cold hands warm heart

in which our plucky heroine warmed by kindnesses...

My friends love me. I got birthday checks. I turned up the furnace today, all the way to 65! and it was delightful to not be all shivery. I put my Solitary Foxen back in the drawer, and put on a pretty necklace instead. Not that my special scarf isn't also pretty, but even my Dad on Zoom asked me why I was all bundled up first thing this morning...

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I'm still not sure what I will be making for SWAP 2021, but since this years rules state "These garments may or may not co-ordinate with each other, but should dovetail into your existing wardrobe"  I'm not much worried. I seem to be incapable of making things that don't coordinate, since I only have five basic colors in my wardrobe, and I am only going to make six garments, not eleven. I don't need eleven new garments this year.

Not sure if I will in fact knit a cardigan, but I did bribe myself and ordered both a new knitting pattern AND new yarn to go with it. I chose the gorgeous new lopapeysa-style pattern "Mandelbrot" (designed to evoke the concept of fractals)

and picked out some chocolate brown Lettlopi for the main color, with black sheep off black, a deep turquoise, and a murky taupe for the patterning... I always feel a bit planetary when I order yarn from afar, this is coming from Iceland!  Why mostly brown yarn?... because I have two brown pinafores, and no knitted sweater to coordinate. Last year, for the first time in decades, I knit myself two wool sweaters: an indigo lopapeysa in a modern design, and a V-neck pullover in "galaxy" a kind of dark dark turquoise/black oilslick color, and I have enjoyed wearing them very much

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 264:

tiny iconic autumnal glory
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In answering Acantha's recent query, I realised that one thing I really want is a regular (weekly?) circle of (mutual aid human contact) support and accountability... checking in with one another on how projects are going, what progress has been made... several folks expressed interest. I'd like to facilitate this happening, either on FB or on some other venue (Zoom, Google Meet, Discord, or ??) and sooner rather than weeks from now.

I am really struggling with getting any forward momentum (other than managing the activity of daily living such as getting dressed, cooking and eating meals, etc.) House has backslid something fierce into a cluttered mess. etc etc. I have Crafternoon, which is more of a social hangout time, and multiple family zoom meetings each week, but what I really really want is a chance to check in regularly with a kind of a progress report, in a more "interactive" way than writing my blog posts. Thinking more like a support group for creativity and constructive action, where folks can take turns ....

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today's gratitude - Today when Heather was shopping for me, she found two more turkey thighs! I am going to be able to have two more roulade-roasts later on this year. Yum yum yum!