Hello!!!

It has been a really, really long time since I last wrote on this blog and I'm definitely hoping that will change this year! As it turns out, there have been so many life-changing events in the last several years that's it's been really hard to keep up. It's difficult to spend creative time/energy on new patterns ... and it's also difficult to actually find the time to sit down and write. Again, I'm determined to do both!

I made a few changes in the last couple of weeks ... I gave up my Shopify website. Although I am keeping the domain name (thepatternbox.com), there is no website at present. You can; however, find my patterns on Loveknitting.com and on Ravelry.com.

I also hope to be adding free patterns right here ... on this blog ... just like I used to back in 2008 when I started the whole thing. 

I have discovered that social-media websites really drain the creative juices right out of me!! I am going to try to spend less time scrolling and more time making and sharing things.

To prove my point, all I have to show for this year is a knitted cap that is much too large and odd-looking for my grandson to actually wear, along with a half-knit sweater. That's it. 

Yes, 2020 was certainly a strange year.

In the early days of the pandemic, last March 2020, we made Irish soda bread because bread and yeast were both very difficult to find.

Then, we decided to plant pumpkins, so we could have them for the fall ... but the squash beetles bored into all four of them and left them rotten on the inside.

Next, I concentrated on making 2-layer masks made of 100% cotton that tied because the elastic for ear loops was difficult to find. It didn't matter that, at that time, everyone said masks didn't mean a thing. They wouldn't help. As the daughter of a registered nurse, I knew this wasn't true. My mom always wore a mask around my kids if, while visiting, she had a sore throat or anything she might consider contagious. Who knew, just a few months later, that masks would become such a hot topic ... and now, wearing them in public is mandated in most places.

From remote schooling one of my grandsons to being a day-time caregiver for another, the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 passed by in a blur.

But here we are, at the end of January of this new year of 2021 and I hope it will be a healthy one for all. Trying to find joy in the little things of every day and sharing that joy with others is (I hope) going to be my mission.