Ok, during these odd times, I developed a sore throat sitting on the train on the way home. It gradually got worse as the night grew long. 2:00am found me trying to book a doctor appointment and 5:30am found me talking to the wonderful person at the Covid 19 hotline. 10:00am found me at the testing station and now I am in isolation until I get a result.

The whole time, before I had the test, I kept thinking of places to visit once the test was done. I then realized I was doing exactly the thing I had pointed out to others about. I reminded myself I could get fined if I didn’t go straight home and isolated. So here I am.

I am determined to finish this hat I am making. I am not going to frog it again. I wish I could have finished it to wear tonight, Samhain in the Southern Hemisphere. Happy All Hallows’ Eve.

Not sure why I sat on this for so long.

Publishing patterns always seemed daunting. I have a friend, a wonderful enabler who encouraged me to explore my capabilities. We had plans to work together to present me to the wonderful world of knitwear design. She goes by the name of Raxor (pronounced Razor). She is the first Gippy I ever met. That, to the Un-initiated, is a cross between a Goth and a Hippy. It is not hard to be inspired by her beautiful range of colours and textures of her yarn.

I was helping out at a wool show she brilliantly put on. I let her run the show and I enjoyed looking after her stall. Next to me was a textile artist Claire Djuve of Djuve Knits. She had a lovely range of knitwear and wool. I fell in love with Crofter and like all crazy yarn-a-holics, bought one skein… after looking at it for a couple months I finally decided to knit a pair of socks. String Bean was born!

I have been lazy and when COVID-19 hit, hopes and dreams seemed to be put on hold. Now, during one sleepless night, I thought, “what better place to put it?” It can be found on Ravelry as well. Please enjoy!

Download the String Bean 8ply .PDF file

We didn’t know what to expect, it being a $3 ex-rental DVD – it was a pleasant surprise. It featured songs from The Byrd’s, The Beach Boys, Roxy Music, ELO and David Bowie performed as the soundtrack to a school play of *Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

*Yes, yes, Christopher Marlowe actually wrote or co-wrote many of (if not all!) the plays attributed to Shakespeare, but there you go.