So, it’s summer now and it’s ungodly hot.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Oh, you came here for more. Cool cool. Okay, the elephant in the room is that it’s so hot, I can barely stand to knit anything. To add insult to injury, it’s not even just hot, but humid *cue needles squeaking whilst balking against hand sweat*. You’re welcome for the visual.
The view from my parents’ lake house, taken while I pondered test-knitting my friend’s pattern outside, rendering the finished product useless as it will have essentially been used as a hand towel for 40 hours.
Summer is usually when I maybe knit on socks because those are portable and I like to escape to my parents’ lake house (or really anywhere with a breeze), but I usually end up binging beaucoup books from my TBR shelf with the false hope of reaching my annual Goodreads goal (RIP).
Shocking exactly no one, this year is no different. I’ve finished three books, a couple pairs of socks, and even started on some Christmas gifts, but I think my summer passion for 2020 will be cross stitch. It’s small, it’s colorful, it’s kind of portable (not like I’m working on a HAED any time soon), and it’s keeping me sane in a very discombobulated world.
Or maybe I’m just so annoyed by people who think it’s scientifically possible to re-breathe your own toxins while wearing a mask that I had to stab something 10,000 times. We’ll never know.
And because I can’t just make something without showing it off, I obviously took to making a wee ickle stitch for my mom as a belated Mother’s Day gift.
I’d tell you what pattern I used, but I really don’t know. It came in a kit and I’m not even sure if it’s one I bought myself or was gifted to me by my crafty friend Erin, who bestowed a few cross stitch kits on me a few years back when I first expressed interest in yet another craft.
Seriously, I needed this hobby like a hole in my head.
The funny thing is, Scott started making this one. He’d seen me working on a Van Gogh piece for him (more on that later) and wanted to stitch a beer hop to use as a pin display. I told him he should start with something small and beginner-level to make sure he even liked it, to which he scoffed, saying it looked fun and of course he’d enjoy it. Five minutes later, once this reached my hands again because he hated his life, it didn’t take long to put a bow on it - I even enjoyed the backstitching - and now my mom has lovely new artwork that’s slightly better than the macaroni art of my youth.
I’ve got a few knitting projects on my needles, including a test knit for my aforementioned crafty friend, but I can’t stop cross stitching, either, and I think I have a major case of Start-itis, to boot. More annoyingly, I can’t stop buying hand-dyed linen from Etsy, so there goes the money I’ve been saving to pay my $4k in federal taxes. You can’t see me, but I’m crying.
I’m also watching a lot of the new Unsolved Mysteries and made the mistake of stitching on something intricate during the French episode with subtitles because of course.
In the spirit of ending this latest update on a positive note, here are some cool things I’ve discovered/have done during lockdown since my last update:
Profs and Pints has started to do online sessions, so I’ve learned about the witch trials, cats and feminism, and the women of Hamilton. Each session is $12 and the professors are compensated for their work, which I enjoy while knitting and drinking heavily because this world and the people in it are a waking nightmare right now.
Watched almost every video true crime podcaster Stephanie Harlowe has ever published, including 2019’s inaugural Harloween series that covered spooky mysteries. I’ve consumed so much content that I felt like she should be compensated for how much I enjoyed it, so I also backed her Patreon and pretty much nobody hears from me now.
Took Scott and the dog to my parents’ lake house in the Poconos and paddled a boat around for an hour, so long story short, Fritzy has an inflatable life vest now and that’s hilarious.
Turned 37. Wait a minute, this isn’t supposed to be depressing.
And in conclusion, all parties are COVID parties, so stop doing that.