Recent Reads

For a brief period of time yesterday, I was caught up at work, but that came too late for me to get these book reviews into my Unraveled Wednesday post. Lucky for you, I have time for them today -- and the delay allowed me to finish another book!

One of the first books I read this year was Love & Saffron, so I've been (somewhat) patiently waiting for the follow-up. Last I checked, my library hadn't yet gotten it, so I took advantage of a Kindle deal to add it to my shelf. Kate & Frida isn't really a sequel and you don't need to have read the other book to enjoy it (you'll just know who Frida is), but it's also an epistolary novel about two women who form a friendship through their letters. This time we're in the early '90s. Frida is in Paris, trying to figure out if she has it in her to be a "real" journalist, and connects with Kate when she writes to a Seattle bookstore in search of a particular book and gets a response to Kate. Over the next several years, the two women bond over books they love, give each other love advice, and help each other through hard times. Though there are both sad and scary moments, I found this novel to be delightful and an excellent palate cleanser after some heavier reads. I gave it 4 stars.

Bonny's recent review of Run for the Hills reminded me to check Hoopla for it again, as that's where I found two of Kevin Wilson's previous books that I listened to earlier in the fall. In his newest novel, we start out with Mad, who runs an organic farm in Tennessee with her mother after her father left them when she was younger. One day a man in a PT Cruiser shows up at the farm with the news that he's her half-brother and that their father left his family in Boston before showing up in Tennessee. What's more, their father apparently repeated this pattern at least twice more. The two siblings, Mad and Rube, set out on a road trip to find their father in California, along the way picking up their other two half-siblings, though they're not sure what they'll do when -- if -- they find him. The characters are all quirky but charming, and their journey leads them not only to finding their father but to understanding more about themselves and their personal narratives. I listened to this one, and the narration was great. I gave it 4 stars.

Bonny also inspired my next read. Finding Grace is a book that you can't really describe without giving too much away, so it's difficult to write a review with any discussion of plot. There is a dramatic and tragic event that occurs at the end of the very first chapter that drives the rest of the narrative, and it's something that's very unexpected, so I can't even hint at it. This book deals with a lot of topics that might necessitate trigger warnings, so if you'd like to avoid any of those, I'd recommend researching them before picking up this book. I thought the storyline was unusual and creative, certainly unlike anything I've read before, but I also was cringing regularly at the actions of one of the main characters and thought the story wrapped up a little too neatly, given the complexity of the rest of the plot. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Even though the Booker Prize for this year has already been awarded, I'm still reading some of the titles on the list that didn't win and that only recently became available here. The Land in Winter is one of those. Set in rural England in the early 1960s, this novel focuses on two couples who live near each other. Eric Parry is one of the local doctors and lives in a cottage with his wife, Irene. Across the field is farmer Bill Simmons, whose wife, Rita, seems an odd complement to him. Both women are pregnant and dealing with different challenges in their personal lives when an unusually cold winter sets in. I listened to this book, read by the author, and found the writing to be good -- "atmospheric" is the best word I can think to describe it. But I found it hard to keep track of the characters and their storylines and backgrounds. Perhaps the format caused some of this difficulty, but I not going to reread with my eyes to know for sure. I gave it 3 stars.

And there you have it! If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you thought of them.

I hope to do some more reading this weekend -- hope it's a good one for you!

Unraveled, Week 50/2025

Greetings from a snowy Pittsburgh! A storm came through in the early hours of yesterday morning. I was woken up by my phone ringing at 5:30 a.m. -- a notification from Molly's school that they would be on a two-hour delay (about an hour and a half later, they cancelled altogether). But of course I didn't get a delay for work, and Ruthie had to go out in any case, so I was up at the normal time. I wish I could have filmed Ruthie's reaction to the snow! First she tried to eat it all, then she was running back and forth in our neighbors' yard, clearly delighted with it. I had to remind her several times that she was out to do her business! She continued to enjoy herself in the snow on our walks, and she must've eaten quite a bit because she didn't seem to drink as much as normal.

I unfortunately had to trudge to work in the snow, though I did get treated to some beautiful views along the way.

But enough about the snow -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! While the current hat in progress is growing slowly (darn work getting in the way!), I've started a new project for my evening knitting that is going quite quickly thanks to some very large needles.

Sometime in the weekend before Thanksgiving, I lost one of my felted mittens, leaving my hands painfully cold on walks. So I've been making myself a pair of Snowball Throwin' Mittens (Ravelry link) using some yarn scraps. The pattern calls for worsted, but I'm using two strands of fingering held together, and I'm hoping they'll felt into a nice fabric. The pattern I used for the previous pair used superwash for the cuff and non-superwash for the hand, but this one calls for felting the hand first and then picking up for the cuff (for which the same yarn could be used, if desired). I'm planning to use some cotton yarn to crochet around the bottom edge to ensure that I have holes to pick up. I'm knitting on US 10/6 mm needles -- and DPNs! When was the last time you saw me knit on DPNs? The truth is that I don't think I have circular needles that big, so I had to make do with what I had.

I've finished several books this week, but I'm running out of time to get this post done, so I will share my reviews on Friday.

Back to the Mines

After two weekends and a full week off in between, it's going to be hard to get back to the usual schedule today, especially because I know there's a ton of work waiting for me. On top of all that, we're supposed to have some real winter weather (read: snow) this week, right when the Mister has to go on a quick work trip. At least I know that the number of work days before I'm off for a good two weeks is not very high!

We had a fairly quiet weekend after all the excitement of the holiday. It was just the three of us at home eating leftovers on Friday night, and we got together with some family friends on Saturday for pizza and salad. Last night we were invited over by some friends to kick off the holiday season, and the coasters I'd knit for them were all done:

Pattern: Worsted Tree Coasters by Amy Marie (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Knit Picks Dishie (100% cotton) in Swan and Kenai; 100 yds. used
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Started/Completed: November 22/November 27

These were fun and straightforward to knit, and had I given myself more time, I would have made more of them. I purposefully picked out colors that would read as wintery but not necessarily Christmas; though the green looks darker here, it's more of a pine-y green that can look a little teal in certain lights. I think it would be fun to take this pattern and widen it to make a towel or placemat, so maybe once the holiday knitting is done, I'll play around with it.

Speaking of holiday knitting, my brother's hat is about 2/3 of a Ruthie at the moment:

Once I finish this up, I will be on to this year's gnome for my nephew, which will be Gnome News Is Good News. I'm going to be making him in DK/worsted rather than fingering so that he's big and huggable, and I even found some sparkly self-striping in colors that remind me of candy canes that I think will be fun.

And now, time to get on with all the stuff I have to do today! I think the pumpkin pie is ready to get dumped, but the friends we had dinner with last night sent us home with coffee cake, so it's there if I need a little pick-me-up to get through the day. Enjoy your first day of meteorological winter, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere like I am!

Thankful. And Full.

I love Thanksgiving and I'm so grateful that we were able to celebrate with all of our family yesterday, but I have to admit there were times I wished it was just the three of us -- I'm exhausted from celebrating!

But let me back up a bit. We did do our turkey trot, which was quite chilly because the temperature was in the low 30s (F) and there was a strong wind, making it feel like it was in the teens. I don't think I started feeling at all warm until I hit the 2-mile mark. Molly and I did wear our matching hats, though we discovered that they weren't very warm:

I wasn't aiming to be especially fast, just to run the whole thing, but adrenaline always kicks in a bit in a race, so I was a little faster than I am on a normal run. Here are my results:

I got a laugh at my overall placement.

The route was different (and much more hilly) than the last time I ran it two years ago, and in addition to being cold, I was annoyed at all the people I kept having to dodge because they were oblivious to others around them. Maybe next year I'll just go on my own run in the neighborhood!

We got home, warmed up with breakfast and coffee, and then gave Ruthie a much-needed bath. Then there were showers for the humans and green bean casserole and Brussels sprouts prep. Ruthie got to nap for about half an hour before my parents showed up with the food to go in the oven, and then everyone else came around 4. Ruthie got one of her leftover sedatives from her surgery recovery, but she was still nervous enough around all the people that she peed inside (fortunately on one of our inexpensive rubber/nylon rugs that we have near the doors in fall and winter). Other than me and Molly, to some extent, the only person she seemed to be comfortable with was my niece:

I have a feeling these two are going to be special buddies as they grow up together!

Today is going to be a much more quiet day. The only thing on the agenda is that I'm taking Molly to get her ears pierced this afternoon -- something that I think is probably more exciting for me than for her! When I was a kid, I begged to get my ears pierced for years, starting when I was in single digits, so it's been astounding to me that Molly hasn't wanted to until now. We've got lots of leftovers to eat, and I've got some laundry and cleaning to do. And isn't it nice that there's still a weekend ahead of us?

I realized I didn't say it in my last post, so I wanted to make sure I include it in this one: Friends, I am grateful for all of you -- for your friendship, for your encouragement, for your book recommendations and crafting inspiration and sharing of beauty. I love that the internet has enabled so many of us with shared interests to connect, and I only wish there was an easier way for us to gather in person!

Unraveled, Week 49/2025

Good morning and happy Wednesday, friends! Today I'm very happy that all our immediate family members live in the same city we do and that we don't have to travel for Thanksgiving. I know we're very lucky in that respect, and I hope anyone who does have to travel makes it to their destination without too much difficulty.

Kat said on Monday that she intended to post, so I am joining with her and the Unravelers today with my update.

Over the weekend, I hunkered down with my crochet and managed to finish up the silly turkey hat -- and I'm delighted with it!

I'm glad that the wonkiness of my sewing (though some was certainly intentional) added to the personality of the whole thing, so it's okay that nothing is really aligned. The hat base was made with Knit Picks Brava Worsted; Molly had ordered a bunch of skeins of it last year and decided she didn't want to use this color, so we conveniently had two skeins of it in stash. The red, yellow, and orange are all Loops & Threads Soft Classic -- 100% pure acrylic! The white for the eyeballs was some leftover Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton from many years ago, and I used a whopping 1 g of the Fibernymph Dye Works Confetti Tweed leftover from my two most recent charity hats for the pupils. I used an I hook (5.5 mm) for the hat and an H hook (5.0 mm) for all the other bits. Originally I was going to add braids or tassels to the earflaps, but the Mister pointed out that I might find those annoying while running, so I left them off. Altogether, I used 164 yards of yarn and had a fun little break from knitting!

This week, as I continue to work on my brother's hat, I'm also knitting on a gift that I will take to dinner this coming Sunday evening that we and my parents have been invited to. These friends decorate their house beautifully for the holidays, so I thought I would make a little something that could be used during the season:

The pattern is Worsted Tree Coasters (Ravelry link), and I'm using two colors of Knit Picks Dishie. The plan is to make four coasters, two that look like this and two with the colors reversed. If I manage to get them done really quickly and have enough yarn left, perhaps I'll make two more. This is a mosaic knitting pattern, so you knit with one color at a time, alternating every two rows. It's potato-chippy in much the same way stranded knitting is but without having to wrangle two strands of yarn at the same time.

I've read a fair amount in the past week, though I can't say all of it was good. I have four finishes to share with you today.

The best of the week was definitely Jane Austen's Bookshelf. Written by Rebecca Romney, a rare book collector and dealer, this work of nonfiction explores female authors writing in roughly the same time as Austen who published works she likely read, based upon mentions in her personal letters and even some of her novels. Each chapter focuses on a different author, providing a bit of a biography as well as a look at her published works and how those books influenced Austen and literature in general. Romney's project to read the works of these writers and give them context in the world of Austen shows how (unsurprisingly) the work of women writers has long been discounted, especially within the canon of so-called "great literature," and reveals that Austen's work wasn't revolutionary or unique but rather informed by the work of other women writers whose books she read. It also raises the question of why Austen's works have been so celebrated over the years and these other writers and their books have faded into obscurity. I gave it 4 stars.

While browsing audiobooks on NetGalley, I came across The Story Keeper, written by an author I'd read before, and the description was intriguing: After trouble in her personal life, Fiona, a middle-aged woman with grown children, returns to the family estate in Australia where she spent her childhood. The house has a long history and reputation for being haunted. It's been years since she was last there following the death of her uncle, and the house is in a state of disuse. As she works on cleaning and getting the place back into order, she comes across a case of books that arrived just around the time of her uncle's death and was left unopened. Figuring that her uncle wanted his family to read them, she dives in -- only to discover that the story in the book feels strangely familiar. The Fiona's story alternates with the narrative of the book she's reading throughout. This novel is billed as a mystery, but I was able to figure out what was going on about a third of the way through, including the mysterious noises and broken household objects in the house that might suggest something supernatural. The book-within-the-book also wasn't as well written as the more present-day narrative, and I even caught one instance where a character name from one story was used (incorrectly) in the other. There are some lingering questions at the end, once everything has been revealed, and that felt unsatisfying to me. I gave it 2 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing me with a free copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review. This book will be published July 21, 2026.

While waiting for my next library hold, I spent an afternoon reading The Serviceberry. This is really a long essay more than a book, though it was still enjoyable. Robin Wall Kimmerer, perhaps best known for Braiding Sweetgrass, uses nature in general and the serviceberry in particular to show how a gift economy and a society based on giving could present an alternative way of living that would benefit us all and combat climate change at the same time. I have a feeling that this is a work I will want to reread from time to time; the message it sends is a hopeful one, and I think that's a message we could all use right now. I know many of you have already read this (I'm late to the party as usual!), but I'd recommend it if you haven't. I gave it 4 stars.

Flesh is this year's Booker Prize winner, and really that is the only reason I read it. The book follows Istvan throughout a good portion of his life, starting when he is 15 and living in Hungary. It then follows him through a stint in the army serving in Afghanistan, working in London as a strip club bouncer and then personal security officer, running his own business in real estate development, and then living back in Hungary. Throughout the book, he seems entirely detached from things that are happening to him and doesn't seem to have particularly strong feelings about anything. He does seem to like having a lot of sex, though, especially with married women. I didn't particularly like this book, but I felt strangely compelled to see where it was going. In the end, I though it was just, to quote Istvan, "okay." I gave it 3 stars (and I think there were better books on the shortlist that should have won).

I am currently reading The Idiot on paper and Kate & Frida on Kindle, the latter because I know it'll be light and happy!

Tomorrow, the three of us will be running in the Turkey Trot and then will be hosting a crowd for Thanksgiving dinner. It's been a hard year for many people for many reasons, so I am glad to have an excuse to slow down and be grateful for so many things. If you are celebrating the holiday tomorrow, I hope your food is delicious and your company enjoyable! Gobble gobble!

Less in 2025: November

It's the final Monday of the month, so it's time for my penultimate check-in with my One Little Word.

When I think of Less this past month, the first thing that comes to mind is that there is less daylight. The days are getting noticeably shorter, and even in the middle of the day, the sunlight is weaker. While in the summer, I was able to sit with Ruthie in the afternoon with all the lights off, I need the lights on now to see what I'm reading or working on. This is probably my least favorite thing about the fall and winter; I don't like the cold, but being a knitter, I know how to properly dress for it. I can't do anything about the lack of light, though, and it definitely has an effect on my mood. This year, I'm hoping that many of my neighbors put up twinkle lights to bring some extra light to the dark evenings.

Another area of Less this month has been a fewer number of daily walks with Ruthie. She is 11 months old today, and she doesn't need to go out as often. We're down to about five bathroom breaks a day now, which includes first thing in the morning, when we literally just go next door. I take her for three longer walks during the day (generally 0.75 miles to 1.1 miles, according to my Apple Watch), and as of the last week or so, she hasn't wanted to walk when we go out right before bedtime and instead has done her business next door. I know that on the really frigid days of winter, that's going to be very welcome! 

I don't think Kat is hosting a link-up for this OLW update or on Wednesday, but I will be back with an Unraveled update. In the meantime, enjoy your Monday!

I'm a Hooker, Too, Sometimes

You know what's even better than getting to Friday? Getting to Friday before a long holiday break! Molly and I just have to get through today and then we're (mostly) free until early December. That feels darn good.

I hinted in my last post that I was working on a crochet project, and in truth I didn't want to share photos until I was sure it was going to turn out okay -- I mean, I'm pretty good at the basics of crochet, but I don't have a ton of experience following a pattern to get something that fits. Fortunately, with a couple of instances of ripping back (because apparently I can't count), all is well and I have this after a couple of evenings with my hook:

There's a lot of embellishment left to do, but I'm reasonably certain you can all identify that as a hat. It's this hat, specifically, that I'm making to wear in this year's Turkey Trot. People really do dress up for it here, and of course as a crafter I figured I could manage something fun. Molly and I were planning to make them together last year before my broken foot messed up our plans; it still remains to be seen if she'll make one for this year, if I'll make it for her, or if she decides she doesn't want one after all.

This weekend we have absolutely nothing on the schedule, other than some errands I need to run tomorrow morning, and that's just the way I like it. One of those errands is to Costco, so I may pick up a rotisserie chicken or two and make chicken broth for the freezer. Molly will likely be working a shift or two, and we'll have to plan for next week's cooking. I'm hoping the weekend includes plenty of reading and knitting time.

Finally, I just wanted to mention that the Indie Designer Giftalong kicked off on Ravelry yesterday evening, and the 25% off pattern sale runs for the first week of it. If you're interested in any of my eligible patterns, you can find my bundle here. The coupon code is the same for all participating designers: giftalong2025.

Have a great weekend, everyone!