Blues

My sweetie had minor surgery right before Christmas. We planned it that way, to maximize the holiday pay and shutdowns for as much of his required time off. Which meant that I spend two weeks at home with him. He was supposed to be taking it easy, so the first two days were spent taking care of him, and the remaining 12 days were spent contemplating chaining him to the chair so he would take it easy.

The kids went to Grandmas' houses as usual, to limit noise and blood pressure. I worked from home, and went in to the office for half days here and there, but mostly, I was at home doing home things. Laundry, cleaning, and relaxing. A sort of mental health recovery for me during my sweetie's physical recovery.

I did a little knitting, but not enough to photograph. Same two pairs of socks I have been working on for a long time. Twisted Tweed and Un-named red socks.

I also started something new. There are these cross-stitch patterns that I have been drooling over for years. Reproductions of Monet paintings. My mother got me four of them for Christmas. Considering how large and intricate the patterns are, I think this may be enough for a lifetime.

I started the first one. "Red Waterlilies" The directions are a little different. They recommend working a 10 by 10 stitch square at a time. Sometimes I am only doing a few squares of a color. Start, stitch three squares, end. Sounds crazy, but you would never be able to keep track of what you have stitched otherwise.

There are too many slightly different colors. Right now, all I have done is blues. Sky blues, periwinkle blue, cornflower blue, blue violet, delft blue, antique blue, wedgewood blue. . . .Blues, blues, blues. (The unstitched squares you see is the medium light blue violet that I missed on the list to buy.)

Mind-numbing, but in a good way. I have finished five squares on the first page. There are about 40 squares on each page. There are 30 pages. That makes. . . . roughly 1200 squares. Someone please tell me that my math is incorrect. That is a lot of blues. Sure, there is some greens for the lilipads, and pinks/reds for the flowers. Some lavenders and grays for accent, but still a lot of blue.

Today, it is all about the blues.