So I just got back from dropping the kiddo off for his first day of school. Third grade this year!

How have you been?

Did you take a break for the summer?

Or maybe your summer break is still going?? I kind of wish mine was still going!

But it's also good to be writing to you again. I've missed you!

But, to be honest, I didn't have much to write about these past few weeks.

We've had a lot of pretty great family time this summer. We visited two of our neighboring islands (the Big Island and Kauai), the grands visited for a couple weeks, we did some hiking, lots of reading, lots of pool time, a few science experiments (we made ice cream! It was delicious.), and probably entirely too much screen time. But hey. Summer break!

I've also been working on a couple garments for a class I'm enrolled in. One is a drop shoulder tee that will be sewn together and the other is a raglan sweater worked in the round.

Here's a sneak peek!

I don't know yet if I'll be able to turn them into proper patterns or if they'll just be the first version. We'll see! I can't get better at garment design if I don't MAKE some garments, though, so that's what I'm doing! Wish me luck.

Especially because I've been nursing a thumb injury.

It started bothering me back when I picked up spinning again. I was hoping it would get better, but it seems to have gotten significantly worse the past couple weeks, so I'm beginning to worry that it might not just be an injury. I've had issues with my joints since my early twenties, so I have kind of been anticipating having some trouble with arthritis at some point sooner rather than later in my life. I've got a doctor's appointment scheduled, though, so we'll see what they say.

In the meantime I'm just going to keep doing what I can!

Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from doing something that you love? I hope that I don't ever get to the point where I can't crochet at all, but unfortunately I know it does happen. That's why I joke that painting is my retirement plan, ha ha! I might just have to lean into that a little more for a while.

And now that the kid is back in school, I actually have some time to do that!

I'm really looking forward to being able to get some good focus time in now that we're back in the school days routine. Well. Close to it anyway. It may take a few days to get used to waking up early again! But we'll get there.

I hope you've had an amazing summer and that you're looking forward to fall and maybe some more time with your favorite fiber arts? Feel free to hit that reply button and tell me about it! Your summer OR your fall making plans!!

Cheers, y'all. And talk soon!

-Connie

P.S. I know some of you probably scrolled straight to the bottom of this email looking for a chicken update, right? Well, I'd hate to disappoint you, so here you go! We've got beach chair babies. ;)

P.P.S. I just updated my calendar, so if you need a little one on one help with something, you can book a private lesson with me over Zoom at https://bit.ly/CrochetLessons!