Kninja Knitter

I’ve been mulling over some details for this post for the better part of the weekend, and it’s only because I had a project to complete today that I didn’t share anything yesterday.

We’ll start with the knitting. I did finish the pair of socks for the January edition of the Tenth Annual Desert Vista Dyeworks Monthly Sock Club.

The other sock on my needles is just a few rounds away from the cuff ribbing! The pair should be finished this week.

And my other WIP from last week saw some attention late in the week. The first sleeve of this sweater is close to being done with the increases.

With the DVD socks being done, I cast on a couple other projects. First, a longer term plan is knitting a circular shawl/blanket from an Advent kit dyed by a dear friend of mine.

And lastly, a hat that could potentially earn me some bonus points toward prizes in the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party craft-along. Not a great picture since the yarn is mostly black. But the pops of color make me smile!

Since my post last week, I fell down a rabbit hole in discovering a group of bloggers on Ravelry who hold one another accountable for planning their knitting and documenting their progress each week. Since I’m already doing that, it was easy to jump into the fun that is the Year of Projects (Ravelry link). I still have to sit down and actually do some constructive planning for my upcoming projects beyond the DVD socks, so stay tuned for that! The group resets the calendar come July 1, so I only need to think through the next five months. Stay tuned for more on that!

Now, about the nostalgia! On Friday morning I received a FB DM from a long-time friend, saying he was in town. I say friend, but I haven’t seen this guy since sometime in 1989, and I only knew him for a few years before he moved away. Thanks to social media and the internet, we’ve stayed in touch casually over the decades.

Once my meetings were over on Friday, I sent him a note saying that I had some availability if he wanted to meet up. After a short exchange, we agreed on lunch on Saturday. That’s when my head started to “spin.”

I take after my father in that I have a pretty good memory, and a head for details. So I started thinking back on the memories of how we met (over the phone), when I last saw him (at a movie theater), and so many other random moments we had 30+ years ago.

What was particularly delightful about our reunion is that the passage of time was irrelevant. We had a blast catching up on each other’s lives with details you won’t find in Facebook posts. We learned a lot about each other, too. Because while I still think we were friends way back then, we weren’t close. And yet, the casual friendship remained, so we could share the happy and sad stories and just keep on talking. We hung out for over two hours and probably could have stayed through dinner. But, we did part ways and returned to our own adventures. But the connection is substantially more than it had been before he reached out.

Now my brain continues to pepper my thoughts with memories of those years, as well as news I never got around to sharing over lunch. Isn’t it amazing how people can come and go in our lives and some take up residence in our minds and hearts without us realizing it? I’ve got more things to mentally unpack from the weekend (a couple movies, for instance), but for now I will sign off and get some sleep.

Knit on. 🧶