Unraveled, Week 45/2026

This week, thankfully, seems to be flying by, but I can't let a Wednesday pass me by without linking up with Kat and the Unravelers.

Since last we spoke, I've completed another triple-stranded charity hat:

and promptly cast on for another:

I'm sure there will be more of them in the near future, but this is my last one before I send off another batch to a collection. There's a special charity challenge this month for the Pigskin Party, and you can claim points for up to 10 items made for charity (with more points for those items if they were made during the Pigskin Party versus before). This current hat will be the 10th item I'll have made with the intention of donating it since the event kicked off, so I'm maximizing my points. I've also pulled out, as you saw last week, items I've been making for the last year or so. I sent off the first batch of hats last weekend, and this batch will include a cowl, some mitts, and some mittens in addition to hats.

As last week was a busy week at work, thereby diminishing my daytime reading hours, I did not read as much as I would have liked, but I did manage to finish three books.

The Bookbinder's Code by A.D. Bell (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I was sent an ARC of this book for review only to realize it was a sequel, so before I could read it, I had to go read the first book. After doing that, I hoped that Lily Delaney had learned her lesson, but in The Bookbinder's Code, she finds herself again drawn into a dangerous world when her mentor, Mr. Caxton, disappears and she has to decode his notebook from his university days to find out what he and a group of friends did that would put their lives at risk all these years later. Lily is still determined and unconventional, with her loyalty to those she loves driving her to defy society's expectations. For as smart as she is to figure out secret codes and elaborate plots, though, she still seems to have trouble keeping herself out of danger. For the most part, I enjoyed this book and its world in which books become dangerous. But I had to suspend my sense of disbelief for a lot of it; as much as I treasure books and know that rare ones can be very valuable, I had a hard time believing the lengths some would go to -- including murder -- to get their hands on one. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published January 26, 2027.

The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

This book was on the Booker Prize longlist this year, and while I wasn't intending to read all of the books, I almost always find some of them to be really intriguing. This was one such book. Dilara is a Turkish expat living in Italy with her husband and her father, a former academic and political dissident who is in the throes of dementia and declining rapidly. As the book opens, they've just finished a project to renovate their bathroom, but when Dilara looks after the builders have left, she discovers not a shiny new bathroom but a cell in an infamous prison in Turkey. Her husband, always highly anxious, flees, convinced that the authoritarian regime in Turkey will find out about the cell and imprison them, and soon Dilara is alone with her father, without a job or any way to support them, and finds herself increasingly drawn to the prison cell, especially as more and more women are brought in to neighboring cells. Although the premise is, naturally, impossible, it creates the backdrop for an exploration of the longing for your homeland, particularly when you cannot return, and for the loss of the life you once had, especially when the only family in your life is a parent who no longer recognizes you as their child.

I also listened to Sense and Sensibility, which is still among my top Austens, because I'd like to see the new movie; I realized not long ago that the plot that I have in my head is very much that of the 1995 movie, which is fairly faithful to the original text but makes some notable changes. I think the last time I read the book was when I was in high school, so it was very much due a reread.

Today is colonoscopy prep day, so a little later this morning I will be taking Ruthie out to the dogsitter's for a couple of nights and then doing my best to relax the rest of the day. Please send any extra good thoughts you have my way tomorrow! I have to report at the hospital at 8:30 for a 9:30 procedure, so I'm hoping to be home in time for lunch. I'm also hoping not to be so tired from the sedation that I can't take advantage of a dog-free day off to get some crafting done!

In Which I Am Only Mildly Disappointed

After last week's taste of summer, we were firmly back in fall this weekend. The temperature dropped a lot on Friday, and it was downright chilly the past couple of days! It was also gloomy, with some occasional sprinkles -- a good weekend to stay inside. And though I still went outside for my usual walks (with and without Ruthie), I took advantage of the inside time to finish up some WIPs. Of course, I know there's one (former) WIP that's of most interest, and yes, it's done!

Pattern: Seashore Stroll (Ravelry link) by Jennifer Shiels Toland, size 2 (36 in./90 cm chest circumference)

Yarn: handspun blended merino from FatCatKnits, approximately 913 yards used
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm and US 3/3.25 mm
Started/Completed: September 9/November 6
Mods: combined the textured pattern and twisted ribbing for body hem and sleeve cuffs

I am completely delighted with this sweater. I love the fact that I finally used this handspun yarn a decade after it was spun and that my quest to find said yarn  forced me to clean out and reorganize my stash. I love how the tweedy look of the blended fiber in the yarn plays with the textured stitch patterns. I love that it's relatively light but because it's wool, it'll be warm. The only thing I'm not happy about? The pattern called for 1345 yards for the long-sleeve version of my size, but I used only 913, meaning I won't get "blitz points" for the Pigskin Party (bonus points for using 1,000+ yards in one project)!

There's not much to say about this sweater because it was so straightforward to knit and the pattern was so well written that I didn't have to think too much. And it was pretty fast to knit -- although it took almost two months from cast-on to bind-off, you have to consider that it was knit mostly an hour at a time in the evening and there were certainly nights I didn't touch it, so the total hours I put in was really not that large.

I also finished another charity hat, using another 400 or so yards of scraps:

This is the Sagamore Flyover Hat (Ravelry link), a pattern I've knit many times before because it's great for using up fingering scraps held triple. I made the largest size and followed the directions for the slouchy fit option, though I changed up the crown decreases so they are a bit smoother (the original pattern has a more gathered look). For this iteration, I used a strand of Fully Spun Sock, a strand of Malabrigo Sock and a strand of Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Sock. I've since cast on for another one with the same three yarns because I had some left, but I will need to add in some other scraps soon.

This week is going to weird and crappy (quite literally!), so I'm counting on my crafting to help keep me sane. Today and tomorrow, though, are normal work days, and I plan to be here as usual on Wednesday. Hope you have a good start to your week!

Winding Down, Gearing Up

Oh, what a week it has been! I feel like I say that all the time, but this week has really been dramatic in quite a few ways. First, I think I mentioned that it's the last week of the first trimester for Molly, so she was super stressed out -- she had three tests and a research paper due. Thankfully all are now done and in the past, and I expect she'll be sleeping very late today to make up for the fact that she was running on not enough sleep for several days in a row. Then there was the weather and what felt like a return to summer. I think we hit 80ºF on Wednesday, ironically on the same day we had our furnace check! And of course there were the shocking (in a very good way) results of the midterm elections. On top of all that, there's been the usual work stuff, but I'm happy to report that the last piece of one of the current big projects finally got wrapped up this week, so I'm feeling a lot less stressed myself. There's still commencement to deal with, but the bulk of the work on that is done. And the Mister will be home from his trip today, with no work travel on the calendar for the rest of the year (though that could change at any time).

While I watch election returns on Tuesday evening, I finished up another scrappy charity hat:

I used up the rest of the neon green and most of the darker green plus a small leftover ball of yarn from this sweater. I used my Spinning in Infinity pattern (Ravelry link) and US 4/3.5 mm and US 2/2.75 mm needles. In addition to using leftovers, you know why I love knitting hats like this? This one hat eliminated 325 yards of yarn from my stash. Even though the number of stitches is the same, it feels so much more productive to knit a DK-weight hat using two strands of yarn held together than a single strand. Plus the marled look is a lot of fun.

And I haven't gotten it out of my system, either. I cast on another one, holding three strands of fingering together, and without planning it, this one coordinates perfectly with my new project bag:

I am hoping for another relaxed weekend. Ruthie is going to doggie day care/camp again on Saturday (she's going to be boarding there while we're in Florida, so I want her to get used to being there), and Molly and I plan to take the free day to do a little shopping. We can share clothes now, but my style is not her style, so when she needs nicer clothes for a more formal event, she doesn't have many options.

What I do need to focus on this weekend is gearing up for what's happening next week: my first colonoscopy. I put it off for about half a year after turning 45 and getting the order from my daughter, but I decided I really needed to pretend to be an adult (ha) and just do it. I'm not worried about the procedure at all, but going through the prep beforehand is what I've been dreading. I've got all my laxatives and Gatorade ready to go on Wednesday, and starting this weekend I'm going to be adjusting my diet leading up to it so that I have an easier time. My usual diet is pretty high in fiber and all the stuff you're not supposed to eat beforehand (raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, etc.), so I have no doubt it's going to be a bit of a struggle, but it's well worth it to me to ensure I do the prep right and don't have to do it again for another decade! I'm trying to look at it as a bit of a vacation, too. I'm taking a couple of days off from work, Ruthie is going to the dog sitter's, and I'm not going to worry about anything than taking it easy for those two days.

I hope to be able to share a finished sweater with you next week. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Unraveled, Week 44/2026

We've made it to the middle of the week, so it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

I am getting really close to a finished sweater; I think that, barring any emergencies, I should have it done by this weekend. When I snapped this photo, I was more than halfway done with the decreases on the second sleeve. Once the decreases are done, I think I knit 2-3 more inches straight before I work the patterning at the cuff. Of course, each decrease round means fewer stitches overall, so the rounds are getting smaller and faster. I'm getting close enough to the end that I'm already planning what I'll be casting on next.

It's been so busy at work recently that most of my reading has been done on audio while out exercising or walking Ruthie. Somehow I still managed to finish four books this week.

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells (audio)

My rating: 3 stars

I've been hearing about the Murderbot series for years and long been meaning to give it a try, and I finally did last week, listening to the first book (really a novella) in the series in one day. Set at some point in the future, when exploration of other planets is possible and is controlled by a large corporate entity, a security android sent to protect a human crew starts to gain some self-awareness and some human-like feelings. I didn't feel like I had a complete sense of the setting and the background, but I thought it was an interesting enough listen. It remains to be seen if I'll continue with the series.

The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I'd started an ARC last week when I realized it was a sequel to this book, which I hadn't read, so I stopped and borrowed the first book from the library. It follows Lilian Delaney, a bookbinder's apprentice who grew up in a bookshop. While on a work errand, she discovers a strange book that someone tried to burn and that contains part of an intriguing story hidden behind the endpapers. Soon she's drawn into a dangerous mystery involving books, hidden messages, love, money, and murder, leading to very real consequences for her and her loved ones. I found it to be fairly entertaining but also fairly hard to believe; there's a lot that Lily does that does not seem realistic for a young unmarried woman in early 1900s England. Still, it gave me the background I needed to read and evaluate the sequel (and stay tuned until next week for my thoughts on that; I'm in the middle of it currently).

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (audio)

My rating: 3 stars

Ernest Cunningham is a how-to writer, and in this book, he's writing about how to write a murder mystery by following an established set of rules. To illustrate, he tells the story of his own family and a mystery to be solved at his family reunion. And his family is rather notorious, with a father who killed a police officer and a brother who went to jail for killing another. I can't say it was the best mystery I've ever read, but I did enjoy the unique spin on it. It's set in Australia and the audio is read by an Australian, which I liked except for the somewhat excessive use of the word "assume" (pronounced "uh-SHOOM" in Australian English) that irked me a bit, probably because it stuck out.

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

I've been frustrated lately by Hoopla's daily borrowing limits' being hit when I try to borrow a book, even first thing in the morning, so I turned to what was available on audio and ended up with this book. This book starts with a warning that deals with heavy subjects and tells the reader that it's okay to put it aside if it gets to be too much, and I think that's a worthwhile warning. Lulu is a housewife and mother in the early 1950s, trying to be the ideal -- always made up and put together, a dutiful wife and mother, happy and fulfilled by her regular schedule of cooking and cleaning. But following the birth of her second child, it becomes harder and harder to do it all and appear happy about it. What's more, the wife and mother of the family who just moved in across the street seems strange in a way that Lulu can't quite put her finger on, and it feels like no one else seems to notice. There are some big, hard issues dealt with in this book: the pressure on women to do it all and perform for the men in their life, the dismissal of women's health complaints and refusal to allow them to have a say in their health care, and issues surrounding motherhood. It's a bit derivative of The Bell Jar (the author readily admits it was an inspiration), but I thought it was well done.

I'm currently reading that sequel, The Bookbinder's Code, and very slowly working my way through Annie Dillard's The Maytrees.

What are you making and reading this week?

Fall Back

And just like that, it's the penultimate month of the year.

It was a fairly relaxing weekend, mostly because we didn't do much. I was successful in my blood donation on Friday, so I couldn't have an adult beverage, but the Mister and I had a delicious dinner out, ending with a shared sticky toffee pudding topped with vanilla ice cream.

I somehow managed to sleep in a little on Saturday (the first time in a long time Ruthie hasn't barked upon waking) and passed the day by going for walks (on my own and with Ruthie), cleaning the bathrooms, reading, knitting, and even taking a short nap. Molly ended up staying home Saturday night -- this coming week is the last week of the term, so she had a lot of studying to do -- so we got some takeout and awaited the trick-or-treaters. In the end, we had exactly one: the toddler who lives down the street. It's a good thing I didn't overbuy on the candy!

Yesterday I woke up at what's become my normal time, but because of the time change, that meant I was up at 4:30 a.m. Ruthie technically slept in; I heard her barking at about 5:30, but if we hadn't moved the clocks back, that would have been 6:30 (so I'm hoping that means that I will be up before she barks this coming week). After a cloudy day on Saturday, it was nice to see the sun again and to enjoy its warmth on our jaunts around the neighborhood. We spent the afternoon curled up in the family room, watching some football, doing a little reading, and knitting.

And what have I been knitting? Well, my sweater, of course; I'm maybe a third of the way through the decreases on sleeve #2. But mainly I've been working on yet another scrappy marled charity hat:

This one will never be measured in Ruthies, but she was so cute all curled up that I didn't want to get up to try to take a photo elsewhere. The yarn used for what you see here is what was leftover from the two Hollyhocks Hats I've made in the last month or so, Malabrigo Sock and Steel City Fiber Collective Yinzer Sock. The lighter green is almost gone, and I'm hoping I'll use up all the darker green as well (I have additional scraps to add in as needed).

One of my errands over the weekend was sending off some of the hats I've made over the last year, so before I packaged them up, I pulled out everything I had set aside to donate and took a photo:

Probably 2/3 of what you see here was sent off to a Ravelry friend who collects every year for "Hatsgiving" through her workplace. The rest, plus the hat I'm currently knitting and any others I finish in the next week or so, will be sent off to another collection by mid-month. I've been keeping track of how much yarn from my stash I've used up this year, and looking at that number feels good, but it feels even better to know that I've used a significant portion of it to make warm things for people who could use them.

It's going to be a girls' week here this week, as the Mister's off on another work trip, and after Molly's tough week with two tests and a research paper due, she is off on Friday. I am hoping to be able to wrap up the last of the recent projects this week. And I assume we'll all be adjusting to the change of the clocks!

Is It Friday, for Real?

Yesterday morning I woke up (earlier than I'd like) convinced it was Friday. Alas, it was only Thursday. It's been a long week -- lots of work and early mornings. It's not like I really get to sleep in on the weekend, but at least in the afternoons I can take a snooze if I need to. On the plus side, it's been a beautiful week, so I've been able to escape from my screens to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Though most of my accomplishments have work related, I did finish another charity hat:

If you can believe it, there are 378 yards of yarn used in this hat! I held fingering double and used US 4/3.5 mm and US 2/2.75 mm needles. This type of scrappy hat is such a great stash buster.

My first sweater sleeve has been bound off and the second has been started, and I hope by this time next week I'll be close to done.

Today I've got an appointment to donate blood, so please keep your fingers crossed my hemoglobin level is sufficient! Molly's going to a friend's for a Halloween party tonight, so the Mister and I will be going out to dinner for a date night. I've got one bag of candy ready for Saturday night, though we rarely get more than a handful of trick-or-treaters. And that's the sum total of my plans for the weekend! I hope to have some knitting and reading time in between dog walks and chores, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Ruthie isn't up at 4:30 on Sunday due to the time change. I hope your weekend is a good break!

Unraveled, Week 43/2026

The last Wednesday in October is here, and time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers. I promised you a big sweater update, so I won't keep you waiting. I'm almost done with the first sleeve! (In fact, I likely will be done by the time you're reading this because I'm getting this post ready on Tuesday ahead of my evening knitting time.)

As with the body hem, I'm working the cuffs as a combination of the textured eyelet pattern and twisted ribbing. You may notice that I have only one skein of yarn attached; although I was alternating every round on the sleeve, I didn't want to have to weave in two ends from the cuff bind-off, so I cut off the second skein before I started the ribbing. Really, the alternating was done mostly because of inconsistencies in handspun and not for color management reasons, so I don't think you'll even be able to tell (I did it on the body, too).

While the sweater has gotten my main attention in the evening, during the day I'm churning out quite a bit of marled stockinette in the form of yet another charity hat:

Part of the Pigskin Party is that there are always special challenges. Participation is optional, but it can get you extra points. And I love more internet points! Plus, it makes this hat serve three purposes: extra points, adding to my charity donations, and using up yarn. This one is all scraps. I've been holding a strand of black yarn (leftover Knit Picks Palette and Knit Picks Stroll) alongside some purple and blue Wonderland Yarns/Frabjous Fibers leftover from a sweater I knit for Molly nearly a decade ago. I really love holding multiple strands together because it uses up quite a lot of yarn but doesn't take that long to knit.

As to reading, I have four finishes this week:

Solace in Winter by Mary Lawson (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

In today's hectic world, it is a comfort to visit simpler times through the books I read, so it was a treat to travel to the winter of 1969 in a small town in Canada. Though the setting is the same as Mary Lawson's earlier novel, A Town Called Solace, this isn't an continuation but rather a totally different story. In Solace in Winter, we meet Jack, a widower missing his late wife and who has a difficult relationship with his adult daughter. Though he's a bit of a loner, he doesn't hesitate to help when he encounters first a badly injured dog and then a badly injured young man at the same dangerous curve in the road. He ends up housing them both while they recover, forming a bond with the dog (whom he names Lola) and the young man, Chris, who had fled to Canada to escape the draft and Vietnam. They all have pain in their pasts and aren't quick to reveal their secrets, but somehow these three come to trust each other, helped along by the local vet and the wife of the town's only police officer, who was a nurse before she became a mother. Just as they seem to be finding their way to recovering, Jack's daughter shows up, full of suspicions, and threatens to destroy these new friendships.

This is a quiet, thoughtful novel about the power of human kindness and care to ease pain, both physical and emotional, and it shows how sharing ourselves with others can help us to feel more whole.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House/Knopf Canada for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published November 10, 2026.

Switzy by Emma Cline (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

I'd had this buzzy book on hold for a while (and then suspended my hold for a bit) mostly because it was on the Booker longlist, and for a while I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it. But, as always, the reviews of readers I trust convinced me to, and I'm glad I did. This book tells the story of David Hastings, a 70-something man in the throes of Alzheimer's disease who is on his way to Switzerland to for a physician-assisted suicide. Along the way he has stops in London, to see his daughter, and to a small town in France, to meet an old schoolmate to whom he owes an apology for his long-ago treatment. Though the narrative is told in close third person, it gives the reader a very good sense of what it must be like to be dealing with dementia, with everything mostly clear one minute to immersion in an old memory the next to confusion and anger the very next. David isn't an entirely likable person, but that doesn't prevent you from feeling for him. I think Cline is incredibly successful in both putting together a narrative that feels just as jumbled and frustrating as the thoughts of a person with dementia would be and in creating a character who is unlikable but also inspires empathy.

Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey (audio)
My rating: 3 stars / 3.5 stars

After reading the first book in the Silo series, I figured I might as well read the other two in the trilogy, particularly as I'm interested in the Apple TV series and would prefer to know all of the story before I start watching. The second book, Shift, goes back in time from the first book to explore how the world came to be the way it was and why the silos were built in the first place. There's also some background on a character from the first book. I thought it dragged a bit and was longer than it needed to be, which I think often happens in the second book of a three-book series, and I think it also raised more questions than it answered. 

The third book pulled most of the loose threads together, coming back in time to the end of the first book and rejoining that book's main character in her efforts to uncover the truth. Things get pretty dark in this last book, but I think it does have a happy-ish ending.

I can't say I loved this series, but it was intriguing, and it's certainly a good warning about what can happen when a few people get too much power and think they know what's best for the world. And I am interested to see how it's portrayed on screen.

Reading this week is a little limited because most of what I'm reading is for work -- the December commencement lists have started to come in. So I'd love to hear what you've been reading!

A Slower Pace

I may not have slept as much as I wanted this weekend, but it was a calmer, more restful couple of days than the last one. Ruthie had a great time at camp. They told me she was definitely a little timid and was following the other dogs rather than leading, but they said that's pretty typical for a first-timer. They also took an adorable photo of her when we first got there:

While she was there, I went for a long walk, washed all her bedding and her blanket, washed and repaired the couch cushion covers (she's a terrier, so she likes to dig), vacuumed the family room and under the couch covers, and even found a little time to sit down and finish up this hat:

I added two additional repeats this time around and used up 375 yards of yarn (though this particular skein had something like 462 yards total, so there's still a bit left). I have to say that holding fingering weight yarn double is a great way to go through it and is making a real dent in my fingering bin! I've cast on another charity hat in fingering doubled, though I'm using up scraps this time around. It's not much to look at yet, but as this one is just stockinette, it should grow quickly.

When I picked Ruthie up, it was clear she was very tired -- I took her for a short walk, and she was walking slowly. When we came home, she ate everything in her food bowl, then plopped on the couch next to me. Shortly after, I glanced over to find her like this:

I thought she'd sleep in yesterday morning after a day with so much activity -- but no, her first bark came at 4:55 a.m.! I made her wait a little bit until I came down to let her out of her crate, and she was overjoyed to see me. It almost made up for the extra-early wakeup. I was glad that after our midday walk, we could both take a little snooze.

Though the weekend wasn't much for sleeping (at least not for me), I will say that it was a gorgeous fall weekend. The mornings lately have been chilly, but each day the sun has come out and warmed us up into the 60s. I believe today we might even hit 70! We also haven't had rain since we got the remnants of Hurricane Isaias a couple of weeks ago, and the low humidity has been great for running. With the exception of the Friday before all that rain came in, when it got humid again and made breathing more difficult, I think I've managed to run at least 10K (6.2 miles) without stopping to walk every day I've gone out to run. But now we're in a streak of perfect fall weather. The leaves are changing and falling, I've had to duck from falling acorns, and the days are getting noticeably shorter. I'm enjoying all this while it lasts and before all the color fades away.

We've got a pretty typical week ahead. The Mister has another trip, though he'll only be gone one night, and I've got more work coming in. Molly took good advantage of her day off on Friday to get a lot of schoolwork done and even get a little ahead. I expect we'll all be busy for much of the week, so my hope is that it's a manageable amount that allows us to pause every now and then to enjoy this last week of the month. And that's my hope for you, too, friends! I will be back on Wednesday with a big sweater update, a peek at my new hat, and some book reviews.

Ready to Rest

What a week this has been! The Mister has been traveling, Molly was out late Wednesday evening for a raku firing, and I've busy with two annual reports and an online Title IX training. On top of all of that, my brain has been waking me up early recently, though that's just as well because Ruthie has been getting up early and announcing it, but it still means I've been getting less sleep. All of that is to say that I'm ready for a quieter weekend. And I'm hoping that's what I get. Molly is home today (parent/teacher conferences are happening), and I think we're planning to have dinner with my parents this evening, but then we have no set plans. We were supposed to go to my brother's Halloween party tomorrow, but in light of last weekend, it's been cancelled.

I have started the first sleeve on my sweater but not made noticeable progress. I have, however, knit almost an entire hat this week. I cast it on and worked on it in the car on the way to and from the visitation on Sunday (we had about an hour's drive each way), and I've put in rounds here and there while working (see online training above) this week. If it looks familiar to you, it's because I knit this pattern a few weeks ago.

I've completed the specified number of repeats, but I think I'm going to do a couple more because I have plenty of yarn and might as well use it up. The yarn has been in my stash for at least a decade; it was my gift for backing the Kickstarter for the now-defunct Steel City Fiber Collective. It's a pretty neon green, not quite as acid green as it's looking in the late-afternoon sunset here. But either way it was too bright for me, even as socks, so I'm holding it doubled for this hat. A Ravelry friend is collecting hats prior to Thanksgiving, so I'm trying to knit as many as I can to send to her.

I said we don't have any plans this weekend, but that's not quite true: Ruthie has an "interview" at doggie day care tomorrow. This is the preliminary step to be able to board her there if needed. Our regular dog sitter is going on vacation when we are in December, so I've been looking for another option. She generally seems to enjoy playing with other dogs, so I'm hoping this works out. She'll be there for several hours (the minimum is 3) on Saturday, and I have a feeling she will be running around a lot and be very tired Saturday night. Maybe she'll even sleep in Sunday morning? I'm sure my brain will wake me up early no matter what, but it would be nice to be able to stay in bed a little!

Can you believe this is the last full weekend of October? The days are flying by as they get shorter! I hope you can enjoy it and that you get blessed with the perfect fall weather we're supposed to get as well.

Unraveled, Week 42/2026

It's a busy week, but we've reached the midpoint. Time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

Today I've got a big WIP update: I've finished the body of my sweater!

I am hoping that once it's blocked it won't have that balloon effect just above the patterning at the bottom, but otherwise I am very happy with it. The pattern calls for finishing off the twisted ribbing option with a tubular bind-off, but I decided to bind off in pattern instead. For one thing, a tubular bind-off takes a long time, but mainly I don't like how it looks with twisted ribbing. I'd already departed from the instructions quite a bit by combining the two hem options, so what's another change at this point?

As for reading, it's been an interesting mix this past week.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

I first heard about this book from Bonny; I believe she read it as an ARC, so I had a bit of a wait for it to come out and then for the library hold list. But it was well worth the wait. This novel takes the story of Cinderella and reimagines it, in particular reframing it from the point of view of the so-called wicked stepmother. In Hochhauser's version, Etheldreda, the title character, was the daughter of a brewer who fell in love with the son of a wealthy family. Against all odds, they married and had children, only for him to die suddenly not long after. So Etheldreda found herself compelled to remarry in order to provide for her daughters -- only for her second husband to die, leaving her alone to provide for her daughters, her stepdaughter (here named Elin), and the two servants who stayed behind. Their existence is precarious, but Ethel has to keep up appearances so that her daughters can marry well and not starve. And then comes the invitation to the royal ball and the possibility of a royal match, which could solve all their problems -- but it soon becomes apparent that there is a troubling secret at the palace and a marriage with the prince might not be the good fortune it seems to be. I love how Hochhauser subverted the original marriage, making the stepmother's motivation for making her daughters cook, clean, and mend (Elin deems herself a lady and thus too delicate to do any real labor) a matter of critical importance to securing her daughters' future, for if they cannot marry, they cannot survive. And the prince is no Prince Charming; he may be charming and handsome, but that is only his public persona. Ethel is also a great character. She is determined to provide for her family, whatever it takes, and she's no shrinking violet. I really enjoyed my time with her.

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow (audio)

My rating: 3.5 stars

If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice, then you know that the middle Bennet sister, Mary, doesn't get much attention in the story. We know she's not especially pretty, wears glasses, and is rather stern and bookish. Here, Mary gets her own story. Roughly the first third of the book covers the original story, now with Mary's perspective, but then we move two years into the future. Mr. Bennet has died and Mr. and Mrs. Collins have taken over Longbourn, so Mary has to find her home with one sister or another, always feeling like she doesn't fit in. Eventually she finds her way to the Gardiners, her aunt and uncle, in London, and it's there that she finally starts to discover her true self. She makes the acquaintance of some eligible young men, and a bit of a love triangle ensues. I thought this book was generally an enjoyable continuation and reimagining of the original story, but I also thought it went on a little longer than necessary and the drama was perhaps not needed. The author also walked a fine line between paying homage to the original story and recreating some of its plot points with different characters.

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (paperback)

My rating: 3 stars

It's been far too long since I read any Erdrich, and this one has been on my TBR list for a long time. Irene discovers that her husband, Gil, a painter who has gotten famous by painting portraits of her, has been reading her diary. She starts a new one, a real one, that she stashes in her safe deposit box and begins making things up just to provoke him in the one that he reads in order to try to catch him. Their marriage is tumultuous; Irene is an alcoholic and Gil is occasionally violent toward both her and their children. And the children are aware of it all, dealing with it in different ways. Irene determines to leave Gil with the children, but she can't fully seem to leave him emotionally as well as physically. I have to say that this is probably my least favorite Erdrich novel of all that I've read to date (I think I have four left to read). While there's no doubting her ability to write, these people were so terrible to each other and made each other so miserable that it was hard to read. I was glad that it was a relative short book so that I could wrap up my time with this family and move on.

I'm currently reading Switzy by Emma Cline and will be starting Shift, the second book in the Silo series, on my run this morning.

What are you making and reading this week?

Change of Plans

I thought it was going to be an uneventful weekend, but of course when you plan for that, things are pretty much guaranteed to change. We heard late morning on Friday that my sister-in-law's father (my brother's father-in-law) had passed away. He had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma and had just had his first chemo treatment when he suffered several strokes and ended up in the ICU. It was all very sudden and very sad. The funeral is today, but we're not able to attend (the Mister is leaving for a work trip, and I can't take off from work on such short notice for someone who isn't immediate family), so we went to the visitation yesterday. That required a bit of shuffling of our usual Sunday activities, but it was important to be there for my sister-in-law and her family.

It wasn't entirely a sad weekend, though it was a chilly one! A front came through Friday afternoon, with wind and rain, making for a rather cold event on Friday night. It was held at a former train station in downtown Pittsburgh, a popular venue for weddings -- and it's easy to see why. The cocktail hour was held outdoors (fortunately there were heaters!) under the dome:

The dinner was indoors in what was the main hall/waiting area of the station. It was out of the wind though sadly not that much warmer. But it was equally beautiful.

We ran into a number of people we knew, including a former elementary and middle school classmate of mine who I have not seen in years! And the dinner was pretty good, although I was ready to go home about an hour before we left, having started my day at about 5:30 that morning.

Saturday was the first really cold day of the season; I don't think we made it much above the low 50s. On the plus side, it was a good excuse to wear some hand-knit socks and a sweater. And because I was having a little Rhinebeck FOMO, I made apple cider donuts:

I used this recipe, though for the last step I melted just one tablespoon of butter, brushed it on the tops of the donuts, and dipped them in the sugar/spice mixture. I obviously overfilled the donut tins a bit, as you can see they all have a bit of a "foot" to them, but a more robust donut is not a bad thing. And it only made a dozen, so I won't have donuts sitting around and tempting me. The batter is quite thick, so I think next time around I'll just make it as a loaf cake. The donuts are cute, but they are extra work -- not least of which is spent greasing each donut shape in the pan!

And I finished up the fingerless mitts I'd been knitting, using up a little more than half of the skein:

These were a fun knit, but I knit the largest size (trying to use up the most yarn), so they're a bit big on me. I intended them for the charity pile in any case. The pattern is Turnover, which I knit in the fingering weight version (there's a version for worsted, too).

I'm just about finished with the body of my sweater, and I've cast on another charity hat (using this pattern again). I knit most of the brim in the car to and from the visitation yesterday. I'll share updates of both on Wednesday.

It's going to be a pretty normal week, I think, other than the Mister's being away for a couple of days. Molly has Friday off for parent/teacher conferences and has a bunch of evening activities this week, so most of the time it'll be just me and Ruthie at home. After being away so much this weekend, I'm sure she'll be happy to have my undivided attention.

The End Is in Sight

What a wild week it has been! We've had summer temperatures, drenching rain, sun, and gloom, and there's a possibility of a stray snowflake this weekend. On Sunday, I was wearing a sweater and making soup; by mid-week, I had to turn the heat off and turn the air conditioning back on. And allergies have been bad throughout. I'm more than ready for a weekend.

You know what else is coming to an end? The body of my sweater:

The pattern has two options for the hem: either a textured section to match the yoke or twisted ribbing. I've decided to do a mash-up of the two. I'm doing a section of eyelets and garter ridges and then working twisted ribbing for the rest of the required length. I think I'll likely do the same on the sleeves.

Tonight the Mister and I are going to a gala for the local parks conservancy (the board chair is a friend and invited us), so I get to put on a fancy dress and try to stay warm and dry while the blustery, rainy weather moves in. Then we've got a quiet weekend planned -- and it looks like it'll be sweater weather!

Have a good end to your week, friends, and see you back here on Monday.

Unraveled, Week 41/2026

It is really already Wednesday? Between having Molly home on Monday and a day yesterday that felt like summer again, my sense of time is all out of whack. (Also, I did indeed get that big work project dropped on me, so my brain is a bit fried.) As it's Wednesday, that means it's time to join in the fun with Kat and the Unravelers (although Kat is taking a break this week, so it's not an official link-up).

While my sweater continues to grow a bit each night and I'm just about ready to start the patterning at the bottom of the body, I've been working on a new project during the day. I thought I'd take a break from the charity hats and work on a pair of charity mitts instead. I'm using my friend Shana's Turnover mitts, which may look basic but have an ingenious instruction. I've finished up the first mitt, though ends still need to be dealt with.

The yarn is from Dusty Tree Dyeworks; a couple of years ago when Molly and I went to a local yarn/fiber event, Rebecca had some "surprise" bags with a mystery skein inside, and this non-superwash fingering weight was in mine. It's not really my color and is rather loosely plied for my taste, but it works well for this purpose!

As for reading, I've finished five books this week:

Ply by Hernan Diaz (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I really enjoyed Diaz's last book, Trust, in large part because of its unusual structure and overarching question of what the truth is. His latest work is set in some point in the future, when government and civil society have broken down and cities are ruled by private companies. Our unnamed narrator is a pincher, someone who steals power from the big energy company and whose true passion is live music. When she loses her partner, she comes across an older woman named Pola, a theoretical physicist who wants her help with an experiment to isolate an individual component of space-time. This novel also plays with structure and with voice (the narration goes back and forth between first person and third person), and the writing is excellent, but I didn't really understand where the story was going or what the point of it all was. All of the theoretical scientific stuff went right over my head and seemed unnecessary to me. But I also found myself wondering about it quite a bit. I'll be interested to see what others think.

May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

This debut novel recently made the Booker Prize shortlist. It's a short book with an interesting structure. It opens with narration with a museum curator whose specialty is setting life scenes -- arranging objects to make a room appear as it would have at a time in history. She's been hired by a medieval castle to decorate some rooms in honor of a big anniversary, and as she works, she immerses herself in the history of those who lived there. Then we move back in time to learn about the king whose court is being represented, a king who never thought he'd wear the crown and didn't particularly want it and whose reign is precarious. And we end back with the curator at the end of the exhibit. I enjoyed the narration but I think I might have gotten a bit more from the book if I'd read it with my eyes. Still, an usual and enjoyable read!

Kaleidoscope: On Seeing and Being Seen (digital)

My rating: 5 stars

Anyone can write a memoir, but only the most gifted writers can write a memoir that is both very personal and surprisingly universal. In Kaleidoscope, Dani Shapiro begins with blurry vision leading to the discovery of a rare brain tumor behind one eye and then turns the lens again and again to reflect on her life, her family members' serious illnesses, her relationship with her mother, and the family secret of her parentage (the subject of an earlier memoir). The lens is turned and widened further to meditate on aging, on changing friendships, and on the impact of luck on life. The writing is beautiful and says so much with so few words. And the metaphor of a kaleidoscope is apt; life can be shaken up and our outlook changed so quickly and drastically, and so much of it is uncertain, just like Shapiro's cancer. This is a book I would happily reread. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 4, 2027.

On Witness and Respair: Essays by Jesmyn Ward

My rating: 4.5 stars

Kat recommended this essay collection recently, specifically on audio, and I'm so glad I took that recommendation. Hearing Ward's words in her voice, with her Mississippi accent, makes them really come alive. The subject matter varies and includes her reflections on the death of her brother, living through a hurricane, the importance of fiction, and how certain writers and works of literature have impacted her life. What had the most impact for me, though, were her thoughts on being a person of color in this country. This is a book I may want to have a hard copy of so I could read it again and take notes.

Eleven Days: The Fascinating True Account of Agatha Christie's Mysterious Disappearance by Laura Thompson (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I am not an Agatha Christie super fan, but I've enjoyed the books of hers I've read (and the TV and movie adaptations I've watched), and I had heard of her mysterious disappearance, so I was intrigued when I received an email from NetGalley telling me about this forthcoming book. Laura Thompson clearly knows her stuff when it comes to Christie; she's not only a huge fan, she's also written a biography of the writer. So she is perhaps better positioned than most to examine the evidence and come up with a possible explanation of where Christie went and why over the course of those 11 days. And she is thorough in her approach to the job. She looks at all of the evidence presented to the public by the police and in statements by Christie's family and friends. She reviews what was published by the press. She looks to Christie's fiction, where characters and story lines were believed to have been inspired by her life and marriage. And she even follows Christie's probable route on the day she disappeared, complete with photos. While the review of all the information is comprehensive, it is, unfortunately, very hard to follow. Thompson jumps back and forth in time, making it difficult to get a good sense of the timeline. She also presents all of the information, leaving the reader is left unsure of what is relevant and what is not. And there is a sense that she presumes all readers will have a comparable amount of Christie background knowledge (not to mention general knowledge of the London area), adding to the confusion among readers who do not. While I learned more about Christie by reading this book, more often than not I was confused and frustrated by that confusion. There have been many theories about the 11-day disappearance, and this book doesn't deliver a concrete answer, but Thompson certainly presents a good case for her own theory. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published December 1, 2026.

Currently reading: Shadow Tag on paper, The Other Bennet Sister on audio, and Lady Tremaine on digital

Drying Out

I hope you all had a restful weekend. We had the remnants of Hurricane Isaias move through yesterday, bringing us a lot of rain (it was already close to an inch and a half by the time I was drinking my morning coffee at around 7 a.m.). Ruthie and I made good use of our raincoats! While Molly had a busy social schedule, the Mister and I enjoyed a date night out on Friday and took my in-laws out for dinner on Saturday. Yesterday we met up with some neighbors for lunch, and then I spent the afternoon making soup using a rotisserie chicken I'd picked up at Costco -- chicken tortilla for dinner using the meat and chicken stock using the carcass to put in the freezer for cold and flu season.

Before the start of the weekend, I finished up the charity hat I was knitting last week. It still needs to be blocked, of course, but the knitting is done.

The pattern is Chit Chat Hat (Ravelry link), and I followed it exactly except that I used a larger needle for the body of the hat than called for. The pattern only has one size, and although the stitch pattern is pretty stretchy, I wanted it to have a bit more room -- plus I already had the larger needles in the bag! I used up most of the skein of yarn, too.

My sweater continues to move along. Although a fingering weight sweater isn't a fast knit, stockinette in the round is certainly faster that the patterned yoke. I decided a try-on was in order, just to be sure:

I have to knit at least a couple more inches of stockinette before I do some more of the textured pattern above the ribbing at the bottom. Finishing the body this week might be a bit ambitious, but stranger things have happened.

It's going to be a pretty normal week for me, other than the fact that Molly is off from school today. I hope that translates to some serious sweater progress. Come back for an update on Wednesday!

A Fall Friday

It has been a busy week. Well, maybe that's not quite accurate. It's not so much that I've had a lot to do as it feels like I've just been up and moving a lot this week. On Tuesday alone, for instance, I had to go into the office twice and had racked up 20,000 steps by lunchtime! Leaving the house has also been a bit complicated this week because after the work to replace the gas lines in the neighborhood was completed, this week crews were back to dig up the temporary fillings of the holes they'd dug and repave those areas with a combination of asphalt and cement. We live on a dead-end street, and the work was being done all along the street that we turn onto when we leave, so getting anywhere was a bit of an obstacle course.

The one big positive of the past week has been the weather. It's been peak autumn here, with cool (sometimes even cold!), crisp mornings and warm (but not hot) afternoons. Though my first trip outside with Ruthie each morning is now in the dark, I'm rewarded for my early rising with some stunning starry skies. On Wednesday, it was so clear that I could even see the part of the moon that wasn't illuminated. The leaves are starting to change and fall, and my favorite trees in the neighborhood at this time of year are beginning to look like they're on fire, like this one:

I've noticed the shifting of the light as the sun's peak is lower in the sky, and as it sets at the back of our house, it's blinding through the sliding glass doors off the back of our family room. Most days I have the blinds on those doors up in the afternoon so that I can turn the overhead lights off; soon the days will come when the natural light isn't strong enough to allow me to read and I'll have to flip the lights back on, but for now I am enjoying the afternoons of golden sunlight pouring in.

My afternoon knitting project has grown quite a bit since I shared the brim earlier this week, and I expect another day or two will see this hat finished.

It's going to be a busy weekend for Molly -- she's working the yearbook table at her school's Fall Fest (for the younger students) tonight, working at her job tomorrow, going to her homecoming dance tomorrow night, getting her COVID shot on Sunday, and then planning a trip to the pumpkin patch with friends on Monday (it's an in-service day at her school). As for me, I've got a date with the Mister this evening and am planning a trip to fill the gas tank and fill up on a few household essentials at Costco tomorrow morning. My knees have been telling me that all the running I've done over the last two weeks is maybe a bit much, so I'll also be resting them. And if we can find some apple cider, there might even be some donuts baked to really get in the fall mood!