Let's Get the Weekending Started

It's finally Friday -- and I'm officially on vacation! It's a quick one, but it's a much-needed break from work-related stress. Life is going to get 100% busier next week with the start of the school year, so I'm grateful I could take this brief pause. Of course, as usual, my alarm went off at the normal time this morning. I inadvertently hit "snooze" rather than "off" on my Fitbit but figured I could allow myself a few more minutes of sleep. And then the Mister's alarm went off, so there went that plan. Oh well!

Today is officially Girls' Day. Later this morning Mo and I will meet up with my mother and head to the mall to do a little shopping. Fortunately Mo still has her uniform for school, though now that she's in the high school, she's allowed to wear red and navy polo shirts in addition to white and green, so we've already bought her a few more and we don't need to do any major back-to-school shopping. She's hoping to find a few more tops that follow non-uniform guidelines (she's not allowed to show her midriff or bra straps), but generally this is just a "let's walk around and see if anything appeals" shopping trip.

The shopping trip is really the only thing planned for the weekend, excluding the usual chores that I typically do. The Mister is leaving Sunday for the conference that he goes to almost every year that always seems to coincide with the first week of school. After last weekend was so productive in terms of crafting and reading, I'm hoping for a repeat. High on the list is finishing A Suitable Boy -- I have about 130 pages left!

I'm still working on my knitting WIPs, and I've started the first of the sleeve skeins of my sweater spin, but I got a little distracted the past two evenings playing around with some Tunisian crochet.

I've had a general understanding of Tunisian crochet for a while but had never actually followed a pattern, so I decided to give it a try with a free pattern I had in my Ravelry library. I did mine all in one color for the sake of simplicity and clearly have room for improvement, but I did it! This cloth measures about 8 inches across and used 30 g of yarn (boring-old Sugar 'n Cream). Though I used a smaller hook than called for in the pattern, my fabric looks a lot looser than the designer's sample, so next time I may use a smaller hook. The pattern also called for a provisional cast-on and using grafting to close the seam at the end, but I might try a regular start and just whip-stitch the seam closed. Now that I've gotten the hang of this technique, I might also look into some other patterns to see what I can do with it.

Before I go, a little update on the work meeting that happened yesterday: There are still some things to be figured out related to when the change will happen (which has to do with annual pay increases that happen in September), but the good news is that it's a go as far as the change in my job classification is concerned. My new classification is "editorial specialist," which is a salaried (exempt) position at a higher pay grade than my current classification. It's going to be processed as a promotion, even though I'm technically still doing the same job, but it also reflects the fact that I do a lot more and have more responsibilities than I did when I was hired for this job nearly 19 years ago. I have to look at some numbers related to how the annual pay increase is implemented to determine whether I want the change to be made as soon as possible or after the raises are processed, but the good news is that within about a month or so, all of this will be resolved and a significant source of stress from this year will be removed. Thank goodness! Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed for a positive outcome on the union vote.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

2023: A Brief Wrap-up

It's not the last day of the year, but this is likely my last blog post for the year, so I thought I'd be predictable and do a bit of a year-end wrap up. This won't be exhaustive or terribly detailed, frankly because I don't have the time for it, but I figured I'd at least look back on crafting and reading, the two things that figure most heavily on this blog.

More than anything else, 2023 was about spinning for me. I started out the year hoping to spin up at least 12 back shipments from the Southern Cross Fibre club. I ended up doubling that goal and spinning even more than that. If I'd thought to do it before we left for vacation, I would have taken a photo of the pile of skeins I've spun, but for now, this screenshot from my Ravelry handspun page will have to do:

I know it's really hard to see anything, but you can click on the photo to make it bigger or (if Ravelry is safe for you to use) visit my handspun page to see bigger photos and more details. Here are a handful of stats on my spinning:

• I spun 33 bags of fiber from SCF (mostly club shipments, but there were a handful of prize bags spun, too).
• Including all fiber spun, I completed 32 full-size skeins and 24 mini skeins.
• My rough estimate of weight spun (because I don't usually weigh my SCF shipments, though they're a minimum of 110 g per bag) is about 3,944 g/139 oz.
• My total yardage for the year is nearly 13,000, and when you consider that all those yarns were plied and that the majority had three plies, you can just imagine what the yardage would be if calculated by singles spun.

Because of my focus on spinning, I didn't knit quite as much as I did in years past, but it was still a fairly productive year:

• Nine pairs of socks
• Five sweaters (three adult, two baby)
• Ten hats (more than half for charity)
• Four cowls
• One shawl
• One pair of mittens
• One pair of cuffs

There was a crocheted blanket as well, which helped to use up most of a sweater kit.

It was another great year of reading. I was fairly conservative in setting my reading challenge goal for the year (at least relatively to recent years' numbers) at 100, and I did surpass it. While I'm hoping to finish one more book before the end of the year, here's where things stand:

To see what all these books are, click here.

Some highlights:

• I didn't rate any book lower than two stars.
• I rated 21 books five stars.
• I completed the Maisie Dobbs series.
• I became an Ann Patchett completist.
• Nearly half of the books I read were on audio (reading while running for the win!).
• I reread a dozen books.
• I read the majority of the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist and the entirety of the Booker Prize longlist.

In the order I read them, here are my favorites from among the five-star-rated books I read this year (which just happened to end up an even ten):

• The Tsar of Love and Techno
• Signal Fires
• I Have Some Questions for You
• The Garden of Evening Mists
• Tom Lake
• A Ghost in the Throat
• Wellness
• Between Two Kingdoms
• North Woods*
• Land of Milk and Honey

* Probably my favorite book of the year!

So that's it from me for now. I have some plans for 2024, but I will wait to share those in a few days. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this past year. Did you have any big accomplishments -- or big regrets? How did your reading match up with mine?

I hope these last days of 2023 are good for you, and I wish you a new year of good health and good times!

Unraveled, Week 44/2023

Yes, I'm posting again -- third day in a row! But you know that I would never willingly miss posting on an Unraveled Wednesday! Today, as per usual, I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers while I give you and update on my crafting and my reading.

First, I finished a charity hat over the weekend. I used my top-down any-gauge hat pattern and knit the biggest size I could and used up just about all of my yarn. It's big on me, but it looks better on a head than flat.

The skein was the odd man out from a six-skein set from Fibernymph Dye Works; the other five were a gradient and were used in my COVID blanket. This skein technically had the same colors but looked a little too much like camouflage for me. I'm sure someone will like it, though, and that's all that really matters.

I've started a new crochet project, and the yarn might look familiar:

Originally I had four skeins of this Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles that I got from Bonny, and I used most of two of them in my Love Note. These colors are so gorgeous and saturated that I had to find another use for the skeins that remained. Rather than another pair of socks, I decided to make my mother-in-law a scarf for a holiday gift this year, and because I've enjoyed crochet so much recently, I decided to do it as a corner-to-corner. This is very simple and easy and should come together quickly. It's about eight inches wide, and I'll make it as long as I can with my two skeins.

I've also started another spinning project (I know you're all shocked!). I'm doing my usual three-ply fingering weight, or at least I hope so, using Comeback wool from the Southern Cross Fibre. This Australian breed was created from mating British longwool sheep crossed with Merinos back with Merinos. The wool is fairly soft but has some body and toothiness to it, and it's a favorite of mine. I'm also loving these saturated colors:

I'm on the second bobbin of singles at the moment and hope to finish that one up today, so it's entirely possible I'll be plying by this weekend.

Reading has been good this past week, even though I have only finished one book since this time last week.

The Barbara Kingsolver book group hosted by Mary will be meeting this weekend to discuss The Lacuna. I have a hard copy of the book but decided to listen to the audio, primarily because it's read by the author. I'd missed this book entirely when it it came out, I think because it was published the year Mo was born and I was a little preoccupied, so I'm really happy to have had an excuse to read it now. It follows the story of a fictional writer, Harrison Shepherd, who lives an usual childhood thanks to his American father and Mexican mother. He encounters real-life figures in Diego Rivera, Frieda Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky and even comes under the scrutiny of HUAC. It's a really wide-ranging novel with a lot of history, but at its heart, this is the story of a man struggling to find a sense of home. The writing is, as you'd expect, quite beautiful, and I really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars.

Currently I'm trying to finish up An Immense World, and I'm pretty much exactly halfway through In Ascension, which has really been tempting me to stay up late reading. I hope to have both of these done by this time next week.

What are you making and reading this week?

Welcome to My Pity Party

I am happy to report that I am feeling about ten times better this morning than I was at the end of last week. That said, I still haven't tested negative yet, so I'm still isolating from the Mister -- and it meant that I missed family dinners and services for Rosh Hashanah. I did, however, manage to make challah, and as promised, here's a photo:

The braid/weave looked a lot clearer before it was baked, but I'm still pretty happy with how this turned out, given it was the first time I'd ever tried a round loaf. I sent it to dinner with Mo and the Mister on Friday night and then had my sad little dinner alone with no challah. I didn't want to replicate that particular pity party on Saturday, so I baked some more and tried a different method of shaping:

One of these loaves went into the freezer, but I just had a couple of slices of the other for breakfast. Yum!

I spent a lot of the weekend crocheting and watching TV, but yesterday I was feeling well enough to tackle some cleaning (bathrooms), laundry, and a walk. Today it's back to work, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a negative test later today.

It wasn't all doom and gloom over the weekend, though. Thanks to all the extra crocheting time, I finished the blanket -- which I'd only just started last Thursday!

I did not use a pattern for this blanket, but I can try to explain how I did it. First, I'd learned this method of crochet using a free tutorial that I found on Ravelry (there are a ton of tutorials out there, on blogs and YouTube). Then, I did a little swatch. I crocheted a small square using the variegated skein that came with this set and weighed and measured it to determine how much yarn I used per square inch. Then I used that information to figure out how large a blanket I could make with the yarn I had and what dimensions it could be (I knew I wanted a rectangle, so that made the math a little more challenging). Once I had my numbers, the rest was straightforward. 

I based my calculations on having 500 grams of yarn (five 100 g skeins), but all of mine were a bit more than that, and so I ended up with a bit left of the last skein -- I used a total of 479 grams. I didn't want to cut it too close and risk running out, so I'm happy with that. The finished blanket is about 25 inches wide and 40 inches long, but the yarn is superwash, so I may try to stretch it out a bit larger when I block it. As is, though, it's the perfect size to cover my legs. Perhaps more importantly, it used up a bit more than 1,100 yards of yarn from my stash! It was really the perfect thing to work on while I was sick because it's pretty darn mindless, and now I'm a bit sad that it's done because I won't have it to work on. I suppose I will just need to start another one!

It Finally Got Me

Well friends, after three and a half years of avoiding it, I've finally been hit with the 'vid. Those of you who follow me on Instagram likely saw the positive test I posted yesterday. I honestly did think I just had a sinus infection, but when I woke up yesterday with my whole body hurting again, I thought I should test. I read somewhere a while back that the side effects you feel from getting a dose of the vaccine are likely an indication of how the virus itself would make you feel, and that whole-body ache has been primarily the effect I've had each time I've gotten a vaccine or booster. On the plus side, I started getting these aches Monday afternoon, so clearly I've had it for a while, and I'm actually feeling a lot better this morning. Even better, Mo tested negative yesterday afternoon and is back to school today. While I would have preferred not to have gotten it, I am relieved that my bout with COVID has been relatively mild. My symptoms have been the aforementioned body aches, sinus pain, and some congestion (and some associated lightheadedness, which you'd expect). I've been coughing a little, but mainly just because of the postnasal drip from the sinus congestion. I've not had a fever or lost my sense of taste or smell. I have been taking extra-strength Tylenol every six hours, and I knew I was turning a corner last night when I didn't start feeling terrible before my next dose was due. I also slept through the night last night, unlike the two prior, so I'm fairly confident that I will be back to normal in a few more days. It's a bummer that I will miss out on Rosh Hashanah dinner with the family tonight and services this weekend, but my mother will no doubt be dropping off food for me and I can watch services online. I'm happy to be feeling better and able to stay home to keep others from getting sick. I did want to share my experience with all of you because it seems like the new variant that is going around is not causing the typical COVID symptoms and so people may not be testing when they should. So consider this your PSA!

While I never like being sick, I will say that it's been a relief to take time off from work and to not be so sick that I'm not feeling up to crafting. In fact, I've gotten quite a lot done in the past couple of days, primarily on my crochet blanket:

Last night I joined the fourth skein of yarn and started decreasing along the other edge, so I am in the home stretch now. If I keep up the pace, I would not be surprised if I finish this blanket by the end of the weekend! It looks like it's going to be the perfect size for covering my legs; I'm working to 25" wide by 40" long, though I'm sure that I'll be able to coax a bit more out of it when I blog it, given that it's superwash. This has really been the perfect project because it's require so little thinking. While I haven't really experienced the so-called COVID brain fog, it is still hard to concentrate when you're feeling lousy.

Later today, provided my head is feeling clear enough, I may pull out my long-dormant Birch Pullover, which hasn't been touched since the day we left Florida after our spring break trip. It's been sitting in a bag since then for a very silly reason: I need to do some basic math to determine how much of each skein of yarn to set aside for the sleeves so I can blend my skeins sufficiently. It'll probably take me less than five minutes to do so, but my ridiculous unwillingness to do that has meant that I've ignored the sweater for nearly half a year. Now that fall weather is finally here, I want to get back to that sweater so it's done and ready to be worn when we have legitimate sweater weather!

I hope the weekend ahead is as beautiful for you as it's predicted to be for us. Keep your fingers crossed that by the next time I post, I'm COVID negative!

Unraveled, Week 37/2023

Good morning from the sick house, friends. Mo is feeling a lot better, but I've come done with my annual sinus infection and am feeling pretty miserable. I'm glad I'm already working from home and don't have to go anywhere!

Time to check in with Kat and the Unravelers about making and reading. If there's one good thing to say about being at home with a sick kid, it's that there's plenty of time for both! 

I'm still working on my C2C blanket, and though I haven't added much more since you saw it on Monday, I plan to work on it during two work meetings today, one of which is supposed to be two hours long (it's on off-site meeting, but luckily I'd already planned to Zoom in because school pickup time is right in the middle of it).

I'm in the middle of a wrong-side row at the moment, and based on the measurement I took just after snapping this photo, I should reach my target width after one more right-side row. At that point, I will start decreasing on the left-hand side of the blanket and it'll start looking like a rectangle.

I also have added a few stripes to my current pair of socks, and I'm really enjoying this Targhee base.

The main reason I haven't made a ton of progress on either of these projects the past couple of days is because I've been almost completely focused on spinning -- and I finished another skein!

It's still a tad bit damp and the skein got a bit mussed up so I'll have to rewind it to tidy it up, but this is about 187 yards of three-ply worsted. This was Southern Cross Fibre Polwarth from May 2022 in the colorway Maelstrom. I did a very quick-and-dirty spin on this for a change, and while I don't have a ton of yardage, I'm very happy with this one.

I just love a round, bouncy three-ply yarn! Normally I don't have a specific plan for yarn I spin, but as these colors are right up Mo's alley, I'm thinking this might become a hat for her. I'll likely knit it top down so I can use up as much yarn as possible.

Reading has been good this past week, even if it's not been especially plentiful. With all the illness in the house, I've been a bit distracted. But I did finish two good books.

When I was in need of an audiobook late last week, I decided to reread Rebecca, in part because it's on the Novel Pairings calendar for this month but also because it's been a very long time since I read it (I'm pretty sure when I was in eighth grade!). I watched the Hitchcock film a ton when I was a kid and saw the not-so-great more recent Netflix version, so I knew the basic story, but I'd forgotten just how amazing the writing is! The audio version was well done, too. I think I could appreciate it all a lot more now that I'm older and more well read, and it wasn't until yesterday, while I was listening to Novel Pairings, that I learned that it was inspired by Jane Eyre, but it makes total sense! If you've never read this book, I highly recommend it. I gave my reread 5 stars.

My other finish came from the Booker Prize longlist. How to Build a Boat tells the story of Jamie, a young man who we're led to believe is on the autism spectrum and who believes that if he finds a way to build a perpetual motion machine, it will somehow connect him to his month, who died shortly after giving birth to him. He's helped in this mission by two of his teachers at his Catholic boys' high school, a place where all three of them are outsiders in their own way, and the book is really a lovely story of how they find and help one another through their respective life difficulties. This is one of those books that has no quotation marks for the dialogue, making it a little challenging in parts to know when someone is speaking and when they're just thinking, but it's a beautiful story. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm still reading An Immense World, though I haven't picked it up in the past several days, and I've been reading my next Booker selection, A Spell of Good Things, at bedtime.

What are you making and reading this week?

So Much for Those Plans

I am happy to report that it was a very restful weekend. Unfortunately, that was unplanned and was due to Mo coming down with COVID over the weekend. She woke up Saturday with a slight fever, and so we tested her because we were supposed to go to a bat mitzvah (read: lots of people). She luckily isn't feeling too ill (low-grade fever and congestion), but it's a bummer. She was mostly upset that she exposed everyone in the family at Friday night dinner, but so far everyone seems to be okay. She'll be home with me for most if not all of the week (I think she'll be able to go back to school, masked, on Friday, provided she tests negative before then), and as a result of all this, we all ended up with a very quiet weekend.

One nice thing was that there were Zooms happening for much of the day on Saturday for the Pigskin Party, so both of us were able to join while we crafted for several hours. I made quite a lot of progress on my crocheted blanket, and yesterday I actually finished up the first skein and joined in the second. This project is very addictive, so I would not be surprised if it's finished very quickly!

The color change isn't quite as stark as it looks here; I think that's just because the sun isn't really out yet, so the lighting wasn't great when I took this photo. I've almost reached my target width, so pretty soon I'll start decreasing on one side so that it will start looking like a rectangle.

After I posted on Friday, I was able to ply the singles I shared in that post, and I have another lovely skein finished:

I chain-plied this one, and I ended up with approximately 456 yards of fingering. I love the autumnal shades in this colorway -- and I'm also celebrating the fact that this was my 24th bag of Southern Cross Fibre spun this year! That was my doubled goal, and I'm not stopping now. I've been keeping up such a pace of spinning these club shipments that I might as well continue the momentum, and if I do, I should be able to get caught up by early next year. My ultimate goal is that I have no SCF stash but rather spin up each club shipment in the month that it arrives.

For accountability purposes, here was the SCF stash (minus one bag that was hiding) at the beginning of the year, with the bags I've spun checked off:

And here is what is currently in the stash, though my next shipment is out for delivery today and there will be one more bag added:

I should have another skein finished this week as well because I started spinning up that blue/purple fiber in the bag at the top left on Saturday and am nearly finished with the second bobbin (I thought a thicker yarn was in order; this'll probably be DK or worsted when it's plied).

I am hoping that this week is slightly less exciting, not least because Rosh Hashanah starts Friday night and we really want everyone to be healthy for it! I will be baking challah for our family dinner and trying my hand at a round loaf (a round challah is traditional for the new year). Please send us all your good thoughts for health!

Finishes and Starts

Why is it that sometimes the shorter weeks feel longer than the regular ones? I can only think it's been the heat here this week -- we officially had a heat wave, with three days hitting 90º F or higher. (I even ran on one of those days, and it was very much Not Fun.) But it's Friday, and we had some rain move through yesterday (including when I thought I was in the clear and went out for a walk, only have to run home in a downpour), so things are looking up.

I know this will likely come as a surprise to none of you, but I did finish the socks for my sister-in-law on Wednesday evening, thanks in part to a rabbi search Zoom meeting. I blocked them yesterday, so today they're all ready to be wrapped up and presented to her at dinner.

After I was so successful in focusing on that project on Wednesday, I decided to do the same with my current spinning project yesterday and finished all my singles, so today I am ready to ply.

While I'm wrapping up my WIPs, I'm also starting some new projects. Yesterday was kickoff day for the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party (and the NFL season), and that meant casting on some new projects because WIPs aren't allowed for this make-along. Obviously I had to cast on some new socks, so I dove into my SSK stash and pulled out the skein I brought home from Woolens and Nosh and cast on.

The other project I started is a crocheted corner-to-corner blanket using five of the six skeins from the Fibernymph Dye Works sweater kit that I wound up last week. I made a swatch a couple of days ago, weighed and measured it, and did some math to figure out how big a blanket I could make with the yarn I have and the measurements for it. I'll admit I had to do a bit of Googling to help with the last step, but I'm pretty sure I got it right, and I have a bit of extra yarn should I need it (I did my calculations based on 100 g skeins, but all of mine are a few grams more than that).

Today should be a quiet day at work -- my boss's mother-in-law passed away earlier this week, so she is off for the funeral today -- so I am hoping I can take care of plying that bobbin of singles and make some progress on one or both of the new projects. We have a bat mitzvah to attend tomorrow and thankfully nothing planned on Sunday, so I'm hoping the weekend will be a good reset. Here's hoping it's a good one for you, too!

Like All Good Things

Yes, today is our last full day of vacation (or kind-of vacation, in my case). We're due to fly home tomorrow afternoon, though they're predicting strong winds tomorrow in Western PA, and I hope that doesn't interfere with our travel plans -- I most definitely do not want a repeat of last year! It's showing up on time for the moment, so please keep your fingers crossed for us! It's been a lovely trip, but I am ready to be back in my own bed and to see the Mister.

When I posted on Wednesday morning, I was preparing for a long morning in front of the computer, though I had my knitting ready. We made it through about half of the session before it was abruptly canceled, and the reason why is a sad truth of our times: Our campus was put on lockdown because of reports of an active shooter at a high school a couple of blocks away from my office. It turned out to be a hoax, one of several false reports made that day, but it was a scary time for those who were in the office, and even after it turned out to be a false alarm, it was entirely understandable that people were having a hard time concentrating. I was concerned for my colleagues, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't quite sure why I was in this workshop to begin with, so I was just fine with its early end. I imagine it'll be rescheduled at some point, so I guess at some date in the future I'll have a block of knitting time. Despite the schedule change, I have made a lot of progress on my Birch Pullover since Wednesday morning (that progress keeper was placed at the beginning of the session):

I am now about seven rounds from completing the yoke and dividing the sleeve and body stitches, and I am fairly confident I can get through those rounds today. I've got 300+ stitches on my needle at this point, so the rounds aren't exactly fast, but I pretty much have the pattern memorized at this point. Once I get past the split, it'll be even easier because it will just be a two-round repeat (purl one round, alternated k1b/p1 the next round). 

If you look closely, you will notice that I now have two strands of yarn attached; I started working in the second skein of yarn yesterday. Rebecca (the dyer behind Dusty Tree Dyeworks -- as well as the soap maker behind Dusty Tree Soap) works in really small batches, so she doesn't have colorways or dye lots for her yarns. When I picked out my skeins, I selected the five that looked most similar to each other, but there's definitely variation among them -- as shown in this photo:

When I wound all the skeins before we left, I also also labeled them 1-5, from lightest overall to darkest, and I'm using them in that order. I'm alternating skeins every round when I join a new one, with the hope that will be sufficient to blend them. It's easy at this point, but I'll have to do a little math once I split the body and sleeve stitches so that I can set aside some yarn as I work the body to make sure the sleeves look like they more or less match (I figure I'll take the stitch counts for the body and sleeves to figure out what percentage of the skein I should set aside for the sleeves and wind that off -- so it's a good thing we're headed home to my ball winder!).

In addition to leaving for home with a sweater yoke, I'm also leaving with a longtime crocheter to whom I've taught some new tricks. My mother used to make blankets and buntings (the sac-like garments, not the strands of flags) as baby gifts for others, but she hasn't picked up a hook in a while. So while we were here, we made a trip to Michaels to pick up a hook and some yarn so I could teach her the corner-to-corner method. One evening earlier this week, I showed her how to get started and helped her as she got the hang of it, but now she's off to the races:

She is just about finished with the first yarn cake and is determined to get to the point where she is ready to join the second so that I can show her how to decrease. She's also taken after me and has crocheted during several Zoom meetings she's had while we've been here.

Today is a regular work day for me, but I'll be taking time for a long walk before we leave so I can enjoy the good weather as much as possible. I hope our travel plans proceed without a hitch and by my next post, I'll be back home, reunited with my stash (and my spinning wheel, which I've missed). I hope all of you have a good start to your weekend today!

P.S. I almost forgot -- remember the secret design knitting I was doing that I couldn't show you? Guess who got an acceptance yesterday?!

Unraveled, Week 13/2023

I could easily forget what day of the week it is here (apparently my Fitbit did on Monday, because it neglected to wake me up with my normal alarm), but work has given me an extra reminder that it's Wednesday in the form of a four-hour diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop this morning. I'm sure the content will be worthwhile, but four hours straight? At least I will be able to knit my way through it (I'm attending via Zoom), and that big block on my schedule is helping me to get my priorities straight this morning. The first priority -- well, at least the first one after coffee! -- is my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers.

I brought along a crochet hook and a ball of kitchen cotton just in case, but as it turns out, I was in the mood for a little crochet and I'm headed home with two completed dishcloths:

I believe that the one on the left is the second one I did, though I can't be certain; I think this particular stitch pattern leads to some inherent wonkiness, especially in combination with my relative inexperience with crochet, but I did notice that the work was a little easier the second time around. I think my tension was a little more relaxed, as I had a much easier time getting my hook into stitches. I used all but about a yard of the skein of yarn, yet somehow the two finished cloths weighed only 96 g, so I guess I had a light skein to start with. The yarn is Knit Picks Dishie in a light gray colorway called Clarity, and despite the fact that the skein was light, I would absolutely recommend this yarn (and oh hey, it's on sale right now!). I find it to be much easier to work with than the cotton you can find in big box stores, and there's more yardage in a skein to boot. I used a 4 mm/G hook.

Now I'm really trying to focus on my Birch Pullover, and I'm halfway through the yoke increases. I have increased enough that the stitches now comfortably fill the full length of my 40-inch circular needle.

I do know what I'm doing now with the stitch pattern and when to increase, but it's not quite something I can do without looking, so I can only work on it while reading if I read with my ears. I'll be interested to see how much I can get done during that four-hour workshop.

Speaking of reading, I have been doing a lot! My mother almost always has books waiting for me when I come down, and I've gotten through two of them this week, both excellent reads

I have read all but one of Geraldine Brooks' books, and I was very much looking forward to her latest, Horse. If you haven't heard of this book and don't think it sounds that great from the description, let me tell you that it's about a heck of a lot more than horses. There are several story lines followed in this book that all converge on a horse, and those stories deal with topics as serious and diverse as race and racism, politics, art, friendship, and love. There's even a very good dog (and no, the dog doesn't die). Once I got into this book, I could not put it down, and I have to tell you that I cried a bit at the end. I highly recommend it and gave it 5 stars.

I'd been on a (very long) wait list for Spare on audio from the library, but my mother had bought a hard copy and finished it herself just a few days ago, so she passed it on to me. This was a quick read and, I think, worth it. There is much more that Prince Harry talks about than the more recent issues within the royal family, and I'm not sure I ever realized just how traumatizing it must be to lose your mother at a young age and be under constant scrutiny for your entire life. I fully understand why the Sussexes wanted to step away from royal life, and I think the book even makes a good case for abolishing the monarchy. I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, I listened to another Maisie Dobbs book early this week. I discovered that the audiobooks after the first in the series are no longer available to me on Hoopla, but luckily there was no wait for the one I wanted on Libby. To Die but Once sees Maisie investigating the death of a young painter working in the war effort, though the case often takes a back seat to other concerns in her life. I believe I have only three books left in this series, and as much as I've enjoyed them, I'm actually feeling a bit glad they won't go on forever. I feel like I know where Maisie's story is going in general, and I think I'll be satisfied when I finish the series up. I gave this installment 3 stars.


I'm still reading the big Outlander book (and will be for some time, I expect), but last night I started No Two Persons, which I requested from NetGalley after Kat raved about it. I've only just started it (I think I'm 3% in), but I think it's possible I'll finish it before we leave to head home.

Winding Down

I will be the first to admit that working full time in Florida in March is very different from working at home in March, but all the same I am ready for the weekend so I can detach myself from my work computer for a couple of days. My daily walk or run has been my one escape, and the photo above is a college of some of pictures I snapped on yesterday's walk. My parents' house is in a large development here, so there are always gardeners and landscapers out planting, trimming, fertilizing, etc. Though plants obviously do grow year-round here, it wasn't until Rainbow and I came down for spring break last year that I realized just how much more color there is in March compared to December. The birds are also much noisier! It's been such a treat and delight to go out every morning when it's still a little cool and enjoy the sun, the sounds, and the sights. I'm sorry you can't all enjoy it with me, but I hope the photos at least can cheer you a bit if things are still cold and monotone in your neck of the woods.

I've been making slow and steady progress on two of my knitting projects (I haven't yet started the baby sweater), but I'll be headed home with at least one FO in the form of this very wonky dishcloth:

You can see from the wavy edges how imperfect it is (not that I very much care -- it's a dishcloth!), but I'm happy to have figured it out and have already started another now that I feel a bit more confident in what I'm doing. I used less than half a skein of Knit Picks Dishie for this cloth, so I should easily be able to get another cloth out of it with some leftover. And there is more crochet to come. Last night we went out to dinner at a place that's right near a Michaels, so we stopped there first to pick up supplies for my mother to make a baby blanket:

I'm going to teach her how to do corner-to-corner crochet, and we figured acrylic was the easiest and most practical thing to use (it's not my favorite fiber at all, but for a baby blanket that will need to be washed frequently, it makes sense). These Caron Baby Cakes are 560 yards each, so two of them should make a perfect baby-sized blanket.

This weekend we have plans to have dinner at our favorite restaurant here, which we didn't get to do when we were here in December, and tomorrow is our last Zoom discussion of the Erdrich-along. I'm sad to be finishing that, though I'm looking forward to moving onto Barbara Kingsolver for our next author study.

Do you have anything exciting on tap for this weekend? Whatever's on your agenda, I hope you enjoy it!

Unraveled, Week 12/2023

Happy hump day, friends and gentle readers! I'll confess that although I'm technically not on vacation, I've got a bit of a vacation mindset going and have lost track of what day it is a couple of times this week. My computer tells me it's Wednesday, which means it's my day to link up with Kat and the Unravelers and give you an update on my making and reading.

Work has been moderately busy the past two days, which means my hands have not been free to stitch much. But I have made some progress on my Birch Pullover, completing the short rows and starting the long work of the yoke rounds.

Specifically, I am working a six-round repeat with increases on the sixth round, and I have to work a total of 14 repeats of those six rounds. So far, I've completed two, I believe. This sweater is worked in half fisherman's rib, which is a cousin to brioche stitch; every other round, you work into the stitch below of every other stitch (and purl the other stitches). The fabric this creates is very squishy and attractive, but if you're someone who hates purling, you might want to avoid this pattern. I've accepted that this is a going to be a marathon of a knit, so my goal for while we're here is just to complete the yoke. Anything beyond that will be a bonus.

Last night during the Read With Us discussion on The Shipping News, I decided to try a little crochet and started a dishcloth:

I'm using a free pattern by one of the SSK teachers (we get extra raffle tickets for completing patterns by them), and it's a little wonky but, you know, it's a dishcloth. I haven't done any crocheting this year aside from some provisional cast-ons, so it feels good to stretch those muscles. I've got a board executive committee meeting this evening, so perhaps that will be enough time to finish this up.

I finished up two books late last week before we left.

First, I finished up my reread of the His Dark Materials trilogy with The Amber Spyglass. There is a lot going on in this book, as it culminates in big battle between the various forces in Pullman's imagined worlds, but the most important part of the story for me is the resolution of Lyra's story, especially the part of her story that involves Will. While much of Pullman's trilogy has a lot to say about religion and power, I think the heart of his message is about love and human kindness. I really enjoyed listening to all three books, and I'm slowly working my way through the HBO series based on them. I gave this final installment 4 stars.

I also finished up the final book for the Erdrich-along (though not my final Erdrich book -- I still have a small pile waiting to be read). The Bingo Palace is one of her older novels and returns to some of the characters featured in Love Medicine. The main character is Lipsha Morrissey, whose parentage was one of the big reveals of the first novel, and we follow him as he struggles with love and luck. As with all of Erdrich's novels, there is a wonderful mix of the heartbreaking and the hilarious. There's a small appearance by Fleur Pillager and even a mention of everyone's favorite, Nanapush. It really made me want to reread Love Medicine sooner rather than later. I gave it 4 stars as well.

I'm currently reading Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone and will be for quite a while; although it's nice to have a larger paperback than I had with the previous books in the series, it also means there are more words on the page and thus it takes me longer to read one. I may take a break from it while we're here because my mother left me the hardback of Horse, and I'd rather not carry it back home, but we'll see. So much depends on work, which I can't predict.

What are you making and reading this week?

She's Hooked

Today, I have something a little different -- a special guest appearance by our resident hooker! (And by that, I mean crocheter, of course!) Rainbow learned how to crochet several years ago, but this summer, she's really gotten hooked on it -- pun intended. First, she used up a ton of my leftover scraps to make some fun scrappy blankets. Then, last week, she dug into my kitchen cotton stash and has started making bags. But I'll let her tell you more about it all.

Hi, I'm Rainbow. That's not my real name, but that's what I go by online. First, I'll tell why I recently got back into crocheting. It started out as just something to do over the summer to pass time, but eventually I was crocheting for a reason. First I found out I would have a new cousin this fall, then that a family friend was having a baby. I wanted both babies to have a handmade blanket, and I wanted to use up all of the colorful scraps my mom has acquired over the years. So I got to work. Before I knew it, I had completed four blankets: two for those babies and two to donate. In that time, I also completed a lap blanket for my best friend.

A scrappy blanket using fingering held double, a clutch, and a tote bag

The more I crocheted, the better I got. I was ready for a harder project. I remembered a video one of my favorite YouTubers had made a while ago, so I went back and re-watched it. In the video, she crocheted an adorable tote bag. That's when an idea popped into my mind. I dug into my mom's kitchen cotton supply and found a few colors I liked. Then, I went onto Stitch Fiddle and used an image I had found online to create a simple flower design. Finally, it was time to get to work! I carefully followed the graph and after about four days, I had finished my first tote bag! I immediately got to work on another, but took a short break to make a small clutch/pouch. I'm still working on the second bag, although I'm very close to finishing. 

The tote bag made with the flower motif

As for my future as a crocheter, I plan on not only making things for myself, but for others. I'll make blankets, bags, and much more for my family, friends, and to donate.

Another tote bag in progress

Sarah here again! I want to point out that while I have offered a little advice and my opinion from time to time, Rainbow has done all this work on her own. And I couldn't be prouder! She's also doing a great job of helping me use up stash, particularly my scraps and leftovers, and I think it's only a matter of time before I have to hide the good stuff so she doesn't use it before I do. She doesn't plan to start a blog just yet, but she did recently open a Ravelry account so she can keep track of her projects (especially because she now has more than one WIP at a time). Perhaps one day she'll dip her toe into designing as well! She starts school (seventh grade, if you can believe it!) next week, so there will be a lot of yarn flying around this week as she savors her last week of freedom.

Thanks for indulging me and my parental pride for a bit. I'll be back on Wednesday with a knitting and reading update!

Unraveled, Week 31/2022

Happy Wednesday, friends! The week is flying by already, which I suppose is a good thing for a week back at work after a vacation. As usual, today I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what I'm making and reading.

I did some quick baby gift knitting as a palate cleanser after finishing my brother's sweater (and thank you so much for your many compliments on it!), but now I'm on to my next garment, and it's for me.

This is the start of my Twofer Tank (Ravelry link), which I've had on my list to make since Mary made hers. I have only made a couple of warm-weather tops in my knitting career but haven't chosen the best fibers. This one I'm knitting in Knit Picks CotLin, a machine-washable cotton/linen blend, and I am really enjoying knitting with it. I started this top on Monday and even having not spent that much time on it already have something that looks like a top! This tank is worked from the shoulders down, starting with the fronts; last night I joined the back straps, so now I just have to work a bit more on the back before I cast on stitches for the underarms and start working in the round.

I also picked up the C2C crochet blanket I started for Rainbow several months ago. This is likely a long-term project, but it does go pretty quickly when I work on it. And it matches my knitting this week!

Reading has been pretty phenomenal this past week. I've finished five(!) books since last Wednesday, but one was a short story and one a very short audiobook, so don't be too impressed.

I had picked up a copy of Tony Morrison's 1983 short story Recitatif earlier in the summer at my local bookstore. It's a quick read but a powerful one, and this edition includes an excellent introduction/analysis by Zadie Smith that I think is actually longer than the story itself. This tells the story of two girls, later women, who meet in a shelter as children when their mothers find themselves unable to care for them for a time. They connect again several times as adults, at different points in their lives, and learn how their lives compare. What is most intriguing about this story is that one girl is Black and one is white, but we never know which is which, so it makes for a really powerful way to examine our prejudices and assumptions as readers. I gave it 4 stars.

Next I turned to Maggie O'Farrell's backlist in my continuing effort to be an O'Farrell completist. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox was my first pick, and it felt very much like what I expect from the author: multiple timelines, hints at what is to come, and several stories that come together at the end. While I did figure out a plot twist that is revealed toward the end early on, it didn't spoiled it for me. I also really enjoyed the fact that this novel is a bit of commentary on the history of women's unconventional behavior being labeled madness. There are some elements of this book that are rather troubling, but the writing is good and propulsive, and I enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars.

Next up in my O'Farrell list was My Lover's Lover, the last one I could find available from my library, and I could only find it on audio. This is one of the author's earliest books, so I think she hadn't quite hit her stride yet, and the format was likely also not the best because it wasn't always clear to me when the timeline had changed. I think this is probably my least favorite of her books that I've read so far, and mainly that's because I didn't really like any of the main characters. There's a bit of a nod to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, including a reference to the Hitchcock film version of it, but in my opinion, it's not as successful as the earlier book. I gave it 3 stars. I now have one book left to read to have read all of O'Farrell's backlist, and a hard copy is on its way to me!

I listened to In Love, Amy Bloom's memoir of her husband's decline into early onset Alzheimer's disease and his decision to end his life via "accompanied suicide" in Switzerland, in its entirety on Monday. It's a very short book -- less than 5 hours on audio -- and read by the author, who speaks slowly enough that I upped the speed to 1.5. As you would imagine from the subject, it's an emotional and heartbreaking book, but Bloom does an excellent job of describing how she and her husband navigated the devastating diagnosis and the very difficult decision to choose when the end comes. I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, I read a book that Mary mentioned recently, The Undertaking by Audrey Magee. I was actually more interested in reading her newest book, The Colony, and finally found it on Hoopla but only on audio. I decided to start with Magee's first book because I wanted something to read with my eyes. This one tells the story of two Germans during WWII, a soldier who wants to get away from the Russian front and marries a young woman in Berlin in order to get leave for his honeymoon. It then follows the couple throughout the war and their efforts to survive. While the book certainly highlights the horrors of war -- on all sides -- I'm not sure if it's meant to make the reader feel sympathy for those committed to the Nazi cause. While ultimately both of the main characters come to reject the story they've been told by their government, it still gave me a bit of an icky feeling; I wanted to know if they survived the war, but once I finished the last page, I was no longer invested in what happened to them. I gave it 3 stars.

Up next for me? I think either The Glass Hotel or The Tsar of Love and Techno, both of which I bought at my local bookstore earlier this year and have been waiting to get to.

What are you making and reading this week?