"Spring" Break

I am officially on vacation today as it's "spring holiday" (faculty and staff always get off the Friday of spring break week), though it doesn't feel much like spring today. We had a truly wild day of weather on Wednesday. It was raining when I got up, it rained on me when I went for my run (despite the radar being clear and the sun shining at the same time!), and then we had a tornado warning at around 2 p.m. (despite it being completely calm outside; seems it was only radar indicated)! Ruthie got good use out of her new raincoat on our walks:

Yesterday we woke up to temps back in the 30s and windchills in the 20s, so I had to get out my winter coat, hat, and mittens again. Even though everything is blooming and greening up, it's a good reminder that technically it's still winter and anything can happen for a while yet.

Even though I'm not working today, I'll still be keeping roughly the same normal schedule. I'll try to run this morning, then come home and clean the bathrooms, and likely do a couple loads of laundry. Molly is staying after school to attend a flag football game, so Ruthie and I can enjoy a slightly longer afternoon snooze time, during which I hope to finish up this sock:

I decided to try some ribbing on the entirety of the sole, thinking it'd provide a cushy bottom for my mother-in-law, who deals with neuropathy in her feet. You can see that I did get a bit of pooling at the gusset, but it's really only obvious if you look for it.

I also measured my swatch in full daylight yesterday and determined that I am close enough on gauge to go ahead with my sweater. I'm getting 26 stitches over 4 inches rather than the called-for 25, but I'm willing to bet that when I'm working on a much larger piece, my tension will ease up a bit. I'm going to make the second size (finished bust of 40 inches, for 5 inches of positive ease), so even if my gauge is a bit tighter, it's not likely to be a problem. I hope to have some progress to share on Monday!

We've got a number of things on the social calendar this weekend, mostly for Molly, but the Mister and I have a bat mitzvah to go to tomorrow night and we've been told it's cocktail attire, so I have to go through my closet and find something to wear! There will still be plenty of time for reading, knitting, and puppy snuggling, though.

I hope your weekend has time in it for all the things that bring you joy -- and be sure to embrace that joy, friends! We need it now more than ever.

Unraveled, Week 10/2026

Hello and happy hump day! I am bracing for some strong storms coming through later today and hoping I can still squeeze in a run before the rain starts. But first, time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers!

I had a delightful birthday, in part thanks to all the lovely messages you left on my post on Monday. I started off by running farther than I've managed before without having to stop and walk: 7 miles! The weather was gorgeous all day, I got a free drink at Starbucks, and the Mister came home with Bundtlets for dessert so I didn't have to bake myself my own cake. My father also sent me flowers; I think he felt bad that he was out of town.

I also started swatching for my sweater, which is still in progress (fingering weight sweaters take time, so naturally so do their swatches!).

I'm hoping that by the end of the week, I'll know if I can cast on using the recommended needle size or if I need to swatch again.

It's been another good week of reading, with four finishes!

If I had to pick one word to describe I Am Agatha, it would be spare. There are few extraneous details, minimal background given on the main character, and not much in the way of plot. That is not to said, however, that these are drawbacks. Rather, they are fitting for a main character inspired by an artist whose work is all about minimalist lines and grids.

Agatha Smithson (the fictionalized characterization of artist Agnes Martin) is an outsider in New Mexico, living in a primitive house she built herself after fleeing New York City following some sort of mental breakdown. When she arrives in New Mexico, she falls in love with Alice, a widow slowly fading into dementia. As Alice's condition worsens, Agatha is determined to move her to Agatha's home, a step complicated by Alice's unwillingness to leave the backyard grave of her daughter, Lorna, and by Alice's son, Frank Jr., who wants to move his mother into a care home. Agatha is stubborn and determined, however, so she enlists a young neighbor boy who is always eager to help her in a plan to move Lorna so that Alice will feel at home. Alice is missing as all of this is happening, though, and soon it becomes apparent that Agatha isn't the only one keeping secrets in this small town.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Agatha is abrasive and bossy, and she's not afraid of hurting people by doing what she thinks is best for them. But she is loyal to those who are important to her and unapologetic about who she is. I gave it 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published March 17, 2026.

I was reminded recently that I'd wanted to read more by Valérie Perrin because I enjoyed Fresh Water for Flowers. Forgotten on Sunday was actually her first book but was only relatively recently translated into English. This novel tells two stories that intersect. First, there is Justine, who is in her early 20s and working as a nursing assistant at a nursing home. She grew up with her grandparents and her cousin, Jules, after their two sets of parents were killed in car accident when they were both children. One of the residents Justine cares for is Hélène, a woman in her 90s whose life story -- and love story -- Justine is recording for her family. We soon learn that there are secrets in both women's pasts and that love can be very complicated. This was a beautiful story that I very much enjoyed listening to, although I was annoyed by the narrator's inconsistent skill with French pronunciation (it took me a while, for instance, to realize that a character's name was Rose because she kept pronouncing it "Hose"). This might be better on the page for that reason. In spite of these annoyances, I gave it 4 stars.

Liar's Dice is a debut novel. For all of their young lives, Dolores and Mita have been alike, and not just because they're identical twins. They seem to be able to read each other's thoughts and even have a secret way of communicating. But then Mita begins having seizures and starts losing control of her body, leading to doctors' appointments and time spent in hospitals. And then one day she is gone -- much like many of those who speak out against the regime in early 1970s Brazil. Dolores is told that Mita has gone to live in a children's hospital in their father's native England, but she isn't so sure. Now she is alone at home and lonely at her new school, where she's struggling because she hasn't yet learned to read. But a new friend who, like Dolores, is a native Brazilian and isn't wealthy, and a caring teacher help her to find her way, and she becomes determined to earn enough money to fly to England and see for herself whether her twin is still alive.

Dolores is a sympathetic character, and I felt her sadness at the loss of her twin and her frustration with parents for their unwillingness to discuss her sister and moving on as if she never existed. I did find some of her activities in the seedier parts of Rio to be a bit hard to believe, but without much knowledge of Brazil in the 1970s, I can't say whether they were realistic or not. My biggest complaint in reading this novel is the amount of Portuguese used without a translation; it wasn't until I finished that I found a glossary in the back. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more if I had more background knowledge of the history of the setting, but all the same I admired Dolores's tenacity and loyalty to her sister. I gave it 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published April 28, 2026.

Finally, if you are an American concerned about the current state of affairs in this country, I'd highly recommend On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. This very short work of nonfiction (I read it easily in an afternoon) offer 20 concrete ways to fight against tyranny by illustrating how tyrants and dictators took power in the 20th century and detailing how fledgling democracies failed. The bottom line is that there are things that even the average person with no political power can do to fight this kind of extremism and to contribute to saving the democratic ideals envisioned by the founding fathers. This is one I know I'll come back to for encouragement. I gave it 4 stars.

As I continue to very slowly make my way through The Odyssey (I haven't even made it to the poem yet -- I'm still in the introduction!), I've also gotten a new ARC I'm very excited about and just started yesterday.

What are you making and reading this week?

45

As you might guess from the title of this post, today is my 45th birthday. I would prefer for my birthday to fall on any day other than Monday, but that's not exactly something you can choose, and I was actually born on a Monday, so I suppose it's fitting. What is unusual is that it's going to be sunny and close to 70ºF today -- usually it's dreary, cold, and snowy! So I think I can deal with Monday because of that.

We had a really nice weekend, especially Saturday. We hit a record high of 78ºF -- and then had a thunderstorm move through in the afternoon! It felt more like early June than early March! The house got so warm that we actually opened windows in our bedroom overnight so we could sleep comfortably. Yesterday was significantly cooler but still pleasant. And we had a delicious celebrator dinner out on Saturday at one of our favorite restaurants.

As promised, I've got a better photo to share of my mother's socks along with a full write up of the project:

Pattern: forest floor by Sara Bauer (Ravelry link), size M
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply in Peppercorn, 89 g/324 yds. used
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Started/Completed: January 1/March 4
Mods: omitted cables on back of leg and ribbing on sole for arch; subbed my own usual heel and toe

If the name of this pattern's designer sounds familiar to you, it may be because she was the host of the Yarns at Yin Hoo podcast. I listened to her for many years and enjoyed her calm approach to crafting, cooking, and poetry. In recent years, Sara had been been battling metastatic breast cancer, though you wouldn't know it to listen to her podcasts -- she was always positive and upbeat, seeking to make the most of her situation. She sadly passed away last June, so I thought knitting one of her patterns would be a good tribute to her (even if it did take me a while to get around to it). I used one of the skeins of fingering that I picked up off the freebie table at SSK last year, and I thought this mossy green was a great match for the pattern. I opted to keep them relatively simple other than the lace pattern stitch in part because I thought the cables would make them tight and maybe uncomfortable and in part to keep the focus on the lace. Now I just hope they're not too big for my narrow-footed mother! These will be put away for either Mother's Day or her birthday in June.

I spent some of my downtime over the weekend finishing up the knitting of this hat, which you last saw when I was only a few rounds into the colorwork.

I kept the main motif at the very center of the panel the same but scaled down the rest and eliminated some rounds to make it fit on a hat. I still need to pull the yarn through the final stitches and weave in some ends (obviously), and then I'll move on to blocking and embroidery.

As if all this green yarn wasn't enough (can you tell I've got spring on the brain?), I've cast on a new pair of socks for my mother-in-law, and I'm using the very last of the yarn that came home with me from SSK!

The colors got a bit washed out by the sunshine, but I think the photo is good enough to show this fun micro-striping thing that's happening. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Solemate, a blend of superwash merino, nylon, and something called Outlast viscose that's supposed to help regulate temperature and thus keep your feet feeling comfortable. I can't say how effective it is, having never knit with it before, but my mother-in-law deals with neuropathy in her feet, so I thought it might feel good to her. After all that lace in the last pair, I'm back to my usual plain vanilla sock, and considering I cast this on last Thursday and am already nearly done with the leg, I think that was a good move. I imagine I might get some crazy pooling in the gusset of these, or maybe I'll get even thinner stripes. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

As much as I love green, especially at this time of year, my next project will not be knit using green yarn. The replacement sweater I've picked out is the Speculoos Sweater (Ravelry link) using handspun (provided the gauge works out) from my precious Southern Cross Fibre stash. I'll be aiming to use this for the main color:

Thunderstruck on Bond wool

and this for the colorwork in the yoke:

Pebbles on a mystery wool base

One unfortunate thing about getting older (at least is an adult) is that you still have work, walk the dog, and make dinner on your birthday, so I'm thinking of getting started on this new sweater as my gift to myself. I might also make myself a cake, as I happen to have ingredients on hand! Otherwise, it'll just be a normal day. I'll be sure to enjoy the unusually warm weather on my run and walks with Ruthie, and I'd encourage you to enjoy what the day brings as well. Remember that if you have a treat to celebrate a friend's birthday, the calories don't count!

Good News to End the Week

This past week has been something, hasn't it? Molly's had a really hard week at school, it's been raining off and on since Monday, and, well, you all know about what's been going on in the world (and if you don't, trust me, you don't want to). So I thought I'd round out the week by focusing on some good things that have happened this week.

Good Thing 1:
Last week I had a breast MRI. This is the third time I've had one in addition to my annual mammogram because of a family history and dense tissue. I was getting a bit concerned that I hadn't gotten my results at the end of the week (my appointment was midday on Thursday) because I usually get them the same day as my appointment or the next. But I got the results first thing Monday morning: all normal!

Good Thing 2:
Thanks to the warmer temperatures we've had and to the rain, the last pile of snow in our backyard has finally melted. Hurrah!

Good Thing 3:
After taking almost two months to finish the first one, I've finished the second sock of the pair for my mother and they're just what I hoped! You'll have to forgive the crummy photo (it's been gloomy all week). Obviously they're blocking and still wet, but I'm hopeful the sun will make an appearance sometime this weekend and I can take some better photos for an official FO post.

Good Thing 4:
I completely forgot to mention it on Monday, but our dryer is fixed! For those of you wondering how a dryer could leak (I know I was), the issue was that the exhaust tube had somehow fallen out of its socket, so all the hot moist air that would normally be shunted outside was instead hitting the dryer, condensing, and pooling out. Our handyman was able to get it reconnected and secured it better than it was originally, and we've been doing laundry all week with no issues.

Good Thing 5:
I've found another sweater to knit now that I've decided not to continue with Shakespeare in Love, and I have some handspun that should be perfect for it, so I will be swatching soon.

Good Thing 6:
My birthday is on Monday, and for the first time I can remember, it won't be cold and/or snowy. In fact, it's supposed to be sunny and near 70ºF! Of course, it is a Monday and I still have to work, but it'll be nice taking Ruthie for walks without having to be all bundled up.

We got plans for a birthday dinner out with my mother (my father will be away) and my in-laws on Saturday evening, but otherwise I'm planning a quiet weekend. With the time change, Ruthie will likely sleep in on Sunday, but we're losing an hour of sleep, so I'm not sure it'll matter. At least there will be more daylight!

I hope you've got some good things happening in your life right now and that you are able to take a nap on Sunday afternoon if you need it!

Unraveled, Week 9/2026

Good morning and happy soggy Wednesday! The rain came in overnight Monday and will be with us for a while, so I'm making good use of my raincoat. At least at this time of year, I'm less bothered by the fact that it's heavy and doesn't breathe. But enough about the weather -- time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers!

I appreciate all the thoughts and opinions on my sweater WIP. For now, I'm leaving it where it is, though I am leaning toward ripping it out and moving on to something else. If I really wanted the sweater, I would carry on and accept that it'd just take me a long time to knit it, but I looked at completed projects on Ravelry and am not sure I really would wear it anymore, and frankly I'd rather decide that now, when I've only invested a handful of evenings working on it, than after finishing the darn thing. Well, I guess I have made up my mind after all!

In the meantime, I cast on a new project, a hat to match this cowl. It's not much to look at yet, but it should grow and look more like a hat soon.

The rain isn't doing the colors any favors, but I'm using the leftovers from the cowl, just reversed. I changed up the colorwork just a bit to work with the smaller scale. I'm hoping that it works out because the main motif is a 10-stitch repeat, which limits the sizing a bit.

Thanks to that big project I was expecting turning into a no-show, I had a big reading week, with five finishes. Because of the volume, I'm going to stick with some shorter reviews this week.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

3.5 stars

This novel is two stories in two timelines tied together by a house. Nellie is a 1950s housewife with an older husband who is demanding and unforgiving. Alice, in more or less present day, recently left her demanding job in publicity to try to write a novel and is feeling unmoored in her new suburban NYC house, where she is alone for much of the day while her husband works in the city and studies for his actuarial exams. When Alice finds a cookbook and old women's magazines in the house's basement, she gains insight into Nellie's life and begins to examine her own life and marriage. I enjoyed the dual timelines and the look at a woman's life -- including how little has changed over the decades -- but was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending, which seemed a little rushed and unfinished compared to the rest of the book.

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

4 stars

Jane has been raised in a remote cabin in Montana by her father following the death of her mother when she was just a toddler. He has homeschooled her, teaching her math, philosophy, and his negative views of the outside world. One day he brings a computer home so that Jane can help him publish his manifesto, and she discovers there is more to the world -- and that perhaps he hasn't been entirely truthful about their past. When he involves her in a violent act, she realizes that she needs to escape to find out the truth, only to land in Silicon Valley at the height of the explosion of the internet. She has to decide which version of reality is right for her and must grapple with whether to turn her father in when it means implicating herself as well.

Tilt by Emma Pattee

3 stars

Annie is 37 weeks pregnant and at IKEA to buy a crib when an earthquake hits and devastates Portland, Oregon, where she lives. Over the course of a day, she tries to make her way across the city to find her husband, along the way encountering the best and worst of human behavior, reflecting on her life and marriage, and remembering her mother. I thought it was an interesting way to make the reader think about how unprepared we are for a major disaster, both logistically and as a society that doesn't value helping others, but I didn't love Annie as a main character.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

3 stars

This is a thriller set during a wedding weekend on a remote Irish island. We know something bad has happened in the present and alternate between finding out what that is and flashing back to the days leading up to it, as told through the points of view of multiple characters: the bride, the best man, the bridesmaid, the plus-one. I knew going into this not to expect fine literature and really only chose to read it because I thought it would be entertaining while I was running. I figured out most of the twists ahead of time, so it wasn't all that suspenseful to me. Still, it kept my attention well enough, and I enjoyed cast of narrators.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

3 stars

This book has been sitting on my bedroom chair for months, and I finally read it after Jane talked about it last week. The format is unusual; rather than a traditional narrative or even short stories, it's made up of a series of brief scenes that are rather similar to the episodic nature of our memories of childhood and that give us glimpses into the life of Esperanza, a Latina girl growing up in a house (on Mango Street) in Chicago. I enjoyed these little snapshots of her life, but I did not find the book to be as engaging as I expected because it was so broken up.

I am currently reading an ARC and am excited to start a buddy read with Katie of The Odyssey tonight!

Also, not to bury the lede, but I've just published my new colorwork cowl pattern. You can find it on Ravelry and Payhip.

Marching Forward

Happy March -- we've reached meteorological spring! We got a little taste of it on Saturday, when we hit the low 60s, but then the temperature dropped overnight and apparently we got a bit of snow, though none of it stuck. Although Ruthie was still up early both days over the weekend, I am feeling a bit better about things now that February is in the rear view mirror. I know there are longer, warmer days ahead, and that certainly helps my mood (the dark, cold days of winter always get to me). Perhaps as the days get longer, Ruthie will be interested in taking a walk before bed, which might work to tire her out more and help her sleep in. If anyone has any tips on getting her to sleep more, I'm all ears -- she seems to have forgotten that we're usually up at 6 a.m. most days and feels the need to bark to alert us that she's up!

Despite the early wake-ups (which I wisely counteracted by going to bed a little earlier), it was a very relaxing weekend. Saturday was just gorgeous. I went for a 6+-mile walk and took Ruthie for some nice walks, too, and I had the blinds up in our family room to let in all the sunshine. While she napped, I was able to join the Unraveling podcast community Zoom in the afternoon and chat with some online friends. Molly was working (she reported that it was incredibly busy; I guess a warm day means high demand for smoothies and acai bowls?) and then went to practice some driving with the Mister. We tried a new restaurant for dinner and us adults went to bed early (the Mister before 9, me before 10). Yesterday involved the usual Sunday chores and errands plus cookie baking for a school bake sale. And we had a lovely dinner with my side of the family.

After taking almost two months to knit the first sock of the pair, my second is flying -- I'm already onto the gusset:

The color is totally off here -- because it was so bright and sunny!

I also spent part of the weekend working on my Shakespeare in Love, but I'm torn about whether to continue.

I've done several rows of the cable pattern, and it took me longer to work those rows than it did to knit four inches of ribbing. there are three charts used in this piece, plus written directions for the sections on either end, and in general it's just a lot to keep track of. It's not that the stitches themselves are so difficult, just that working the pattern requires so much attention and mental energy. I'm not sure I have it in me. If I do decide to continue, this is going to end up being a very long-term project -- like it might take me all year. And right now I think I'd rather be knitting something that will actually get done in the nearer term. Any thoughts or advice? I'm willing to hear both sides of the argument.

It's shaping up to be another busy week, but at least we're in for a warmup -- we're supposed to get highs close to 70 by the end of the week! There will also be rain, but perhaps that will help to get rid of the last lingering piles of snow. Today will be dry, though, so I'll be going for a run and then prepping some hamantaschen dough to bake with Molly after school because of the holiday of Purim starts at sundown. And tonight it will be a mitzvah to have a glass of wine with dinner!

A Fitting End

Is it just me, or has this been a particularly crappy month? And I don't say that just because it involved a dog with diarrhea, though that's kind of a funny coincidence. In any case, I'm glad this month is ending and we're headed into March next month. March 1 is the start of meteorological spring, and while I know that the weather isn't going to flip over immediately, there's something about knowing that it'll be spring next month that makes things easier.

I'm also very happy that it's the end of the week because it's been a long one. That big work project I was expecting never arrived (surprise, surprise, they've missed their revised deadline yet again!), but we had two mornings with early snow, one of which caused a totally unnecessary school delay, and Ruthie's been waking us up with her barking at around 5 a.m., so I'm just exhausted. I don't anticipate being able to sleep in this weekend, but at least I can take a nap in the afternoons! And today is payday, which helps with the unexpected vet bills this month.

I've spent most of my knitting time this week working on socks and what do you know -- that leads to getting stuff done! I've got one finished sock:

I've already cast on the second sock and noted everything I did that departed from the pattern so I can repeat it, so the pair should be finished up soon provided I can stay focused.

I also officially finished up the second cowl sample, even weaving in All The Ends -- there were a lot of them, two for every stripe! It's been blocked and the pattern has been updated and is with my tech editor, so I'm hoping she'll be getting back to me so I can publish next week.

I noticed that I'd stretched this sample out a little when I washed it, so I'd tossed it into the dryer for about 10 minutes on Tuesday afternoon all by itself -- and on Wednesday morning, when the Mister went downstairs to grab his running gear, he discovered that the floor in front of the dryer was all wet and that it had somehow sprung a leak. That water was definitely not there on Monday, when I did two loads of laundry, nor was it there when I popped the cowl in, so I'm not saying that it was the cowl's fault, but I'm not NOT saying it. Personally, I think it's just Vera's bad luck rubbing off on me. The Mister scheduled a service call but couldn't get anyone to come until March 19, so in the meantime he fiddled around with what the internet told him might be the issue. However, he couldn't get the exhaust tube reconnected, so our handyman is going to stop by on Saturday to see if he can, and I'm hoping if he does, we'll be able to use the dryer again. In the meantime, I'll have to schlep laundry over to my parents' place to use their washer and dryer -- not ideal, but better than a laundromat. It's just one more thing that's gone wrong this month and yet another reason I'm ready for it to be over!

The only plans we have this weekend are a family dinner on Sunday to celebrate my birthday a little more than a week early (my father's going to be out of town on my actual birthday, and we thought a Sunday evening would allow us to be a little more leisurely). It's been many months since we had all of my side of the family together, so that was my request. I've also got some Zooms to attend, including one for our synagogue in which we will official get to vote to approve the unification of the two congregations! The name of the new entity we'll be forming will be Beit Kulanu, which translates to "a house for all of us." Isn't that just lovely? This process has been in the works for a long time, and I'm excited to see what's in store for the new congregation.

I'll leave you with yet another sign of spring. The snow in our backyard -- which was a pretty big pile because it's where we'd heaped a lot of it as we shoveled -- finally melted enough to uncover the hellebores, and when I poked around yesterday, this is what I found:

Yep, that's a bud! There may be more snow in next week's forecast, but spring is surely on the way, friends! I hope you can have a restful, enjoyable weekend. See you back here on Monday!