Sometimes it just feels good to finish something.
Last week felt like a busy week for me, and it was in terms of whatever passes for busy in this world, which still feels very different to me from the world of a year ago. All those things one must do were done, but I also expanded my horizons a bit, and finished a long-term project, one that might have taken longer than it should, but then who can say how long a project should take. Circumstances often intervene.
I wanted to postpone this blog post until the blanket I have been knitting was completely finished: knitted, blocked, dried. It took a tad longer than I had hoped, but that seems to be the story of 2020. The first photo is of the wet blanket, folded on the kitchen counter after being rolled up in towels to remove excess moisture, and before I laid it out to dry. I did post that photo on Instagram on Saturday morning. It has been cool however, and I have not yet turned on the heat, despite the fact that it was 64 degrees in the house Sunday morning. Cool air meant slower drying time, and the blanket was not ready until today.
It is really more of a throw or lap-sized blanket. Measuring 4’ x 4’, the blanket is knit from Noro Taiyo, a cotton, silk, wool, and nylon blend, which makes it very versatile for our Tennessee climate. This was so much fun to knit that, when I found more of the same yarn in a different color on sale, I purchased enough to knit a second. I don’t really need more sweaters at the moment and I do need throws and blankets, although I wouldn’t count on seeing another blanket soon.
But beginnings are also good: to that end I went out and double dug a small bed in the yard, only about 8 square feet, hauling away 4 not-quite-full 14-gallon trugs of clay and mixing in soil amendments. Yes, I was tired. But I did more in one short 40 minute session than I had been able to accomplish in hours over the summer, and it was a good kind of tired. My muscles ached, but I could not help but note the difference in my muscle aches as compared to a few short months ago. This was the tiredness brought on by exertion in muscles that had adequate blood supply. It was a remarkable feeling, a positive feeling, and one I do not believe I had fully comprehended before. Two months ago, to dig up 8 square feet would send me to bed for 2 days. That is why I eventually had to stop gardening, and let the jungle take over. Just being able to do this work was amazing to me.
I stopped and rested before I was exhausted, and two days later I transplanted the plants that had been languishing behind my garage since July. The actual planting was harder than the digging, not surprisingly, and I have in fact taken it pretty easy since. My back was a little sore, with a few periods of spasm, and my walks necessarily became shorter, but this wasn’t so much a setback as a small hiccup. I am almost back to where I was, walking-wise, at the beginning of last week, and I am grateful that I have months to build strength before the next gardening season is upon us.