Here’s what I’m hoping my final weekend in February might include:

• Watch the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics.
• Complete the edging on my shawl.
• Finish listening to American Street.
• Go to the farmers market.
• Take down the Christmas cards.
• Purchase our tea supply for the year.
• Sign up for a different volleyball league. (The one that was supposed to start this weekend fell through due to lack of sign-ups.)
• Pick up my holds at the library.
• Wash my woolens.
• Check out an interactive art installation.
• Clean the kitchen.
• Dance to ’80s music. (Because otherwise those cleaning chores just won’t get done.)
• Catch up on some sleep.

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

It was a weird weekend. I woke up Saturday with a migraine, which refused to be placated by caffeine, food, ibuprofen, or sheer will, and so lost most of the day sleeping it off on the couch. I awoke in the evening feeling significantly better, which was good because the cats were out of wet food and there may have been a mutiny if I’d forced them to eat dry food for supper just because I wasn’t feeling up to going shopping for them. I finished knitting the first sleeve of my sweater and reading Wonder Woman: Warbringer, watched some Olympics, and called it a day.

Yesterday, I hit up the farmers market, caught the tail end of the Lunar New Year parade downtown, and attended an impromptu birthday dinner for a friend. I got in a lot of bike riding and walking, since the weather was so nice, and also spent some time sitting in the sun knitting and listening to my audiobook. I checked out a pop-up bookstore (one that pops up in another shop, as opposed to one selling only pop-up books, but I’d shop at that one, too), looked at picture frames, and had a nice phone conversation with my brother (who also celebrated a birthday last week). It was a full and lovely day. And then…

I wanted to cast on the second sleeve of the sweater, but to do that, I needed to move the first sleeve off that needle. So I went hunting for something to put it on. I couldn’t find a second 4.5 mm needle at first, so I pulled out a 5 mm needle, but that looked so big next to what I’d been knitting on. I knew I had another 4.5 mm needle hiding somewhere, so promptly tore through all my knitting bags (for the second time in four days; I’d needed more interlocking stitch markers and they’d been lurking in a bag, too) and came up with it. I could just cast the second sleeve on with it, I thought, but then I worried this needle might be more likely to catch on the fragile yarn and decided to just transfer it. It was a tight fit getting the stitches onto the new needle, but I made it work. The experienced knitters among you right now may be feeling slightly queasy right now, already sensing where this story is going…

Turns out I knit the first sleeve on a 3.5 mm needle (a US 5), rather than a 4.5 mm (US 7) needle. I had started this project six years ago, had swatched (and gotten gauge after washing it), had made notes in Ravelry, and then had put the needle and yarn aside. When I pulled the ribbing off the needles earlier this month, it hadn’t occurred to me to check to make sure everything was okay. Now, it should be noted that I had cast the sweater on twice. The first time, it was gigantically wide. The second time, which is what I’d found, it was with this needle, and that waist is more in common with my own. However, I don’t think I’d swatched with this needle and I have absolutely no idea how the yarn will behave once I’ve given it a soak. So I guess I’ll do that with the first sleeve and make sure it doesn’t do anything weird before continuing. But I do feel much better about how long that 20″ sleeve took me, given the needles were two sizes smaller than I thought I was knitting on!

(TL;DR: I will not finish a sweater by next weekend.)

Today just got off on the wrong foot, having been awakened at my normal weekday hour by Jeremiah throwing up. I turned down friends’ invitation to go to a movie because I was going to the play at the library, but then I didn’t get there in time. My weather forecast assured me it would be a nice day, if cloudy, so the sweatshirt I was wearing proved inadequate for the afternoon of mist we had. I did get to the library and I took myself out for hot chocolate afterwards. I got dockblocked, I missed buses, there are no women’s volleyball sneakers to be tried on in the local area… Today, I just was Alexander. So I came home, thinking maybe to try salvaging the day by baking something, and fell asleep on the couch with a Jeremiah parked on me to make sure I stayed put, which was probably the right answer all along. I am still trying to decide whether I keep plodding away on the sweater for the next week (knowing it’s not going to give me a medal) or if I try knitting something small and new (likely my Valentine’s Day hat) or attempt to get a few lingering WIPs finished (probably the smartest decision, but really not a satisfying one) as I shift my Ravellenic hopes from one event to another.

That’s a hydrangea leaf. I saw plenty of daffodils with their shoots sticking straight up today. I expect I’ll see a few flowers tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday at the latest, given our forecast includes sunny skies and warm temperatures.

I’ve got a long weekend ahead of me and am hoping to fill the time with some of these activities:

• Knit on my Ravellenic Games sweater. I’m still on that first sleeve. If I don’t have the second sleeve done by the end of Monday, I don’t think it’s finishable by next weekend and I should pull out some WIPs to cross off.
• Finish Wonder Woman: Warbringer and Magpie Murders.
• Hit the farmers market. I need milk.
• Go to the library.
• Attend a play. Conveniently, there’s one at the library on Monday.
• Get some exercise. I’ve been feeling sloth like. The weather is not going to help with this item.
• Vacuum. The living room rug is filthy.
• See if I can find some volleyball sneakers to try on. I struck out at the sports store near me.
• Bake. Maybe a cake. Or some cookies. I just got a new cookie cutter for my birthday.
• See Black Panther. If I can find a non-morning show that’s not sold out, which has been a challenge.
• See if Target has some picture frames. Marshalls and TJ Maxx have been letting me down.
• Watch some Olympics. Because tonight’s women’s Super had a snowboarder win it on borrowed skis and Nathan Chen land six quads.
• Get some sleep. The boys are waiting for me, since Rudi’s gone again for the weekend.

How about you? What do you hope to accomplish this weekend?

I hope you had a nice celebration of love today. I did, as well as a good birthday.

The day included chats, texts, and emails from loved ones. Thanks to those of you who left messages here! It also featured my online book group meeting and the Cybils announcement.

I went over to Anacostia, a neighborhood on the other side of the river, to check out a new bookstore that opened recently. Mahogany Books sells books by predominantly Black writers (with a few Latinx writers, as well, but I’m not sure if that’s permanent or if because they’ve recently been sharing space with the pop-up bookstore Duende Books). It’s a cheerful space in the Anacostia Arts Center with about a dozen sections. I ended up in the poetry section and treated myself to Morgan Parker’s There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (which I’d heard good things about) and D.C. poet Elizabeth Acevedo’s Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths. Before I left, Elizabeth happened to stop in and the owner of the store facilitated getting my book signed for me. I stopped in at Turning Natural for a late lunch before heading back to Dupont Circle to meet Rudi. I got out at the further metro exit and walked back through the circle, where one of the local hotels was giving away Valentine’s Day roses.

After deciding we didn’t really feel like seeing a movie, we headed out toward our favorite pizzeria for supper. I discovered that Jeni’s Ice Cream, which opened a D.C. branch recently, gives away free ice cream on your birthday, so we stopped there first. Rudi opted for coffee and chocolate, while I went with peanut butter & chocolate chip and goat cheese with cherries. Delicious! But, oh, so filling! We took a lap through the mall before supper and then walked home after a few slices.

The day concluded with cupcakes, presents, and the Olympics, where we got to see a transcendent ice skating performance by the German pairs skaters and a daring GS run by skier Mikaela Shiffrin.

It was a good day.

Three things I’m excited about today:

1. It’s my birthday and I’ve taken the day off to spend how I’d like. No, I haven’t quite figured out how that is, but still…I’m optimistic I’ll figure it out as I go along. It will definitely involve pizza at my favorite local pizzeria.
2. It’s also my friend Jason’s birthday, which hopefully means we’ll get to talk. I’ll likely hear from some other folks, too, which is always nice.
3. My online book club meets at noon. And the Cybils winners will be announced at 12:30.

Three things I’m excited about this coming week:

1. It’s a long weekend for Presidents’ Day.
2. Black Panther opens. My friend Shawn is planning on going to see it five times, so I’m hopeful I can tag along with him on one of his viewings. If not, I can totally watch a movie on my own. (Rudi’s going to be away coaching and then he does not have a long weekend.)
3. Sunday is the Chinese New Year Parade. I’ve never attended in the 15 years I’ve lived in D.C., but I’d really like to go this year.

Three things I’m excited about this coming month:

1. Two movies based on books I’ve loved, A Wrinkle in Time and Love, Simon, open in early March.
2. We still have another 11 days of Olympics and Ravellenic Games knitting. Did you see Shaun White and Chloe Kim?! And, then, less than a week after the Ravellenic Games knitting wraps up, Sock Madness begins!
3. Obsidio, the final book in the Illuminae trilogy, comes out next month. I have loved the first two ephemeral doorstoppers in this sci fi series and have high hopes for the final one.

What are you excited about coming up?