Catching up

Back in November I wrote about knitting hats for hatsgiving.org, a charity collecting hats (homemade or store bought!) to send to pediatric cancer treatment centers across the country. They collected eight thousand, nine hundred and eighty-nine (8,989) hats for children with cancer this year. It turns out that knitting a plain hat in the round (ribbed edge, stockinette for a few inches and decreases at the top, like the Purl Soho pattern “Basic hats for everyone”) is incredibly soothing, and a very satisfying, quick knit. So satisfying, in fact, that when I realized I didn’t have a lot planned for family Christmas gifts this year, plain hats in nice yarn colors became the default. Deep green with an Army patch for the youngster who headed for basic training last summer, shades of blue with a Yankees logo for my mother-in-law, deep red with matching mittens for a friend’s toddler (who got a couple of pairs of mittens mid-winter last year and wouldn’t take them off).

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And, lingering in the work-in-progress pile: three little sweaters for one-year-old triplets, intended for their birthdays in August, then for Christmas presents. Finally off the needles in early January, in time for me to catch up on a present I’d had in the back of my head since last February (and also intended for Christmas): a pair of convertible fingerless mitts/mittens for a friend’s teenager, who seemed to be forgetting to wear her existing gloves because she “needed” to be able to use her phone. Convertible mittens are possibly the most clever knitting pattern I’ve come across yet: fingerless mitts, with instructions where to put scrap yarn to pick up stitches across the back of the hand for the mitten top. Advised that her favorite colors in previous years were olive green and purple, I was (astonishingly) able to find a gorgeous green, purple, and turquoise fingering-weight yarn from Knit Picks (Hawthorne fingering, in “Vancouver”). For these, I’m adding an i-cord loop at the end of the mitten top along with a button on the cuff so that she can button the mitten top back when she’s busy on her phone, but wear it flipped over when her hands get cold. The pattern is from glennaknits.com – https://crazyknittinglady.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/podsters-dec15-13-pdf.pdf. I’m enjoying making them so much that I’ve already been gifted an appropriate skein for a pair for himself (from ramenneedles.com), and have selected a Done Roving skein from the stash for a pair of my own. And then I’ll get on with the rest of my list of planned projects (sweaters for other infant cousins, a cowl from yarn I was given for Christmas, a gorgeous scarf/shawl kit also received at Christmas)…. after I finish a couple of pairs of tiny mittens and a little hat for a friend’s toddler.

Convertible mittens. So clever!

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A tiny hat distraction this weekend

“Micro Thanksgiving”

Photo by Flickr user Jim Choate, shared under a Creative Commons license

If you pay much attention to social media (or probably the news, though I don’t watch network television so I can’t say), seems like a lot of folks are unaccustomed to a smaller Thanksgiving celebration, rather than having 20+ people involved in their holiday tradition. As someone who’s had a “micro Thanksgiving” for years (so this year will be a “regular Thanksgiving” for us)- welcome! You may find you don’t want to go back to the enormous gatherings of previous years.

At my house it’s just the two of us, with maybe one or two guests (we’re not doing that part this year, because I’m not convinced other people are limiting their interactions enough in a pandemic). Thanksgiving food shopping is simply adding a few items to the regular weekly grocery list: a whole chicken (about 5lbs), extra bread and onion for stuffing, potatoes, baby carrots, frozen French cut green beans, whole berry cranberry sauce, and maybe a fresh bottle of Gravy Master or a new packet of Bell’s seasoning, along with any supplies for baked goods to be made (typically pumpkin pie, from a canned mix). I don’t take time off the day before, because there’s no travel involved and I’m not prepping food for thirty.

Instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to start dinner preparations and cooking a gigantic turkey, on Thanksgiving Day itself we get up whenever we wake. After a relaxed breakfast, we may spend much of the day on the couch (the 1993 Harrison Ford classic “The Fugitive” frequently features). Dinner prep doesn’t start until at least 3:30pm (we don’t watch football, and we like to eat around our normal dinnertime – between 6:30 and 7pm), and that part only consists of washing and buttering the chicken and popping it in the oven. Late in the afternoon I put together our simple stuffing, make the mashed potatoes and boil the vegetables, and when the chicken is done I make gravy from the juices and voila! Dinner is served. Very simple, very stress-free – and not in the least bit exhausting, so we don’t need to spend the next day recovering, either. Can happily recommend!

Friday pick-me-up

Recently online I’ve seen people moaning about changing the clocks as we head into the period of the year that has the least daylight. I get it – in my office I’m surrounded by gray (walls, desks, cabinets, carpet, everything) and looking out the window to a gray sky and clouds doesn’t help much. But, as with many things, if you take a moment to look around every day, you start to notice things to appreciate. This year, I’m noticing that the shrubs around my house really come into gorgeous reds and oranges in November (rather than October, like the trees). And November has some of the best morning and late-afternoon light. Plus, as someone who appreciates a good lamppost – November is really their time to shine (uh, as it were).

There’s no better time of year to appreciate a good lamppost, or the warm glow of a streetlamp in tree branches, or a light in the arch of a building – all of which can be done on your way home of an evening, if Management simply cannot allow you to work from home.

Take a moment, or slow your steps briefly, to look around as you go about your afternoon. What you see may surprise you.

I know it’s especially dark in Ireland in November – making up for the days when it was light until nearly 11pm in June – but if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to play with camera features to get shots like these after work!

“Hatsgiving”

Recently, among the many promotional emails that flood my inbox daily (as I’m sure happens to many others), I saw an email from a local heating oil supplier, Main Care Energy, with a seasonal request that immediately caught my attention: they’re accepting donations of new, soft hats (store bought or handmade) at Main Care locations, and will be donating $1 to hatsgiving.org for every hat received at their locations. Hatsgiving is a charitable organization which provides soft, warm hats for children battling cancer.

Naturally, I did what any self-respecting knitter would do: picked up some extra-soft yarn (if you’re looking for recommendations, Red Heart Soft is extremely soft, affordable, and machine washable) and got to work. I decided to use the Purl Soho “Basic Hats for Everyone” pattern (available for purchase on their website) and I’ve managed three children’s-size hats. It’s a very quick knit that really doesn’t require much concentration at all – perfect, for example, for when you’re watching for the results of an election.

Main Care are collecting hats at the following locations through November 16th (Monday-Friday 8am-4pm):

• Albany, NY: 1 Booth Lane
• Averill Park, NY: 4 Teal Road
• Catskill, NY: 15 Main Street
• Chatham, NY: 328 Pond Hill Road
• Greenwich, NY: 58 Corliss Avenue
• Hyde Park (Nash Brother Oil), NY: 1650 Rte 9G
• Newburgh, NY: 29 New Road
• Schenectady (BRRR Heating), NY: 1282 Pangburn Rd

And if you’re not in New York, but want to contribute (they provide hats for cancer centers across the country), monetary donations are also accepted on the Hatsgiving website.

A taste of the season

Years ago, in the eighties, when I was a kid, one of my clearest memories of autumn was the apple nut muffins we used to get at Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, NY. My mom used to bring some home in a small white paper bag, and we’d enjoy them for days after a visit.

Indian Ladder Farms, Altamont, NY

Fast-forward to a few years ago (2014? 2015?). I went back to Indian Ladder Farms, and, not seeing any apple nut muffins available at their bakery section in the farm store, I inquired about them (lots of apple cider donuts. No muffins.). Quizzical looks greeted my query. So I gave up, bought a few other things, and headed home.

It’s that time of year again when I really would love an apple nut muffin. I tried googling “Indian Ladder Farms apple nut muffin”, but the internet has no trace of these baked delights I remember. It does, however, have recipes. It turns out that the apple nut muffin is the official muffin of New York State, with a recipe created by schoolchildren in North Syracuse.

I have great plans for making these muffins next week. But I noticed something interesting. The date they became the official muffin of New York State? 1987. So the muffins I remember may have been to celebrate apple nut muffins becoming the official muffin of New York.

Recommendations for a successful “staycation”

I recently took a week off and, like many, didn’t have anywhere to go “away” to on vacation this year. In the process of figuring out what would work as a suitable replacement break, I learned a couple of lessons the hard way, which I thought I’d share in case anyone else might have an easier staycation experience as a result.

1. Establish boundaries clearly at the beginning. If you’re at your own home with not much else to do, other people (including well-meaning family members) may think this is a great time for you to do chores you’ve been putting off/run errands/engage in difficult correspondence etc. I’ve done this – and I still regret not having a restful break when I did it. So this time I developed a simple question to ask: if I was away somewhere, would I be doing this task? If the answer is “no” (and it probably is)- it can wait until you “get back”. Be sure to share this evaluation with your family/close friends if that seems appropriate, so they’re not expecting you to do errands/chores with your otherwise-unscheduled time.

2. Identify local attractions to visit/for day trips during your break. This was incredibly helpful for me to really enjoy my vacation. We normally vacation by the ocean, so I tended to head for bodies of water where I could enjoy similar sounds. We live near Albany, New York, and are fortunate to have a variety of lakes and rivers, local and state parks, and historic sites available nearby. Even better under the current circumstances is the fact that they’re generally not particularly busy on a Tuesday in September, for example. During my “staycation” I took some time to go visit the Champlain Canal; I sat by Esopus Creek and listened to the water lap against the boats at Waterfront Park in Saugerties; I saw one of my favorite views of the region from the overlook at stop 9 along the tour of the Saratoga National Battlefield; I lunched at the Riverfront Park in Athens NY looking out at the Hudson-Athens lighthouse; and I spent the good part of an afternoon exploring the paths around Frederick Church’s landscape at Olana, with spectacular views of the Hudson River. It was amazingly relaxing, and I would highly recommend investigating parks or green spaces locally in planning a “staycation”.

3. Don’t rush! You’re on vacation! This is not a week to pack as much in as possible. This is a week for not having a schedule, and going easy on yourself if you’re running later than you expected, or don’t quite get to everything you’d hoped.

4. Most importantly: have fun! I stayed mostly off my phone, and really only used it as a camera. It helped! But whatever you do, pick activities that you know you’ll enjoy.

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Birthday traditions (or, the annual handknit top)

Back in spring 2018, after having been a knitter for about seven and a half years, I decided it was time to try my hand at knitting myself a top for my birthday. After some looking around online, I fell for the Derecho pattern from Berroco (link to the pattern on Berroco’s website). A gorgeous circular yoke (I didn’t want to attempt any seams, though I’ve relaxed a bit on that score since, having learned the three-needle bind-off) and some flattering shaping, plus I was keen to try their Remix Light yarn partly for its linen content as well as for the fact that the fibers are recycled. The pattern was a joy to knit, and I was delighted with the results (though further scrutiny suggests I missed a row or two in the yoke directions somewhere- not that anyone would notice).

Last year I decided to do it again, this time in a gorgeous green shade, making some improvements on my pattern-following skills along the way. And while I would happily knit it many more times over (there are so many delightful shades of Remix Light, too, and I’m a fan of finding something you like and having it in multiple colors for simplicity), I decided this year I’d make something completely different. I had purchased Remix Light in a light purple shade from the delightful Spinning Yarns in Dover, NH, on a trip a couple of years ago and decided to use it for the “Mapleshade” pattern by Sloane Rosenthal (link to her blog, her post includes an embedded link to Ravelry). I’ve discovered over the past year that I quite like knitting a raglan construction, having attempted one for an infant cousin last year. The pattern is delightful – there’s a diagonal cable on each side to keep things interesting, and the accompanying spreadsheet (to keep track of repeats) is a lifesaver – it seems extremely complicated at first (cable section plus adding/removing stitches to make the diagonal, and some A-line shaping) but that made it all make sense. Very clever, clearly written, and actually much easier to knit than I was expecting. It’s been a little too hot to wear it much over the summer (it’s a short-sleeve top, but the sleeves are long short-sleeves) but I’m very much looking forward to having it in frequent rotation over the next few months!

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Go local: near Schroon Lake, NY

It is oddly reassuring to me that, in this hyper-connected day and age, there are places not all that far from my house that I can go and have limited or no cell service. An hour-and-a-half drive from my house, after passing the sign on the Northway (I-87 north from Albany) that says “Limited Cell Service next 64 miles; Emergency phone boxes every 2 miles”, we arrive at the north end of Schroon Lake and head into the woods off Adirondack Road for the half-mile hike in to Gull Pond. Even if the small parking area appears crowded, after multiple visits we’ve discovered that it’s generally unusual to actually run into more than a couple of people on a visit- which makes it perfect for social distancing! It is really beautiful up there – evergreen forest cover with a view across the pond to cliffs that provide a sharp backdrop against a clear blue sky, with just the sound of the birds and fish jumping in the water for company. There are trout in the pond, too, and although we haven’t tried the swimming (yet), we’ve seen other people in the water, so presumably it can’t be that cold. And best of all – no cell service, so no text messages going off, no Instagrammers blocking the view, no email, no shouted conversations about subjects inane or stressful. There are trout in the pond- some of which can actually be caught instead of just eating the worm around the hook!-so it’s perfect for a few hours’ fishing (or, in our case, fishing-and-knitting).

A few minutes’ drive into the village of Schroon Lake will bring you to a Stewart’s, a bait shop, a village store, and our preferred dinner when we’re up that way: Sticks and Stones Wood Fired Bistro and Bar, which has excellent food at reasonable prices in a family-friendly environment. You can order online for takeout, and even bring it over to the village park overlooking Schroon Lake. Highly recommended.

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Josephine’s sweater

One of my favorite kinds of knitting is one I like to refer to as “knitting for smallies” – a friend shares the joyful news of an impending new addition to their family, and I immediately start thinking of yarn/pattern options for tiny people. Infant knitting has much to recommend it: unless you’re doing a blanket the project is generally small enough to be finished relatively quickly, there are so many wonderful patterns for little ones out there with so many different techniques, and frequently you can put together something fantastic with yarn any knitter may already have around the house.

I confess: sometimes I have trouble not knitting ALL THE THINGS once I start looking at patterns for infants. The combination of joy and those tiny tiny finished knit pieces can be overwhelming. One pattern I’ve come back to time and again, though, is “Hyphen” by Frogginette (the link is to her site)- just enough fiddly bits to keep it interesting, it’s a straightforward pattern that’s consistently a pleasure to knit. I actually enjoy making this sweater so much that I’ve purchased the adult-sized version to make for myself (eventually), called Em Dash. For this one I wanted to be sure the new parents would be able to machine-wash and tumble-dry the sweater if needed, so I went with a soft light acrylic (label sadly lost) that was a delight to work with. At the three-month size of the pattern, this took me next to no time to knit up (just over a week?), particularly since I was knitting my way through all my meetings while working from home. The anchor buttons were a deliberate choice – the smallie’s mother and I both have Rhode Island connections, and I thought she would get a kick out of them (she did). I was delighted with how nicely they suit the sweater.

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Rhode trips

Or, travel in the time of COVID…

After a childhood filled with summer vacations on the Atlantic in Maine, for over fifteen years of my life, I lived within about half an hour of either the Atlantic Ocean or the Irish Sea. Twice, I had the good fortune to live a couple of blocks from a beach – in Narragansett, Rhode Island, in the late ’90s, and in 2001 in Killiney, Co. Dublin (Ireland). In 2012, I lived two miles from Wollaston Beach, in Quincy, MA. For the past six years or so, I’ve lived in upstate New York – just outside of Albany. And as much as I love the canals and the many lakes and ponds – there is simply no replacement for the ocean, and the smell of the salty ocean/sea breeze.

Last year we got really spoiled: almost every other weekend we were away camping, more than a couple of times to Burlingame Campground in Charlestown, RI. We got used to regular access to jonnycakes, and AwfulAwfuls, and the Rhode Island state drink. Over the winter we were already occasionally plotting our summer trips, looking forward to fishing at Charlestown breachway and stopping at each of our favorite diners for breakfasts complete with jonnycakes (our favorites, for anyone interested: Beacon Diner in East Greenwich, which happens to be right up the road from Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle; Bishop’s 4th Street Diner in Newport; and Jigger’s Diner, also in East Greenwich).

And then… pandemic. To be clear: we’re very lucky (thankfully). We’re fine work-wise, we have a home and garden we love, we enjoy each other’s company (and are able to entertain ourselves), and we have a grocery, pharmacy, convenience store, and post office within about 15 minutes’ walk from our house. But working from home in the middle of a pandemic, with only a small likelihood of a vacation this year for various reasons, gets to wearing on a person after a while. So I started looking at Google maps, and it claimed that we could get to the Beacon Diner for a jonnycake fix in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Doable.

Now, I cannot stand driving on the Mass Pike. We’ve done it so many times when there have been situations where traffic comes to a complete standstill with no warning and no visible reason whatsoever. Last summer it got to the point where we would gladly take additional time on the journey if it meant avoiding the Mass Pike. But – if it means I can have jonnycakes, and we can go to Charlestown State Beach, and stop at Dave’s Fresh Marketplace to load up on local goods (and Stonewall Kitchen products), and hit Newport Creamery for dinner and AwfulAwfuls – it’s worth it (especially since traffic is a bit down, what with the pandemic and people not taking normal breaks, and all).

The way we do it, a day trip to Rhode Island is about as safe as staying local: we get (masked, sanitized) takeout brunch at the Beacon Diner that we eat in the car, go fishing-and-knitting along the breachway with a good distance between ourselves and anyone else, and get takeout for dinner at Newport Creamery (masked, sanitized, eaten in the car). It’s not the same, but it’s so much better than missing out on all of it this year. I’d do the drive just for the jonnycakes, but I’m not sure I’d be allowed to leave Rhode Island that quickly- or want to, to be fair. And given that we’ve had a much higher incidence of actually catching striped bass at Charlestown rather than on the Hudson (in the sense that one is always greater than zero), it’s likely we’ll be repeating our Rhode trips more frequently than I initially envisioned – and that’s alright.

Knitting projects: Mags’s shawl

One of my favorite knitting projects, particularly in summer, is a good fingering-weight shawl. A close friend of mine celebrates her birthday in July, and I think a shawl is the ultimate all-season gift: perfect for wrapping around your shoulders if there’s a chill in the air (or some serious air conditioning), it can also be worn in cooler months around the neck for warmth.

This year, what with coronavirus lockdowns and a strong desire to keep my family safe and avoid interacting with people wherever possible, I decided to knit from stash as much as I could (I could also probably use some newly-reopened stash space for future purchases, to be fair). I happen to have a decent size stash of yarn – Rhinebeck hauls from previous years, visits to local yarn shops on various trips, and a healthy relationship with the yarn shops closest to me mean that I have an adequate amount of yarn to handle my normal volume of knitting for a while if needed. After a good search through my stash, I found this gorgeous Corrie sock yarn (colorway: “cowboy”) from Flying Goat Farm in Frederick, Maryland. It’s beautiful to work with – super soft, and the colors reminded me as much of the ocean and a visit to the beach as they did cowboys and denim.

When I was looking around for a pattern in late May, I specifically wanted to support a Black American knitting designer with my purchase (and I plan to continue to support more diverse makers in the future). I knew about Jeanette Sloan’s list of POC designers and crafters from previous discussions online about diversity in knitting, so after some time perusing the various links I quickly fell in love with the “Nyah” shawl pattern from Tamy Gore, a designer in neighboring New Jersey publishing as Narrow Path Designs. It seems appropriate to note that although it’s not required to pay for use of the POC designers list, it’s generally a good idea to pay people for their work, and you can buy Jeanette Sloan a coffee to thank her here. (The POC designers list has evolved into the searchable BIPOC in Fiber website).

The “Nyah” shawl pattern is a delight to knit- enough fancy needlework to keep it interesting with the lace in the middle, and enough garter stitch to make it easy to cruise along for extended periods (such as, say, meetings where I’m not required to present anything). And I adore a picot bind-off; there are some that may say it takes a while, but in my (knit-nerd) opinion it is such fun (fancy footwork, as it were).

I typically bring my knitting just about anywhere, and in summertime there aren’t many greater pleasures than sitting by a body of water or kayaking out on a calm pond/small lake with my knitting while my husband fishes (it’s handy to have a partner whose interests work well with your own, imo). This particular project came along as we discovered Lock Five on the Champlain Canal in Schuylerville, NY, and when we investigated the fishing possibilities on the Hudson at a little out-of-the-way spot on the Mohawk-Hudson Bike/Hike path in Watervliet, NY, as well as a few hours on the Mohawk/Erie Canal at Peebles Island State Park, across from Waterford, NY. I like the idea that my knitting has already had a few adventures, so it’s imbued with the enjoyment of those hours to be shared with the recipient in adventures to come.

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Out of step

I should have seen it coming. There were the occasions when I received meeting invitations with ten minutes’ notice (rude at the best of times, in my opinion, and certainly not appropriate for a remote workforce), and when my supervisor emailed five times in 45 minutes (and tried to instant message and call) after receiving no immediate response (nothing that I’m doing is customer service related, nor is it on fire. It does not require an immediate turnaround). There was the comment from a manager on a morning call that it was a gorgeous day and he’d be opening the windows, and was looking forward to going outside on his 15-minute break. I feel obliged to note that I’m a salaried employee, not hourly, so they’re paying for my abilities, training and experience, not how many hours I sit at a desk (different people can do the same thing at different speeds, too).

Apparently I’ve been doing this “working from home” thing differently than some people in my office. Based on recent conversations, they’ve been sitting at their computers for their full 7.5 hours per day, five days a week, even if they don’t have any work to do and don’t have any meetings scheduled.

If I don’t have any assigned tasks to do, am waiting for someone to get back to me, or only have what I consider a small task or two that are expected to last me the week…. I check in on my email regularly throughout my normal working hours, but I’m not wasting my time sitting at my desk at home all day waiting for something to do. Instead, I’ve been doing other things. Like going for walks – I’ve discovered I feel remarkably much better if I’ve gotten my walk in. I try to do about 2 miles a day – walk up to the post office and shops, go for a walk along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike/Hike trail, or walk in one of the many parks in the Albany area. Of course as one might expect, I’ve been knitting my way through my meetings if I’m not the one sharing my screen (no video, thank goodness). And I’ve done a lot more gardening this year than I expected, which is a huge stress-buster. I’ve planted sunflowers and coneflowers, lavender and spirea and clematis and bayberry… and I’m really looking forward to seeing these perennials growing and flowering over the coming years. And at this point I’m having trouble figuring out how exactly it’s beneficial to anyone for us to be required to come back in to the office at any point, given that Management has said we’re doing just as much work from home as we normally would be in the office.

the thing about the thing…

I deleted my Ravelry account this morning. I’ve been a member since… 2011? 2012? I started knitting in July 2011, so it must have been around the same time. I found it useful, but didn’t “love” it like some people are exclaiming – it was a tool to find new patterns, or while away some time on the computer looking at pretty knitted things, or occasionally help someone make travel plans to go to Ireland, or Rhinebeck, or Edinburgh. I confess: I rarely read the blog posts, and I didn’t find some “community” on the website, though I liked it well enough as these things go.

Some readers may already know about the Ravelry update issues – after the recent redesign, there were major accessibility issues. Users reported suffering from migraines, seizures (!), and retinal bleeds (!!), just from using the website. A full rollback and apology did not happen. Founders claimed people were making things up. The website is still inaccessible and still causing harm. (note: CAUSING PHYSICAL HARM. Not just making people “feel unwelcome”).

The behavior from the Ravelry team has been unacceptable. For a website that claims to be “inclusive”, causing physical harm because you didn’t fix accessibility issues that were reported in beta testing is…. I can’t even find words for how awful that is. People keep saying “maybe they’ll fix it”, “give them time”- they should have undone the update immediately. It is their choice to operate with such a small staff. They have had offers of free help to make the site accessible which by all accounts have been ignored/declined. This is not behavior with which I wish to be associated, and I don’t want to be included in the number of users that they use to advertise/promote the website and attract advertising money. So — I’ve downloaded the patterns I purchased, and deleted my account. I’m looking forward to organizing my patterns over the next while, and actually knitting some of the designs I purchased but haven’t used. If nothing else, not checking the forums or clicking through the pattern database will give me time to do something that might be a bit more productive.

Editing to add: I’ve seen people claim that Ravelry is held to a different standard than, say, Facebook or Amazon. To which I say:

1. I don’t use Amazon, and deactivated my Facebook two years ago, because I don’t think either are helpful for anyone.
2. Ravelry sells itself as an “inclusive” “community”. Neither of those other examples do that.
3. Some users affected also donated money to fundraisers for additional server space for Ravelry in the early years. Again- apples and oranges.

Spring stirring

The first crocuses have appeared in my yard, along with the first robin, and some additional bird activity- for the first time at least one of my three birdhouses appears to be occupied by feathered friends, and the goldfinches that frequent our finch feeders are turning brighter every time I see them. The forsythia has yellow buds, and best of all- one of our daffodils just started blooming.

First robin

First daffodil

 

Social distancing and local indies

Up front, I confess: I’m one of the lucky ones who still has a job, and instead of making a claim for unemployment, I’m working from home for the foreseeable future. Since I still have a relatively reliable source of income (we hope), I’ve been looking around for opportunities to help friends and small businesses that are having a bit more of a challenge right now. Since I’m sure there’s bound to be a few other people doing the same, I thought I’d put together a few links for places that might appreciate the support, and give us all a few things to do/listen to/read while we’re #workingfromhome.

Music

Obviously I have to plug a favorite – Strange Famous Records of Providence, RI, the record label of Sage Francis (SFR founder and all-around Nice Guy) and B. Dolan, who both had several weeks’ worth of tour dates cancelled because of COVID-19, losing their investment and income. There’s something for everyone in the Strange Famous Records online store, and if you’re really not sure what to get I can heartily recommend an SFR record bag for your fashionable grocery shopping (at a careful distance from others, obviously). B. Dolan has also set up a Patreon, where you can support his work and get a bunch of fancy benefits for as little as $3/month.

Books

I really feel like indie bookstores are killing it right now, but that might just be because I found Bookstore Twitter a few weeks ago and haven’t looked back (if you’re on Twitter, I recommend @GutterBookshop, @RavenBooks, @RavenBookStore, @PorterSquareBooks, and @Page1books to get you started). All of those Twitter links will give you a good idea of the businesses you’d be supporting (along with possibly a smile or laugh), and they have links to their web presence on their twitter pages.

Locally here in “the 518”, Open Door Bookstore is a delightful stop in Jay Street in Schenectady and their online store doesn’t disappoint. Similarly the BookHouse of Stuyvesant Plaza is an area treasure, and their customer service through the online store (with updates when books need to be ordered, etc.) is faultless. Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine, is another gem with excellent customer service.

Yarny goodness

A couple of weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of stopping in to Lift Bridge Yarns in Fairport, NY. The owner was friendly, and their selection – particularly of local, hand-dyed yarns, was excellent. They have what appears to be their full (gorgeous) selection in their online shop (which I just had to quickly back out of before I tripped and made a yarn purchase). Highly recommended.

A local favorite of mine is CeCe’s Wool, in Guilderland, which appears to have some of their stock available online (and would probably be willing to help with recommendations if you gave them a call). Likewise the Warm Ewe in Chatham, a warm and welcoming shop, doesn’t have more than a list of their brands online but is taking orders by email and voicemail.