While the Autumnal Equinox happened three weeks ago, it has finally started to feel like it here in central Ohio. I managed to do a fair amount of knitting during the course of the week, and I had some entertainment to accompany me. I spent a fair amount of time watching baseball as the Cleveland Guardians’ season continues. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

I have exactly one finished object, mostly because I had a short deadline. I finished this dishcloth so that I could ship it, along with a couple other goodies, to the winner of our NFL Pick ‘Em pool.

I also finished the last of four test knits for Lisa K. Ross’s Socks of the Guardians collection, this one representing Gamora. Because the overall stitch pattern is ribbed, the final rounds before the bind off only take a half inch to complete.

The easiest project in my collection is still the Advent scarf. I’m now more than 2/3 of the way through, creeping up on 3/4. The piece currently measures 3.5 feet in length, too. I bring it to the movies, but it was too big for my one entertainment outing this week. With only nine minis remaining, I could finish it this month.

My other easy project is the vanilla sock, which I brought to the theater this week. However, I need to start checking the length since my round gauge has varied these days. Gusset increases aren’t too far off – another reason the scarf could be done soon.

The Aran sweater is moving along, right on track. I’m still nine days ahead of target, and I try to exceed my daily goal every day. Until I join in the round, that’s pretty easy to do. My one concern right now is yarn management. I’m almost done with the first skein of yarn (of four total), and I’m several rows away from the 25% mark in my spreadsheet which does NOT include the collar. Granted, this is also based on a specific row gauge which may vary from my swatch. After my initial wave of panic, I remembered that I swatched twice from this first skein, so I shouldn’t actually come up short unless that row gauge is way off. We’ll see!

While I didn’t work on the DVD blanket, I did pull out my striped hat project at last! I want to use this bag for multiple projects over the course of the Pigskin Party, so I need to work fast, lol. The striping pattern changes as the body of the hat grows, so this does require more attention to the pattern than other designs.

Lastly, I can share a few items I knit last year! The book Sock Knitting Success by Lisa K. Ross is being released tomorrow! I test knit a few of the eleven designs included in this book. Because this was a super-secret test series, I didn’t make project pages for most of them, so some of my usual notes are gone. I didn’t expect it to take eighteen months for the patterns to go live, so that was my mistake, which I’ve learned from!

Cast-on Conversations

With so many WIPs ongoing, you would think I wouldn’t start anything new. You’d be mistaken, lol. One of the Pigskin Party bonus opportunities is to participate in specific challenges. For October, this challenge is to craft with at least half of the project being black. I dipped into my stash as I had a couple skeins of DK weight yarn in black. I’d originally purchased this yarn for another PSP project a few years ago, but I never moved forward with it. A nice extra bonus here is the dyer is a Pro Shop Sponsor. The pattern designer is also a sponsor, and this hat will be added to my shipment for Knit the Rainbow.

Book Banter

I already mentioned one book, which is scheduled to arrive tomorrow from Amazon, Sock Knitting Success: From Fiber to Foot, Learn to Knit Socks with Confidence by Lisa K. Ross. Last week I received a non-knitting-related book I had pre-ordered: How to Be Good at Life: Simple Systems to Achieve More and Stress Less by Ben Meer. With my pre-order, I also received an online course by the author which includes videos and tips to implement more than two dozen systems the author has identified.

Lastly, after the heavy topic of the Kindle book I finished previously, I switched up to a rom com that came up in my recommendations: Philippa Flynn’s Year of Panic and Piracy: A Novel by Jacqueline Firkins. I’m only into chapter three, but it’s already made me chuckle a number of times.

Football Frenzy

Ohio State won their last “easy” game, defeating the University of Maryland 45-16, despite a number of mistakes on both sides of the ball. There were a few upsets in college football, as #1 Texas lost to unranked Oklahoma, #13 Oregon lost to #21 UCLA and #10 LSU lost to unranked Kentucky. I won’t fall down the rant slope about the differences in rankings based on those losses, but it’s annoying, to say the least.

I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the NFL games after so many of my picks lost, including one final-second comeback. But I was very happy to see that the Houston Texans won their first game of the season, and in the aftermath of that win, they announced they’d completed a trade with the Arizona Cardinals to add Marvin Harrison, Jr. to their roster. Both Marvin and the Texans’ quarterback, C.J. Stroud, played at Ohio State (together), and Stroud was able to provide references to support the trade. I’m looking forward to seeing where this team goes now!

In other sports ball news, I already mentioned the exciting news for the Cleveland Guardians. The division series with the Chicago White Sox was an interesting one as the visiting team won each game going into the final contest. And Cleveland won that last game in true “Guards Ball” fashion with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, and it was up to their bullpen and the team’s defensive skills to shut out their opponent. The AL Championship Series opens tonight in Florida, so I’ll be “glued to the tube” tonight and tomorrow!

Grandson Glimpses

The kiddo continues to entertain. Yesterday was the most memorable for me, and not just because it was only yesterday. In the morning, he woke up before everyone else upstairs, so he came downstairs, toting all three of his snuggle blankets. He climbed into bed with me for a bit. When it was time for me to get dressed to leave for church, he got sad and first asked me not to go, then asked that I take him to church with me. Neither was an option, so I held firm. He gave me a kiss and returned upstairs.

Then late at night (~9:30PM?) he was hanging out with me and decided he wanted to “knit” He picked up my striped hat, so I pulled out a leftover ball and spare needle to give him his own project.

We also had a fun outing on Friday, first the car wash followed by a trip to the Anthony Thomas Candy Store (“Candy? For me??”), and then to the post office. The last two stops were for the prize package that included the dishcloth I shared earlier. See also more below, lol.

Movie Moments

I did not get out to the movie theater this week, mostly because of baseball. This week I’m going to make use of the travel/rest day on Wednesday. But I have managed to keep relatively on track with my MCU re-watch. I managed to see Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming. My grandson recognized the last one when he glanced at the screen for two seconds, which impressed my son. The big a-ha moment for me, though, was watching a couple scenes in GoGv2: my grandson is Baby Groot with a larger vocabulary, lol. Even his face bears some resemblance. This week I have two movies on the docket, the last couple before Avengers: Infinity War, though I might get a jump and watch that on Sunday. (I have to plan around my trip in a couple weeks.)

Soundscape Sessions

I haven’t had one of these in a while! But the new Broadway season kicked off this past week, and I’m determined to get out this year! Our opening production is a good one for October: Death Becomes Her, a musical based on the 1992 dark comedy starring Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. The musical puts an interesting spin on the story, and it has some very fun dancing numbers.

The best part about the show, though, was talking with my seat neighbors. They’re mostly casual acquaintances, though one woman a few seats down I’ve known for several years. One is a knitter, so she and her friend enjoy seeing my projects. I should see everyone again in early November for Maybe Happy Ending which won six Tony Awards, though I know nothing about it. (I’m okay with that, BTW)

Knit on. 🧶