Unraveled, Week 21/2026

It's already Wednesday -- another good thing about a short week after a long weekend! Time to join up with Kat and the Unravelers.

As promised, I have a big reveal today. Tada!

Pattern: Speculoos Sweater (Ravelry link) by Elenor Mortensen, size M (approx. 41 in./104 cm bust), giving me approximately 5 in. of positive ease
Yarn: handspun Rambouillet in Thunderstruck (MC), approximately 1,058 yds. used, and handspun mystery wool (CC) in Pebbles, approximately 211 yds. used, both from Southern Cross Fibre
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm (for colorwork), US 4/3.5 mm (for stockinette), and US 2.5/3.0 mm (for ribbing)
Started/Completed: March 12/May 23
Mods: none

I'd had the four skeins of handspun set aside to be knit into a sweater for a couple of years and had intended them for at least two other patterns before I saw and fell in love with this one. And I cast on almost right away once I'd bought it and wound the yarn.

The sweater is knit top down, starting with the contrast color and some short-row shaping to raise the back neck. The neckline itself is very minimal -- knit a round and purl around. Time will tell if it has enough structure for me.

The only thing about this sweater that I don't completely love is that the mystery wool I used for the contrast did not bloom as much as the Rambouillet I used for the main color, so the colorwork didn't even out as much as I would have liked when I blocked it and the yoke still looks a little textured. It doesn't affect the visibility of the pattern, especially not from far away, but it's just not as finished as I would like.

I followed the pattern exactly as written and didn't have any issues with it, though it was clear to me through some of the phrasing/wording that the designer isn't a native speaker of English. It's not that anything was confusing per se, it's just that instructions were worded a bit differently than how I'd do it. It's obvious that all the measurements and grading were done in metric to begin with because the equivalent imperial measurement are a bit ... odd (like "work to 2.3 inches"). It might trip up a newer sweater knitter; for me, it was just a curiosity.

I also finished my brother's socks over the weekend, though they're nothing really exciting -- except for the fact that I finished both and didn't run out of yarn! I'm fortunate that Lisa's skeins are frequently a smidge over 100 g; this pair took 98 g.

These will need to be blocked and then will be put away either for his birthday (in July) or Chanukah.

Meanwhile, in reading, I finished another five books:

I'm not entirely sure why, but at some point I bought How to Lose Your Mother when it was a Kindle deal, so I thought I might as well read it. I've never read Erica Jong's Fear of Flying or any of her books, but I was certainly aware of it and that it was a bit of a cultural phenomenon. And I'd heard of Molly Jong-Fast as a political commentator, but I didn't know much about her personal life. This memoir chronicles her experience as Erica Jong's daughter and specifically a year in her life in which she had to move both her mother (suffering from dementia) and her stepfather (suffering from Parkinson's and dementia) into assisted living while also dealing with her husband's cancer diagnosis and treatment. Through all this, she reflects on what it was like to grow up with a famous mother, on getting sober in her late teens, and on her complicated relationship with her mother. It was an interesting read, perhaps one I never would have gotten to if I hadn't taken a chance on a bargain. It made me thankful to have a much less complicated relationship with my own mother. I gave it 3 stars.

American Han came up in one of my Sunday Zooms and sounded intriguing, so I put it on hold. It's told from the point of view of a 20-something Korean American woman reflecting on her difficult childhood with an older brother and immigrant parents. The blurb calls it "deeply serious and absurdly funny"; I found it to be just plain sad because no one in this family seems to be happy with their lives and they're all horrible to each other. I did finish it, so I can't say I hated it, but I didn't much care for it. I gave it 2 stars.

A much more enjoyable listen was History of the Rain. Ruthie is a college student who has fallen ill with a mysterious disorder that confines her to her bed, so she passes her days by writing the story of her family, especially her father, who gave her his vast library of books. Interspersed are anecdotes about her childhood and the charming characters in her Irish town. It's at points funny, heartbreaking, and poignant. I think I might have enjoyed it even more were it not for some of the odd choices of the narrator, such as pausing at unusual moments and pronouncing words oddly; I also had trouble following the plot at times because I was listening. But, overall, it was delightful. 4 stars.

Time Shelter won the 2023 Booker International Prize, and the premise sounded intriguing: The narrator (who may or may not be the author) came across a man named Gaustine was had come up with a unique idea for a clinic for those suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia: It would be set up in such a way that it would exactly resemble a time period from the past, one in which the patients believed they were living, so that they would cease being confused and instead be happy that the world outside matched the one in their head. This concept becomes hugely successful, but then nations start holding referendums on returning to a different time as well and things get strange. I really enjoyed the first third or so of this book, but then it started becoming somewhat of a slog. If you enjoy books that are a little weird, that make you think about time, and that make you question what's real in the world of the book, you might enjoy this. I gave it 3 stars.

Finally, a novella that I read in two relatively brief sittings on Monday: The narrator in The English Understand Wool is a 17-year-old raised by her French mother to avoid being in bad taste at all costs. She is given the best of everything, traveling with her mother to Scotland to obtain tweed fabric and then to London to have it made into suits by a tailor there, but if she wanted something in linen, that would need to be obtained in Ireland and be sewn by a Thai seamstress in Paris. One day her entire life is turned upside-down when she learns that everything she thought she knew about her family was a lie, and what follows is how she proceeds with her life with the training she's been given. It's a weird little story, very well written and very odd. I gave it 3 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?

Long Weekending

It's Monday, but it's also kind of a second Sunday because it's a federal holiday and we're all home. Today we're hoping the weather finally cooperates, because the last two days have been largely overcast and wet. The rain is good for the grass seed we've had planted and the plants I just put in my raised beds last week, but it makes for some pretty miserable walks (I have a really good raincoat, but what makes it good at keeping me dry also makes it really hot, so I either have to be dry and sweaty or cooler and wet).

In spite of the weather, we had a relaxing couple of days. Molly didn't work at all this weekend, so she was able to get in a couple of hours of driving practice. We also went out for a couple of nice dinners, and Ruthie and I got some good afternoon snuggles in (she napped while I read and knit). Yesterday I made some rather involved but delicious and enormous cookies:

Today I plan to go for my usual run, Molly and the Mister will probably go out driving again, and we're all headed to a big cookout with my parents, my in-laws, and my brother and his family for dinner. Then Tuesday it'll be back to the usual schedule, but at least it'll be a short week. It's Molly's last week of school, and Friday she's really only there for a couple of hours. I'm taking that day off, and in the afternoon, she and her friend and I are going to go do a little retail therapy to celebrate the end of school.

I will have a big update on Wednesday, but here's a little preview!

Not Quite Summer Yet

We had a taste of summer to start the week, but for Memorial Day weekend, traditionally the start of summer, it's gotten cooler again and an awful lot of rain is in the forecast. We don't have any cookouts planned, so it's all the same to me, but I feel bad for all the people who are opening the pools and the local amusement parks this weekend -- I don't think they're going to get much business!

My holiday weekend will start at 2 this afternoon, when my office closes early. I'll be curled up with a napping puppy at that point, most likely, so that just means closing my laptop. And there's not much planned for the weekend, other than going to a dinner with the extended family on Monday. Molly will likely work over the weekend, we've got to do a Target run to stock up on some stuff, and we'll try to get her some driving practice. Because of the expected rain, I'm hoping to plant some flower seeds in the front (I'm going to be tossing a bunch of stuff in the ground and seeing what comes up), but mostly I'm planning to use the weekend to rest, read, and knit.

Speaking of knitting, here's where things stand with my WIPs (at least as of last night):

All that's left on the sweater is the cuff on the second sleeve, and the heel has been turned on the second sock of the pair. These aren't going to be WIPs for much longer!

I may also spend some time this weekend digging in the stash and browsing patterns because yesterday I found out that a friend who has been dealing with fertility issues for several years is expecting a baby this fall -- knit all the baby things! She and her husband are currently living in Sweden because of his job, so that baby will need some warm woolies, and I'm happy to supply some of them.

I hope you all have a wonderful, restful long weekend!

Unraveled, Week 20/2026

Happy Wednesday, friends! As per usual, I'm joining up with Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what I've been making and reading in the past week.

It's been an interesting start to the week. The Mister left early on Monday (like shortly after 6 a.m.) to head to Indianapolis via Chicago. His first flight got off fine, but then there was a ground stop in Chicago (due to bad weather), then the plane needed to be inspected, and then they needed to bring in a new plane. The connecting flight didn't take off until something like 9:30 p.m. Central. Oy. He said even though he spent most of the day in an airport, it was still preferable to flying because at least he could be productive. I would have been miserable. Back at home, we had summer-like weather (humid and near 90ºF), on top of which the filming going on in our neighborhood meant that when Ruthie and I were coming back from our first walk, we had to wait for them to call cut on a shot before we could even walk to our street and I had to get really creative with my route on my run. On the plus side, the very first time I walked by the area, I spotted Jeremy Renner:

Not the greatest shot, but the best I could do at a distance

Molly, Ruthie, and I have been enjoying having a girls-only house. It means I have to do a little more around the house, like cleaning up the dinner dishes and taking out the garbage, but it's certainly a loss less work than it used to be now that Molly is pretty self-sufficient. That's allowed me to get in some time on my sweater, too, and I am closing in on the end of the second sleeve:

I finished the last of the decreases Monday night, so now I just have to knit straight until I reach a particular length and can do the cuff. Assuming my counting of rounds was correct (which it very well may not be, because my eyesight isn't what it used to be and dark yarn makes it hard to count in any case), I think I have about 50 rounds or so remaining. I'm fairly confident that I'll finish this week. I'm less confident that I have enough yarn, but I'm feeling a little better on that front.

It's been another stellar week of reading, as least as far as numbers are concerned. I finished six books this past week, though again I'll add the caveat that they were all relatively short.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (digital)

4 stars

I had a pretty long wait for this book at the library, and I can understand why: The books in this series are just plain fun. What's not to enjoy about a group of retirees in their 70s solving murders that the police haven't managed to solve? This one involves a former KGB agent, a man known as the Viking who specializes in laundering money using crypto currency, and a police chief who dabbles in writing crime fiction. Easy to read, funny, heartwarming, and generally a good romp.

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (audio)

4 stars

Somehow I was able to catch when my library added Strout's newest release and borrow it without having to put it on hold. Though this book has no Lucy Barton, no Olive Kitteridge, and no Maine in it, it still has everything that so many people love about her books -- the stories of real people, with all their faults. It focuses on high school history teacher Artie Dam, who learns a shocking secret and starts to reevaluate everything, but who also holds space for his friends and students.

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden (digital)

4 stars

In the middle of pandemic lockdown, Burden's husband of two decades announced that he'd been having an affair and he was leaving her. In their following interactions, she felt that this man was so unlike the man she'd fallen in love and had three children with that she began to doubt everything. This memoir was her way of processing this sudden change and her efforts to build a new life in the wake of her divorce. Burden is up front about her great privilege (read: she had a lot of money) that enabled her to maintain her life as a stay-at-home mom, but she also draws a lot of attention to how often men get a pass and women are blamed when this type of split happens.

On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle, translated by Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (on paper)

4 stars

When I started this series, I did not know how someone could make the story of a woman stuck in the same day last for seven volumes, and I continue to be impressed. In this volume, Tara has found a fairly large group of others who are stuck in November 18, and they've formed a community in an abandoned house they've found in Germany where they all live together, regularly having meetings where they discuss their situation from every point of view. As in previous volumes, this one ends with a bit of a cliffhanger -- and now I have to wait for the next one!

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler (audio)

4 stars

This is another memoir about Kate Bowler's cancer diagnosis and treatment, much like Everything Happens for a Reason, but this one feels more personal and less about her professional interests. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed it as much if I'd read with my eyes; mainly I just love listening to Kate Bowler be Kate Bowler!

The Measure by Nikki Erlick (audio)

3 stars

The premise is this: On the same day, all around the world, all adults 22 and older receive a box. On it is a plaque telling them that the box contains the measure of their life, and inside is a string whose length corresponds to the length of their life. The book follows a series of individuals, connected in various ways, who make choices about their lives based upon whether or not they choose to look at their strings and what they do if they do look. It's an interesting concept, but I thought the book was a little longer than it needed to be and wrapped up a little too neatly.

Currently reading: How to Lose Your Mother (digital), Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (on paper), and American Han (audio)

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.