Armchair Travels and a New Project

I am still enjoying my time at home, even if not enjoying the reason for it.  I fluctuate between being so very very glad I don't have to be surrounded by my office mates, to feeling so very very sad and angry that people are dying and I blame a certain specific individual for getting us to the place.  I am trying to do my part by staying home, wearing a face mask when out of the house, and trying to live my life in as normal a way as possible.  But what is happening to so many others is always sitting on my heart, making me realize that though I may be helping in the grander scheme of things, I can't do anything actively for anyone.  So I pray, though even that can seem futile at times.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start out with such downer words. 

Thank you for all of the kind comments about my finished socks!  It was nice to get such lovely feedback.  Though I have to tell you that in addition to those comments, I also received via e-mail about 2 weeks' worth of others!  I hadn't thought anything much was problematic, since I thought I'd gotten some and responded where I could.  Apparently I was wrong.  So, if you didn't hear from me, I wasn't ignoring you I just didn't get the messages in a timely fashion.  I have also decided that any comments other than those from the last couple of posts will just not get an e-mail response from me, and I apologize for that, but there is only a limited amount of time I can bear to spend on the computer in any given day.  I will say that this seems to happen in fits and starts, so I will start paying closer attention to the number of comments I approve and if it corresponds to the ones forwarded to my e-mail.

Moving along, today is Unraveled Wednesday, and I've decided to join Kat and the others.  Just this morning I finished this book:

Nope, not high literature, but a cozy mystery that was not just an enjoyable read, but a way to remember our visits to Ireland, back when travel was in our budget.  As well as being just what my brain was able to handle, it was really enjoyable and not *too* much of anything, which means I will likely give the next one in the series a try down the road.

I love armchair traveling, and it's always fun if I have actually been able to visit the places, since I always enjoy knowing just exactly where the author is mentioning.

I had wanted to finish the aforementioned socks not just so I would not drag our informal KAL longer than necessary, but because I had told myself as I was so close to finishing that project, I could not cast on another until they were finished.  And so Saturday afternoon I got started on a new project, and have been enjoying it quite a bit:

This is the start of the Beachcomber shawl pattern, and I have to tell you this is a fun one.  I'm using Knit Picks CotLin, which the designer also used, and I think this will be a lovely item to have for the spring and summer, when it's cool and/or you are someplace with too much A/C, and wish you had something to make you more comfortable. 

There's a little story about this.  Before Covid-19, we had plans to spend Easter weekend this year with my niece Amanda and her husband Pat in Rehoboth Beach.  It is one of our most favorite places to be, and I had a plan to start this while we were there, since a) it would be seasonally appropriate, and b) it seemed like a good location to start a project named after a beach activity.  I had thought of calling my project Beach Holiday.  :-)

But now, it's still being worked on over the same time period, but we'll be at home, celebrating on our own, without Inappropriately Themed Easter Eggs to do with Pat and Amanda, and no beach in sight.  I have therefore decided to name this project Down the Shore, where hopefully we can go on a day trip sometime this summer, God willing.

Related to that,  I thought people might be amused by the phrase "down the shore" and wonder about it if you are not from this area.  Most people say they are headed to the beach, or going to the ocean, etc.  But people here always go down the shore.  Geographically, it makes sense, since a lot - though not all - of the beach towns within easy driving distance are south of here, particularly a lot of the really popular Jersey shore towns.  I was familiar with the expression, having spent some early years living in northern New Jersey, but forgot about it altogether until we moved to Philadelphia, because I was never around anyone after that who used the phrase.  I do remember that someone new to the area that I worked with once asked a native of this area why it was "down the shore" instead of "going to the beach," and the answer actually made a lot of sense.  The explanation was that you go down the shore and once you get there, one of the things you can do is go to the beach.  In other words, the beach is at the shore, but there's other stuff to do as well.

OK you may not even care, but I love this kind of stuff.

In any event, I hope you are doing well, reading things you enjoy, and crafting happily.  :-)