Unraveled, Week 29/2026

It's Wednesday, so it must be time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! This week's update finds me in an unusual spot: I have only one active knitting WIP. I have been spinning in the evenings when I'm upstairs, so the only knitting I've been doing regularly has been during the afternoons while Ruthie naps (and while I read or do work). That knitting, by necessity, has to be fairly simple, so it's generally socks or a hat. And a hat is what I've been working on this week.

It's been a while since I measured anything in Ruthies, and I think this particular system is well suited to this hat. The yarn I'm using is a light fingering weight, at 490 yards per 100 g. As if that's not enough, my skein was a bit heavy at 103 g, so I have a bit more than 500 yards. This is going to be for charity, so I figure I might as well use up as much of it as I can; worst case is that whoever ends up with it can fold the brim a couple of times. My parents were kind enough to drive me to and from the dinner Monday night (they were also attending), and the round trip took probably an hour and 45 minutes thanks to traffic, so I've gotten a fair amount done this week. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish in the next few days.

I've also done a fair amount of reading this week, but I'm busy enough that I don't have time to do full reviews and I apologize for that. I've finished five books since last Wednesday:

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (digital from library): A tradwife online influencer wakes up in 1855 and has to figure out how she got there and how to get back to the life she knows. A wild ride with a highly unlikeable main character that is nevertheless a page turner. 3 stars
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (audio from the library): A riveting true story of a rash of murders of members of the Osage nation and the investigation by the burgeoning FBI that revealed a pattern of efforts by white men to get the oil money of the Osage. 4 stars
• The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews (digital from library): A thriller set in the world of fine art. Clare was ABD on an art history PhD when she married into a wealthy family and has become unfulfilled with her new life. She has an affair with an art dealer, and when he is murdered, it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to frame her for his death. Outrageous but fun, especially if you know art. 4 stars
• Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (audio from library): The third in the Susan Ryeland series finds her back in London working with a tumultuous author hired to write a continuation of the Atticus Pund series. She discovers that his book is actually a thinly veiled account of his own family, and once again she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. Well performed (by actors) but too long. 3 stars
• Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julie Langbein (digital from library): Jean, in her mid-40s, can't seem to move on from an affair she had with a professor while a college student studying abroad in France. So she turns to Monica Lewinsky, as one would pray to a saint for intercession, for help as she revisits that summer. Funny, irreverent, and empowering and totally original. 4 stars

I'm still slowly making my way through London Falling before bed and, now that a flurry of three library holds in a row coming in has subsided, will be getting back to On Morrison.

What are you making and reading this week?

Mid-July Weekending

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?