Drying Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Fall Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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!

An Okay Weekend

This past weekend went by quickly, as they always do. We had lovely autumn weather -- crisp mornings, warm sunshine, a gentle breeze. Things were a bit busier than usual, or at least it seemed like it because Iw as in and out a lot. We ended up going out to dinner with my parents Friday night; on Saturday morning I took Molly to get her flu shot; and then we had the anniversary dinner out on Saturday, which ended up being a bit of a fiasco because the restaurant seemed to be overbooked and so we didn't even get our food until around 8 and by the time we'd dropped off my in-laws and I'd taken Ruthie out before bed, it was basically time for me to go to sleep. Fortunately yesterday was calmer, even if I did have to wake up early for the race.

The Mister did end up running, though I think he was in pain for all of it and he was certainly slower. He was just a little ahead of me for most of the race and then ran with me for the last mile or so. I put on a bit of speed at the end so that I finished just ahead of him. As I predicted, I didn't come near last year's PR, but I wasn't that much slower. According to the official results, I finished in 24:50, placing sixth in my division (women 45-49), 98th among all women, and 363rd overall (of 2,345). It felt like a pretty easy race for me, though there's a hill in the middle right after mile 1 that's always a bit of a challenge (it's not steep, but it's long -- probably a good half mile). I got a good adrenaline boost so I was able to run at a slightly faster pace overall. And of course lately when I run I'm doing a longer distance, so 3.1 miles is a light day for me. Next year will be the 50th Great Race, so I expect some fancy swag. This year's shirt, as you can see, was very "America 250" themed, as was the medal. Anyway, another year is in the books.

I didn't get as much time with my sweater this weekend as I hoped (in large part due to that long dinner Saturday night), but I am quickly approaching the end of the yoke patterning:

I have just one more eyelet section, I believe, and then it's just straight stockinette until I reach the target yoke length. I'm still debating whether or not to block the yoke after this point and before carrying on, as suggested in the pattern; it'd be nice to see the texture get a bit crisper, but I also know that I'm good on gauge and likely don't need to make any adjustments to the yoke depth. I'll make a decision once I get to that point.

One accomplishment for the weekend was finishing up my sister-in-law's rainbow-striped socks (well, finishing the knitting, anyway; they'll still need to be blocked):

They did end up very well matched, as advertised, and I've got some leftovers that I think would make some adorable preemie hats.

I'm not sure what the week ahead will bring at work, as we've just finished a big weekend (homecoming, a celebration of 100 years of the Cathedral of Learning, and the launch of a $3B capital campaign). I'm hoping for a bit of a breather before the next big thing starts up. Molly is going to a concert on Tuesday night, so the Mister and I will get a date night, and I'll be on call should my parents -- who are babysitting my niblings all week while my brother and sister-in-law are on a trip -- need extra help. I hope those of you who are on the East Coast have survived the nor'easter without too much damage or trouble, and I hope you all can enjoy these last few days of September.

Welcome, Autumn

After starting out the week with rain and chill, we've been lucky to have what, to me, is perfect fall weather to end it. It's been clear and mostly dry, with warm sunshine but low humidity and highs in the 60s. We did have to turn on the heat upstairs because the house was actually colder than it was outside, but I've been happily walking Ruthie wearing long sleeves and a light sweatshirt on top. It feels so good not to be melting! I'd say we're a bit off from peak fall color, but the dogwood in our backyard -- always early to turn -- has started changing from green to red and yellow, so I know it's just a matter of time.

Speaking of Ruthie, she has also been enjoying the cooler weather by cozying up in her fleece blanket:

The weekend ahead looks beautiful, and I'm so glad. We're going out to dinner Saturday night with my in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law (and their two boys) to celebrate both couples' anniversary, which they share. And Sunday morning is the Great Race, in which I'll be running the 5K. Molly has decided not to run this year, and the Mister is going to make the decision whether he's up to it or not on the day (he's still recovering from his injury). To ensure I'm rested enough, I'm taking today off from running, though I don't expect I will break last year's PR even though I'm now regularly running longer distances. The older I get, the happier I am to have a slower pace but the stamina to run for longer. It will probably be chilly Sunday morning, but it should be dry! I'll let you know how I did when I check in on Monday.

Until then, please enjoy this first weekend of fall, officially, in the Northern Hemisphere!

Unraveled, Week 38/2026

I only took one day off from blogging, but it feels like it's been a long time! It seems that Mother Nature finally got tired of my complaining about the heat and brought in the fall weather. It's been much cooler the past several days -- but also gloomy and rainy. We were all wet and cold walking home from services on Monday, and that wasn't helped by already being cold from fasting. Other than the crummy weathers, the holiday was as good as solemn day of fasting can be. We had my family over to break the fast, including my brother's dog, Leo, and the two pups spent a lot of time racing around the house.

Yesterday it was back to the usual routine during the day, but it was also the Mister's birthday -- his 50th birthday (how am I married to such an old man?!) -- so we went out to dinner to celebrate.

Today it is Wednesday, which means it's time for my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers with an update on my making and my reading.

Knitting has been continuing at regular intervals here, with sock knitting during the day and sweater knitting at night. As you would expect, the socks are moving along much faster; I've finished the first sock and am almost to the heel of the second:

These have come together quickly despite the fact that I actually had to unravel part of the foot of the first sock when I found myself in that weird bit of knitting physics where the fabric keeps measuring the same length over and over again (not long enough) until suddenly it's too long. It was only about a quarter of an inch, but it was annoying. I just put my needles in where they should be to start the toe, pulled them out of where they were, and unraveled the unneeded rounds. It was probably only about 20 minutes of knitting that I didn't need to do, and of course I wanted these socks to fit the recipient, so I dealt with it -- but I was annoyed just a bit all the same.

As for the sweater, it's grown to the point where the circumference is now a bit larger than my needles and I've completed the largest of the stitch patterns:

I've got a couple more eyelet sections and a repeat of the first knit/purl texture section to go and then a bit of stockinette before I split the sleeves from the body. I'm sure it'll move much faster once I get past the texture and don't have to count stitches, but I'm managing a handful of rounds a night. Maybe now that it's getting cool enough to actually wear a light sweater, I'll be more motivated to do more.

It's been a good week for reading, with five books finished, but bear in mind that one was a short audiobook and one was my before-bed book that I'd been reading for a while. In the interest of keeping this post a reasonable length, I'm going to keep my reviews short this week.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)

4 stars

High school student Emoni has a gift in the kitchen, but she also has a lot of responsibilities, including her 2-year-old daughter and her grandmother, with whom they live. When she gets into her charter school's culinary arts course, which includes a trip to Spain, she begins to dream of perhaps turning her talent into a career. It's beautifully read by the author and enjoyable to an adult reader, even though it's technically a YA book.

The Searcher by Tana French (digital)

3 stars

In the first of a three-book series, Cal Hooper has moved to the tiny Irish town of Arnakelty, where he hopes to leave his life as a Chicago police officer behind and start a new chapter. But soon he gets drawn into the search for a missing man, and it seems that there's something everyone else in the town knows that he doesn't and that maybe they're trying to keep it that way. It's a fairly entertaining mystery that kept me mostly engaged, though it was a bit slower than I expected.

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers (paperback)

4 stars

It's the mid-1960s in London, and Helen is working as an art therapist at a mental hospital and having an affair with one of her coworkers, a psychiatrist who happens to be married to a distant cousin of hers. One day they're both called to an unusual situation: A man whose existence was a surprise to the neighbors has been found in a derelict house with his elderly aunt. When the aunt dies and the man refuses to speak, Helen becomes determined to get through to him, especially after discovering that he's a talented artist. Along the way we get flashbacks to his life, going in reverse, to find out how he came to be living in the house, shut off from the outside world. The writing is beautiful and the story is touching, showcasing the power of human kindness.

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (audiobook)

4 stars

This is the second book in the Jackson Brodie series, and even though Jackson has now given up being a police officer and a private detective, he finds himself in the middle of murder mystery (or rather several of them) and unable to help himself from trying to figure out the case. I really enjoyed Atkinson's writing of the characters such that I had a good sense of who they were and the way she pulled so many threads of the story together in a way I could never have imagined or figured out on my own.

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (digital)

4 stars

I got extremely lucky and happened to click fast enough when I saw the Libby notification that my library had the book that I got a copy right away last Friday and immediately started reading. Like pretty much all Emily St. John Mandel books I've read (this was my fourth), it's weird and hard to describe. It's partly her usual post-apocalyptic fare, set in the near future when the United States has collapsed and become individual republics and city-states, with waring militias patrolling their territories. As the book opens, the narrator is attending a party with her roommate at which doubles of two others in attendance appear and then the host completely disappears. One of these doubles will later pop up in the narrator's life. Later, we learn that there's an alternate universe from which these doubles came and where, it seems, there are doubles of everyone living in a surveillance state. Amid all of this, there's a painting that keeps getting referenced (and the man who painted it is, apparently, a character in a previous book and mentioned in another). I was very confused for much of this book, but I find that's often the case with this author and I trust her to get me to a resolution in the end. I'm still not sure I understood it all having finished it, and I expect I'll need to read it again to appreciate it fully.

What are you making and reading this week?

Weekending, 5787*

I have mixed feelings about the Jewish holidays falling on the weekend. On the one hand, it's nice not to have to burn any vacation time. On the other, it does tend to eat up all the free time. But even if the weekend wasn't as restful as it could be, it was still enjoyable. We had a great meal (in spite of the chaotic environment) on Friday night. Ruthie was clearly a little more anxious than usual with so many people in the house, but she handled it very well, all things considered. I was hoping she'd sleep in on Saturday, but she was up and letting me know it at 6 a.m. as usual! We attended services on Saturday, which didn't start until 11 and didn't end until about 1:45; I left an hour earlier to take Ruthie out and then go get my hair cut (which I would have scheduled later in the afternoon if I thought services were going to go so long!). We ate more of the same meal at my parents' on Saturday evening and then went back there for lunch with some family friends on Sunday. I feel like all I did over the weekend was eat! Today I'm ready to get back to the usual routine.

Friday was such a busy day and I was so tired after running, cleaning, serving, and cleaning up that I didn't have any energy to knit once everyone was gone. But Saturday evening we were done much earlier, so I was able to proceed with my sweater. I had completed all of the short rows at the neck by Thursday night, so that meant I was able to join my second skein (I'm alternating to be safe) and begin the textured portion of the yoke. I've only done the first eyelet section so far, but at least it's starting to look like something:

As this isn't a project I can easily work on during the day, I cast on a new pair of socks for my sister-in-law using yarn from a dyer who recently shared some pretty ugly beliefs and so I won't be naming or recommending the yarn. It was already in my stash and it's pretty, so I thought I would use it for one of the most knitworthy people I know because she will love the colors.

Today Molly has an early dentist appointment and then will drop me off on her way to school (yes, she's driving herself now!), but otherwise we're back to the usual schedule this week, for the most part. We've got curriculum night at Molly's school on Thursday evening, and that basically gives me a night off from cooking because we have to be there at 6:30. Today I'm going to fully enjoy the fact that the high is only supposed to be in the low 70s and I probably will need only one shower!

(*In case you were wondering, the new year on the Jewish calendar is 5787. Yes, it's a big number -- we've been at this for a while! And it's a lunar calendar, which is why the holidays seem to be on a different date every year.)

Commemorations

It's Friday, but it's a special day. Today we mark 25 years since the events of 9/11. I so clearly remember that day, and it's almost incomprehensible to me that it's been 25 years since it happened. Though I don't know anyone who lost their life that day, it's always a solemn day for me and I suspect for everyone who was of a certain age that day. As I do every year on this date, I'll be pausing for a moment of reflection this morning.

On a happier note, this evening we will welcome Rosh Hashanah with a big family meal at our house. As we share apples and honey, we will share our wishes for a sweet new year. And that, dear friends, is what I wish for you -- a year ahead that is happy, healthy, and sweet.

Pre-Weekending

Phew, it's been a long week! Single-parenting is a lot easier now that Molly is self-sufficient (for the most part), but doing all the school runs and cooking and cleaning up all the meals and walking the dog and working full time and donating blood on top of all that, all while dealing with an extreme heat advisory has been a lot, to say the least. It's a good think we have a long weekend coming up without any big plans!

The Mister was due to get back from his trip very early this morning (I'm writing this post on Thursday) and will be working from home today, once he gets up. My office is closing at 2. Molly has school as usual but obviously is done mid-afternoon. I think we're all going to be looking forward to a nice dinner out tonight for our belated anniversary celebration.

I'm still in a weird in-between place in my knitting; I don't want to cast on anything too big because my next imaginary internet points thing starts next Wednesday, but I also don't want to be without knitting, so I'm working on strange things. If the mittens weren't finished by last night, they will be soon, and in the meantime I'm knitting a strange little hat with some fingering-weight singles that I thought were non-superwash but aren't (I was planning to knit up a piece of fabric to felt) and so I pivoted:

This will never be a full Ruthie.

What has become the brim is double-knit using just a single strand. The idea was that I'd knit up a tube, felt it, and then cut it open to make a little holder for scissors, darning needle, etc. But now that I know this won't felt (or at least not easily), it's become a baby/child's hat. I moved to bigger needles and joined the other end of the skein so I'm working double stranded, and I'll try to use up as much of the yarn as I can.

While I can't cast on for my next sweater until next week for it to count, I did wind the other skein and plan to swatch this weekend.

I spun this yarn back in 2016, originally intending to knit a different sweater with it, but it's been hiding in the stash ever since. I've got just a little less than 1,500 yards of it. The size of the sweater I'm planning to make specifies 1,345 yards, so I think I should be fine (especially because I'm pretty sure that's a padded estimate). The yarn is fingering weight, so I think it should make for a good fall/spring sweater.

The heat is finally supposed to break this weekend, and I'm looking forward to being outside without melting. Other than our dinner reservations tonight, our only plans at this point are a haircut for Molly tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps we'll do some grilling for Labor Day or attend the local parade! Or perhaps we'll just hang out, which would be just fine with me. Do you have any plans? Whatever they are, I hope you enjoy them!

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!

Let the Eating Begin

Things have been a little weird this week and I've had a hard time keeping track of what days it is, but I am completely sure that today is Friday, and thank goodness for that. We had dinner at some friends' on Tuesday and were home late, and then last night Molly went to a friend's house for dinner so the Mister and I went out. All of that is outside our normal schedule, so I'm not surprised I've been thrown off.

The construction in our neighborhood is still ongoing and blocked our street again yesterday (fortunately I didn't need to get the car out), and when I called the gas company, all they could tell me was that the work was happening now. The customer service rep also told me that they always notify residents when work is going to be happening, but somehow not a single neighbor I've talked to has heard a thing, so it's not just a case of us missing a piece of mail! I've gotten mostly used to the inconvenience, but it makes my running route and Ruthie's usual walk route a bit like an obstacle course. I guess it's good to keep things interesting!

We have a bit of a big weekend coming up, though the primary activity will be eating. Tomorrow is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. They didn't really want to do anything to commemorate it, but my brother and I convinced them that it was a big milestone and we needed to mark it in some way. So their siblings from out of town are all coming in for the weekend (one uncle is local and just has to drive across town). We're doing a casual dinner Friday night, a fancier dinner on Saturday night, and brunch on Sunday before the out-of-towners go home. In between I'm sure we'll just be hanging out at my parents', where I'm sure my mother will be pushing snacks on us.

This isn't much of an update outside of life stuff, and that's mainly because the knitting is much the same. Will you settle for a cute photo of Ruthie?

This is what she looked like the other morning when I got up to refill my coffee and maybe had just realized that I was coming back and not leaving her. Her expression seems to be saying that she doesn't understand why I would think it odd that she was hiding under the couch.

Have a good weekend and see you back here on Monday with 100% more knitting content!

Oh Bother

I really should learn to stop saying that I'm planning to have a relaxing weekend and that I hope I might be able to sleep in; it really almost never happens. Well, that's not to say that the weekend wasn't relaxing in some ways, but it wasn't the carefree, restful weekend I always hope for. I overdid it a bit on Friday and had both an iced coffee in the afternoon and an alcoholic beverage at dinner, and the combination of the two summoned my old foe acid reflux for a visit, keeping me up for about three hours past my usual bedtime Friday night and then making me feel rotten most of the day Saturday. As if that wasn't convenient enough, I had to contend with this Saturday morning:

This work has been going on in the neighborhood for several weeks and we think they've been replacing gas lines, but we still don't know for sure because the gas company hasn't told us a thing -- not even that we'd be unable to leave our dead-end street for about half the day on Saturday. (I will say that the workers have been lovely and have been stopping traffic for me and Ruthie regularly when we need to cross the street, and they did move that dump truck so I could get to my house when I came back from a Costco run Saturday morning. Calling the gas company is on today's to-do list so I can find out what the heck is going on and when it'll be done as well as whether or not we need to plan for another street closure.) Ruthie and I both napped in the afternoon, and we had a quiet evening in following yet another thunderstorm.

Although I was up at my usual time yesterday, I woke up feeling back to normal and well rested, which was a relief. And it felt a little like fall! The high was only in the mid-70s yesterday, with a nice breeze and intermittent clouds. The Mister and I did the grocery shopping together, Ruthie and I enjoyed our walks, and it was a calm day overall.

I'm still working on that crazy-pooling hat (I'll share an update later in the week), but real progress has been made on the mittens. Here is what they looked like yesterday morning, though by the time you're reading this, I expect they'll be done and ready to be felted:

I'm planning to knit another pair of these when I'm done, and I think this time around I will modify the pattern to knit the cuffs first so I can do a tubular cast-on.

Among the usual stuff to be done this week, I'm hoping to start pulling some yarn and planning out some fall projects, including my next sweater. I've already selected and printed out the pattern, so up next is winding the yarn and swatching. I won't be casting on until at least September 9, but I like getting all my ducks in a row well ahead of time so I can dive right in.

Have a good start to your week and see you back here for an update on Wednesday!

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.

A Familiar Refrain

Happy Friday, friends. Sometimes I feel like this is getting to be a weather blog instead of a knitting blog! It's continued to be a damp week, though thankfully not as wet as it started out. As of yesterday, we've gotten 4.16 inches of rain so far this month; our average is about 3.5 inches total for all of August. So the grass is looking great and I haven't had to worry about watering the plants, but some of our neighbors also look like they're running mushroom farms.

Don't worry; Ruthie hasn't tried to eat any.

 With all of that moisture, I'm not surprised that it took two days for my latest skein of handspun to dry (and it's not like it was dripping after it was washed -- I squeezed a lot out and rolled it in a dry towel and snapped it vigorously). But yesterday it was finally dry enough to measure and photograph.

The colorway is called Solstice, and I think this blurple (that's blue/purple) is a great representation of a winter sky, especially with snow on the way. I know my photos probably don't do it justice.

The fiber was a mix of 60% Merino, 30% silk, and 10% angora. The silk was a bit slubby, and I had to pause and pull it apart in places to get it to actually draft, but the result is that there are some nubby bits where it didn't want to be drafted (you can see some of them in this photo). I think it gives the yarn some character, though a younger version of me would have been more annoyed that my yarn wasn't uniform. After plying and washing, the yarn is in the fingering to sport range, and I've got approximately 433 yards of it in the skein. One weird thing about it is that it gave off a strange smell when I washed it that wasn't the wet wool or wet silk smells I've experienced in the past. Maybe it was the angora? Fortunately it went away when the yarn dried. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with the skein, because I have no plans for it -- all I wanted to do was get it from fiber to yarn!

I similarly have no real plans this weekend, other than hoping to meet up with a knitting friend who will be in town this weekend to move her daughter into college. Tomorrow is supposed to be the one dry day for a while, so I'm sure I'll be outside a lot! I hope you also have some good weather to allow you to enjoy the middle of August.

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.

Recovery Day

We are back -- and I am very glad I'd planned to take today off to recover from the trip. It's not that the trip was all that taxing, but we did not sleep especially well (both children and adults being loud in the hotel hallway in the middle of the night both nights), and of course now there's laundry to do and the house to get back in order, because the Mister didn't do much while we were gone -- he didn't even put away the coffee pot from Friday! Later this morning I will go pick Ruthie up, and at some point today I will give her a bath because after a weekend of playing with other dogs outside, I'm sure she badly needs one. I'm sure we'll need to do some laundry today, and Molly wants to go get her driver's license card (we had to wait to get the from in the mail from PennDOT), so it will be a full day without work.

It was nice to spend the weekend with family, though it feels a bit like all we did was sit around and eat! It's about a five-hour drive up to the Detroit area, and both on the way there and on the way back we stopped at a service plaza somewhere in Ohio to have lunch and break up the drive, so it took us closer to six hours each way. The eating included a stop at Leo's Coney Island, where I did partake of just one coney (for those of you who are unfamiliar with this delicacy, it's a hot dog covered in a meat chili topped with onions and mustard):

Our plans were largely built around the little kids and their sleeping schedule, so we had relatively early evenings, and between the time in the car, the time sitting around and talking at my aunt and uncle's, and the time in the hotel in the evenings, I got quite a lot of knitting done. My scarf has grown enough that I need to fold it up to get it all in a photo:

and by the time we pulled into our driveway yesterday afternoon, I'd started the decreases on the hat:

I'd originally intended this to be added to the charity pile, but my mother informed me that this purple is actually my sister-in-law's favorite color, so now I think it'll become a birthday or Christmas present for her.

After today, this week should be pretty typical, and I'm looking forward to a regular schedule. We'll see what I missed at work after three days away -- not much, I hope! What I did miss was puppy snuggles, so I'll be trying to get in as many of those as I can (and after being away from me for several days, I'm sure Ruthie will be extra clingy). Here's hoping your week and month are off to a good start. See you back here on Wednesday for an Unraveled update!

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.

Feel-Good Friday, Late July Edition

This has been a challenging week for a number of reasons, most having to do with not getting enough sleep. I'll spare you the boring details; suffice it to say that I'm happy it's Friday. And instead of wallowing in the less-than-happy things, let's instead focus on the good in this week that was.

I mentioned at the beginning of the week that the Mister was going to be out of town for work for a few days this week. I took advantage of his absence to completely empty the stash closet and put everything on his side of the bedroom. Molly took a stab at organizing things on Tuesday while I was working, and then Wednesday night, after I put Ruthie to bed, the two of us went through all the bins and bags to put things together logically. Molly claimed some leftovers, some mini skeins, and some full skeins for herself (she's been doing a lot of crocheted motifs to make blankets). I consolidated handspun and unspun fiber into fewer containers. And we organized the yarn into bins containing full skeins/sweater quantities and collected all the fingering weight bits that could be used in charity projects. Some things were just plain thrown out because they were of no use to me or anyone else. And now the closet looks like this:

Spinning fiber is all on the left, handspun is in the center, and yarn is to the right. The Cascade bag on top of the fiber is all the bits of fingering, so I can just pull that out and pull out scraps as needed, and the soft plastic cases on top of the yarn bins is projects that have been packed away. I also want to point out that right at the top of the handspun pile is a smaller plastic bag that I deliberately left out -- it's the handspun I couldn't find that triggered this reorganization process in the first place!

Other good things: I finally blocked and photographed my most recent pair of socks (I'm writing up the pattern and will need photos, so that was good motivation):

And I've been continuing to spin almost every evening and finished the first 2 oz. (of 6 oz. total) of this lovely merino/silk/angora fiber that my friend Margene sent me:

I'm hoping we can finish up this week with some really good news: Molly is scheduled to take her driving test later this morning. She's been getting good feedback from the driving instructor (all the credit goes to the Mister for getting her out on busy and difficult roads), so I am feeling good about her chances. I know she's very much like me and won't be reckless, but nerves are always something to contend with. If you have some good thoughts to send her way at 11:30 this morning, I'm sure she'd appreciate it! Update: She passed!

I hope this past week has brought you clearer air if, like me, you were recently dealing with smoke from the forest fires. Our air has been so much better and our weather has been absolutely stunning the past couple of days -- it was in the 50s when I took Ruthie out first thing yesterday! I also hope you've been able to find some things to feel good about, and please feel free to share them in the comments, as I think we can all use a good lift! Have a lovely weekend.

Mid-July Weekending

Did I say I was going to have a relaxing weekend? If so, I must've jinxed it. That's not to say that I didn't get time to myself, but when your Saturday starts with an alarm going off at 5:45 (a certain spouse of mine turned on his weekday alarm without thinking) followed by a thunderstorm, it's probably an indication that things are going to be more exciting than you bargained for.

When I took Ruthie out for her morning walk, I noticed that it smelled like a campfire outside -- different from the smoke from the wildfires, which smelled more plastic-y. When we got to the business district of our neighborhood, I discovered the source:

It's hard to make out what's in the photos, but the black and red storefront you see just to the right of center is a ramen restaurant that caught fire Saturday morning. By the time we walked by, the fire was out, but there were still five fire trucks, at least two police cars (to block traffic), and a truck from the Salvation Army there as well as two news cameras, which you might be able to make out in the photo (one in front of the person wearing the blue shirt and one to the left of that, by the rear wheel of that black SUV). No one was hurt, thank goodness, but the building is now condemned. And it was much more excitement than we're used to on a Saturday morning -- I think Ruthie was a bit overwhelmed by the noise and the lights.

We had thunderstorms and heavy rain on and off all that day, including when I took Ruthie out at midday, and we both got completely drenched even though I'd checked the radar before we left and it was clear! The rain was very welcome, though, and it helped to cool down the temperatures and clear out some of the smoke. And yesterday was beautiful and so much more comfortable.

Some highlights from the weekend include going out to dinner on Friday night, where we were seated right next to my parents (no, we didn't plan it!); picking some more zucchinis that seemed to grow overnight as well as some more ripe tomatoes; making zucchini bread with some of those zucchinis; and sleeping in on Sunday (I made sure to tell the Mister to double-check that his alarm wasn't on when we went to bed). 

This is what happens when a zucchini grows up against the side of your fencing.

I also got to measure and photograph that skein of handspun:

I ended up with about 296 yards of two-ply that's roughly sport weight, though it varies a bit like any good handspun does. Because of the high silk content, it has incredible drape and sheen. I'm very happy with it. I might even knit something with it, and soon!

The weekend ended with dinner with my side of the family for my brother's birthday, for which I made an ice cream grasshopper pie:

It wasn't going to win any beauty contests, but it sure tasted good -- especially because I made the crust with Thin Mints!

The Mister is at a charity golf event today, and I'll be meeting him for the dinner portion. Then he's away on a work trip for a few days, so it'll be just us girls at home -- and I'm going to use his absence to do some stash organization because I can spread things out on his side of the bedroom. I'll be sure to share an update on that later in the week.

Have a good start to your week, and see you back here on Wednesday!