Yarn Along: Knit! All! The! Things!

 Greetings from Isolation Land!  How is everybody holding up?  We are midway through week three of house-bound homeschooling, and I'm not going to lie, it has been hard.  The school has been fantastic with lesson plans and teacher support, but it isn't the same as being in school, with the loving and patient work of the teachers and staff.

The walls close in on me a couple times per day, and I just want things to go back to "normal," whatever that is.  But I know that is impossible now, and am trying to get used to the new normal.  I remind myself of the hardships others have endured in the past, of the history of disease (something that is of particular research interest to me), as well as what this sacrifice is for: the people on the front lines of this war who take care of the sick and provide food for the hungry.

~knitting~

All the things, obviously.  I'm supervising my kids' homeschooling, and there is really nothing else I can do during that time except knit a bit here and there and try to keep up with housework.  By the time evening comes, I'm too done in for anything else.  

 

Knitting seems to be the only thing I really want to do right now anyway.  So I finished Ponchik's sweater in short order earlier this week, and immediately made a little version for her doll "Baby." 

Birdie immediately asked me to make one for her stuffed elephant, so I spent today working on that for her.  It is the reverse of Ponchik's because I'm running low on the orange yarn and have more of the blue.  Plus they will be easier to identify. 

I should finish it tonight or tomorrow and get it blocked.

I worked a few more rows on my languishing Sorbet Doocot, and am nearly to putting the sleeves on holders, by which point the body should fly along nicely.  I did drop the front neckline an inch or so, and I'm hoping my maths work out on it.  I'm still wearing my blue Doocot all the time, so I'm excited to have another one.  

 

I got this self-striping sock yarn for Christmas, not because I have any intention of making socks, but because I loved the colors and wanted to figure out some kind of shawl or scarf using the self-stripe pattern.  Anyone have a good one that actually utilizes the self-striping?  Most of the patterns I have found that use self-striping yarn aren't really utilizing the stripes as such.

~watching~

Not much, to be honest.  I have been watching season five of Outlander with some grudge, but I think episode seven might just have redeemed the season for me, which has been extremely uneven, and I feel has strayed too far from the book.  Actually, the problems really started in season three when the writers went off-book, and seasons four and five have been uneven where they've tried to course- correct the story line to make it work and bring it back to center.

Where the show hews closely to the book, it works spectacularly, and the performances by the actors are wonderful and nuanced.  Episode three was particularly good, but then, that episode was a direct lift from the book, dialogue and all.  But when the show strays too far from the book, it really goes off the rails for me.  I think there have to be a portion of the writers have not read far enough ahead in the series to know that if you change x or y you affect a major storyline in book five or six, and that all the roads leading to that storyline are going to be detoured as a result.  *cough* Murtagh* cough*

That said, episode seven was extremely well done, and the performance by Sam Heughan was wonderfully truthful and emotionally deep.  I know what is coming in episode eight, having read the books many times, and I'm now curious to see how the show will play it out.

I tried watching a alt-history drama called SS-GB in which the Battle of Britain is lost in 1941 and Britain is occupied by the Nazis, and Scotland Yard is called to investigate a murder.  On the surface, it was intriguing, but I had a hard time sticking with the storyline, even though I liked watching the actors and the production value was high.  Ditto for Babylon Berlin, which barely held my interest through the pilot.  Probably it is the stress of the situation and being so sick, but nothing holds my attention for long on a screen.

~reading~

I have been reading quite a bit though.  Nothing taxing, just a fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas, but I have gulped down the first three books in short order, and am now working on the fourth.  I still have to finish the All Souls Triology (I confess to watching A Discovery of Witches for a 3rd time...) but am kind of saving it for when I finish this Maas series.

~sewing~

Also not much.  I did get some mending and darning done, and got around to taking the front waistband of my green linen skirt apart so I can change the center box pleat into two side pleats, but haven't sewn it back together again.  I also need to cinch the elastic on my marigold linen skirt a bit since it has grown slightly too big.  I bought some rosy-ochre colored linen and some dark teal linen for summer skirts, but I need more time, energy, and mental space to make those up.  I was ready to take my blue and rust corduroy skirts totally apart to take them in properly but ended up wearing both this week instead, and while the fit is still not great, they are both wearable, so I'm inclined to leave them for now.  

~misc~

I started following a couple of excellent Instagram accounts in March, and would be remiss if I didn't share them!  

The first two are accounts that started during the pandemic by artists who have been recreating classic works of art with found materials.  They are: @covidclassics and @tussenkunstenquarantine

You won't regret it!  

 The other accounts are not recent, but are rather curated by medieval scholars, and I just discovered them.  The pictures are amazing, and the captions hilarious.

 

I mean, come on.  That's funny.  @medievalmarginalia, @middle_ages_history, @medievalbestiary, @_medievalart, @damien_kempf are all brilliant accounts.

And finally, if you aren't watching Sir Patrick Stewart's #ASonnetADay

readings, you are really missing out on a lovely treat.  #shakespearemakesitallbetter 

 Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.