Quarantine Crafting… What I’ve been up to since it all started

Obtuse Shawl by Natalie of Detroit Knots

Hello Everyone!!

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here on my blog and to be honest I needed a break from everything. With the Corona Virus pandemic happening and the fact that there was so many changes so fast at my job that I had to get acclimated to, I just needed to take care of my mental well being and not stress about my blogging.

It took me pretty much the last few weeks in February and the entire month of March to wrap my head around our new normal. I didn’t want to pick up any yarn or even think about designing or testing as a matter of fact. I ordered tons of yarn and I also started another endeavor that I can’t quite share with you all just yet but I was trying to get motivated to do something. So I decided to make myself a throw blanket to snuggle up under when I’m binge watching t.v shows (now that I have time) or watching all of the movies that I was either too busy or too tired to watch. It took a lot of motivation but I did finish my color blocked throw blanket (pictured below).

Color Blocked Throw Blanket using WeCrochet/ KnitPicks Brava Sport yarn

Next, I wanted to get some designs out of my head and onto some yarn and I did just that. Neither are finished yet but I’m excited to finish both shawls especially since they can both be worn on Spring and Summer. I have no idea what to name them yet, maybe that’ll come to me once I’ve actually finished them both. They both have unique designs but are simply shaped and i think makers will love the unique touches to them.

Lion Brand Tryboo Yarn ( yarn review coming soon)

Lion Brand Summer Nights Yarn

Then came the email from Natalie. I then remembered that I had told her a while back that I would love to test her tunisian crochet shawl pattern. I wondered to myself if I had the time to do it but then I thought to myself ” Heck yeah you do!!” I loved the design of her Obtuse Shawl as soon as I saw the pictures of her wearing it. So I dyed my yarn up and started the testing as soon as I received the pattern. My original color palette was too subtle to see the striped section so I changed my contrast color to a tie dyed pink/purple yarn to go with the gray yarn that I dyed as well. I loved that I could use yarn that I dyed myself to create a design of a friend and help her out to release it to the world. Well, as of today you can get your own copy of the #obtuseshawl and I can’t wait to see more out there. I have some pictures below of my shawl but I suggest you check out her Ravelry page to see all of the other wonderful testers creative take on this shawl and to get your copy of the pattern (pictures below) .

Solid and Striped section

Lace section

So all in all I think that I’ve managed to keep myself very busy since the whole quarantine started. I was seriously getting cabin fever and down because I hadn’t been outside except for the days when I’m in the office for an hour and then go back and continue to work from home. This time has taught me that before I was rushing to do everything and now that I’m not constantly on the go I got a chance to rest, really get to enjoying the process of making things not just so I can show it off to the world and to get relax and enjoy just being me. I realized after the first few weeks of working from home that I had been exhausted. I was doing so much that I was burnt out and was too busy to notice it. I had lost all of my crojo and even though I wrote a whole blog post about it I could only do a fraction of the things that I had on the list because going outdoors literally gave me such anxiety. I was completely over Pinterest because every pin I saw was about how to diy your own hand sanitizer or mask. I really wasn’t paying all that much to social media because I kept getting inundated with pandemic news and I work in the medical field so I had enough anxiety knowing that I had coworkers and family members that have patient contact unlike me who works in research and have very little.

Natalie’s email came right on time and I poured all of my anxiety into this shawl. It was a frustratingly beautiful experience and it motivated me to get back into my crochet and knitting. I actually finished my knit for February (in February) but I have yet to block it and I’m proud to say that I have 2 more projects on my needles to make up for March and April. I can’t wait to show everyone.

Tell me, how/what have you been doing to cope with our new normal? Comment down below.

Until next time makers,

Tacia

Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com