There are many reasons I haven’t been writing here, but no excuses. Let's just say the last year (and then some) has been tough in some ways and I reacted, as I tend to do, by burrowing into myself. And, as I always do, I eventually gave myself a good shake and popped back into the real world.
Hello, Real World!! Glad to see ya!!
I must say there was one excellent aide effect to the burrowing months: I got my cross stitching mojo back! I had not been in the mood to cross stitch for at least a couple of years, and had let all my fiber love go to knitting and crochet. Then one day, after organizing all the cross stitch magazines with free kits scattered all over my living room (because although I did not want to stitch, I did want to look at cross stitch stuff), I picked up a small freebie, started stitching, and wham! The mojo was back! It was crazy. Now I cannot get enough of cross stitching. Has that ever happened to you?
I started with a bonus kit from an older CrossStitcher magazine and even though it was fussy in some parts, I whipped it out quickly and even made the stitching into a keyring as directed. Fun and cute!
Then Coronavirus happened, and I had to work from home for a couple months. My workspace was grossly inadequate and uncomfortable because, for reasons known only to the company IT guys (but I’m guessing having to do with me answering the phone through my computer), I had to be physically connected to my router rather than using the WiFi. If I’d realized it was going to be eight l-o-n-g weeks at home, I would have asked for a 30-foot cable and assembled my workspace at the far end of my dining table. But I did not foresee the drama and set up with a card table and a six-foot cable in the crafting/TV room next to the router. Yikes! It was a cramped, uncomfortable, and awkward mess, and I’m not even going into detail about any of that.
The good thing about working from home was the commute -- basically 20 to 35 seconds from anywhere in the house to my "office." I got to sleep an extra hour every morning and was home from work by 5:01. I went home for lunch every day. It was awesome!
The lack of commuting time (and errands on the way home) gave me plenty of extra time each day; I upped my hobby time accordingly. I mostly alternated cross stitch with crochet and, in addition to working on my Attic24 granny square Harmony blanket (see the original here), I crocheted an owl. He turned out to be really cute! I think the owl was supposed to be a keyring, but I turned him into a scissors fob. He's from a pattern by Rachel at Yarn Artists that I'd had in my stash for years. I love him!
He may actually be a bit big for a scissors fob, and he is definitely very lightweight for a fob since he’s stuffed with only the tails from the crocheting and a tiny bit of fiberfill. He’s quite useful as a fob for the blanket crocheting, though, as I can use him as a needle minder between bouts of sewing in the ends on the granny squares.
I started another bonus cross stitch kit, from a pretty new (at the time) CrossStitcher. It’s a folk art-y bird. I got all the stitching done pretty quickly,
but just as I was to the point of finish-finishing it into a hanging ornament with a felt wing and ribbon tail (as directed in the magazine) . . .
. . . I fell and broke my clavicle. All varieties of stitching were over for the duration, and the bird still isn’t completely finished, even though my collarbone problems are (mostly) over. Sigh. Nothing like losing the momentum to throw a project into the UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile!
Somewhere in there, I think maybe just before I started working from home, I started a Mill Hill kit by artist Amylee Weeks called Don’t Stress Meowt:
I rocketed through three of the flags on the banner at the bottom before the broken bone brought that project to a screeching halt as well. (I have subsequently finished stitching the banner, in case you think I can't count how many flags are stitched.)
I thought I could cross stitch with one arm if I used my floor stand to hold the project . . . but I was oh so wrong! I spent a very painful hour moving the stand to the living room and setting everything up just so, then stitched for maybe an hour. Turns out, I can’t stitch with the floor frame without either holding the scroll frame with my left arm (impossible with a broken clavicle) or leaning forward a wee bit. Since I couldn’t use my left arm, I leaned forward. I paid for that when the Advil wore off! Oh, man!! My collarbone hurt so much that my whole body hurt.
Lesson learned!
Really, The Clavicle Incident taught me (at least) a couple things.
Thing One: Use a non-skid mat in the bathtub. Even if you are in a hurry and are just taking a very quick shower, use the non-skid mat. If you are almost finished with your very quick shower and you see the mat hanging there on the towel rack instead of laying in the tub and a little voice says to you, "Whoops, you forgot the mat," do not say to the little voice, "I'm almost finished; it's cool," and continue the shower without the mat. It is far better to say to the little voice, "Thank you so much for the reminder," and put the mat in the tub.
Thing Two: If something else happens (not a fall in the shower, because you are smart and will heed me about the non-skid mat) and your collarbone is broken, while you are masquerading as a T-Rex -- which you will do, for upwards of eight weeks -- one of those weird-looking grabber thingies that people use to get the potato chips off the top shelf is useful for any number of purposes. Ditto a telescoping magnetic wand; I typically use my telescoping magnetic wand for locating/retrieving flying embroidery needles, but it will also grab pens, cans, and other assorted roll-y metal objects. You will want these two things because it will hurt when you stretch much or bend over at all. I suggest getting those tools now so you'll be prepared in future because, trust me, you will be in no shape to go shopping (or even order online) for a while after that bone snaps. If the pain doesn't deter you, the pain killers will. =)
I will say The Clavicle Incident wasn't all bad. One good thing is that I was able to catch up on my reading! I am a voracious reader, but between work and play, sometimes I don't have enough time for all the books I want to read. I usually have at least 20 to 25 need-to-read books stacked on the hearth and my Kindle is always packed. Since I couldn't do much of anything else, I read all the time while I was the one T-Rex-armed woman! Here are some good ones for which I remember both the title and the author:
The Girl on the Train and Into the Water, both by Paula Hawkins
Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Cruise
Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson (YA)
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dressen (YA)
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
Oh, hey! Another fun consequence of The Clavicle Incident just occurred to me -- house work. I could not do house work. It took me ages to change the sheets on my bed and I was exhausted and in pain afterward. Forget about cleaning floors and all that harder stuff. I waited until the lockdown restrictions eased then hired a cleaning company. Which I'm keeping, by the way. Lockdown proved just how much money I fritter away on spontaneous drive-through lunches (when I have a perfectly good lunch, brought from home, already in the work fridge) and expensive coffee drinks and snacks while I'm out and about after work and on weekends. I've realized it is tons more fun to come home every other Tuesday to a clean house than it is to grab lunch or a snack in lieu of the food I have at work or at home. This doesn't mean I no longer eat and/or drink out. Quite the contrary! I have eaten out (or gotten take-out) quite a few times, but they were meals I chose to eat out, not meals I grabbed on the fly or stopped for because I was too lazy to prepare a meal at home.
If you've read this far, THANK YOU! I'll give you a break and move along now. I'll be back later with more Old(er) Lady stuff to laugh about about which to laugh.
LOL!
