Well, in my last post, I said I thought we were headed towards school closures, and indeed, we were. So we spent last week holed up in our house, all three of us; my husband I were working from home, and our daughter was schooling from home. It was…a lot.
I’ve been working to set things up so that my classes can still work online, given that my students are now literally scattered across the globe (I teach a mostly international population) and with highly variable internet access, etc. All the while the university keeps emailing out new policies – it’s REALLY hard to plan when the ground is constantly shifting under your feet, but I realize that’s basically the situation that ALL of us are in, because this is an ever-changing unprecedented global pandemic.
At least one of my plans ended up working out: the plan to knit a Wardie cardigan! I’ve had to sit through a LOT of Zoom-trainings, so I’ve actually knit more than I expected to – I’m now past the back decreases and just need to knit straight for quite a few more rows. Straight stockinette is pretty much what my brain can handle at the moment.
The pattern calls for knitting the first and last stitch of every row to create a garter stitch selvedge. I’ve never actually done this before, because I don’t tend to knit sweaters in pieces very often, but I can already really see how it will make seaming easier!
We did get out of the house a few times – I took M out on a walk around our neighborhood while my husband had a Zoom meeting, and we’ve also tried to make a post-lunch walk part of our regular routine.
This week also held our 15th wedding anniversary and the Spring Equinox. We’ve never been big on going out to eat or things like that even when there isn’t a pandemic, so we pretty much had our usual quiet at-home celebrations. We are taking social-distancing very seriously, because my lungs were damaged by the pneumonia I had from late November through January, and we really, really do not want to risk exposing me to COVID-19. I can’t help but feel a bit scared every time my throat feels sore, or I feel extra tired, or have a low-grade fever, especially given that my lungs don’t ever feel great – but those things are also things that happen to me when I’ve been stretched too thin, and the combination of working from home, while parenting, while dealing with ever-changing policies from my university…well, that has certainly stretched me too thin. I’m trying to take care of myself the best that I can in these strange, challenging times, and to remember that even though working from home while parenting is HARD, we are so very lucky to be able to socially distance like this while keeping our jobs.
Stay safe, everyone. Be well. Knit on.
whit::knits 