Kninja Knitter

I will take a little more time tonight to revisit my vacation photos, as Laura will be sharing the best from our group in her Live on Wednesday night (US ET). But life does keep moving, seemingly at light speed sometimes! We’ll start with my Year of Projects, as Week 39 has just ended. There’s only three months left in that cycle, so after my #MarkItMonday shares, I’ll provide an update on my goals for the year.

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

It’s a little weird, having shared my updates from last Monday just a couple days ago. But you’ll see progress, mostly.

A week ago I managed to join the two hems along with the cast-on stitches on the sides, and the body is knitting up. This yarn is so yummy! Of course, this is the hardest part, knitting round-and-round to a certain number of inches when it feels like it takes forever. It doesn’t help that my needle cable is extra long. I got a shorter one in the mail today, so I’m hoping that will help make it easier to zip through the circular knitting! I’m also considering changing things up and knitting the short sleeves in the contrast color. I’ve got time to decide, that’s for sure.

I only managed one zigzag on the blanket this week, and I’ll explain why in the next segment.

Cast-on Conversations

I can only share one photo next, but I’ve put time into two projects this week that I cast on after Monday. First, I’m working on a sock test knit for Lisa K. Ross of Paper Daisy Creations. She’s working on assembling a sock knitting book, from basic to advanced designs. This week she selected knitters to begin testing her patterns and giving feedback on the content. Since this can be a good book for beginners, it helps to have many eyes reviewing. While I was selected for a vanilla sock as the first pattern, she then asked some of us to switch it up and instead work on a more complex design so she could bring in more testers. As of Monday morning, I’d completed through the heel turn and started on the leg of this design. Since we only need to knit one sock to test the pattern, I’ll likely be helping with a new design within the next week as this one should be done by Friday. I’m sorry, but no photos permitted at this time – I’ll share when I’m allowed.

This cowl will be a wonderful memento of my South America adventure. The vivid orange is the signature of both the Bluff Cove Penguin Rookery and Sheep Farm and the Holland America Line. And to top it off, the cowl is designed by an Uruguayan designer. It’s a pretty simple lace and cable design, but so far it’s not all that intuitive. And when it’s done, you’ll be able to pick me out in a crowd, no?

While I haven’t started (or picked back up) any other projects yet, I have one thing planned to cast on this weekend, and all kinds of ideas beyond that. This week I want to finish the penguin, particularly since my grandson should be visiting on Friday. I’d really like to give him the stuffie. I have two sweaters on the needles but several other sweater quantities I could dive into.

As for my current progress toward the YOP goals:

Citadel is still waiting in the wings. St. Enda isn’t going to happen, so I’ll carry that over into the Year 15. I will count the orange cowl in with the four shawls I had planned. Obviously I’m not going to manage 15 pairs of socks when I’ve only completed four so far. But I do need to put a vanilla pair on the needles since I want to get back to the movie theater. So in this final quarter, I want to knit the Cuentas Scarf, finish the cowl and Ceci T (the penguin is the second cruise project). And as I said before, I will be knitting a hat in the next week (more on this at the end). I’ll update my spreadsheet to reflect the few changes I’ve decided today. And the last three months are sure to fly as fast as the other nine!

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 14th year, my first. If you would like to find out more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, please check it out; it’s a very welcoming group!

Financial Finesse

With the first quarter of 2025 essentially in the books, I spent time yesterday reviewing my progress in the finance arena. I’m pretty darned pleased with what I’ve accomplished so far, and the kicker was getting this notification over the weekend:

I set a goal at the beginning of the year to pay down 10% of my total debt each quarter, with a stretch goal of 15% for Q1 because I knew that my corporate bonus should be significant. (No guarantees!) Well, I paid down over 16% as of today. I’m waiting on one loan statement to calculate the final number, but I’m pretty confident that I know what it will say.

In addition to the bonus, a major factor in paying down that debt has been the income I’ve received from DoorDash deliveries. It’s not always lucrative, and sometimes the deliveries are a huge hassle. But consistency has paid off. Before my vacation, that platinum status made it easier to work consistently when I’d schedule a shift. The long break nixed that perk, but the break period is almost over, and I’ve been pulling shifts at every opportunity in the past week. Yesterday was especially good – I had a record-breaking day, mostly due to a single job that had a major tip. In a single shift my “hourly rate” was $72.38 because of that one assignment. I don’t expect that to happen again, but considering I was struggling to top $13/hour earlier in the weekend, that was a huge boon.

I did splurge a bit on vacation (yarn!), but I’d set aside money in savings to be ready for that. Starting this month, I’ll be expanding my avalanche approach to paying down the debt. My raise goes into effect tomorrow, so my next paycheck will be a little bigger. I’ve estimated what the final take-home will be, and the additional income will also go toward the debts. I’m still focusing on paying off everything, including my mortgage, by April 2027. And then ideally I can retire from my daily-grind job and find my next adventure.

Random Ramblings

I mentioned a hat – this Saturday (4 April 2025) I will be planting myself at a local eatery (probably Panera, but subject to change) as part of the Knit for Food Knitathon fundraising event. Last year I was crazy-busy that day, but this year it’s wonderfully convenient! This event is the brainchild of Laura Nelkin, our cruise coordinator extraordinaire, and it benefits four different charitable organizations that work very hard to combat hunger and food insecurity across this country (and the world).

Our cruise group created a team, so I have a page to raise funds for our group, though all proceeds will be divided evenly among the four organizations. This year’s goal is $379,011 (exactly $1 more than the total raised last year), and as Laura said during our cruise, it’d be awesome to raise $400k so she can send checks of $100k each to those organizations! If you’d like to help out, you can donate on my page here, or crafters can sign up here to participate, too! There will be live Zoom events throughout the day (10AM to 11:45AM ET and 7PM to 10PM ET), featuring speakers from the benefiting organizations as well as some fun and games and shenanigans with Laura and her alter-ego, Lola, among others. Participants who raise $100 or more will receive the link.

As much as I’ve struggled with getting my finances in order, I have never really had to worry about when or where I would have my next meal. It just astonishes me to think that in this country in this century this continues to be a problem.

And about the hat… Laura knit one last year based on the KFF logo, and this year she wrote out the pattern and shared it. It’s available on Ravelry, and I will be knitting one using one of my vacation souvenir yarns along with some Cascade Superwash I had in my stash. I’m hoping I can cast on and finish it on Saturday, particularly to help raise awareness for the cause. I still need to put together my little flyer, and hopefully it won’t ruffle feathers with management wherever I end up.

Knit on. 🧶