Kninja Knitter

Wishing you a meaningful Memorial Day, as the US takes time today to honor those who died in service to defend our freedoms. That’s far too ironic given the current state of this country, but I’m trying not to dwell on that right now. To my knowledge, I don’t have any family members who died in service, though we have a number of veterans, both alive and deceased. I do have good friends who have lost family members, including a dear friend whose cousin died in Iraq in 2005.

Yesterday, I had planned the closing hymn for Mass to acknowledge the meaning of the holiday, and we sang all four verses of “America the Beautiful.” Our choir even remembered my direction to sing the third verse (as printed in our hymnals) softly to boost its impact.

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be noble news, and every gain divine.

Katherine L. Bates

Stitched or Still-in-progress

I made good progress on a number of projects this week, and a little bit on others. The hat project should be great for knitting at a movie or show, and I did try a bit while at Shadowbox Live on Sunday, but at one point I did get off on the ribbing – a challenge of putting it down to applaud periodically. Due to my mental state (more on that later), I ended up leaving after intermission – but I also fixed the stitches before making my exit, too.

I also managed two full zigzags, a shift to the fifth strip (BO/CO) and another zig on the blanket – and I’m finally getting close to the end of this colorway, lol. I have the next yarn ready in the wings.

The tee was something of a problem child this week, as I discovered on Friday morning that I had made a big counting mistake when I joined the sleeves to the body. If you recall, I had knit the sleeves and joined them the previous week. I had to rip back about twenty rounds (including about three rounds I’d knit the week before) and start again. I put a lot of time into this and made it well past the point I’d reached before frogging (“rip it, rip it”) so it’s all good.

Cast-on Conversations

I’m being mindful of the Splash Pad Party that’s coming up, but I have other deadline-driven projects to consider, too. I managed three cast-ons already this past week.

On Monday, I remembered that I had registered for the Supersock World Championship sock knitting race. While I don’t plan to compete, I always like the idea of having free knitting patterns. To earn that access, I only need to complete more than a single sock, though it’s possible I can knit the mate to the one I’ve just finished, by the deadline of May 31.

Since I finished that sock on Sunday afternoon, I decided to cast on one final sock for Lisa K. Ross’s Single Sock Spectacular challenge. In this instance, I’m knitting the mate to a sock I knit last month. For this challenge, I need to finish the sock by EOD on May 31 to be eligible for another entry.

My final cast on for the week I had mentioned last week, and this one is definitely going to take some time to finish, so it should qualify for the Splash Pad Party which ends on July 31. Given that I have a knitting retreat trip coming up, there’s a good chance I’ll earn a bunch of points for this one!

As for additional cast-on plans, I’ll be starting another cowl on or about June 1 to begin the Camp Loopy challenge hosted by The Loopy Ewe. I bought yarn to make a two-color brioche cowl.

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

My efforts in the living room continued this week, and I’m so pleased with the progress I made! I finally got up to Goodwill to drop off the donations I’d been collecting all month, too. Last week I had managed to move the furniture pieces, and that gave me space to work on decluttering the space in front of the fireplace. I listened to a couple videos from the Take Your House Back course while I worked on the space for about thirty minutes on Tuesday night. I did more on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and then a final push on Friday night, including a declutter of the mantel along with a lot of dusting.

I also put a lot of time into further decluttering in my bedroom. I was scrambling on Friday because on Saturday I was expecting to welcome my first house guests in over fifteen years. My son’s girlfriend was coming up with the kids for the holiday weekend. And on Friday afternoon she told me they’d stay with me because her cousin was being flaky. Well, they didn’t stay here. (WARNING: a bit of a rant coming)

I got a text about 7:30am on Saturday saying they made it to town. A half hour later I texted as they hadn’t arrived yet. It took another half hour for them to show up. She and the munchkin visited for a couple hours while her daughter was supposedly sleeping in the car. (I never saw her, but this is what I was told.) She texted in the early afternoon to say they were going to hang out with her cousins for a bit, but “we are staying at your house definitely!” Uh-huh.

I invited them to dinner as I was going out with friends after my monthly commitment playing for Mass on Saturday with my worship team. She declined, saying “we are at the park, and [her daughter] wants to go to the drive in movies [with the cousins] tonight.” I suggested they drop my grandson off before going since the movie would start after his usual bedtime. She said she’d ask, since her cousin would be driving.

And that’s the last I heard from her, 7:14pm on Saturday evening. I changed the sheets on my bed and the crib mattress, so everyone would have fresh linens. I fell asleep on the couch, which was to be my bed for the night, and I woke up at 3am on Sunday to realize that they never showed up. I crawled into my bed (fresh sheets, ahhh) and slept until it was time to get up for my Sunday Mass responsibilities. I was a grump all day.

I’m not upset about the efforts I made, as I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor. But I am very upset at the disrespect and the violation of trust and hospitality. Once again, I’m left wondering if/when I might see my grandson again as my carefully placed boundaries have been pushed hard. And speaking of the munchkin…

Grandson Glimpses

I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to mark the kiddo’s height on my basement door. I last his growth back on February 1, and I know that he’s grown at least a couple inches since then. The only “memento” of his visit I got was the sweater-wearing picture I was hoping for. The test knit sweater (sized for a four year old) shows how big he is for his age (remember, he’s not even 2.5 years old… he’ll be 2.42 next week 😉)

Bookish Banter

I finished listening to the audiobook of My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner, a memoir about his Snowcat accident and recovery. I listened to most of the book during my drive to and from Kentucky, and I worked in a few more listening sessions while driving around town this week. One thing that I had not pieced together, which surprised me, is that the incident occurred just three days before my grandson was born. I vividly remember reading about it and seeing his Instagram posts, so I knew it happened on New Year’s Day – but the timing was lost on me. So hearing him detail the events of January 1, 2, 3…when he got to January 4, I could put it in context since THAT day is also vivid in my mind from the early afternoon text from my son to the evening visit to the hospital, walking in mere moments before he came into the world.

The best part to me about the audiobook is hearing the story from the author’s own lips. I’ve admired his acting talent for many years, and as a follower of his Instagram account, it was always nice to see him share a glimpse into his life with his daughter. But the intimate moments from this private man, spoken aloud for all the world to hear, carry so much weight and emotion. As I mentioned to my friends when talking about the book, his underlying theme throughout the entire story is love. ❤️

That’s all I have to share at this point, as I’m ready to begin my day. I have knitting and yard work on my agenda. I’ll have a month-end financial update to share on Friday, and it’s time to start thinking about my specific goals for June and revisiting my progress on my goals for the quarter and the year. As I heard in re-watching Luke Cage season one this week (along with Kaiielle’s first-time reactions), “never backwards, always forward.” Progress over perfection.

Knit on. 🧶