Kninja Knitter

Some good stuff this week! October wrapped up with some fun and November is starting strong! Spoiler alert: The Cast-on Conversation starts with a mystery project (Laura Nelkin’s latest). If you don’t want to be spoiled, skim past the photo in that section quickly!

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

I managed a couple FOs last week, a nice change from last week! First, I finished the hat that I’d cast on the week before. This will be donated to a charity collection of winter weather wear in the Boston area, and I knit it in a pink yarn to qualify for bonus points in the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party (PSP)!

Then I shifted back to the two-color cowl that used yarn I bought at Zombie Knitpocalypse this past summer. I finished the mosaic section which was followed by some easy garter stitch and stockinette, followed by an i-cord bind-off. Once I blocked the piece flat, I picked up stitches along one side and grafted those stitches to the provisional ones I’d cast on using stitch saver. If I’d paid closer attention, I could have avoided having to pick up stitches; but it wasn’t a big imposition.

I also made a little progress on my vanilla (second) sock, mostly during the one movie I saw in the theater this week.

And I made excellent progress on my shawl, having some bonus couch time on Friday and Saturday! The lace panel marks the center of the shawl, so I need to pay closer attention to my remaining yarn!

Cast-on Conversations

With the new month, I have one new project so far and another to follow shortly. This is my cast on for a mystery knit-along hosted by Laura Nelkin. I wish I could obscure the photo so we could avoid spoilers. If anyone knows how to do that in Jetpack, please let me know!

For now I’m simply adding a bit of text after the section header so folks can skip past the photo! I waited to start this project because the PSP challenge for November calls for using a row counter tool of some sort. I’m currently using one I got from winemakerssister on Etsy, football themed in Houston Texans colors, but I’m expecting another one to arrive today from Twice Sheared Sheep, the sponsor for the challenge!

And back to more conversations. In addition to the MKAL cowl, I’d like to cast on another of Laura Nelkin’s cowl patterns – She celebrates Cowltober every year in October (Cowltopus was last year’s mystery design), and because this year’s pattern is being released through mid-November, she extended the KAL through the end of November. I availed myself of her pattern offers throughout the month, including a couple freebies and plenty of 50% discounts. So my options are quite varied. I’ll take another look at the options along to see what would work best with my stash.

I’m also mulling over the yarn options for the MKAL shawl that Joji Locatelli kicked off over the weekend. Of course, that means more spoiler alerts to come.

Financial Finesse

I feel like I’m on a bit of a treadmill with my finances, doing a lot but not getting very far. But then I checked my spreadsheet – since the start of the year, I’ve paid down over $20k in debt! I double-checked over the weekend, and I’m on track to have my highest-interest loan down to about $2k by February. With my annual bonus due at the end of February, I’m planning to then pay off that loan then. The best part of that specific loan is that the projected interest to be paid according to the loan terms was over $21k. When I clear that debt, I’ll have paid less than $1.6k. I’ll be glad to shift that large monthly payment toward another debt then, starting in March. I’ll have to wait to find out what my bonus is before I can assess how many other debts I can clear at the same time, but at least one more debt should be paid off!

Grandson Glimpses

Ah, Halloween… a tricky holiday, to say the least. Last weekend I took the little guy to the zoo, and this week we ventured to a nearby neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. While the munchkin was on board with the activity, saying “go trick-or-treat,” he doesn’t yet understand that this is the passphrase for receiving candy, lol. He’s always been reserved with strangers, so his actions were not surprising:

1. Approach the house

2. Look at the person with the candy bowl

3. Are they handing out candy? If yes, present buckets to receive. If no, reach hand in bowl and pick one or two pieces.

4. If the person says “you can take two,” be sure to grab a third.

5. When prompted by mama or grandma, say “Thank you” with a big, beautiful smile

One group of high school girls gave a huge “awwwww” when he said thank you. He also impressed us by answering “Happy Halloween” to a few people. The biggest laugh for us came when a friendly neighbor said “Bye” to which he replied, “Bye! Love you!”

In the 90 minutes or so we were out there, we walked over two miles! And of course the kiddo was very tired and cranky as we were making our way back to the car. We were fortunate to happen upon some guys and their dog just a block from the car – the perfect distraction to quell the meltdown for our last leg. I was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t come to stay on Friday night, but I appreciated the time I had with him on Thursday, and his absence gave me opportunities to knit and declutter over the weekend!

Environment Evolution

Since the big basement clear-out (well, half-basement, anyway), I’ve taken a bit of a break. But this month, I’m determined to make some solid progress in decluttering my bedroom. Since I wasn’t able to participate in the All Day Declutter (Take Your House Back course) in October, I played back a couple of the recordings from that day and tackled a section of my bedroom.

Clothing is one of the biggest “collections” I have that really needs to be curated. About half of what I tossed in the dumpster last month was clothes that had essentially disintegrated over time. I enjoy most of what I own, and there are some items I often have lost track of among the piles.

On Saturday, I specifically addressed the space between my bed and my dresser. The dresser was virtually inaccessible because of the stack of containers housing all kind of things, including clothes I really like. It didn’t even take two hours to clear out the space – granted, a good chunk of this stuff went into the laundry, so I’m sorting through things as they come out of the dryer, adding to my donation box while some things are going into my closet and dresser. I also found a collection of items I didn’t even realize were there: memorabilia from grade school!

Once I’d completed the task of clearing all that space, removing trash and recycling and setting aside laundry to handle, I started on my big task of the day, something of a reward for that decluttering effort: I installed a wall mount and hung the TV on it, by myself. I was a little nervous about the last step, but I have a decent understanding of handling heavy objects, and I’ve got some strength in me. (I’m 99% sure my mother would not have been able to do this when she was my age, which honestly makes me feel even prouder.)

Now I have to decide what my reward will be when I finish decluttering the bedroom, lol.

Movie Moments

As I mentioned early, I only made it to the theater once this week. I went to see Keanu Reeves in Good Fortune. This is billed as a comedy, but I think it went deeper than that, more of a dramedy. There were some truly silly moments, but also some poignant commentary about the financial landscape for people in this country. Given the crisis currently threatening 42M+ Americans, this really seemed a relevant theme for the movie. Granted, Aziz Ansari, who wrote, directed and starred in it, used some silly plot devices to propel the characters along the tale, its impact isn’t lost behind all of that. I’d be interested to see this again if it shows up on a streaming platform down the road.

There’s plenty more fun to be had this week as we’re rolling downhill toward the end of the year!

Knit on.🧶