Madelinetosh is helping us honor our special anniversary with a super deal on their DK weight High Twist (commonly called HT) yarn in our Sale Section! Every skein is $5 off until it's gone. So just on this one batch you'll pay $22.50 instead of $27.50. This makes this a perfect stash enhancer for sweater quantities of colors like Simply Greige or Calligraphy or Celadon (oh, my love of Celadon), and it makes it easy to choose one skein each for simple holiday hats. I love finding the right skein for the right person for a gift. The 80+ colors we have in stock right now make it easy to find the right ones. I'll post more about project ideas, but for those who have been waiting for this yarn I wanted to give you a heads up that it's now listed. And if you wanted to do some colorwork sweaters you want the best selection available. Feel free to e-mail me as usual at [email protected] if you want help making sure all your colors go together. The compare feature on our website is super helpful too.
It's been 10 weeks now of complete life upheaval in the Van Zandt household. My kids are still in "school" in my kitchen for another week while everyone else seems to have given up a week ago- either their school year was scheduled to end or they ended it early. It's like our school wants to win some sort of prize for most overworked parents or most Zoomed classes b/c James still has 3-4 Zoom classes a day (including KNITTING!). Henry and I did absolutely no school work all day yesterday - he was exhausted and we snuggled on the couch watching Laurie Berkner on YouTube and then he took a three hour nap. I mean, these kids have been total champs for over two months now and I think we have all now reached our limits. Not complaining really, just want to document for later that 10 weeks is just about the max we can effectively handle in-home schooling before we all just give up. I bet teachers and administrators are at the same place too. This is not what anyone signed up for, that's for sure. It's like our new mantra is "Just trying to make it work... for as long as we can make it work." And 10 weeks is about as long as we can make it work.
How are you all doing in your households? Are you in a state where they want you to open back up and be as normal as possible? I'm a bit reserved about all that. We are still playing it darned safe in our house. Not because I'm scared at all, but because I value our community and the people in it, and I think someone else's life is worth me being a bit inconvenienced. But I have the "luxury" of having a livelihood that can still function safely during all this, and I know many people in the service industry don't have that luxury and have to get back to work while they still have a workplace to go back to. It's such a hard thing to wrap my mind around, so I simply try to control what I can, have as little judgement as possible, and realize that I don't know what anyone else is feeling or going through and just offer what I can of myself. And at least there's a lesson in that for my kids. I hope they learn by example and see the value in a life of service to others.
I work in a prison so I am ‘essential.’ People please wear your masks, keep social distancing. This IS NOT OVER! Stay smart, stay safe, stay healthy. Others are counting on you.
Posted by: Cindy Carpenter | May 27, 2020 at 08:14 PM
Hey! I’m a teacher and I work more now than I did before. We have one more week left but the kids are done this Friday. VA just mandated we have to wear masks in stores. I’m ok with that since I really don’t go to the store very often. We were told this week to make sure our computers are in good working order for the summer and to start preparing lessons for the fall. Sounds like a pretty good chance we’ll be starting school online. What I’m scared of is i love being at home. I’m a little worried that when things start getting back to normal, I won’t be able to handle all my things I do. When I moved here a few years ago, I had been coaching 3 sports and I decided that was enough and it was time for me. I really did get way too much stuff to do and then I found a boyfriend. Lol. The problem is, I loved everything. I’m not sure if I should continue everything. It’s a lot to think about. Right now, I just want to stay home with my dogs and knit, run and ride my bike. Lol
Posted by: Dana Snyder | May 27, 2020 at 08:48 PM
I agree with you. Three school age kids: 7, 9 and 13 years old. Tomorrow is the end of the school year. Today I drove to their school to pick up everything that was left behind on March 13. My oldest got the "most crap left in their locker" award for middle school! It was a no-contact pickup of their belongings. The teachers just loaded it into the cargo area of the minivan. I also returned the books belonging to teachers and the school library.
All the learning platforms, no central spot to check for assignments, the Zoom and Google Meets, platform/login problems. Yeah, I'm over it.
I've been trying to find a job in public health. I have my MPH. I worked as an epidemiologist for 8 years. I applied a few weeks ago for a contact tracing job. No response. I took the certification class from Johns Hopkins University (and passed). So I continue with my self-employment, working from home with SEO marketing and content development. It's nice working from home, but my house has been more peoply than usual.
I've only gone to the grocery stores and a couple of thrift stores- my 13 year old grew a LOT (as girls will do) in the past year, and none, not one of her shorts from last year would go over her backside. I wear a mask and don't dilly dally. We haven't socialized with anyone. No play dates. No outings. No restaurant food. Just waving at people or talking from the sidewalk when they're on the porch.
I miss knitting with friends or having play dates for my kids. I miss Raising Cane's chicken and the local sushi place and the Chinese buffet. But again, it's not worth the risk.
Yes, Ohio is opening up. About all that's left are the amusement parks and playgrounds, places where crowds congregate. I have underlying health issues, as does a child of mine. I'm trying to minimize risk for us.
Posted by: Jessica | May 27, 2020 at 10:16 PM
Things here in Texas are opening back up and my little city/county is one of the lucky ones. We have had about 700 cases of COVID and 50 deaths, but no deaths in the last 18 days which we are thankful for. I work for a group of orthopedic surgeons, so we are essential, although the doctors had to stop doing all buy emergency surgeries for a while. They are free to do elective surgeries again, although both the hospital and surgery center we use are both restricting the number of surgeries that can be scheduled due to not having enough staff. It seems a lot of the nurses and staff that were furloughed from the surgery center have chosen to stay at home and draw $1000+ a week in unemployment rather than return to work! Crazy times we are living in!
Posted by: Laurie | May 28, 2020 at 08:05 AM
We've still got 3 more weeks of e-learning ahead of us! But I agree that we've already reached the limit of our tolerance/patience for school-at-home. So much of going to school is the social aspect, and my daughter is really missing that part. It will be an interesting summer for sure (and one full of lots of video gaming, I predict!)
Posted by: mellenknits | May 28, 2020 at 11:59 AM