Kninja Knitter

Lots to share about this week, and I’m still very tired from all the excitement. I hope I don’t forget anything – here goes!

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

Oops – I still don’t have an FO pic of the tee. It’s in the laundry, so hopefully this week I can arrange it! But I do have progress to share.

I’ll start with the lowest end of the activity spectrum: the vanilla socks. I actually did more on this than I thought! There should be plenty more progress this week because there’s another home football game and maybe a movie or two.

The shawl got attention most of the week, but because of my travels, my progress stalled a bit. I’m still on schedule thanks to exceeding my daily targets earlier in the week and month.

The cardigan got LOTS of attention, mostly because I’m behind schedule on it. The stitch pattern is well-memorized now; but now that I’ve joined the body, I have to pay attention to my row count since there are some increases to flare the body.

Cast-on Conversations

Surprise! I cast on, knit and bound off a project during the week! I decided that this would be my dedicated project for the Knit for Food knit-a-thon on Saturday, and I managed to bind it off during Laura Nelkin’s closing comments on Zoom. Except for the Möbius cast on, it was a super-simple knit, and because it is a Möbius, each round is twice as long as I knit around the circular needle. The yarn was one of my souvenir skeins from last year’s visit to the Falkland Islands, and my goal was to make an accessory that I can wear during my next Holland America cruise this summer. The pattern name rounds out these elements of the project.

Travel Tales

The big adventure for the week was my weekend trip to a Pittsburgh suburb for Steel City Con. I drove out on Friday, but because I overslept, I missed the opening Q&A session, sadly. I’d been so looking forward to seeing Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning from Home Improvement. Sigh. At least I had time to get my bearings before my first photo op, and then I went to lunch, returning for a couple panels in the late afternoon. Then I met up with one of my knitting besties for dinner.

On Saturday, I attended almost all of the Q&A sessions while also knitting up a storm on the cowl I shared earlier. I wasn’t able to watch the Zoom presentations for Knit For Food, but I did my best to promote the event with my t-shirt and actively knitting. I also made a point of recognizing the event in my photo op for the day!

Here are some of the photos I took during the Q&A sessions over the two days. Much like the GalaxyCon events in Columbus, the audience is seated on one level which makes picture-taking challenging. In particular, the Guardians of the Galaxy panel (Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker and Pom Klementieff) was packed – I’ll vent a bit about that in a moment. The only session I didn’t get any pictures from was Marcia Gay Harden and Bailee Madison – it was my very first session, so I was seated way in the back and just listened.

My biggest pet peeve with events like this where the audience is seated on one level in row-on-row of chairs is the people who don’t show any consideration for the people seated behind them. My view in many instances was blocked by others with their cell phones raised above their heads – worse are those who record rather than just taking a couple pictures. But I was most annoyed by the guys who sat in front of me at the Guardians panel – he switched seats with his companion, likely because her view was blocked. But this meant my view was then blocked. Then he would lean his head to the left or right, often as I was trying to get a shot.

I’m honestly surprised that the picture I got of Pom above came out so well, since you can see below what I usually saw of her and her chair.

When the last panel of interest to me concluded, I headed back to the convention center. I ended up having a delightful conversation with Patricia Richardson (Jill Taylor, Home Improvement; Sheila Brooks, The West Wing), and then I chatted with Ty Simpkins (Harley Keener, Iron Man 3/Avengers: End Game; Gray, Jurassic World).

This was my first trip out of state for the year, and it’s far from my last! I’ve booked my flights for two of my next three adventures, and I’m also working on building my itineraries for all of them.

Grandson Glimpses

This three-year-old boy is truly a whirling dervish, much more of an instigator than his father ever was! The biggest news of the week was how he overcame his fear of car washes. After his Easter Bunny photo session last month, we’d gone to a car wash after lunch, and he put on a brave front, but his apprehension was quite visible in his expressions. Last week, however, he stumbled upon a video of Handyman Hal (one of his influencers) working at a car wash. That shifted his perception right away. I took him to Moo Moo Express (a local chain to which I subscribe) and he chattered non-stop on the drive and as we made our way through. The next day, he insisted my son go through a car wash as they were driving home and passed one. I made one last run, specifically for his enjoyment, before I headed to Pennsylvania – and this time I shot video of him, lol. More chatter throughout, and increased excitement. And now he wants to watch replays of the video, lol. When I got home yesterday, my car needed a wash desperately (so many bugs!), so I waited for him so we could go together. This time he even did a little dance when we got inside the car wash. Isn’t it interesting how a child’s perception of a seemingly scary thing can be altered when presented in a fun way?

Back to the whirling dervish comment though… today he was visiting with me in the morning when I had some time between meetings. Then, he returned upstairs unbeknownst to his parents… and he found a Sharpie marker. Any questions? I managed to clean his hands before thinking to take a picture, but I grabbed this one before using a facial cleansing cloth to remove the strokes on his face.

He also scribbled across four faces of a painted wooden block – I’ve gotten most of the ink off all four, though there is still plenty of evidence of his shenanigans. 😝

I’ve also been meaning to share a few of this munchkin’s favorite expressions – he’s been using them a lot, so I just seem to forget as I’m typing! First, he’s quite the parrot when it comes to things that he hears regularly. “Hang on” – accompanied by a raised pointer finger – is a common response to being asked to do something (including giving Grandma a hug 😕) He used to say “Yes?” in response to being called by name, but recently he switched that up to “What do you want?” With the new interest in the car wash, he repeatedly says it’s “so fun” and his anticipation about going is announced with “I’m so excited!” His vocabulary is always growing, and his pronunciation is generally good, though we need him to repeat unfamiliar words – and he also substitutes a leading B for an F (Faxter, Flippi), but not always. 🤔

Bookish Banter

Lengthy solo car rides are often the perfect time for me to listen to audiobooks, as long as I don’t have to focus on directions or traffic. On this particular trip, I had almost three hours each way to soak up stories. For the start of the adventure, I went with a self-help book, Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life by Peter Walsh. The author is Australian, but the narrator is Irish – I’m okay with the accent shift, lol. It can be frustrating to listen to an inspirational book like this without being able to implement the guidance provided, but I’m not new to this circumstance. I listened to the entire book, and now I can replay certain sections while working on my house.

Since that book ended early in my return drive, I switched gears to something completely different. I was inspired by my chat with Patricia Richardson as I’d specifically stopped to talk with her because I appreciated her performance in The West Wing, and I was jealous that she’d gotten to work with Alan Alda in her role as his campaign manager. She told me that a couple people had brought their copies of this book for her to sign: What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and It’s Enduring Legacy of Service, by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack (intros by Aaron Sorkin & Allison Janney) and narrated by the duo. I own the physical book and the audiobook as well. And that reminds me of something I spotted in the convention center parking lot on Friday.

That’s about all I have to share this week, I think. If I’ve forgotten anything, I’ll make a note to share later.

Knit on. 🧶