Kninja Knitter

I shared a lot of knitting progress last week, and I was thrilled to finish a hat during the Knit For Food knit-a-thon. Even more exciting, the final total raised in the event came to $530,840!! Each of the four charities is receiving $132,710 – and that’s outstanding. I saw in the local news today that one of the local chapters of Meals on Wheels, one of those KFF benefactors, will lose its federal funding in June. Hopefully private donors can keep them going, since they offer a tremendous service to our senior population.

If anyone is interested in seeing/hearing the presentations that were given during the event, there’s a YouTube video here that Laura Nelkin has shared. And for those crafters out there who would like to help out next year, the sixth annual knit-a-thon will be held on April 11, 2026.

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

The big surprise for me this week is how addictive my colorwork hat was – the one I cast on last weekend while waiting to start the KFF hat. If you didn’t catch the details, this was the 2024 Shetland Wool Week pattern, and I ordered yarn on Wednesday from Knit Picks which arrived on Friday. And this past Friday I closed up the crown of the hat! I seriously could NOT put it down. A couple nights I stayed up way too late working on it. A week ago I was hoping to have it done by the end of the month, lol. It took until today to have time to soak it, so it’s still blocking. But here’s the completed hat!

Since I spent so much time knitting that hat, I didn’t do much else. No blanket progress at all, or the orange cowl. But I did work on the tee – and I got a new penguin progress keeper from Etsy to replace the one from the cruise that I lost.

I also knit just a few rounds on the sock – I think I completed another chart repeat.

Now that the colorwork hat is done, I have a LOT of yarn left from it. Not much of the navy, but plenty of the other four colors. After a little searching on Ravelry, I’m thinking about knitting a Musselburgh (or two) with these yarns. At least the three blues could work together beautifully. The pink and orange… any suggestions?

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!

Environment Evolution

Now that I’m back to the harsh reality of life post-cruise, I’m starting to get back into my clean-up efforts. I don’t know if I shared all the details about the ivy overgrowth, but I did give at least some high level news a while ago. As part of the critter control efforts with the group that I contracted, they removed the tangled mass of ivy that had crept up my chimney (and inside of it – even poked through one of my upstairs windows!).

When we first talked about the work they would do, they mentioned renting a dumpster. Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, they just created a pile on my lawn. I didn’t even know about it until it was done and I happened to see this heaping pile of greenery on the lawn. Honestly, I’m not even sure when it happened… mid-February, maybe? But I didn’t have any capacity to address it then, and then I took off on my adventure. This past weekend I finally had the energy and drive to tackle the pile, especially since our yard waste pickup is happening on Tuesday (every other week).

Saturday morning I was glad to have a decent-weather day. It was chilly in the morning, but slowly it warmed up. The key was no rain! I picked up a couple packs of yard waste bags and started picking away at the pile. Here’s a photo of the front yard before I started.

I worked pretty steadily for about ninety minutes, filling up one bag after another. After the first pack of five bags was all used up, I had to give my back a break. I took a little time to address the fallen kickplate below my screen door – the wood had split at some point. I managed to attach the bottom section in such a way that the whole board is back in place. There’s a lot of work to be done on this house, so I was just concerned with patching for the short term. I also then realized that my front steps (concrete) has measurably sunk on the left side. It’s affecting that silly handrail, too. Guess what my next contracted project will be!

After I finished all that work, I had to head out for a DoorDash shift. When I returned, I had lunch and then resumed my efforts. This time I put in about an hour, and I filled another four yard waste bags.

I had other responsibilities to tackle Saturday evening, and Sunday was spent on all kinds of things away from home. But I now have possession of a friend’s wood chipper! So there are nine bags of yard waste at the curb to be picked up tomorrow, and the rest of this pile will hopefully become mulch in my yard later this week! A big driver to get this pile eliminated is that I really need to mow the lawn. If I’m not able to get this taken care of by Wednesday evening, I’ll mow as much as I’m able. The grass is SO tall – I really can’t let it go any longer.

All I can do is just keep on keeping on! I’ve scheduled vacation time over the next week, expecting to have my grandson visiting over the Easter holiday. Today I got word that this might not happen. I’ll be sad if he’s not able to visit, but if that’s the case, I’ll have some solid time to devote to some of these projects!

I’m working on collecting bids for the concrete work to replace my front stairs and handrail. And with the wood chipper I’ll grind down that ivy pile plus some other things that shouldn’t be growing in my flower beds (like some random trees???). I had to decline continuing the yard work contract I’d had with my neighbor for many years because he was doing the bare minimum (IMHO), just mowing and not managing any of the overgrowth. He did clear out some shrubbery that had been wasting away, among other things. But most of that stuff is gone. I know I can handle mowing, and then I’ll try my hand at addressing the other landscaping features.

It’s another adventure, I guess! But now it’s time to sleep. Rest needs to be a priority as Holy Week continues.

Knit on. 🧶