Unraveled, Week 14/2026

I'm thankful that Monday whooshed by and we've arrived at the middle of the week. Time to join with Kat and the Unravelers with an update on my making and my reading!

I promised an update on my sweater and here it is, in all its glory on Matilda:

I'm now at the point that should be going pretty fast but hasn't really in the past several days because this is my evening knitting project and my evenings have been full of late (we were out to dinner over the weekend and then I had multiple loads of laundry to fold several evenings). But it's all stockinette for quite a while now, and all I have to pay attention to is changing strands when I get to the end of round. I expect I will have made much more progress by this time next week. Or at least I hope so.

I also cast on the socks for my sister-in-law, and as I expected, I'm getting some really fun pooling with this yarn:

Please forgive the less-than-optimal lighting; I didn't want to wake the sleeping dog.

I'll be making these with a relatively short leg, both because this sister-in-law has rather shapely calves and because her feet are so much bigger around compared to the other recipients that I don't want to risk running out of yarn.

It's been another good week of reading! I finished four books this week.

I would classify I Cheerfully Refuse as dystopian fiction, as it's set in the United States at some unspecified time in the future when the divide between the wealthy and powerful and everyone else has broadened drastically and even the president is illiterate. Most people are just trying to get by, and some of them are still willing to do kind things for others. Rainy is one of those, offering a room for rent to a fearful man who has clearly run from a punishing work contract. Offering him shelter is the kind thing to do but leads to tragedy for Rainy, who is eventually forced to flee from his home and take up residence on a boat on Lake Superior. It's a difficult plot to explain, but it's a well written story that praises the values of human kindness, finding joy in the moment, and the power of music and the written word. I gave it 4 stars.

After having it on my shelf for at least a year and following way behind Katie in our buddy read, I finally finished Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I'd first read the epic poem way back at the beginning of high school, and the translation we'd read for class was old even then. I thought this newer one was so fresh and modern and certainly much more engaging. Though the setting is ancient, the characters feel like people you might encounter today (well, maybe not Polyphemus the cyclops or Athena walking around in disguise, but you know what I mean). I think it took me just as long to read the introduction and the translator's note as it did to read the actual poem, but I wouldn't have skipped those parts and wouldn't recommend that anyone skip them -- they're full of great information. I really enjoyed this experience and gave it 4 stars as well.

My next finish was an ARC, so if this one interests you, I'm sorry that you'll have to wait about a month to read it. I have now read all of Douglas Stuart's novels, and I have to say that his newest, John of John, is my favorite of the three. Cal is in his early 20s, and after finishing his degree on the mainland but not succeeding in finding work, he is headed back to the small Scottish island where he was raised by his stern Presbyterian father, a sheep farmer and home weaver, and his maternal grandmother, Ella, after his mother left them when he was young. Cal has always had a difficult relationship with his father and feels a bit of a failure in heading home to this insular community where everyone knows everything. But everyone in his family is also keeping a secret, and these secrets, if revealed, would have the potential to devastate the entire family. Both Cal and his father wrestle with their inner demons and their relationships as they try to figure out how to live a life in this place where it's becoming increasingly apparent that their way of life won't be an option much longer. There is some poverty, some family discord, and even some physical violence, but it's nothing like what was depicted in Shuggie Bain or Young Mungo, which I know a lot of readers struggled with. It's clear that Stuart is drawing on some of his own life story again (the knitters will likely enjoy the bits about weaving and yarn and sheep!), but this iteration feels more hopeful. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to Grove Press and Edelweiss for providing me with a digital ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 5, 2026.

Finally, a quick audiobook (I listened to all of it in a day). I'd heard about Abigail Thomas from Honoré and had her short memoir What Comes Next and How to Like It bookmarked for several months. When I needed a short audiobook, it fit the bill perfectly. This isn't a typical memoir as it's not really a sequential story but rather a collection of short vignettes. Thomas tells stories about her relationships, her friendships, her children, her alcoholism, her dogs. She is blunt and to the point, and I really enjoyed her voice -- both literary and literal, as she reads the audio. I don't think her life has been extraordinary, but then I tend to like hearing about the lives of ordinary people. She kept me good company on a run, two dog walks, and while folding a load of laundry. I gave the book 3 stars.

I am currently reading a short novel in translation before bed, and I just started Good People, the next Read With Us selection, yesterday.

What are you making and reading this week?

Two Days, Two Seasons

Well, that was a super weird weekend! On Saturday, it was a little damp from the rain overnight, but the sun soon came out and it warmed up -- a lot. We reached a high of 83ºF, and I got a bit sweaty walking Ruthie even though I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. We actually had to turn the air conditioning on because it was so much warmer in the house and we'd had trouble sleeping because of it. Yesterday, I woke up to rain again, but it was about 40 degrees cooler -- I needed a jacket, a hat, and gloves to walk the dog! I felt really bad for the little girls out in their Easter dresses and the kids out hunting for eggs in the wet grass, but I guess this isn't all that unusual for early April in Western Pennsylvania.

Fortunately, it was comfortable inside the house, and while I didn't sleep as much as I would have liked, I at least got a fair amount of downtime. It was enough to finish the first pair of sister-in-law socks:

They aren't quite a perfect match, but they are good enough. I did wind off a little yarn to start the second sock in the same place in the stripe sequence, and you can really only tell that they're not exactly the same if you look at the toes. And they're done, which is the best part.

I spent a little bit of time going through my sock yarn bin and came out with this skein for my other sister-in-law:

This is Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted, a 75/25 superwash Merino/nylon blend, in the colorway Home Movie. I expect this will pool and flash rather than stripe, especially at the 80-stitch circumference I'll need for this recipient's feet. But I am rather enjoying the patterning that happened when I wound it into a center-pull ball!

This week Molly is back at school (so her bad mood will likely be back as well) and the Mister has a work trip, so I will be doing a lot of chauffeuring. Ruthie also has an appointment at the vet this morning to get her rabies booster. She'll be mad at me for withholding breakfast this morning (which I always do before she has to go in the car), but I'm sure they'll give her treats there and I'll make it up to her later in the day. And the cold will be sticking around for a few days yet, so I guess my hand-knit socks will get a few more wears before they go into hibernation.

I hope you have an easy start to your week, and I'll see you back here on Wednesday with a big sweater update!

Good Friday, Indeed

It's been a busy week, so I am feeling happier than usual about the fact that we've reached the end of it -- though perhaps the fact that I am done with work at 2 p.m. this afternoon has something to do with it! 

It's been a wet start to the month. We woke up on Wednesday having gotten an inch of rain overnight, and on a walk, Ruthie and I discovered that a neighbor had a pond in their backyard.

Fortunately when it's rainy outside, I feel less guilty about staying inside to read and knit! And progress has been made on both projects since you last saw them.

I've finished the colorwork on the yoke of my sweater, though that wasn't until last night after dinner and I had to take the photo earlier in the day, so what you're seeing here is about a round and a half short of completion.

It's been quite interesting to see how both yarns have striped, though the main color is obviously more subtle than the contrast. I've been working with the smallest skein of the three I have for this section, but now I'll be alternating to blend the skeins and avoid very obviously lines. I've also noticed that the purple yarn is a bit more robust than the other yarn, so there's an added textural element to the colorwork. I'm hoping that blocking will help to even it out a bit.

I've also gotten to the gusset of the second sock in the current pair, which means I'm about 75% of the way done with them.

On my to-do list for this weekend will be to pull out my bin of sock yarn and pick something for my other sister-in-law. She has the biggest feet of the four recipients, so perhaps I shouldn't have left her for last, but at least there's still more than a month left before Mother's Day and that should be plenty of time.

We had some interesting Passover Seders this week (four kids under 6 the first night made for a rushed and noisy time of it!). My mother, as per usual, made about twice as much food as was needed, so I expect we'll be eating leftovers for a while. Meal planning will be a little difficult for next week without our go-to of pasta, but we have more options than we used to since the Reform movement ruled that a lot of things that Eastern European Jews used to avoid during Passover (like corn, rice, and legumes) are, in fact, permitted -- but those aren't necessarily things Molly will eat, so it's still complicated.

We've got another quiet weekend ahead, and that's just fine with me. Molly may be working tomorrow (I expect they'll be busy because it's supposed to be close to 80!), and I have a couple of errands to run, but we have no fixed plans. And Monday she goes back to school, so it's the last weekend of spring break.

I wish you a very happy Easter if you're celebrating this weekend!

Unraveled, Week 13/2026

It's Wednesday and the first day of April, so no fooling around -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

I've worked some more on both my sweater and the socks for my sister-in-law, and while I've made some progress since Monday, it's not enough to make it worth sharing an update so soon, so today I thought I'd share my most recent yarny acquisition. Now, we all know I don't need more yarn and have actively been trying to use up stash for a while. But I'm all about moderation, and that means that occasionally I feel it's acceptable to acquire some new yarn. In this case, it was done for a good reason. I think you all know that I am friends (in real life!) with Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works. Earlier in March (on my birthday, actually), she had hip replacement surgery. I knew she was worried about it and wasn't sure how long she'd be out of commission as far as dyeing yarn is concerned, so I wanted to help her out a bit by making a purchase -- nothing huge, just a little business thrown her way to help while she's unable to work. So here's what I ordered:

On the far left is Bounce (fingering weight) in her 2024 anniversary colorway called A Legacy. It was inspired by a zig-zag crocheted blanket that Lisa's grandmother made, one she still has. I remember my grandparents had one in their den, though theirs was in peak 1970s colors (browns and oranges), and I like the colors of Lisa's much better. The other two skeins came in a mystery grab bag; I knew the bases but not the colorways when I ordered. The center skein is Beguiled, a DK superwash merino/nylon/sparkle, in the colorway Mountain House Autumn, and the one on the right is Strong DK (superwash merino/nylon) in the colorway Gnome Place Like Home. That last one obviously needs to be made into something for my brother, but what I will do with the other two skeins is still up for discussion.

It's been another productive week of reading, largely thanks to audiobooks (I used to listen almost exclusively to podcasts while running/walking, but a number I subscribed to have stopped production, so I find myself downloading more audiobooks than ever).

Private Rites is set in a version of England where climate change has caused the rain to be unceasing and the water levels to constantly be on the rise. Three sisters whose relationships with one another have always been fraught come together in the wake of the death of their father, a rigid and demanding man who was celebrated as an innovative architect. The moment causes all of them to reflect on their childhood days, the mystery of what happened to the mother of the two oldest girls, and the strange memories they could never make sense of. This is billed as a retelling of King Lear, but honestly I didn't see much of a connection other than three sisters and a father who is cruel to them. I thought the writing was great but the story was just so-so, and frankly I'm still not sure what happened in the climax at the end. I gave it 3 stars.

After my experience with Lincoln in the Bardo, I knew I wanted to listen to George Saunders's newest, Vigil, and I'll tell you up front that that was a great choice -- it's excellent on audio with its full cast. The vigil of the title refers to the role Jill is playing and has played several hundred times. After dying at a young age, her new job is to comfort those who are close to death. This time, her charge is a former oil company executive, a man so sure of how he has lived his life that he sees no need for comfort. But other spirits are visiting, too, trying to get the man to atone for her contributions to climate change, and in such a charged atmosphere, Jill finds her thoughts straying back to her own life and death. It's sad, it's funny, and it's completely original. There's no question that George Saunders has a fascinating mind, and he is perhaps the only writer who could take the idea of a dying man being visited by a spirit in such a creative and unusual direction. I gave it 4 stars.

I heard about The Art Spy on one of the few podcasts I still listen to and immediately put it on hold because it sounded right up my alley: narrative nonfiction about the Germans entering Paris in WWII, determined to plunder the art held by France's museums and private (predominantly Jewish) collectors and the efforts by the French museum staff and resistance to prevent it -- yes, please! The book focuses largely on Rose Valland, a highly educated French woman well qualified to work as a curator who was repeatedly blocked from advancing in her career by men in positions of power. But in the war, her unassuming figure and the fact that she had a near-photographic memory enabled her to work right under the Germans' noses to keep track of where plundered artwork was going. The book also follows the Rosenberg family: Paul Rosenberg was a prominent Paris art dealer who represented Picasso and Matisse. His family fled the Nazis and escaped to New York, while his son Alexandre went to England to join Charles de Gaulle and the Free French forces and would be in the military group that eventually liberated Paris. And of course the book focuses on the Germans who took any and all artwork they desired, whether it was for German museums, Hitler's own collection, or themselves. I certainly knew that the Nazis stole a great deal of valuable art from European Jews, but I wasn't aware of the scale of their operation or the efforts of those in the occupied zone to attempt to counteract it. In addition to covering the entirety of the war, the book provides a comprehensive accounting of efforts to recover the stolen art and Rose's large role in it. I highly recommend this one. I gave it 4 stars (frankly, it would have been 5 stars except that I kept getting annoyed with what looked like sloppy copyediting to me).

I bought A Well-Trained Wife on a whim when it was a Kindle deal; I've always found memoirs to be a great way to learn about lives that are very different from mine, and certainly the "Christian patriarchy" of the subtitle is about as different from my life as I can get. When Molly was a newborn and I'd lie down in the afternoon while she napped, I'd often turn on TLC. At the time, the Duggars were very popular, and I was strangely fascinated by them. In this book, the author gives her perspective on the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement, showing that there is a very dark side to the wholesome public appearance. In short, she was expected to be obedient, submissive, and silent. Her exposure to the outside world was limited, and she was physically "punished" if her husband felt she was not respecting him, not doing her duty, or generally not following all the rules of their restrictive religious teachings. I admire her for her honesty, but I found the book itself to be hard to read and follow at some times and frequently got overwhelmed by all the theology. Plus, now I think I have yet something else to worry about with respect to the future of this country (the fundamentalist view of how it should be run). I gave it 2.5 stars.

Finally, another memoir, this one a little more lighthearted: In Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton writes primarily about her teens and 20s and her evolving understanding about relationships and what matters. As you would expect, she gets wiser as she gets older, but through it all she maintains a sense of humor. I think many of the references were lost on me because I'm not British and because I'm older than the author, but I could still identify with feelings about friendships and getting older. I also really enjoy it when an author reads their own work, particularly memoir, so it was enjoyable to listen to. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm still reading The Odyssey -- but I've passed 400 pages, so I'm in the home stretch -- and have just started John of John, Douglas Stuart's forthcoming third novel. April is National Poetry Month, so I'm going to prioritize reading some of the collections I've acquired in recent years this month, too!

Passover starts this evening, so tonight we'll be at my parents' with all the family, and then tomorrow it'll be just my side at my brother's for the leftovers. Today Molly and I will be making charoset and roasting potatoes. I will likely be complaining about the food in a couple of days, but this is my favorite Jewish holiday, so I'm looking forward to it!