A Summer Long Weekend

I'm starting a new week fairly well rested and also convinced that every weekend should last more than two days! It may not have been the most productive long weekend on record, but it was an enjoyable one. We spent a lot of time with family -- dinner with my parents on Friday night to celebrate my mother's birthday, dinner with the Mister's side of the family on Saturday to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday, and breakfast with my side of the family yesterday morning for Father's Day. Other than a sudden deluge last Saturday afternoon/early evening that never showed up on the radar, we had beautiful weather, too. I even managed to run 8 miles on Friday morning!

And of course there was knitting. I've made progress on my sister-in-law's sock, finishing the gusset decreases and moving on to the foot:

Again, it's not a great photo, but at least the colors are more accurate in this one.

I also took my bin of sock yarn out of the closet and moved it into my bedroom in the hope that looking at it would inspire me, and indeed it did. I heard late last week that Tina Newton, the dyer behind Blue Moon Fiber Arts, had passed away, and that encouraged me to dig out a long-stashed skein of Socks That Rock Mediumweight from back when I was in the Rockin' Sock Club (we're talking before Molly was born, so in the 2007/2008 time frame) and cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket to go with the baby pants:

I've only managed a couple of brief sessions with this since it was cast on, so obviously I haven't gotten too far yet, but I've knit enough of these over the years that I know what to do and won't have to puzzle over the instructions.

I've got another shorter workweek ahead because I'm taking Friday off again, and today I'm scheduled to donate blood (hemoglobin level permitting). We're supposed to get more rain today, which is of course one of the most inconvenient days because I'll be walking to my appointment, but I'm trying to focus on the fact that rain means I don't have to drag out the hose or lug the watering can to water all the plants. Here's hoping the rain lets up when I have to be inside and the short week moves quickly!

Garden Update

We pause our usually scheduled programming of knitting and reading for this update on the state of my garden.

I got a late start this year because we kept having cold snaps and late frosts, so the garden isn't as full as it has been at this time of the year in previous summers. But things are growing! First, let's take a peek at the raised beds:

On the far left is a bell pepper plant and the rest of the green things are zucchini. The pepper came from the plant sale, but the zucchini were grown from seed directly in the planter.

The other planter holds the tomatoes -- full size on the left and cherry on the right. I've had huge success with tomatoes here for several years because the front of the house gets full sun for at least half the day. These plants went from having a few flowers a couple of days ago to having a bunch of small green fruits on them yesterday, so clearly things are going well again.

For a number of years I've planted impatiens in the beds just above the lawn in front, but this year Molly convinced me to give "chaos gardening" a try. The idea behind this method is that you mix up whatever seeds you have, throw them into the ground, and see what grows. We had about a dozen packets of seeds, some mixed, some type specific, so we mixed them up and scattered them across the beds about a week ago. Now we've got a bunch of little green leaves coming up. Let's hope that the bunnies don't eat them before they turn into flowers!

Here you see some sunflowers (the janky mesh around them is to keep the bunnies from eating all the leaves, as they did last year). These were actually volunteers -- I had a sunflower in a pot last year, and I just left it there to dry out at the end of the summer. Some of the seeds from the dried-out head found their way into the dirt and sprouted, and when they were large enough that I thought they'd survive, I transplanted them to this space along the driveway where we had a damaged shrub removed.

Finally, the herb pot:

I bought the (purple) basil and rosemary from the plant sale, and the tiny green basil plant was a gift from my next-door neighbor.

Still to come: I'm hoping to start some squash (butternut and spaghetti) seeds to plant in the strip between the driveway and the fence. We used to have rose bushes there, but all but one of them died over the past few years and we have a lot of empty space. Eventually we'll plant something else there, but for now that spot is great for growing vining plants because the vines can be draped over the fence.

I know my garden isn't very impressive compared to what some of you have, but it's a work in progress! Over the years, we've removed a number of plants that were here when we moved in and that I didn't like, and as they've been replaced, I'm getting a better idea of what I want the spaces to look like going forward. Please keep your fingers crossed that I have some flowers to share the next time I have a garden update!

Unraveled, Week 24/2026

It's Wednesday today, but it's also kind of Friday for me, given that it's my last workday of the week. How nice to get to use it to talk about what I'm making and reading! As usual, I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers.

I've got another hat off the needles, though it still needs a good bath to get the stitches to settle down.

This photo, taken in natural light, is a better representation of the color. I added an extra half inch of length to this one before starting the decreases, and I was worried I was going to play another round of yarn chicken because the ball was getting pretty skimpy toward the end. The finished hat weighed in at 88 g and the remaining yarn at 6 g, so once again I had a pretty underweight skein. Thankfully it was enough to finish, but I'm really starting to wonder if this was a regular problem and part of the reason why the yarn was discontinued! This was the last of it in my stash, though, so I won't have to worry about running short again.

I've just cast on a pair of socks for my sister-in-law (either for her birthday in September or Christmas), and I pulled my bin of fingering skeins out to see if I could get inspired about what to knit next.

It's been another productive week of reading, with five books finished.

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers, so naturally I preordered her newest, Whistler, from her bookstore, Parnassus Books. (I like to support my local indie bookstore whenever I can, but ordering from Parnassus means I get a signed copy on the day it comes out!) If you're already an Ann Patchett fan, then this book is already on your radar and I don't have to tell you what it's about, but I will tell you that I loved it. It's beautifully written but also easy to read. The relationships between the characters are the focus, and you can feel their emotions and want to hug them all. And if you know about Ann Patchett's own life story, then you'll see a lot of her in the book, too. This is one of those books that, although it contains sad moments, just makes you want to smile the whole time you're reading it. Highly recommend -- 5 stars!

I had bookmarked Uncultured on Hoopla when I read the description and saw it was compared to Educated and The Glass Castle. Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in a cult in which physical, emotional, and sexual abuse ran rampant and education of the world outside was severely restricted. She always knew that what was happening to her wasn't right and finally left the group as a teenager to go to high school and college in the United States. After college, she entered the military, only to discover that it had some eerie similarities to the life she left behind. This was a hard book to read in many instances, but I always find it inspirational to read about people, especially women, who are able to stand up for themselves and leave situations in which they are victims. I gave it 4 stars.

I adored A Ghost in the Throat, so when I learned via Katie's blog that the author has a work of fiction coming out later this year, I immediately requested it on NetGalley. Said the Dead is one of those books that's nearly impossible to categorize. Is it fiction? Is it memoir? History? Fantasy? All of the above? The person telling the story (at times described using the first person and at times called simply "the Reader") comes across a former mental hospital being redeveloped into condos. Exploring some of the grounds and buildings, she feels a strange connection, which leads her to seek out the archives of the institution. There she comes across the unusual history of Lucia Strangman, one of the first female doctors to work with the mentally ill, and becomes obsessed with her case notes. The Reader becomes so immersed in the stories of the women who Lucia treated -- so often committed to the hospital not because they were truly ill but because they were at the mercy of men in their life or because they didn't fit in with the society of the time or simply due to extreme poverty -- that she often neglects her own life and family. The narrative is interspersed with haunting images of Lucia, her family, and some of her patients, and throughout there is a mysterious commentary to one side that suggests that as the Reader is somehow watching the lives of these patients unfold, someone is watching her. There is a dreamlike quality to the book, and there's never a clear sense of what is real and what is fiction, but overall there's an immense respect for the many women whose names and lives were utterly forgotten in time. As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it again, certain there was so much I missed. I gave it 4.5 stars, rounded up. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 22, 2026.

One of the challenges I'm signed up for on the StoryGraph is winners of what is now the Women's Prize for Fiction, so I decided to see what was available without a wait on audio on Libby from that list late last year. The Tiger's Wife came out 15 years ago, but as I had a 1-year-old then, it wasn't on my radar. This is a weird one to describe. It's set in an unnamed country in the Balkans and frequently refers to "the war," though it's never completely clear which war. Natalia is a doctor, on a trip with a friend to deliver medicine and vaccines to an orphanage, when she learns that her beloved grandfather, also a doctor has died. Over the next several days, she remembers the stories he told her of his childhood, where a deaf woman was believed to have had a relationship with an escaped tiger and was referred to as the tiger's wife, and of his encounters with "the deathless man," who appears when people are close to death to help ease their transition. I thought the writing was good but the story was bizarre, and I wasn't entirely sure what the point of it was. The lack of specificity also got a little on my nerves. I gave it 3 stars.

Finally, Molly had asked me to read The Memory Police, which she read for school toward the end of the year and wanted me to read so we could discuss it. This book was published in Japan in 1994 but was only translated into English in 2020. An unnamed narrator is a writer of novels who lives on a remote unnamed island where things are disappearing. When something disappears, so do the island residents' memory of that thing. But there are some people who still remember, and if they are discovered, the Memory Police take them away. When the writer discovers that her editor is one of those people, she decides to hide him in a secret room in her house, and he tries to help her recover her lost memories even as more and more things disappear. In the novel she is writing, a woman becomes romantically involved with her typing teacher, but one day she discovers that she no longer has a voice and has become his captive. The book gets really, really strange, but on a metaphorical level, it's an interesting illustration of how authoritarian governments can maintain control through fear and how easy it can be to acclimate to the loss of things that were once thought necessities. I gave it 3 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?

Half and Half

As usual, the weekend did not last long enough. We had a gorgeous day on Saturday, with blue skies and slightly lower humidity. Ruthie was happy that the recent storms that had gone through the area left behind some great sticks for her to discover on our walks.

She was miffed that I made her leave this one behind.

I had a lovely afternoon of reading and knitting while she dozed, and we had a slightly later-than-usual dinner after Molly got back from her driving lesson (the instructor was impressed with her, so I guess we've been doing something right!).

Yesterday was cloudy for much of the day and we had some light rain in the morning and storms in the evening. Not as nice of a day, but the rain is welcome, not least because it's bringing much more comfortable weather to start off the week. And I didn't mind so much being inside because it helped me finish a book and make a lot of progress on my hat in the afternoon:

Thank you, gloom, for this bad photo.

This is going to be a short week for me: We already had Friday off for Juneteenth, so I decided to take one of my remaining personal days on Thursday and give myself a three-day week followed by a four-day weekend. I'm not going to do much that's different from my usual schedule other than not be on my computer all day, but sometimes even that is enough. I'm hoping that because I won't have to worry about my work inbox, Molly will spend some more time with me -- I am increasingly aware of just how little time we have left before she goes off to college, so I want to take advantage of all the days she's not in school!

TGIF, Really

I am a little later than usual in posting today because yesterday was A Day. Normally I get a post ready to go the afternoon or evening before it publishes, but yesterday I barely had a chance to sit down and have some time to myself until almost 9 p.m., and I didn't have the mental energy to do it them. So instead you're getting me in real time on Friday morning!

So why was yesterday so challenging? Well the first thing you have to know is that it was hot and extremely humid. And with the stage of life I'm in, it takes very little for me to start sweating. My first sweat of the day was taking Ruthie out for her first walk and then immediately going into the office for my biweekly team meeting. I was pretty much soaked when I got there. When I got home from my meeting, I changed into workout clothes and went for a walk (and got sweaty again). I didn't bother changing when I got home because I'd be taking Ruthie out for her midday walk after lunch and getting hot again anyway. After that walk, I did shower and change, again, to go to that recognition ceremony. I had to walk about a mile and a quarter to get to that event, at probably the hottest part of the day, so naturally I was a sweaty mess when I got there. Even though the event was inside, I was in a room with a bunch of people and sitting on a vinyl-covered chair, so I never fully cooled off. And then on the way home, when I was a mere three blocks from my street, I got caught in a thunderstorm, and though I had an umbrella, it did little to protect me from rain blowing sideways, so I was dripping by the time I got to my door and had to change yet again -- and there was still one more walk to take Ruthie on, though thankfully the rain cooled things down just a bit. If you're keeping track, that's four outfit changes over the course of the day. I also had to take a second shower before bed. And if that's not enough (and sorry if this is TMI), Aunt Flo arrived for her visit yesterday, so I was dealing with cramps as well. Can you see why I'm very glad it's the end of the week?

It's going to be another steamy day today, but the humidity is supposed to go down quite a bit tonight, so the weekend should be more comfortable. And I am thankful for the rain we've been getting after a dry week so that all the plants and flower seeds are getting watered. I'm really looking forward to having a typical afternoon today, a time to read and knit while Ruthie naps next to me. Thanks to afternoons like that earlier in the week, I've finished another charity hat:

It still needs to be blocked, but I'm pretty happy with it. I used my Spinning in Infinity pattern (Ravelry link) with US 5/3.75 mm needles for the body and US 3/3.25 mm needles for the ribbing. It used 90 g of the skein of Chroma Twist in Lupine; clearly my skein was underweight because I had only a few grams remaining and it was supposed to be 100 g.

Last night, in that little bit of time I had to myself, I cast on another hat -- a second attempt at that hat I wasn't sure about.

This is the last skein of Chroma Twist from my stash. It's now discontinued, which is why I think I bought a bunch of skeins of it a while back because it was likely heavily discounted. The black yarn you see is a provisional cast-on for a tubular edge and will be removed very soon. The consensus from those of you who commented here and from some friends on Ravelry was that the hat was cute, so I'm giving it a try with a more interesting yarn and seeing if I can make it pattern.

I'm hoping to have a quiet weekend; Molly has a bunch of stuff going on, including her first official driving lesson, but none of her activities will require me to do anything. I've not slept well this week, so I'm hoping I can get a little extra (though this time of year, it's tough to sleep in because the sun comes up so early!), and maybe I can sneak in an afternoon nap or two!

Have a great weekend, friends. Remember to stay hydrated, wear your sunblock, and enjoy the good things.

Unraveled, Week 23/2026

Happy Wednesday! It has been a steamy start to the week, and I've found that I've been less and less tolerant of heat and humidity, so I've just accepted that it's the time of year when I'm going to have to deal with being sweaty all the time. I've also pretty much given up on blow-drying my hair unless I really feel like I want to look nice -- wet bun for the win! This weather is probably why I've feel a little unexcited about knitting lately, but I did promise some more official FO shots of my recent finishes and it's Wednesday, so I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers as per usual.

First, the baby pants!

The pattern is Rocky from Tin Can Knits. I chose the smallest size (0-6 months), even though I usually make a larger size for baby knits, because this baby will be born in Sweden and will need some warm clothing right away. I knit these at the gauge called for in the pattern, 24 stitches over 4 inches, but the fabric seems a little too loose for my taste, so the next time I knit these -- and trust me, there will be a next time -- I will likely either use a smaller needle and one of the larger sizes or just use thicker yarn. As is always the case with TCK patterns, this one was a breeze to follow and didn't require any modification. I didn't even need to wind off any yarn to start the second leg because the first one was bound off in just the right spot!

Next up, that hat I wasn't sure about:

I hope you can excuse the crazy hair; I pulled out the bun to get the hat to fit as it should. The reason I wasn't so sure about the hat is that I'm not sure if the pointy-uppy part looks fun or just ridiculous. I'm sure it'll suit someone, though, and that's just as well because this is going to the charity pile. But I was experimenting with the crown decreases all the same to satisfy my curiosity for design purposes. Any thoughts are welcome!

I'm sticking with a more traditional look for the current hat on the needles (also for the charity pile), which is now onto the ribbing.

Reading! There's been more of it! Here are the books I've finished this week:

I love a retelling of a classic, and I especially love a retelling of a Jane Austen novel. Unmarriageable is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in early 21st-century Pakistan, and it's brilliantly done. Alys (the Elizabeth Bennet character) is even an English literature teacher who loves Jane Austen! What was really interesting about this book was that storylines didn't really have to be modernized all that much to make sense, and the author notes that when she first read Austen, she very much felt like the world of those novels were nearly identical to the Pakistani society she knew. The author reads the audiobook and does a good job with the voices and accents. I also really appreciated the names she came up with for the characters and the traits that made them so recognizable. I gave it 4.5 stars, rounded up.

I wanted something fairly light and whimsical next, so I went for A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, a relatively recent release (it came out last summer) that I've heard mentioned on podcasts several times. Sera was once a young witch with incredible powers, but she lost them and was exiled from the local guild after she cast a powerful spell to bring her beloved great aunt (and, inadvertently, the aunt's beloved late rooster) back to life. Fifteen years later, she's running the inn where they live and that's slightly magical in such a way that it appears to those who need it and thus has become home to people who don't seem to fit in anywhere. While it's partly a story about Sera trying to get her powers back, what I enjoyed the most about it was that it was a story about found family and people coming to love themselves. I gave it 4 stars.

In Unlikely Animals, Emma Starling, who once possessed the ability to heal people through touch, has returned to her childhood home in a small New Hampshire town. She was accepted to medical school but decided not to go, and when she learns that her father has a mysterious brain disease causing him to hallucinate animals and the ghost of a famous local naturalist, going home seems to be the best option. There she finds her mother hasn't fully forgiven her father for having an affair and her brother is struggling to get his life back on track after getting out of rehab for opioid addiction, and while her father is seeing animals and ghosts, he's also determined to find Emma's childhood best friend, who disappeared some months ago and is presumed to be dead of an overdose. This sounds like it would be incredibly depressing, but it's actually mostly funny and heartwarming. I think I enjoyed The Road to Tenderhearts a little more, but I gave this one 4 stars.

The Last Ranger sounded good to me when it was described in a recent podcast episode, and I've liked the Peter Heller books I've read before, so I thought I'd give it a try. It follows Ren, a park ranger in Yellowstone, as he investigates what looks to be poaching and then what appears to be an attack on his friend Hilly, a biologist who specializes in wolves. He also reflects on his childhood and the alcoholism of and abandonment by his mother. I thought the book was interesting, and it held my attention for the most part, but I struggled to follow the story and keep track of the characters at times. That may have been because I was listening rather than reading with my eyes, but regardless, this was not my favorite Heller. I gave it 3 stars.

I heard about How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder on a podcast (are you shocked?). For such a short novel -- only about 200 pages -- there is a lot going on here. The narrator and her sister are the product of an Indian mother and American father, and they live in Wyoming while their father is away working on oil rigs. They struggle with the usual issues of identity and being "other" in a very white small town, but when their mother's brother and his family come from India to live with them, that is the least of their worries. When their uncle begins to molest them, the sisters decide that they can't tell their mother and make her unhappy, so the best solution is to murder him by poisoning him with antifreeze. It's weird and different but also intriguing. I gave it 3 stars.

Now I'm trying to finish up the last 80 or so pages of Whistler, and I have several books waiting to start next. How about you -- what are you making and reading this week?

Fire and Rain

It certainly felt like a summer weekend here! The heat started building on Friday, leading up to an honest-to-goodness thunderstorm Saturday afternoon (incidentally, while Molly was out driving, giving her some "bad driving conditions" hours). We really needed the rain, after more than a week without any, and it was kind of fun to watch it come it from the comfort of the couch -- it conveniently came through between Ruthie's midday walk and her late-afternoon walk. It cleared up and even cooled off a bit in the evening, but we had some more rain overnight and there's plenty more in the forecast for the week ahead, along with humidity. I expect it will be a sweaty week!

Part of my weekend was spent finishing up and blocking my two most recent projects, presented for you here still wet:

That drawstring will need to be threaded through the waistband once dry, and I also might need to do a little duplicate stitching on the bum of the pants because I had some loosey-goosey stitches result from some of my short rows. The hat will be tried on once dry; I'm still not sure if it'll look fun or silly.

The week ahead is shaping up to be a little busier than last. Ruthie has her annual visit at the vet scheduled for Wednesday morning. She is due to get a vaccination, but they always make a fuss over her and give her cookies and peanut butter, so I don't think she'll mind much. On Thursday, I'm planning to attend a reception with the university's chancellor honoring employees for long service; officially I'm being recognized for 20 years of service, but because my employer moves so slowly on things like this, I'll actually be closer to 21 years than 20 by the time this happens. It'll be interesting to see what happens at this event. It's in the middle of the afternoon, so maybe we'll get some light refreshments. Frankly I'm more interested in the recognition gift I selected: After getting what was essentially an ashtray for five years (rather than the mug it used to be and that I was hoping for) and a set of bookends for 10, I picked out a pair of binoculars -- because I'm now a middle-aged lady and of course I've taken up casual birding. There's rain in the forecast almost every day starting Tuesday, and I'm hoping when it comes it works with my schedule to get my runs and walks in. Last week, for the first time ever, I managed three 10Ks in a single week, but I think that's a feat I'm unlikely to repeat now that summertime heat and humidity have descended on us. Still, I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment!

I'm working on some small projects now while I figure out what bigger thing to cast on next, but at the very least I should have some better photos of the above projects to share on Wednesday along with the usual reading update. I hope you're also seeing sun and needed rain in your neck of the woods -- don't forget to stay well hydrated and wear your sunblock! Have a good start to your week, all!

Summer Incoming

TGIF! It's been a long week, even though it's been pretty calm having Molly at home with me. Partly it's that we're getting more daylight as we approach the summer solstice, but Ruthie's also been stretching out our walks by plopping down on lawns and refusing to move, which contributes the feeling that the stuff I have to do every day is taking more time.

It has been nice to have Molly around, though she's mainly been holed up in her room (she's decided that she's just relaxing this first week of summer break; I think she's earned it). We did pick up some dinner and take it over to my mother's the other evening when both my father and the Mister were out, so that was fun, and she even helped me make dinner on Wednesday. I expect that she'll be working during the week soon, which I'm hoping will encourage her to get up at a more reasonable hour every day.

After having several days of my absolute favorite weather ever -- sunny, low to mid-70s, low humidity -- the heat and the mugginess are coming back. Yesterday the humidity was still low, but we reached the mid-80s. I am not looking forward to it! At least the house is very comfortable, and there's plenty of cool drinks and shade inside.

I'm wrapping up the week with two projects nearly done: The baby pants are complete save one end to be woven in and an I-cord drawstring to make, and I'm almost done with a simple charity hat (that might be ripped back if I don't like how the decreases and finishing look).

I wouldn't say that I'm feeling bored with my knitting, but I'm also not feeling very excited about anything that might come next right now, so perhaps I'll have to spend some time this weekend digging in the stash to see if anything excites me. Or maybe I'll do a little crochet to change things up. And at some point I'd like to get back to spinning; I haven't spun anything in months!

We're planning another quiet weekend, with no plans other than a family dinner at my parents' on Sunday. I suggested to Molly that we bake something to take for dessert. Maybe we'll take a walk to the local farmers' market? Maybe we'll go out for dinner? Who knows! I like having a weekend without a bunch of  plans so that I can see where the days take me. I know I'll be having snuggle time with Ruthie in the afternoons, and that means time for reading and knitting; if I get those in every day, I'm a happy girl.

I hope you have time for your favorite things this weekend, and I hope if you're getting the heat, too, you can find a cool place and a cold drink at the ready.

Unraveled, Week 22/2026

It's Wednesday, so that means it's time to join Kat and the Unravelers! I've got a little knitting update and a pretty good-sized reading update today.

First, the knitting. Houston, we have a leg!

By some stroke of luck, I finished the first leg in exactly the right spot in the stripe pattern so that I didn't have to wind off any yarn when I picked up stitches for the second. I made note of how many rounds I needed to knit after the last decrease and for the ribbing, so the second leg should go even faster.

It's been an interesting week of reading, with some enjoyable audiobooks, a book club book, a long-awaited hold, and some titles on the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist.

First, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, an older book (older than I am, even!), which I read for a book club. Mrs. Palfrey is an older widow who moves into the Claremont, a hotel but also a place where other older people live full time. She encounters some interesting personalities in the other residents, all but one of them women, and tries to figure out what to do with her time. One day she falls when out on her own and makes the acquaintance of a young man, a struggling writer named Ludo, who soon becomes a friend. This is a quiet novel, at times funny and at others sad, whose main focus is primarily the reckoning we all do with our own mortality at one point or another. I enjoyed it, but it didn't leave a very strong impression on me. I gave it 3 stars.

Next were two audiobooks, both novels by J. Ryan Stradal. I know many of you have already read and enjoyed his books, and I've been meaning to read them for a while. I was lucky to find copies available without a wait and listened to them back to back. Kitchens of the Great Midwest reads a bit like a series of interconnected short stories. There are characters who tie them all together, and Eva is at the center of them, starting when she is a baby and following her as she grows up into adulthood. Food is also at the center, as this is a book about food and cooking and the flavors and meals that are at the heart of our memories and formative moments. The audio was read by two actors (Michael Stuhlbarg and Amy Ryan), something I love because they really know how to perform a book instead of just reading the words.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota has the same comfortable Midwestern feel to it but leans more heavily on brewing than cooking. Women are the main characters here, two sisters who are long estranged and the granddaughter of one of them. There's a lot about brewing beer, which isn't exactly of interest to me because I don't drink it, but it's clear there was a lot of research done to write about it based upon the level of detail. What I enjoyed most was the stories of women persevering in spite of the odds against them, and the reader (also an actor!) did a marvelous job of creating distinct voices for each character, down to the accents.

I really enjoyed my time with both books and gave them both 4 stars.

The Wilderness was one of those books I was seeing everywhere for a while; it was nominated for the National Book Award last year and had a long hold list at my library, so I was waiting for it for quite a while. Based upon the first chapter, I thought I was going to love it ... and then I didn't. This is a book about a group of female friends over a period of time, but the story isn't told linearly, and that's what gave me so much trouble. I thought the writing was outstanding, but because the story jumped forward and backward in time in addition to jumping between characters, I had a really hard time keeping them and their stories straight. (I also found a couple of copyediting mistakes that should have been caught before publication, but I accept that that's not something most readers would even notice.) If I'd edited this book, I would have suggested a chronological timeline; I'm sure the author didn't do it this way on purpose, but why wasn't clear to me, and ultimately that's what made the book not work very well for me. I gave it 3.5 stars, rounded up.

The last two titles I read this week were the two on the Women's Prize shortlist I had not yet read:

The Mercy Step is set in the UK, starting in the early 1960s. Mercy is born to an immigrant Jamaican family with two older sisters already and two children left behind; there will be another sister and a brother who will later follow her. Though the family has a home, they are clearly struggling to improve their lives between the number of children in the household and the father's abusive behavior. Mercy is unlike any of her siblings, as she seems unnaturally intelligent and mature from the get go, though it's clear there are many things about the world she doesn't understand. Most of all, she wants someone to care for her and take care of her; most of the time she feels it's her job to take care of her mother. There are some hard things in this book (domestic abuse, sexual abuse, racism, etc.), but Mercy provides an interesting perspective. The audio is read by the author, and I appreciated hearing the Jamaican accent when the parents spoke. I gave it 3 stars.

I started Kingfisher just before bed and didn't think I'd care for it based on the little I read before I put it down for the night, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it as I read more. The narrator of the book (whose name we never learn) is in a long-term relationship with a man when he meets and becomes obsessed with an older poet who is teaching at the university where he works. Meanwhile, his mother, who is homophobic and has always treated him badly, is dying. His life becomes further and further enmeshed with the poet's when she has a recurrence of the cancer she beat years ago, and his emotions get more and more complicated as he reflects on the loss of both his parents. It's a hard book to describe, but what I liked about it was how it depicted the love of friends, of found family, and how they can be there for you at your very worst. This is a debut novel, and I don't think it should win the prize, but I was impressed by it. I gave it 3.5 stars, rounded up.

What are you making and reading this week?

Welcome, June

If there was a complete opposite to last weekend's rain and cooler-than-normal temperatures, this weekend was it: warm sun, blue skies, low humidity, and a light breeze. I enjoyed all of my walks and soaked up as much vitamin D as I could.

My day off on Friday was mostly enjoyable (the only thing I didn't like about it was a bit of acid reflux that interfered with my run in the morning). Our girls' shopping trip was fun and successful. Molly's friend insisted that we go into Ross, where I'd never shopped before, and I found a really cute Tommy Hilfiger sleeveless dress that fit me like a glove and cost me $19.99 -- and I wore it to dinner that night! 

The terrible mirror selfie I texted to Molly for her opinion

I picked up a few other little things (a couple of toys for Ruthie that she'll tear apart in half an hour, a few sewing supplies for a little project I had planned), and the girls tried on a bunch of clothes and bought a few items. And then the three of us had a nice dinner out. Saturday was nice and quiet. Molly worked, I walked and then read and knit while Ruthie napped, and then we had a simple dinner at home. After dinner, Molly drove us to a nearby ice cream place. That was my first time in the car with her driving and also the first time sitting in the back seat of my own car, I think! Yesterday was another low-key day for me, though I baked some cookies in the afternoon and then we had my in-laws over for dinner.

Today I think will finally feel like summer to Molly, and I'm looking forward to not having to rush to pick her up at 3 o'clock. I'm sure there'll be work waiting for me when I log in to my email, but somehow having one less thing to do every day makes me feel more relaxed. And I'm having fun working on baby pants, which may very well get finished this week:

I've finished the entire body/bum section, including grafting the crotch, and am cruising down the first leg. I'm already thinking of how to improve upon this first pair and need to find some more babies to knit for because I can see how knitting one pair of these quickly leads to knitting more.

Other than the usual work schedule, there's nothing planned for this week. The Mister has work dinners three evenings this week, so there will be a lot of girls' nights, and the weather forecast is beautiful all week, so I'll be spending lots of time outside and enjoying it. Did you know that June 1 is the first day of meteorological summer? Feels to me like a good way to start the week!

The End of Another Year

Yes, it's not even the last day of May, but today is the end of Molly's sophomore year of high school. She'll be in school for all of about two hours this morning for closing exercises, and then I'll be picking her and her friend up so they can hang out for the rest of the day. I'm taking the day off from work anyway, so after lunch and Ruthie's midday walk, we are headed to a local shopping center. The girls will be the ones doing the shopping, for the most part, and I'll just be the chauffeur, but I certainly don't mind spending a nice late spring afternoon out of the house.

I haven't done all that much crafting this week, but I did cast on a new project:

It doesn't look like much (mostly because I had to rip out and restart), but this is the beginning of a pair of baby pants for the friends expecting a baby later this year. It's a clever design that has a hemmed waistband with holes for a drawstring. Gauge is given for the main fabric, but the pattern calls for a US 1/2.25 mm needle to be used for the waistband, so that's what a started with. I'd knit a couple of inches before I realized that it was going to be way too small, so I ripped it out and started again with a US 2/2.75 mm needle. Now it's approximately one Ruthie wide and much closer to the finished measurement it should be. I'm using Fibernymph Dye Works yarn, the last skein left unknit from the Lepidoptera Club from a couple of years back -- the colorway is Swallowtails. I've been saving it for something special, and I think this is a worthy use.

We've got a fairly calm weekend ahead, and for once the weather is going to be perfect (sunny and in the mid- to upper 70s). Tonight we're going out for a nice dinner to celebrate a successful end to the school year. Tomorrow I expect Molly will be working, as Sunday she has to be back at school for graduation to perform with the glee club. I'm hoping to get a little extra sleep, take a couple of good long walks by myself, and figure out what larger project I want to start next.

I hope that after last weekend's washout in so many parts of the country, you are getting some sunshine, too, and you can find time to slow down and enjoy this last weekend in May!

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)