It’s Monday morning and my vacation weekend is nearly over. I’m sitting in my hotel room thinking through my steps to pack up and leave in about ninety minutes, to be followed by a seven-ish hour drive home. Let’s see if I can give you my update for the week in the remaining time! Lots to share, so I’ll get started.

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

I finished one of the projects I cast on before my last post. I started two hats after finishing one from my Pigskin Party (PSP) cast on frenzy. This one is the simpler of the two. Once I completed the brim stitch pattern, it was simple stockinette in the round until it was time for the crown decreases. I used up the pink yarn. At home I believe I have more of the speckled colorway, but the question is where, lol.

The project that got the most attention this week was definitely the Advent scarf (cowl) since it’s plain stockinette in the round for eternity. I finished three more bands of color and started (and nearly completed) the quarter-way band of main color. I’ve divided the main color leftover into balls so I can grab them as easily as the Advent color cakes without having to think more about the weight of the remainder. Easy peasy!

The other hat I had started takes more attention since there’s a striping sequence, and it’s not intuitive for me in my current cluttered-mind state. Still, I finished the ribbing and made it through the first stripe sequence. Having finished the other hat, this one should get more attention this week.

I was pretty consistent on the blanket this week. And I’ve now set up my spreadsheet to better track my progress toward the goal of 45 rows. The big news was that I finished up that sixth colorway and started a new one! I picked one that has less than twenty grams, so I should be able to move on to the next one relatively soon.

It took until yesterday (Sunday) for me to have the brain space to work on the black cabled sweater. I’m well behind my timeline target, but I should have some time this month to catch up a bit. This is the upper back that I’m working on, and it’s interesting to see how the design adds cable patterns as the increases grow the fabric. I know it’s not easy to see with the black yarn, but when it’s a little bigger, I’ll look for lighting solutions to help with that.

Cast-on Conversations

Because I finished another test knit sock in the series, I was giving the third design to test. This pattern uses mosaic colorwork. I don’t have many solid colorways that I don’t already have plans for, so I pulled something out of my cabinet that had been wound for something I aborted. (Seriously: highlighter yellow!) I’m not sold on this, but it will represent the pattern well. Once I find a better color combo, I’ll likely knit a pair, similar to the variegated green yarn I used on the first pattern test.

And my other new cast on this week is a vanilla sock. While the Advent scarf is perfectly suitable for all kinds of basic knitting scenarios, it’s getting bigger and could become more cumbersome for things like movie knitting. I caked this yarn ahead of the PSP knowing it would be my first selection for the event.

Given that I’m traveling, I did some research ahead of my trip and got great recommendations from a local knitter that I know from Ravelry. Many thanks to LauraKnitsPA – after walking around the Independence Park sites for hours, I made it over to Yarnphoria to purchase some local dyers’ selections. And during my relaxation day on Sunday, I drove out to Purls of Wisdom in a suburb where I had a tough time choosing just a few yarns! I needed some worsted weight yarn for another test knit I’ll be starting when I get home. Another local dyer has a beautiful colorway similar to the Must Stash yarn I shared last week, and I also grabbed a single skein of another DK weight yarn. Most of this, aside from the test knit, is destined to become hats or fingerless mitts. Because I’m being intentional about my yarn shopping, it’s important for me to have a plan to use whatever yarn I bring in.

Book Banter

During the drive to the Philadelphia area last week, I listened to Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson. While the title specifically mentions the civil war, the chronological deep dive starts well before then, and I really appreciated getting that refresher about view on slavery throughout the colonial and Revolution eras, particularly while visiting the Presidents’ House in Philly.

I also finished reading Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover. Boy, the last few chapters had me crying! I stayed up late one night reading, thinking I could get through the end of the book. Thankfully, I didn’t, and I stopped before hitting the highly emotional peak in the story. Now I’m particularly keen to see the movie and see how much of the original character exchanges were retained from the book.

Exploits in Exercise

This segment also is travel-related, given what has happened on my eastern adventure. I was sad that I wasn’t able to hit my Movement goal the day I drove out, but I can’t say that’s surprising. Sitting in the car for hours doesn’t lend itself much to movement. And once I arrived at my hotel, I didn’t have much more energy than it took to haul my things in from the car. The next day, however, was the exact opposite! I was close to 17k steps by the time we were seated for dinner. By the time I returned to my hotel, I’d walked more than nine miles in nearly 23k steps.

The rest of the weekend was subdued in comparison, and this morning I spent twenty minutes on the hotel treadmill so that I’d at least get some activity in before the long drive home.

Football Frenzy

It was a full weekend, now that both the NCAA FBS and NFL seasons are underway. I enjoyed watching parts of various college games on Saturday after leaving the convention. And yesterday, my day of rest to prepare for my return to “real life.” I watched several games, cheering for my pro-level Buckeyes where I could (Shout out to Jaxson Smith-Njigba who had an amazing day for the Seattle Seahawks!) while I knit.

The Ohio State team had a decent “rebound” game following last week’s loss. I avoided a lot of the commentary after that game because it’s just so much noise. And while game three was quite decent, a 59-3 win over Kent State University, we’ll be facing some tougher teams now that Big Ten conference play is starting, and there were a lot of holes in the performances that need to be fixed if we’re going to make a run for the championship! I did appreciate a commentator pointing out the interesting parallels between this team and the 2014 team that went on to win the national title though. As with other trends in life though, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, lol.

Grandson Glimpses

I don’t have a lot to share here since I’ve been away for half the week. But the munchkin did grace me with his presence a few times during the week. I particularly enjoy when he crawls into bed with me in the morning. This happens on Saturdays usually, but I had a lovely visit with him on Tuesday. I think I’ve shared before that his favorite song is “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga (more on that later) – he had me bring it up on YouTube to listen and sing along. On this occasion, I was lip syncing because it was early in the morning. But kiddo wouldn’t have it. “Out LOUD, Grandma,” he insisted. Mr. Bossypants got his way, lol. (Funny side note: he’s apparently not fond of others singing, like his parents!)

Something struck me this weekend that I’m surprised hadn’t occurred to me before. When my son was two to three years old, he would sing along with Daddy in the car. My husband (at the time) was regularly listening to Soundgarden, and the boy was particularly fond of “Black Hole Sun,” and would sing it in the most adorable voice. Well, “Bad Romance” is my grandson’s equivalent… I’m hoping sometime soon to get a recording of him singing it!

Movie Moments

I’m continuing through Phase Two of the MCU – this week I watched Thor: The Dark World. While I’m a little behind now, it’ll be easy enough to catch up. By the end of this week, I’ll be on to the next Avengers movie and almost through Phase Two. I do think I’m going to jump in to see Avengers Endgame Encore, a special edition as a lead up to Doomsday in December. But I don’t know yet if I’ll count that as part of the Phase Three watch or not (probably not, lol).

Travel Tales

Here’s the big topic for the week because I did drive over 400 miles to the eastern side of Pennsylvania. The primary purpose for this trip was to attend the All Fifty Club Convention, the third annual event for this organization that is celebrating its twentieth year of existence. I got a cool bit of swag, though I didn’t buy the commemorative t-shirt (I don’t need any more shirts!): this is technically a keychain, but I don’t plan to use it as such. However, I do want to collect the tokens – this will likely be my gift request for friends and family for a while! The club kindly gave everyone a token for the state in which we’ve convened. I was also surprised by the snow globe of Scottsdale, since that’s my next “big” vacation destination, where I’ll be going to celebrate my 60^th birthday next year!

After careful thought, I’m going to hold off on my city tour so I can share a more thorough account. (I also need to check out of the hotel soon – this has taken longer than I expected, lol) So stay tuned for that, plus more info about the All Fifty Club – the convention was incredibly inspiring! I’m keen to finish out the remaining nine states on my list!

Knit on. 🧶