Unraveled, Week 42/2026

It's a busy week, but we've reached the midpoint. Time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

Today I've got a big WIP update: I've finished the body of my sweater!

I am hoping that once it's blocked it won't have that balloon effect just above the patterning at the bottom, but otherwise I am very happy with it. The pattern calls for finishing off the twisted ribbing option with a tubular bind-off, but I decided to bind off in pattern instead. For one thing, a tubular bind-off takes a long time, but mainly I don't like how it looks with twisted ribbing. I'd already departed from the instructions quite a bit by combining the two hem options, so what's another change at this point?

As for reading, it's been an interesting mix this past week.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

I first heard about this book from Bonny; I believe she read it as an ARC, so I had a bit of a wait for it to come out and then for the library hold list. But it was well worth the wait. This novel takes the story of Cinderella and reimagines it, in particular reframing it from the point of view of the so-called wicked stepmother. In Hochhauser's version, Etheldreda, the title character, was the daughter of a brewer who fell in love with the son of a wealthy family. Against all odds, they married and had children, only for him to die suddenly not long after. So Etheldreda found herself compelled to remarry in order to provide for her daughters -- only for her second husband to die, leaving her alone to provide for her daughters, her stepdaughter (here named Elin), and the two servants who stayed behind. Their existence is precarious, but Ethel has to keep up appearances so that her daughters can marry well and not starve. And then comes the invitation to the royal ball and the possibility of a royal match, which could solve all their problems -- but it soon becomes apparent that there is a troubling secret at the palace and a marriage with the prince might not be the good fortune it seems to be. I love how Hochhauser subverted the original marriage, making the stepmother's motivation for making her daughters cook, clean, and mend (Elin deems herself a lady and thus too delicate to do any real labor) a matter of critical importance to securing her daughters' future, for if they cannot marry, they cannot survive. And the prince is no Prince Charming; he may be charming and handsome, but that is only his public persona. Ethel is also a great character. She is determined to provide for her family, whatever it takes, and she's no shrinking violet. I really enjoyed my time with her.

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow (audio)

My rating: 3.5 stars

If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice, then you know that the middle Bennet sister, Mary, doesn't get much attention in the story. We know she's not especially pretty, wears glasses, and is rather stern and bookish. Here, Mary gets her own story. Roughly the first third of the book covers the original story, now with Mary's perspective, but then we move two years into the future. Mr. Bennet has died and Mr. and Mrs. Collins have taken over Longbourn, so Mary has to find her home with one sister or another, always feeling like she doesn't fit in. Eventually she finds her way to the Gardiners, her aunt and uncle, in London, and it's there that she finally starts to discover her true self. She makes the acquaintance of some eligible young men, and a bit of a love triangle ensues. I thought this book was generally an enjoyable continuation and reimagining of the original story, but I also thought it went on a little longer than necessary and the drama was perhaps not needed. The author also walked a fine line between paying homage to the original story and recreating some of its plot points with different characters.

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (paperback)

My rating: 3 stars

It's been far too long since I read any Erdrich, and this one has been on my TBR list for a long time. Irene discovers that her husband, Gil, a painter who has gotten famous by painting portraits of her, has been reading her diary. She starts a new one, a real one, that she stashes in her safe deposit box and begins making things up just to provoke him in the one that he reads in order to try to catch him. Their marriage is tumultuous; Irene is an alcoholic and Gil is occasionally violent toward both her and their children. And the children are aware of it all, dealing with it in different ways. Irene determines to leave Gil with the children, but she can't fully seem to leave him emotionally as well as physically. I have to say that this is probably my least favorite Erdrich novel of all that I've read to date (I think I have four left to read). While there's no doubting her ability to write, these people were so terrible to each other and made each other so miserable that it was hard to read. I was glad that it was a relative short book so that I could wrap up my time with this family and move on.

I'm currently reading Switzy by Emma Cline and will be starting Shift, the second book in the Silo series, on my run this morning.

What are you making and reading this week?

Change of Plans

I thought it was going to be an uneventful weekend, but of course when you plan for that, things are pretty much guaranteed to change. We heard late morning on Friday that my sister-in-law's father (my brother's father-in-law) had passed away. He had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma and had just had his first chemo treatment when he suffered several strokes and ended up in the ICU. It was all very sudden and very sad. The funeral is today, but we're not able to attend (the Mister is leaving for a work trip, and I can't take off from work on such short notice for someone who isn't immediate family), so we went to the visitation yesterday. That required a bit of shuffling of our usual Sunday activities, but it was important to be there for my sister-in-law and her family.

It wasn't entirely a sad weekend, though it was a chilly one! A front came through Friday afternoon, with wind and rain, making for a rather cold event on Friday night. It was held at a former train station in downtown Pittsburgh, a popular venue for weddings -- and it's easy to see why. The cocktail hour was held outdoors (fortunately there were heaters!) under the dome:

The dinner was indoors in what was the main hall/waiting area of the station. It was out of the wind though sadly not that much warmer. But it was equally beautiful.

We ran into a number of people we knew, including a former elementary and middle school classmate of mine who I have not seen in years! And the dinner was pretty good, although I was ready to go home about an hour before we left, having started my day at about 5:30 that morning.

Saturday was the first really cold day of the season; I don't think we made it much above the low 50s. On the plus side, it was a good excuse to wear some hand-knit socks and a sweater. And because I was having a little Rhinebeck FOMO, I made apple cider donuts:

I used this recipe, though for the last step I melted just one tablespoon of butter, brushed it on the tops of the donuts, and dipped them in the sugar/spice mixture. I obviously overfilled the donut tins a bit, as you can see they all have a bit of a "foot" to them, but a more robust donut is not a bad thing. And it only made a dozen, so I won't have donuts sitting around and tempting me. The batter is quite thick, so I think next time around I'll just make it as a loaf cake. The donuts are cute, but they are extra work -- not least of which is spent greasing each donut shape in the pan!

And I finished up the fingerless mitts I'd been knitting, using up a little more than half of the skein:

These were a fun knit, but I knit the largest size (trying to use up the most yarn), so they're a bit big on me. I intended them for the charity pile in any case. The pattern is Turnover, which I knit in the fingering weight version (there's a version for worsted, too).

I'm just about finished with the body of my sweater, and I've cast on another charity hat (using this pattern again). I knit most of the brim in the car to and from the visitation yesterday. I'll share updates of both on Wednesday.

It's going to be a pretty normal week, I think, other than the Mister's being away for a couple of days. Molly has Friday off for parent/teacher conferences and has a bunch of evening activities this week, so most of the time it'll be just me and Ruthie at home. After being away so much this weekend, I'm sure she'll be happy to have my undivided attention.

The End Is in Sight

What a wild week it has been! We've had summer temperatures, drenching rain, sun, and gloom, and there's a possibility of a stray snowflake this weekend. On Sunday, I was wearing a sweater and making soup; by mid-week, I had to turn the heat off and turn the air conditioning back on. And allergies have been bad throughout. I'm more than ready for a weekend.

You know what else is coming to an end? The body of my sweater:

The pattern has two options for the hem: either a textured section to match the yoke or twisted ribbing. I've decided to do a mash-up of the two. I'm doing a section of eyelets and garter ridges and then working twisted ribbing for the rest of the required length. I think I'll likely do the same on the sleeves.

Tonight the Mister and I are going to a gala for the local parks conservancy (the board chair is a friend and invited us), so I get to put on a fancy dress and try to stay warm and dry while the blustery, rainy weather moves in. Then we've got a quiet weekend planned -- and it looks like it'll be sweater weather!

Have a good end to your week, friends, and see you back here on Monday.

Unraveled, Week 41/2026

It is really already Wednesday? Between having Molly home on Monday and a day yesterday that felt like summer again, my sense of time is all out of whack. (Also, I did indeed get that big work project dropped on me, so my brain is a bit fried.) As it's Wednesday, that means it's time to join in the fun with Kat and the Unravelers (although Kat is taking a break this week, so it's not an official link-up).

While my sweater continues to grow a bit each night and I'm just about ready to start the patterning at the bottom of the body, I've been working on a new project during the day. I thought I'd take a break from the charity hats and work on a pair of charity mitts instead. I'm using my friend Shana's Turnover mitts, which may look basic but have an ingenious instruction. I've finished up the first mitt, though ends still need to be dealt with.

The yarn is from Dusty Tree Dyeworks; a couple of years ago when Molly and I went to a local yarn/fiber event, Rebecca had some "surprise" bags with a mystery skein inside, and this non-superwash fingering weight was in mine. It's not really my color and is rather loosely plied for my taste, but it works well for this purpose!

As for reading, I've finished five books this week:

Ply by Hernan Diaz (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I really enjoyed Diaz's last book, Trust, in large part because of its unusual structure and overarching question of what the truth is. His latest work is set in some point in the future, when government and civil society have broken down and cities are ruled by private companies. Our unnamed narrator is a pincher, someone who steals power from the big energy company and whose true passion is live music. When she loses her partner, she comes across an older woman named Pola, a theoretical physicist who wants her help with an experiment to isolate an individual component of space-time. This novel also plays with structure and with voice (the narration goes back and forth between first person and third person), and the writing is excellent, but I didn't really understand where the story was going or what the point of it all was. All of the theoretical scientific stuff went right over my head and seemed unnecessary to me. But I also found myself wondering about it quite a bit. I'll be interested to see what others think.

May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

This debut novel recently made the Booker Prize shortlist. It's a short book with an interesting structure. It opens with narration with a museum curator whose specialty is setting life scenes -- arranging objects to make a room appear as it would have at a time in history. She's been hired by a medieval castle to decorate some rooms in honor of a big anniversary, and as she works, she immerses herself in the history of those who lived there. Then we move back in time to learn about the king whose court is being represented, a king who never thought he'd wear the crown and didn't particularly want it and whose reign is precarious. And we end back with the curator at the end of the exhibit. I enjoyed the narration but I think I might have gotten a bit more from the book if I'd read it with my eyes. Still, an usual and enjoyable read!

Kaleidoscope: On Seeing and Being Seen (digital)

My rating: 5 stars

Anyone can write a memoir, but only the most gifted writers can write a memoir that is both very personal and surprisingly universal. In Kaleidoscope, Dani Shapiro begins with blurry vision leading to the discovery of a rare brain tumor behind one eye and then turns the lens again and again to reflect on her life, her family members' serious illnesses, her relationship with her mother, and the family secret of her parentage (the subject of an earlier memoir). The lens is turned and widened further to meditate on aging, on changing friendships, and on the impact of luck on life. The writing is beautiful and says so much with so few words. And the metaphor of a kaleidoscope is apt; life can be shaken up and our outlook changed so quickly and drastically, and so much of it is uncertain, just like Shapiro's cancer. This is a book I would happily reread. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 4, 2027.

On Witness and Respair: Essays by Jesmyn Ward

My rating: 4.5 stars

Kat recommended this essay collection recently, specifically on audio, and I'm so glad I took that recommendation. Hearing Ward's words in her voice, with her Mississippi accent, makes them really come alive. The subject matter varies and includes her reflections on the death of her brother, living through a hurricane, the importance of fiction, and how certain writers and works of literature have impacted her life. What had the most impact for me, though, were her thoughts on being a person of color in this country. This is a book I may want to have a hard copy of so I could read it again and take notes.

Eleven Days: The Fascinating True Account of Agatha Christie's Mysterious Disappearance by Laura Thompson (digital)

My rating: 3 stars

I am not an Agatha Christie super fan, but I've enjoyed the books of hers I've read (and the TV and movie adaptations I've watched), and I had heard of her mysterious disappearance, so I was intrigued when I received an email from NetGalley telling me about this forthcoming book. Laura Thompson clearly knows her stuff when it comes to Christie; she's not only a huge fan, she's also written a biography of the writer. So she is perhaps better positioned than most to examine the evidence and come up with a possible explanation of where Christie went and why over the course of those 11 days. And she is thorough in her approach to the job. She looks at all of the evidence presented to the public by the police and in statements by Christie's family and friends. She reviews what was published by the press. She looks to Christie's fiction, where characters and story lines were believed to have been inspired by her life and marriage. And she even follows Christie's probable route on the day she disappeared, complete with photos. While the review of all the information is comprehensive, it is, unfortunately, very hard to follow. Thompson jumps back and forth in time, making it difficult to get a good sense of the timeline. She also presents all of the information, leaving the reader is left unsure of what is relevant and what is not. And there is a sense that she presumes all readers will have a comparable amount of Christie background knowledge (not to mention general knowledge of the London area), adding to the confusion among readers who do not. While I learned more about Christie by reading this book, more often than not I was confused and frustrated by that confusion. There have been many theories about the 11-day disappearance, and this book doesn't deliver a concrete answer, but Thompson certainly presents a good case for her own theory. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published December 1, 2026.

Currently reading: Shadow Tag on paper, The Other Bennet Sister on audio, and Lady Tremaine on digital

Drying Out

I hope you all had a restful weekend. We had the remnants of Hurricane Isaias move through yesterday, bringing us a lot of rain (it was already close to an inch and a half by the time I was drinking my morning coffee at around 7 a.m.). Ruthie and I made good use of our raincoats! While Molly had a busy social schedule, the Mister and I enjoyed a date night out on Friday and took my in-laws out for dinner on Saturday. Yesterday we met up with some neighbors for lunch, and then I spent the afternoon making soup using a rotisserie chicken I'd picked up at Costco -- chicken tortilla for dinner using the meat and chicken stock using the carcass to put in the freezer for cold and flu season.

Before the start of the weekend, I finished up the charity hat I was knitting last week. It still needs to be blocked, of course, but the knitting is done.

The pattern is Chit Chat Hat (Ravelry link), and I followed it exactly except that I used a larger needle for the body of the hat than called for. The pattern only has one size, and although the stitch pattern is pretty stretchy, I wanted it to have a bit more room -- plus I already had the larger needles in the bag! I used up most of the skein of yarn, too.

My sweater continues to move along. Although a fingering weight sweater isn't a fast knit, stockinette in the round is certainly faster that the patterned yoke. I decided a try-on was in order, just to be sure:

I have to knit at least a couple more inches of stockinette before I do some more of the textured pattern above the ribbing at the bottom. Finishing the body this week might be a bit ambitious, but stranger things have happened.

It's going to be a pretty normal week for me, other than the fact that Molly is off from school today. I hope that translates to some serious sweater progress. Come back for an update on Wednesday!

A Fall Friday

It has been a busy week. Well, maybe that's not quite accurate. It's not so much that I've had a lot to do as it feels like I've just been up and moving a lot this week. On Tuesday alone, for instance, I had to go into the office twice and had racked up 20,000 steps by lunchtime! Leaving the house has also been a bit complicated this week because after the work to replace the gas lines in the neighborhood was completed, this week crews were back to dig up the temporary fillings of the holes they'd dug and repave those areas with a combination of asphalt and cement. We live on a dead-end street, and the work was being done all along the street that we turn onto when we leave, so getting anywhere was a bit of an obstacle course.

The one big positive of the past week has been the weather. It's been peak autumn here, with cool (sometimes even cold!), crisp mornings and warm (but not hot) afternoons. Though my first trip outside with Ruthie each morning is now in the dark, I'm rewarded for my early rising with some stunning starry skies. On Wednesday, it was so clear that I could even see the part of the moon that wasn't illuminated. The leaves are starting to change and fall, and my favorite trees in the neighborhood at this time of year are beginning to look like they're on fire, like this one:

I've noticed the shifting of the light as the sun's peak is lower in the sky, and as it sets at the back of our house, it's blinding through the sliding glass doors off the back of our family room. Most days I have the blinds on those doors up in the afternoon so that I can turn the overhead lights off; soon the days will come when the natural light isn't strong enough to allow me to read and I'll have to flip the lights back on, but for now I am enjoying the afternoons of golden sunlight pouring in.

My afternoon knitting project has grown quite a bit since I shared the brim earlier this week, and I expect another day or two will see this hat finished.

It's going to be a busy weekend for Molly -- she's working the yearbook table at her school's Fall Fest (for the younger students) tonight, working at her job tomorrow, going to her homecoming dance tomorrow night, getting her COVID shot on Sunday, and then planning a trip to the pumpkin patch with friends on Monday (it's an in-service day at her school). As for me, I've got a date with the Mister this evening and am planning a trip to fill the gas tank and fill up on a few household essentials at Costco tomorrow morning. My knees have been telling me that all the running I've done over the last two weeks is maybe a bit much, so I'll also be resting them. And if we can find some apple cider, there might even be some donuts baked to really get in the fall mood!

Unraveled, Week 40/2026

It's Wednesday -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

On Monday evening, I finished up the dark charity hat and wove in the ends. And when I went to take a photo of it yesterday morning, I discovered an error in the ribbing. Oh well! I didn't see it at first, and I'm betting whoever ends up with the hat won't, either.

Obviously this hat still needs to be blocked (which should help with the wrinkly top), but it's done and used all but a couple of grams of yarn -- yarn that turned my fingers black while I knit with it, so the hat will be soaked by itself and rinsed.

It was so satisfying to use up a skein of sock yarn so quickly that I've decided to do it again. I'm using another skein of Socks That Rock, in the colorway Pepe Le Plume, to knit a Chit Chat Hat (Ravelry link). At the moment it's only a very partial Ruthie big, but it's knitting up quickly:

I noted last week when I had a low (for me) number of book finishes that I was close to finishing several that were in progress, so you're probably not going to be surprised when I tell you that since last Wednesday I've finished six books. As there are so many, I'm going to try to keep my reviews brief.

Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

Harry Flynn, a former journalist turned war correspondent turned POW, has been enlisted in the massive effort to put on the Festival of Britain, designed to raise people's spirits and patriotism after the end of WWII. He works with an eclectic group and enjoys meeting and drinking with the many attractive women employed by the festival. But when one of them goes missing after a date with him, he becomes a prime suspect in her disappearance and must try to figure out why it appears he's being framed. There are many threads that rather brilliantly come together in the end, with many amusing characters met along the way.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (audio)

My rating: 2.5 stars

I'd never heard of this book until it was one of the choices for Molly summer reading assignment this year, and I was intrigued on curriculum night when her English teacher described it as a modern retelling of The Scarlet Letter. I'd say it's a mash-up of that and The Handmaid's Tale, with a little science fiction mixed in. In this dystopian society, those convicted of crimes are genetically changed to become a color associated with their crime. When Hannah Payne wakes up, she is the red of a murderer -- because the abortion she had is now considered a murder. She refuses to identify the father (the married preacher of their evangelical church), and has to reckon with the tenets of the religion she was taught her entire life. It was an interesting premise, but I think it failed in the execution a bit, with things working out just a little too well for Hannah given the harsh society the author created for her.

Restoration by Ave Barrera, translated by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers (paperback)

My rating: 3 stars

This was the final book I read for this round of my postal paperback club, selected by Katie. A woman in her 20s who is studying architectural restoration is hired by her sometimes-boyfriend to restore the long-neglected house of his recently deceased great-uncle, a famous photographer who taught him. As she moves through the house, the reader gets snippets of the life of the woman who used to live there, and both stories are interspersed with scenes of the modern couple recreating old photographs. It's creepy and weird and mysterious -- pretty appropriate for October. I enjoyed it but was still confused when I finished.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez (digital)

My rating: 4 stars

This is the book that kept getting put aside for library borrows, so I was happy to finally finish it. Olga has a successful business as a wedding planner and has a busy life with her big Puerto Rican family, including her congressman brother. But she still bears the scars of her abandonment by her mother, who left the family to join a group of revolutionaries. When she meets Matteo, a man with some issues of his own, can she let down her guard and let him in? And when she realizes, amid a family crisis and a devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico, that she's no longer happy with her life, does she have the courage to make a major change?

Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

I started listening to the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders very near the beginning, in the midst of the pandemic. She's a great interviewer who talks with people doing really interesting things, and she brings a lot of her own life in. This fairly short book of essays wasn't entirely new to me, as many of her family stories were familiar. But there is comfort in that, and as a middle-aged woman with aging parents and a teenage daughter, her point of view and reflections are very welcome.

Wool by Hugh Howey (audio)

My rating: 4 stars

Despite this book's name, it's not a novel about yarn crafts (though there is a brief passage about knitting!). This dystopian tale is set in a world where the outside is toxic people are living in siloes built into the earth. When someone does something that violates the silo's laws, they are sent outside, with a wool cleaning cloth, to clean off the sensors that show the outside world and then, shortly after, they die. When the sheriff asks to be allowed out, following in the footsteps of his wife a few years ago, he is replaced by Juliet, a woman who had been working deep in the silo's mechanical floors near the bottom. She soon realizes that there is something that those in charge are hiding from the silo's inhabitants and that the just society she thought she was raised in may not be so just. It was a compelling, propulsive read, as evidenced by the fact that I got through a 15-hour audiobook in just three days. I very well may read the rest of the triology, too.

What are you making and reading this week?