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!

Unraveled, Week 40/2026

It's Wednesday -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

On Monday evening, I finished up the dark charity hat and wove in the ends. And when I went to take a photo of it yesterday morning, I discovered an error in the ribbing. Oh well! I didn't see it at first, and I'm betting whoever ends up with the hat won't, either.

Obviously this hat still needs to be blocked (which should help with the wrinkly top), but it's done and used all but a couple of grams of yarn -- yarn that turned my fingers black while I knit with it, so the hat will be soaked by itself and rinsed.

It was so satisfying to use up a skein of sock yarn so quickly that I've decided to do it again. I'm using another skein of Socks That Rock, in the colorway Pepe Le Plume, to knit a Chit Chat Hat (Ravelry link). At the moment it's only a very partial Ruthie big, but it's knitting up quickly:

I noted last week when I had a low (for me) number of book finishes that I was close to finishing several that were in progress, so you're probably not going to be surprised when I tell you that since last Wednesday I've finished six books. As there are so many, I'm going to try to keep my reviews brief.

Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

Harry Flynn, a former journalist turned war correspondent turned POW, has been enlisted in the massive effort to put on the Festival of Britain, designed to raise people's spirits and patriotism after the end of WWII. He works with an eclectic group and enjoys meeting and drinking with the many attractive women employed by the festival. But when one of them goes missing after a date with him, he becomes a prime suspect in her disappearance and must try to figure out why it appears he's being framed. There are many threads that rather brilliantly come together in the end, with many amusing characters met along the way.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (audio)

My rating: 2.5 stars

I'd never heard of this book until it was one of the choices for Molly summer reading assignment this year, and I was intrigued on curriculum night when her English teacher described it as a modern retelling of The Scarlet Letter. I'd say it's a mash-up of that and The Handmaid's Tale, with a little science fiction mixed in. In this dystopian society, those convicted of crimes are genetically changed to become a color associated with their crime. When Hannah Payne wakes up, she is the red of a murderer -- because the abortion she had is now considered a murder. She refuses to identify the father (the married preacher of their evangelical church), and has to reckon with the tenets of the religion she was taught her entire life. It was an interesting premise, but I think it failed in the execution a bit, with things working out just a little too well for Hannah given the harsh society the author created for her.

Restoration by Ave Barrera, translated by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers (paperback)

My rating: 3 stars

This was the final book I read for this round of my postal paperback club, selected by Katie. A woman in her 20s who is studying architectural restoration is hired by her sometimes-boyfriend to restore the long-neglected house of his recently deceased great-uncle, a famous photographer who taught him. As she moves through the house, the reader gets snippets of the life of the woman who used to live there, and both stories are interspersed with scenes of the modern couple recreating old photographs. It's creepy and weird and mysterious -- pretty appropriate for October. I enjoyed it but was still confused when I finished.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

This is the book that kept getting put aside for library borrows, so I was happy to finally finish it. Olga has a successful business as a wedding planner and has a busy life with her big Puerto Rican family, including her congressman brother. But she still bears the scars of her abandonment by her mother, who left the family to join a group of revolutionaries. When she meets Matteo, a man with some issues of his own, can she let down her guard and let him in? And when she realizes, amid a family crisis and a devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico, that she's no longer happy with her life, does she have the courage to make a major change?

Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

I started listening to the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders very near the beginning, in the midst of the pandemic. She's a great interviewer who talks with people doing really interesting things, and she brings a lot of her own life in. This fairly short book of essays wasn't entirely new to me, as many of her family stories were familiar. But there is comfort in that, and as a middle-aged woman with aging parents and a teenage daughter, her point of view and reflections are very welcome.

Wool by Hugh Howey (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

Despite this book's name, it's not a novel about yarn crafts (though there is a brief passage about knitting!). This dystopian tale is set in a world where the outside is toxic people are living in siloes built into the earth. When someone does something that violates the silo's laws, they are sent outside, with a wool cleaning cloth, to clean off the sensors that show the outside world and then, shortly after, they die. When the sheriff asks to be allowed out, following in the footsteps of his wife a few years ago, he is replaced by Juliet, a woman who had been working deep in the silo's mechanical floors near the bottom. She soon realizes that there is something that those in charge are hiding from the silo's inhabitants and that the just society she thought she was raised in may not be so just. It was a compelling, propulsive read, as evidenced by the fact that I got through a 15-hour audiobook in just three days. I very well may read the rest of the triology, too.

What are you making and reading this week?

Recharging

As much as I love the ability to go out and do things on the weekend, it's also nice to have one without much to do. I kept this past weekend that way on purpose because I was getting my COVID vaccine on Saturday and was counting on feeling lousy for a while afterward. And I did feel tired and a little achy Saturday afternoon and evening, though whether that was from the shot or from doing a lot of running (the race last Sunday plus at least 10K on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) in addition to not sleeping well last week, I can't really say. I did take a couple of doses of Tylenol to be safe and snoozed a little bit with Ruthie, but overall I felt better than I ever have after getting one of these vaccines. I don't know if that means my immune system is getting weaker or this year's shot had milder side effects, but you will hear no complaints from me. Other than a series of walks (on my own and with Ruthie), I spent my weekend mostly resting, and it was just what I needed.

I kicked off the weekend by finishing up my hat on Friday afternoon:

The color is a little darker in real life, but my phone didn't want to capture that no matter what I tried. I used up 65 g of the 100 g skein of Malabrigo Sock, so I still have a fair amount left plus a full skein. I made the large size, although as hats go, it looks to be on the smaller side to me, but I'm sure it'll fit someone's head and that's the goal.

Progress also was made on my sweater:

Several inches of the body have been knit, but because it's in stockinette, it's rolling up quite a bit. Some time this week I plan to try it on to be sure everything is fitting as it should.

It's going to be a mostly typical week for me, the exception being an in-person-only staff meeting on Tuesday that will require me to walk into the office twice to attend both that meeting and my regular team meeting and take Ruthie out for her midday walk; on the upside, they're giving us lunch during the staff meeting. The weather forecast for the week ahead is looking dry and cool, so I think I may even get to break out some handknits!

October or August?

As incredulous as I was that it was the last day of September on Wednesday, yesterday I was even more unlikely to believe that it was the first day of October because we had a high in the mid-80s! I actually had to switch our thermostat from heat to air conditioning, even though I know I'll likely have to switch it back soon. As excited as I am for weather more conducive to wearing my knits, it was nice to be out in a t-shirt again.

I am also pretty excited for the weekend. It hasn't been too hard of a week, but I haven't been sleeping well, probably in part because Ruthie was having some tummy troubles last week and I was worried about her (all is well now). I never expect to be able to sleep in on the weekend, but at least if I'm tired, I can actually take a nap instead of struggling to keep my eyes open. I'm getting my COVID shot tomorrow, too, so I expect there will be several naps in store for me.

Ruthie didn't seem to be too troubled about her GI issues, in large part because it meant she got chicken and rice and pumpkin puree instead of her boring old kibble for a few days. She's been less happy about our handyman being around this week to power-wash and restain our deck and seal our driveway. He's the sweetest guy, but he is very tall and has a mustache, and she does not trust him! On the plus side, she did make a new friend this week:

I've made slow and steady progress on my hat over the past few days and yesterday finished the body repeats.

I like how it looks, but this stitch pattern isn't all that fast, so my next hat will likely be stockinette. I already know what yarn I'm using for it, too:

This is a very old skein of Socks That Rock from back when I was in the Rockin' Sock Club, so probably sometime in the 2007/2008 timeframe. Certainly it's older than Molly! My Imaginary Internet Points thing has a monthly challenge for October to knit with yarn that's at least 25% black, and this skein more than meets that requirement. I'm planning to hold it double and knit a simple stockinette beanie for charity. Much like the Malabrigo Sock, this yarn is 100% superwash merino, and I know for a fact it does not hold up well in socks.

Other than getting my shot tomorrow, I have no plans for the weekend and am just fine with that. I always feel crummy for about 24 hours after getting the vaccine, so I plan to lay low and relax. It's a good excuse to snuggle my pup, read, and knit -- though you all know I never need an excuse for that! If you need an excuse to relax this weekend, you're more than welcome to use mine!

Unraveled, Week 39/2026

Can you believe today is the last day of September? I feel like it just started! I guess the start of the school year, the High Holidays, and the change in weather make for a fast-moving month. As it's Wednesday, that means it's also a day to link up with Kat and the Unravelers.

On Monday night, I finished up the patterning in my sweater yoke and decided that I might as well take the time to block it. Rather than faff around with waste yarn, I simply grabbed another circular needle and knit about half the stitches onto it, then threw it all in to soak. I knew the needles (both sets were metal) would be fine in the water, but it wasn't the easiest to deal with, given that there were four needles that all seemed to be poking me at once.. I also tried it on before blocking and it was sitting just fine, so this block isn't strictly necessarily for checking the fit. Still, it's nice to see the yoke flat like this!

Now I'll be splitting the sleeve stitches from the body and carrying on with the long stretch of stockinette. I know many sweater knitters like to do the sleeves first, but I find sleeves much faster than the body and prefer to do them after.

After finishing up the socks for my sister-in-law, I needed a new smaller project, so I started another charity hat:

When I was doing my stash organization project, I came across two skeins of Malabrigo Sock in Ivy that I think I won as a prize for something or other. I think Mal Sock is nice to work with but a bit too soft for socks (and I haven't used it in years because of this), so it'll be great for a hat. I'm using one of the skeins, holding it double, to knit a Hollyhocks Hat (Ravelry link). I got the pattern for free and it's from a Pigskin Party sponsor, so extra points. Obviously I haven't even gotten the brim done yet, but I think it'll be a fairly quick knit.

I've only managed to finish two short-ish audiobooks this week, mainly because my library holds kept popping up as I was just starting a book already on my Kindle shelf and then when I tried to get back to it. No worries -- all reading is good, even if it takes me longer to finish a book that I've started because I keep having to set it aside!

I can't remember where I heard about Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, but I do know that it was one of the books I had tagged "to read" on Libby the longest. The book was published back in 2014, well before the more recent reckoning with race in this country, but I'd say it's still quite relevant. Debby Irving was raised in a predominantly white Boston suburb and never really considered herself to have a race until she was an adult. While working for community organizations and trying to make them more inclusive, she couldn't figure out why the efforts weren't working, so she took it upon herself to learn more about race, racism, and the systems that uphold it. Part memoir, part educational resource (each chapter ends with questions for the reader to ponder), this book gives what I felt was a really good perspective on what learning about race and racism should look like for a white ally: not relying on people of color to give the instruction but taking the initiative to challenge one's beliefs and understanding of the concepts. Notably, Irving doesn't shy away from sharing details of all the times when she was well intentioned but got things very wrong. It was an engaging book to listen to and a good reminder that the work of anti-racism is never done and starts with us. I gave it 4 stars.

Based on Carole's recommendation, I listened to Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog over the weekend. This is a relatively short memoir of Jenna Blum's much-beloved and very senior black Lab in the last year of his life. While the focus is on his decline, there are stories about his younger days and the great joy he brought to his owner. But mostly this is about how she cared for him -- and how her friends and family cared for her -- as his health began to fail and she knew his days were numbered. Obviously it's no spoiler to say that the dog does die in the end, but I didn't expect quite so much detail (some of it kind of gross, frankly) about the illness he experienced along the way. It is a sweet story, and anyone who's ever had and loved a dog will understand how hard it is to say good-bye. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm currently in the middle of four books: Our Noble Selves (the most recent library hold interruption) and Olga Dies Dreaming (now set aside twice) on Kindle, Restoration on paper, and When She Woke on audio. I'm hoping that by this time next week, I'll be done with most, if not all, of them.

What are you making and reading this week?

Like Magic

Oh, how I love having a Monday off! Of course, dogs don't understand federal holidays, so I was up more or less at the regular time today, but at least I won't have to attend any work meetings, check my work email, or be glued to my laptop all day.

We had a really nice holiday weekend, starting with our anniversary dinner. We went to one of our favorites, and it was as good as always, although I think they were short-staffed in the kitchen or something because it took at full hour for our entrees to come out and my chicken was still raw inside when I cut into it (they whisked it away immediately to cook it properly, and the host came to check that everything was okay when it was returned to me). We had all had a long week and went to bed early.

On Saturday, in between other things, I felted the two pairs of mittens I'd knit recently. I now felt exclusively in the dryer, getting the items good and wet and then tossing them in with a towel or two for friction. I've found that although I often have to run them for several cycles (usually because the load is small enough that the sensor thinks it's done way before the time runs out), the fabric felts very well this way, with minimal water used and the ability to check on things whenever I want. Here's what they looked like before felting:

and here they are after:

They felted so much, in fact, that the large ones are now my size, even though they were meant to be two sizes larger!

I also spent part of the weekend swatching for my handspun sweater, so now I wait for the swatch to dry so I can see if I got gauge. And it's not yet time to cast on a big project, so in the interim I'm knitting another charity hat holding lightweight leftovers double:

The pinky red is Dream in Color Jilly (a superwash merino single), the gold is a merino/ingeo (corn fiber) blend, and the orange is Fibernymph Dye Works sport weight. I started with the Jilly and the FDW, and when the latter runs out (assuming it does before the hat is done), I'll join in the merino/ingeo. I'm enjoying using up leftovers, but it's also fun to pull out these partial skeins and remember what I used them for previously. The Jilly was used for a sweater, the merino/ingeo for a shawl design, and the orange sport was used along with black for Halloween-ish hat for my oldest nephew.

We are all having a quiet day today. I plan to enjoy the cooler, less-humid weather (and, I assume, no road construction) on my run this morning, and Molly and I may do a little shopping this afternoon. Of course, we're not forgetting that it's Labor Day -- don't forget to thank your friendly neighborhood union member for having things like weekends!

Ending and Beginning

Well, that was quite a weekend. As predicted, it was a lot of eating and not very much else. I managed to get a walk in on Saturday morning, but my only exercise yesterday was done while walking Ruthie. Your parents only celebrate their 50th anniversary once, though, so it was all worth it! And it was lovely to spend time with my aunts and uncles as well. The only photo of all the food I took was of my dessert -- a chocolate hazelnut tart -- on Saturday night that I fear does not do it justice because of the poor lighting. I can tell you that as gorgeous as this was, it tasted even better.

I didn't say on Friday that I hoped I'd be able to sleep in, and wouldn't you know it? I slept in both days! Well, technically I was up at the usual time on Saturday because the Mister got up to go to the bathroom at 5-something and then was looking at his phone, but I rolled over and went back to bed until Ruthie told me she was up at around 6:30. She was silent yesterday, which was good because we didn't get home from dinner until after 10 and I got to bed very late for me (for the record, I have reached that age where I like to be in bed, reading, before 10).

Because so much of the weekend was spent with family, there wasn't a lot of knitting time, but I managed to finish up this charity hat on Saturday. It still needs to be blocked, but it's another 450+ yards out of my stash.

Today is (obviously) the last day of August, and apparently summer is going to make a comeback this week with highs around 90. Yuck! I was hoping that by the time we got to this point, we'd be able to say goodbye to that kind of weather; perhaps this is just summer's last hurrah. As we close out August, however, it's also the start of Molly's junior year of high school. She has her first day (well, half-day) today, and she finally got her schedule over the weekend and is relieved that her courses seem to be well spaced out so she won't have a repeat of last year's stress. That's not to say I'm expecting it to be easy -- she's taking English, French 4, precalculus, U.S. history, biology, and AP chemistry as well as glee club (chorus) and clay -- but at least she won't be getting homework from all her classes every other day like last year. I'll be dropping her off and picking her up today, but the plan is for her to register with the high school secretary so she can drive and park in the school lot and free me from having to rush out of the house every day at 3. I also realized that in addition to not having to do that, I can also send her to pick up something at the market for dinner if we forgot it or to run other quick errands for me. There are plenty of times that I'm sad that she's growing up so quickly, but there are definitely some plus sides to having another driver in the house!

Still Drying Out

It has been another wet week here in Western Pennsylvania -- yesterday was especially wet, with heavy rain all morning (exactly when I need to be out to walk Ruthie and then walk to and from work). Needless to say, I got pretty soaked. We were predicted to get as much as 2 inches yesterday alone, and I'm pretty sure we got close to that. I wish we could share all this rain with folks who are experiencing drought! The sun did come out for a little while yesterday afternoon, and the temperatures were only in the low 70s, so it was pretty comfortable and a nice change from the higher temps and high humidity. Looks like there's more rain in the forecast, though, so things aren't drying out completely anytime soon.

We've officially begun the countdown to the first day of school year. Molly goes back (for a half day, sheesh) on the 31st, so next week is her last week of summer break. All this month she's been working on her summer reading assignment and a whole bunch of chemistry assignments (to prepare for AP Chem this year). I'm also preparing for my next big knitalong, which starts September 9, so although I'd like to start a sweater, I'm waiting until it counts for imaginary internet points and biding my time until then with some smaller charity projects. You've already seen the current hat, which is growing a couple of inches or so each day and is now maybe a third of a Ruthie:

I also started some Snowball Throwin' Mittens (Ravelry link), though this time around I'm picking up and knitting the cuffs in superwash yarn before felting.

The part that will be felted is knit in Cascade Eco Wool (bulky), and I'm using some leftover Fibernymph Dye Works Bona Fide (DK) for the cuff. I knit a different pattern a couple of years ago using superwash for the cuff and non-superwash for the hand and it worked well, so I'm hoping that's the case here

It should be a less-dramatic weekend here, particularly as the Mister is recovering well but not yet up for running or biking yet. Molly is slated to work Saturday and Sunday, and there's an arts festival in our neighborhood's business district both days, so she should be busy and not interested in doing much when she gets home. We're planning to take my in-laws out for dinner tonight, and that's all that's on the social calendar. All of that is just fine with me!

Have the best weekend available to you, friends, and see you back here on Monday.

Unraveled, Week 33/2026

Thank you to all of you who left good wishes for the Mister's recovery on Monday. I'm happy to report that he does seem to be improving: He's been getting around the house much easier and even went into the office yesterday. I imagine it will be a while before he's able to run or bike again, which is bound to be frustrating for him, but the upside is that he can't get even more injured than he already is.

It's Wednesday, and as usual, I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers. And I'm starting things off with a stealth FO, one I don't think I even mentioned I was knitting because it came together so quickly.

I had a fair amount of yarn leftover from the baby pants and wanted to whip up a little hat to go with them and the BSJ, so I turned to a pattern I haven't knit in well more than a decade. It's a sweet little cap that looks great in self-striping yarn, and even though I seem to have messed up somewhere along the way because the stitch count didn't quite work out at the end of the decreases, I'm quite happy with how it turned out and don't think you can tell that anything went wrong. Now I just need to block it, sew the buttons on the BSJ, and package it all up to send off to Sweden once I talk to the recipient and figure out the best way to get it to her.

I also started the next stash-busting charity hat and am mildly entertained by how the variegated yarn is pooling now that I'm in the "knit until there's only enough yarn left to decrease" phase:

While the knitting has been small this week, the reading has been rather prolific (helped quite a bit by things being very quiet at work last week). I've finished five books, and I'll start off with the one I liked least and move on with the better reads.

The Angel of Warsaw by Rebecca Scott (audiobook)

2 stars

I found myself in need of something to listen to over the weekend, just before I was about to take the dog for a walk, so I was a bit rushed to make a choice and ended up with this fictionalized account of Irena Sendler and her efforts to save Jewish Polish children during WWII. I knew a little bit about Sendler (mostly from having watched a movie about her a number of years ago), and I knew that this was fiction inspired by her life, but even so I was pretty disappointed. I don't think it's expecting too much for a work of historical fiction based on a real person to have some grounding in the facts, but apparently the author didn't think so and was more interested in making this book just as much about the romance between Irena and a collaborator as it was about her saving children. Also, as some reviewers have pointed out, there are some pretty big mistakes, such as having Irena go into the Warsaw ghetto on a date that was months after it was liquidated. If that wasn't enough, the writing was overwrought and used way too many similes and metaphors that often sounded impressive but didn't actually mean anything (and in the case of the audiobook, this issue was compounded by the narrator's tendency to read just about every line in the most dramatic tone of voice possible). The only reason I gave this book 2 stars rather than 1 is because I think it at least does some justice to Sendler and what she and her collaborators accomplished. But if you're interested in the story, do yourself a favor and skip this book -- see if you can watch the movie instead.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (paperback)

4 stars

This book came out four years ago, and I remember hearing about it everywhere, but the wait at the library was always really long and I sort of forgot about it -- until I happened upon a copy in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. Alice works in admissions at the NYC private school she attended, she has no children, and she's single once again. And her father is in the hospital, slowly dying. On the eve of her 40th birthday, she gets drunk and ends up back at the house where she grew up with her father after her parents split and her mother left town. When she wakes up the next morning, she's still there, only she's 16 again and her father is alive and well. Alice has to figure out how to get back to her life in the future but also has to figure out what, if anything, she can do to change the outcome. Yes, you have to accept that time travel is possible in this novel, but that's really only the tool used to get Alice to reflect on her choices, then and now, and evaluate whether any change she effects in the past is really worth the unconsidered consequences in the future. I really enjoyed the relationship between Alice and her father, and it wasn't surprising to read the author's note at the end indicating that much of it was grounded in her own father/daughter relationship. Though it deals with death quite a bit, what shines through the most is how important our enduring relationships are throughout our lives, whether or not we get to go back in time to try to adjust them.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (audio)

4 stars

There was a lot of buzz about this book when it came out last year, notably from Facebook/Meta, which tried to keep it from being published, and that alone leads me to believe in the veracity of its content. Sarah Wynn-Williams worked as director of global policy at Facebook for almost a decade, initially joining the company because she believed it would be revolutionary for creating connections and improving lives around the globe. But what she discovered was that the public faces of the company behaved differently in private, that the company didn't care about following other country's laws or putting people in physical danger, and that no matter how hard she worked -- even while in the middle of giving birth to her first child! -- she could not escape from the misogyny and sexual harassment that pervaded the office. I deleted my Facebook account years ago, but this book made me wish I'd never had one. It was eye-opening and shocking, but, like a car wreck, I couldn't look away. I have so much respect for the author for staying as long as she did to try to fix things (and I really enjoyed listening to her read the book, with her lovely New Zealand accent). 

Is It too Late to Make a Run for It? by Judi Dench with Brendan O'Hea (digital ARC)

4 stars

I really enjoyed the first collaboration by Dench and O'Hea focused on Shakespeare, so I was delighted to spend more time with the two of them in conversation about Judi Dench's life and long career. She reflects on her childhood, her schooling, her early days in the theater, her marriage and collaboration with her husband, and her relationships with many actors and directors over the years. Even in her early 90s, she is sharp and witty and has an amazing memory of roles she's played. She talks a lot about laughing and playing pranks, but there's also a wistfulness to her stories, such as when she talks about the trees she's planted in her garden for loved ones and friends who have passed away. It was a delight to spend more time with her, and I certainly hope there's going to be an audiobook of this one, too! 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 November 3, 2026.

Under Story by Chloe Benjamin (digital ARC)

5 stars

I have such clear memories of reading Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists back in 2018, and I've found myself thinking about it almost a decade later, so when I heard about her forthcoming novel, I immediately requested an ARC -- and it did not disappoint. Laurel Salter is a mycologist in Wisconsin, but after suffering an unimaginable loss, she no longer finds any joy in her work and decides to get as far away from Wisconsin as she can: the McMurdo Station research base in Antarctica. There she works not as a scientist but on the galley crew, doing all sorts of menial tasks to keep her body busy so she won't retreat into her mind and her grief. And it seems to be working -- until her ex-husband, Eli, a physicist, shows up. He's there to study what has been called the Arc, a strange phenomenon of light that Laurel has felt drawn to and that no one can understand. When Laurel has a dream about the Arc, she becomes convinced that it holds the key to healing her pain, and Eli's theory about a sort of mirror universe might be the answer to undoing the tragedy that tore them apart. There is a lot of science in this book, but it's never overly technical or boring (in fact, I don't know how accurate any of it is, but it's specific enough to convince me that it is). Instead, it's engaging and fascinating; even when the physics was well over my head, I never felt that I wasn't smart enough to understand but rather that the workings of the universe might be too big for any one brain to hold. Benjamin creates an idea for an alternate world that is so compelling and unusual, not least because she's thought of even small details that make it seem almost believable. But you don't have to understand the science or believe any of it to appreciate what's really at the heart of this novel: the characters and their relationships. Laurel and Eli are at the center, but there are also friendship and professional mentor/mentee relationships, and what's especially wonderful is seeing how the same relationships are the same but also different in the alternate universe. This is a big book (500+ pages), but when I finished, I still wanted more time with these characters, and I think this may very well end up being one of my favorite books of the year. Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 1, 2026.

(P.S. Chloe Benjamin is a knitter and there's even a little bit of knitting in the book! She's collaborated with Ritual Dyes and designer Sari Nordlund on a small collection inspired by the book that will be out the same day.)

What are you making and reading this week?

I'd Prefer Boring

When last we talked (and by "talked," I mean I wrote something and you read it), I was getting ready for an uneventful weekend. We didn't have plans other than dinner with my side of the family on Friday night, and I was excited that Saturday we were going to get a break in the rain. And then, of course, things got more interesting than I'd like.

Do you remember when the Mister had a run-in with a tree branch while bicycling back in 2020? Well he had a bike outing planned with a friend on Saturday and I didn't hear anything from him while he was gone, so I was surprised that when he got home in the early afternoon, he was having a hard time walking. It seems that he had slowed down a bit to wait for the friend to catch up while on an incline on a bridge, his bike wheel got caught in the paving seam, and he didn't have enough momentum to carry him over it, so he keeled over sideways. He had only a little bit of road rash on his arm, but his main complaint was that he had terrible pain in his upper thigh/hip area. He put ice on it and took some Tylenol and hung out in bed for the afternoon. We'd talked about going out for dinner, but as he could barely walk, that wasn't happening, so I managed to cobble together a meal of leftover salad and some pizza from the freezer. He said that if it didn't get better, he'd get it checked out, but it was clear to me that he shouldn't wait, so I told him to make an appointment at the urgent care center on Sunday morning. The good news is that they took x-rays and nothing appears broken, but of course he's still in pain and can't walk. They told him if it didn't start to improve to go see an orthopedist. He's working from home today, and as he can't do much of anything physical (we still had my crutches from when I broke my foot, so he's been hobbling around on them when he needs to move), that means I'm doing everything -- I did the grocery shopping yesterday, I'm on cooking and cleanup duty, I changed the bedsheets, etc. Life is always exciting, isn't it?

But hey, this is a knitting blog. Here's some knitting -- a finished but still badly in need of blocking hat:

And I've got yarn all wound for the next one, because having mindless knitting on hand at all times is useful when your husband seems to be trying to injury himself all the time.

I'll leave you with a bit of lightness -- a photo of Ruthie playing with her friend Finnegan, whose owners and I refer to as Ruthie's "Kentucky cousin." Finn is also a rescue who came from Kentucky, and we think the two dogs look alike. They certain play the same way!

Here's hoping this week is a lot less eventful! I will be back on Wednesdays with some more knitting and some book reviews.

Unraveled, Week 32/2026

It's Wednesday, so that means it's once again time to join the fun with Kat and the Unravelers.

It's continued to be a wet week, with occasional heavy downpours and thunderstorms. Yesterday I was running behind when I went into the office and left without an umbrella (I didn't want to make myself even later by digging through the closet for one) only for it to start raining pretty hard. Luckily, I was able to get the newly licensed driver to come pick me up! As much as it saddens me to know how quickly Molly is growing up, it is very helpful to have another driver in the house.

On Monday night, I finished plying my current spin, dealing with some tangles at the end in an effort to use every last bit of singles; I anticipate that some of that messy yarn at the end will be removed.

While I didn't weigh the fiber beforehand, there was supposed to be 2 oz. in each bundle, so that's ostensibly 6 oz. of finished yarn. The next step is to skein and wash and then likely wait several days for it to dry, as it's incredibly humid here because of all the rain, but I hope to be able to show you some finished yarn by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, I'm on the third mini skein on my hat, and it's currently measuring a partial Ruthie:

I'm not particularly enjoying working with this yarn, as it's on the coarser side. If I had to guess, I'd say the 3-ply minis are a Corriedale base, whereas the 2-ply skeins might be superwash Merino. I am hopeful that the hand of the yarn will improve once the finished hat is washed, as it's very possible that the person who dyed the yarn wasn't particularly skilled at it and may not have rinsed the yarn as much as they should. At the very least, a bath in warm water with some wool wash will add a bit of lanolin.

Reading this week has been all nonfiction and heavily dominated by ARCs. I finished three books.

An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America by Keri Leigh Merritt

4 stars

For most people who have learned about the history of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, the term "white Southerners" will conjure images of violence and hatred. But not all Southerners supported segregation, and some brave ones spoke out against it and worked with the more well-known leaders in the movement to fight it. That said, throughout history, the role of women in political movements has always been minimized and, in some cases, even forgotten, so I was not surprised that despite her record of prolific work in support of racial equality and her friendships with such famous names and Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr., I had never heard of Lillian Smith. This biography proved to be an excellent way to rectify that. Lillian Smith spent the entirety of her adult life writing essays, works of social criticism, and novels to advocate for racial equality and to attempt to show that racial discrimination harms whites as well as Blacks. As a queer liberal woman unafraid to share her opinions, she faced backlash and very real physical threats, yet she didn't let anything stop her, and she used what power she had as a white woman to uplift and promote people of color who often faced much worse. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know her and her work a bit, and I am glad that this biography is doing its part to ensure that Smith's story isn't lost to time. 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. It will be published on September 29, 2026.

What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci

3.5 stars

I loved Stanley Tucci's memoir Taste, especially its gorgeous descriptions of food, so I thought this second work would be as enjoyable. And partially it was. There are still some elements of memoir and personal life, and I loved the parts when he talked about cooking for himself and his family, but this newer book also contains a lot of complaining about how bad food is as well as what seemed to me to be an awful lot of name dropping. I know, he's a famous actor and he knows a lot of other famous people, but sometimes the mention of celebrities seemed rather irrelevant to the discussion of food. That said, I love listening to Stanley Tucci talk, so to have him in my ears for about six hours talking about food was overall a good experience. It also made me want to eat a lot of pasta.

The Nuremberg Women: The Untold Story of the Eight Women Who Brought the Nazis to Justice by Natalie Livingstone

4 stars

The Nuremberg trials are famous for bringing a sense of closure to the horrors of World War II and some sense of justice to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. They've been written about extensively and dramatized on screen. But, as far as I know, little has been documented about the small but significant group of women who were present at the trials. In The Nuremberg Women, Natalie Livingstone focuses on eight women from varied backgrounds, nationalities, professions, and political beliefs to show the importance of their involvement. We get to know a brief biography of each woman, her role in the trials, and a bit about her life afterward. As a collection, these profiles show that these women all played a crucial role, but those roles often were behind the scenes or downplayed as less important than those of the (male) lawyers and judges. What was particularly fascinating was learning about how their views of the trials changed over the years and colored their experiences of the Cold War in the decades to come. War is so often characterized as a masculine arena, but these women -- a lawyer, three journalists, an artist, a survivor of Auschwitz and Ravensbruck, and an interpreter -- all recognized that wars inflict suffering on women just as much as men and that they should have a voice in the processes of reckoning that follow a war. 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. It will be published November 3, 2026. (Side note: There's currently a Goodreads giveaway for this book, if you're interested.)

Currently, I'm in the last third or so of This Time Tomorrow (reading on paper before bed), I'm more than halfway through a historical fiction/magical realism/mystery audiobook called The Sirens, and I'm reading yet another ARC that I already think might end up being one of my favorites of the year.

What are you making and reading this week?

A Friday Finish

What a week it has been! Even though it was a shorter week for me, there's been a lot going on, including a lot of weather. I got caught in an unexpected downpour during my run on Wednesday (I took cover during the worst of it, but I did finish because I was already mostly done and soaked in any case) and have been taking a second shower in the evening almost every day because it's been so hot and humid that I get back from walking Ruthie and have found myself turned into a puddle. The forecast and my weather app have been no help; I've looked at the radar when it's raining heavily and it shows absolutely nothing. It's a good thing I don't melt!

While I continue to work on both my handspun shawl and the last ply of my current spinning project, I have a finished object to share with you today:

This is the hat that was mostly knit last weekend in the car and that will be put away as a gift for my sister-in-law, likely for Christmas (her birthday is in early September, when giving someone socks doesn't seem so ridiculous but a hat is totally out of season). The yarn had been in my stash for many years, purchased from the Steel City Fiber Collective, which closed quite a while ago -- I don't remember the exact date, but I do know it was pre-pandemic. I may actually have bought the skein when they announced they were closing and were trying to liquidate their inventory. It's a superwash merino/nylon/sparkle fingering and it didn't have a color; Molly was solidly in her purple phase then, so I guess I thought I'd use it for something for her and never did. And now it is out of the stash! Nothing fancy about this hat -- my pattern (Ravelry link), US 2.5/3 mm needles, knit to use up most of the yarn. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I cast on another because they make for great mindless knitting and an easy way to use up a skein of yarn.

Tomorrow morning I will be up bright and early (as I always am, let's face it) to go get my annual mammogram. So here's your regular reminder to get your girls squished if you are lady of an age when you need to do so! Have a lovely weekend and see you back here on Monday -- perhaps with another FO.

And Away We Go

In just a few hours, Molly and I will be headed to Michigan with my side of the family for a visit with my aunt and uncle. Ruthie's at boarding, where there are supposed to be some more dog friends to play with, and the Mister will be holding down the fort at home. It's likely to be a weekend of sitting around and talking, so at least I will get a lot of knitting time in. One project that is coming with me is the new handspun scarf:

So far, my winging it is working out. I'm taking my travel scale so that I can increase until I've used about half my yarn, then I'll start decreasing.

Molly and I went to see The Odyssey yesterday. Visually, it was impressive. As for the script, I'm afraid I have to agree with my Greek professor. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it was only loosely based on the original poem because so much was changed. But it beat spending the afternoon at work, and if you're wondering how much charity hat can get knit during a epic movie, it's about 4 inches.

We will be back sometime on Sunday and I'm taking Monday off (partly because I'll have to go pick Ruthie up), so I imagine I'll have some significant progress to show on these projects. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this final day of July and the first weekend of August!

The Beginning of the End

The end of July, that is. This month seems to gone by faster than any month yet this year, but I suppose when the weather is nice, we get busy doing a lot of things and that makes the time seem to go by more quickly. I'm not necessarily looking forward to August, but it does bring us closer to fall, my favorite time of year.

Thank you for all your good thoughts on Friday. If you didn't happen to see my midday update, I'm happy to share that Molly passed her driving test and is now a licensed driver! Amazingly she has not yet asked to take the car out ("the car" being my car), but one of her good friends has been on an overseas vacation with her parents for the past week and a half or so and will be getting home tomorrow, so Molly's already planning to drive over to see her on Wednesday. I'll admit I'm a little freaked out by the idea of her driving alone, but I know she is cautious and responsible, and frankly I'm very much looking forward to her driving herself to and from school everyday!

Our brief stretch of unseasonably cool weather ended this weekend, so it was a bit more uncomfortable outside. On Saturday morning Molly and I walked to a nearby farmers market to pick up some things for dinner that night. We came home with some focaccia, a gorgeous loaf of farm bread, fresh blueberries, and a couple of heirloom tomatoes. I had to go Trader Joe's anyway because we were completely out of coffee, so I picked up some fresh mozzarella. I picked some basil from our herb pot, and voila, caprese salad for dinner!

Your eyes do not deceive you -- that is purple basil!

After dinner, the Mister and I walked over to get ice cream and took Ruthie along for the first time. She was excited but I think a little disappointed that she didn't get any!

I did manage to get that charity hat finished up on Saturday, using up all but about 2 g of yarn (which means I used 101 g or about 495 yards!).

I almost immediately cast on for another one using the other skein I'd wound and taken with me on our family trip, when I was apparently a little delusional about just how much knitting I'd be doing. It's a one-of-a-kind skein from the now-defunct Steel City Fiber Collective. This is a sparkly base and should be faster to knit because it's only (hehe) 438 yards.

I've got a three-day work week this week, which feels like a great way to finish out the month. Molly and I are taking a short weekend trip up to Michigan with my parents and my brother and his family to visit my aunt and uncle. We'll be leaving Friday and coming back Sunday, but I'm taking Thursday and Monday off as well so I can drop Ruthie off at/pick her up from the dog sitter's (I prefer to have her in the car in the morning, before she eats, so there's less for her to throw up on the way!). Molly and I have tickets to go see The Odyssey on Thursday afternoon -- I'm excited! And I finished up a big work project at the end of the day on Friday, so I'm hoping this can be a calm and short week.

Unraveled, Week 29/2026

It's Wednesday, so it must be time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! This week's update finds me in an unusual spot: I have only one active knitting WIP. I have been spinning in the evenings when I'm upstairs, so the only knitting I've been doing regularly has been during the afternoons while Ruthie naps (and while I read or do work). That knitting, by necessity, has to be fairly simple, so it's generally socks or a hat. And a hat is what I've been working on this week.

It's been a while since I measured anything in Ruthies, and I think this particular system is well suited to this hat. The yarn I'm using is a light fingering weight, at 490 yards per 100 g. As if that's not enough, my skein was a bit heavy at 103 g, so I have a bit more than 500 yards. This is going to be for charity, so I figure I might as well use up as much of it as I can; worst case is that whoever ends up with it can fold the brim a couple of times. My parents were kind enough to drive me to and from the dinner Monday night (they were also attending), and the round trip took probably an hour and 45 minutes thanks to traffic, so I've gotten a fair amount done this week. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish in the next few days.

I've also done a fair amount of reading this week, but I'm busy enough that I don't have time to do full reviews and I apologize for that. I've finished five books since last Wednesday:

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (digital from library): A tradwife online influencer wakes up in 1855 and has to figure out how she got there and how to get back to the life she knows. A wild ride with a highly unlikeable main character that is nevertheless a page turner. 3 stars
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (audio from the library): A riveting true story of a rash of murders of members of the Osage nation and the investigation by the burgeoning FBI that revealed a pattern of efforts by white men to get the oil money of the Osage. 4 stars
• The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews (digital from library): A thriller set in the world of fine art. Clare was ABD on an art history PhD when she married into a wealthy family and has become unfulfilled with her new life. She has an affair with an art dealer, and when he is murdered, it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to frame her for his death. Outrageous but fun, especially if you know art. 4 stars
• Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (audio from library): The third in the Susan Ryeland series finds her back in London working with a tumultuous author hired to write a continuation of the Atticus Pund series. She discovers that his book is actually a thinly veiled account of his own family, and once again she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. Well performed (by actors) but too long. 3 stars
• Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julie Langbein (digital from library): Jean, in her mid-40s, can't seem to move on from an affair she had with a professor while a college student studying abroad in France. So she turns to Monica Lewinsky, as one would pray to a saint for intercession, for help as she revisits that summer. Funny, irreverent, and empowering and totally original. 4 stars

I'm still slowly making my way through London Falling before bed and, now that a flurry of three library holds in a row coming in has subsided, will be getting back to On Morrison.

What are you making and reading this week?