Back in the U.S.A. Spring 2020

Now one year later we are back in the U.S. for what was a planned 2 month visit with family and friends. We had only been in the U.S. for about 2 weeks when corona virus hit. I was very fortunate to see our dear friends in Las Vegas and part of my family before self quarantining became the new normal. The unusual back drops we’ve found to prop up my knitting have been at an AirBnB in Colorado.

Four days after visiting Arizona, on March 17th, Tim and I began the social distance dance in Utah to stay safe. We felt it could be quite awhile before we were able to travel again, so I bought a stash of yarn and the proper tools to have plenty of projects to work. My first big purchase was from Amazon and it was a good set of Chiagoo Knitting needles, a Tunisian Crochet set and a good knitting bag.

Knitting bag with crochet and knitting needles

I love the Chiagoo knitting needles as they come with cables so I can knit “in the round” as well as straight or flat knitting. “Knitting in the round” is an alternative to using 2 straight needles and having to sew a seam, or to using double pointed needles. Some of the benefits of using a single circular needle for round knitting are that you do not have to worry about misplacing one of your needles, you have fewer needle tips to keep track of, no seam to sew, and it is easier to handle a larger tube of knitting such as a sleeve, hat or body of a garment.

Example of Tunisian Crochet hook above (image taken from the web)

If you’ve never heard of Tunisian crochet, neither had I. Tunisian crochet is a type of crochet that holds multiple loops on the hook in a style similar to what is done in knitting. It differs from knitting in that it uses a crochet hook, not knitting needles. The result is a fabric that is beautifully textured using a technique that combines the best of knitting and crochet. Tunisian crochet is also commonly known as Afghan Crochet. I like it because of the even edges it produces and am experimenting with them at the moment.

We left our place in Utah after one month of hunkering down, since someone else had rented it. After realizing we would be in the U.S. for some time, we also purchased a used car to cut down on rental car fees. We made a 6 hour trip to Colorado for our next quarantine, stopping only for gas and groceries once.

Once in Colorado I realized I could purchase more yarn as we now had a car and not a plane so there were less weight restrictions. My stash is growing – Yikes! MUST GET THIS UNDER CONTROL!

Craft Stash

Where are my projects ending up? Often I leave behind items for our airbnb hosts who have been generous with allowing us to live in their homes. Or else they get sent to an unassuming friend or family member. Thanks Dad for requesting a large dish cloth. Smile.

Set of potholders…oops…I learned how important it is to find a proper border or they roll up constantly. I also learned that using an open knit stitch on something like this is detrimental to ones’ health. I used two skeins of yarn at once for thickness.

Tim and I lucked out and found a unique home in Colorado on AirBnB. We’ve heard it was a dance studio, a theater performance space and a church at one time. Now it is being used as an AirBnB. We will have another post in our travel section of our “home” in Colorado but we had fun staging a few of my projects using the home as backdrop for interest.