Getting (Some) Stuff Done

I’ve been enjoying knitting while watching TV. And I watch a LOT of TV. Last night I binge-watched the new Tina Fey/Alan Alda production of ‘The Four Seasons’ whilst knitting away on my TAAT, striped socks.

And I finished them!

I maintained the 6 rounds per colour pattern, even to the toes. Any variations are due to the variegation in the sock yarn I was using.

I tried to sew in the yarn ends as I went so snipped the lengths off at about a centimetre. I did my usual ‘eye of partridge’ heel and continued the pattern on the sole until all the end of the gusset decreases.The socks are warm and snuggly - perfect for cool nights or wearing next winter. It hardly made a dent in my sock yarn stash, though. I guess I’ll knit some more.

Yesterday at my guild’s stitch day I got a bit more done on Clovis..

This morning I finished the last little bits of the spring sampler.

I added a couple of leaves, too. So just a bit different from the original.

I’ve done the measurements for the finishing so will FFO it sometime soon.

I also started watching the Netflix series on the Vietnam war. So much ‘bad intelligence’ (cough - lies) contributed to the US getting involved and the conflict going on years after the US knew they could never win. So many young men’s and women’s lives were lost as a result. I believe that and the Watergate scandal were the beginnings of a widespread ‘crisis of confidence’ in the US government.

I was only a youngster when I became aware of the conflict which actually started in 1955. The war escalated into my teenage years and even impacted me tangentially as a young adult. My brother and sister attended university with many draft dodgers in Mexico City and I dated an American while I attended university who was concerned he’d get drafted. Fortunately he had a deferment because of still being in school and then in early 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed. Then the accords were broken and fighting continued until mid 1975 until the fall of Saigon. The North and South were reunified in 1976. Then China invaded Vietnam and border conflicts lasted until 1991.

I also remember Vietnamese ‘Boat People’ and a couple of them registering at the school at which I taught, sometime in the 80s. It is so interesting to see it all laid out in a coherent, chronological manner.

The documentary highlights the many complex issues involved with this conflict and gives insight as to how the cultural fibre of the US developed in its aftermath.