How to Spend a Rainy Weekend

That old rhyme about April showers is pretty true in my neck of the woods, but it does put a damper on doing things out of doors when you have the time. That was pretty much the case this weekend, when it rained on and off and then got downright chilly. It was a good weekend to stay inside!

On Saturday morning, we had a "framily" brunch. We have a group that includes our siblings and their spouses as well as some longtime family friends. We all live nearby and have an ongoing group chat from the early days of the pandemic (we call it "Inappropriate Coronavirus Isolation and Other Topics Discussion" and share memes and other silly stuff), and periodically we get together either for dinner (just adults) or brunch (with kids). My brother couldn't join us this time because he did something to his back and was laid up in bed, but the rest of his family made it, so we all got baby snuggle time in. Actually, all the women were fighting over holding my niece -- I guess we all miss having a little one! I also gave my sister-in-law her socks, which she loved and insisted on putting on right away.

She said they fit perfectly and that she loved the colors, so I felt pretty darn good about making them.

We got takeout on Saturday night and the Mister and I spent the evening watching a couple of episodes of The Pitt (yes, we're finally getting around to it) while I worked on my Sugar Maple. It was slow going at first, but now that I've got the pattern memorized, it's going faster, even as the round are getting longer.

I did indeed decide to stripe the two colorways throughout the whole sweater, though I used just one for the twisted ribbing on the collar. I was a bit doubtful at first, but as I've made more progress, I'm really enjoying how the stripes look. I think there will be areas with high contrast and areas with low contrast, but it certainly will not look like any other sweater knit from this pattern, and I rather like that. I only just pulled out the excess cable when I took this photo (I was magic-looping to start), and I think not having to wrangle the needles every half round is going to add to my speed.

The other thing I did this weekend was stock up on some of the things we need to welcome Ruthie! We've now got a crate with a soft insert, food and water bowls, food, treats, a leash, poop bags, puppy pads, a couple of toys, and enzymatic cleaner for any accidents. We're still waiting on a personalized collar that should come later this week. It's going to be hard to get through the next six and a half days!

Good News to End the Week

When Friday morning comes, I always think of it as the start of the weekend (even with a day of work ahead of me), and who doesn't like starting off the weekend with good news for a change? I've got three items of that sort to share today.

Good Thing #1: I finished up my sister-in-law's socks Wednesday evening and blocked them yesterday, so they'll be ready to go to her tomorrow.

I'm a little miffed that the stripes matched all the way until the end, when they didn't, but I suppose that's down to how the yarn is dyed (they're knit from Knit Picks Felici, which is dyed by machine, as opposed to the hand-dyed self-striping yarn I use a lot). They're the same stitch count and the same length, maybe off a round or two, but that alone wouldn't have caused such a discrepancy. Oh well! She's a gracious recipient and if it bothers her, I doubt she'll tell me about it.

Good Thing #2: We are getting new ovens. I've already mentioned this in replies to some comments to my last post, but I'll share the whole story here for everyone. We have double wall ovens, and we're on our second set from the same company (JennAir) since we redid our kitchen in 2009. The first set lasted longer than the second, which had only just gone out of warranty at the end of February. The Mister called the appliance store where we bought them, and the store then directed him to JennAir, which told him the particular ovens we have are discontinued, so there's no way to fix them. But he then got directed to some alternate resolution group that JennAir has, and initially they offered to replace the ovens with different models at cost -- but when he mentioned to them that this is the second time we've had to replace both ovens in about five years, they said they'd replace them at about 1/4 of what we paid for the most recent set! I'd say that's just about the best outcome we could have gotten. The new ovens are on their way, to be installed by the local appliance store, and it's possible we could have them in time for the first Passover seder next Saturday, which we are supposed to be hosting (and for which we'd very much need functional ovens!). In the interim, we're planning meals that require cooking on the stove, in the microwave, or using a toaster oven -- did you know that you can bake a decent potato in a toaster oven? And if the ovens don't arrive in time, we'll just be extra cozy having seder at my parents' place.

Good Thing #3: Last weekend, the Mister bought a new car. That is not the good thing, but it's the impetus for what comes next. His previous car was still in good shape but was likely going to require some transmission work soon, and he decided he'd rather spend his money on something new. He's notorious for taking a long time to make up his mind about something, but the tariffs that just went into effect finally convinced him. He bought a plug-in hybrid, which I was quite happy about, but also a much fancier car than I would choose. When he was at the dealership, he texted to ask me if I wanted to talk it over with him before he made the deal, and I told him it was his decision because it would be his car -- and that if he got it, I felt it was time that I got a dog.

You see where this is going, right?

This sweet girl, an almost 4-month-old Jack Russell Terrier mix, will be coming to live with us next weekend. She's coming from a organization in Kentucky that rescues dogs from high-kill shelters; they have her mother and her four siblings. Their post for her describes her as "sweet, snuggly, and always looking for love and affection," which is pretty much exactly what we wanted in a dog. Her mother weighs less than 20 pounds, so we expect her to stay on the small side, too. The rescue organization named her Kitty (what a silly name for puppy!), but we will be calling her Ruthie -- full name, Ruth Barker Digsburg. 

Molly and I are ecstatic; the Mister seems to be accepting it. We girls will be going shopping this weekend to get everything we need to welcome her, and I've already read a book on puppy training. Although I grew up with a dog, she was about a year old and already housebroken when we got her (not to mention very meek and well behaved because she'd been adopted once before and then returned to the shelter when that family couldn't afford to keep her), so this is a whole new ball of wax. I'm hoping my boss will be amenable to cutting back my time in the office, at least for the first few weeks while we get her settled. Expect lots of puppy pictures and probably less knitting and reading than usual in the months ahead! And I welcome any advice those of you who have experience with puppies have to offer!

That's it from me for now. I hope you have some good things in your life this weekend!

Poetry in April: Poems about Hope

You may be surprised to see a post from me today because it's not one of my usual blogging days, but April is National Poetry Month, and as in years past, a group of us is marking the occasion by sharing poetry every Thursday this month. Kym is our fearless leader, and you'll also find posts from Bonny, Kat, and Vera this month. 

Each Thursday, we have a theme. Today's is (as you might guess) "Poems about Hope." Hope is always something important to have, but I think it's never more important than during times of uncertainty. At this time five years ago, when we were stuck at home and had no idea when that would end, I took great comfort from seeing the signs of spring emerging outside during my daily walks. There really is nothing more hopeful than seeing how nature persists in spite of everything, so I think you'll understand why this poem by Ted Kooser spoke so well and so loudly to me.

Dandelion

The first of a year's abundance of dandelions
is this single kernel of bright yellow
dropped on our path by the sun, sensing
that we might need some marker to help us
find our way through life, to find a path
over the snow-flattened grass that was
blade by blade unbending into green,
on a morning early in April, this happening
just at the moment I thought we were lost
and I'd stopped to look around, hoping
to see something I recognized. And there
it was, a commonplace dandelion, right
at my feet, the first to bloom, especially
yellow, as if pleased to have been the one,
chosen from all the others, to show us the way.

From How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, edited by James Crews (c) 2021, Storey Publishing

Unraveled, Week 22/2025

It's been a wild few days here. On Sunday, our ovens died (and this is after we'd just replaced them several years ago), and that foiled some baking plans and made dinner prep a bit complicated. Then, after a warmer weekend that encouraged pretty much every living thing outside to bloom, we go a return of winter yesterday, though at least the sun came out for the afternoon. It's supposed to be wet off and on for the foreseeable future, but I guess that I should expect that now that it's April! And it's Wednesday, which means it's time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers.

On my long to-do list over the weekend was to swatch for handspun sweater, which I started but didn't manage to complete until Monday. The one benefit of the weather turning colder is that it meant the radiators came back on, so after washing it Monday afternoon, it was dry by Tuesday. Even better? My stitch gauge looks pretty much spot on and row gauge isn't off so much that I can't make it work.

I was undecided about how to use the two skeins of yarn (two different colorways from Southern Cross Fibre with slightly different fiber content), but I think I am just going to use them both the whole way through the sweater and alternate every two rounds for micro-stripes. I'd thought about fading from one to the other, but then I couldn't decide which one I wanted to be on top. I'm getting 9.5 rounds per inch, so each stripe is going to be less than a quarter inch in width, and I think I'll get a nice blending effect. And if I've knit a bit and it looks terrible, I'll just rip and start over!

My top priority at the moment, though, is finishing up my sister-in-law's socks, which are on the home stretch:

I prefer knitting with long circulars, but it makes for awkward photography.

I expect that I should be able to get the second sock finished later this week, and I'll be seeing her on Saturday and can give them to her then as a belated birthday gift.

After my eyes uncrossed after reading all those names last week, I got some good reading time in last week.

Remember how I recently reread Jane Austen's Mansfield Park? The reason is because I wanted to refresh my memory of the story ahead of reading This Motherless Land, which is a retelling rather than a modern update. It follows the lives of two cousins over several decades. First, we meet Funke in Nigeria. The daughter of a Nigerian father and a (white) British mother, she hears stories about the magical house in England where her mother grew up and is content with her life. When a great tragedy happens, she is sent to that house to live, only to discover that it's old and dilapidated and full of unfriendly relatives, especially her aunt, who is intensely bitter about how her life has turned out after her sister left. The one bright spot is Funke's cousin, Liv, who is nearly the same age and is desperate to be her friend and protector. The two become inseparable as they grow up, only to be split apart by an accident that sends Funke away from the place she had begun to think of as home. We see how the two cousins reconcile the split and the choices they make with the lives they've been given in the aftermath, all the while trying to come to grips with who they are and what makes a place home. While I found the connections to Mansfield Park to be slight, it's an enjoyable story that comments on race, class, and culture. I gave it 4 stars.

I expected How to Read a Book to be a bit "women's fiction"-y, but I was surprised by its emotion and depth. This novel follows three main characters: Violet, a woman in her early 20s who is in prison for manslaughter; Harriet, a retired English teacher now running a book club in Violet's prison; and Frank, the widower of the woman Violet killed. When Violet is released from prison and find her family cannot forgive her, she tries to make a new life in Portland, Maine. In a bookstore, the three meet by accident, and that meeting changes the trajectory of all their lives. I wouldn't call this heavy reading, but it does address issues like grief, forgiveness, and life after incarceration -- and, as the title suggests, it emphasizes the power of books. Interestingly, both this book and This Motherless Land feature grey African parrots, which was an amazing coincidence! I listened to this one and found it easy to follow. I gave it 4 stars as well.

Finally, the real star of this past week's reading: The History of Sound is a collection of short stories set in New England over the course of several centuries. They are connected in an interesting way, with each story having another that pairs with it. This isn't to say that the stories in each pair have the same characters or even take place in the same time period; there's just some way they're connected. And the stories are beautifully written and inventive. I think one of my favorites (or at least, in my view, the most original) is an imagined transcript of an episode of the podcast Radiolab, so well done that I showed the first page to my husband and then played him the intro to the podcast so he could appreciate it as well. I savored these stories over about a week, but the whole collection is a pretty quick read. I also found each and every story to be satisfying, which is saying a lot; my biggest complaint about short stories is that I often feel I want more when I finish them, and few collections I've read have been this satisfying. I'm so glad that I bought myself a copy of this book rather than waiting for it from the library, and I'm passing it along to my parents next. I gave it 5 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?

Less in 2025: March

I probably sound like a broken record, but I really do feel like this month has flown by and I'm a bit shocked that this is the last day of March! It feels fitting, though, that the final Monday of the month is also the final day of the month and thus time to do my One Little Word reflection. Thank you to Kat for hosting our monthly link-ups!

When I picked Less as my OLW for this year, the main thing on my mind was having less stuff. Yarn and fiber were certainly top of mind, but in general I have been feeling a need to simplify my life in terms of the stuff I have in my house that isn't used.

A big category of that stuff is clothes. Now that I'm no longer going into the office every day (and now that our dress code at work seems to have gotten a bit more casual), there's a lot of office wear that's just not getting worn. On top of that, I've still got a lot of clothing from my heavier days that's too big. I'm trying to go through my closet and drawers regularly to pull out items that aren't being used so that they can be put back into use somewhere else. I've got a three-fold plan for these things:

1. Items that are high quality and in good shape get sent to ThredUp. I've been sending them stuff for a couple of years now, since Kym first put the site on my radar. I've made a little extra money, nothing huge, but I like the idea that clothes are finding new life in someone else's closet or being recycled responsibly.
2. Items that are cheaper but still in good shape get donated to places like Goodwill or the Free Store.
3. Items that are stained, torn, worn out, or generally low quality I take to drop in a bin at work for textile recycling. They'll even take my worn-out shoes!

I think you all know by now that I've been actively trying to reduce the size of my stash, which means using what I have and not buying more in general. But one area where I'm feeling particularly overwhelmed is my handspun. Every time I go into my stash to try to find a specific skein of handspun, I find more skeins I've forgotten about. So I think I'm going to open an Etsy store again. I don't love Etsy because they nickel-and-dime you, but there aren't really any alternatives that will take care of shipping and taxes and all that (and I don't have the time or energy to try to set up my own site with all of that integrated). I had an Etsy store several years ago, but I'm going to rebrand and start over. Molly has gotten quite good at using Canva, so she's helping me with a logo. And at some point I'll have to take ALL the handspun out, organize it, and start photographing and putting it up. There are so many skeins that I enjoyed spinning but that I just don't feel like I need to use, so if someone else will, I'll be happy to pass them along. I'll let you know when that's all set up, just in case you're interested (no pressure!).

I'm sure I'll be coming back to this same theme for Less throughout the year, and we'll see just how much I can clear out of the house by the end of it!

A Change in Plans

I'm always happy to see Friday come around again, but I'm especially happy today. It's been a tiring week. Remember how I told you that commencement lists were due? One of them was 46 pages long. That's 46 pages of names that I had to make sure were in alphabetical order. It's not hard, but it is rather mind numbing. I'm very happy that's done with for another year and I won't have to do it again until the fall, when we put together the December commencement program.

Thank you for all the compliments on my wee chicken! I'm most definitely contemplating another one, at some point, at a tighter gauge. I like the size, but I can also see the stuffing through the fabric a bit. Plus I'm thinking of how to add some stitches to make seaming easier. And I'll definitely be rewriting the pattern before I use it again because even the third time through, there were certain ways the instructions were worded that tripped me up.

While I didn't have a list or a definite idea of what I was going to cast on next, my acceptance to SSK* has caused me to shift my plans a bit, at least for the next month or so. One of the signature perks of the event is that they always have a ton of door prizes. You can win prizes by putting tickets in for the items you're interested in, and you can earn extra tickets for things like participating in knitalongs/makealongs prior to the event and earn more for using yarn from vendors or handspun. At least since I've been attending, the patterns you can make are ones designed by the teachers at that year's events, with one featured for a set length of time leading up to the retreat. Through the end of March, the featured designer is Rosemary "Romi" Hill. I knew I didn't have much time to make anything, so I went for small projects.

This is the washcloth from Romi's Silvermist Bath Set (Ravelry link). I made two to ensure I had used at least 100 yards (you get one ticket for every 100 yards you use), and the red/purple one is handspun -- it's cotton from HipStrings! It was actually the very first -- and, to date, only -- cotton I've spun, and it's very uneven and highly textured, but I think it works quite well for a washcloth. The white (which is plain-old Sugar 'n Cream) shows the pattern better, obviously.

Starting April 1, the featured designer is Carina Spencer (Ravelry link), and I'm planning to knit two of her patterns. First is a top I've wanted to make for a while, Sugar Maple (Ravelry link). I pulled these two skeins of handspun to use:

Both are from Southern Cross Fibre. The one on the left is a blend of superfine merino and silk; the one on the right is merino and rose fiber. Both feel smooth and cool to the touch, so I think they'll be good for a tee. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to stripe them or start with one and fade into the other. I'm open to ideas! I'll likely wind these up and start swatching this weekend so I'll be ready to cast on next week.

I'm also going to make another Zuzu's Petals (Ravelry link) -- I made one years ago -- using this yarn that I spun from batts I won at SSK in 2023, bringing it full circle:

We have a fairly quiet weekend ahead, with a bar mitzvah to attend tomorrow (the son of one of the Mister's high school friends) and our usual family dinner on Sunday. I'm hoping to get some dedicated reading time in this weekend, given how little there has been during the week. And it's supposed to get warmer, after we had another cold snap and even some snow flurries this week, so perhaps I'll get out to walk.

I hope you have a great weekend, whatever you have planned, and I'll see you back here on Monday with my One Little Word reflection for the month (I can't believe how March has flown by)!

*Pam's comment on Monday reminded me that not everyone knows the acronyms I tend to throw around and I should probably explain. SSK stands for Super Summer Knitogether. It's an annual fiber arts retreat in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Leslie and Laura of TheKnitGirllls. This will be my third year attending; I previously went in 2017 and 2023.

Unraveled, Week 21/2025

Bock bock! I'm in a "fowl" mood this Wednesday as I join with Kat and the Unravelers -- with a finished chicken!

Pattern: Emotional Support Chicken by Annette Corsino
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Mountain Tweed BFL in Signature Series: Neutrals (approximately 114 yds./26 g used) and FDW Bounce in two purples and yellow (approximately 28 yds./7 g used), plus a small amount of black leftovers
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm
Started/Completed: March 20/March 24
Mods: omitted wattle

This is now the third ESC I've knit, and it might just be the cutest! I figured that because my nephew has one, my niece needed one as well, and with Passover and Easter both coming up, it felt even more appropriate. She's not quite old enough to really be into stuffed animals just yet, though, so I thought a chick would be better than the full-sized chicken. I didn't do anything to adapt the pattern other than use lighter yarn and smaller needles.

The leftover yarn from Molly's socks ended up being pretty perfect for a chicken -- the purple stripes and yellow for the beak were added in manually, but all the other color changes are just the tweed yarn. I still have a good amount leftover, so I very well may have had enough to do the entire chicken in it, but I still rather like the purple stripes for some added flair. I embroidered the eyes rather than use safety eyes; frankly I thought the safety eyes I have would have been comically large on this smaller bird, if not downright scary. I also omitted the poly pellets I usually put in the bottom of the body (in a sewn bag).

Here you can see the new chick with my chicken for a sense of scale. I think I could even stand to knit one on smaller needles (US 0 or US 1) for a mini chicken -- one day. I'm a bit chickened out for now.

I'm still working on my sister-in-law's socks, though there's not that much more knitting to show. I'll have a better update on Friday.

Reading! I have added three titles to my "read" list this week, though two were so short they hardly seem like they should count!

I was very impressed by Leila Mottley's debut novel, Nightcrawling, so when I received an invitation to read and review her new novel, I was quite interested to see where she would go next. In The Girls Who Grew Big, Mottley takes her readers to the opposite side of the country, the tiny town of Padua Beach, Florida, and introduces them to three young women all dealing with pregnancy. Simone, the oldest, is already the mother to 4-year-old twins, who she is raising in a red pickup truck after being kicked out by her parents and has recently discovered she is pregnant again by the twins' father. Emory is a high school senior with a 9-month-old son who is realizing that having a baby has not brought her life the meaning she thought it would. Adela is 16 and has been sent to live with her grandmother until she gives birth because of her parents' shame. These three are among the girls and young women who have come together to support each other in the middle of community that judges them but also offers them little to no help.

My thoughts on this novel are conflicted. On the one hand, the writing is powerful, and Mottley shows that her debut was not a fluke. On the other hand, I didn't understand how Simone, for instance, was able to make ends meet (she's living in a truck, but somehow still manages to party with her group?). I also often found myself exasperated with these three young women and the poor choices they repeatedly made -- though I also have to wonder if that wasn't the author's point. They are, after all, still children and are being forced into very adult decisions and responsibilities, and I suppose I was judging them as much as the adults in their lives were. Perhaps Mottley is asking us to suspend our disbelief in these particular characters a bit to see the bigger picture: that girls and women who find themselves pregnant often have few, if any, options and are often shamed by others no matter what decisions they make. I gave it 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published June 24, 2025.

Last Thursday, when I was off from work, Molly and I took a trip to the main branch of our library system to see if they had any books she could use for her history research paper. She didn't find anything, but at long as we were there, I poked around in the nonfiction section and came home with two books by Ted Kooser, who many of you have been talking about lately. First I read Lights on a Ground of Darkness, which is a short memoir of sorts (I think it was originally published as a long essay) about his mother's family, how they came to live in Iowa, and his memories of his interactions with them when he was a child. This is a beautiful, quiet remembrance, with the writing very clearly that of a poet. It's very short, at only about 70 pages, but I took two days to read it to savor it. I gave it 4 stars.

Those of you who are already familiar with Kooser as a poet likely also know that, for more than two decades, he sent out a poem on postcards for Valentine's Day, first to friends and later to women across the country. His collection Valentines contains all the poems, each one paired with a beautiful black-and-white illustration by artist Robert Hanna. Even though I tried to read these slowly and deliberately, I read through them all in one sitting (though I'll admit I took photos of a handful so I could continue to enjoy them after I returned the book to the library). This was my first experience with his poetry, other than a small selection some of you have shared on your blogs, but it won't be my last. I gave this collection 4 stars.

I am currently reading This Motherless Land, a modern retelling of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (hence why I reread it recently), and I've just started The History of Sound, which I ended up buying because it was only available as an audiobook (with a long wait) via Libby and the hard copies at the library were checked out.

What are you making and reading this week?

Deep Breath Before the Rush

Good morning and happy Monday, friends. I am bracing myself for a busy week -- commencement lists are due to me today, which means I'm in for a week of reading page after page of names that I have to ensure are in alphabetical order. It turns out that the end of last week was an excellent time to take a couple of days off before things get hectic again, and even though it wasn't a terribly exciting long weekend, it was restful, and that was much needed. Molly and I enjoyed the bonus time together, and I'm looking forward to having her around the house for one more week.

I spent most of my knitting time this weekend working on a chicken.

I call this the "spatchcocked" phase of the project.

The yarn leftover from Molly's socks turns out to be pretty perfect for knitting a bird and is working out very nicely to give some variation to the fabric without having to get too fancy with other yarns. I'll be using the lighter purple for the feathers on top of the chicken's head and yellow for the beak. I'm also going to be embroidering the eyes rather than using safety eyes, both in the interest of safety and because I think the safety eyes might look a little demonic because of the smaller scale of the project. I'm not doing anything different with the pattern other than using fingering weight yarn and size 2 needles. I'll be sure to share a photo of this when it's finished alongside my regularly sized chicken so you can get a sense of scale.

While chicken knitting has been enjoyable, there's not all that much left of it and it's not something I can do while reviewing lists of names, so I needed to cast on something fairly mindless. As it happens, today is my other sister-in-law's birthday, and I would have started these earlier had I remembered that before this weekend, but it is what it is. Unlike the SIL I just finished socks for, this one has very large feet (9.5 inches long and 9.25 inches around), so I typically stick to ankle socks for her.

The label is a little hard to read, but these are being knit out of Knit Picks Felici in the colorway Space Disco (isn't that a great name?). I'm going to knit probably a couple inches of cuff and then start the heel, and I'll do the whole foot in stockinette. I last knit her socks about this time last year, also out of Felici, and did the same thing.

I've saved the best news about the long weekend for last: Just as we were getting ready to head out the door for our haircuts on Friday, my phone pinged with an email notifying me that I'd gotten in off the waitlist to SSK! I yelled for Molly to tell her, and the poor girl thought I was yelling at her because we were running late! Needless to say, once I told her what was up, she was very excited. We've now booked flights and a place to stay (the on-site housing has been full since January, so I reserved a Vrbo that's literally across the street from the retreat center). The event begins on a Wednesday evening, but we are flying in midday on Tuesday so that we can have a bit of time for some extra sightseeing. Neither of us is really a country music fan, but one of us is a devoted Swiftie, and apparently the Country Music Hall of Fame houses the Taylor Swift Education Center, so we might have to make a visit. Personally, I'd like to go back to the Parthenon and see the inside. And I wouldn't mind another visit to Parnassus Books, either! We've still got several months to plan and prioritize, but it's so nice to have something big to look forward to.

With that, I'll sign off for now. I will see some of you online tomorrow evening at the Read With Us Zoom, and I'll be back with an update on Wednesday. In the meantime, here's a little hello from Dippy, who hopes you enjoyed the first weekend of spring!

Friday Finishes

Technically, today is the first full day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, but it sure doesn't feel like it here. A front came through yesterday, bringing rain and wind, and this morning it's back in the 30s. Brrr! At least the sun is out.

I spent my day off yesterday finishing up both of my active projects. I had a little bit of plying left to do on the skein of handspun, so I took care of that right after breakfast and then wound off the skein after my workout. Thanks to the temperature dropping and the heat coming back on, the finished yarn is dry this morning.

As I hoped, it's a fingering weight (mostly; like any handspun, there's some variation) and measuring about 416 yards. It's also very bouncy and stretchy, which is pretty typical for Targhee. And I've already pulled out fiber for the next spin, which I'll probably spin the same way:

The lighting isn't great, but can you tell I was in a particular mood when I ordered these?

Yesterday's other finish was my sister-in-law's socks, which required just a bit more knitting on the foot and the toe to get done.

I'm very happy with how these turned out, and I can't imagine my sister-in-law won't be anything but thrilled with them (she's incredibly knitworthy). These will be getting a wash and then will be packed away until her birthday in September.

Of course I couldn't leave my needles empty after I finished the socks, so I have started my niece's Emotional Support Chicken:

I'm really enjoying how this yarn is becoming feathers! I'm also interested to see how big the chicken ends up being given that I'm using fingering weight yarn and size 2/2.75 mm needles.

On tap for today, other than the usual stuff (working out, cleaning the bathroom, doing laundry), are haircuts for both of us. My hairdresser always jokes that I only manage to get in to see her once a year, but Molly has informed me that we were last there in May, so it's been less than a year this time! I need to chop a couple of inches off -- I'm at that stage where my hair is getting caught in everything -- and Molly's hoping for some layers that will show off her curls. Tomorrow, we have an appointment to apply for her new passport. She got her first one back in 2019, when we were planning to travel abroad in 2020, but it's since expired. We've decided that we're finally going to take that trip next spring, probably right after the end of the school year, so we're getting all our ducks in a row now. I'm also looking forward to sleeping in the next two days; even though I've taken two days off from work, I've still gotten up with my usual alarm.

Here's hoping it's a good weekend for all of you!

Unraveled, Week 20/2025

It's really Wednesday today, so that means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! I'm kicking off this Unraveled Wednesday with two bobbins of singles that are ready to be plied:

I've got two meetings this morning, one of which I expect to last for a full hour, so I'll make a good start on getting through all the singles. I may have overdone it a bit yesterday trying to finish up the second bobbin, because my right wrist was hurting a bit last night. All is well this morning, though, and plying is a lot easier on my body than spinning singles, so I'm hopeful I'll have a finished skein to share with you on Friday.

I'm also making good progress on the socks and am in the home stretch on the second one after finishing the gusset decreases on it last night.

Reading has picked up a bit after a busy workweek last week. I've got three finishes to share today.

First up was my reread of The Secret History in preparation for the Read With Us discussion next week. According to Goodreads, I first read this back in 2016. I found I remembered a fair amount of it but not how it wrapped up. And my opinion of the book didn't change much on this revisit. The writing is absolutely fantastic, but the characters are pretty much all horrible people. I'd say it takes real skill as a writer to get your reader to root for people to get away with murder, but that's really what happens with this book. This time around, I was really struck by how Donna Tartt manages to make the story feel like it takes place much longer ago than it does. There are plenty of cultural indications that it takes place in the 1980s, but it feels like it could be the '50s in many ways. The way the characters speak and behave feels like they're out of a different era, which I suppose is fitting for a group studying the classics. In any case, I loved the writing but got an icky feeling throughout much of the book. I gave it, again, 4 stars.

After being with those terrible people for weeks, I needed something lighter. I'd say I'm the last person to read The Thursday Murder Club, but judging from how long the wait list is at my library, clearly there are a lot of people behind me. I was in that wait list for a while until the book popped up as a Kindle deal, and I took advantage -- $1.99 was worth it not to have to wait months! I'm sure many of you have read this by now, but if you haven't, I'd recommend it. It follows a group of friends in a British retirement community who get together to solve murders. They started with old cases, but soon there are several murders related to their community and they are on the case. Murder isn't particularly funny, of course, but this is a lighthearted take on it. And it's also a heartwarming look at how people with very different backgrounds can find commonalities and how individuals who most people would discount because of their age can find that they still have agency. I very much enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars.

When I was in need of something to listen to late last week, I borrowed The Plot via Hoopla. I'd heard mixed reviews of it, but I thought a mystery/thriller would make for good reading while cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry. Jacob Finch Bonner is a struggling novelist teaching at a low-residency MFA program when he comes across an arrogant student who claims he has a plot for a novel that is guaranteed to be huge success, and when Jacob hears the plot, he realizes the student is right. When the student's book hasn't materialized years later, Jacob learns that it's because the student has died -- and that means that plot is up for grabs. So Jacob uses the plot and writes a book that does indeed become a huge success. But then the messages and social media posts and letters start coming from an anonymous source claiming that he stole the book and threatening to expose him. The story is interspersed with excerpts from the book that Jacob writes using the plot, and eventually the big twist that is behind its success is revealed -- as is the reason how the person sending the messages knows where Jacob got the plot. This book was entertaining enough, but I saw the plot twists coming (both in the book and in the book-within-the-book). I also didn't much care for Jacob as a character and was annoyed with him for quite a bit. I think the author was trying to raise some bigger questions about writing and whether anyone can own an idea, but it all seemed a bit overwrought. I gave it 3 stars.

I am currently reading Leila Mottley's forthcoming second novel, The Girls Who Grew Big. 

What are you making and reading this week?

A Week with Two Wednesdays?

It's Monday, but it's also kind of Wednesday for me because I'm taking this Thursday and Friday off (when I went to check my time off accruals last week, I found I had reached the maximum on my vacation time, so I can't earn any more unless I use some). If, given a three-day week, this Wednesday is my Friday, then this Monday is my Wednesday, right?

We had a very relaxing weekend, I think in part because Molly is now on spring break for a couple of weeks, so we didn't have much of a sense of urgency. And the weather was pretty crummy both days, with rain on and off and even a brief hailstorm on Sunday! The Mister and I had to go to the bank to sign some documents on Saturday morning, and then Molly and I went to Costco (yes, I know, but we were in and out in less than an hour, if you can believe it!). We stayed in on Saturday night, had snacks for dinner, and watched 50 First Dates, and yesterday we had dinner with my parents, my brother, and his family. This morning I'll be going back and forth to campus to go see my doctor for my annual physical and then to donate blood. But it will be nice not to have to do the school pickup in the afternoon! Molly does have to write a research paper for history over break, but she's also making sure to catch up on her sleep and get plenty of down time.

I did a fair amount of knitting over the weekend and so am more than 50% done with my sister-in-law's socks:

The heel on the completed sock looks a little wonky, but I think that's just because it was folded up in my project bag and I didn't really smooth it out when I put it down to take this photo. These are just my usual vanilla sock recipe -- 68 stitches, heel flap and gusset, wedge toe. They're exactly the same as the socks I make for myself, just shorter (her feet are a 3/4" shorter than mine!). I'm well on my way on the second sock, so these should be finished soon and then will be washed and put away for later in the year.

I'll admit I was feeling a little bored with just the one project going, so I started a new spinning project. I pulled out another braid of FatCatKnits fiber from years ago but wasn't sure how to spin it, so I posted a photo of it on Instagram with a poll. Overwhelmingly the votes were in favor of a fractal, so I split it up exactly as I did the last spin -- one bobbin in two strips, one bobbin in four. I finished the first bobbin yesterday afternoon.

The fiber base this time is superwash Targhee, which will plump up a bit when washed, but all the same I am spinning my singles a little finer than the last time and aiming for two-ply fingering. We'll see what happens.

And should I get bored with the sock knitting, I've already decided what to cast on next, using this yarn:

If the yarn on the right looks familiar, it's because it's the leftovers from Molly's socks. I thought it would be perfect for a chicken. Yes, you read that correctly! I think my niece needs her own Emotional Support Chicken, but she's only four months old, so I'm making a little one. I pulled out some happy mini skeins that I can use for contrast, and I think a little chick can easily be finished in time for Passover/Easter, don't you think? I've really been enjoying using up as much yarn as I can when I pull a skein out of the stash, so I'll be happy to use the remainder of Molly's skein for something else.

I hope your week is off to a good start. See you back here for the real Wednesday!

All Good Things

Friends, the news continues to be horrible, so I thought I would use this post as a reason to share good things. (I'm also doing it because I have a dearth of fibery content to share, so yes, it's a bit of a cop-out.)

Good Thing #1:
I successfully went for my first run since breaking my foot on Monday! I took it slow (about a 10-minute mile pace) and my foot did fine, but it's clear my legs are not used to this type of exercise. This is probably the first time that I had to stop and walk not because I needed to catch my breath but because my legs and knees were yelling at me. I've been feeling it all week, but today the aching seems to be gone, so I'll be going out to run again this morning. I also bought myself another pair of running shoes earlier this week (I got an email from Zappos about a sale on Hokas), so I am all ready to resume my regular runs, albeit perhaps not three times a week for a while yet.

Good Thing #2:
While I was out on that run on Monday, I ran into a neighbor I haven't seen in a while because I haven't been outside much in the past several months. I usually see her out with her dogs Max and Star. This time, Max wasn't with her, and though I didn't ask, I presume he has crossed the rainbow bridge (he was an elderly Westie). But this time Star was accompanied by a tiny, fluffy puppy, who looked like some sort of Doodle. He is six months old and very friendly, and his name is BAGEL!

Good Thing #3:
Speaking of dogs, if you're a fan of them and you need a little pick-me-up, take a few minutes to watch these videos of dogs' reunions with their owners. Have some tissues handy!

Good Thing #4:
Today's day is 3/14 -- which means it's Pi(e) Day! I totally forgot about it until Molly reminded me this morning, but it's a perfectly good excuse to eat some pie. You know, if you needed one.

Good Thing #5:
We have had a week of amazing weather here in Pittsburgh. It's been sunny and warmer than average -- we might even hit 80ºF today! I'm not ruling out the possibility of more snow (we've had it in April before), and there are highs in the 40s in the five-day forecast, but it sure seems like spring has arrived. Case in point: I saw crocus flowers on my way to the office yesterday:

I also spotted at least one daffodil bud in my yard, so it appears we'll have some flowers soon. If that's not a reason for celebration, I don't know what is.

I hope you've got some good things in your life right now, and if not, I hope you can at least be happy about the fact that it's almost the weekend. Enjoy it, friends!

Unraveled, Week 11/2025

It is Wednesday -- already and again! Time to join up with Kat and the Unravelers!

As work is entering a busy cycle, there's been less time to craft and read during the day, so I don't have a lot to share. But I do have a finished hat, which you saw the brim of on Monday. Once I finished up the brioche, it flew pretty quickly.

There is no pattern for this, as it's just a basic beanie. I cast on 88 stitches with two colors of Knit Picks Chroma Twist on US 3/3.25 mm needles and worked in two-color brioche until I didn't have enough of the lighter color (Sandpiper) to do another round. Then I switched over to US 5/3.75 mm needles and knit until the hat measured 6 inches (about 15.5 cm) and did basic swirled decreases at eight points. I still have a bit of the darker color (Cousteau) of yarn left and could have made it a little longer, but I wasn't in the mood to play yarn chicken. This will get a bath and then will be added to the bags of charity hats, and perhaps Molly will use the leftovers in one of her many scrappy crochet projects.

I'm still working on my sister-in-law's socks and have gotten to the heel. I'm pondering what to cast on next -- one WIP doesn't usually do it for me if it's not especially engaging, but maybe I should just focus on these socks in the interest of getting them done quickly. We shall see.

I've only finished one book in the past week, but when it's a five-star read, that seems like enough. And I have Bonny to thank for putting it on my radar.

The Correspondent is a book of letters. Sybil Van Antwerp, a 70-something woman who lives alone, spends regular hours at her desk taking care of her correspondence, just as she has done her whole life. She writes to her brother and her best friend. She writes to former colleagues and acquaintances she met through her career as a lawyer and judicial clerk. She writes to a teenage boy who has shared his secret troubles and fears with her and with whom she has shared some of her own secrets. She writes to authors whose books she has enjoyed, including Ann Patchett and Larry McMurtry. She has a regular correspondence with Joan Didion. And she writes, regularly and continuously, to someone who is unnamed and unknown until the very end. Though all these letters, we get a complete view of her life's struggles and triumphs, from her early years as an adopted child who felt so unlike her peers at school; to the loss of one of her children and her subsequent divorce; to the struggles in her later life to maintain a relationship with her daughter and her diagnosis of a degenerative eye condition that will eventually take her sight. Though the letters she writes and the letters she receives, we learn about her regrets and the things she blames herself for, and we are able to see how even a woman in her 70s who has had a long, satisfying life can still learn new things, can find ways to right the wrongs, and can find new ways to experience joy. It's a beautiful, quiet novel -- one that will likely make you want to write a letter! I gave it 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. It will be published April 29, 2025. And Goodreads has a giveaway for a hard copy open right now, if you're interested! Just click on the link above and you should see the giveaway on the left.

I'm getting very close to the end of The Secret History and am pondering what lighthearted or funny book I can read next as a palate cleanser.

What are you making and reading this week?

In Which I Complete Another Trip Around the Sun

Good morning, friends. I hope you've all sufficiently recovered from the time change. While I enjoyed the later sunset time, I would have been happy to wait another month for it to occur naturally and had that hour of sleep instead. I suppose the best thing I can say for changing the clocks is that at least we don't do it on a Monday morning!

Yesterday was, of course, my birthday, and it was probably also the most relaxing part of the weekend. Our plans for Friday night went a bit haywire: We had the table set, the food waiting, and the water glasses filled and my in-laws had arrived, but my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephews hadn't shown. When the Mister called his brother to find out where they were, they were wondering where we were because they had apparently cooked dinner at their place. So we all loaded up in the car and went there, and dinner was good, but it was not the quiet night at home I was hoping for. I think what says it all is that my birthday cake -- a chocolate almond torte -- got smushed in the refrigerator and ended up saying "Hapy day h!"

Fortunately the rest of the weekend's plans went ahead as scheduled. Molly and I thoroughly enjoyed Kimberly Akimbo on Saturday afternoon (did you know that they figured out a way to ice skate on the stage as part of the show?), and then the three of us had a nice dinner out. On Sunday morning, my brother and my nephew stopped by to drop off a gift, and then Molly and the Mister and I went for a fancy brunch at one of our favorite local restaurants -- including a pear cardamom mimosa! I took the opportunity to wear my vest again.

Photo taken by the Mister, which is why he's not in it

After some wet snow fell on Friday night, the sun was out all weekend, and it was warm enough yesterday afternoon (low 50s) to take a walk in just a sweatshirt:

That sweatshirt was my birthday present from my brother and his family. It's from my local bookstore -- the neon whale is above their cafe and is named August Whale-son in honor of one of Pittsburgh's literary native sons.

While most of the weekend seemed to be spent eating, there was some knitting as well. As many of you predicted, my needles didn't stay empty for long. I pulled out some leftovers from the two hats I test knit this year and combined them for a charity hat, and I also started a new pair of socks for my sister-in-law so I'd have something to knit at the show.

I didn't manage to get the full cuff of the sock knit before the show started and couldn't see enough in the low light to measure it, but I got close enough to an inch. Somehow I dropped a stitch but also created one when I switched over from ribbing to stockinette, so I had to get out my fix-it tool in the intermission to ladder down and pick it back up. I also had no idea how the yarn was going to stripe, so that was a fun surprise when the lights came up. This is a OOAK Fibernymph Dye Works self-striper on a superwash merino base that has sections of natural dark fiber. It's not as tightly plied as the Bounce base I usually use, so it's a little splitty, but I do love the colors and I think my sister-in-law will as well. I'll likely put these away for her birthday in September. The hat is just basic two-color brioche for the brim, which I knit until I ran out of the color I had less of, and the rest will be plain stockinette. I think both of these projects will be handy this week, as I'm expecting a magazine project to come in and will have a lot of reading to do.

It may be Monday, but it's supposed to be another beautiful day here and there are signs of spring arriving. Let's hope we can make the most of it!

Weekending Early

Today is my "spring break" at work; the students are off for spring break all this week, so staff get this one day off. Years ago, it was referred to as Great Americans Day, at least according to my former boss. A quick Google search didn't turn up anything useful, so maybe he was pulling our legs. Regardless, I'm happy to have the day off from work, even if I had to get up at the usual time to get Molly to school. (That just means I'm appreciating more of the day, right?)

Speaking of Molly, she has some brand-new socks to wear, which is a good thing because it snowed again yesterday. It didn't stick anywhere but on grassy surfaces, but it was cold and blew in my eyes the whole way into the office yesterday morning. Yuck.

These were knit with Fibernymph Dye Works Mountain Tweed BFL in the colorway Signature Series: Neutrals. I used 62 g of yarn or about 271 yards. They haven't been blocked, obviously, and may not be -- she may want to wear them right away. She asked for slightly shorter legs (4.5 inches), so they knit up a lot faster than I was anticipating. And I'm happy to be done with the neutrals!

At the other end of the color spectrum is the yarn I plied earlier this week, which is a welcome pop of bright color. This was Polwarth from FatCatKnits in the colorway Flamingo, but it made me think early '90s and Miami Beach (or maybe Miami Vice?).

I think I mentioned that I split the fiber up to be a fractal, which essentially means that both plies follow the same color progression but at different rates. For this particular skein, I found when I pulled the braid apart that I could fold it in half and the two sides matched up, so I broke it in half at the fold, then split one piece into two lengthwise and split the other into four lengthwise. There's a lot of barberpoling but also a fair number of spots where the colors of the two plies line up. Some people might think this yarn was overplied, but I love this round, bouncy look. After washing and drying, the yarn looks to be about sport weight on average, and I estimate its length to be about 276 yards. I have no clue what to do with it and probably will just stick it back in the stash for now, but it was great fun to spin.

The weekend ahead is my birthday weekend. The number is unexciting and I'm not expecting any big gifts, but I am looking forward to eating several meals that I do not have to cook myself. Tonight the Mister's side of the family is coming over for pizza, and tomorrow the three of us will go out after Molly and I see Kimberly Akimbo. My actual birthday is Sunday, so we're going to go for a fancy brunch at one of the places we go to for dinner a lot but for which I've never gone for brunch. I'm a bit annoyed that I will get one less hour of sleep that night, but maybe I'll make up for it by sleeping in. I've reached that stage in life where the only reason I really look forward to a birthday is because it's a chance to be with my loved ones for a happy occasion. This year I'm especially happy to be in better shape physically after two pretty traumatic injuries last year, and given the current political situation, I'm also feeling very thankful to be gainfully employed and not struggling to make ends me. I know I'm very lucky, and I'm hopeful that there will be many more trips around the sun ahead of me. In honor of my birthday, I hope you'll all treat yourself to a little something special this weekend!

Unraveled, Week 10/2025

We've made it to the midpoint of the week, one that's seemed longer than normal to me thanks to not one but two migraines (I blame the extreme swings in weather). The most recent was yesterday afternoon, which is why this post is a bit later than usual because I often get started on my Wednesday posts on Tuesday afternoon and skipped it yesterday. Joining Kat and the Unravelers is always a high point for me, though, so here I am with an update on my making and reading.

First, I have to thank you all for the lovely compliments you gave me on my vest. I've already worn it twice this week, including yesterday, when we reached the low 60s F for a high and it was the perfect light layer. I also found myself admiring the colors in the fabric frequently, so now I'm pondering how I could take fiber that's in my stash and mix it up to have that same tweedy look.

My only project on the needles at the moment are Molly's socks, which are now in the home stretch:

I took them to a long work meeting last Thursday and was able to finish the first sock and start the second over the weekend. I think I will easily finish these up by the end of the week, and I'm going to need to cast on some stockinette project soon because we're going to see Kimberly Akimbo on Saturday afternoon and I'll need something to keep my hands busy.

Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my wheel and plied up the yarn I started spinning last week; skeining and washing are on today's to-do list. It looked lots of fun while I was plying, so I'm excited to see the full skein!

I've finished two books this last week.

First was a reread: Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. I borrowed an audiobook via Hoopla, and there are so many versions that I couldn't find the one I listened to on either Goodreads or StoryGraph! I've read the book at least once before, but it's been many years, and I wanted to reread it before I read a modern retelling that's in my Kindle library. This book tells the story of Fanny Price, who is taken in by her aunt and uncle as a young girl; she is one of many children, and her mother's sisters have decided that bringing her up is a sufficient act of charity. Though she is brought up in better circumstances than her siblings, she doesn't rank as high as her cousins in terms of the opportunities available to her and thus is mostly an observer of their lives. Like all Austen novels, the subject of marriage as a means of social advancement looms large, and though I knew to expect it, I was struck on this reread by how little regard was paid to Fanny's feelings and moral beliefs when it came to who she might marry -- and how well she stood up to the pressure. Revisiting this novel was very pleasurable. I gave it 4 stars.

You might think that The Dream Hotel, set in a technology-rich near future, is the complete opposite of Austen, but in fact it shares the theme of a woman whose freedom to make her own choices is limited by her society. In this novel, the United States has taken an extreme step in fighting violence by using an algorithm to detain individuals deemed at risk of committing a violent act. It's no longer about just making threats, either; in this world, implantable devices design to help people sleep better also can read their dreams, and the content of their dreams can be used against them. That is what happens to Sara Hussein, a mother of young twins who sought help for her extreme exhaustion and ends up in a retention facility because the algorithm predicts she is at risk of harming her husband. Once she is in the system, she finds that it is hard to escape it, because not only can her own dreams and data be used against her, but she is also of value to the private company that runs the retention facilities. She is subject to the whims of those who supervise the retainees, who enforce the endless and often changing rules of the facility, and is under constant surveillance by cameras, microphones, and the device that continues to record her dreams, and every infraction lengthens her stay. She is torn between trying to follow the rules in the hopes of being released and fighting against an unjust system. What is so chilling about this book is that it doesn't seem that far-fetched, given how much of our lives we put online and how little attention we pay to the terms and conditions of the apps and sites and devices we use every day. Who is to say that all our data won't be used against us, particularly in the current political climate? Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was just published yesterday! And thank you to Bonny for putting it on my radar.

I'm still slowly making my way through The Secret History, with about 200 pages to go. And I've got another Bonny-recommended title up next on Kindle.

What are you making and reading this week?