After my busy day with the kids on Thursday I was ready some down time. After a slow Friday I was ready to go again.

Friday night my cousin and I headed downtown to see Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter perform at a beautiful theater. We expected them to perform opportunity with bands, but we were happily surprised. It was two wonderful singers on stage with acoustic guitars singing their hits and songs from their favorite singer songwriters. I was blown away by their performance. One of my favorite moments is when they sang the Backstreet Boys song I Want It That Way and made it sound soulful and heartfelt. I will never thing of that song the same way again. If they are coming to your town I highly recommend you check the show out.

Saturday morning started with the Optimism Walk for the American Parkinson Disease Association. I was on a team with my friend Sarah and her daughters. Sarah lost her mother to Parkinson Disease earlier this year, and I was proud to be a member of Team Bananas walking in honor of Nancy.

After the walk John and I loaded up the stroller and dropped the kids off at his parent’s house. The two of us headed to the 60th birthday party of a friend and then walked to our neighborhood downtown to have a late lunch or early dinner (it was around 3, so I’m not sure what meal you would call it). Our usual spot wasn’t open yet, so we ate at a bar we usually don’t visit. The decor was unusual. I had never seen so many black velvet paintings. The walls were covered with them.

We have grown fond of eating really early and walking to the restaurant. Getting a nice meal in and a walk is always a good thing.

We walked back to get the kids in time for their dinner and bedtime. After they fell asleep Ivy came over for some knitting, wine, and cheese. She is almost done with her Find Your Fade and I’m plugging away on sleeve island. She brought me a present, a mug that is perfect for me.

It was a great day. I walked over 20,000 steps, which is probably why I slept until after 8 this morning (it was glorious). Today I need to be productive, and I fear knitting on sleeves is not the kind of productive I need to be.

I hope you are having a great weekend too.

This morning I woke up to a text from a good friend saying he needed to reschedule our dinner tonight. It was a relief. Not because I don’t want to see him, but because I knew I would be exhausted by the end of the day. And I am. It’s all my fault, I’m the one who over-scheduled the day.

We started with swim lessons this morning. Elliot complains about having to go to swim lessons from the time he puts his suit on to the time he’s in the water. Once he is in the water he is happy. Audrey is always happy to be at swim lessons, she loves the pool.

After swim lessons I dropped the kids at the Learn and Play center so I could workout on the track. I have been working out outside all summer, but if we are at the Y for swim lessons anyway I’m going to take advantage of it.

After my workout we headed to Costco. This served two purposes: we got dog food and I didn’t have to cook the kids lunch.

After a dash through Costco and a quick stop to have a hot dog or pizza we headed to the zoo for their Zoo Tots class. Today the kids learned about grassland animals, specifically animals native to Iowa. They had a wonderful time doing a craft, making a snack, meeting a ferret, and playing a game. After the class we went to see a few of our favorite animals.

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We headed home from the zoo, stopping to run an errand on the way. I’m now ready for bed and it isn’t even bedtime for the kids yet. We didn’t stop all day, and now I’m too tired to knit. Who knew that a day full of fun could be so exhausting?

Happy Wednesday! We’ve had a busy week around here, but that hasn’t kept me from knitting. I got some waiting room knitting in today on my sock. I hope to make a lot of progress on it this week. I’m ready to wear these socks, so I really need to finish them.

The Weekender is flying off my needles. I’m not sure if it is because it is knit with size 9 (5.5 mm) needles, it is all I want to knit, or because I know I need to knit like the wind if I’m going to make it out of my yarn diet hole before the end of the year. I’m really enjoying knitting this sweater. I should bind off the shoulders tonight and start the arms tomorrow. I should be able to finish the sweater easily by Thanksgiving.

If you have been thinking about knitting The Weekender I highly recommend you cast on. Like every other Andrea Mowry pattern there are some design elements to keep it from being tedious. If you finish The Weekender before Thanksgiving send me a message on Instagram or Ravelry with your mailing address and I’ll send you a project bag.

Are you obsessively knitting anything?

Last week Kathy asked for knitting tips on her blog. She said the best tip would win a prize, and by gosh by golly that was me.

My tip was: When starting to knit in the round I knit the first stitch with the working yarn and the tail from the cast on. It makes the join snugger and you don’t have an obvious join for the first few rows.

For my tip Kathy sent me a wonderful surprise: a skein of gorgeous yarn from Lorna’s Laces shop in Chicago (which I’m totally going to visit the next time I’m there) and a shawl pin. I think I’m going to use the yarn for a brioche cowl, because even though I said I wasn’t going to knit brioche again I actually do want to knit it again. The shawl pin will get a lot of use this fall, especially because the sticks on my current shawl pins are too wide and start to pop out while I’m wearing them.

Thank you for the wonderful surprise, Kathy. I am so happy to be a part of this great blog community.

I have huge news. My Finishing Friday pledge has started to pay off. I am now halfway done with my Twizzler socks. I will cast on the second one tonight or tomorrow so I have swim lesson knitting ready to go tomorrow. I love how these look. They are a little tight now, which usually means they will be perfect after blocking.

I cast on The Weekender sweater at the end of last week. I hope to have it finished for Thanksgiving. That works out to about one skein of worsted weight yarn a week, which sounds totally doable. I am loving this knit – it’s mindless, but you have to think twice a row so it isn’t totally boring.

If you have been thinking about knitting a weekender you should cast one on. Alissa and Shannon are knitting weekenders too, so you would be joining a fun group. I’ll even make small project bags for everyone who finishes The Weekender before Thanksgiving (why yes, I do seriously need motivation to get back to sewing, why do you ask?).

I am in a phase where I want to knit ALL THE THINGS, so I’m doing my best to shrug off any responsibilities and obligations so I can knit instead. My house is filthy, I’ve been relying on rotisserie chicken for dinners, and I’m behind on reading, but it has been awesome.

I have a confession. I cannot stop reading the Knitting in the City romance series. I did not read any real books this month. It was pretty great. I read five books this month, all of them were like little vacations for my brain.

Friends Without Benefits by Penny Reid. This book was a cute, fun read about cystic fibrosis research and dating a famous person. I give this book three out of five stars.

Love Hacked by Penny Reid. This knitting romance was full of information about bitcoin and block chain. I give this book three out of five stars.

Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid. This knitting romance was about the family and the hospice system. I give this book three out of five stars.

Ninja at First Sight by Penny Reid. This knitting romance was about college students falling in love. I give this book two out of five stars.

Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid. This book follows up with the college romance 14 years after their marriage. The woman, now a stay at home mom, is an ex-CIA agent. The husband is a petroleum engineer. He is kidnapped while working in Africa. This is a knitting romance novel. I give it four out of five stars.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. The siblings of a recently married couple take their spot on a Hawaiian honeymoon when the bride and groom are struck with food poisoning. They have always hated each other, but after spending time together things start to change. This is not a knitting romance novel, but I’ll forgive it for that. I give this book three out of five stars.

In October I hope to read a few real books. I’ll be happy if I ever finish Summer of 69, which I started reading in August. My book pile continues to expand, there are more home school and fiber books than novels at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll get back to real novels soon (there are only a few more books in the Knitting in the City series after all).