Kninja Knitter

I have some fun stuff to share this week, but it’s tempered by the head cold that hit me on Friday evening. Thankfully, my symptoms are generally manageable with sleep and medication. I had issues with a sore throat on Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning – meds and sleep made a big difference! More on the lows later. Now, let’s celebrate!

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

I finished a couple projects during this past week – the basic hat was nearly done when I posted a week, ago. That was a quick project!

I also managed to finish up the sock I started the week before – the yarn is scrumptious and while I had to work from a chart for the stitch pattern, it’s still simple enough to work while watching television. I’d like to wear the pair of socks later this month to see the Wicked: For Good movie.

I made no progress on the shawl or the hat for my grandson because I was pretty fixated on socks. The hooded dickey is between clues, and I believe the next clue drops later this week – that could be an FO next week!

I worked on my vanilla sock quite a bit this weekend. I brought it to the two concerts I attended, and in one I even managed to start work on the gusset! And by the end of the weekend I’d finished the heel so I can take this one to the movie theater!

Cast-on Conversations

Because the designer is hosting a Wicked/Wizard of Oz related KAL for her designs through the end of the month, I’m trying to finish up my second socks, having knit the first ones as test knits. I shared the Galinda-inspired sock above, and this one is inspired by the school (Dear Old Shiz). With this design I also get to show support for my Alma Mater, The Ohio State University. I could finish this sock this week, and then I’ll likely wear the pair later this month for the team’s big rivalry in The Game over Thanksgiving weekend. I’m almost done with the gusset increases…

Grandson Glimpses

A key “high” point this week was a portrait session for my grandson who finally met Santa Claus IRL. He’s learned the name “Santa” through Paw Patrol. I had scheduled the session at JCPenney Portraits because they had Santa coming to the studio. The munchkin was definitely tired, and it showed in a few photos, but he stayed pretty amiable throughout. The studio was pretty crowded when we arrived, and we had a bit of a wait as a result. He sat and colored alongside a little girl who he referred to as “the baby” — even though she’s about two years older than him, lol.

I took him up to meet Santa who was waiting for his next on-camera moment, and they shook hands. We did pics of just the kiddo to start, but they weren’t ideal. Being tired didn’t help, but the photographer also tried to direct him verbally a bit too much. We still managed a couple cute photos in his Paw Patrol Christmas shirt before changing up the outfit and the background…

We got a number of good pictures in his super-sharp Christmas outfit though! And I managed to get a couple sweet expressions from him before Santa arrived.

Once Santa came in, the photographer got some very sweet photos. And I really appreciated that Santa gave him good directions, particularly with his hands!

I don’t expect that the little guy understands anything about the Santa lore yet, and it may be another year before he’ll truly grasp the magic of Christmas. But these photos are a priceless memory as they had a wonderful introduction!

Soundscape Sessions

It’s been a minute since my last concert (Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks last summer) – but I made it to TWO concerts this week, both offering some great flashback moments! On Thursday evening, I made it downtown to the Southern Theatre to see Collin Raye, a chart-topping country singer from the 90s, the brief period when I was fixated on country music. Collin had a bunch of great hits that I loved and have sung through the years. He featured an opening solo act, SJ McDonald, who was a lot of fun. I had managed to nab a front-row seat, which also placed me within the stage lighting. That meant I could see my knitting – and so could SJ! When she grabbed a drink of water between songs, she asked what I was making, so we had a brief exchange there. I even managed to start the gusset increases on my sock – since I have the pattern fairly well memorized!

Collin’s set was full of my favorites, plus he sang a tribute song to his hero, Glen Campbell (“Rhinestone Cowboy”), and a couple spiritual songs (“Give Me Jesus,” “What I Need”). Having a talented keyboard player in his trio, they covered Billy Joel’s “Vienna” quite nicely, too. I particularly enjoyed his encore, “Love Remains.” (I sang that song at a memorial for a co-worker 20+ years ago, making one small lyric change that made it relevant,)

On Saturday night, I went much further back in my memories to the 70s, and saw Shaun Cassidy perform at the Davidson Theater in the Vern Riffe Center in downtown Columbus. It’s a larger space than the Southern, and more modern in appearance. Again I had a front row seat, but this time in the mezzanine, so lighting made knitting impossible and photography challenging. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the music! Shaun played his handful of big hits, opening with “Hey Deanie” – which he’d also sung on an episode of The Hardy Boys, which I remembered! He also shared a bunch of stories about his brother, David, his mom and his dad, as well as his current wife. Another wonderfully entertaining evening!

A lovely side note during the show is that his nephew, Cole Cassidy, is the guitarist and one of the backing vocals. Cole is Patrick Cassidy’s son, and he sang his uncle David’s part in a duet from the production of Blood Brothers that David and Shaun performed in on Broadway in the 90s.

With no opening act, this concert was relatively short – I made it to my car before the Ohio State-UCLA halftime. I was in my car with the radio on in time to hear the announcers call the field goal that ended the first half. 😊 🏈

Environment Evolution

I should have an actual update next week – but today I’m waiting for the plumber to get here to complete some repair work. I have a pipe in the basement (from the bathroom sink) that has corroded. It’s not a cheap fix, but it will be a solid repair,

Random Ramblings

Saturday was full of challenges for me, a compounding of factors including the head cold that was on its upswing. We had an application release, two actually, and because most of our team is offshore, the “heavy lifting” happens while I’m theoretically sleeping. Because of the cold, I was in and out of consciousness throughout the night. I heard my computer pinging when I was awake, and when it got to be 6AM or so, I finally checked the work Teams app on my phone to see if there were any issues. There were, and I was being asked to get involved to discuss. I managed about an hour on the call before the munchkin woke up, and then things got complicated – he prefers attention.

I managed to keep him quiet most of the time while we discussed the issue and possible resolutions, but we eventually had to bring a couple other people into the conversation. From the time I joined, it was five hours before we concluded the effort. At least this time the little guy didn’t create any havoc in the living room!

I was also doing laundry during this time – particularly to de-stink the kiddo’s comfort blankets. Once those were dry, we headed out to meet up with his mama for the hand-off. And he had a meltdown, wanting instead to get back into grandma’s car. That was touching for me, but we still had to deal with a crying toddler as he needed to go home with mama. He calmed down once I got him in his car seat – we talked about his visit next weekend.

I was able to go home, took some medication and a long nap – that did wonders for my body! That allowed me to enjoy the concert and watch the second half of the football game on Saturday. Sunday morning was rough, but I led the choir through Mass, had a pleasant brunch with friends, then started a DoorDash shift. Unfortunately, I had to cut the shift short because I was struggling to keep my eyes open while making deliveries. I managed to get a last job that brought me closer to home. Then I got home and went straight to bed for about an hour which was enough to refresh my brain. I still had a low-key afternoon and evening, knitting and watching television (football and more). The symptoms are surprisingly improved after just a couple days, though I know colds can hang on for weeks in some cases – my last one had me coughing for over a month. We’ll see how it goes…

Knit on. 🧶