ch 2 didn’t count as a stitch…and it’s AMAZING HOW MUCH THAT THREW ME OFF.

This is a pretty basic aspect of crochet patterns, but either I haven’t encountered many patterns with this qualification, or I didn’t fully consider it when I did. Geez. Embarrassing.

Here’s the project in question. It’s a Two of Wands pattern.

The stitch count is all kinds of messed up, so maybe I’ll make this the back side! Now for the front.

I’d better get to work, but I’ve enjoyed catching up with you all. I hope you’re safe and able to enjoy as much of this strange summer as you can.