Social Engagement

Good morning and happy Sunday! Also happy 2023! It’s been a while, right? At least it hasn’t been as long as between my last post from 2021 and 2022, and you’ll hear more from me in 2023, I promise.

2022 wasn’t an entirely bad year, but there were a lot of very challenging and sad events that overshadow most of the good stuff. We lost Flash, our oldest Italian greyhound, in mid-March to heart disease. We had COVID at the beginning of April, and long COVID issues most of the rest of the year. The spring men’s knitting retreat turned into a COVID event for almost half of our attendees but was still pretty much a success despite that, for most who attended.

We lost Monticello, our last Italian greyhound, in mid-September to liver and kidney disease. While Christmas for us was pretty nice with unexpected the addition of a pharaoh hound puppy (more on that later) a dark shadow was cast on that too when dad found his girlfriend, Peggy, dead on Christmas Day. She had apparently passed away some time Christmas Eve.

Over the last few months I’ve been chipping away at a shawl pattern called Ice Cream Social by Lisa K. Ross. One of our guys at the spring retreat last year brought one he had completed for show and tell and it was stunning. He followed the designer’s color choices a little more closely than I did.

I had some issues with the lace patterns in the first section but once I had ripped out and corrected my knitting and gotten the groove of the lace pattern, everything went smoothly. I am now on the fifth of the six lace stripes in the second section, and well on track to have this finished by the spring retreat in May. I might need some assistance with blocking this project when it’s finished because it’s going to be pretty huge and I am not sure I have a room with enough floor space to accommodate it.

This project has been keeping me engaged and progress has been good.

That’s pretty much all for now. We are going to be starting our usual Sunday morning household routines soon and don’t really have much more planned for the rest of the day so I should be able to get a lot closer to done with the Ice Cream Social shawl. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, stay safe, and I’ll see you next weekend!