VOTE!

Hello Everyone!

As I sit and write this today, my 2 oldest children return to school in 2 weeks.  Other than one being a freshman and the other senior, this is significant because CoViD-19 is still in full swing.

I honestly am not scared to send my children back to school.  First and foremost the Lord is going to take care of them and He hasn't said to keep them home.  Second is that my husband and my mom both work with the public on a daily basis.  My husband works at a correctional facility and we have been exposed to worse than CoViD-19.

My mom is a clerk at a gas station in a busy part of town less than a mile from 3 hospitals, she did get CoViD-19 on July 15th.  It is was the GI kind and recovered quickly.  That was the Lord providing there because my 80 year old Grandma whom my Mom lives with got a UTI that caused confusion and my Mom thankfully was fully recovered to care for her with all of that.

In my home town, the town where my Mom still lives, Aurora, Colorado some of the police officers are still making poor decisions.  This past weekend they cuffed a 6 year old.  I am still astonished and outraged at that choice.  I am praying for the new Chief, Vanessa and that better polices and training would be put in place.  I know one problem the force is having is the recruits they are getting just don't have to fortitude to be an officer.  Many can't pass the gun test...  Please pray for your local law enforcement and for the Lord to do the work that needs done.  For safety and patience until that work is rolling.  It took time to get here, it is going to take time to make it better.

Below is me and math and numbers and thoughts on pandemics.  Feel free to skip it, but it does offer another point of view.  I'm willing to have a discussion in the comments or through email.

While I'm on the subject I'm going to go ahead and talk a bit more about this pandemic.

H1N1 in 2009 spread 5 times faster than CoViD-19. 22 million cases in the US in the first 6 months. H1N1 mostly infected and killed those in the 18-64 age range.  In the first six months of H1N1 0.07% of the US population was infected.  In the first six months of CoViD-19 the number of positive tests recorded comes out to 0.01% of the population is infected.  If we go so far as to multiply that by 10 for those not being tested, seen or recorded that brings it to 0.1% of the US population.

We are at home and running away from less than 1% of the population.  Less than 1 person out of 1000 that you encounter might be infected. H1N1 was about the same, maybe higher if we were to add in those that didn't go to the doctor or the hospital.

So what's the difference? Some say the death rate.  While CoViD-19 is technically 150 times more deadly, let's look at what that really means.  Of  the 0.1% of the US population that might be infected, the death rate is 0.03%.  That is 0.03% of 0.1%.  For 1 person in 1,000 possibly being infected, 1 person in 33,333 you encounter might die.

H1N1 killed 12,469 in the first year in the US.  As I write CoViD-19 has killed 156,840 in the US alone.  The majority of whom, 80%, are over 65 years of age.

I think the difference is the demographic of those dying and God's plan.  The government is sending all the children back to school, during a time when numbers are far worse than when they were pulled out in the Spring, but we can't have an election, too dangerous.  Still letting inmates out because it's too dangerous, but have to go to school.  Just for the record there have been ZERO positive cases in the inmates where my husband works.  The older demographic is the one that "they" care about and want to protect.

SARS has a death rate of nearly 1% and only by the grace of God didn't fully get out of China and spread.

The yearly flu has a death rate of 0.1% which is the spread rate of CoViD-19.

I understand that death is loss, I am not minimizing that.  I also know that we can't all live forever and whatever happened to survival of the fittest?

CoViD-19 being a corona virus is most likely here to stay, so we need to find a better way to deal with it than to hide from it.  Add it to the list of the other 4 corona viruses that cause the common cold and move forward.

We as humans are now living the way you should have been living all along.  Wash your hands and stop licking yourself!

This is a wake up call people! For Americans a call to be less selfish, deal with having less, of everything and not having as many choices at the store. A call to turn to the Lord, Jesus, forgiver of ALL sin and Savoir of souls.

Okay off the soap box and on to the fiber arts.

I have started putting my patterns on Payhip.  It is taking some thinking and a bit of time.  I am having to rewrite the descriptions for my designs to have more detail and be more specific.  I needed to do this any way just so that they would be cleaner and leave less questions.

I was also thinking about my descriptions because of the accessibility issue for those using readers to help them knit or crochet.  I have decided that for some of my designs such as socks, hats and blankets for example I will offer both written and charted instructions.  For my lace designs, it will continue to be chart only.

I did finish the tank top.  Here is a picture of me wearing it.

I really do like it.  I will talk more about what I learned and changes I will make for the future next week on the Sweater Update, which will be a video this time!  My final thoughts and a link to the video will be on the sweater update page.

I have almost finished my Empower People bandana from Bzy Peach.

I went back and forth on "joining" this group and finally decided to.  The reason I was back and forth is because I don't agree with everything, everything.  I agree with nearly everything and decided it was a message I can share.  Mostly to get out and VOTE!  We live in a country where we have the opportunity and the responsibility to vote, so please, please do so.  This is how changes can be made and your voice gets heard.  In my house if you are of age and didn't vote, you can't complain.

I did finish my Stained Glass Cowl.  I ran short of black yarn because I didn't realize until I was about a third of the way through that there were different cast on numbers for the fingering weight and DK weight cowls.  That was the only difference in the pattern.  I used the fingering weight cast on number which was higher than the cast on number I should have used and therefore ran out of black yarn.

At first I just did a 3 needle bind off and blocked it, but I was not pleased.

So I ripped the 3 needle bind off and chose 2 of the tiny balls of the colorful bits I had left and worked 3 rounds of garter stitch and then bound off.  Here it is blocking.

Here you can see the 3 pins and how they are holding the foam tube in place.

Here it is done.

Too hot to wear, even for just a quick picture.  I still want to tack the new colors in place and when the weather cools down a bit more I'm sure I'll be wearing it a lot.

Still hard at work on the MKAL with Stunning String.  Next week I'll update on the Arrow socks.  For real the test knit announcement is tomorrow.  I finally got it to a place where I am comfortable sharing it.

I almost forgot.  I finished my L Ease in the Woods too!

I have a new design coming out next week.  Here is a sneak peek.

Be kind, be safe and be sensible.

Until next time guys...

Happy Making!