Lobster, Anyone?

 As I write, it is snowing to beat the band and will be for most of the rest of the day.  We're supposed to get 4-8 inches, after which it will be quite windy and VERY cold by mid-week.  It was so lovely to have dry ground on which to walk and drive, but I suppose I shouldn't complain too much; we do live in Maine after all.  At least our road crews do a good job of clearing up the roads during and after storms.  Those poor folks that were stuck on the highway in Virginia for over a day...how awful.

I've completed my mittens that originated as a kit that I purchased just prior to my surgery, as an incentive to do the work of healing so I could knit them.  Being a dedicated sock knitter, usually on size 1 needles, knitting worsted yarn on larger ones took some getting used to, not to mention getting used to stranded knitting again.

The lobster design is based on a logo from a cannery from 30 years ago.  They are sized for women, S/M, I would say.  I like the way they came out, but have not yet tried them out.  Why?  Well, I'm not a fan of lobsters OR red, so not really sure that I want to wear them, although if they are as warm as they seem like they should be, I really should give them a try.

I'm still working away on my towel warp, having just completed towel number 5 of 8 this morning.  The first two have black cotton/linen as weft, the next two use dark purple cotton, now numbers 5 and 6 have black cotton.  I think the last two will have dark blue.  So far, though my hand can get a bit tired, I seem to have no pain in my thumb or wrist while weaving, so yay!

I'm also working on stabilizing my bow hold while playing my violin.  I've read and seen that it is very important to keep the joints of your thumb bent while playing, but mine simply will.not.do.that.  First and third knuckles are bent and flexible, but my second joint remains slightly hyper-extended no matter what I do, so that is my reality and I have to work with that.  I would really prefer to not have to wear a splint whenever I play, so I keep working on developing a hold that will sound OK and be as flexible as possible.

Covid, particularly Omicron, is spreading like wildfire everywhere, not that you need me to tell you that.  I've heard that if someone is on an elevator, has Covid and coughs, then exits, someone getting on it can still catch it.  Yikes.  It almost seems there is no way to avoid it.  The only thing that can be done is to protect yourself as well as you can by getting all the vaccines, wearing well-fitting masks that are either surgical, KN95's or multi-layered, tightly woven cloth masks, preferably with a filter.  I've been hearing that advisors are encouraging the president to change his messaging to one of living with the virus, but except for the precautions I mentioned above, there seems little else to do.  I do find myself worried about catching this, even though I am as protected as I can be, but who wanted to take the chance?  I'm home most of the time, except for weekly grocery runs, done early in the morning, fully masked.  I love to walk, (though not in this weather), so that has been the only way I've been with people outside of my household lately, and even that is infrequent.  I guess it's a good thing I'm a homebody anyway, yet the anxiety I frequently deal with is still around, popping up often.  Is that what they mean about "living with it???"

On that oh-so-depressing note, I have run out of things to say that anyone would have any interest in.  I hope everyone remains safe and healthy, and continues to develop a lot of interests that they can do at home or over video conferencing.  Sigh.