Who Was That Masked Man?

I've been busy making masks this week. I started out with this style.

Then someone said "no elastic," so I switched to this one.

Than our local hospital came up with a pattern they wanted, so I switched again. This one has a place for a filter, and if you look closely, you can see a place for a wire to fit around the top of the nose.

Here's a look at the slot for the wire. The pencil shows where I backstitched and skipped to leave an opening for them to put in the wire.

The hospital will be providing their own wire and filter for each mask.

I wondered what I was going to do with all those masks I slaved over, and someone in my church asked for masks of any type for the Central Oregon Veterans' Outreach. She picked up a dozen for them from my front deck yesterday.

DH has finished putting the hardware on the kitchen cabinets. Here are a few shots of the FO.

Rocky likes to photobomb.

Another view.

The buffet. Now he will have to do the bathrooms. It's so much easier to open drawers and doors now!

We happened to buy this cart a few weeks ago. It's coming in handy as a "dirty" surface when we bring groceries in. We pull the cart out a few inches, put the bags there first, as we take out and sanitize each item, which goes to a clean countertop to await being put away. Then we sanitize the surface of the cart when we're done. It's clean right now, but the bags sitting on it now are the masks I finished that will be mailed to family members when DH goes to the PO this week.

Since I finished my cardigan, I had to start a new project. This is the Roadside Beanie from a kit I bought during the Rose City Yarn Crawl at For Yarn's Sake in Beaverton. (That was literally the last time I was out of my neighborhood!)

I ordered a kit for another hat from the same place. That one will be for DH.

I have been getting Daphne's doll ready to send off. I think she has enough clothes. Because I'm making masks, I raided the doll closet, but she also brought some things with her. I'll take photos before I send her off.

Church services are virtual. They send out a link to the bulletin, and rather than print it, I pull it up on my iPad.

Our weekly Zoom session with the family included my BIL, who is back in town after his trip to Arizona.

We still walk when we can. Mostly these are the only neighbors we see:

I feel sorry for people who are already going stir-crazy. I'm happy to stay at home, where it's safe, and do my things. 

What's on my needles: The Bend in the Road Beanie. I'm using this pattern. It's Colorway #3.

What's on my sewing machine: Masks!

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Playing at a Distance. Jolena misses her friend, who has moved away, and Billy shows her how she can still play with her friend at a distance.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I finished The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith. Then listened to Certain Woman of an Age by Margaret Trudeau, which was hilarious but also made me cry. Now I'm listing to Devoted, Dean Koontz's latest novel. I'm almost done with it.

What's in my wine glass: Terra d'Oro Zinfandel 2016. One of our new favorites.

What's my tip of the week: There are a lot of fun things for kids, now free because they are stuck at home. Audible has some free stories in four languages (at least) that are available for free. Harry Potter fans will be interested in the new Wizarding World Website (WWW).

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

In My Cocoon

My Maine Memories Cardigan is coming along.

It has been a strange week, otherwise. We are in isolation. I've been confined to the house since Tuesday, when I started having mild chills. I can't say for sure I've been in contact with anyone who has the COVID-19 virus, but I could have been. I'm not having serious symptoms, so the only reason they would test me is because of my age. Since there's an extreme shortage of test kits in Oregon, I'm just behaving as if I tested positive, just in case. DH had to go to the dermatologist to have a serious thing removed from his back on Wednesday, but now he is quarantined with me, and I'm being careful not to infect him.

Washington Country, Oregon, which is where we were staying, had some new cases. The schools are closed as of today all over the state, and our son and DIL are working from home. This is what that looks like.

Some of the quilts I made for them have been put to use to make a fort in the front room.

Choir has been cancelled for a couple of weeks. That gave rise to some dark humor (not so dark as gallows humor, I hope).

Our choir director contributed this one:

This is probably my favorite.

We're getting low on fresh food, but I made this stew yesterday with most of the fresh vegetables: cabbage, yellow carrots, sweet peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, celery along with a package of dried Peruvian beans, a can of diced tomatoes and some seasonings (salt, pepper, basil, oregano, caraway seeds and bouillon cubes. I cooked the beans in the pressure cooker and added them to the sautéed vegetables, water and seasonings in the slow cooker. We have enough for about 3-4 more meals.

We're planning on watching/listening to the opera tonight. The Met has closed for the time being, so they are streaming encore productions every evening, beginning tonight. Find out more here.

The only crafting I've done this week is working on my Maine Memories Cardigan. I finished the sleeves.

Saturday night I cut the steek for the front. Now I've picked up the stitches for the right front band. I started with the turquoise yarn, but I didn't like how it looked directly on the purple without the white between them, so I pulled that out and started again with purple. I'm planning to enclose the raw edges. I still need to trim them, but I'll do that when I get the band finished. I'll need to order some pewter clasps.

What's on my needles: Just finishing up the Maine Memories Cardigan. 

What's on my sewing machine: Sitting idle.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Staying Well. Charlotte and Emil are concerned about a friend whose human boy has the flu. The friend (a doll) is concerned that he might catch it and give it to his friends. Veronika explains how viruses spread, and what humans and dolls can do to prevent it.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Amy Snow by Tracy Rees. It was an excellent story, and the mystery unfolded gradually, as it should. It was a Daily Deal from Audible awhile ago. Now I'm listening to The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith, also from Audible. Just starting. During our trip, we finished The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz. (I had already finished it, but DH hadn't, so I backed it up.) When we finished it, we listened to The Bone Farm by Dean Koontz. I had that ready, because I knew we would finish the Hurwitz novel long before we reached home. We actually sat in our driveway for about five minutes to listen to it.

What's in my wine glass: Sishaye Cinsault 2019, a red wine. "Sishaye" means "splash" in Zulu, unusual and very nice.

What's my tip of the week: A lot of misinformation has been spreading in the wake of the arrival of the COVID-19 virus. Useful information can be found at the CDC's website here. Facilities for testing vary according to geographical location. Call your local county health department or check its website for information.
It's possible to be symptom-free and still spread the virus. This is especially true for people who are between 20 and 39 years of age, who may never show symptoms and still can spread the disease. Don't go out unless you have to once the virus shows up in your area.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.