Unraveled, Week 26/2025

Happy hump day, friends! Kat is on vacation this week, so there's no official link-up, but you know I can't skip an Unraveled Wednesday!

Because Monday was One Little Word update day, I didn't get a chance to tell you about our weekend. It was rainy and gloomy on Saturday, so we didn't do a whole lot (in fact, the Mister seemed to be napping the whole afternoon). But on Sunday the sun came out and warmed us up again, and Ruthie got to take her first trip in the car since coming home with us. We went over to my brother's house to have dinner with my side of the family and so Ruthie could meet her "cousin" Leo. I could tell she was nervous because she was shaking in the car and for a while when we got there, but she did a great job overall. Leo (who looks positively enormous to me now that I've gotten used to having a little dog) was gentle with her, and she seemed to like him even if she was a little apprehensive. She's now met quite a few dogs in the neighborhood and is getting better at calming down around them. We're still working on her reaction to people!

The other excitement over the weekend is that I finished my first project since she came home! It's nothing terribly exciting because it was already halfway done, but given how limited my knitting time is these days, I'll take it.

These look wonky because they still have to be blocked, but you can at least get a sense for the overall look. These are a new design that I did for Amy of Ross Farm using her Funky dyed-in-the-wool Cheviot. The skein looked to be about half red dominant and half blue dominant, so after I finished the first one (red), I rewound the skein so I could work from the other end. Now that the sample is done, I need to block them and do some mathing for the pattern. We'll see if my brain is up to the challenge.

It was a so-so week of reading for me -- but I have been reading, thanks to getting a better sense of when Ruthie is likely to nap. I finished two books.

I borrowed Whale Fall (after a perplexingly long wait, given how short it is) from the library based upon Katie's recommendation. This book is set on a remote (and fictional) Welsh island in the late 1930s when the population is dwindling and two events have a huge impact: First, a whale washes up on the shore and becomes a source of interest for some and a bad omen for others. Next, two scholars from England arrive to study the island's inhabitants. Manod, the novel's 18-year-old narrator, begins to work for them as a translator and interpreter and hopes they'll take her with them when they leave, but she soon realizes that the island life these ethnographers want to depict isn't quite how things are and that their reasons for being there are more exploitative than academic. This book reminded me of several others I've read in recent years -- The Colony, This Other Eden, and Clear among them -- that have strong messages about colonization and othering. Ultimately I felt like I didn't get enough of the bigger picture in this one, and I was left with a lot of questions when it ended. I gave it 3 stars.

Next was a title for the small group of us focusing on women in translation. Time of the Flies follows Ines after she is released from prison after serving 15 years for killing her then-husband's lover. Though she is now estranged from her daughter and on her own, she is trying to build a new life, taking a new name and starting a joint extermination/private investigation company with a fellow former inmate. Things seem to be going well until one of her clients offers her a large amount of money to obtain a poison. If she does, she risks being sent back to prison, but the money could be used to help her business partner and friend get treatment for breast cancer. And then she discovers that her daughter knows the client and things get even more complicated. Amid all of this, there's a Greek tragedy-style chorus commenting on the events and moral dilemmas. I thought it was an interesting story, but it didn't really grab me, and I also predicted the twist at the end (and spotted quite a few typos, which irked me). I gave it 3 stars as well.

I'm currently reading an ARC of a book about Jane Austen digitally, though I haven't gotten very far because I've mainly gotten it out to read during Ruthie's afternoon naps, when I also sometimes snooze a little.

I'll leave you with a puppy picture. Did you know that you can get a rating for your own dog on WeRateDogs.com if you submit a photo? You saw this one last week, but now Ruthie's officially got a rating!

Less in 2025: April

It's the last Monday of the month, so it's time to check in on my One Little Word. Thank you to Kat for hosting our monthly link-ups!

I didn't have to think too hard about how Less has made itself known in my life this past month because frankly there's been less of just about everything: Less sleep. Less exercise. Less knitting. Less reading. Less time to myself in general. Those of you who have had a puppy (or a new baby!) know how it goes. But it's just a season of life and will pass. And as Ruthie has gotten settled in and used to a schedule, there's been less/fewer of some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of this period in time, like accidents in the house and wake-ups in the middle of the night. I'm looking forward to the trends continuing in that direction.

There's also been less baking and roasting thanks to the ovens dying -- but that's almost over, as our new ovens are scheduled to be installed today!

A Friday Pupdate

Happy Friday, friends! I am happy to see another weekend upon us, as it's been a busy week. Mornings have been a bit busier with the Mister away (he usually takes Molly to school in the morning), and of course having the electricians here for three full days created a bit of a disruption. But that work is done, and now we just need the landscapers to come back and put the dirt back in the big hole they dug.

I thought I'd use this post to give you a bit of a puppy update (I shamelessly stole the word "pupdate" from WeRateDogs).

I've seen a lot of positive changes in Ruthie in her second week with us. The most notable is that she is "going" outside most of the time. I've been rewarding her with treats and praising her every time she goes, and it's clearly paying off. She's had only a few accidents indoors this week, and I suspect those are largely due to the disruption of people in and out of the house. We've got a regular schedule of when we go out now, and I have a better sense of when she needs to go, so my hope is that things keep moving in a positive direction.

She's also been doing much better at night. I'm still sleeping on the couch (not the goal long term but acceptable for now), though the periods of sleep have been getting a little longer. She seems to need to go outside sometime in the midnight to 1 a.m. time frame and wakes up maybe once or twice other than that, though when she doesn't need to go out she just needs a little soothing to get back to sleep. She's mostly waking shortly before my alarm goes off or when it does -- it'll be interesting to see what happens when there's no alarm on the weekend!

We've had more success on walks (where she doesn't get as distracted by noises from traffic and birds) and regularly make it down our street and to a neighboring one. She's also made some dog friends! Our next-door neighbors brought our their Great Dane, Lydia, the other evening when we were outside, and though Ruthie barked at her, she was clearly interested, so we let the dogs go up to each other. There was lots of sniffing (easy for Ruthie to do, as she practically fits underneath Lydia) and tail wagging. She also did some brief sniffing of Sunny, the Golden Retriever who lives across the street, yesterday morning when we met her and her owner coming back from a walk. I'm hoping that she'll soon meet Vader, the black Lab who lives on the other side of us, and Leo, my brother's dog.

It's clear that she's becoming more comfortable because the puppy behaviors are coming out more. She is chewing everything (including her bed!) and also trying to get into places that we'd probably prefer she not go. Her latest is doing an army crawl under the couch and refusing to come out. I'd be tempted to let her stay there, as I'm sure it's a comforting place to be and there's not enough space that she can really crouch to go potty under there, but I'm also worried she's going to start chewing on the fabric on the underside of it. So she's spending more time in her crate when I need to do something, like eat a meal, and I also got a folding fence so that I can at least keep her confined to the kitchen and family room area. If anyone has good tips on how to get her to stop barking and whining when she's in the crate, I'm all ears. I can put it up with it when I'm home alone and need to run upstairs or downstairs for a bit, but it's not good in the long term. She eats her meals in there and gets treats, plus she has toys with her. I know a lot of it is that she wants to be with me, but obviously there are times when I can't be with her or need to put her in the crate so she's safe.

That's all I've got, friends. Have a wonderful weekend! I will be back on Monday with my One Little Word update.

Poetry in April: Adrienne Rich

We've come to the last Thursday in April and the last day for sharing poems. This week, all of us are featuring poems by Adrienne Rich, a National Book Award and MacArthur "Genius" Award winner, among many other prizes and honors. You can learn more about her here. The poem I've picked to share was published in 1995, but it feels very apt for the moment we're living in.

What Kind of Times Are These

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill

and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows

near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted

who disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled

this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,

our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,

its own ways of making people disappear.

I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods

meeting the unmarked strip of light—

ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:

I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you

anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these

to have you listen at all, it's necessary

to talk about trees.

From Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991-1995, (c) 1995

Be sure to visit Bonny, Kat, Kym, and Vera to read their selections. 

Thanks for joining us "poetry nerds" for another National Poetry Month, and a special thank-you to Kym for leading the charge!

Unraveled, Week 25/2025

Is it only Wednesday? I feel like it's been a long week already, perhaps because the Mister left for a work trip Sunday morning and we've had all sorts of electrical work going on in our backyard and basement the past couple of days (the Mister got a new plug-in hybrid car, so we're having a line run from the house to the garage so he can plug in to something with a bit more power than a regular-old socket).

I am thrilled that I actually have some content to share with Kat and the Unravelers today! Though you'll have to forgive the poor picture quality. I'm basically living in our family room/kitchen these days, and the lighting is not great.

The blue thing on the needles is what I started on Sunday while Ruthie was napping; I got in a bit more time on Monday night while she snoozed and Molly and I were watching a movie. These look a bit funny, I know, but they aren't blocked yet and look better on a foot. These are some DK weight slipper socks that I'm designing using yarn from the Ross Farm. I ended up rewinding the cake after I finished the first one so that I could cast on the second with the other end, as I thought it would be better to have two feet that are very obviously different in color than a foot and a half in mostly red and half a foot in mostly blue.

To make up for the one poor photo, I'll share a puppy pic (which I was told was sufficient content in any case!).

This is how she curls up in her crate at night when I tell her it's time to "go night-night" (yes, I have started using baby talk again, and I continue to do it despite feeling ridiculous about it). It seems like I can usually count on her to take a mid-morning and mid-afternoon nap, and that's time when I can read and sometimes knit (though I could only read the past couple of days because she was napping in my lap on account of the electricians coming in and out).

I haven't had that much reading time, but I have had some, and this week I've spent it reading just one book:

I decided to change things up with a little nonfiction this week. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism takes a social science approach to exploring why people are drawn to cults as well as what defines a cult. And while what is classified as a cult includes some of the more troubling examples you probably already know (like Jim Jones/Jonestown and Scientology), linguist Amanda Montell also shows how the same powerful language is used to power multi-level marketing companies like Amway and Mary Kay and fitness companies like CrossFit and Peloton. I did my undergrad degree in psychology and obviously work full time in a job that involves language, so I found this to be a really fascinating read. It feels timely, too, given that what many of these groups have in common is a leader who is able to appeal to their followers by making them feel validated and seen and by offering them promises of prosperity, a better life, etc. (sound familiar?). It doesn't read like an academic text and was easy to follow while keeping an eye on a puppy. I gave it 4 stars.

And that's all I've got for today! I will be back tomorrow (I got smart and pre-wrote and scheduled my post) for the final Thursday of National Poetry Month, and I hope to be able to post on Friday as well. If not, have a great rest of the week and a relaxing weekend!

Mid-April Weekending

It was a very quiet weekend here, by necessity. Molly and I had theater tickets for the Saturday matinee of Some Like It Hot, but neither of us was all that excited about the show and I didn't feel I could leave Ruthie with the Mister (nor would he have likely agreed to stay with her), so we skipped it. The most exciting moments of the weekend, for Ruthie anyway, were visits from family. My in-laws came over for dinner on Friday night, and while she spent much of the evening in her crate, she handled it pretty well -- especially because my mother-in-law was very up in her face. My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece stopped by for a bit on Saturday afternoon; Ruthie was understandably nervous around my nephew but seemed quite interested in my niece. And last night my parents brought dinner over. It's clear that Ruthie is still wary around people she doesn't know, but she's handling it much better than she was just a few days ago.

The exciting moment for me this weekend came on Sunday afternoon. Ruthie was snoozing, so I decided to take a chance with my knitting:

It's not much, but it's something -- and it's the first I've knit in a week!

I can't promise I'm going to keep up with my normal blogging schedule for the next while, not least because I'm not going to have much in the way of content if I can't get much knitting done, but I will try.

A Week of Excitement

It's Friday, and lucky me gets to have Molly home with me today because her school is closed. I'll be glad of the extra set of eyes and hands today because a certain someone has been up since 4:50 this morning. It's a good thing she's cute!

Did you know that on an iPhone, there's now a feature that recognizes a photo of a dog
and if you click it, it will tell you the breed? When I did it for this photo, it said she was a Basenji.

Ruthie has been home for not quite a week, and while it's been exhausting in many ways, it's also had some bright spots. I'm still sleeping in the family room with her, but I've been able to move to the couch, and when she wakes throughout the night, usually she just needs a few pets for reassurance and goes back to sleep. When I have to crate her during the day (when I have to go upstairs or when I go to pick Molly up at school), she still barks and whines, but it seems to have pauses now. She's doing better at going outside, though there are still some inside accidents (though I'll note that in the last day or so, she's more or less gone on a puppy pad, which at least makes cleanup a bit easier). She has started accepting treats (she didn't know what to do with them the first couple of days) and has learned how to play with and chew on toys. She still often barks at Molly and the Mister when they come in the room, but usually she gets used to them after a minute or two.

Walks continue to be a bit of a challenge because everything is so new and loud and scary to her. She regularly pulls me back to our back door (which we use most often to leave and enter the house) and we have to start over. I've taken her to other streets to smell and see new things, and she's encountered new people and dogs. Often she gets so scared that she starts shaking, so I'll have to pick her up and cuddle her to reassure her. I'm sure these encounters will get easier as they become more regular.

Tonight we're having my in-laws over for dinner, which should be interesting. I know my mother-in-law is going to want to play with her, but Ruthie may not be so receptive to that. Treats will be deployed.

I want to thank all of you who have been where I am and have sent supportive comments and emails. There are moments when I feel like I'm a failure and I'll never get my life back, and it's good to know that this time is normal and also won't last forever. Though the first several weeks after Molly was born are a bit of a haze, I do remember having a lot of the same thoughts and feelings back then, and obviously things did improve. I have to think that raising a puppy is a bit easier than raising a human being and that I just have to take it one day at a time. I'm trying my best to do that.

Happy Easter to those of you celebrating this weekend! We'll be marking the end of Passover with all the carbs and spending quiet time at home.

Poetry in April: Poems about Aging

It's another Thursday in April, which means it's again time to share a poem. The theme this week is "Poems about Aging," and I had bookmarked this poem even before I knew I'd be using it. This one comes from Ted Kooser -- it's one of his Valentine's Day poems -- and I love the image it gives me of a couple growing older together.

Splitting an Order

I like to watch on old man cutting a sandwich in half,
maybe an ordinary cold roast beef on whole wheat bread,
no pickles or onion, keeping his shaky hands steady
by placing his forearms firm on the edge of the table
and using both hands, the left to hold the sandwich in place,
and the right to cut it surely, corner to corner,
observing his progress through glasses that moments before
he wiped with his napkin, and then to see him lift half
onto the extra plate that he had asked the server to bring,
and then to wait, offering the plate to his wife
while she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon,
her knife and her fork in their proper places,
then smoothes the starched white napkin over her knees
and meets his eyes and holds out both hands to him.

From Valentines by Ted Kooser, University of Nebraska Press, 2008

Be sure to visit Bonny, Kat, Kym, and Vera today for more poetry!

Unraveled, Week 24/2025

Good morning, friends, and greetings from the puppy house, where we are all tired. I mentioned to a couple of you in my replies to comments that it felt a lot like having a newborn again, and that really is the case. Monday night was better. I moved her crate over so that I could sleep on the couch, which meant that I actually slept. She was up every two or three hours, mainly just needing some comforting, though at around 3 a.m. we went outside and she successfully peed like a real dog! She's still rather skittish around Molly and the Mister, which isn't all that surprising given that she hasn't spent all that much time with them compared to me. Molly is off from school on Friday, though, and I'll try to get her to hang out with Ruthie without me so that they can have some quality time.

I thought about skipping the blog today, but honestly Wednesdays are my favorite day to do it because I get to join Kat and the Unravelers.

With all of the puppy stuff happening, I'm sure it will not surprise you that I haven't knit a stitch since Sunday morning. I did, however, remember to get a photo of my Sugar Maple Tee -- now with sleeves!

I don't know how sturdy it will be in the long run, but I do like how the sleeves are handled in this pattern in such a way that they completely match the body. Essentially you work the ribbing before you bind off the sleeves, so the colors match perfectly, and close the gap under the arm on the round after you bind off by working a fancy decrease. With handspun, it's often impossible to get sleeves to match if you pick up the stitches for them afterward, so this method eliminates that problem. I really like how my thin stripes are working up and I've basically got the section I'm in memorized, but who knows when I will get to work on this again. Perhaps I'll try to sneak in some time in the evenings when the whole family is downstairs; when I'm alone with Ruthie, I try to keep my eyes on her all the time.

Similarly, there hasn't been much reading time, but I've finished two books since this time last week -- both by the same author! I've got Charlotte McConaghy's latest book on hold at the library, so while I wait, I went back to read her last two.

In Once There Were Wolves, conservation biologist Inti Flynn and her team arrive in rural Scotland to release wolves into the forest as part of an effort to restore the ancient forests there; with no apex predators, deer and other animals have become overpopulated and eaten all the seedlings before they had a chance to grow into new trees. Inti also arrives with heavy emotional baggage in the form of her twin sister, Aggie. As the story progresses, we also learn about the sisters' tragic past and the complication of Inti's unusual condition in which she physically feels what she sees happening to other people. When a local resident -- one who was strongly opposed to the wolves -- turns up dead, the story becomes a bit of a murder mystery as well. This is a pretty dark book, in a number of respects, but I really enjoyed the atmospheric quality of it as well as the conservation message it has. It's probably not a book for you if you like everything to be crystal clear and tied up neatly because there's a fair amount of ambiguity. I gave it 4 stars.

Migrations was the earlier book, and I suppose you could call it speculative fiction because it takes place in a world where many animal species have gone extinct thanks to humans. Franny Stone, the woman at the center of the narrative, has found herself a spot on a commercial shipping vessel and convinced its captain to follow some of the world's last remaining Arctic terns on their final migration. But in flashbacks, we learn that she is not what she seems, that she is hiding some dark secrets, and that perhaps she is not so much running toward the terns as running away from her past. Like Wolves, this book has a strong conservation message and a damaged woman as its main character. I found it to be a little less appealing, though certainly still intriguing. I gave it 3 stars.

I should note that I really only managed to finish the second book because it was on audio. That may be how I read most of my books for a while!

Welcome Home, Ruthie!

She's here! And she's even more adorable in person!

When we picked her up at the transport van, she was clearly very nervous. She was wagging her tail when we approached her in the kennel, but she wouldn't come out on her own. I held her on my lap in the car and did finally calm her down. I won't lie: We had a rough night. She is comfortable in her crate, but she started barking when I went upstairs to get ready for bed, so I ended up staying with her in the family room overnight, sleeping on the floor so she could see me. And this morning she was a little more willing to explore the house (but also had a couple of accidents), but it's clear she's still very cautious. She does seem to trust me, though, because this is her preferred position:

We'll see how today goes! I'm sure I'll be dragging from lack of sleep, but she's sure worth it.

TGIFF

(Thank Goodness It's Finally Friday!)

For most of this week I've been thinking it's a day ahead -- on Wednesday I thought it was Thursday, so yesterday should have been Friday already but, alas, it was not. I may complain about all the work meetings I have to attend, but they do help me keep track of what day it is when I get reminders for them! Happily my meeting today is of the "put your updates in the chat" variety, so I get a little break. And I need it, because it's been a busy week but we have a big weekend coming up!

First, an update on the handspun you saw on the bobbin on Wednesday morning: I had time that afternoon to wind it off and wash it, and thanks to the cooler weather we've been having our radiators are on again, so it was dry by yesterday morning.

This skein ended up being the thickest of the last few I've spun, all fractal spins from fiber from FatCatKnits. This one is approximately 295 yards of mostly DK (there are thicker and thinner spots, as usual). I do like seeing the trio of them together, too!

At least two of these will be going into the Etsy shop, if I can ever get it open again. I succeeded in signing into my account to change the name of the shop (I'm rebranding) and change my email address, and when I tried to sign in again, I'd gotten locked out. So now I'm waiting for a response from Etsy support. If it takes much longer, I may just give up and open a new shop because it's not like I had a huge number of sales before, so my sales history isn't much to write home about. In the meantime, I'll share with you the rebrand and the awesome logo that Molly designed for me -- amazingly, she put together some options that were exactly what I had in mind without my having to explain what I was thinking to her.

I'd hoped to share a progress photo of my Sugar Maple today, but yesterday it was so rainy and dreary that I could not get decent light. I promise to share and update soon!

As to the weekend, there is a lot going on. Our ovens are not going to be delivered and installed in time to host Passover, so we'll be back at my parents' on Saturday evening. We'll be a little crowded, but we'll make it work. My brother is hosting a smaller second seder at his place on Sunday, but only the Mister will attend from our little family because Molly and I will be driving out to Washington, PA, to meet the van bringing Ruthie to us! It's supposed to be there at 4:30, so even assuming it's completely on time and we get right on the road, it'll still take us at least an hour to get home, and I don't think it's fair to the puppy to take her to someone else's house with a bunch of strange people. So we'll just come home and try to get her as comfortable as possible in her new home.

I will do my best to provide an update on her arrival on Monday, but I may not get to post until later in the day. In the meantime, I'll leave you with another photo of her -- this is the one the rescue posted that truly captured my heart:

Have a great weekend, friends!

Poetry in April: A Poem in Your Pocket

It's Thursday, which means it's time to share another poem with you. Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day, and the idea is to share a short poem that could be written on a slip of paper and carried around with you. The one I've chosen to share today is by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Poem

It's like writing a short letter
to everyone in the world at once,

only I don't have anyone's address
and there is no thin blue envelope to carry it,

no tiny picture of a famous aviator
or of a blooming flower to speed it on its way.

Be sure to visit Bonny, Kat, Kym, and Vera for more poems to carry in your pocket today!

Unraveled, Week 23/2025

Could someone please check in with Mother Nature? She appears to have turned spring off the last few days. Yesterday it was actually snowing while I walked into the office! Obviously I have plenty of wool to keep myself warm, but I'm tired of feeling cold.

Today, at least, it looks like the worst of the cold is over -- and today is Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! If that doesn't lift my mood, I don't know what will.

There has been knitting and spinning chez Knit/Wit these past several days. I'd pulled out another braid of FatCatKnits fiber to spin a while ago but only actually split it up and started spinning last Friday afternoon. I did another fractal spin, though this time one bobbin was spun from the fiber as is and the other from three strips (the fiber was naturally breaking apart into thirds, so I decided to go with it). I spun the first bobbin of singles over Friday and Saturday and the second over Sunday and Monday, and I was able to get the whole skein plied yesterday afternoon. Winding it off and washing are on today's to-do list.

I've been knitting more on my Sugar Maple in the evenings, though I don't have a progress photo to share today (frankly it's slow going, so it doesn't look much different). Instead, here's the sock and sock-adjacent knitting I've done over the last week or so:

Once I'd finished the socks for my sister-in-law, I knew I needed to cast on another pair so I'd have something to work on those days I go into the office, so I got out the very last skeins of Knit Picks Felici (unless there are more hiding somewhere!) and cast on a pair for my mother-in-law. They'll either be for Mother's Day or her birthday in June, depending on how fast they get knit. On the left is a new pattern/design I've been meaning to cast on for months. The yarn is Ross Farm Funky that Amy asked me to use for a design back when I saw her in late November. I was originally going to use it with a neutral for some kind of colorwork, but the longer I looked at it, the more I realized that I was better suited for something else. So now it's becoming a pair of slipper socks that will be pretty easy and fast to knit up; what you see here is the work of Monday afternoon. It looks like the two will end up being different due to the colors in the wool, and I kind of like that.

There has been reading this week as well -- not great reads, but good ones.

First, a bit of necessary reading ahead of Ruthie's arrival: The Puppy Primer. I did a search for books about training puppies and this one was recommended frequently -- and now that I've read it, I can recommend it as well. The primary author is animal behaviorist, so she knows what she's talking about. And if all I've read is to be believed, training a puppy is hard work but not nearly as hard as raising a child; I'm certainly feeling much better about my abilities after reading it. I'm going to have Molly read it as well so that we can be consistent in our training and so that we can get started from day one. We are already well stocked on training treats! I gave this one 4 stars -- very helpful and informative.

I wanted some escapism next, so I went for some romantasy. Divine Rivals came highly recommended by Katie, and I was really looking forward to it. It tells the story of two rivals (you're shocked, I know) at a newspaper in a world where ancient gods are at war. Iris's brother has gone off to fight and her mother has sought comfort in alcohol. To deal with her grief, she's been typing letters to her brother on her grandmother's old typewriter and slipping them under the door of her wardrobe -- and then, one day, someone writes back. I liked the premise of the magic in the letter writing, but I felt confused about where and when the story was taking place and thought the characters were a bit one-dimensional. I also noticed at least three grammatical errors, which you all know get on my nerves. So it was an okay read, not great but not horrible. I gave it 3 stars.

Finally, I picked something light to listen to while running, cleaning the bathroom, and folding laundry. Margo's Got Money Troubles is a bit of an understatement. At 19, Margo finds herself pregnant after having an affair with her (married) professor. She decides to keep the baby but is forced to drop out of college and then gets fired from her job due to a lack of childcare. Then two of her roommates move out and she has a bigger rent bill than anticipated. And then her ex-pro wrestler father, fresh out of rehab, shows up on her doorstep needing a place to live. In need of cash, fast, Margo turns to OnlyFans, where it seems there's money to be made. As you would expect, problems arise and life gets even more complicated. I thought this was entertaining enough (especially as I listened -- Elle Fanning does an excellent narration) and I liked Margo's spunk, but much of the book made me feel a little icky. I also didn't understand why it kept shifting between first person and third person; it seemed it had something to do with the writing class Margo was taking with the professor who she had the affair with and made some sense at the beginning, but I think it went on too long. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm currently reading Time of the Flies on paper and Once There Were Wolves digitally, and I expect I'll be ready for another audiobook by the weekend.

What are you making and reading this week?

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!