A little behind my time

Rather than a leisurely lie-in on Friday (my day off), I had to get up earlier than I normally do for work, take my car to the garage and wait while they repaired the windshielf wiper motor.  To be fair, the motor worked just fine it just turned itself on and off at inappropriate times.  After getting that all sorted, I made a quick trip (if there is such a thing) to Trader Joe's and then home.  By then, my weekend schedule was thrown completely off kilter and here I am blogging on a Sunday.  Not just a Sunday, but the first Sunday in May!!!  

I think this one's going to be long, so grab a cuppa your favorite:

The bird sightings for this blog are very colorful.  A pair of rose-breasted grosbeak.  Here's a picture of a male and female from the Birds & Blooms website:

We are in their migratory area so they'll only be around for a few days to maybe a week but always nice to have them stop by.

We also had a brief stop by of four or five ruby-throated hummingbirds last week.  Here's a picture of  a male from The Spokesman-Review: (not my local paper, but a very good picture)

As best as I could tell, there were three males and two females.  We usually have two or three pairs that stay through the summer, butI haven't seen any that look like they're settling in yet.

And while I was typing, a male indigo bunting  joined the group at the feeders.  We're in their breeding area, but I only see them occasionally.  The photo is from The Cornell Lab.

But you're not here for birds are you?  How about:

No, that's not the latest picture of Baby W, that is a picture of the newest Baby L!  Jack and Cassie will have a sibling come October!  Another new one to meet!  And aren't the holidays going to be fun with five littles?

That news changes my crafting plans for the rest of the year.  As I need to do another blanket, birth notice/sampler and stocking, so April was probably the last month for my regular rotation.  I'll need to work out a new one as I don't want to lose the momentum I've built up on Goldie and Zen.

With that, here's a broad recap for April - I stitched for some amount of time on 27 days, I knit on 29 and took one day off from both.  

I'll start with the knitting.  The majority of my knitting time has been for Baby W's blanket.  

The pattern is Puffed Baby Blanket from Plymouth Yarn in Lion Brand Baby Soft in the Twinkle Print colorway.  I am well into the second ball of yarn.  This is a "knit until you're happy with the length" pattern so not sure how much more I have to do.  

On the 19th, the first clue for the Knights Who Say Knit mystery MAL dropped.  Clue 2 has dropped and Clue 3 will come out tomorrow, I still have two sections of Clue 1 to finish but I am very pleased with how it's coming along.  I have done a LOT of unknitting, ripping back and have even learned to ladder down but I'm counting those as gains as they are all things I will need to know in future projects.  There are still lots of mistakes but they are ones that I can live with.  Here's where I was through section 5 of part 1:

Knights Who Say Knit by Lyrical Knits.  Yarn from Miss Babs in Hamster and Elderberries 

And yes, that is an oldie but goodie Knights is sitting on - will get to that in a minute.

But, I just remembered   was last Sunday and my next project falls under it.  WIPocalypse is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings.  It's an encouraging SAL to remind us to give a little love to the pieces we've already started even though that or that or that new start is calling.  When I posted last I had four days left on my Japanese Zen Moss Garden by Chatelaine.  You can see previous progress pictures from April here.  In the days that were remaining in its rotation it went from here:   to here:   Here's a closer look:  

You can also see my progress on Goldie in the previous post.  She's the other project on my WIPocalypse list this year.  Melissa gives us prompts each month and April's was:  Have you found yourself to be more or less productive in your stitching during the Covid-19 pandemic?  This is an easy one for me - MUCH more productive.  As I've mentioned, I used to get up at 3:45 AM, leave my house by 4:45AM, return about 7:45 PM and was in bed by 9:00 PM so not a lot of time for much of anything.  My stitching/crafting time was limited to a few hours on the weekends and whatever I could manage on the train (although the train had become so crowded that it was difficult to do any stitching).  Since I've been working from home, I've not only gained the commuting time but several additioal hours as I don't have to go to bed with the sun (well that saying only works in the summer but...).  My biggest issue was getting myself out of the mindset of "I don't want to get settled as I don't know when this will end".  I still feel that way, but we have been told we will be given at least 30 days notice before we have to come back into the office and once back in the office, we'll still be on, as best as I can tell, a very telework heavy schedule.  I believe I'll be teleworking four days a week.  They haven't given any guidance on our schedule if we're on an alternate work schedule like I am.  It is possible, I may only have to go in one day every other week.

Once I finished my 10 days on Zen, I pulled out Temperature Tree and added the rest of March's and through April 22nd's leaves.  

It is still a much cooler tree than last year, although there are a few warm days in there.  At some point I will post a comparison with last year's.

Once Temperature Tree was caught up, the Wheel of What's Next? was consulted and decided that Elegant Doily deserved some time.  The best I can tell, the last time this piece was on the frame was for a week in August of 2015.  This is one of my oldest WIPs.  I started it during my son's senior year in high school. His 20-year reunion is this year.  Here's where it was when I started   and when I finished up on Friday     and here's a closer look   Not a lot done. I finished cutting the diamond on the left and the squares in the diamond and started wrapping. This one takes me forever to get going on.  I will find anything to do but work on it.  Once I get started, it is enjoyable, but it takes SO much to get me started.  Hopefully, the Wheel of What's Next? will pick it again soon and I'll remember how relaxing it is to wrap those bars and sit down and start right away.

Phew! I think that's it.  Next time I hope to have my new rotation figured out.  

As I still haven't decided between two pieces for Baby W's announcement, I'm going to start one today to see if it sparks anything.  If not, maybe it will work for Baby L.  If not, I had it in my stash so I must have liked it and will have it done.