2-22-22

 When I first noticed the two's in the dates this month I did not look far enough ahead to see that the best "number" day ever was today. My birthday is this month, and my middle child's birthday is tomorrow, so February is a good month in a normal year. 

As an adult my birthday was a bigger deal when the kids were younger. I made sure there was cake and Ken helped with gifts when they were too young to bake or shop on their own. When they moved out of the house they remembered, and they still do, which is what really matters to me.

I used to set goals for when I would turn a certain age. Sometimes I met them and sometimes I needed more time, which was okay because I had started working towards something I wanted. I set the goal to have my college degree by age 35; I graduated at 36 which was close enough for me. I had my first full-time teaching position two years later.

I started that job with all the optimism and enthusiasm of a first-year teacher at any age. Within weeks the joy was gone ~ I found myself in an untenable situation, co-teaching with a person who everyone knew needed to be removed from the classroom. No one would step forward to say or do what needed to be done. In January I told the principal that I would not return to work with this person the next year due to the situation, and he asked me if I would be willing to help correct the problem. I had nothing to lose, so I said yes. Another new-to-the-school teacher also agreed to speak up. At the outset, we did not know what the outcome would be...and we didn't know until the day after school was out in June that the problem person was transferred to another building to be closely supervised.

The interim months were stressful and difficult. I was in survival mode, trying to make it to the end of the schoolyear. I decided to take a personal day for my birthday, determined not to spend that day in that place with that person. I thought about what I wanted to do just for me, what I could do to take care of myself. I wanted to be at the ocean. I drove to Camden, bought a cup of coffee, and sat in the harbor on that cold February day. It was the perfect thing to do. 

I thought about that day yesterday at the ocean, this time at Popham Beach with my husband and granddaughter. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the waves rolled in as we walked along the shore. It wasn't my exact birthday but the sentiment was the same ~ time to reflect and be grateful for another year. I have mixed feelings about this aging thing and am working to find ways to be okay with the inevitable. More days like yesterday are sure to help.   

Two Twenty Twenty-Two

 More two's to celebrate. It's the small things these days. My mom and I were talking today about how much has changed and keeps changing and how little we have any control over. The days run together unless we make sure they don't. 

So when there is something that makes me smile, I take note ~ interesting number combinations, the pattern of temperatures for the blanket I'm knitting, the image of Anne teaching her granddaughter to knit with chop sticks, and a new quilt pattern that challenges my thinking about perspective and directionality. 

My year-old grandson has started taking steps, and we all clap during our video chats. This week is February break for the grandchildren so we will see all of them over the next several days. The things they are learning and the stories they tell are amazing. They light up our days.

Today is number 713, just 17 days shy of two years of  living in a pandemic. Slowly I am making up for lost time by scheduling visits with grandchildren and doctors' appointments. My fingers are crossed that I will be able to travel out of New England this summer, to be determined as the weather gets warmer and if the rates of covid continue to decline. I have a friend in Pennsylvania that I need to lay eyes on and chat with for hours. I have family in Virginia and West Virginia that I need to visit and enjoy a laugh with. As so much has fallen away and ceased to be part of my daily life, weddings and births and celebrations of lives well lived have come to pass. It is as important as it is daunting to re-enter the world outside my corner of the woods. The more I go the easier it will be. It's only through doing that it will get done. 

Time's a-wastin and the journey continues ~ 

Two Two Twenty-Two

I like numbers, the way they line up and go together. So I couldn't let 2-2-22 go by without making mention of it. Here we are in February 2022, nearly two years since life changed. Today is Day 695. 

With all the time at home I started knitting again. In February 2021 I finished my first blanket~

It's made with garter stitch, two strands of DK weight wool on a size 7 circular needle. My daughter had more than two dozen colors left over from a project and passed them on to me. Just for fun in November 2019 I played around with how they might go together if I ever got inspired~

I was glad I had taken a photo to reference when I was ready for a project. More than a year later I started Kaffe Fassett's Garter Stripe Shawl and was glad to to have a pick-up put-down project to work on that also kept my lap warm. I like the end result and thought I'd keep my eyes open for another  pattern.

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In December 2021 I read a post on the Modern Daily Knitting blog about knitting a "temperature blanket." The writer shared her color chart with coordinating temperatures and explained that it is up to the creator to decide the temperature increments and what colors to use. If you are on Instagram check out #temperatureblanket to see a variety of crocheted and knitted blankets. Anything goes really, and it's fun to see the different ways people have interpreted the concept.

I liked this idea for the next project to practice my knitting. I went to my wicker basket of yarn and picked out all the various skeins of worsted weight yarn to see what I could pull together. I started with 19 colors and assigned temperatures between zero and a hundred. I was about ten days in when I added dark blue for temps below zero. I decided to add two ridges of green at the start of each month [two rows of garter stitch make one ridge]. I'm using a size 5 circular needle.

Here's what January looks like~

Gray is for single digits. Three shades of purple for teens and low 20's. Little bit of light blue for upper 20's. I'm hoping for more blue this month.

Knit on~