Kninja Knitter

I had intended to share a second post last week, but that never came to pass. I wound up in a terrible state, medically speaking, and lost a day and a half in the process. Fortunately the benefits of modern medicine put me on the road to literal recovery.

I’m sad that it meant I missed out on seeing a movie I was interested in viewing (We Grown Now), but I’ll keep an eye out for it on the streaming services. Thankfully I was able to see the touring production of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical which was incredibly entertaining, and I also went to see the latest in the Planet of the Apes series: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The movie was longer than I would have liked, but reclining seats make it bearable.

Through both of those performances I was able to knit, making progress on the two different sock projects I have going on. And with that, here’s my updated efforts on the various knitting projects in active rotation.

I started on the May DVD socks a bit late, but I’m not overly concerned. I managed to knit forty rounds on the instep during the musical. I’m almost through the gusset increases. The goal is to complete the heel so I can start on the leg before my next movie night on Tuesday.

This sock project is teaching me a few things. First, it helps that I know what the color progression is thanks to photos on the label. However, I also soon discovered that my gauge on sock #2 is distinctly different from sock #1 which was started while on vacation! See how the black is stacking up VERY differently? The stitch count is the same, but my current sock is much tighter than its mate. I’m trying to loosen up a bit now, and I’ll likely cut the yarn after I complete the heel so I can transition right to the colored section. This is sure to be the only pair I ever knit using up the majority of a 100 gram skein!

I didn’t put a lot of effort into the blanket this week. Getting confirmation that the Splash Pad Party with the Down Cellar Studio has been canceled this year, I don’t need to rush on this. My only deadline then is the end of the year to help in my Net Loss goal (more grams used up than brought in). Once the body of the blanket fills in a bit more the photos will look like something, lol.

The shawl is very close to done! I managed to finish up the penultimate section, reversing the colors from the second section. So all that’s left is the final sequence of garter stripes. This one should be done by the weekend so I should be able to share an FO picture next week. I am looking forward to wearing this shawl on Memorial Day weekend at the celebration Mass for a priest friend – May 26 marks FIFTY years since he was ordained.

This long sleeve tee has been out of my active pile for several weeks since other projects took priority. This one is also somewhat mindless knitting, though I do have to change yarns (twice each round) and mind the reverse stockinette points on the side panels. As such, I can’t knit this in the dark, but I can knit it while watching television. Over the weekend I worked on it while doing some watch-alongs with Kaiielle, using my new Patreon membership benefit to re-watch Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while listening to (and occasionally watching) her reactions as a first-time viewer.

While I’m quite pleased with my progress on all of these projects, I’m still thinking about what’s to come. So with a few pockets of time this past week, I also managed to knit a couple swatches. Some of the yarn I got in Ireland is destined to become sweaters, so swatching is very important. Otherwise I could invest a lot of time knitting and end up with an unwearable object! The swatching went better than expected, as my first try met the desired gauge as well as a nice fabric.

The bigger of the two patterns is a long cardigan, designed by Joji Locatelli. At first I thought I’d have to make modifications, but then I realized I was mistaken, thinking this yarn was also Aran weight, when it’s really more of a worsted weight. At least one knitter who’s used this yarn even said it was more of a DK or light worsted. But I got the necessary gauge both in the stockinette portion and the cable pattern section.

There are two more sweaters planned from my Irish pickings. For one, I still need to wind up my first skein before swatching. And for the other, the yarn is in a giant cone, so I just need to find the needles I want to swatch with. No rush on either of those as I obviously have plenty of knitting to keep my hands busy!

In other news, I had a nice Mother’s Day weekend. On Friday night, I picked up my grandson and we had our usual hang-out session. This week he decided to try drinking from my HidrateSpark water bottle – that was very entertaining, given its size. On Sunday, I joined my son’s family for a photo outing at Inniswoods Metro Park. The weather was gorgeous, but the munchkin was tired. Fortunately, Daddy has a knack for getting him to smile. He also enjoyed seeing the flash on my “good” camera. I still have to process those photos, so here’s one I grabbed with my cell phone as the family made a pit stop.

I’m still working on decluttering my office space so I can get a recording studio set up. The podcast ideas are brewing. Maybe when summer gets here, I can shift gears and start implementing my ideas! I’m also eager to get back to the zoo from time to time in the nice weather. And of course, there’s always knitting!

Knit on.🧶