Short and Long

For a short week, it's been a long one. Being the only parent at home is certainly a lot easier now that Mo is a teenager and fairly self-sufficient, but it does mean twice the driving (usually the Mister does drop off in the morning and I do pickup in the afternoon) and cleaning up after dinner in addition to cooking, so I've been busier than usual this past week while he's been at a work conference. But he got home last night, so we're back to the normal routine for one day before we have another long weekend.

I am just about done with the Newborn Vertebrae, and I very well may finish it today if I can find an hour or two to knit:

I wound off yarn before starting both sleeves so that the stripe sequence wouldn't be interrupted, and I'm hopeful that the sleeves will match each other well enough. Obviously the recipient isn't going to care one way or the other, but it's the kind of thing that would bother me if they didn't match.

Yesterday I also managed to ply the first of my sleeve skeins for my sweater spin:

The singles were spun so quickly that I didn't even mention that I was spinning them! I'm hoping to skein this up today and also get started on the second skein. It would be great to have all the yarn spun and be ready to cast on the sweater in time for the kick-off of the Pigskin Party next week!

We don't have any really exciting plans for Labor Day weekend, though we'll be getting together with family. This evening my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew have plans, so instead of our usual family Friday night dinner at my parents' house, we are taking my parents to Friday night services at our synagogue (they haven't been since we hired our cantor) and then the five of us are going out to dinner to celebrate my parents' anniversary yesterday (48 years!) and our anniversary Monday (17 years). We'll be having dinner with all the family, my in-laws, and my brother's in-laws on Sunday, and then Monday we may be going to the Labor Day parade because there's a chance both the president and the vice president will be here for it! I think I am most excited about the fact that the temperature is supposed to drop after today and that we are supposed to get more rain tomorrow. I am sick of the heat and humidity!

Have a wonderful weekend, whatever you have planned!

Unraveled, Week 35/2024

Weeks that start with a Monday off feel simultaneously long and short, and this one is no exception. It's also back to school week! Mo is now officially a high schooler (no, I don't know where the time went, either).

She got to ease into the start of the new school year with a half day on Monday, which seemed a little ridiculous to me, but I don't make the schedule. Yesterday was her first day of classes. She's taking geometry and physics in addition to French, history, and English, plus she's taking glee club (choir) and clay/ceramics as her electives. It should be an interesting year! One extra-nice thing about school this year, at least from my perspective, is that lunch and snack are now included with tuition, so I don't have to pack her lunch (or remind her to pack her lunch) or clean out a lunch box every day. Apparently the roll-out of getting everyone through the lunch line didn't go so smoothly yesterday, but I'm sure it'll get better very soon.

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers and to update you on my making and my reading.

I've spent quite a bit of time the last few days working on this, which looks like it could be a hat with cat ears for an adult but is, in fact, a newborn sweater. I have knit this pattern enough that I didn't read the instructions carefully and actually knit past where I needed to on the body, so I had to pull out my needles, reinsert them into the knitting where I should have stopped, and rip out several stripes' worth of knitting. Fortunately this sweater is small enough that what was ripped did not represent too much time. I have departed just a bit from the pattern in that, after I bound off the ribbing for the body, I kept the last stitch live and immediately picked up around the fronts and neck for the body ribbing. The pattern doesn't have you do this until the very end, but I didn't see the need to add two more ends to weave in on such a small piece.

I have also put in some rounds here and there on my Malabrigo hat; I've been thinking of it as my work project because I can knit on it while I'm reading something for or at work.

The camera is washing out the yarn quite a bit here -- in real life, it's much more vibrant! I'm thinking this might make a good hat for my middle nephew, who has a big noggin, so it may get put away with the holiday gifts instead of going into the charity pile.

Reading has been good, thanks to a bit of quiet at the end of last week and an extra-long weekend.

After setting it aside for a couple of weeks while reading several library books, I finally got back to True Biz late last week and focused on finishing it. The story is set primarily at a residential school for the deaf in a Rust Belt town in Ohio and focuses on three main characters: February, the headmistress of the school, who is a CODA (child of deaf adults); Austin, who comes from a very well-known deaf family in the town; and Charlie, a new student at the school whose mother insisted on her getting a cochlear implant that she hates and who has never really been around other deaf people. The book has a lot to do with these individuals and their lives at the school and with their families, but it also has a good deal to say about Deaf culture and how American society has dealt with deafness in its history. This was a book I appreciated reading with my eyes because the chapters are interspersed with instructional material about American Sign Language, articles about the history of the deaf in American society, and other documents. I gave it 4 stars.

This past week also marked a big reading accomplishment: I finished A Suitable Boy! There's technically still this week left in our original reading schedule, but I really wanted to find out how it would end (and also wanted to have some time to read another book for a discussion in early September). This book follows the members of four families -- the Mehras, the Kapoors, the Khans, and the Chatterjis -- over the course of about a year and a half in the early 1950s in India, not long after Partition and independence. The title refers to one of the overarching themes, that of Mrs. Mehra trying to find a suitable husband for her younger daughter, Lata, but the book follows so many different plot lines and deals with quite a lot of serious subjects: Indian politics, religion, caste, generational differences, colonialism, colorism, prejudice in all its forms, and of course the usual drama around love and marriage. It is rare for me to find a book that makes me both laugh and cry and that keeps me entertained for nearly 1,500 pages, but this book did! I gave it 5 stars, and I'm sad that I'm finished because I got so used to reading it almost every night before bed this summer!

Finished just yesterday afternoon, The Seed Keeper tells the story of Rosalie Iron Wing, who was raised by her father until his untimely death and then placed by the state in with a white foster family. We follow her as she marries a farmer, has a son, and then returns to the cabin where she lived with her father as part of an effort to reconnect with her identity and to the Dakota culture from which she was separated as a child. Through it all is a connection with the earth and a respect for nature, and we learn of the history of the women in Rosalie's family, who kept seeds as sacred objects because of the power they have to feed us and to connect us with those who came before. I gave it 4 stars.

Now I am reading Enlightenment, a release from earlier in the year that is on the Booker Prize longlist, and The Road Home, the next book to be discussed among those of us reading past winners of the Women's Prize for Fiction.

What are you making and reading this week?

Better in 2024: August

It's shocking to me that it's already the last week of August and that my kid is starting high school today, but such is life, am I right? It's the last Monday of the month, and that means it's time to check in with my One Little Word. Thanks, as always, to Carolyn for hosting the monthly link party!

Whereas in past months I've focused on one specific part or aspect of life that's been Better, this month, it really felt like a more general sentiment -- that life and my outlook on it have been generally improved since this time last month.

Obviously things are finally getting fixed on the work front. It's not done yet, but at least I know that it will be. Union ballots are now either in the hands of eligible employees or have already been mailed back, and I'm feeling hopeful for a outcome in favor of the union. Both of these things are likely to improve my daily life (and certainly the presence of a union in the past year would have helped a lot with the job classification debacle).

More broadly, the changes in the political landscape over the past month have me feeling a lot more optimistic about the state of this country and where it's headed. It's been encouraging to see the excitement and enthusiasm within the party, especially among younger people, in a way I really hadn't seen since the Obama years. I'm sure I'll still have plenty of moments of anxiety over the next several months, but, in general, I'm feeling, well, Better!

And in a very literal way, I've been feeling physically Better because we've had a roughly weeklong break from the heat and humidity, and that cooler weather has enabled me to have easier and more effective workouts. I feel better and sleep better when I get high-quality exercise, and that's a lot easier to do when I'm not struggling to breathe just because the air is so heavy and I'm not sweating so much that I feel like a puddle at the end.

I think what all of these facets of Better have in common is that they are largely out of my control, but while I can't always take an active role in making things Better, I can certainly take the time to focus on them and notice when they are.

Let's Get the Weekending Started

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Unraveled, Week 34/2024

Happy hump day, friends! It's time for my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers, always the highlight of my week!

I can now update you with the details of the handspun skein I shared on Monday (the cooler weather meant that it took almost two days to fully dry!).

The skein is 125 g, so a bit more than 4 ounces, and I have approximately 476 yards. I was a bit surprised to get that much yardage, but then again, with the high silk content in the fiber, it clearly cooperated with being spun quite fine.

I also took this photo of part of the skein, which I think illustrates how the transition works quite well:

I'm still working on my two -- no, make that three -- current WIPs. I've added a bit to my socks and the hat, though the Newborn Vertebrae doesn't look all that much different. In the past week, my brain has been so fried by the end of the day that I haven't wanted to do much knitting that would require me to pay attention, like remembering to do increases, for instance. But I know that once I get back to the sweater, it will work up quickly.

The good news this week is that I've actually managed to do some reading! Apparently library books, which have the inherent threat of being whisked back to the library, are a good motivator, as the three I've finished in the past week were all borrowed and all read fairly quickly.

The first is a book that I probably wouldn't recommend to everyone because it has all the content warnings. But I was intrigued by Little Rot after hearing an interview with the author on The Stacks podcast. I also think Akwaeke Emezi is a very talented writer, and I'm very interested in how they manage to take on so many different genres with their work. This newest novel examines the dark side of Lagos, Nigeria, and the titular rot that seems to pervade all aspects of life there. It takes place over the course of a day or so and follows a handful of characters who lives become intertwined in a dangerous and dark series of events. I think the book is well done and well written, but it's a hard read. If you're a sensitive reader, I'd avoid this one. I gave it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Book number two was much more enjoyable, even if it does deal with some serious subjects. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water was written by a local-to-me author (she's the director of the writing program at Pitt), and it's been on my radar since it was published two years ago. It tells the story of Cara Romero, a Dominican immigrant in New York City struggling to make ends meet after the factory where she worked shuttered and moved overseas. Her story is told in a series of sessions with a job counselor and interspersed with job applications, letters from her landlord, job coaching videos, and other ephemera. It was absolutely delightful on audio, not only because the narrator very convincingly sounds like Cara but because there are other sounds included -- the ding of an elevator, the sound of a noisy hallway, the scratch of a pencil. I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, after putting off my hold twice, I finally had time to read The God of the Woods. This is a very buzzy book right now, and for good reason. It opens in 1975 at a summer camp adjacent to a private estate, and the daughter of the landowners has gone missing -- reminding many of when her younger brother went missing more than a decade earlier. These two mysteries unfold over the course of the novel in shifting timelines and from several different points of view. It's propulsive and tightly written; I couldn't put it down. I also thought I knew where it was going several times and was completely wrong. The book is almost 500 pages but didn't seem long at all. I definitely recommend this one and gave it 5 stars.

I'm now back to reading True Biz, which I ignored for a while due to library holds and work generally being busy, and I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to finish A Suitable Boy -- I have less than 200 pages left!

Finally, some exciting news: My union ballot has been received, filled out, and mailed!

The Weekend I Needed

After the stress of last week, I am so thankful to have had a nearly uneventful weekend. I got sleep, I exercised, I got my chores done, and I had plenty of time for crafts and reading. We got some much-needed rain. And I wasn't even too bitter when my alarm went off this morning!

I say "nearly uneventful" because there was a bit of excitement yesterday. The Mister and I both woke up shortly before 6 a.m. yesterday morning thinking we'd heard a crash, but we both noticed that the cable box had turned on, so we figured the power had blipped and the sound we heard was everything resetting. When he went out to do the grocery shopping later in the morning, though, he discovered that part of a tree in our neighbors' yard had fallen, taking out part of their fence and hitting the power line on the hillside below it:

While we lost power only briefly, the other side of the street was completely out for most of the day. Luckily the power company was on it, and one they were able to get to the branch and saw off the parts that were pulling on the line, power was restored. Some of you might remember that, three years ago, another branch pulled down a power line on the same hillside and the whole street was without power for a couple of days, so I'm glad it wasn't as big of an issue this time around!

I'm also thankful that my crafting didn't rely on power in any case. I spent a good amount of the weekend at my wheel, plying this long-in-progress skein:

This is the body skein for my next handspun sweater, and I'm hoping those of you who couldn't quite understand my color progression explanation will get it now that you can see the skein. It's still fairly damp, so I don't have yardage yet, but based on the number of wraps on my niddy-noddy, I'm not concerned. The mini skein off to the side is a two ply from the singles that were left after two of the three bobbins ran out. Once I focused on the final bobbin of singles, this skein was finished up fairly quickly (isn't it funny how that works?), so I'm pretty confident I can get the two (much smaller) sleeve skeins done soon, maybe by the end of the month. It would be great to be able to cast on the sweater in September!

This week is likely to be busy, but I have an extra-long weekend coming up. I'm taking Friday off because it's Mo's last day of summer break, so we're going to have a girls' day with my mother, and she has a half day next Monday for her first day, so I'm taking that day off as well so we can do lunch when I pick her up. I might regret it next week when work is piling up, but I'll try to enjoy the time off as much as I can.

Have a great start to your week! See you back here on Wednesday.

Bright Spots

Ah, Friday. It's been another long, stressful week, mostly due to work stuff. I'll spare you the details, mainly because they're not that interesting and it's a lot like flogging a dead horse, but I am hopeful things will improve soon. I have a meeting scheduled next Thursday with my supervisor and someone higher up in my office plus the two people who have been in charge of the job classification issue for all of my office to discuss the changing of my (incorrect) non-exempt job classification to one that better represents what I actually do and that is a salaried position. Knowing how slowly things move with my employer, I'm sure it'll be a while before it's all resolved, but I am hopeful we're at least in the last chapter of this saga.

Instead of whining today, I thought I'd share some bright spots from the past week, specifically the past few days.

On Wednesday, Mo and I got to dog-sit unexpectedly. My brother had confused his schedule a bit and had to be in all-day negotiations that he thought were on Thursday, so he asked if we could take Leo for the day. That meant we got to take him for a walk in the neighborhood midday, and while he was sniffing something, we spotted a hummingbird flying in and out of a bunch of flowers across the street. I could have tried to take a photo, but it wouldn't have done it justice, so I opted to just enjoy the moment.

The past two evenings, I've cast on some new projects. First, because I like having something I can knit on without looking, I started another top-down hat. I did have to pay attention during the crown increases, but because I'm making this one of my double-layer hats, I have a lot of plain stockinette in the round to go.

This yarn is the Malabrigo sock yarn that was in the box with the swift and ball winder I got in the swap at the retreat last month, and I thought it was just brown and green until I started knitting and discovered all these colorful pops! I'm not sure if this'll be added to the charity pile or become a gift, but it doesn't really matter at this point.

I also started a Newborn Vertebrae (Ravelry link) for my niece using some special Fibernymph Dye Works MCN that I've been saving for a special occasion.

The yarn is from 2022 and was the special skein dyed for those who participated in Lisa's yearlong makealong that year. The colorway is called Community because the colors were selected from a mashup of all the ravatars of participants in the makealong. I think an MCN is perfect for a newborn, and it's exciting to be knitting something tiny for this baby -- I didn't do anything this small for her brother because he was born in May (though who could have predicted we'd have a freak cold spell and I'd be wearing a wool sweater when I met him the first time?). I've knit this pattern many times as a baby gift, and as I've done in the past, I'll be knitting a little hat to go with it.

Yesterday work was quiet enough that I could spend some time reading and spinning, and that time was enough to finish the singles on my final bobbin for the contrast skein for the body of my sweater project, so today I am ready to ply:

I don't know if I'll be able to ply today, but if not, I'll do it this weekend.

Finally, though there are some issues for me due to all the job drama, I got a notification that union ballots were officially sent out yesterday! Faculty have already unionized at my university, but this is an effort to unionize the staff that's been in progress for a couple of years. Ballots aren't due to be returned and counted until mid- to late September, but I'm hoping that before too long I'll be able to say I'm a proud member of United Steelworkers!

That's all I've got for today. Hope you have a good end to your week and a relaxing weekend ahead. See you back here on Monday!

Unraveled, Week 33/2024

Well, I jinxed myself. I put it in writing that I was hoping for an easy workweek, and the universe conspired against me and sent me a ton of work that I didn't stop until shortly before dinner on Monday. I've learned my lesson! Fortunately because of that work and some other stuff going on around the office, our team meeting was virtual yesterday, so I got to stay home (where I'm more productive anyway!).

But enough about work -- it's Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! A wee bit of knitting has been done the last couple of days, in large part thanks to meetings (oh, so many meetings), and I have finished my charity hat:

This was the perfect knitting for what's been happening lately -- I really only had to think while I was increasing the crown, and then I switched to ribbing when I felt like it was long enough. I used my Spinning in Infinity pattern (Ravelry link) and US 5/3.75 mm and US 4/3.5 mm needles. I ended up using the equivalent of about half of the skein of yarn, from which Mo had already crocheted a charity hat while we were at the retreat, and there was a small ball weighing about 5 g remaining. Not bad!

While given the choice, I will still prefer to knit with natural fibers, I was rather impressed with the quality of this 100% acrylic yarn. It feels good and is not squeaky to work with. IT was a bit splitty, but that's down more to the construction of it than the fiber content. And certainly for a charity hat, with an unknown recipient with unknown laundering abilities, it makes a lot of sense.

I have once again failed to finish a book in the last week. Being busy at work has played a part, but I've also been focused on A Suitable Boy. At some point I mistakenly thought I was a week ahead, and the result is that I ended up a week behind, so I had to read two weeks' worth of chapters to get caught up. And now that I have a little more than 300 pages remaining, I'm feeling excited about finishing! The way I see it, this one book is the length of approximately five average-length books, so I'm not being too hard on myself about my lack of finishes lately.

What are you making and reading this week? Anyone else feel like they need to cram in more books before the end of the summer?

Pretty Perfect

Good morning, dear readers! I wasn't exactly happy when my alarm went off this morning, but I woke up having had a pretty spectacular weekend. For one thing, the weather was spectacular. After the remnants of Debby moved through on Friday, the temperature and the humidity level dropped and we had sun and blue skies. It was actually a bit chilly in the shade! That meant that we could quite comfortably spend time outside instead of hiding in the air conditioning.

We had a really nice visit with our cousins, though it was very brief -- they arrived late Friday afternoon and left after breakfast on Saturday. Despite not living that far away from these cousins (they live in Chicago), we don't often see them, so it was a treat to spend time with them for the second time in three months.

After breakfast on Saturday, Mo and I went to the big used book sale with my parents. It wasn't quite as big as I was expecting, but I still found quite a lot -- and it was a steal, at $15 for a paper grocery bag full, so I pretty much picked up any book I saw that I was interested in. This is what I came home with:

I have read two of these books but didn't own them, but one of those -- the one at the far left in the bottom row -- is pretty special. The Blue Nature was written by one of my two high school English teachers (I had her freshman and junior year). I read the book back when I was in high school because the school library had a copy; I think it was out of print back then. I never in a million years would have expected to find a copy! This one was a little beat up, but I snatched it up right away and will treasure having it. I'm planning on putting it on my bookshelf next to the book from the collection of my other high school English teacher that I received as a gift with the English prize when I graduated. (If you're wondering, the other book I'd already read was Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.)

A fair amount of knitting was accomplished over the weekend, too:

Somehow my new socks, even though they have patterning every other round, seem to be moving much father than my father-in-law's socks did. Yes, they have fewer stitches, but you'd think plain stockinette would've been faster. I also put in some time on the charity hat while reading, and I don't think it'll be on the needles much longer.

I am hoping this week is a little less busy than last week, as least as far as work is concerned, because I'd love to have a little more time for reading. I had two library holds come up over the weekend and had to delay one, so now I'm trying to finish the first book before the next one comes my way

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

Out with the Old, In with the New

It's a gloomy, slightly soggy Friday morning here in Pittsburgh as the remains of Debby are moving through. Fortunately it looks like most of the rain is going to stay east of us (we could still use the rain, but I also want to go for a run this morning and don't care for running in wet shoes). The good news is that the humidity is supposed to go way down after the rain moves out, and I am more than ready for that!

As promised, after I posted on Wednesday, I did cast on some new projects. First, I started a new charity hat so I'd have something mindless to work on. I knit the crown during a couple of work meetings that day and now have started just working in the round until it's long enough to do the ribbing.

The yarn I'm using might surprise you -- it's totally acrylic! This is the remains of a skein of Lion Brand Mandala Ombré that was originally on the giveaway table at the retreat last month. Mo crocheted a hat to add to the donations that were being collected for Knit the Rainbow while we were there, so I brought the rest home to make my own hat. It's actually not too bad to work with, though it is a little splitty because of the way it's made (it's a cabled yarn, so it's a bunch of two-ply yarns twisted together without the stickiness of wool to hold it together). I do like the colors, and I'm sure it'll make someone happy.

I have also started a new pair of socks for moi!

This is a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway Sugarplummed. I've had it in my stash for at least a year, and I'd actually wound it and taken it to the retreat last month thinking that I would fly through my father-in-law's socks and need yarn to cast on another pair. Ha! I thought I'd do an actual pattern rather than just plain-old stockinette to change things up a bit. It's basically this pattern (Ravelry link), though I didn't buy the pattern and instead just figured out how to make the chevrons work with my gauge and my stitch count. It's a pretty easy two-round repeat with the stitch pattern worked only on the front of the leg/instep, so it's moving fairly quickly. I cast on Wednesday evening and already have about four inches of the leg knit.

This weekend we have some fun things planned. This evening some cousins are coming to stay with us on their way home from vacation, so we'll have dinner together tonight and breakfast tomorrow before they leave. I'm also planning to go to the big used book sale at a local church that I've been looking forward to all year since I missed it last year and had major FOMO when I saw the amazing stack of books that my sister-in-law bought. A library hold on a new release just came up for me, and the weather is going to be spectacular on top of all that. I'm sure there won't be enough time for all I want to do, but that's life!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Unraveled, Week 32/2024

It's Wednesday again (already?), and that means it's time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers -- with an FO!

Apologies for the terrible photo, but we had a couple of thunderstorms yesterday and more rain overnight and this morning, so it's a bit gloomy outside (and let's be honest, dark gray socks are always going to be hard to photograph). These were finished up just before I went to bed last night -- I was determined to finish them, even though it meant weaving in ends at an hour at which my eyesight was not at its best! There's not too much to say about these because they're not terribly exciting. I used my stockinette sock recipe over 72 stitches on size 0/2.0 mm needles. The yarn is probably the most exciting thing about these in that it's from deep stash. This yarn was so old that I can't even find a record of it in my Knit Picks order history, which means I bought it prior to 2010, which is as far back as my order history goes. The editing history on the yarn's Ravelry page indicates that it was marked discontinued in September 2009, and I likely bought it on clearance around then (I suspect to add enough to my cart to get free shipping). That means the yarn had been in my stash likely since before Mo was born! These are for my father-in-law for a holiday gift for this year, and I suspect he'll be more enthusiastic about the colorful nepps than I was.

I now have zero projects on the needles, so this morning I'll have to start something new to keep me awake during two work meetings today. I think a charity hat will be up first, but I'm contemplating my next big project (another sweater, maybe?).

I've been trying to get to my reading in the past week but have been thwarted by a lot of work, so I've only finished one book.

My brother gave me a copy of Persepolis for my birthday this year, which was a nice surprise because it's a book I'd been wanting to read. This is a graphic novel (part of a series) about the author's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It was interesting to read about her understanding (and frequent misunderstanding) of what was going on around her, though I'll admit that I often felt confused -- though perhaps that was the intention -- about the politics surrounding the events. I know that my knowledge of the history of Iran is limited, so maybe I just need to read a bit more to get a little more context to fully appreciate this book. I gave it 3 stars.

This week I am focused on reading A Suitable Boy because I somehow got a week behind -- but I am past page 1000! I still have nearly 500 pages left to read, but at least I feel like I'm in the home stretch.

What are you making and reading this week?

Early August Weekending

Waking up on Monday morning is always hard, but this morning didn't seem to be so bad after I finally caught up on sleep this weekend. Thank goodness! Last week was very stressful, so I needed that rest.

We didn't have a lot planned for the weekend, though as usual it got busier than expected. After sleeping until almost 8 on Saturday, I filled my morning with errands and chores -- post office, UPS drop-off, liquor store, cleaning the bathrooms, doing laundry. Very exciting stuff! But it was all stuff that had to get done, and once it was done, I could relax. We had some rain move through in the afternoon and on and off overnight, which we very badly needed. Yesterday was clear and beautiful, and we spent the afternoon at some friends' pool. And the exciting part of all that is that I made some good progress on the boring socks:

I've officially completed the gusset decreases on sock number two, so it's smooth sailing from here on out. I've got two meetings and a lot of reading to do today, so these will be on hand and getting some attention, and perhaps by the time we get to Wednesday, they will be finished!

Monotony

Oh, what a week it has been. It's been hot and humid. Work's been busy. I haven't been sleeping well. Good thing there's a weekend coming!

Right now the only thing I am working on is a pair of very boring socks.

I'm knitting these for my father-in-law, who has big feet (10.25 inches) and pretty plain taste but who is also easily impressed by things I make for him. The yarn was from deep stash, no doubt something bought on clearance to get me to free shipping, so it feels good to use it up. And these are working well as a mindless project, as I can knit on them without looking much, so I can get in a few rounds here and there while I'm working and my hands aren't needed. But sheesh, they are a boring knit! I think you know now why I like self-striping yarn so much -- at least the colors change it up! I have been tempted to cast on something else, but I have a feeling that if I do, I'll get distracted and these will be ignored. So, for now, I'm being monogamous, at least until the second sock is off the needles.

It's supposed to be hot and potentially rainy this weekend (we need the rain), so I'm viewing it as a good excuse to stay cool inside. We're supposed to have a pool party with some family and some family friends on Sunday afternoon, which should be fun, but the only other thing I have on my calendar is an exit interview with someone from the synagogue board. I hope to sleep, read, and maybe get this pair of socks done so I can move on to more interesting knitting!

I'll leave you with this beautiful sight that I saw when I looked out the bedroom window (please pardon the window screen) the other evening, thanks so some storms that finally held together:

Have a good weekend, friends!

Unraveled, Week 31/2024

It's the last day of July, and it's a Wednesday, so that means it's time to check in with Kat and the Unravelers. And I'd like to start off by introducing you to a new friend:

Friends, meet Ann Hatch It*, my Emotional Support Chicken. Like me, she loves nothing more than curling up with a good book. She's also a little bottom heavy like me (ha) thanks to a bag of poly pellets inside to help her sit upright. I made her a little more petite than my last one, in part because the yarn I was using was a bit thinner but also because I went down to a US 5/3.75 mm needle for a tighter fabric. I am quite happy with that decision, as I don't really need an enormous stuffed chicken (but a smaller one is okay).

I used yarn from two local dyers (both of whom are friends, too!). The variegated gray was a one-of-a-kind skein that I won from Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works as part of her yearly make-along. The burgundy is HipStrings Buoy DK leftover from this sweater. Mo gave me a bit of acrylic yarn she had leftover from a crochet project for the beak. As I did in the first one, I omitted the wattle from mine; I don't think it's needed and would be likely to get pulled off easily if I made it, so I just left it off.

In knitting this pattern a second time, and anticipating that I very well might knit it again, I'm glad that I made notes on it the first time around so that I had some guideposts along the way. I wouldn't call it a very well-written pattern, or at least it's not written the way I would write it, but I know what I'm doing with it now. This time around, I'm making some notes to myself about leaving some of the ends un-woven-in so that I can use them in the sewing up.

Now that Ann is done, the only project I have on the needles is a rather boring pair of socks for my father-in-law. That means I'll likely be casting on something new soon.

Reading has been good the past week, though I have only finished one book:

The Ministry of Time is the next Read With Us selection, and I've been looking forward to reading it. I'm glad that I bought it on Kindle because it's the kind of book I have a feeling I'm going to want to go back and read. I know a lot of you have either already read this or are planning to read it ahead of our RWU discussion, so I won't get into the plot or too much discussion because I don't want to give too much away. I will say that I really enjoyed it, I think mainly because the writing felt to me more like a book from the 18th or 19th century (very much my comfort zone), and I thought it was really smart, which I always appreciate. Although a lot of what I've read about this book seems to be focused on the time travel aspect, I think the author really has some interesting and meaningful things to say about displacement and being a refugee, whether that's in your own time or a different time. This would have been a five-star read for me had things not fallen apart a bit at the end, which I didn't feel fit with the rest of the book, so I gave it 4 stars. I'm looking forward to our discussion and to rereading it (eventually!) because there is a lot going on it in and I know a discussion will make me appreciate it more.

I'm still keeping up with my weekly pages in A Suitable Boy, and I've started reading Persepolis, which my brother gave me for my birthday this year, on paper and True Biz on Kindle. They're both books I've been wanting to read, but I got the kick in the pants I needed from a summer bingo from a podcast I recently started listening to. They'll fulfill squares for "Read a book in translation" and "Read something by or about a person with a disability," respectively.

That's all I've got, folks! Today my in-laws are moving to their new condo, so tonight we'll be taking dinner to them because I'm sure they'll be exhausted and overwhelmed. Frankly, as it's supposed to be hot and humid today and it's a running day for me, I'm sure I'll be feeling much the same.

*The accepted practice for these chickens seems to be giving them a punny name, so I decided to get some inspiration from one of my favorite writers.

Better in 2024: July

We've arrived at the final Monday of the month, which means it's time to check in with my One Little Word.

Some months reflecting on my One Little Word is more of a challenge, but this month, I didn't have to think about it at all because I knew exactly how I was Better this month (and if you were paying attention a couple of weeks ago, you'll realize that I was aware of it at the time). In going to the TwinSet Summer Retreat this month, I was Better at doing things that intimidate me: I drove on a "big road" for a long period of time and went to an event where I really didn't know anyone else. These were both pretty big deals for me. I typically hate driving, in part because I'd rather spend a long drive being productive but mainly because other drivers make me so nervous. Before this trip, the only time I'd ever driven on the turnpike once, and it was an emergency situation (it was when I went to TNNA with my friend Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works back in 2018 and she woke up with vertigo the day we were supposed to come home). I had to drive if I wanted to go on this trip, and it was a huge confidence boost for me. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I definitely noticed that the trip home was less stressful than the trip there. And of course once the drive there was complete, there was another challenge: joining a group of knitters who all knew each other and who I didn't know. As a shy introvert, attending any sort of large gathering is a source of anxiety, but I know that when I force myself to do it, I always enjoy myself. And that was certainly the case in this instance.

While it wasn't my objective in attending this event, Mary pointed out that I was setting a great example for Mo, and she's absolutely right. My daughter is so much like me, so it's great for her to see me doing things that make her uncomfortable, too. As she gets older, the parenting wins are certainly less frequent, and I'll happily take this one.

Thanks to Carolyn for hosting our monthly link-up, as always!

Playing Chicken

Happy Friday, friends. I am always happy to get to the end of a work week, but I'm especially glad this week, as it's been a long and hard one. I didn't mention it earlier in the week, but we found out that my cousin's son (who Mo, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and my nephew had all been with last weekend) tested positive for COVID after they got home, so in addition to dealing with work and the heat, I've been dealing with anxiety about that. Fortunately no one has had any symptoms, so it looks like (fingers crossed!) we've dodged the bullet. But that anxiety, plus my general issues with sleep, have meant some short nights this week, so I'm very much looking forward to getting a little extra time in bed this weekend.

Fortunately the lack of sleep has not impacted my ability to focus on a knitting pattern, even one that's not as well written as it could be. Behold -- a chicken ready for its head:

I expect I'll be able to finish this fine fowl up this weekend, over which I plan to watch a fair amount of Olympics coverage. Working from the pattern for a second time, and with the intention to knit it again, I think I will likely spend some time rewriting it for my own use so that it's a bit clearer. I've been able to figure it out, but I also think I could improve on it and make knitting a chicken a bit less of an effort.

One bright spot this past week is that we've gotten some much-needed rain! We're still at a deficit, but the garden has been very happy. I've got a handful of spaghetti squashes growing bigger by the day along the fence, and when I went to pick the ripe cherry tomatoes and check on the other plants yesterday, I got quite a surprise in the zucchini patch:

This zucchini was not there just two days earlier, or, at least, it was small enough that I didn't notice it. I imagine I might have even more surprises today!

On tap for today is a run (hello, lower humidity!), baking challah, working on yet another annual report for work, and squishing my nephew for the first time in nearly a month at dinner tonight. I wish you a relaxing final weekend of July!

Unraveled, Week 30/2024

Week 30?! We've really and truly tipped into the downhill portion of this year; I've noticed upon getting up for work this week that it's now not fully light when I'm getting up, and it's all a bit depressing. I will not feel sorry to bid the intense heat and humidity farewell, but I wish we could hang on to the longer days.

But enough whining about the weather and how quickly the year is passing. It's Wednesday, which means it's time for my weekly check-in with Kat and the Unravelers. This week's update contains a finished object!

Pattern: Rift by Jacqueline Cieslak, size 44 in./112 cm bust
Yarn: Knit Picks CotLin (70% cotton/30% linen) in Indigo Bunting, a bit more than five skeins (622 yards used)
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Started/Completed: July 11/July 21
Mods: worked to a different gauge; added body length

If you can't already tell from my smile, I'm extremely happy with how my second version of this pattern worked out. I like how my first one looks, but I really wanted some more positive ease and more length so I could wear it as an actual top and not as more of a decorative piece on top of a tank or dress. So this time around, I bought yarn rather than trying to make do with what I had in my stash so that I could be sure I had enough. I have worked with CotLin before and find it to be pretty easy on the hands for something with so high a cotton content, not to mention that it creates a very comfortable fabric, so I figured it would be a good option.

Gauge was elusive yet again for me with my second try. The pattern calls for a gauge of four stitches to the inch for a very loose fabric with a lot of drape. I knit a very generous swatch with both a US 8 and a US 9. I got closer to gauge on the 9's (17 stitches over 4 inches), but the fabric looked very sloppy to me, and I liked it better on the 8's, which gave me a gauge of 18 stitches over 4 inches. So I did a bit of math. My full bust is about 35 inches, and if I worked the second size in the pattern with my tighter gauge, I'd end up with a finished bust of around 39 inches. The pattern recommends 6-12 inches of positive ease, but I knew that if I went any bigger, I'd be swimming in the fabric. Four inches is plenty for me!

My only other modification to the pattern was to add a significant amount of length to the body. The pattern calls for splitting for the front and back when the back measures 9 inches; I worked instead to 16.5 inches. The front of the sweater (the back of the split hem is longer) hits right around my hip bones, which is precisely where I like my sweaters to fall. I'm also relieved that I had plenty of yarn, because deciding when to stop adding length to the body to ensure I had enough yarn to finish the top part of the sweater was a bit of a guessing game. In the end, I have nearly a full skein left, so I didn't have to play any yarn chicken.

If I were to knit this a third time, I might make the V-neck a bit deeper. I know that mine is shallower than the samples shown in the pattern because of a difference in row gauge, and when this first came off the needles, the neckline was even a little tight (but it loosened in blocking). I expect that if I had worked to the specified gauge, row gauge would also have been quite a bit different, so I might've ended up with a deeper V as a side benefit. I don't really have much to show off with a low neckline in any case; I think a bigger opening just would've added to the relaxed feel of the top.

Now that this is done, and quite quickly, I'm feeling the need to work on something a little more frivolous, so a chicken has been started:

This one is going to be for me, and it will end up being a bit smaller than the one I made for my nephew because I went down a couple of needle sizes. I'm using a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works worsted that I won earlier this year in a OOAK colorway. It doesn't photograph well, but there's a bit of a reddish purple tint to the gray in some spots, and I think it goes well with the burgundy yarn (some leftover HipStrings Buoy) that I pulled out for the accent bits of the hen. I'm still pondering names for this one, though rest assured it will be something punny.

Reading has been quite good the past week, in spite of work's efforts to keep me away from my books, and I finished two books.

I was really interested in Songs for the Brokenhearted after reading Bonny's review of it, so I immediately went to NetGalley to request an ARC and was delighted to be approved shortly after. I was mainly intrigued by this book because it deals with an aspect of Jewish and Israeli history that I knew nothing about: the immigration of Yemeni Jews to Israel in the 1950s and the experiences of that group trying to assimilate to a culture that was largely composed of European Ashkenazi Jews. I knew, of course, that there were/are Jews of color and Mizrahi Jews, who came from Arab lands, but I really didn't know anything of their experience. In this novel, which clearly draws largely from the author's own life and experiences, we follow Zohara, a 30-something Yemeni Israeli woman who has returned to Israel in the mid-1990s when her mother suddenly dies, and Saida, her mother, in her early days in an Israeli refugee camp in the 1950s. As Zohara learns more about her mother's experience, she also grapples with her own identity and the Yemeni culture she was so eager to reject as a younger girl. The book also explores the political landscape in Israel at the time of the Oslo Peace Accords and the tradition of Yemeni women's songs. I really enjoyed the book, primarily because I learned so much by reading it, though I'll say I wasn't blown away by the writing (it wasn't bad, just not especially notable). I gave it 4 stars. I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 10, 2024.

My other finish was an audiobook that I listened to over the course of last weekend. I loved Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, and had in fact requested an ARC of her second, Warrior Girl Unearthed, though I never heard back about my request. So I've been meaning to read it for a while, and luckily there was no wait at the library when I remembered it. This novel takes place in the same setting as the first book and has some of the same characters, though you don't have to have read the first book before the second. Our main character is Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a Black and Indigenous teen who gets roped into participating in a tribal internship program to pay for repairs to a car after a fender bender. Assigned to the tribe's museum, she learns about the efforts to repatriate Indigenous artifacts and human remains through NAGPRA, the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act. She soon finds that this is easier said than done, particularly when private collectors are involved, and gets involved in a dangerous plan to return the remains of her tribe's ancestors. This book is classified as YA but deals with some pretty mature themes, notably the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. I gave it 4 stars as well.

I'm still slowly but steadily working my way through A Suitable Boy -- I've passed the halfway point! And I have started the next Read With Us selection, The Ministry of Time, and am enjoying it so far but still have a fair amount to read.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we are all feeling a little more hopeful about the state of things in the United States this week. I know the election is still going to be a nail-biter, but I'm inspired by the excitement and increased level of engagement I've seen since President Biden announced he was bowing out and endorsed Vice President Harris. Mo won't be able to vote until the next presidential election, but she's very excited to have a female candidate to cheer on! I'm rather excited myself, and it's nice to have good news rather than the usual doom and gloom. We'll see what happens and keep our fingers crossed!

A Quiet Weekend

I groaned a bit this morning when my alarm went off and I realized it was Monday again, but I can't complain at all about the weekend because it was quiet and restful. Mo is old enough now that we don't have to make sure someone is home with her all the time, but all the same it was a bit strange not having her here. We did go out for a nice dinner on Friday night, but other than that, it was a very relaxed couple of days -- especially because I was able to get most of my typical weekend chores done on Friday.

A good portion of my weekend was spent working on my Rift tee, which, I'm happy to report, is officially done (but still needs to be blocked before I take official FO photos).

I can report that the fit is exactly as I wanted it, with a bit of positive ease and full length rather than cropped. I'll have a full report on it once it's washed and blocked.

Yesterday was the last day of Tour de Fleece, and though it was a much less productive Tour for me compared to years past, I'm happy with what I spun. I've finished the first bobbin of singles for my body skein:

I also spent part of the weekend tending to the garden, where I discovered we have some baby squashes!

I'd been checking the plants regularly, but as they did last year, the vines got sneaky and were growing over the fence on our neighbors' side, so I hadn't spotted the squash babies growing. This one is a spaghetti squash, but we have a few small butternut squashes growing as well. It's nice to see something other than tomatoes, which have been my main harvest thus far:

What is on the counter is what I picked yesterday -- our first zucchini, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and some basil. The tomatoes in the bowl were picked over the last week, and I used all of them, plus the basil, in the pasta I made for dinner last night.

Today is business as usual, and I'm hoping work isn't too crazy. Have a good start to your week!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

It's been a whirlwind of a week and I didn't remember at first that it was Friday when I woke up, which I guess is a good thing. My boss is off today, and as I finished up a project yesterday, I'm hoping that means a quiet work day for me. We are also having some blissfully cool weather this morning, so I am looking forward to a much more comfortable run today.

As promised, today's post is all about last week's trip to the TwinSet Summer Retreat. This was my first time attending the event, so I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I was pretty sure I would enjoy it. My only experience at a knitting retreat before this was at SSK, a much bigger event. This one was much smaller, with only about 40 attendees, and much less structured -- there were no classes or workshops or special activities, which meant it was much more focused on talking to people and having time to sit and knit. I think that made it especially good for Mo's first retreat; she would have been completely overwhelmed at SSK! But this was a good first retreat for her, and she was warmly welcomed.

The only real "event" of the retreat was Thursday night's Swap Melee. This was a sort of white elephant exchange: Each participant brought a wrapped gift and drew a ticket with a number at random. The person with the first number picked a gift and opened it. The next person could either pick a new gift to open or steal the item the first person opened, and so on. An item could only be stolen three times and then it was off the table. The items were only supposed to be about $20-25 in value, but some people went way over that. I didn't really care what I ended up with, though I didn't necessarily want to bring home more yarn, and given how many packages contained multiple skeins, I was pretty successful. I had a later number, and I ended up stealing a gift for the third time, which meant I got to keep it without risk of its being stolen.

This contraption is an Amish-style swift; in the white box is a ball winder. Now, I already have a swift (umbrella style) and winder, but I know they won't last forever, and I like the idea of having a backup. They were packaged in a large cardboard box, so I didn't realize at first that there was a skein of yarn in there, too, but it's a skein that looks like it'll be good for gift socks or a hat, so it'll get used.

Mo ended up keeping the package she opened, which ended up being something pretty perfect for her:

It was basically a kit with everything she would need for a project -- a skein of yarn, stitch markers, a row counter, scissors, a pen, a notebooks, stitch stoppers, and a yarn ball cozy -- plus a sweet little ceramic plate and a sticker that says "I'd rather be knitting."

We also came home with goodie bags, which I didn't expect:

Everything came stuffed in that bag on the right, which is actually a two-bottle wine cooler (Mo got a tote bag instead). Inside was two skeins of Sueño, an extensive DPN set, a set of Knit Blockers, scissors, darning needles, and an insulated cup. The wooden thing with all the holes is a DPN holder hand made by Jan's husband, who is a woodworker. Mo ended up with yarn in her colors:

The swap was the only organized event that everyone really participated in. On Friday evening, there was a chance for attendees to show off things they made, and there was a round of knitting-themed charades on Saturday evening. Many attendees chose to visit area yarn shops during the day on Saturday, which we, of course, skipped, but we did choose to go out to dinner that evening; the retreat center where the event was held provided all meals, but the food was pretty bad. That ended up being more dramatic than we anticipated because there was a sudden thunderstorm and the power went out, so we had a dinner of shared salads by the light of a window.

All in all, it was a successful and enjoyable retreat. I sold more than 20 skeins of handspun yarn -- much more than I was anticipating or even hoping for! -- and we both got a lot of crafting done and made some new friends. And I proved to myself that I can drive a long distance without too much stress. Mo has already said that we have to go back next year, and I think we've both decided that more mother/daughter road trips are in our future.

Mo left with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and nephew this morning for a quick trip up to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they're meeting my cousin and his son (a rising high school senior) from Chicago to visit the University of Michigan. That means the Mister and I will have a child-free weekend, though we don't have anything planned except dinner out tonight. I'm hoping I can get some laundry and cleaning done today so that it can be a relaxing weekend for me and I can make up for all the time I spent behind the wheel last week and couldn't knit.

Have a good one, friends!