What To Do In the Age of Covid-19 - Knit and Think!

 

 This cool-weather knitted outfit is for wearing with leggings. The skirt keeps my 70-year old keester warm and hidden from view. The vest looks great with my lavender long-sleeved turtle neck.

Vest and skirt were knitted with Lion Brand, Woolease yarn in grey heather, which is 20% wool, 80% Acrylic and is cozy and warm. I knitted an afghan in oxford gray for my car camping adventures.

 

    While under Idaho State's Shelter at Home Order, I did a lot of knitting in addition to "social distancing" in the nearby woods on hiking and foraging sojourns. 

 

 

This skirt is paired with the vest in the topmost photo. It's pleated and has a couple knitted and corded pockets for keys and whatnots. After completing the skirt I found the cute pattern for the flared, knitted vest as a "go together".

 

 

This textured vest was knitted to go with my olive-green cargo pants that I wear for hiking.

This vest was knitted with Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in pampas heather green.

 

Another knitted skirt to wear with leggings. The line across the front is what's called a "life-line" in knitting. The lifeline was removed/pulled out after the photo was taken.

Knitted with Lion Brand Woolease in black.

 

    Using a lifeline - a length of contrasting scrap yarn - the knitter can unravel a section to make a correction or alter the knitting trajectory without having to attempt the impossible task of trying to pickup a couple hundred stitches or, nearly as awful, completely unraveling a project and starting over simply to make a course correction. A life line is slipped in along the loops on the needle or slipped into the loops of previously knitted stitches. 

    The reason I used a lifeline on this skirt was because I was altering a pleated skirt pattern - requiring more stitches - into a tapered  A-line skirt requiring fewer stitches and an even decrease along the remaining length toward the waist. It was possible that my plan could have required me to unravel down to the point where my decrease-knitting began.

    Luckily my math was spot on and I did not have to unravel hours' worth of work. Phew!

 

This loose vest is worn over a long-sleeved turtleneck and is long enough for keester-warmth when wearing leggings.

Knitted in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in blossom heather pink.

 

    All of the above projects were knitted in wool or wool blends for warmth.

    As the weather warmed into summer, it was time to think about knitting things to wear with my summer pants, skirts, and shorts.

    

Knitted from synthetic fibers for coolness, this tank top will be worn with jeans or shorts.

Knitted with Bernat Baby Coordinates in soft grey.

 

    This Bernat yarn is soft grey with a pearlized, shimmery thread running through the strands that will look good with my pair of white "peddle-pusher" jeans that have tiny, silver sequins around the bottom cuffs.

 

Here's my current project in its state-of-becoming.

Yarn is Debbie Bliss Denim, 100% cotton in light blue.

 

    Knitting is a relaxing, rather Zen hobby that's perfect for those times you want to sit, think, and relax while still accomplishing something.

    So, in addition to sitting and knitting, I've been doing some thinking, some life-reviewing, meditating, and making good use of my self-quarantining. 

    Idaho is opening back up now. However, Covid-19 is on the rise. Again.

    Most folks have cast aside their masks and are mingling, gathering, and "herding-up", thus the spike in cases. How will this unfold? Or...unravel?

    What have I been thinking about all this time?

    I've been considering how I live upon the Earth. Am I living as a "user and abuser"?

    Reducing/eliminating the purchase of products that come in plastic bottles is underway and finding those with alternative packaging is a current goal.

    Take butter/margarine, for example. If it comes in a plastic tub, I'll choose the product instead, that comes in a cardboard box with the sticks wrapped in waxed paper or foil. Ditto olive oil. Instead of the plastic bottle, there are options/brands that come in glass or metal.

    Instead of a plastic jar or bottle, is there a version that comes in a glass bottle, cardboard box, or metal can? Something that's degradable?

    Just what are the ways I can live more sustainably and harmoniously...within reason? I mean, I can't rush out and buy solar panels. I live in a condo!  

    And, I've tried the "living off the land/growing my own food" route. It was great and I enjoyed it. However, one day I realized that all my hobbies and lifestyles have always required digging in the dirt and, though fun, were a lot of physical work - rock hounding, gold prospecting, growing all that food, not to mention all the DIY labor of restoring my old farmhouse!

    Yikes! I retired from my career in 1993, wasn't it about time I retired from my hard-scrabble hobbies, too?!  So, I sold my old Utah farmhouse and moved to Idaho about six years ago.

    I bought a condo and polished up my knitting and sitting skills. Ahhh...it feels so good to be totally retired!

    I've been thinking and asking my 70-year old self, "Do I have time for at least one more adventure?

    My answer is, "Yes"! And, I'm contemplating that adventure...what it will be, for what duration, and how. It WILL involve knitting and  some sitting. I can never be totally inert!

    I love hiking, foraging in the woods, and car camping. I think my new adventure must include all three, plus some knitting and sitting.

     Thus, much more car-camping as there are beautiful places to camp where I'm now living. Maybe my new adventure will even evolve into part-time-with-condo-as-home-base, van life? Part of the year at home, the rest living in a my cozy, cute van out in nature wherever my wanderlust takes me?

    I have much to think about whilst sitting and knitting!!!