Cabin Fever

It’s been a rough week!  This long winter is finally starting to take its toll on us.  We hunkered down for yet another huge snowstorm the other day, which turned into a proper blizzard.  We’ve gone for weeks with barely stepping outdoors unless absolutely (like running to the car) because of the frigid temperatures and subzero wind chills, so while the kids were enchanted with the virtual whiteout, I breathed a heavy sigh of resignation and settled into yet another few days of being housebound.  If it were just me and my crochet, I could probably stand another few weeks of this, but my active children, hungry to get outside and play, have been jumping off the walls and getting a bit irritable (to put it mildly).  There’s been a lot of brotherly fighting and a frustrated mama (that’s me) who crashes at the end of the day in utter exhaustion.

But there’s respite in sight!  Yesterday was a balmy 42 degrees.  I think the entire city must have decided to go out.  If you don’t live in a winter city, 42 (that’s Fahrenheit) might still sound blistery cold, but when the air has been physically hurting your skin for the past few months, 42 feels like a tropical vacation.  Tomorrow is our big spring break too – it’s supposed to be 50!  That means that the entire city will be in shorts and in the park tomorrow (and that’s no joke!).  The surprising return of warmer weather has meant that the foot and a half of snow that was on the ground has begun melting like crazy, flooding a lot of my friends’ basements and leaving mini rivers in yards and parking lots everywhere, but I’ll take that.  I don’t care if I have to sit in the middle of a mud puddle tomorrow, though – I’ll be outside, soaking in as much sun as possible in the middle of February.

In the meantime, I have been keeping on with my crochet work.  I made two more squares for my mom’s afghan for next Christmas – the Purple Afghan, as I call it. The first, above, is the Pinwheel Star Square.  The pinwheel itself can be found for free here, and since I didn’t find instructions for turning it into a square, I kind of made up the rest as I went along.  The second, below, is my Velvet and Lace Square.  I admit that I was tuned into a New Girl marathon on Netflix and didn’t pay close attention to the directions, and I think I missed something.  By the time I had finished the interior, I was too lazy to go back and fix it all up.  My mom’s not a crocheter, so I don’t think she’ll mind.  If you want to make a better version, you can find (and read!) the free pattern here (look under afghan squares).

I’ve been keeping up with my Mood Afghan and adding more rows to my Mixed Stripe Stripey Blanket too.  I’ve also been commissioned with quite a few projects all of a sudden: amigurumi animals for baby showers, baby hats, and an afghan made entirely of this Waldo’s Square.  My kids have come to me with projects they have requested too:  My elder son has become thrilled with watching the moon each night and wants a moon toy, while my other son has a slew of cute little animals and Star Wars characters.  They both could use some hats for spring, too.  And to top it all off, for some unknown reason I thought it would be a good idea to take a break from crochet and practice my knitting.  And so I’ve started a full-size garter-stitch blanket.  Why?  I’m chalking it up to cabin fever.

There’s enough to keep me busy for as long as winter decides to stick around.  Though I can’t help but hope that won’t be too much longer!

~ Mellie ★