A Monday, without a Case of the Mondays

Good morning, my friends! Even though it's my least-favorite day of the week, I am feeling rested and less anxious than usual this Monday. Part of it is that I had a bonus day off (though, in all honesty, it still felt like a typical Friday except for not being on the computer all day). Part of it is that I was able to sleep in a bit and wake up naturally both Saturday and Sunday. And part of it is that Molly is done with exams and stress for this school year and is more or less recovered from her sinus issues, so I can look forward to a happier girl around the house for the foreseeable future.

We did make it to the movie on Friday afternoon (I believe that there were fewer than 10 people in the theater altogether!), and I took my sock in progress with me. At one point I was concerned that I was getting close to the measurement for the foot before starting the toe, so I put it away until I could measure it. Wouldn't you know that I had knit to exactly the right length? Seems like there was some good luck or magic or karma at work because not only had I not knit too far, but when I finished the first sock later that night and measured the remaining yarn, I had more than 50 g remaining, so I shouldn't need to worry about playing yarn chicken with the second sock.

We had a quiet Saturday, with some strange weather (dark clouds threatened much of the day, but it only rained lightly a few times). Molly had a get-together with some friends that evening, so the Mister and I went out to dinner -- and lest you think we had a lovely, romantic evening, I'll tell you that when we came home, we collectively folded three loads of laundry. Middle age is very exciting! We spent some of our dinner reflecting on the fact that this was the second Saturday in a row that we'd been able to go out as just a couple and that in about two more years, we'll be doing it all the time. Seems like just yesterday that we were talking about how we couldn't wait to be out of the diapers phase, the tantrum phase, etc.

Yesterday we had what felt like the start of summer. Even though it was about 40ºF on Friday morning when I took Ruthie out first thing, yesterday it warmed into the mid-80s and we had to switch off the heat and turn on the air conditioning. Today and tomorrow we're supposed to break 90! I'm fully convinced that we're not going to get a real spring this year and that it'll either be colder or much hotter than average. I picked up the plants I ordered (two types of tomatoes, bell pepper, basil, and rosemary) yesterday, and I'm hoping that at least we've seen the last of the frost and I can safely plant them.

The Mister is headed out of town on a work trip for a few days, so it'll be just us girls at home. Now that Molly is done with classes (they do mini courses for the last two weeks of the year), she won't have homework or studying to do, so I'm hoping she'll help me with dinner and spend time with me in the evening. We still have to finish watching the most recent season of Only Murders in the Building, which came out last fall, because she soon got so busy at school that she needed her evenings to do homework. I'm expecting work to pick up a bit this week, though I assume we will have an early dismissal on Friday ahead of the holiday weekend (how is it already almost Memorial Day?!). Though we're past the worst of this school year, there's still a lot on the schedule before the start of summer, so I'm just taking it one day at a time.

I hope your Monday isn't as bad as it could be and the week goes quickly. I'll be back on Wednesday with a sweater update!

Happy Weekend

I do love a Friday off! Molly is officially done with exams, so she is no longer stressed out, but she's also come down with what we believe is a sinus infection (thanks to the aforementioned stress + allergies + lack of sleep). If it's not one thing, it's another! She is, understandably, sleeping in late today, and provided she feels up to it, we're going to the movies to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 with my mother later this afternoon. In the meantime, though I've taken the day off from work, I'll be up to my usual non-work activities today: a run, cleaning the bathroom, doing some laundry. And of course there will be some knitting. If we do go to the movie, I'll be taking my brother's socks with me.

Colors aren't accurate thanks to bad lighting

As of Thursday afternoon, I was about an inch and a half past the completion of the gusset decreases. My brother's feet are 10.75 inches long, so there's still quite a bit of foot to go! It'll be good movie knitting or, if we stay home, good reading-while-Ruthie-naps knitting.

We had cooler weather this week, but we're supposed to get back to the 80s and may even hit 90 on Monday! I'm picking up the plants I ordered from our synagogue's plant sale on Sunday and am hoping it's safe to plant them -- I never would have expected we'd get frost warnings in May! We have no big plans for the weekend, but our neighborhood business district has an art fair happening this weekend (which always seems to bring on the hot weather), so I expect we'll stroll through at some point to see if there's anything interesting. There's also some filming going on in our neighborhood, pretty much across the street from our street, so perhaps we'll spot some actors on our walks.

I hope you're able to relax, get some sunshine, and do something you enjoy this weekend. And to leave you with a little eye candy, I present the first rose of the season to bloom on our last remaining rose bush:

Unraveled, Week 19/2026

We've made it to the midpoint of the week, so it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers -- and I've got a pretty big update today!

Though it's still looking a bit disheveled because it's badly in need of blocking, my sweater now has a finished body and a finished sleeve! I have started the second sleeve -- and simultaneously started worrying that I don't have enough yarn. As this is all handspun, what I have is all I'll ever have, so I'm hoping there's more yardage in those two cakes than I think. I know I had more total yardage than called for in the pattern, but I'm also a bit off on row gauge. And of course I always have this moment of panic in just about every project, so I'd worry if I wasn't facing a potential round of yarn chicken. If I do run short, I could shorten the other sleeve to match or undo the body and sacrifice some length, so I do have options. But I'm hoping I won't need them. Please keep your fingers crossed! In the meantime, I'll just try to knit faster; everyone knows that's how you make yarn last longer!

It has been an incredible week of reading for me in terms of sheer numbers, with seven books finished! But that makes it sound more impressive than it is because four of them were relatively short audiobooks, two were ebooks that were only around 200 pages, and the last one was long (500+ pages) but had been started about a month ago, so I only had the last bit to finish. Because of the total number, though, I'm only going to do some very brief reviews here in the interest of time and space. If you want to know more about my thoughts on any particular title, please let me know and I'll be happy to elaborate.

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens (digital)
2 stars

The Winfrey family -- the Rev. Sabre, First Lady Priscilla, and their five sons -- are the elite of Dominion society, but the actions of their youngest son, nicknamed Wonderboy, threaten to undo it all. I struggled to understand some of it and didn't care for it much; even though the narrative is told mostly by two women, it felt like it was all about men behaving badly and hurting the women who love them.

Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture by Samantha Ellis (audio)
4 stars

This memoir, read by the author, details her efforts to explore and perhaps save the Judeo-Iraqi Arabic spoken by her parents and grandparents and to learn more about what their lives were like in Iraq. I learned a lot about the history of Jews who lived in predominantly Arab countries (so-called Mizrahi Jews).

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (audio)

4 stars

If you haven't read this book yet, please do. I found it particularly relevant given that my parents and in-laws are aging, but certainly all of us hope to reach old age, and this book provides a lot to think about how we want to live when the end of our life is in sight.

Wreck by Catherine Newman (audio)

4 stars

We return to Rocky and her family several years after Sandwich; her mother has passed away and her father is living with them. The death of a young man in their community that is connected to her son's job and her own health struggles lead Rocky to once again focus on her family. Charming and relatable.

We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezon Camara, translated by Robin Myers (digital)

2 stars

This book won the National Book Award for translated literature last year and was on the International Booker Prize longlist this year, so I wanted to like it. The writing was certainly beautiful, but I couldn't fully understand what was going on. At least it was short!

The Hakawati by Rabih Almeddine (paperback)

4 stars

Osama returns home to his father's deathbed in Lebanon and recalls his childhood, including the time he spent with his grandfather, a hakawati (storyteller) to the local village official. Interwoven with his own family's stories are traditional Lebanese and Middle Eastern tales.

Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman (audio)

4 stars

This work of narrative nonfiction tells the story about a daring escape from East Berlin to West Berlin via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. It follows the history of the wall's construction, the work of the Stasi in East Germany, and the film crew that captured the escape. Very compelling!

Currently reading: On the Calculation of Volume IV on paper, The Bullet That Missed on Kindle, and The Things We Never Say on audio.

Rested and Drying Out

It was a cool, damp weekend here, with rain much of the day on Saturday and during the morning on Sunday. Thankfully the sun came out Sunday afternoon, so it didn't feel like a total wash-out. Ruthie and I still went out for our walks; she seemed even more interested in sniffing everything now that it was wet, so some of them were even longer than usual. The Mister and I had a good dinner out on Saturday, Molly had fun at her event, and we all ate too much at brunch on Sunday. The socks were a hit, and given that we've got a potential for frost overnight early this week, they might even get worn soon! My request for Mother's Day was not to have to cook dinner and the Mister obliged. And now it's Monday again and time to start the weekly grind over.

One item on my to-do list that I crossed off over the weekend was blocking the two hats I just knit.

The ribbing is obviously making these look very skinny, but they are very stretchy and accommodating. The pattern is the free Two by Two (Ravelry link), which I had knit at least once before. It's a very simple pattern -- 2x2 ribbing for a while, then eight decreases every other round at either side of four markers, then eight decreases every round for the last handful. I actually did one more than called for so that I ended with 8 stitches at the end rather than 16. I used Fibernymph Dye Works DK-weight yarn for both, Mountain House Autumn on Beguiled (superwash Merino/nylon/sparkle) on the left and Gnome Place Like Home on Strong DK (superwash Merino/nylon) on the right. The pattern calls for worsted, but the DK worked out just fine; I went down to a US 5/3.75 mm needle to work with the slightly lighter yarn. I'd originally intended the one on the right to be for my brother, but the stripes might be a bit too wild for him. I wouldn't give it to him until Chanukah in any case, so I have some time to decide. But in the meantime I needed a new mindless afternoon project, so I cast on a pair of socks for him.

This is also Fibernymph Dye Works yarn, a colorway called Winter's Bite, one of Lisa's Middle Earth-themed colorways. This skein was actually a prize from her ongoing make-along, and I thought these darker, moody colors would suit my brother well. This pair will either be for his birthday in July or be put away for Chanukah.

This week Molly has finals, which means she'll be super stressed out but at least after Thursday she'll be done and has only fun stuff for the rest of the school year. And I am taking Friday off so we can have a girls' day. I'm hoping that the shorter week moves quickly!

Thank Goodness

We have made it to Friday! I don't know why, but this has felt like a very long week. The weather's been all over the place, our schedule's been off a bit, and everyone's been stressed out. So I am more than ready for the weekend. Molly is going to a charity gala with a friend on Saturday night, so the Mister and I are going out to dinner, and then Sunday we're going to the annual Mother's Day brunch at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house. If the weather were going to be nicer, I might spend the day getting the garden somewhat put together, but it's supposed to be cool and rainy, so I'll settle with reading and snuggling the puppy.

Speaking of which:

Ruthie would like me to remind you to put your screens down and relax! Have a good weekend, friends!

Unraveled, Week 18/2026

Wednesday again -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

Not that much progress has been made on either of my two WIPs, so I'll spare you another photo of a little bit of a sleeve and some ribbing. Instead, I present for your viewing pleasure the four pairs of Mother's Day socks, all washed and blocked:

I don't feel a need to block socks I knit for myself, but I like to do it for socks I'm giving as gifts, not least because it helps to get rid of the magic loop ridges. These will get wrapped up later this week, and who knows, they might even get worn right away because it's supposed to be a slightly chilly weekend!

In addition to a slower week of knitting for me, it's been a slower week of reading as well, though I think that's in large part due to the fact that one of the two books I finished was 700 pages.

I had heard about The Remembered Soldier from several friends who had read it after it was named to the International Booker Prize longlist. It follows the life of a Belgian man who had fought in WWI but had lost his memory and had been living in a psychiatric asylum until a woman shows up and identifies him as her husband, Amand. Though he has no memory of her, he returns home with her and learns about his life as Amand, a photographer and shopkeeper with his wife, Julianne, and two children. Over time, Amand and Julienne have to get to know each other and fall in love all over again, even as Amand struggles with the horrifying dreams of war and his uncertainty of what is real and what is not. Then he starts "disappearing" for longer and longer periods of time, during which he claims to be someone else -- a man married to someone else. What is real? What is dream or imagined? Are these disappearances caused by the trauma of war or glimpses of his real self? And can he not remember Julienne because he has truly lost his memory or because he never had the memories to begin with? This is a long book, and it's written almost entirely in run-on sentences that give it a sense of breathlessness, but it gives the reader a lot to think about and certainly raises some big questions about memory and its reliability. I gave it 4 stars.

Crooks was mentioned on a recent episode of the What Should I Read Next podcast and sounded like something fun and a little lighter, which I was in the mood for. It follows members of the Mercurio family, who come from a long line of criminals and thieves -- crooks, in other words. Each section of the book follows a different member of the family, starting with the father and then moving through his children, all of whom are involved in crime in some way. The exceptions are Alice, the smart one, who has known what her family is all along and has avoided it for most of her life, and Piggy, the baby, who feels like he's missing out. I had a little trouble staying focused on this book at the beginning, but the narrator does a great job of reading with appropriate emotion and made it more entertaining. I'd never heard of this book or this author before, and I can't say I'm eager to read more of his work, but this made me laugh, and that's what I wanted. I gave it 4 stars as well.

I'm currently in the home stretch of The Hakawati, am a little more than a third through Dominion, and just started a really interesting work of nonfiction on audio.

What are you making and reading this week?

May (not March) Weekending

It was a very strange weekend here, at least as far as the weather was concerned -- it felt much more like the first weekend in March rather than the first weekend in May! Saturday was particularly miserable. It was in the low 30s when I got up, didn't get much warmer than 50ºF, rained on and off, and even hailed at one point. Thank goodness my nephew's birthday party was inside! He was very excited by all his gifts (we got him a Spiderman bedding set for his "big boy" bed) and cake (well, cupcakes) was eaten. Ruthie and I curled up to read and knit and nap in the afternoon, and the Mister and I went out for dinner with a group that included family and family friends.

Yesterday started out even colder (33ºF) and may have well been the coldest temperature ever for the Pittsburgh Marathon. We didn't run, but the course comes right through our neighborhood in the middle of the race, so we always see and often cheer on the runners. At least the sun was out and warmed things up to about 60ºF. Still, it didn't feel much like May, especially considering that in years past, I would have been at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend. (Molly still wants to go at some point, but I think we'll have to wait until she's in college because her finals always fall around this time.)

Though it wasn't the best weekend for getting outdoors, I made the most of the time I was inside. I finished up my brother's hat -- I still need to block it, but because it's entirely 2x2 rib, there's no good way to show it to you other than through this awkward selfie:

I immediately cast on another one of these using the other skein of yarn that came in the grab bag, and I expect it'll be done very soon as well. I'll likely block them both at the same time and share photos and all the details when they're done.

Progress was made on my sweater as well -- the body is finished and the first sleeve is started!

Before I picked up for the sleeve, I also wove in all my ends (which wasn't that many, but I thought future me would thank me). I really like how the designer has you finish off the ribbing -- knit one round and then bind off knitwise. It gives a really polished edge:

We've got a fairly typical week ahead, with the one exception being a reception at Molly's school Tuesday evening because she's being inducted into the French National Honor Society. I have no idea if this is a big deal or not because it wasn't a thing when I was in high school, but we're proud of her nonetheless! This week will be all about preparation and studying for finals, which are next week; I don't know whether she'll be more or less stressed than usual, but I'm looking forward to her being done next Thursday. (After finals, her school does mini courses until the end of the year; her last day is May 29.) I'm also hoping that things warm up again -- I'd really like to put my winter coat away for good!

Have a good start to your week -- and May the Fourth be with you!