Unraveled, Week 36/2025

It is so hard to go back to the normal routine after a long weekend, particularly a long weekend with so much rest, but the nice thing about it is that it's already Wednesday, and that means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers. This week there has been no unraveling -- but there has been some finishing!

Pattern: Kudzu by Laura Aylor (Ravelry link), size S/36.1 in. bust
Yarn: Shibui Linen (100% linen), color Ash, approximately 2.1 skeins/516 yards
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm -- 
Started/Completed: August 3/August 28
Mods: see below

This pattern had been in my library since the summer of 2023, and it was I originally bought the Miss Babs linen/silk for (I ended up using it for Midsommarkrans). But when I found three skeins of the now-discontinued Shibui Linen on the giveaway table and realized there was enough, I figured it was fate that I finally made it.

The yarn took a little getting used to because it's 100% linen and has no stretch, but it's formed in a kind of i-cord tube that gives it some flexibility. I didn't find it tiring to work with, but my hands are always dry these days because I'm washing my hands so much, and sometimes the yarn would catch on a rough spot, so I made sure to have some lotion nearby if needed.

The pattern itself took a little getting used to because I've knit at least one Laura Aylor pattern before but never a garment. I had fewer issues with the lace, though, with no ripping and reknitting required. I especially like how the leafy edging along the armholes comes together under the arms:

I went a bit off piste with the body, in part because my stitch count was a little off for the front and in part because I didn't want the lower hem to be too wide, so I only worked two sets of increases below the waist (I'm pretty sure the pattern called for more). The only real modification I made was to work an i-cord bind-off for the lower hem. The pattern calls for simply binding off (maybe in purl?), but even in a plant-based fiber I thought there was still a risk of that hem curling up. Plus, there's an i-cord edging around the arms and on the sides of the straps, so why not make it match? It took a little extra time, but I think it was worth it.

Please excuse the messy hair.

After I washed the tank and left it to dry flat, I pressed it with a steamy iron to open up the lace and flatten the straps. I imagine that in time, with more washing and wearing, it'll soften, but for now it's fairly crisp, though not uncomfortably so. If I were knitting this again, I would make the neck opening in the front as wide as the back; I'm just not wild about how closely it comes in. As it is, I will need to wear this with a tank underneath, as you see here, or with a strapless bra (yuck). But it feels very comfy on and will be a great piece for the summer because it weighs practically nothing -- 105 g!

Now I'm only working on that two-tone charity hat and trying to finish it up as soon as I can because the Pigskin Party kicks off tomorrow and WIPs don't count, so I'll want to cast on some new projects.

It's been another pretty stellar week of reading, so much so that I'm going to take a page from Bonny's book and save my reviews for Friday. Until then, friends, enjoy your first week of September!

Labor Day Weekending

Friends, it's September! Today is the first day of meteorological fall (as opposed to astrological fall, which is the 22nd), and it's really felt like fall over the past several days. We had cooler weather all last week, but it was actually in the 40s when I got up to take Ruthie out yesterday morning! Of course, that's not typical for us at this time of year, but all else being equal I'd rather it be unusually chilly than unusually hot.

Today is also Labor Day in the United States, a holiday to honor organized labor and what it has done for all Americans. I am excited about the fact that this year I can say I am a proud union member! Although we don't yet have our first contract, I'm excited to be a member of the United Steelworkers and am happy that the union is advocating for me with my employer. I am less excited about the fact that my employer is using the lack of agreement to withhold my annual raise from me, but frankly it doesn't surprise me.

The weekend was quiet, as expected, though perhaps even more low key than expected because the Mister was a little under the weather (he claims he doesn't feel sick, just run down). I'm someone who tends to have a lot of anxiety around illness and often end up feeling sick myself when someone in my family is sick just because I worry about them so much, so that meant I spent much of the weekend feeling under the weather. I still managed to get in a couple of six-mile walks, though, and then snoozed with Ruthie in the afternoon. Very little knitting got done, but sometimes puppy snuggles are better than knitting. I mean, who could resist this?

We'll be taking it easy today as well. All we have planned is a little baking -- Molly and I are going to make some pumpkin muffins for her breakfasts this week, and she's going to make us chocolate chip cookies for our dessert for our anniversary dinner tomorrow. I'm hoping everyone will use the day off to get a little extra rest so that we all feel better tomorrow.

A Fall-ish Friday

I know that it's not yet astrological or meteorological fall, but this week hasn't felt like summer anymore. Yesterday, when I took Ruthie out first thing, it was about 50ºF and I could see my breath! And I wore jeans yesterday, too! It is supposed to get warmer again next week, but this week has been such a treat with the cool mornings and low humidity. Good thing, too, because it's been a long, exhausting week. As I mentioned, the Mister was out of town for a tech conference that is always the last week of August and that has caused him to miss the first day of school for as long as he's been attending. It's less of an issue now that Molly is older, but I still feel bad. We only have two more first days of school with her, too! I shared a photo on Instagram, but I know not everyone is there, so here's one for the blog:

I think the transition from summer back to school hasn't been quite as hard this year because she was working this summer (and she's going to continue working a weekend shift through the year as she's able), but she's definitely not used to being "on" all day, so evenings have been rough. And of course I am doing double parent duty this week (triple, if you count being a pet parent), so I've been worn out, too. It's a good thing we have a three-day weekend ahead!

This is not an official FO post, but I'm pleased to report that I have finished my Kudzu tank before the end of the month. I worked on it during puppy nap time yesterday and managed to start the i-cord bind-off before I had to do school pickup. This weekend I'll weave in ends, block, and take modeled photos for an official share next week.

This weekend is Labor Day weekend here in the United States, celebrating things such as weekends off that we've gotten thanks to the efforts of organized labor. I was invited to march with my union in the city's parade on Monday, but I decided I'd rather have a quiet day at home. Tonight we are going out to dinner with my parents to celebrate their 49th anniversary (today) and our 18th anniversary (next Tuesday), and we're invited over to my brother- and sister-in-law's on Sunday for a cookout on their new backyard patio. I'm looking forward to hearing all about my oldest nephew's first two days of kindergarten -- he just started yesterday! Other than that, I have no definite plans, and that's just fine with me. The weather looks like it's going to be spectacular, sunny and high 70s, so I predict long walks on my own and with the pupper. Maybe she will even surprise us and let us sleep in!

Whatever you have planned for this weekend, whether or not it's a long weekend for you, I hope it's full of things that bring you joy.

Unraveled, Week 35/2025

Good morning and happy Wednesday, friends! Time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

This week hasn't been hugely productive, at least as far at the knitting is concerned. Being the only parent isn't as hard as it was when Molly was little, but it means I have to pick up a couple more of the daily things that have to get done -- taking Molly to school in the morning, cleaning up after dinner, taking out the trash -- in addition to what I already do on a daily basis and with the dog's schedule, so sometimes the time I have for knitting is limited (like on Monday night, when, after getting Ruthie to sleep, I had to fold and put away two large loads of laundry). Still, some progress is being made. My afternoon knitting (what I work on while Ruthie naps) is another charity hat using some of the yarn I brought home from the SSK giveaway table:

Please forgive the terrible lighting! My plan is to knit until I'm just about out of the pink and then join the blue, working a round of purls when I join so there's a good fold line. If you enlarge the photo, you might see some wonky stitches, and that's because I encountered first a break in several plies of the yarn at one point (that may be critter damage) and then a knot. Rather than taking more time to weave in the ends, especially as everything is going to be unseen inside the hat, I just held the ends together and worked that method where you weave in as you go by catching them every other stitch. I'm hoping the wonkiness will block out.

I'm also getting very close to finishing up my Kudzu tank! I decided to dedicate all my knitting time to it on Sunday, which translated to quite a few inches knit, and now I have maybe three or so inches left to reach the required full length.

Provided I have enough yarn, I'm going to work an i-cord bind-off on the bottom of the body. The pattern calls for simply binding off, and while I don't think this linen would really curl like stockinette worked in another fiber would, I think it'll look more finished that way -- not to mention that there's i-cord edging on the straps and around the armholes, so it'll all match nicely. I have joked that maybe I would bring on fall by finishing it, but it looks like the heat is coming back next week. Even if I don't wear this right away, I can always take it to Florida in December!

I've had another incredibly good reading week, at least in terms of the number of books I've finished (largely helped by two short audiobooks).

When the Booker Prize longlist was announced, there were several titles that sounded interesting to me (I'm not trying to read the entire list this year). One of them was Misinterpretation, which my library did not yet have on Libby, so I put it on Notify Me and managed to get the audiobook before anyone else. What intrigued me about the description was the part about the main character working as interpreter for an immigrant in therapy, but that ended up being a very small part of the book. I spent a lot of time listening to this book wondering what it was supposed to be about and also getting annoyed with the poor decisions the main character was making. I think the book was well written, but it ended up being very different from what I was expecting and not really a book I would have read otherwise. I gave it 2 stars.

A book several readers I respect have been raving about is The Book of Records, a book that's rather hard to describe. Though no definite time or place are given, we presume that it takes place in the future, when global warming and political conflict have wreaked further havoc on the world. Lina and her ailing father, who have fled their home in China and been separated from her mother, brother, and aunt, have arrived at a sort of way station called The Sea. Among their few possessions are three volumes of a large set of books about explorers, or so they're labeled. These three tell the stories of Du Fu, a Chinese poet in the Tang Dynasty; Baruch Spinoza, a Jewish Portuguese-Dutch philosopher in 17th-century Amsterdam; and Hannah Arendt, a Jewish philosopher forced to flee Nazi Germany. Their stories unwind and are interspersed with some of the background story about Lina and her father as well as scenes of Lina all grown up. It's quite unusual and imaginative and beautifully written. I had to give it 4 stars only because I felt that there was so much I wasn't understanding and because of that I wasn't fully appreciating it. It also reminded me so much of another book I've read, but I've been at a loss as to what this book could be. Perhaps it'll come to me.

The next title up for discussion by those of us reading women in translation is My Brilliant Life, translated from Korean. This story is narrated by 16-year-old Areum, born to teenage parents, who suffers from a rare condition that causes him to age prematurely and thus deal with serious health problems. Despite his condition and the financial struggles his family has, Areum never fails to see the beauty in life. Unlike most teenagers, he wants to spend quality time with his parents and to hear about their lives before he was born, especially about how his parents met. He knows his time is limited, so he wants to read everything he can and learn as much as he can. I thought this book was just okay. I thought the first chapter was incredible and was hoping the whole book would be that way, but it petered out pretty quickly. It's a sweet but sad story but wasn't especially memorable for me. I gave it 3 stars.

Even though it's not a new book, A Month in the Country has been making the rounds among my reading friends lately, and I was delighted to find the audio on Hoopla. This is a quiet short novel that follows Tom Birkin, a WWI veteran, as he spends a month in the Yorkshire countryside restoring a mural found on the wall of a church. Bearing the internal scars of the war and having been left by his wife, he finds a renewed sense of life and happiness in the work and in the people he meets. I managed to listen to all of this book over the course of a day -- it is quite short! Even though I slowed the speed down to be able to understand the reader better, I think I might have appreciated this book better had I read it with my eyes, because I was confused about who some people were and what was happening at some points. Still, I found it to be like a PBS Masterpiece production in its calm, quiet manner. I gave it 3 stars.

My favorite of the week was Heartwood. The central focus of this novel is the search for a missing Appalachian Trail hiker, a 42-year-old nurse named Valerie Gillis who was hiking in part to gain some perspective after the grueling demands of working in health care during the pandemic. Parts of the story are told from her point of view, but we also get other perspectives. There's also Lt. Bev, the state game warden in charge of the search and one of the few females in the system. Then there's Lena, a 70-something former scientist in a retirement home who is largely confined to a power wheelchair but who stays connected to the outdoors via the internet. Interspersed throughout are snippets of interviews with other hikers who knew Valerie and transcripts of calls to the search tip line. And while the search for Valerie is the main storyline, each of these main female characters is also reflecting on her past and pondering her future -- and they're all interesting women to boot. This was a page turner, but it's also well written; I was really wondering how it would all come together in the end, and that kept me reading. In many ways, it reminded me of The God of the Woods, with the multiple storylines, strong female characters, and a mystery to be solved. I gave it 5 stars -- and I'm as surprised as anyone that it's the second Read with Jenna book I've so rated!

I'm currently listening to The Briar Club (which I should finish during my run this morning), reading Loved and Missed digitally, and reading My Friends on paper.

What are you making and reading this week?

Less in 2025: August

Can you all believe that it's the last Monday of the month, already? Maybe it's the start of the school year or the noticeable shift in the length of the days, but I've really felt the days slipping by lately. As it is the final Monday of the month, that means it's time for a One Little Word check-in. Thank you to Kat for hosting our monthly link-ups!

Less has been prevalent in many ways for me this month. Less daylight for sure (boo) but also less humidity (yay!). In the last week or so, there has been less barking from Ruthie when she wakes up, so maybe she's learning that I will come down at the same time every morning and she doesn't need to raise the alarm. There has been less procrastination, as I called and scheduled Ruthie's spay surgery (Tuesday, September 9).

To follow up on something from earlier in the year (the "less of me" bit), I can report that I'm holding steady and have discovered that the weight I've lost has likely been due to increased physical activity from walking Ruthie. I've started tracking my walks with her on my Apple Watch and have found that on the days that I run, I am burning close to 1,000 calories, at least if the watch can be believed. So it's no wonder that without making up for that, I've dropped a few pounds. I'm trying to be more mindful about making sure I'm eating enough, and part of that is being less hard on myself if I need a snack.

With the start of the school year today, I'll soon have less time to myself, as I'll have to do the pick-up (and sometimes drop-off) routine every day again. It's been lovely to sit with a snoozing puppy until late afternoon most days, but I'm reminding myself that picking Molly up from school means about 10 minutes every day of one-on-one time -- something that's so hard to get with a teenager.

One thing there hasn't been less of this month? Tomatoes! I picked another dozen over the weekend! I also did a Costco run on Saturday, so I made sure to get some fresh mozzarella so I can have Caprese salads all week! 

Is That ... Fall?

TGIF! After rain earlier in the week followed by humidity, we finally have had some cooler weather and a hint of fall in the air. I don't think we're done with the heat altogether, but look at the forecast for next week!

Still little rain (those scattered showers on Sunday may be out of the forecast by then or miss us entirely), but look at those highs! I think I'll even need an extra layer in the morning, and friends, I am ready for it!

Our tomato plants have not gotten the memo that summer is soon coming to an end, however, and I keep discovering surprise tomatoes (because the big plant has taken over so much that they're hiding behind other plants). Here's the current harvest still to be eaten:

We sliced up a big one to have on turkey burgers on Wednesday night, and I've had some in salads, but there are still plenty to be eaten!

This weekend is the last one before Molly goes back to school, so we actually have some plans. The three of us are going out to dinner tonight at one of our favorite local places to kick off the school year. She just got asked to work another shift on Saturday and then is going to a friend's sleepover party on Saturday night, so the Mister and I are going out for a date night. And then Sunday he leaves for his annual work trip to Las Vegas that means he misses the first day of school (though fortunately at this age, Molly doesn't mind so much). Of course there will be the usual walks (alone and with Ruthie) and naps and such. But perhaps the next couple of days will be less sweaty.

Have a good one, friends, and see you back here on Monday!

Unraveled, Week 34/2025

Greetings, friends, and happy Wednesday! It's been a long start to the week (I woke up yesterday and my first thought was, "Is it really only Tuesday?"), but today is my favorite day of the blogging week, when I get to join in with Kat and the Unravelers.

Today I'm kicking things off with a finished object (finished, but not yet blocked, so please excuse that).

I completed the knitting on this hat on Monday afternoon during what I've taken to calling "snoozy time" and then wove in the end that evening. The yarn is from Supernova Dyeworks and came from my SSK goodie bag; I love the colors but thought they'd be a bit too much in socks. In the larger circumference of a hat, however, I got some nice stripes. This will be added to the charity pile.

I have also made some real progress on my Kudzu tank, completing the second and final chart:

The second chart is worked under the arms, after you've joined the front and back, and it continues the leaf lace motif in a really pretty way:

Now it's just stockinette through the rest of the body, with a few increases to give a little shaping. I've used up my first skein of yarn and will be interested to see how far I get with the second.

I've had another blockbuster week of reading -- five books finished! This is in large part due to audiobooks (I get a lot of listening done between exercising and walking the dog) as well as the fact that I read some shorter books this past week.

My brother loaned me his copy of Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You shortly after we adopted Ruthie, and I'm a little ashamed to say that I've only just gotten around to it. This is a book I would have enjoyed even before having my own dog simply because of my interest in psychology (it's what I got my bachelor's degree in). The author, an academic who studies canine behavior, set out to uncover why it is that humans and dog have long been able to form strong bonds and loving relationships. While he gets into evolution and genetics and even Pavlov, the book is easy to read and understand, and he certainly makes a strong case for dog ownership. It also made me regret not taking the course on animal behavior in college! I enjoyed this one a lot -- 4 stars.

Next was an audiobook that I listened to over the course of two days and very nearly DNF'd. Severance is a pandemic book, but it was published back in 2018 and was eerily familiar. I'd had it on my TBR for a while because I'd heard about it on at least one bookish podcast I listen to, and I had thought I'd heard that the virus in the book caused people to become overly religious rather than sick. Either I was confusing it with another book or the podcaster hadn't read it, because that is not the case at all -- there's some near zombie stuff happening in this book. The crux of it is that there's a virus out of China that causes people to become "fevered," and the main character finds herself in a New York City that is quickly becoming a ghost city, yet she continues to go to her office and work despite the fact that her work has become impossible and pointless. The Goodreads description of this book calls it a "hilarious deadpan satire," but I just found it depressing. Some of the descriptions of the people afflicted by the virus started to make me feel a little ill myself, and that was the point at which I nearly stopped listening, but because I was out on a workout without anything else to listen to at the time, I kept going, and it got a little better. The only parts I actually enjoyed were the flashbacks to the main character's family when they first immigrated to the United States and their determination to make a new life in a new country. I wouldn't recommend this one. 2 stars.

I needed something lighter and fluffier after that, so I scrolled way down in my Kindle shelves and found Shrines of Gaiety, which I'd bought a couple of years ago but never gotten around to reading. I know a number of you read this when it first came out and thought it was okay, and that was my experience as well (it was a 3-star read for me). This book is not on the same level as Life After Life, but it's fun and didn't require a lot of thought or attention on my part. I was a bit frustrated that several storylines were left just hanging at the end -- some, it seemed, deliberately. I am okay with ambiguity in certain situations, but this felt a bit like laziness to me. If you're writing fiction, can't just just make up an explanation? In any case, it was a good palate cleanser.

I so enjoyed Adam Higginbotham's Challenger that for my next audiobook, I decided to read another of his works Midnight in Chernobyl. As with his book on the Challenger disaster, Higginbotham is thorough and impartial in relaying the facts, looking at what happened from all angles and, at times, from minute to minute. I was familiar with some of the names and how the disaster played out from having watched the HBO miniseries several years back, so I can't say I really learned anything new. If you've seen that miniseries, you probably don't need to read the book, but if not, I would recommend it if you'd like to learn more about what happened. It's very well done (though I have some grumbles about the audiobook narrator). I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, a memoir, The Tell. It's an Oprah pick, but that is not why I read it (though it likely explained the long wait list at the library). The author was struck by her daughter's comment that she felt she really didn't know her to examine why that would be. She cautiously entered a session of therapy using MDMA, only to discover a long-suppressed memory of being sexually assaulted by a teacher when she was in middle school. Having released this memory, and realized why she reacted the way she did to certain stimuli, she then embarked on a long process of both healing from the abuse and seeking some form of justice for what was done to her. This is a book that will be very hard for some people to read, for obvious reasons. I found it fascinating that our own brains will hide a memory from us yet the effects of what is hidden can be seen and felt in the body. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?