That's a Wrap -- Almost

A full week back at work after vacation is not for the faint of heart, so I am very relieved to have made it to Friday. It's not that work was all that difficult, but when you add in another heatwave, wildfire smoke, Internet service that keeps going down, and broken ovens, it makes for a lot.

Yes, I said broken ovens. Some of you might remember that just a little over a year ago, not long after Ruthie came home, our ovens died right before we were supposed to host Passover and we had to get replacements. We ended up with a slightly newer model from the same company because they gave us a deal. Well, that'll be the last time we buy that company's appliances because over the weekend, when the ovens were off and hadn't been used in a while, the control panel started beeping incessantly about an error. It was telling us something about a button being stuck, which made no sense because it was a touchscreen, and the only way to get the beeping to stop was to turn off the breaker. After getting nowhere with the company when he called, the Mister decided we were just going to replace them with something the local appliance place had in stock. I had to pivot a bit on some of the dinner plans for the week, but that was fine, and yesterday some very nice guys came to install our new double oven. And here's hoping it's functional for a good long time!

I'm also happy to report that Comcast did end up fixing whatever the issue was on Tuesday, and we've had no major Internet issues since then.

Though I can't share the finished skein just yet (because it's still drying), I did indeed wrap up the plying on my spinning project on Wednesday evening and skeined and washed it last night. For now, I'll just share this bobbin shot, and I'll share details once the skein is fully dry and I can measure it:

I also finished a pair of socks yesterday! I really had just a bit more than the toe to do on the second sock, and once the ovens were in and Ruthie was able to settle down, I wrapped that up in short order.

The weekend ahead is looking pretty relaxing from my perspective. Molly's got another driving lesson tomorrow afternoon, which might be interesting because there's a high chance of showers and potential thunderstorms (I keep saying it's because the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is happening this weekend, and it seems like there's always a massive thunderstorm in the middle of it). I am certainly hoping for some rain and a break to the oppressive weather we've been having. And I am looking forward to a family dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday on Sunday. I've said I'd make an ice cream grasshopper pie, for which I'm planning to use Thin Mints for the crust.

I'll leave you with one last photo -- the first harvest from my garden! I went to water and check on the zucchini and this one totally surprised me because I hadn't spotted it growing. There are lots more tomatoes to come (they'll probably ripen all at once) but these four were the only ones ready.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. Remember to hydrate and wear your sunblock!

Unraveled, Week 28/2026

Happy Wednesday morning from the heat dome! We're supposed to have a heat index upward of 100ºF today, so I will be spending as much time as possible inside, where I can knit in comfort. Today I'm joining in with Kat and the Unravelers with a big update on my crafting and my reading.

Over the weekend and the past couple of days, we've been dealing with a Comcast outage (fingers crossed that it's fixed now), but the lack of internet on Monday night meant I was able to focus on my spinning and finished up the second bobbin of singles.

As I got this post ready on Tuesday evening, I will have already started plying when you read this, and I'm hopeful I can get that done and the resulting yarn skeined up in time to share it with you on Friday.

I've been continuing to work on my socks while I read and work, and I'm onto the foot of the second sock:

And my current charity hat has grown a bit since you last saw it, and I'm delighted that the yarn has decided to stripe, even though it's sock yarn and I'm working at a bigger circumference:

Because I'm a little pressed for time, I'm going to keep my book reviews brief this week.

Little One by Olivia Muenter

Digital library loan

3 stars

Told in dual timelines, a woman who grew up in what might be considered a cult and has tried to escape from her past is forced to confront it when a reporter finds her and starts asking questions. It was a page-turner that moved at a good speed, but I was distracted by a number of grammatical errors and thought the ending was totally unrealistic.

Slow Horses (Slough House #1) by Mick Herron

Audiobook library loan

4 stars

Slough House is where the screwups from Britain's MI5 get sent. This first book in the series is pretty much exactly the plot of the first season of the Apple TV show of the same name, which I'd already seen, so there weren't really any surprises, but it was still an entertaining listen.

The Palace on the Higher Hill by Karim Kattan, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman

Paperback

2 stars

A Palestinian man living elsewhere returns to his family's home in the West Bank, where he is welcomed by ghosts and the memories of his childhood. I had a really hard time understanding what was going on in this book and probably wouldn't have finished it were it not part of my postal paperback club.

The Place of Tides by James Rebanks

Audiobook library loan

4 stars

A British sheep farmer travels to a remote island off the coast of Norway to learn about the life of Anna, a woman who has devoted much of her life to bringing back the Eider ducks whose feathers used to provide a living to earlier generations. Beautiful and respectful.

I'm currently reading a buzzy book, a recent narrative nonfiction release, and a work of literary criticism.

What are you making and reading?

Return to Routine

All vacations must come to an end eventually, and so today it's back to work. It helps that I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Though the Mister was working from home, I took Friday off as well, which gave me time to pick Ruthie up and get the house back in order. And she was ecstatic to see me -- I even have a bruise on my arm because she was jumping on me so much that she left a mark. She even made it almost all the way home before getting a little carsick (seriously, we were about half a mile away!). The dog sitter reported that she was good and had no stomach issues while we were gone, so clearly whatever she had was fast moving. It had been a while since she'd been away from us, though, so I'm not surprised that it's taken her a little bit of time to settle back into her routine and trust that she's not being left behind (in other words, she's been barking in her crate in the morning). For the first day or so, she was practically attached to me, but now she seems to be back to only her normal level of attachment. This was how she looked Friday afternoon:

While we did have some plans over the weekend -- we had some friends over for dinner on Friday night, the three of us went out Saturday, and we went out for Chinese with my in-laws last night -- much of the weekend was spent relaxing. I did check my work inbox yesterday morning so I wouldn't get any bad surprises first thing on Monday, and it looks like I didn't miss much and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one has been waiting until 8:30 this morning to dump something on me.

This week should be pretty typical, though it's supposed to get hot again, which means I will likely be showering twice a day again and probably taking Ruthie for shorter walks. As I did over the weekend, I'm planning to spend my evening crafting time at my spinning wheel and perhaps have a skein of yarn plied by the end of the week. And after a weekend of disruptions, I am keeping all my fingers crossed that our internet stays on -- working from home is a little difficult without it!

I will be back on Wednesday with an update on my projects and my reading. In the meantime, let's all hope this Monday passes easily and swiftly!

Home Again

And just like that, our trip is over and we are back home. We had fun, but I wouldn't call it a particularly relaxing time away except for the fact that I wasn't working while we were there. Two toddlers in a house means it gets noisy early, so there's not much of a chance to sleep in, and sleeping was difficult because the upstairs rooms were pretty hot. So I can say with confidence that we are all happy to be back, and later this morning, when I go to pick Ruthie up at the dog sitter's house, we'll all be home where we should be. And I'm feeling good about taking today off so I can have a long weekend to settle back in, particularly as I expect some-puppy to be extra needy today.

I may not have slept as much as I'd hoped while we were away, but I certainly took advantage of the time off. I read portions of several books. I exercised. I gave myself a pedicure while sitting on the screened-in porch and listening to the birds. And I did a fair amount of crafting.

I worked on socks on the drive up and finished the first one in short order, casting on the second on the drive home.

I worked on the charity hat while we watched part of the ill-fated U.S. men's World Cup game and Project Hail Mary.

And I finished the turtle in progress on my spindle (but then packed it away and forgot to take a photo). But when we got home yesterday, after I'd unpacked and gone for a walk and showered, I sat down at my spinning wheel for the first time in months. It badly needed some oil, but the motions came right back to me.

Today will be a quiet day, I hope, with the usual dog walks and some extra snuggles, and then we're hosting some friends for dinner (something I only learned about as we were driving home yesterday). But the weekend is free of plans, other than the usual meal planning/grocery shopping and tidying around the house. I'm hoping that it'll be a good reset for all of us to get back to the normal routine.

I wish you a good end to the week and a relaxing weekend!

Unraveled, Week 27/2026

It has been a relaxing couple of days away, even if there hasn't been much of an opportunity to sleep in; when there are two small children who have no sense of volume control in the house, it's hard to keep sleeping once they're up. But there no sense of rush and nowhere to be, nor is there any puppy needing walks or attention. We've had some rain every day since we got here and high temperatures in the mid-70s F, so it's been a very welcome reprieve. We'll head home tomorrow, and as nice as it's been to be away, I am looking forward to being back in my own bed, where the air conditioning works better.

As it's Wednesday, it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers.

I brought my socks in progress on the trip but also wound some yarn for some new charity hats. I cast on the first on Monday evening, using some yarn I picked up off the freebie table at the first SSK I attended back in 2017.

This skein from a now-out-of-business company called Yarn Carnival. It's a light fingering weight -- 490 yards per 100 g skein! So this should be a good-sized hat when it's done.

I also brought a spindle project with me and have spent some time each day working on this second turtle (I finished one last summer when I started this project while Molly and I were at SSK).

Though last week was busy with work and Ruthie's illness, I took advantage of the long holiday weekend to do a little more reading and finished up three books before we left for our trip.

There's a reason there's always a pretty long wait for the books in the Thursday Murder Club series at the library: They are always a fun read. The Last Devil to Die, the fourth installment, brings a murder that appears to be connected to a shipment of heroin -- and a victim known to the members of the club. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is having to come to terms with her husband's worsening dementia, and their police friends are trying to solve the case even after they've been kicked off it. As per usual, it's all slightly ridiculous, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment. I gave this one 4 stars.

I really enjoyed Nikki May's This Motherless Land when I read it last year, so I thought I'd give her debut novel, Wahala, a try. This book focused on female friendship centers three Anglo-Nigerian women: Ronke, a dentist who keeps making poor choices in the men she dates but is hoping her current boyfriend is The One; Boo, who has an adorable young daughter and loving French husband but who feels frustrated with her life; and Simi, who left medical school to pursue a career in fashion and is married to a businessman who is out of the country for long periods of time and isn't sure she wants the baby he insists they should be trying for. They have all been there for each other for years, but the friendships are thrown into upheaval with the arrival of Isobel, who seeks to worm herself into the lives of all three. I enjoyed most of this book and its exploration of the search for life meaning and identity all of the three main characters seemed to grapple with, but it took a turn near the end that seemed rather far-fetched to me. I gave it 3 stars.

I had been savoring Land by reading it in bed at night, a handful of pages at a time, but I decided that I didn't want to shlep a hardback book with me on vacation, so I brought it downstairs to read during Ruthie's nap time. I know many of you have already read this book, are reading it, or are planning to read it, so I will spare you any summary of the plot. I thought that this book beautifully showcased what an amazing writer Maggie O'Farrell is, but I found the story to be sad and even a little unsatisfying in the way things ended. I felt that there were several threads left dangling and too much heartbreak for one family, though in that respect I'm sure it wasn't too uncommon in Ireland at the time. Overall, I did like it quite a lot, though I can't say it was my favorite O'Farrell. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?

Time for a Mini Break

Greetings from the top of a mountain! We've escaped the city for a few days with my parents and my brother and his family (and his dog) in a rental house at a ski resort in the Laurel Highlands. Ruthie bounced back completely from her illness of last week and is boarding with the dog sitter while we're away. There will be other dogs for her to play with and a big yard for her to run around in. We're not going to have great weather (lots of rain is in the forecast), but frankly we brought so much food with us, we're going to need to just sit around and eat all day unless we want to schlep it home again!

We had a quiet 4th of July. I went for a short run in the morning, as I didn't get a chance to get out on Friday when I was at the vet with Ruthie, and then had a quiet afternoon of reading, knitting, and snuggling my puppy. We had my in-laws over for dinner as a thunderstorm moved through. Before I went to bed, I finished up the Baby Surprise Jacket. Once we get home, it will be blocked and two buttons will be sewn on.

I used a US 6/4.0 mm needle for this one, given that STR Mediumweight is more of a sport than fingering. After I sewed the shoulder seams, I did applied I-cord all around the neck, openings, and bottom edge and made a couple of loops on the front in lieu of buttonholes. According to the projects I've logged on Ravelry, this is the 11th BSJ I've knit! It continues to be a fun and engaging project, and I'm sure there will be more in the future.

Meanwhile, Tour de Fleece kicked off yesterday, and I've decided this is as good an excuse as any to get back into spinning. I brought a spindle project with me to work on while we're away, but yesterday I pulled out some precious fiber and split it up to go on the wheel when we get home.

This is some Southern Cross Fibre club from November 2015. I can't remember if I spun my shipment, but this one was acquired via a destash after David announced his retirement. This is a particularly luscious fiber blend: 50% South African superfine merino and 50% mulberry silk. I've split it for a two-ply fractal. I imagine it will want to be spun quite finely.

The plan for this week is to relax. I haven't slept well in the past several days because I've been worried about Ruthie and she's been barking early to wake me up, so I'm hoping I can sleep in a little (and not wake up completely at 4:30 a.m. for no apparent reason like I did the past two mornings). I've got knitting, spinning, a physical book, and my iPad and computer, plus we brought a jigsaw puzzle and my mahjongg set. And there is the aforementioned eating. I'm sure we'll all find plenty of ways to pass the time.

So Much for Plans

I had fully intended to get a post ready yesterday afternoon to go up this morning, but it seems the heat is wreaking havoc on everything. Yesterday this poor baby got sick multiple times, and I suspect the heat is the culprit.

She slept overnight but was barking shortly before 6 and had been sick again a little in her crate and it looked like there was some blood. And when I took her out, she didn't pee. She seems mostly like herself, but it's clear something isn't right, so now I'm just waiting until the vet opens at 8 to see if I can get her in to be seen or if we need to go to the emergency vet. Please send good thoughts! I'll try to update later today once we have a better idea of what's going on.

Update: We have a vet appointment at 9:45. Fingers crossed it's nothing serious!

Update at 11 a.m.: Just back from the vet. Ruthie had x-rays taken and bloodwork done. No obstruction was spotted and she doesn't have pancreatitis, so the vet's best guess is that she picked up a virus or bacteria on something on the street. She was given an anti-nausea injection there and we were sent home with more in pill form for the next several days (as needed) as well as Pepcid (to turn off the stomach acid) and bland food. The vet said we should be fine to proceed with our vacation plans as long as she improves in the next 24 hours or so. Phew!