Mid-February

The quality of the light changes in February. Even though we have another month of dry brown winter, the days are longer and the sun sets in a slightly different place on the horizon. Yesterday while walking in a jacket, I saw a large flock of robins eating some dried ornamental berries from a tree. A few robins winter here but that was a mighty big flock. I take is as a sign of Spring.

My grandchildren in Connecticut are recovering from Covid and for that we are very thankful. The three boys were vaccinated so two were asymptomatic and one had a mild case. However little Norah, too young for the vaccine, was very sick with croup related to Covid. With good medical care and vigilant parents, she is recovering well. It's a miracle that my daughter and son-in-law didn't get sick as well. The moral of the story is the vaccine works and everyone eligible should get one. 

I am linking with Kat and other Unravelers today. My thanks to Kat for providing the link-up. Stopping to consider the week and update my projects on Ravelry is a good mid-week marker. My making was a little scattered as I worried about my family but I made some progress on several projects. I finished quilting the square that will become a pillow top. I need to dig out instructions for the easy edging I put on the old one and find fabric for the back. 

I knit back to fresh yarn on the infamous sweater. I am thinking of the stockinette knitting as a meditation. I did know what I was signing up for when I cast on the project. One stitch at a time, one day at a time, and all is well.

Instead of knitting on the other knitting projects, I have been spinning. I continue to work on the blue gradient of Polworth and have nearly finished the second spindle of this medium shade. 

While one set of singles rests before plying, I spin on another project. Last summer I participated in the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures Podcast summer spin-in and won some fiber from Sincere Sheep.  I am spinning it on a turkish spindle. I want to try plying directly from the "turtles" made by spinning with this type of spindle. The fiber, 80% Romeldale and 20% Suri Alpaca is soft, springy, and lovely to spin. The label tells me the wool came from a sheep named "Sweet Pea" who lives in Idaho. The alpaca comes from an animal living in Morro Bay, California. It is fun to spin and think of "Sweet Pea" grazing in Idaho. 

While waiting for library holds to come in, I reread The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys. The novel is set in England during World War Two. The main character, a single woman in her mid-thirties, leaves London to supervise a small group of Land Girls. At her post, she finds among other things a tangled lost garden and sets about to restore it. She also searches for the story behind the garden. As the young women absorb losses of the war and ponder the unknown future, I found some parallels to living in a pandemic. Reading this bittersweet story about gardening in February was lovely. References to Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse were a bonus. The first time I read the book, I knew little of Woolf so in some ways it felt like a new story. I'm sure my seventy years are showing with this comment. Although the end wraps everything up a little too quickly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I hope warmth and light is returning to your neck of the woods.  Happy mid-February.