Wet Weekending

If there was one word to describe this past weekend, it would be soggy. We had some pretty epic rains on Friday, including a thunderstorm that hit just after Ruthie and I came in from our morning walk (so no run for me that day) and another that came through as we had dinner that left what I called "temporary water features" in our backyard. There were flash flood warnings in the area, but because our street sits above a deep ravine, they thankfully weren't an issue for us. There was more rain on Saturday and overnight into Sunday, and with all that moisture and some hot weather, it was generally very steamy. Let's just say there were extra showers taken every day. The week ahead is supposed to be warm (though not beastly hot) and there's a chance for rain most days, so I think I'll just have to get used to it!

When I wasn't melting outside, I got a fair amount of crafting done inside. For one thing, I finished my handspun scarf -- and didn't run out of yarn!

It turns out that it was not as close a game of yarn chicken as I thought; when I finished, I still had 7 g of yarn left (from 110 g total to start). I had weighed my yarn as I approached the halfway point, but it was when we were in the car last Sunday and the numbers kept changing because we were moving, so I didn't entirely trust them. Still, it's a win that I'll take. I still need to block it, which I think will help with some wonkiness here and there, but I'm quite happy with it.

I also started plying my current skein of handspun, which may actually be complete by the time you read this (I'm writing on Sunday afternoon and have plans to do more plying on Sunday evening):

In order to have something fairly mindless on the needles for Ruthie Nap Time Knitting, I pulled out some very old mini skeins (like as old as Molly old!) from a long-ago yarn club that was associated with a lot of drama. They'd been stashed away because I was a bit busy with a newborn at the time, and I didn't even remember I had them until Molly and I did the stash reorganization recently. There's no information at all about the yarns, but they all appeared to be fingering weight, so I put them in a gradient of sorts and am making a charity hat.

Finally, I spent time this weekend getting everything ready to publish my new hat pattern this morning. It's the first one using my new tech editor, who has been fabulous to work with, and she's already got my next pattern to work on. This is the hat you've seen twice before, now called Mandlen. It's up on Payhip already and will be published on Ravelry not long after this post goes up (look for it in my store).

I'm hoping for a regular week ahead, including my usual Wednesday update. Here's hoping it's a good one for all of us.

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.

45

As you might guess from the title of this post, today is my 45th birthday. I would prefer for my birthday to fall on any day other than Monday, but that's not exactly something you can choose, and I was actually born on a Monday, so I suppose it's fitting. What is unusual is that it's going to be sunny and close to 70ºF today -- usually it's dreary, cold, and snowy! So I think I can deal with Monday because of that.

We had a really nice weekend, especially Saturday. We hit a record high of 78ºF -- and then had a thunderstorm move through in the afternoon! It felt more like early June than early March! The house got so warm that we actually opened windows in our bedroom overnight so we could sleep comfortably. Yesterday was significantly cooler but still pleasant. And we had a delicious celebrator dinner out on Saturday at one of our favorite restaurants.

As promised, I've got a better photo to share of my mother's socks along with a full write up of the project:

Pattern: forest floor by Sara Bauer (Ravelry link), size M
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply in Peppercorn, 89 g/324 yds. used
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Started/Completed: January 1/March 4
Mods: omitted cables on back of leg and ribbing on sole for arch; subbed my own usual heel and toe

If the name of this pattern's designer sounds familiar to you, it may be because she was the host of the Yarns at Yin Hoo podcast. I listened to her for many years and enjoyed her calm approach to crafting, cooking, and poetry. In recent years, Sara had been been battling metastatic breast cancer, though you wouldn't know it to listen to her podcasts -- she was always positive and upbeat, seeking to make the most of her situation. She sadly passed away last June, so I thought knitting one of her patterns would be a good tribute to her (even if it did take me a while to get around to it). I used one of the skeins of fingering that I picked up off the freebie table at SSK last year, and I thought this mossy green was a great match for the pattern. I opted to keep them relatively simple other than the lace pattern stitch in part because I thought the cables would make them tight and maybe uncomfortable and in part to keep the focus on the lace. Now I just hope they're not too big for my narrow-footed mother! These will be put away for either Mother's Day or her birthday in June.

I spent some of my downtime over the weekend finishing up the knitting of this hat, which you last saw when I was only a few rounds into the colorwork.

I kept the main motif at the very center of the panel the same but scaled down the rest and eliminated some rounds to make it fit on a hat. I still need to pull the yarn through the final stitches and weave in some ends (obviously), and then I'll move on to blocking and embroidery.

As if all this green yarn wasn't enough (can you tell I've got spring on the brain?), I've cast on a new pair of socks for my mother-in-law, and I'm using the very last of the yarn that came home with me from SSK!

The colors got a bit washed out by the sunshine, but I think the photo is good enough to show this fun micro-striping thing that's happening. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Solemate, a blend of superwash merino, nylon, and something called Outlast viscose that's supposed to help regulate temperature and thus keep your feet feeling comfortable. I can't say how effective it is, having never knit with it before, but my mother-in-law deals with neuropathy in her feet, so I thought it might feel good to her. After all that lace in the last pair, I'm back to my usual plain vanilla sock, and considering I cast this on last Thursday and am already nearly done with the leg, I think that was a good move. I imagine I might get some crazy pooling in the gusset of these, or maybe I'll get even thinner stripes. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

As much as I love green, especially at this time of year, my next project will not be knit using green yarn. The replacement sweater I've picked out is the Speculoos Sweater (Ravelry link) using handspun (provided the gauge works out) from my precious Southern Cross Fibre stash. I'll be aiming to use this for the main color:

Thunderstruck on Bond wool

and this for the colorwork in the yoke:

Pebbles on a mystery wool base

One unfortunate thing about getting older (at least is an adult) is that you still have work, walk the dog, and make dinner on your birthday, so I'm thinking of getting started on this new sweater as my gift to myself. I might also make myself a cake, as I happen to have ingredients on hand! Otherwise, it'll just be a normal day. I'll be sure to enjoy the unusually warm weather on my run and walks with Ruthie, and I'd encourage you to enjoy what the day brings as well. Remember that if you have a treat to celebrate a friend's birthday, the calories don't count!

Unraveled, Week 9/2026

Good morning and happy soggy Wednesday! The rain came in overnight Monday and will be with us for a while, so I'm making good use of my raincoat. At least at this time of year, I'm less bothered by the fact that it's heavy and doesn't breathe. But enough about the weather -- time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers!

I appreciate all the thoughts and opinions on my sweater WIP. For now, I'm leaving it where it is, though I am leaning toward ripping it out and moving on to something else. If I really wanted the sweater, I would carry on and accept that it'd just take me a long time to knit it, but I looked at completed projects on Ravelry and am not sure I really would wear it anymore, and frankly I'd rather decide that now, when I've only invested a handful of evenings working on it, than after finishing the darn thing. Well, I guess I have made up my mind after all!

In the meantime, I cast on a new project, a hat to match this cowl. It's not much to look at yet, but it should grow and look more like a hat soon.

The rain isn't doing the colors any favors, but I'm using the leftovers from the cowl, just reversed. I changed up the colorwork just a bit to work with the smaller scale. I'm hoping that it works out because the main motif is a 10-stitch repeat, which limits the sizing a bit.

Thanks to that big project I was expecting turning into a no-show, I had a big reading week, with five finishes. Because of the volume, I'm going to stick with some shorter reviews this week.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

3.5 stars

This novel is two stories in two timelines tied together by a house. Nellie is a 1950s housewife with an older husband who is demanding and unforgiving. Alice, in more or less present day, recently left her demanding job in publicity to try to write a novel and is feeling unmoored in her new suburban NYC house, where she is alone for much of the day while her husband works in the city and studies for his actuarial exams. When Alice finds a cookbook and old women's magazines in the house's basement, she gains insight into Nellie's life and begins to examine her own life and marriage. I enjoyed the dual timelines and the look at a woman's life -- including how little has changed over the decades -- but was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending, which seemed a little rushed and unfinished compared to the rest of the book.

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

4 stars

Jane has been raised in a remote cabin in Montana by her father following the death of her mother when she was just a toddler. He has homeschooled her, teaching her math, philosophy, and his negative views of the outside world. One day he brings a computer home so that Jane can help him publish his manifesto, and she discovers there is more to the world -- and that perhaps he hasn't been entirely truthful about their past. When he involves her in a violent act, she realizes that she needs to escape to find out the truth, only to land in Silicon Valley at the height of the explosion of the internet. She has to decide which version of reality is right for her and must grapple with whether to turn her father in when it means implicating herself as well.

Tilt by Emma Pattee

3 stars

Annie is 37 weeks pregnant and at IKEA to buy a crib when an earthquake hits and devastates Portland, Oregon, where she lives. Over the course of a day, she tries to make her way across the city to find her husband, along the way encountering the best and worst of human behavior, reflecting on her life and marriage, and remembering her mother. I thought it was an interesting way to make the reader think about how unprepared we are for a major disaster, both logistically and as a society that doesn't value helping others, but I didn't love Annie as a main character.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

3 stars

This is a thriller set during a wedding weekend on a remote Irish island. We know something bad has happened in the present and alternate between finding out what that is and flashing back to the days leading up to it, as told through the points of view of multiple characters: the bride, the best man, the bridesmaid, the plus-one. I knew going into this not to expect fine literature and really only chose to read it because I thought it would be entertaining while I was running. I figured out most of the twists ahead of time, so it wasn't all that suspenseful to me. Still, it kept my attention well enough, and I enjoyed cast of narrators.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

3 stars

This book has been sitting on my bedroom chair for months, and I finally read it after Jane talked about it last week. The format is unusual; rather than a traditional narrative or even short stories, it's made up of a series of brief scenes that are rather similar to the episodic nature of our memories of childhood and that give us glimpses into the life of Esperanza, a Latina girl growing up in a house (on Mango Street) in Chicago. I enjoyed these little snapshots of her life, but I did not find the book to be as engaging as I expected because it was so broken up.

I am currently reading an ARC and am excited to start a buddy read with Katie of The Odyssey tonight!

Also, not to bury the lede, but I've just published my new colorwork cowl pattern. You can find it on Ravelry and Payhip.

A Fitting End

Is it just me, or has this been a particularly crappy month? And I don't say that just because it involved a dog with diarrhea, though that's kind of a funny coincidence. In any case, I'm glad this month is ending and we're headed into March next month. March 1 is the start of meteorological spring, and while I know that the weather isn't going to flip over immediately, there's something about knowing that it'll be spring next month that makes things easier.

I'm also very happy that it's the end of the week because it's been a long one. That big work project I was expecting never arrived (surprise, surprise, they've missed their revised deadline yet again!), but we had two mornings with early snow, one of which caused a totally unnecessary school delay, and Ruthie's been waking us up with her barking at around 5 a.m., so I'm just exhausted. I don't anticipate being able to sleep in this weekend, but at least I can take a nap in the afternoons! And today is payday, which helps with the unexpected vet bills this month.

I've spent most of my knitting time this week working on socks and what do you know -- that leads to getting stuff done! I've got one finished sock:

I've already cast on the second sock and noted everything I did that departed from the pattern so I can repeat it, so the pair should be finished up soon provided I can stay focused.

I also officially finished up the second cowl sample, even weaving in All The Ends -- there were a lot of them, two for every stripe! It's been blocked and the pattern has been updated and is with my tech editor, so I'm hoping she'll be getting back to me so I can publish next week.

I noticed that I'd stretched this sample out a little when I washed it, so I'd tossed it into the dryer for about 10 minutes on Tuesday afternoon all by itself -- and on Wednesday morning, when the Mister went downstairs to grab his running gear, he discovered that the floor in front of the dryer was all wet and that it had somehow sprung a leak. That water was definitely not there on Monday, when I did two loads of laundry, nor was it there when I popped the cowl in, so I'm not saying that it was the cowl's fault, but I'm not NOT saying it. Personally, I think it's just Vera's bad luck rubbing off on me. The Mister scheduled a service call but couldn't get anyone to come until March 19, so in the meantime he fiddled around with what the internet told him might be the issue. However, he couldn't get the exhaust tube reconnected, so our handyman is going to stop by on Saturday to see if he can, and I'm hoping if he does, we'll be able to use the dryer again. In the meantime, I'll have to schlep laundry over to my parents' place to use their washer and dryer -- not ideal, but better than a laundromat. It's just one more thing that's gone wrong this month and yet another reason I'm ready for it to be over!

The only plans we have this weekend are a family dinner on Sunday to celebrate my birthday a little more than a week early (my father's going to be out of town on my actual birthday, and we thought a Sunday evening would allow us to be a little more leisurely). It's been many months since we had all of my side of the family together, so that was my request. I've also got some Zooms to attend, including one for our synagogue in which we will official get to vote to approve the unification of the two congregations! The name of the new entity we'll be forming will be Beit Kulanu, which translates to "a house for all of us." Isn't that just lovely? This process has been in the works for a long time, and I'm excited to see what's in store for the new congregation.

I'll leave you with yet another sign of spring. The snow in our backyard -- which was a pretty big pile because it's where we'd heaped a lot of it as we shoveled -- finally melted enough to uncover the hellebores, and when I poked around yesterday, this is what I found:

Yep, that's a bud! There may be more snow in next week's forecast, but spring is surely on the way, friends! I hope you can have a restful, enjoyable weekend. See you back here on Monday!

Unraveled, Week 7/2026

It's Wednesday, which means it's my day to join with Kat and the Unravelers -- and this week I do have some unraveling to report, a rarity for me!

When you last saw it on Monday, my Melt the ICE hat was at the decreases. I took it to Molly's dentist appointment so I could work on it in the waiting room, and then I pulled it out again in the afternoon while Ruthie snoozed. I was getting pretty close to the end when I paused and actually looked at my knitting (I was reading at the same time, so that was holding most of my attention), only to realize that something was very off. It was only last week that I had trouble counting to two, and it seems I also had some trouble dividing my stitches in half when I set up this hat for magic loop. I had 12 stitches on one half and 20+ on the other, so somewhere along the way I'd miscounted. Fortunately the yarn I'm using is very sticky and is being knit at a firm gauge, so I pulled it off the needles and unraveled back to the start of the decreases (that took a bit of time, as I'm alternating skeins and had to pause every now and then to untangle). I got the stitches back on the needle and this time actually followed the pattern to place some markers and do my decreases in the correct spot -- yes, I'd thought I knew better, and didn't it come back to bit me in the end? I'm back on track and nearly to where I was when I discovered the problem, so I should have a finished hat in another day or so.

In the meantime, I had brought yarn and needles downstairs to have on hand anticipating that I was going to finish the hat, and when I realized I'd screwed it up, I put it aside and cast on for a new project:

This is some Knit Picks Wonderfluff that I bought several years back when it was on sale and I was trying to get to free shipping. It's a bulky weight, but because it's made of a nylon tube into which merino and baby alpaca is blown, it's very light. The fuzziness makes it a little trickier to knit with than a smooth yarn, but the softness makes up for it. I'm knitting up another version of this hat that I improvised with some scraps last month and contemplating writing up a pattern -- I figured I should make a version in a single yarn to see if it works out and then make a decision.

The cowl is still on the needles but doesn't look much different. I'm trying to focus on it to get it done this week, if at all possible, so I can make the necessary revisions to the pattern and get it back to my tech editor.

As I continue to chip away at Anna Karenina at a rate of about 5% per day, on average, I've been able to listen to a couple of audiobooks this week.

There are often books I read because friends who are readers I respect read and recommend them. That was why I picked up The Wordy Shipmates, a work of nonfiction focused on the Puritans who settled in New England in the early days of the American colonies and left behind quite a bit of writing in the form of journals, essays, pamphlets, sermons, and even novels. The author, a historian, takes a close look at their thoughts, so many of which formed the basis of many of the ideals of the new nation, and unflinchingly points out the hypocrisy in the fact that they fled England allegedly to seek religious freedom yet became intolerant of those who acted against their interpretations. I enjoyed the book, though perhaps didn't listen at the right time (this was when Ruthie was under the weather), so I had a hard time following and staying focused at time. I did find it to be well written and funny, but I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have had it read it at a different time. I also enjoyed the audio narration; it's mostly read by the author, but a number of actors play the roles of Puritans whose writings are quoted. I gave it 3 stars.

Though from the title you might think that Homeschooled is primarily about homeschooling, and indeed it's a central part of the narrative, really it's a narrative about a son and his relationship with his mother. When Stefan Block was 9, his mother decided that the public school system in Plano, Texas, was no good for him and that it would be better if she homeschooled him -- despite having no background in education or instruction. In many ways, though, this effort seemed to be a way to keep her youngest child close and a reaction to his getting older. The author struggled to reconcile the great freedom he gained at home with his loneliness from being separated from his peers and constantly worried whether he'd ever be able to get back to school -- and if doing so would alienate him forever from his mother. Though this memoir wasn't as hard to read as others I've read that deal with similar themes, I found it sad to learn how much Block missed out on due to his mother's unfounded beliefs about the education system and unwillingness to accept that her child would eventually grow up and leave her. But the memoir is well done, with moments of humor to offset the sad moments, and well narrated by the author. I gave it 4 stars.

To round out this post, I though I'd share an early sign of spring spotted in my neighborhood (even though there's now in the forecast for this weekend):

Spring may not be here yet, but it's definitely on its way!

A Reprieve

TGIF -- am I right? Even though it's much easier now that Molly can do pretty much everything on her own, it's still exhausting to be the only parent in town and to have to do all the schools runs, all the cooking, and all the cleaning. Add the cold weather on top of that, and I'm more than ready for a weekend. Molly is home today (in-service day for the end of the trimester) and Monday, so even though I have to work both days, I feel like I get a little bit of a break from the busy schedule.

In good news, I went for my first run on Wednesday since January 23, as the warmer weather earlier this week allowed for enough melting of snow and ice to expose nearly all of the sidewalks. I am definitely out of practice and am sore from the effort, but it felt great to get out other again.

You know what else is good? I've been able to count to two (and three and four) again! On attempt number four, I successfully established my ribbing, and since then I've completed it and moved on to the colorwork.

I think my contrast won't be as strong as it was in the original sample, but sometimes I like a subtler mix of colors. Of course, I'm also putting together the colors on my own instead of using a kit put together by someone whose business is color, so that's playing a role as well. In any case, I'm happy to be moving right along.

We've got a fairly quiet weekend planned. Molly is having a friend sleep over tomorrow night, so we're going to order in some pizza and relax instead of trying to do a romantic dinner out. The weather is supposed to be warmer both days, too, so I'll be able to walk outside for exercise rather than doing YouTube workouts. And I may just start an audiobook, because I've finally caught up on my podcasts! (Speaking of which, if you are a fellow Maggie O'Farrell fan and you haven't already listened, you might want to download and listen to her interview with Anne Bogel.) I hope by Monday I'll have some more knitting to show.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend -- be sure to treat yourself to some chocolate tomorrow!

Unraveled, Week 6/2026

Happy Wednesday, friends! The landscape looks a lot different today after some unseasonably warm weather yesterday -- think lots of melting and lots of puddles. I got an unexpected upper-body workout when Ruthie and I got back from our midday walk yesterday: The snow on the roof of the garage had all fallen onto the driveway and had to be shoveled out of the way. It might have been light, fluffy snow when it fell, but the melting turned it into wet, heavy stuff. At least I could comfortably shovel without a jacket or gloves -- and I was sweating!

As it is Wednesday today, that means it's time to check in with Kat and the Unravelers, and I'm happy to report that I do indeed have a finished pair of socks to share!

I ended up needing Monday to finish the toe of the second sock, and I even played a bit of yarn chicken, ending up using 99 g of my 100 g skein. If you're interested in the pattern you can check out my Ravelry project, but it's not one I'd recommend. There is no gauge listed, and the sizes are simply S/M/L, without any indication of what size foot those would fit. I ended up using the stitch pattern only on the front of the leg and on the instep and doing my own heel and toe. I didn't even try to get the stripes to match because of how long the color repeat is, but I'm happy that I more or less matched up the position of the stripes on the two socks. And of course I won at yarn chicken, meaning I don't have a ton of leftovers remaining. All in all a good stash-busting project!

I've since cast on two more projects. First, I'm doing another sample of my fingering weight colorwork cowl design, this time with a larger circumference for a more standard fit. Unfortunately, due to my apparently inability to reliably count to two, this is all I have to show for it:

That sheep stitch marker is where I have to tink back to in order to correct what is supposed to be dead-easy 2x2 ribbing. And what you see here is after tinking back and supposedly fixing my issues twice already. Sigh.

I also started the current fad in the craftivist world, a Melt the ICE Hat (Ravelry link) in some leftover HipStrings Buoy DK:

This will be my mindless knitting while Ruthie naps and I read for the next while.

Speaking of reading, I've only finished one book this past week. Reading has slowed down some since the big storm because I've been unable to exercise outside (and that's when I do most of my audiobook listening) and have only been taking Ruthie for normal walks in the past couple of days. I'm also reading a Big Book right now that will take me a while to get through. Fortunately, the one book I finished was a good one.

On the Calculation of Volume III follows Tara in her continuing repetition of November 18, but now there is a new development: She has learned that there are others trapped in this time loop. This provides an opportunity to discuss why it has happened, whether it's permanent, and if there's a larger purpose they should be pursuing with their opportunity to relive the same day over and over again. As was the case with the first two books in the series, this is a quiet book that is more about thinking and reflecting than about action or plot twists. I honestly wasn't sure how someone could write seven volumes about living the same day over and over again, but so far each book has had a different take on it. Unfortunately now I have to wait for the next translation to be published and for the three after that to find out how this story resolves, but I very much enjoyed this third book. 4 stars.

I'm still reading Anna Karenina and am a little more than 40% through it; I find that on a good day, I can get through about 5-6%, so I'm keeping up a steady pace. And I'm hoping that now that the weather outlook is looking a little more normal for this time of year, I'll be able to get some books in my ears again soon.

How about you -- what are you making and reading this week?

Another Freezing Friday

Although I'm more used to it happening in January, we always seem to have a period of deep freeze in winter when the temperatures are frigid and it seems like the snow and ice will never melt. We've been in that phase for a while now, too long for my taste, and we're in for more snow (estimates are about 2 inches) and more extreme cold this weekend. But it's supposed to get up to and above freezing next week, hurrah! So we just need to get through this weekend and we'll get a little bit of a break.

In spite of the cold, we've been lucky to have gotten a good bit of sunshine this week, and it's even been enough to melt some snow and ice on roofs and help to clear the roads and sidewalks. I've been opening the blinds in the sliding glass doors at the back of our house, which face west, and that's meant some great light in the afternoons while Ruthie naps next to me. Yesterday, it helped me see well enough to graft the toe of my first Loud Plaid Shorts sock (shown on Ruthie for scale):

Its mate has been cast on, and I'll be working on it every moment I can this weekend to see if I can't get the pair finished up in time to qualify for the Pigskin Party -- technically I have Monday to finish if I need it, but that's also a work day and thus does not offer the same amount of time to be productive. Though I won't be working on anything else until the socks are done, that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what's next.

I have this cowl pattern in testing now, and a couple of testers have noted that it's a little too snug for their taste, so I'm going to add a second size to the pattern and knit up another sample to determine the yardage required. In preparation for that, I've been pulling out the semisolid mini skeins I have and pondering color choices. I'll likely end up arranging the skeins in several different orders and taking photos so I can test their contrast in black and white.

We've got a fairly quiet weekend ahead, not least because it's going to be so cold. Tonight Molly is headed to a Galentine's Day party thrown by a classmate and her mother, and after we drop her off, the Mister and I are having a date night at one of our favorite restaurants. We (and by that I mean Molly and I) have plans to make snacks for dinner for Sunday in honor of the Super Bowl, though we don't really care that much about the game. I am, however, looking forward to the Puppy Bowl -- the first one I can watch with my very own puppy! I'd encourage you to click over and click through the gallery of the players; they always have a wide range of breeds and mixes, and I love that they always include dogs with special needs. And for those of you who are cat people, there's a kitten halftime show, too!

Stay warm, look for the good, and be well, friends!

Good News to End the Week

Earlier this week, Kym asked us to notice and share some good news to help combat the onslaught of terrible news from across the country and around the world. As if all that news wasn't bad enough, it's been a hard week for us here following the snowstorm last weekend. This is apparently the largest snowfall we've gotten since the "Snowmageddon" storm of February 2010, when Molly was a newborn, and it's been a struggle to clean it up. We've yet to get mail this week, for instance, and it's been hard to get anywhere outside. We were all home Monday and Tuesday, and it felt a bit like the beginning of the pandemic again, so it wasn't easy to avoid the feelings of isolation and uncertainty again. The best antidote for those feelings is to look for the good or, in the words of the national treasure that is Fred Rogers, "Look for the helpers."

• While many of us were annoyed that we were trapped at home, I'll bet few of us thought about people who were here from out of town and got stuck. One of our local stations reported on just such a situation at hotel in the area, where the manager decided that because no one was going anywhere and all the nearby restaurants would be open, she might as well cook for everyone!
  
  
• Our city has a Snow Angels program through which residents can sign up to shovel sidewalks and driveways of neighbors who can't. In the aftermath of the storm, it was reported that signups had gone up dramatically. Even our new mayor got in on the action!
  
  
• Not to be outdone, our neighbor across the street noticed that there was a huge hump of snow at the end after the main road was plowed, so he took a shovel and cleared it enough so that we could actually drive off our street.

There is some good personal news to share, too. My parents have now both tested negative for COVID, and my mother talked to my aunt yesterday and reported that she sounded like herself. Today is pay day for me, and this month's check includes my annual raise, which I'm getting thanks to the hard work of my union after the university tried to withhold increases from those of us in the bargaining unit because our contract is still being negotiated. Finally, yesterday I published my first pattern of the new year, the Mosaika Cowl (Ravelry link / Payhip link):

I only managed to publish one pattern in all of last year, and considering I have a second one planned already, that means I'm already doing better this year.

We have no major plans for the weekend, mainly because the roads are still pretty bad and it's still going to be insanely cold. But perhaps we'll get together with my parents and maybe have a make-up birthday dinner for my father-in-law. For sure I'll be celebrating the end of my least-favorite month!

Stay warm, look for the good in the world, and see you back here on Monday!

Friday Finishes

TGIF, friends! Later this morning we'll be headed to the airport; I'm glad we have a flight at a civilized time today and I can enjoy my coffee and breakfast at home before we need to get on the road. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling almost completely better, though it's hard to tell whether my nose keeps dripping because of the last gasps of the sinus infection or because of the frigid weather that's moved in. Staying home on Wednesday proved to be a good move because it was chilly and rained all day, which means had I gone to the retreat, I likely would have been sitting around in wet clothes all day.

This week has been about finishing things up, at least as far as my knitting is concerned. I did in fact finish the charity hat on Wednesday night, and it used up a whopping 440 yards of leftover yarn!

Pattern: Sagamore Flyover Hat (Ravelry link) by Jennifer Lassonde, size L
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (superwash merino/nylon) and Bedazzled (superwash merino/nylon/sparkle), held triple
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5 mm)
Started/Completed: January 11/January 14
Mods: changed the crown decreases

I have knit this pattern many times before and likely will again. It's very intuitive and easy to memorize and is a bit more exciting than a plain stockinette beanie. Plus, it works really well with fingering held triple. I used leftovers from a baby sweater and four pairs of socks, purposefully choosing colorways with bright shades. My only modification, which I've done every time I've knit this pattern except for the first, was to work more traditional spiral decreases of 8 stitches every other round. The pattern has you decrease much more quickly, leading to a scrunched-up crown that I don't care for. I had to do a little finagling to keep the stitch pattern consistent, but the thought required was minimal.

I also finally got around to doing the embroidery on my recent design sample. It didn't take very long, but I wanted to do at least some of it during the day when I would have some light to take photos for the pattern, and I didn't manage to find time for that until yesterday after Ruthie got picked up by the dog sitter.

The final thing I finished this week was the second swatch for my sweater. I went up to a US 8/5 mm needle, just to see, and it turns out to have been a wise choice because I perfectly matched stitch gauge and got even closer on row gauge. I'm not going to be starting the sweater until we're back from our trip, but at least now I know I'm ready to wind some more yarn and cast on when we get home.

There's also been a bit of stash enhancement this week. Although I am still very focused on using up the yarn I have, I really only bought yarn once (I think?) last year and decided I deserved a little treat. Plus, I wanted to support my friend Lisa, and she was having a new year's sale -- and offering a free gift with every purchase, too. And then she recorded her first podcast of the year and announced winners for the last quarter of her 2025 make-along, and wouldn't you know I was one of them? So now I have some new pretties:

The free gift was the two mini skeins on the left, along with some attached stitch markers. My purchase was the two skeins in the center, Traveler (sport weight) in Gathering Seashells and Bounce (fingering) in Tracks in the Snow. My prize was the set of Inversibles on Mountain Tweed (fingering). I don't have anything specific planned for these skeins just yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

As for trip knitting, I am only taking the socks I started for my mother when we were in Florida because I haven't touched them since we got back and we're not checking bags, so I don't have much space. My knitting time is likely to be limited, in any case, because we've got a full schedule of activities related to the bat mitzvah and have plans to visit with some friends who moved to Chicago last year. Plus it's going to be cold, maybe too cold to knit!

I hope you can stay warm and cozy this weekend -- have a good one!

There's No Place Like It

Home, that is. We got back early Saturday afternoon, right on schedule, and spent the rest of the day unpacking, cleaning, and running errands. As nice as it was to have to break (and to be away from the cold and snow), I slept better in my own bed Saturday night than I did all the nights we were away. I picked Ruthie up from the dogsitter yesterday morning, and we had a quiet day at home. Of course she spent a lot of time following me around and whined a bit at first whenever I left the room, but that's to be expected. The dogsitter reported that once she got over the initial unease of being left in an unfamiliar place, she really settled in and was much less anxious. She made a great dog friend who was there several times over the two weeks and got lots of exercise. All in all, I feel like it was a good experience for both of us -- good thing, too, because she'll be boarding there again MLK Jr. weekend, when we're going to a bat mitzvah out of town!

The start of the new year brought a quick finish and some new cast-ons. First, after failing to finish my hat before the end of 2025 (though I got very close), I succeeded in making my first FO of 2026:

This is my Same as It Ever Was hat (Ravelry link) worked on US 2.5/3 mm needles using Fibernymph Dye Works Bedazzled (superwash merino/nylon/sparkle). I used 99 g of the skein, or about 433 yards. It feels good to start the year at a deficit -- especially as I may have ordered a couple of skeins from Lisa in her New Year's sale.

Also on New Year's Day, I started first my project of the year and it's another colorwork cowl design, this one in DK:

What looks kind of yellowish here is actually a pale silvery green. I'm a little past halfway and will be adding some surface embroidery over where you see those single stitches just above the corrugated ribbing. I'm hoping it turns out how it looks in my head!

Because I am not a monogamous knitter, I cast on a pair of socks as well, which I worked on a little on the flight home:

I've only just started the main stitch pattern, but I'm using forest floor (Ravelry link) and some Miss Babs fingering that I picked up from the giveaway table at SSK last year. These will be for my mother, likely for her birthday in June. I haven't knit patterned sock in a long time, and I wanted to knit this pattern in memory of the designer, who passed away this past summer.

I have stopped making new year's resolutions because they're so easily broken, but I do have some goals and intentions for the year ahead, at least as far as my knitting is concerned. First and foremost, I want to continue to use up stash yarn. I did really well with this last year and bought very little new yarn relative to how much I used up (Molly certainly helped). I'm hoping to track my yarn acquisitions and usage in a spreadsheet this year to get a better sense of my balance (or lack thereof). I also want to make at least one charity item a month; I've made a lot of hats in the past couple of years, but I will likely add in other warm items like mittens and cowls for a little variety. I want to do more crochet and more design work this year, and I'm already making strides toward the design goal with a pattern sent off to my tech editor just yesterday. Finally, I want 2026 to be the year I finally make this sweater (Ravelry link):

 

(c) Carol Sunday

I bought this pattern in November 2015 and bought yarn for it (Knit Picks Simply Wool) in 2018, so it's been waiting long enough. I know where the yarn is and will be winding up a skein and swatching this week.

Do you have any resolutions or goals for your knitting this year?

Today I'm back to work, but thankfully it's a fully work-from-home day. Molly doesn't have to go back to school until tomorrow, and this afternoon she and the Mister are going to the inauguration of our new mayor. I would have joined them if I didn't have to work -- and if it didn't conflict with my afternoon snuggles with Ruthie!

Unraveled, Week 53/2025

It feels pretty special that the last Wednesday of the year is also the last day of the year -- and it feels like we've gotten a bonus week, too! I don't think Kat is doing a link-up today, but I'm always happy to join her and the Unravelers.

Our vacation has gotten a bit more chaotic this week because my brother and his family came down to join us on Sunday, so we've shuffled bedrooms and bathrooms and had to reorient our schedules around those of a 1-year-old and a 2 1/2-year-old. But it's been fun. My aunt and uncle, who spend their winters on the other coast of Florida, drove over to spend some time with us on Monday, and yesterday nearly all of us (the Mister stayed behind to do some work) went to the Naples Zoo. I've even spotted some unusual wildlife in the housing development:

Don't worry; I took this photo from far away and cropped it.

There are man-made bodies of water throughout this place, and there are signs up all over saying not to go in the water or disturb the alligators, but I always figured that was just bluffing. I've never spotted one this close before that wasn't in a zoo or nature preserve!

I honestly haven't been knitting a ton, especially in comparison to years past, but I did finish the cowl -- even weaving in all my ends and blocking! And I also wrote up a draft of the pattern so I can get it to my tech editor before we head home! (See how much I can get done when I'm not working and catering to the whims of a very cute but demanding dog?)

For the last couple of days, I've been focusing on what I hope will be my last finished project for the year:

I had about 40 g of yarn left on Monday night, so I'm hoping if I give it a lot of attention today, I just might get it done.

Reading time has, of course, been more plentiful, and I've finished several more books in the past week.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 2 was just as delightful as the first. I can imagine that one day I might want to own physical copies one day, but they've been great on audio. In the second installment, Emma learns more about the mysterious tenant who is renting Lapis Lazuli Minor, makes the acquaintance of a friend's "cousin" serving as her chaperone, comes to the aid of current and former classmates at her school, and has an interesting interaction with a duke. She continues to work to ensure she can keep her home, in spite of her cousin's efforts to spend all the money left to her. I gave it 4 stars -- and I expect to finish Vol. 3 today!

In Kin, we meet Niecy and Annie, two motherless girls raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, Niecy left orphaned by a murder/suicide and Annie abandoned when her mother left town. United in friendship from their early days sleeping in the same cradle, they together have to navigate life as Black women in the Jim Crow South as they approach adulthood and their lives begin to diverge. For Niecy, that means going to Spelman College and being exposed to a more privileged life to which she can aspire. For Annie, it means heading to Memphis in the middle of the night to search for her long-missing mother. Both encounter the racism of segregation, the challenges of being poor, the complications of failed first relationships, and the unreasonable expectations of women. Through it all, their friendship is a constant.
What Tayari Jones has captured in this novel is the power of female relationships and the deep impact that the lack of a loving mother can have on a girl's development. She also paints an unflinching portrait of what life was like for a poor Black woman in the South in the '60s, when the limitations imposed by segregation only added to the lack of options available to women in general. More than anything, she shows that it's not blood that makes someone kin. Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published February 24, 2026. I gave it 4 stars.

My Chanukah gift to myself this year (mainly because my request came too late for anyone else to buy them for me) was volumes I-III of On the Calculation of Volume. Translated from the Danish, these short novels tell the story of Tara Selter, who discovers on a work trip that she is trapped in time, reliving the 18th of November over and over again. While this might sound like the movie Groundhog Day, it's much more serious. In Vol. I, Tara is struggling to understand what is happening and, returning home to her husband, tries to come up with both an explanation and a way to get time to start working as it should again. Each day he is surprised to see her, and each day she explains what has happened again. Together they attempt to formulate some sort of logic to what stays changed and what reverts to how it was at the beginning of the day, but Tara realizes that this approach isn't sustainable in the long run. I gave 4 stars to Vol. 1 and immediately started Vol. II; in fact, as I'm writing this post ahead of time, I may have already finished it.

I took a pause in my listening of Emma Lion's journals to listen to 107 Days, read by Kamala Harris. Reading a book about a recent presidential campaign isn't necessarily exciting because you know the outcome and lived through it, but I was still interested to hear about the details and the experience from Harris' perspective. And of course I opted to get the audio because I wanted to hear it in her voice. Listening to this book brought back the hope and the excitement I felt last year, even though I knew that the outcome wouldn't change, and I think I appreciated the campaign even more getting the inside story. I also felt much more hopeful at the end hearing what gives Harris hope for our country's future. I won't recommend it to readers trying to avoid politics, but it was a bit of a balm for me after the year we've had, and I gave it 4 stars.

Tonight we'll be having a quiet evening in; even without taking the little ones into account, I'm well past the age where it's exciting to stay up late. It's gotten unusually chilly here, so I'll be going for a run this morning and then likely spending the day inside. I plan to knit and read, play with my niblings, and spend the day with my immediate family, and I really can't ask for a much better last day of the year than that.

Thank you, dear readers, for spending another year with me. I think it was a hard year for many of us, and I don't expect the change of the calendar to magically make things better. My wish for you in 2026 is that it's a year in which you're able to find joy and love and good health. May the new year bring you happy times with your loved ones, an abundance of good books, and a world in which you can still find beauty and kindness. I will be back on Friday with a look back at my reading this past year. Until then, thanks for being part of one of the best parts of my 2025 and happy new year!

Unraveled, Week 52/2025

Hello, friends, and happy Christmas Eve! I hope you all had a good Festivus yesterday, with all your grievances aired and your feats of strength well executed. It's Wednesday, so I'm joining in with Kat and the Unravelers for the weekly update on making and reading.

I'm happy to report that I actually finished my father-in-law's hat after getting my post ready Sunday night -- yes, I crocheted a hat in a day!

Pattern: Not-So-Chunky Guy Beanie by Elvee Dickinson (Ravelry link), size medium
Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Twist Worsted (70% wool/30% nylon) in Cousteau, 0.7 skeins
Hook: 4.5 mm
Started/Completed: December 21

I had started this once before but didn't like the fabric; the pattern has you work through the front loop only for the body of the hat, and I felt that made it too floppy and loose. So I ripped it out and restarted, working through both loops on each stitch. I also joined each round with a slip stitch and chained to start the next one rather than working in a true spiral. I worked the the brim through the back loop as instructed, though, to give a bit of texture, and then worked the last few rounds as back post double crochet, one round of single crochet, and then the final round working the back loop of the penultimate round and the front loop of the next together in a single crochet (I'm not experienced enough to know if there's a technical term for that). Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it has to be better than the ratty, machine-knit acrylic monstrosity I've been seeing my father-in-law wearing.

As that was the last holiday crafting left on my list, I've been using my vacation crafting for mainly selfish purposes. Designing has been something I've largely let go of this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. Traditionally, I've used this vacation as a chance to work up design samples for the next year, though that hasn't been the case for several years. This year, I thought I'd reinstate it, and first on the list is a cowl version of my Xenolith hat (Ravelry link).

I'm using a set of six mini skeins from Fibernymph Dye Works, each one a semisolid from Lisa's Wild Atlantic Wildflowers colorway, which I used for a pair of socks for my sister-in-law last year. I'm planning to work at least three repeats of the stripes for a fairly tall cowl. There will be a lot of ends to weave in, but I love seeing all the colors so much I don't mind.

Now that I don't have to deal with work, I've had more time for reading and have finished three books since this time last week.

I am a big fan of Alix E. Harrow's books, so I immediately put her newest novel, The Everlasting, on hold as soon as my library had it and dropped everything else (other than work) as soon as I got it. This novel is part historical fiction, part fantasy, part something entirely new. It's a love story, a story about a female knight, and a story about how stories become history. There's a time travel element, and I'll admit that how that worked to change the story confused me a bit, but it turns out it didn't matter too much. What I love about Harrow's writing is how imaginative it is and how her female characters always defy stereotypes and expectations. I find it hard to even describe this book because it was so unlike any other I've read, even though it draws on fairy tales and stories of epic heroes. If you, like me, are an Alix Harrow fan, then I think you'll like this one. I gave it 4.5 stars.

I found a copy of The Idiot in my nearest Little Free Library several months ago and started reading it last month. It was slow going for a while, but I thought it was mainly because I was reading it right before bed, so I never managed very many pages at once. I was about halfway through when we left for vacation; I read a little more than 100 pages on the plane and finished it the next day. The premise is a young woman's experience in her first year at college. Like the author, she's Turkish American and attending Harvard. She also has very little experience in the wider world, both academically and socially. She takes a variety of classes and develops a crush on a classmate in her Russian language course. I kept reading because I kept expecting something interesting to happen, but frankly this book was just ... boring. Nothing much happens. There's a lot of thinking and talking without any real substance. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really like it. I probably should have DNF'ed it, but I figured there had to be something of substance there if it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Maybe I'm just not smart to get it? I gave it 2 stars.

My first entirely-on-vacation read was the first in a series that came highly recommended by my friend Margene. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a series following a young woman in 1880s London. In Volume 1, Emma has returned to her family's inherited home of Lapis Lazuli House, which has been inhabited by her cousin Archibald until she reaches the age of 21 and legally can take possession. Emma is an orphan and is relying on the house and a living left to her by a relative, but she soon discovers that Archibald has squandered much of the living, leaving Emma in a precarious situation. The entire book is written as Emma's diary, and she is a delightful and plucky heroine. I found this to be great on audio -- and all eight volumes that are published are available on Hoopla! Highlight recommend -- 4.5 stars.

I hope that those of you who are celebrating have a lovely Christmas full of good food and good company. We'll be having a quiet day here, though we'll have homemade cinnamon rolls and and big dinner because why not take advantage of a holiday to experience a little extra joy?