Oh Bother

I really should learn to stop saying that I'm planning to have a relaxing weekend and that I hope I might be able to sleep in; it really almost never happens. Well, that's not to say that the weekend wasn't relaxing in some ways, but it wasn't the carefree, restful weekend I always hope for. I overdid it a bit on Friday and had both an iced coffee in the afternoon and an alcoholic beverage at dinner, and the combination of the two summoned my old foe acid reflux for a visit, keeping me up for about three hours past my usual bedtime Friday night and then making me feel rotten most of the day Saturday. As if that wasn't convenient enough, I had to contend with this Saturday morning:

This work has been going on in the neighborhood for several weeks and we think they've been replacing gas lines, but we still don't know for sure because the gas company hasn't told us a thing -- not even that we'd be unable to leave our dead-end street for about half the day on Saturday. (I will say that the workers have been lovely and have been stopping traffic for me and Ruthie regularly when we need to cross the street, and they did move that dump truck so I could get to my house when I came back from a Costco run Saturday morning. Calling the gas company is on today's to-do list so I can find out what the heck is going on and when it'll be done as well as whether or not we need to plan for another street closure.) Ruthie and I both napped in the afternoon, and we had a quiet evening in following yet another thunderstorm.

Although I was up at my usual time yesterday, I woke up feeling back to normal and well rested, which was a relief. And it felt a little like fall! The high was only in the mid-70s yesterday, with a nice breeze and intermittent clouds. The Mister and I did the grocery shopping together, Ruthie and I enjoyed our walks, and it was a calm day overall.

I'm still working on that crazy-pooling hat (I'll share an update later in the week), but real progress has been made on the mittens. Here is what they looked like yesterday morning, though by the time you're reading this, I expect they'll be done and ready to be felted:

I'm planning to knit another pair of these when I'm done, and I think this time around I will modify the pattern to knit the cuffs first so I can do a tubular cast-on.

Among the usual stuff to be done this week, I'm hoping to start pulling some yarn and planning out some fall projects, including my next sweater. I've already selected and printed out the pattern, so up next is winding the yarn and swatching. I won't be casting on until at least September 9, but I like getting all my ducks in a row well ahead of time so I can dive right in.

Have a good start to your week and see you back here for an update on Wednesday!

"Spring" Break

I am officially on vacation today as it's "spring holiday" (faculty and staff always get off the Friday of spring break week), though it doesn't feel much like spring today. We had a truly wild day of weather on Wednesday. It was raining when I got up, it rained on me when I went for my run (despite the radar being clear and the sun shining at the same time!), and then we had a tornado warning at around 2 p.m. (despite it being completely calm outside; seems it was only radar indicated)! Ruthie got good use out of her new raincoat on our walks:

Yesterday we woke up to temps back in the 30s and windchills in the 20s, so I had to get out my winter coat, hat, and mittens again. Even though everything is blooming and greening up, it's a good reminder that technically it's still winter and anything can happen for a while yet.

Even though I'm not working today, I'll still be keeping roughly the same normal schedule. I'll try to run this morning, then come home and clean the bathrooms, and likely do a couple loads of laundry. Molly is staying after school to attend a flag football game, so Ruthie and I can enjoy a slightly longer afternoon snooze time, during which I hope to finish up this sock:

I decided to try some ribbing on the entirety of the sole, thinking it'd provide a cushy bottom for my mother-in-law, who deals with neuropathy in her feet. You can see that I did get a bit of pooling at the gusset, but it's really only obvious if you look for it.

I also measured my swatch in full daylight yesterday and determined that I am close enough on gauge to go ahead with my sweater. I'm getting 26 stitches over 4 inches rather than the called-for 25, but I'm willing to bet that when I'm working on a much larger piece, my tension will ease up a bit. I'm going to make the second size (finished bust of 40 inches, for 5 inches of positive ease), so even if my gauge is a bit tighter, it's not likely to be a problem. I hope to have some progress to share on Monday!

We've got a number of things on the social calendar this weekend, mostly for Molly, but the Mister and I have a bat mitzvah to go to tomorrow night and we've been told it's cocktail attire, so I have to go through my closet and find something to wear! There will still be plenty of time for reading, knitting, and puppy snuggling, though.

I hope your weekend has time in it for all the things that bring you joy -- and be sure to embrace that joy, friends! We need it now more than ever.

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!

Good News to End the Week

This past week has been something, hasn't it? Molly's had a really hard week at school, it's been raining off and on since Monday, and, well, you all know about what's been going on in the world (and if you don't, trust me, you don't want to). So I thought I'd round out the week by focusing on some good things that have happened this week.

Good Thing 1:
Last week I had a breast MRI. This is the third time I've had one in addition to my annual mammogram because of a family history and dense tissue. I was getting a bit concerned that I hadn't gotten my results at the end of the week (my appointment was midday on Thursday) because I usually get them the same day as my appointment or the next. But I got the results first thing Monday morning: all normal!

Good Thing 2:
Thanks to the warmer temperatures we've had and to the rain, the last pile of snow in our backyard has finally melted. Hurrah!

Good Thing 3:
After taking almost two months to finish the first one, I've finished the second sock of the pair for my mother and they're just what I hoped! You'll have to forgive the crummy photo (it's been gloomy all week). Obviously they're blocking and still wet, but I'm hopeful the sun will make an appearance sometime this weekend and I can take some better photos for an official FO post.

Good Thing 4:
I completely forgot to mention it on Monday, but our dryer is fixed! For those of you wondering how a dryer could leak (I know I was), the issue was that the exhaust tube had somehow fallen out of its socket, so all the hot moist air that would normally be shunted outside was instead hitting the dryer, condensing, and pooling out. Our handyman was able to get it reconnected and secured it better than it was originally, and we've been doing laundry all week with no issues.

Good Thing 5:
I've found another sweater to knit now that I've decided not to continue with Shakespeare in Love, and I have some handspun that should be perfect for it, so I will be swatching soon.

Good Thing 6:
My birthday is on Monday, and for the first time I can remember, it won't be cold and/or snowy. In fact, it's supposed to be sunny and near 70ºF! Of course, it is a Monday and I still have to work, but it'll be nice taking Ruthie for walks without having to be all bundled up.

We got plans for a birthday dinner out with my mother (my father will be away) and my in-laws on Saturday evening, but otherwise I'm planning a quiet weekend. With the time change, Ruthie will likely sleep in on Sunday, but we're losing an hour of sleep, so I'm not sure it'll matter. At least there will be more daylight!

I hope you've got some good things happening in your life right now and that you are able to take a nap on Sunday afternoon if you need it!

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!

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!

Ready to Relax

I'm not quite on vacation (as in I'm not out of town just yet), but I'm officially on vacation from work until January 5, and that goes a long way toward helping me unwind! Ruthie is being picked up by the dog sitter later this morning, and Molly is done with school at noon, so this afternoon will be all about cleaning the house (so I don't have to do it when I come home) and packing. I plan to drop the handmade gifts off at my brother's later on, and this evening we're getting together with the Mister's brother and his family to do our gift exchange. Tomorrow we'll be up at what I'm now referring to as "OMG o'clock" to get the airport for our 6:45 a.m. flight. It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 81ºF in Naples tomorrow!

I have to share one gift I received from the Mister for Chanukah that I think you will all appreciate:

This can sit on my bookshelf and I can update the number as I finish books. It felt pretty fun to be able to start with a big number, but of course it'll all reset come January 1.

My knitting for vacation is mostly set, though I'll have to wind a lot of yarn today. I'm taking supplies for two design projects (both colorwork cowls, one using mini skeins), a hat for me, and a pair of socks for my mother. I figure if I finish all of that, I'll go to the local Michaels and get some kitchen cotton for dishcloths.

And that's where I'm going to leave things for now, because I've got a lot of things to get done today and I need to go to bed early! I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll be back on Monday with a full wrapup of the holiday knitting and perhaps some shots of sunny Florida.

Another Sweaty Weekend

It was another weekend -- another hot weekend -- here, though this weekend we actually had a bit of rain!  I'd been hoping for a good thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, which did not materialize, but we did get a couple of good soaking rains. Still a drop in the bucket as far as our deficit is concerned, but I'll take it!

We ended up going out to dinner with my parents on Friday night to a new-to-us place that we all agreed was a place we'd go back to. Saturday Molly worked, the Mister rode his bike, and I managed to go for a 6+-mile walk (in addition to my regular walks with Ruthie). I made a chocolate zucchini cake (from this cookbook) using the two zucchinis I managed to harvest from my plants before the heat killed them. Ruthie took naps -- and apparently had some interesting dreams:

I finished an ebook and an audiobook and pondered which of these variegated skeins to use with the light green semisolid for a new shawl (Ravelry link):

I was up both mornings a little earlier than I'd like, but I slept well and managed a brief nap both days, so I can't complain. The only cooking I had to do all weekend was make a salad to go with pizza on Saturday night and prep some potatoes and asparagus for the oven last night. As weekends go, it was a pretty good one! And now it's back to the usual. It's Molly's last week of summer break, and in addition to working two shifts this week, she's got to finish her summer reading assignment, which happens to be what might be my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. It looks like it's going to be a little cooler this week, so maybe it'll be less sweaty than it has been. There are already leaves drying up and falling in the neighborhood, so fall is on the way!

Unraveled, Week 22/2025

It feels weird that it's already Wednesday; I've once again been thrown off by a long weekend and another one coming up (I'm taking Friday off because I'd reached my maximum on accrued time off, so I needed to take a day or I couldn't earn more). But it is Wednesday, which means it's time to join Kat and the Unravelers, this time with FOs!

I'd have liked to have modeled this first one for you, but I did not have light and another photographer in the house at the same time, and we all know I'm not great at selfies.

Pattern: Zuzu's Petals (Ravelry link) by Carina Spencer, using instructions for Gauge 1/Fingering
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm
Yarn: handspun Rambouillet/mohair/CVM/tussah silk/silk noil, approximately 77 g/188 yds. used
Started/Completed: May 13/May 21

This was a surprisingly fast knit, given that I was really only working on it during Ruthie's afternoon naps (which, on a good day, might be two hours long). Although my yarn was more in the sport to DK range, I followed the instructions for the fingering weight version and used bigger needles to use up as much yarn as possible. I did get a bit into the green in the skein at the edging -- maybe not as much as I wanted, but enough to make me happy. There's about 100 yards of yarn left and no plan for it, though I would expect I could combine it with some other handspun bits and bobs to make something.

Though I don't have a photo yet (because blocking is happening), I also finished my Sugar Maple tee yesterday afternoon! It was a long bind-off in twisted ribbing that took most of nap time, and it's satisfying that I finished well ahead of the end of the month so I'm not in a rush this weekend.

Because I knew I would finish the sweater at some point in the day yesterday, I also took some time to wind yarn for my next cast-on. I'm going to be knitting another summer top. It's not for the SSK knitalong, but it is using yarn that I bought at the last one I attended (back in 2023).

This is Miss Babs Damask, a really interesting blend of silk and bleached linen. I bought the two skeins with another sleeveless summer top in mind, but I'm going to be using for this one (Ravelry link) instead, provided I can get gauge. Swatching is in progress. If it doesn't work, I'll go back to the original plan (Ravelry link).

Reading time has been more plentiful this past week, though the books I've finished have been a mixed bag.

First, after a long wait, I got Onyx Storm from the library. This is the third book in the series, and I really only decided to read it to see what would happen with the cliffhanger at the end of book two and because Katie had read it. This is one I easily could have DNF'ed, but I decided to finish it just in case something happened at the end. Well, there was another cliffhanger, and aside from one other development, that's about all that happened. I couldn't tell if it was the writing/writer or the fact that it had been more than a year since I read the last book, but I had a really hard time remembering who everyone was and what had happened previously, which meant I was confused for a lot of the book. On top of that, it seemed like a lot was going on without anything actually happening, if that makes sense. I gave it 2.5 stars, rounded down. I doubt I'll be continuing with the series unless a reader I trust tells me I need to read the last two books (though in that case I'd probably have to start over and read the whole series so I remember what happened).

I made quick work of an audiobook from the library, All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum and Me. This memoir tells of the author's time as a security job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a job he took when his older brother was battling cancer. The book doesn't really follow a timeline but rather is a series of vignettes about the author's experiences with visitors, his friendships with other guards, and his reflections on the art he sees every day. I think that perhaps there's something lost in reading this on audio, as I think the print version might contain images of the works he references. I did look up a few, but mostly I was listening while walking, so it wasn't always convenient to get out my phone and search. It did, however, make me want to visit the Met and see all the amazing works of art they have there, and the several hours I spent listening to someone talk about art were quite pleasant. I gave it 3 stars.

Finally, a book that was very good but also very hard to read. Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, and I've been wanting to read some of her work. I have her most recent novel on hold at the library [EDIT: We Do Not Part is a Kindle daily deal today, if you're interestested], but in the interim I read Human Acts, a short novel full of utterly devastating things. This book is based on the events and aftereffects of the Gwangju uprising in South Korea in May 1980 in which citizens protesting against a military coup were brutally massacred. The book is told in multiple points of view over different time periods, ranging from a young boy who was killed to those who were there with him that day but survived to his mother, years later, trying to find meaning in his death. This isn't a book for the faint of heart, but if you're willing to read it, it raises some very important questions about the value of human life and what causes people to harm versus help others. It's really masterfully written and impactful for being only a little more than 200 pages. I'm looking forward to reading more by Kang in the future. I gave this one 4 stars.

I'm currently reading two books. First, I've returned to Mercury, which I started almost a month ago but wasn't in the right mindset for at the time, so I've largely ignored it until now. I'm more than halfway through and am hoping to finish it up by the end of week. I'm also reading a digital ARC from NetGalley, The Homemade God, based upon Bonny's recommendation. I'd been preapproved for it and was mulling it over but finally decided to read it based upon her say so, and I'm glad I did, because the few chapters I've gotten through so far have been good.

I'll leave you with a Ruthie photo, because I can't seem to post without one anymore! This is a still from a video the Mister took in an effort to capture her response to him, and I think it gives you a really idea what this pup is like when she's awake and ready to play.

Happy hump day, friends!

A Change in Plans

I'm always happy to see Friday come around again, but I'm especially happy today. It's been a tiring week. Remember how I told you that commencement lists were due? One of them was 46 pages long. That's 46 pages of names that I had to make sure were in alphabetical order. It's not hard, but it is rather mind numbing. I'm very happy that's done with for another year and I won't have to do it again until the fall, when we put together the December commencement program.

Thank you for all the compliments on my wee chicken! I'm most definitely contemplating another one, at some point, at a tighter gauge. I like the size, but I can also see the stuffing through the fabric a bit. Plus I'm thinking of how to add some stitches to make seaming easier. And I'll definitely be rewriting the pattern before I use it again because even the third time through, there were certain ways the instructions were worded that tripped me up.

While I didn't have a list or a definite idea of what I was going to cast on next, my acceptance to SSK* has caused me to shift my plans a bit, at least for the next month or so. One of the signature perks of the event is that they always have a ton of door prizes. You can win prizes by putting tickets in for the items you're interested in, and you can earn extra tickets for things like participating in knitalongs/makealongs prior to the event and earn more for using yarn from vendors or handspun. At least since I've been attending, the patterns you can make are ones designed by the teachers at that year's events, with one featured for a set length of time leading up to the retreat. Through the end of March, the featured designer is Rosemary "Romi" Hill. I knew I didn't have much time to make anything, so I went for small projects.

This is the washcloth from Romi's Silvermist Bath Set (Ravelry link). I made two to ensure I had used at least 100 yards (you get one ticket for every 100 yards you use), and the red/purple one is handspun -- it's cotton from HipStrings! It was actually the very first -- and, to date, only -- cotton I've spun, and it's very uneven and highly textured, but I think it works quite well for a washcloth. The white (which is plain-old Sugar 'n Cream) shows the pattern better, obviously.

Starting April 1, the featured designer is Carina Spencer (Ravelry link), and I'm planning to knit two of her patterns. First is a top I've wanted to make for a while, Sugar Maple (Ravelry link). I pulled these two skeins of handspun to use:

Both are from Southern Cross Fibre. The one on the left is a blend of superfine merino and silk; the one on the right is merino and rose fiber. Both feel smooth and cool to the touch, so I think they'll be good for a tee. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to stripe them or start with one and fade into the other. I'm open to ideas! I'll likely wind these up and start swatching this weekend so I'll be ready to cast on next week.

I'm also going to make another Zuzu's Petals (Ravelry link) -- I made one years ago -- using this yarn that I spun from batts I won at SSK in 2023, bringing it full circle:

We have a fairly quiet weekend ahead, with a bar mitzvah to attend tomorrow (the son of one of the Mister's high school friends) and our usual family dinner on Sunday. I'm hoping to get some dedicated reading time in this weekend, given how little there has been during the week. And it's supposed to get warmer, after we had another cold snap and even some snow flurries this week, so perhaps I'll get out to walk.

I hope you have a great weekend, whatever you have planned, and I'll see you back here on Monday with my One Little Word reflection for the month (I can't believe how March has flown by)!

*Pam's comment on Monday reminded me that not everyone knows the acronyms I tend to throw around and I should probably explain. SSK stands for Super Summer Knitogether. It's an annual fiber arts retreat in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Leslie and Laura of TheKnitGirllls. This will be my third year attending; I previously went in 2017 and 2023.

A Week with Two Wednesdays?

It's Monday, but it's also kind of Wednesday for me because I'm taking this Thursday and Friday off (when I went to check my time off accruals last week, I found I had reached the maximum on my vacation time, so I can't earn any more unless I use some). If, given a three-day week, this Wednesday is my Friday, then this Monday is my Wednesday, right?

We had a very relaxing weekend, I think in part because Molly is now on spring break for a couple of weeks, so we didn't have much of a sense of urgency. And the weather was pretty crummy both days, with rain on and off and even a brief hailstorm on Sunday! The Mister and I had to go to the bank to sign some documents on Saturday morning, and then Molly and I went to Costco (yes, I know, but we were in and out in less than an hour, if you can believe it!). We stayed in on Saturday night, had snacks for dinner, and watched 50 First Dates, and yesterday we had dinner with my parents, my brother, and his family. This morning I'll be going back and forth to campus to go see my doctor for my annual physical and then to donate blood. But it will be nice not to have to do the school pickup in the afternoon! Molly does have to write a research paper for history over break, but she's also making sure to catch up on her sleep and get plenty of down time.

I did a fair amount of knitting over the weekend and so am more than 50% done with my sister-in-law's socks:

The heel on the completed sock looks a little wonky, but I think that's just because it was folded up in my project bag and I didn't really smooth it out when I put it down to take this photo. These are just my usual vanilla sock recipe -- 68 stitches, heel flap and gusset, wedge toe. They're exactly the same as the socks I make for myself, just shorter (her feet are a 3/4" shorter than mine!). I'm well on my way on the second sock, so these should be finished soon and then will be washed and put away for later in the year.

I'll admit I was feeling a little bored with just the one project going, so I started a new spinning project. I pulled out another braid of FatCatKnits fiber from years ago but wasn't sure how to spin it, so I posted a photo of it on Instagram with a poll. Overwhelmingly the votes were in favor of a fractal, so I split it up exactly as I did the last spin -- one bobbin in two strips, one bobbin in four. I finished the first bobbin yesterday afternoon.

The fiber base this time is superwash Targhee, which will plump up a bit when washed, but all the same I am spinning my singles a little finer than the last time and aiming for two-ply fingering. We'll see what happens.

And should I get bored with the sock knitting, I've already decided what to cast on next, using this yarn:

If the yarn on the right looks familiar, it's because it's the leftovers from Molly's socks. I thought it would be perfect for a chicken. Yes, you read that correctly! I think my niece needs her own Emotional Support Chicken, but she's only four months old, so I'm making a little one. I pulled out some happy mini skeins that I can use for contrast, and I think a little chick can easily be finished in time for Passover/Easter, don't you think? I've really been enjoying using up as much yarn as I can when I pull a skein out of the stash, so I'll be happy to use the remainder of Molly's skein for something else.

I hope your week is off to a good start. See you back here for the real Wednesday!

Bring On All the Tea

I suspect many of us are dragging this Monday morning, though unlike many people, I am not tired because I stayed up watching the Super Bowl. I turned it off after the halftime show and opted to read until bed instead, but the Mister was up at 3:15 to catch a 6:30 flight -- and because he had to get up so early, he went to bed early, which meant the nighttime "symphony" of snoring started early. Fortunately, I'll get a break from that soundtrack tonight, so if I'm dragging a bit today, I can catch up on the sleep later on.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts last week. I felt better on Friday but then had a terrible reflux attack on Saturday morning, so I am off coffee for the time being (hence all the tea). I had thought I was handling the general state of the world well, but apparently that was not the case. For the time being, I'm off coffee and alcohol and anything else that's really acidic or spicy. It makes for a boring diet, but I'll take boring if it means not feeling sick.

Partly because of the reflux and partly because it was just gloomy winter, it was a quiet weekend. I did get out for a walk, my first one in a while, on Saturday morning before wet weather moved in by the afternoon (we actually had a thunderstorm!). I spent most of the weekend knitting hats and reading, and I've just about gotten this multi-stranded hat thing out of my system.

I've got one last blue hat on the needles that I'm trying to finish up today and then I will take a break from this particular hat for a while. Six hats in about a week isn't bad, though! They were just the right break, but now I'm ready to start some new projects, which today will require winding some yarn.

This is a terrible photo (it's very overcast here today, as per usual for winter), but those two skeins on the left are handspun that I'm planning to use for an All Season Vest (Ravelry link). Of course, I've got to swatch to see if it'll work because the pattern calls for DK or worsted and this yarn is probably sport to DK. I may need to carry along a strand of laceweight to get gauge, but we'll see. The skein on the right is for some socks for Molly, at her request. I also just got approved to test knit a hat for Kerri Blumer, so I'll be digging in my stash today for something for that. I guess I'm not entirely done with hats!

I hope your Monday treats you kindly! See you back here on Wednesday.

So Much to Do, So Little Time

Happy Friday, friends! It's my last day of work for the year and also Molly's last day at school (technically; she has a noon dismissal and they're doing nothing but fun stuff today, so it hardly seems like it counts). I have a very long to-do list today, at the top of which is packing! I also would like to finish this hat before we leave, which seems possible, as I have something like eight rounds left:

This is a charity hat and not a holiday gift, so it would be a huge issue to take it with us, but it seems a shame to take up space in my luggage when it'd be done so soon. And that's why I'm highly motivated to get it done today.

While there's still most of my packing to do, I have at least figured out my knitting. I almost always overpack on the yarn options, so I'm trying to keep it simple this year. I'm taking the socks that are in progress (I just have the second sock to finish) and another skein of fingering for a hat that I can knit while we're at the movies or out and about. And I'm taking yarn to start a new sweater:

This is handspun Polwarth from an older Southern Cross Fibre club shipment called Plot Twist. Fittingly, I'm going to be using it for a pattern called Polwarth. As you can see, I knit a generous swatch, and while I didn't get gauge exactly, I'm close enough that it will work just fine (I'm off by one stitch over four inches, which means my sweater will be just slightly roomier). I used just one skein for my swatch, but I plan to alternate skeins when I knit the sweater so that I don't get such concentrated blocks of color. I still expect the knitting to be a bit busy, which is precisely why I chose a fairly simple pattern. So we'll see how much sweater I get knit in a couple of weeks -- and if I somehow run out of yarn, we did discover a yarn store not too far away from my parents' house!

Tonight we're having dinner with my brother's family so we can take their gifts to them before we leave, and I might have to insist that they open their hand-knit gifts just so I can see my nephew's reaction at his gnome. The Mister took our gifts to his brother's family the other night (Molly and I stayed home because she had homework she needed to finish) and he FaceTimed us while our nephews were opening them. They were both very enthusiastic about everything, including the hats I made them:

Those smiles make it all worth it!

I hope you all have a good end to your week, and don't forget that tomorrow is the Winter Solstice -- which means that starting Sunday, the days start to get longer again!

All Things Blue

I've noticed it recently, so perhaps you have, too? Lately all my projects seem to be in the same color family. I was even about to start a new spinning project but realized the fiber I'd pick out was -- you guessed it! -- blue. I might need an intervention. The good news is that the sky has turned blue again, after several days of clouds and rain and colder temps. We had a frost advisory overnight, but it's supposed to get back up into the 70s this weekend and into early next week. I don't mind the cooler temperatures, but I'm happy to see the sun again!

My handspun sweater has continued to get a little attention every night, and though it grew quickly at the beginning, I'm now getting close to 300 stitches and the rounds are taking a bit more time. I have one more increase round to do before I work to a certain length and then do some raglan increases, and my knitting is officially big enough to comfortably stretch around a 40-inch circular needle.

My mother-in-law's socks are very close to being finished -- in fact, I'm hoping I can finish them up this morning when I take Molly to an orthodontist appointment! And while I'm planning to cast on that design pair soon, I've also been thinking about starting a gnome for my brother for this year's Chanukah gift. I have never managed to do one of Sarah Schira's mystery gnomes while it is a mystery, but I have several times bought the pattern after I've seen FOs, and that was the case with the most recent one (Ravelry link). I found an old 50 g skein of Knit Picks Gloss from a long time ago that I'm planning to use for the body and legs, but I'm debating which self-striping to use for the hat and socks. Thoughts?

The skein on the right has some University of Michigan vibes going for it, but it's also pretty dark and subdued, so I'm leaning toward the skein on the left -- though I also really liked that colorway and kind of wanted it for socks for me (but I think I could make some shortie socks with the leftovers and a mini skein or two). Really I could be convinced either way, though the left skein is certainly less blue!

We are headed into a much calmer weekend than the last one. Molly is off from school today while parent/teacher conferences happen, and after her appointment, I think she's going to try to get all her homework done so she can forget about it for a couple of days. Saturday evening is the homecoming dance at her school, which she's going to with a girlfriend from her class, and the Mister and I are having dinner out while she's there. And the only thing I have on the schedule on Sunday, assuming everyone can still make it, is a get-together with my mah-jongg group before one of our members moves (temporarily) to Sweden with her husband. I'm thinking it'll be a good weekend to bake some fall treats -- perhaps some apple cider donuts, seeing as I will not be getting the real thing at Rhinebeck -- catch up on sleep, do some reading, and perhaps cast on some new projects. Here's hoping your weekend is similarly full of good things!

A Soggy End to the Week

TGIF! It's been a long, wet week. We've had some pretty extensive flooding in the area, including at the Point (the tip of the triangle where the Allegheny and the Monongahela converge to form the Ohio River). This video from one of our local stations shows how the water is covering the entirety of the fountain. Yesterday we had a brief break in the rain and even a bit of sun, allowing me to get out for a walk, but the rain soon returned and we even had some hail/graupel in the afternoon! It's been cold again and I'm back to wearing sweaters and hand-knit socks. It's not unusual for us to have multiple "false springs" in this part of the world, but after having several days in the 70s in February, it feels rather cruel.

I am making the best of the situation. I haven't been able to get outside to work out other than my walk yesterday, but given that I just donated blood on Tuesday, any run I would have taken likely would have been extra hard. And being stuck in the house means I'm getting things done in between work tasks -- and getting a fair amount of knitting done. My Bereket is moving along at a good clip; I think being more familiar with the stitch pattern and the decreases are combining to make the second pattern section go a lot faster than the first.

I'm really trying to stay focused on this project, but I've already pulled out some yarns for my next cast-on. Do these colors say chicken to you?

What about these?

By chicken, I'm of course referring to the hot knitting pattern of the moment, the Emotional Support Chicken. I had already bought the pattern for myself as a birthday present but then learned that my youngest nephew is currently obsessed with chickens. His first birthday is coming up on May 1 and I wasn't sure what to make him as a gift, but now I know exactly what to make. I'm going to be using the yarns in the first photo, all of them Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton leftover from the doll I made for Mo many years ago. I figured cotton was a good choice for a baby gift, and it always makes me happy to use up leftovers, particularly leftovers that have been in my stash for a decade. The yarns I've selected for mine are a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works Cozy OOAK that I recently won and some HipStrings Buoy DK leftover from a sweater. Apparently knitting one of these chickens often leads to knitting many of them, but I'll start with these two.

This weekend should be a quieter/calmer one than last. We're having dinner with my parents tonight; they came home from Florida earlier in the week and are babysitting my nephew this weekend while my brother and sister-in-law are taking a quick trip. I'm planning on a trip to Costco and will have the usual cleaning to do but otherwise hope to catch up on sleep and reading. I'll leave you with a photo of my permanent veneer, which was installed (is that the right term for it?) on Tuesday morning and looks so much more like my actual tooth that I ever expected!

Have a great weekend!

Unraveled, Week 10/2024

We've had a beautiful start to this first full week of March, with decidedly lamb-like weather (sunny and in the low 70s!). I'm worried we'll get another taste of winter this weekend, but for now I'm enjoying seeing things bloom and green up.

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to check in with Kat and the Unravelers. This week, my primary project has been Mo's neon striped socks, which are nearing completion:

It's nearly impossible to work on these and not feel cheered by the bright colors, and I'm almost hoping she outgrows these quickly so I can inherit them!

I also wound some handspun to start swatching for what I hope will be my next sweater (Ravelry link):

This is woolen-spun Rambouillet from half a fleece that I bought at my second, I think, Maryland Sheep and Wool and sent off to a mill to be processed. I hope this photo gives you a sense of how soft and sproingy it is. I have *just enough* yardage for the smallest size of the sweater, so keep your fingers crossed that I can get gauge!

While reading has been good this past week, I've only finished two books that were relatively short -- but it's about quality over quantity, right?

I purchased a Kindle copy of Rough Sleepers recently when it was a daily deal and wanted to read it now because Tracy Kidder is this month's speaker in the series I'm subscribed to. Even though it deals with difficult subject matter, it was an easy read, which I suppose speaks to the skill of the writer. This book is largely about Jim O'Connell, a Boston physician who has dedicated his career to helping the unhoused. But in giving the complete picture, this book also shows how easy it can be to become unhoused and how difficult it can be to get out of it. The so-called "rough sleepers" referred to in the title are those who more often than not are sleeping on the streets in all weather, often for years or decades, and who faced unimaginable obstacles health and housing. While it brings a strong sense of humanity to the individuals who are profiled, it also shines a light on the bureaucracies and systems that stand in the way of housing all people. If you enjoyed Poverty, by America, this would be an excellent next read. I gave it 4 stars.

I can't remember where I heard about Plunder, but I picked it to read next on audio because it was the first book in my Libby "to read" list that was available without a wait. It's very difficult to describe this book. It's a memoir, certainly, about the author's efforts to reclaim property in Poland that belonged to his grandfather's family, nearly all of whom were murdered in the Holocaust, but it's also about treasure hunting, about myth versus memory, and about the occasional absurdity in the process (such as the author's struggles to have his great-grandparents declared dead without any definitive evidence that they were killed, even though they'd be something like 140 years old if they were still living). I was grateful that I listened to this book, both for the pronunciation of Polish and because it's kind of meandering; some reviewers have noted that editing was sorely needed. That said, I saw some distinct parallels between the author's detailed history of those who search for buried Nazi treasure and his own search for information on his grandfather's family and their former home. There's a lot of complicated thought about what we believe and why, whether it's related to the myth of a gold train that the Nazis hid in a mined mountain or the story of how a distant relative escaped from a concentration camp near the end of the war. This is a book that will make you think hard and might leave you feeling things are unresolved, but I found it to be really well done. I gave it 4 stars as well.

I am currently reading A Little Life, which I have been meaning to read for a long time and which I am completely savoring, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is my mostly mindless bedtime reading.

Finally, at Carole's request, here is a selfie with my much-improved smile:

This isn't final -- what I have now is just a temporary, but I'll go back at the beginning of April for the permanent veneer, which should be a better match and look more like the original tooth. I'm obviously feeling much better about things now, though!

Figuring Out What's Next

Good morning, friends! I'll admit I'm a little bleary this morning after a not-great night of sleeping (first there was snoring, then there were loud neighbors outside very early), but I've got a big mug of coffee with my second cup in it and am as ready as I can be to start a new week.

I ended up spending quite a lot of the weekend cleaning and organizing. My closet was the main target. For too many years, I'd been shoving stuff into the back corner -- things that needed to be dry cleaned or hand washed or given away -- and I promptly forgot about them. It was like a black hole. But aside from the fact that I couldn't see what was in there, I also knew that I'd had some issues with m*ths and knew there were some (store-bought) sweaters in there that I didn't want to continue to attract the buggers. I've also been on a ThredUP kick lately and have been trying to clear out clothes I no longer wear or that no longer fits. I did find several sweaters that had been eaten and general yuckiness. But I also pulled everything out off the floor of the closet, vacuumed, and reorganized. Now I can see everything that's in there, I've got a box ready to send off, two bags went to textile recycling, and I have a pile of things to hand wash before I decide if they will stay or go.

That clean-out was badly needed, but because I was so focused on that, I didn't spend as much time as I'd hoped on crafting or on deciding what to cast on next. I did, however, pull out several options for sweaters, so now I just have to make a decision. Here are the options:

Sorry for not taking them out of the bags, but I'm being extra careful given what I found in the closet yesterday. These are all sweater possibilities -- four of the five options are handspun, and I have patterns in mind for all but one of them. I just have to decide how mindless or mindful of a knit I want to do next.

In the meantime, I did find time to ply a skein of handspun this weekend:

This is Island Sunset on grey Merino from Southern Cross Fibre (the grey base is what gives the color that tweedy look). I chain-plied it and ended up with approximately 438 yards of fingering. And I love this! I have no idea what I'll do with it, but this seems to want to become a shawl of some sort -- at some point.

The first order of business for today, however, is going to the dentist to get my tooth fixed! Then I hope to get out for a run because it's sunny and beautiful outside and we might match or even break a record high today! Oh, and of course there's work, which I suppose is important, too.

Have a good one, friends!

Still Weekending

Good morning, friends, and happy Labor Day to those of you in the United States! It's a day off for all of us, but I still got up at my usual time this morning, in part because it's supposed to be HOT later and I want to get my run in before then, but it's also nice to have a little quiet time to myself while everyone else sleeps in.

The weekend has been quite relaxing, and we had a delicious anniversary dinner on Saturday night. We were surprised to see an envelope on our table when we were seated; my parents were apparently quite sneaky and went to the restaurant ahead of time and left us a gift card for our dinner. My mother joked in the card that because Hallmark stops specifying the traditional anniversary gifts every year after 15, she decided that the gift for the 16th anniversary should be dinner! It was such a lovely and unexpected surprise. Yesterday Mo and the Mister went to the pool in the afternoon, so I went for a long walk and then had some quiet time to myself. And today, after I run, Mo and I are headed to play mahjongg with my group, and then we're grilling hot dogs for dinner. I plan on hiding from the heat inside with a book and my wheel.

Speaking of spinning, I set the twist on my most recent skein on Friday morning, and the humidity was low enough at the time that I could put it out on the porch to dry. I ended up with about 435 yards of two-ply fingering to sport.

I spun this as a two-ply fractal, meaning I split the fiber in half lengthwise and then split one of the halves in half again. The idea is that the colors go in the same order in both plies, but they change faster in one ply than the other. There are areas where the colors coincide and areas where there is a lot of barberpoling, giving this a lot of interest. I'm really happy with it. And I've already started on the next spin, using bag of fiber #24!

I know this doesn't look very exciting, but I hope you can see how much depth there is to this gray. The colorway is Maple Fantasy, and it was dyed on grey merino, so the base fiber was already multicolored. This colorway reminds me a lot of a cozy flannel shirt, and it definitely screamed fall to me. I decided to keep things a bit simpler for color handling in this one, so I split the fiber in half lengthwise and am spinning the two halves in order so I can chain-ply the singles and preserve the colors. I'm almost done with the first half. Because when I complete this skein, I'll also have completed my doubled-down goal of spinning up 24 bags of fiber this year and have plenty of time left, I'm going to increase my goal again, this time to spin up the remaining shipments from 2022 (there are five more after this bag, I believe).

I also did a little yarn prep this weekend. I'm anxiously awaiting the start of the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party this coming Thursday, and while I can't cast anything on just yet, I can get my yarn ready. I had bought a sweater set from Fibernymph Dye Works a few years ago that I've since realized isn't really in my colors, so I'm using it for other purposes. It contained six skeins of DK, five semisolids in a gradient and one variegated skein. I wound them all up on Saturday.

I plan to use the gradient skeins for a corner-to-corner crochet blanket and the variegated skein for a charity hat (or hats, depending on how far the skein goes). I will likely also use the variegated skein to crochet a swatch and do some math so I can figure out how big I can make my blanket -- I'd like to make it a rectangle rather than a square, which requires a bit more advance planning. I'm going to crochet a small square and weigh it to figure out what total area I can crochet with the amount of yarn I have, and from there I can figure out what dimensions my blanket can be. I still maintain that much of what I learned in math class, despite what my teachers told me, is entirely useless to me in my adult life, but a little basic algebra regularly comes in handy!

I hope if you're off today, you have something fun planned -- and something to keep you cool if it's also going to be hot where you are!