Hello, Summer

It's a muggy, foggy Friday morning here. We've had several days of heat (mid- to upper 80s F), and we had some rain overnight, with more on the way later today. I should be able to fit in a run this morning, but I will be happy to camp out inside this afternoon if we do get a storm or two. The short stretch of days we had without rain and with the addition of heat was enough to dry out the soil in the front, so I'm always thankful when Mother Nature takes care of watering the flowers for me.

It has been an interesting first week of summer break (for Molly). She started her job this week with two four-hour shifts. On Tuesday, it was just her and the owner there, so she manned the register while he did the actual smoothie making. Yesterday there was a third person there, so she got to do some fruit prep. So far, she's enjoying it, and I'm enjoying the fact that she's getting up and out of the house. I think it will be a good experience for her.

I've had a relatively quiet week at work (no complaints there), though Ruthie has been challenging. Her latest is jumping up on the couch, where we haven't allowed her, so it's been really hard for me to sit down and eat a meal because I'm constantly getting up to shoo her off the furniture. She's also peed in the house twice in the last 12 hours for no apparent reason -- except maybe she's showing her annoyance? She has her first session of puppy kindergarten tomorrow morning. Please keep your fingers crossed that she makes it there without getting carsick! (I'll be giving her only a very small amount of breakfast before we go.)

While I haven't cast on my silk/linen top yet, I did start a new project, and this photo shows you why I can really only knit around Ruthie while she's napping -- just a second after I snapped it, she chomped down on the yarn cake and tried to carry it away.

This is another project for SSK. The featured designer for this month and next is Angela Tong, and I just happened to have her Kouyou (Ravelry link) shawl pattern already in my library from a knitalong my former LYS did way back in 2016. I'm using handspun from HipStrings for bonus tickets, starting with the blue/green skein:

I expect that I will use all of that skein and then will use the dark gray from the other skein. I'm just about done with the stockinette portion (I think I have two more rows left to knit), so it will be moved to evening knitting and I'll be getting my Hitchhiker out again for puppy nap knitting time.

Other than puppy class tomorrow morning, we don't have much planned this weekend, although on Sunday there is a big vote related to the future of our synagogue. For more than a year now, we've been involved in discussions with another congregation about the possibility of unifying into one new congregation. There's been a long process of looking at the many aspects of both organizations to look at areas of overlap and difference, the involvement of a consultant who specializes in this kind of process, and many meetings and town halls. Just last week, the boards of both congregations voted in favor of unification; this weekend is the vote by the membership. Our family is in favor of the unification because we're of the opinion that the two separate congregations will not survive much longer on their own. I think declining membership and declining interest in religious affiliation are issues that aren't unique to Reform Judaism, but they are major challenges for us, and I'm excited by the possibility of created something new. I will certainly let you know the results as soon as we know them!

I hope you have something good to look forward to this weekend! Enjoy it, and see you back here on Monday.

Unraveled, Week 23/2025

You'd think after having a long weekend I'd be ready to take on the new week, but it's been dragging. I feel like it should already be Thursday -- maybe the fact that we've turned on summer and it's been hot has something to do with it? Or some of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires? In any case, it is only Wednesday, but also, yay, it's Wednesday! Time to join in with Kat and the Unravelers.

I managed to find a few minutes on Monday to block my linen/silk swatch, and it took almost no time at all to dry. And wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, my gauge is spot on!

I wish I could convey the drape of this fabric through the screen -- it's simply divine! Now I need to find some time when I'm fully caffeinated and not keeping an eye on the puppy to read through the pattern, highlight the numbers for my size, and cast on.

It's been another excellent week of reading, with three finishes.

I had started Mercury, a hardcover my mother passed along to me, back at the end of April. It didn't grab me right away (maybe the timing was off?), and in the meantime I was reading other things, but it was sitting on the coffee table in the family room where I spend my days with Ruthie, and eventually I got tired of seeing it there and picked it back up again. This is a story of a complicated family in a small (fictional) town outside of Pittsburgh. In the early '90s, high schooler Marley moves to town with her mother and gets swept up into the Joseph family, parents and their three sons who run a roofing company and whose personalities are so big they frequently clash with each other. Initially attracted to the oldest son, Marley soon finds herself pregnant and married to his just-younger brother and thrust into the middle of the family drama. When a roofing job leads to a shocking discovery years later, one in which all members are the family are implicated, everyone is forced to take a hard look at their relationships with one another. I found the story line and characters to be interesting, but I had a hard time figuring out how I felt about the book. On the one hand, I thought the author was telling me too much, but I simultaneously felt that there were times that there was something important I was supposed to intuit but just wasn't getting it. I'd say it was a decent read. I gave it 3 stars.

The other two finishes this week were read thanks to Bonny's recent recommendations.

Speaking of complicated families, The Homemade God follows the Kemp family -- self-taught painter Vic and his four adult children -- in the wake of Vic's announcement that he's marrying a much younger woman he's only recently met and his subsequent drowning near the family's vacation home in Italy. As the children deal with the sudden loss of their father, their only parent for much of their lives after their mother died when they were all young, they also confront the meaning their lives have taken on in the shadow of their father's huge personality, their relationships with one another, and the validity of their self-identities. Then there's their father's widow, an enigmatic artist who they've never met until now, and the mystery of what happened to their father's final painting, a piece he claimed would be his best work ever. The characters are beautifully and sometimes painfully written, and you might say that how this family fractures and frays is a piece of art in and of itself. If great writing and interesting characters aren't enough to convince you, there's also a fabulous Italian setting in a dilapidated estate and delicious food. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/The Dial Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published July 8, 2025.

"'You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.'"

Lily King's Heart the Lover was one of those rare books for me in that, while I was reading it, it seemed that the rest of the world fell away and I was so much in the moment that I'm sure I will be able to recall the specific day when I read it (and yes, I did read it in a day -- I started it just before bed on Sunday evening and finished it before bed on Monday). There are three main players in this book: the narrator and two men she meets in a creative writing class in college, Sam and Yash. They call her Jordan, after the character in The Great Gatsby. She begins dating Sam, but that relationship doesn't last the year, and when she decides to delay her graduation to pursue a thesis, she can't deny her growing attraction to Yash or his attraction to her. But there are romantic relationships and there are friendships, and when the two collide, things become even more complicated. Years later, all three have moved on and the narrator has achieved success as a published writer when Yash comes back into her life. And when tragic news brings all three back together, they are all forced to confront how they handled things decades ago. This is one of those books where not that much happens but the beauty is in the characters and how they interact with one another. The author does such a stunning job of looking at love, friendship, forgiveness, and personal growth. I'll admit I cried at the end. I gave it 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published October 7, 2025.

I'll end this with an obligatory puppy photo -- because I've heard several of you like them! Ruthie has been going to bed on her own the past couple of nights, which means I'm getting a little more time in the evening to myself. Yay!

It's June?

Good morning and happy Monday. Yesterday was the start of meteorological summer, but it doesn't feel like it. Both yesterday morning and this morning, I took Ruthie out for her first potty break of the day and needed a coat because it was in the mid-40s. Brrr! We're supposed to get some more summery weather the next several days, but it was downright chilly this weekend.

So, a catch-up: Friday ended up being a busy day off as well as a wet one. I took Ruthie in the car to pick Molly and her friend up from school and learned that she gets car sick. Oops! Fortunately I'd had the foresight to put a towel under her, so the car stayed clean. I'm hopeful that this is something she'll outgrow, but in the meantime, she will not be getting her usual breakfast before we go to puppy class in the weeks ahead. Once we were home, I went for a run (and recorded my fastest 5K yet since getting my Apple Watch, 27:28) and then spent the afternoon ferrying the girls around while they did some shopping. The three of us then went out to dinner with my parents to celebrate the successful conclusion of Molly's freshman year of high school -- and if you'll allow me to brag a bit, she finished with straight A's, including a pretty high A in physics! We're very proud.

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day. It was cool, overcast, and windy, so not a good day for being outside. I attended the first session of puppy class on my own, which was a lot of informational content about feeding, training, etc. Ruthie and I went for our usual walks, but she also took a long nap in the afternoon (as did the Mister!). That gave me some time to knit and read a good portion of a book. Yesterday was a bit busier. Molly and I finally got around to making the babka we'd been intending to make when the ovens died. We have yet to taste it yet, but it looks and smells pretty amazing. I expect we'll dig into it today, and I'll let you know the final verdict.

Recipe link!

The evening was a bit of chaos. My brother- and sister-in-law and nephews have been wanting to meet Ruthie, so we invited them over for dinner, and my in-laws just got back from more than a week in London, so they came as well. My nephews are 5 and 2, and my mother-in-law loves to get up close and personal with Ruthie, so it was a lot. She's been doing better about not peeing in the house now that I've realized I have to take her out right after she has dinner, but I think because of all the chaos, she was nervous and had an accident as I was literally putting on my shoes to take her out. It happens!

Not a ton of crafting got done over the weekend, but I did manage to finish up the swatch with the linen/silk yarn:

The color is way off and the lighting is terrible because I had to snap this photo this morning before the sun was fully up (the busy afternoon yesterday meant that I couldn't get this post ready to go ahead of time as I've been doing), but I think you can see how nice the fabric is. Today I'll measure and block and keep my fingers crossed I've got gauge.

It's a typical work day for me, but I won't have to do school pickup this afternoon and will have Molly around the house, which will be really nice. She starts her new job tomorrow! She's on the schedule for two four-hour shifts this week to start learning the job, and I think that will be a good way to ease into it. I'm looking forward to having her around but also not sitting in the house all day.

And with that, I'll wish you a good start to your week!

A Final Friday FO

Dear friends, can you believe it's the penultimate day of May? It really has not felt like May for the much of the month, between all the rain (more like what I'd expect from April) and some unseasonably cool temperatures (more like March). It looks like we'll be heading right into summer weather next week, though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much!

Today I have a long-awaited FO to share with you. This top was started before Ruthie joined the family and thus took a lot longer than anticipated to finish, but in the end it did get done and in plenty of time. What's more, I'm delighted with how it turned out!

Pattern: Sugar Maple (Ravelry link) by Carina Spencer, size 36 in. bust
Yarn: handspun from Southern Cross Fibre, Mending Fences (70% superfine New Zealand merino/30% mulberry silk), 74 g/350 yds./320 m used, and Primordial (80% organic merino/20% rose fiber), 78 g/384 yds./351 m used
Needles: US 3/3.25 mm
Started/Completed: April 3/May 27

Though the impetus for knitting this top now was for the SSK make-along, it's been on my radar for a while, and it turned out to be an excellent choice for these silky, drapey handspun yarns. The pattern was designed to use a long gradient, but I didn't have enough of either yarn to use just the one and in the end decided that two-round stripes were the best way to go. Once I figured out how to manage my yarn so that I didn't get gaping holes at the beginning of round, it was all good. I love that there are areas where there's high contrast between the two colorways and areas where it's hard to distinguish between them. Both have some similar shades, but they weren't necessarily complementary or coordinating colorways, so it tickles me how nicely they played together. I suppose that is a benefit of using yarn spun from two batches of fiber from the same dyer!

I followed the pattern as written, other than working in the stripes, and I thought it was pretty clever in how the sleeves are done so that there's no interruption in the yarn. Usually sleeve and body stitches are separated and sleeve edging is added later, but that would disrupt a gradient, so the ribbing on these sleeves is actually done while still working the yoke. On the round when the sleeve stitches are bound off, there's a fancy little decrease done to snug up the fabric under the arms. I was less impressed with how some parts of the pattern was written, but that may be down to my job and the fact that my brain is primed to edit any copy I read (let's just say some additional punctuation would not go to waste).

I likely could have knit a size smaller than I did, my bust not being as abundant as it once was, but I'm always wary of a top that I'm wearing directly on my skin being too tight. I wear shirts under all my cold weather knits and as a result rarely have to wash them. I don't want deodorant and body lotion and sweat gunking up my summer tops, so I generally make them a bit looser.

All in all, I'm really happy with this tee and even happier to have gotten it done even with a new puppy in the house! With knitting time being so limited these days, getting anything done is a bit of a minor miracle, so it's a relief to meet my deadline and end up with a pretty new top to boot. And while I'm still working on my swatch for the next summer top, I could not let all my needles sit around empty. I thought, "What would Bonny do?" and cast on a Hitchhiker.

This won't count toward the SSK make-along, but it is yarn that I bought the last time I attended when some friends and I took a side trip to Haus of Yarn. It's Old Rusted Chair Sock in a colorway called Panic in Detroit. I have no idea of the meaning of that name, but one of the friends I was with was from the suburban Detroit area and of course my father is originally from the Motor City, so it seemed perfect. And it's the perfect kind of colorway for a Hitchhiker, not to mention that the pattern is perfect for the almost-mindless knitting I do while Ruthie is napping in the afternoon.

I'm actually on vacation today (taking a day off so I can accrue more), and I'll get to have a little fun because it's Molly's last day of school for the year, though using "day" is a bit generous because she'll only be at school for two hours for an assembly and then I go pick her up. A friend is coming home with her, and I'll be driving them to do a little shopping this afternoon. Then we're going out to dinner with my parents this evening to celebrate the rising high school sophomore (gulp). The only thing on my calendar this weekend is the first class of puppy kindergarten tomorrow morning, though the first session is for owners only. I'm looking forward to getting some help with training and to Ruthie getting a little less scared around other people and other dogs!

I hope the month is wrapping up well for you and you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. See you back here in June!

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!

Less in 2025: May

It's the final Monday in May, Memorial Day here in the United States. So it's both a day off for my family and a day to reflect on my One Little Word. Thank you to Kat for hosting our monthly link-up this year!

Whereas Ruthie's arrival last month meant less of most things, in May things settled a bit into a new normal, and that's meant LESS of some of the not-so-great things of new pet ownership. For one thing,  this month I've noticed a lot LESS anxiety -- fewer moments of second-guessing whether adopting a pet was a good idea, less worry in general about doing the right thing with her, and generally less uncertainty. I think it goes without saying that the increase in confidence and comfort comes from time passing and experience. Just as Ruthie is getting more comfortable with us, we are all getting more used to her and what life is like with her. A huge help in this regard has been her ability to sleep through the night, which means that I'm back in my bedroom and have some time in my evenings back. And while there's still been the occasional inside accident, she's been doing great with her potty training.

Another big area of improvement has been LESS timidity on Ruthie's part. She's still very cautious around new people, but she's definitely been doing better, and I think a big help with that has been meeting other dogs (and their people) in the neighborhood. Remember Bagel the dog? His owner lives just down the street, and we've run into her with Bagel (and his 11-year-old deaf sister, Star) several times, and she invited us into her house one afternoon recently so the puppies could play for a while. That was a huge hit. Ruthie also regularly plays with several dogs on the next street over -- Dusty the mini Aussie (who's a month older than her) and Penny and Jake the Westies -- who we see most days on our walks. And of course she did a great job at my parents' last weekend and let both of my parents pet her a little this past Friday night, when they had us over for dinner. There's still a lot of work to do, but she's making progress. I think her puppy kindergarten class, which starts next weekend, will help her a lot.

On a more personal note, this month I marked one LESS blood donation toward my goal of six (the maximum possible in a year). I was worried about my hemoglobin being high enough because my iron was low when I had my recent bloodwork done, but I think it was likely because that was done not long after my last donation. My number was one of the highest I've recorded in my years of donating, so I needn't have worried. Another positive is that I noticed I needed LESS time to get back to my usual running after this donation; usually it takes me several weeks before I have my typical stamina back, but this time it took me only week before I was able to run a 5K (3.1 miles) without having to stop. 

What I don't think I anticipated when I picked LESS as my word this year is that there's an inherent reciprocal relationship with MORE. Less stress means more enjoyment, and that's certainly been very true this month. As I've had less worry and anxiety about having a dog, there's been more capacity for appreciating the fun and love that comes with having this new member of our family. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out the rest of the year.

What's the Date Again?

The calendar tells me that it's May 23, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, but it feels more like late October or November outside right now. We've had steady rain for the past couple of days, and it's gotten so chilly and damp that I turned the heat back on because the house was just too cold for comfort. It looks like we'll recover a bit this weekend, but I don't think anyone is going to be swimming anytime soon! Still, it's nice to have a long weekend to look forward to.

On my to-do list for the weekend is blocking my Zuzu's Petals, which I did manage to finish Wednesday afternoon. I hope you'll forgive this poorly lit, unblocked photo:

I didn't use as much of the green as I would have liked, but I did use some, and I like that it's just that bit at the edge. Because of the shape, this is going to be a bit tricky to block, especially because I want to stretch and pin it under tension to really open up the lace and get a bit more drape in the fabric, but I have a plan and hope it'll work.

Since finishing the cowl, I've been working exclusively on my Sugar Maple tee, even while Ruthie napped yesterday afternoon. It's looking more likely that I'll finish it by the end of the month, too. When I measured it last night before putting it away, I had just four inches left to knit on the body. I think I'm getting about an inch per eight-round repeat, so that's 32 more rounds or so (plus a handful more for the ribbing at the hem), and that seems entirely reasonable.

This weekend we have a bat mitzvah to attend, fortunately at our synagogue (so we'll be close if I need to leave to take Ruthie out). We're also hoping to get together with the Mister's aunt and uncle, who will be in town visiting some friends. We don't have any big plans for Memorial Day, which is just fine with me! I will enjoy just having a Monday off.

I hope you can enjoy the weekend, whatever you have planned, and I'll leave you with the very first of my hydrangea flowers starting to open:

I will see you back here on Monday for my One Little Word reflection for May. Have a good weekend, friends!

Unraveled, Week 21/2025

Hello and happy Wednesday! Time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers to give you an update on my making and my reading.

While I didn't have much knitting time over the weekend, Ruthie was very accommodating on Monday afternoon and took a good long nap, so I had time to do some knitting and reading while she snoozed (I may have joined her for a bit after running that morning). I've only been working on my Zuzu's Petals cowl around her because it's smaller and easier to shove in a bag if she thinks it might be a toy, but that's meant that I've made some good progress on it. I've only got about a dozen rounds of the chart left to work.

The lace is very intuitive, so much so that I've been able to work on this while reading (I just have to glance at the chart at the beginning of each round to get my bearings). It doesn't look all that great now, but I'll be blocking this aggressively when it's done to open up the lace pattern.

I'm also in the home stretch on my Sugar Maple tee. I've moved into the final section, which has an eight-round repeat with two increase rounds (one increases four stitches, the other two) for an A-line shape to the body. More stitches per round does mean more knitting, but this section is also less involved than the waist shaping section, so I think there will be fewer pauses to check to see where I am in the repeat. I am hopeful that I can finish this up by the end of the month so that I can count it for SSK and earn some door prize tickets.

After last week's book bonanza, things have slowed down a bit and I've only finished one this week, but at least it was a good one.

Wild Dark Shore is Charlotte McConaghy's latest "eco fiction" offering and, like her last two, has the same mysterious and tense atmosphere. As this book opens, a woman named Rowan has washed ashore on a remote island not far from Antarctica and is rescued by a family living there as caretakers. The island has been home to a research station and a seed bank, but climate change has caused both temperatures and sea levels to rise. The researchers have all left and the family -- Dominic Salt and his three children -- are preparing to do the same. Rowan is reticent about explaining why she is on the island, and the Salts seem to have their own secrets. Then there are the clues left behind on the island that raise their own questions: destroyed radios, freshly dug graves, and signs of potential sabotage. As the Salts work to leave this place behind and Rowan tries to uncover the story of what happened, they all have to wrestle with their own demons and decide whether they can trust each other. I listened to this book, which is told from multiple points of view and read by four different readers (very helpful in keeping the characters straight!). Although the island in the novel is fictional, it's based on real places and thus has a very powerful message about how climate change is having some very serious consequences for our future. I gave it 4 stars.

Part of the reason I have only finished the one book this week is because I finally got Onyx Storm from the library last week, and it's been taking me a long time to get through it. I'm committed to finishing it (I'm past the halfway point), but it's not been as engaging for me as the previous two books, I think in large part because it's been so long since I read the last one that I've forgotten a lot of details and characters. But this one also seems to be dragging quite a bit. I'll finish, but I may leave the series after this one. I'm not a big fantasy/romantasy reader, and I only started it for a change of pace, but if it's no longer entertaining me, I see no need to stick with it.

What are you making and reading this week? Here's your Ruthie photo tax payment for today:

Windy Weekending

Phew, that weekend flew by! And maybe part of the reason is that we had some crazy winds all day on Saturday -- enough that the weather picture on my Apple Watch was literally wind all day! Ruthie was delighted to see so many sticks on the ground yesterday morning; I was just relieved that our power didn't go out.

Ruthie did really well on Saturday night. It was her first time ever at my parents, so she was a little wary when we first arrived, but very quickly she was doing zoomies around the room with my brother's dog, and while she still kept me in her sights, she wasn't cowering next to me but rather explored a bit. My uncle was persistent with his attention (and treats), and by the end of the evening, she was letting him pet her, which is a big deal for her.

She also got some special treats in the form of a few bites of challah (courtesy of my mom) and even a bite of steak (courtesy of my brother). I thought she'd be exhausted after all that excitement, but when we got home, she was either wound up or had some indigestion because it took her a while to settle down for the night.

The baby naming yesterday was lovely. It was a beautiful day and we had a really nice group of family and friends. My niece was all smiles during the brief ceremony and then she passed out in Molly's arms (and shortly thereafter was handed off to me because she's getting heavy!).

Sunday afternoon was spent partly out in the garden, planting the impatiens and coleus from the plant sale, but I had Ruthie out there with me and she was getting impatient, so I didn't do the raised beds with the tomatoes and basil just yet. I hope to take care of those today after my run, before going back in the house to let her out of her crate. This year I'm doing the tomatoes and basil together in the primary raised bed and planting some zucchini seeds in the other one. I think last year the tomatoes kind of took over, so I only got a few small zucchini. I'm hoping planting them separately will yield a better harvest.

This week the schedule is back to normal, more or less, and because Molly has mini courses for the next two weeks, she won't have homework and will be less stressed out after school. I'm hoping that means she'll help me make dinner and maybe walk Ruthie!

Very little knitting got done this weekend, for good reason, so I will wait until my Wednesday post to share an update. Have a good start to your week, friends!

Bring On the Family

Greetings and happy Friday, friends! As we arrive at the end of the workweek, I've got myself one very relieved teen. I won't say the final exams were all easy, but she is mighty glad to be done with them (and appreciates your well wishes). It's been a stressful week and she's looking forward to having some fun with friends at Kennywood today, provided they don't get rained out. As for me, I'm working as usual (with breaks for walks), but I also have an appointment at the dermatologist this morning and am scheduled to give blood this afternoon, provided my iron is high enough.

Knitting is still happening in fits and starts here, and in fact I started a new project earlier this week after finishing up the socks.

It's a rather uninspiring photo, thanks to subpar lighting, but this is the start of a handspun Zuzu's Petals (Ravelry link). I knit one of these years ago and probably still have it somewhere, but I thought I'd make another for the SSK make-along (for door prize tickets!) and, if I don't feel a need to keep it, either put it away for a gift for someone or take it to SSK for their raffle to benefit the center where the retreat is held. It's been simple enough to work on while reading and while Ruthie naps, but I'm about to start the lace, so this will require some attention going forward. The yarn I'm using is a skein I spun last September from two batts that were a door prize at the last SSK I attended. They contained Rambouillet wool, mohair, tussah silk, and silk noil, so this yarn has a lovely sheen that's not at all captured in the photo. Although my yarn is probably in the sport to DK range, I'm following the instructions for the fingering weight version so that I'll use up as much as possible.

This weekend we'll be spending a lot of time with family for my niece's baby naming (her Hebrew naming, if you want to get technical). The naming and a brunch will be on Sunday morning, but we'll have a dinner on Saturday night with the whole family plus my aunt and uncle, who are coming in from Michigan. This is the aunt who taught me to knit! And my uncle we've been referring to as the dog whisperer of the family because, in retirement, he's been volunteering with a guide/service dog organization. We're hoping that he'll be able to work his magic with Ruthie, who is warming to some people but still barks at the Mister -- even after he gives her multiple treats! Dinner is at my parents', so we'll take her crate with us for her to go in if she's feeling scared.

Speaking of family, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got a dog DNA test to do for Ruthie, given that we only got "Jack Russell Terrier mix" from the rescue, and we got the results yesterday afternoon -- and they made me laugh!

That first breed is not a surprise, nor is the "supermutt" (which is basically a catch-all for a smattering of DNA from lots of different breeds that comes with being descended from lots of mixed-breed dogs, though they identified German Shepherd, Pit Bull, Rat Terrier, and Australian Cattle Dog as most likely among them). I did not expect Australian Shepherd to show up there! It's especially entertaining because one of her dog friends who we see on our walks is a mini Aussie who's about a month older than her. I think that dog's owners are going to be amused to hear these results! Also, they explain this a bit:

After a month, she's letting her wild and crazy flag fly!

I hope the weekend brings you some sunshine, some relaxation, and some time with friends and/or family. See you back on here on Monday!

Unraveled, Week 20/2025

Happy Wednesday, friends! We are having another soggy week after that beautiful weekend, so while I'm still outside a lot (in a raincoat), it feels like a good week to be inside with my books and my knitting. Time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers and give you an update!

I have an FO this week -- a finished pair of socks! They're obviously not blocked yet, but the knitting is done and the ends have been woven in. They won't be given to their recipient for more than a month, so there's plenty of time for blocking.

Thanks to the gloomy weather, the colors aren't quite right here; what looks like a dark purple is really more of a navy, and what looks like a navy is more of a dark teal. I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with this batch of Felici -- incidentally, they were the last two skeins in my stash -- because in addition to the badly tied knot, I also noticed a lot of white spots in some of the darker stripes where the yarn wasn't fully dyed. Oh well! I think my mother-in-law will like them just fine, and while I do have a fair amount of leftovers, it does feel good to use up a small part of the stash.

I've been continuing to work on my Sugar Maple tee in the evenings while we watch TV (Molly and I have returned to Season 3 of The West Wing and the Mister and I have finally gotten to the last episode of The Pitt), and I'm now in the middle of the decreases that form the waist shaping. Yesterday I decided to give it a try-on and also put it on Matilda, my dress form, for a progress photo while I was at it:

What you can't see here is how much shorter it is in the back because the shaping on the front causes the fabric to bias and thus elongate at that point. So while it may look like I'm almost done, there's still quite a bit to go because the length you need to reach before doing the ribbing and binding off on the body is measured on the back. That said, I'm feeling more confident that this will get done, especially if Ruthie keeps sleeping as well as she has!

I promised I would have book reviews this week and I do -- three of them!

Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane is probably a must-read for any fan of Jane Austen who wants to know more about the writer, her works, and the context in which her books were written. It's hard to categorize this book other than generally referring to it as nonfiction. It's part literary analysis and criticism, as the author (an academic who specializes in Austen) examines all of Jane's works of fiction for clues they might hold about their writer. It's part biography, giving background on Jane Austen's immediate family and her wider circle and speculating on her views about controversial subjects. And it's part cultural commentary, with examples of how Austen has influenced popular culture in ways she never could have imagined. Throughout, it's well researched and entertaining, and it most definitely challenges the notion that Jane Austen was a sheltered and mild-mannered woman with little life experience to influence her writing. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 2, 2025.

I suspect none of you who has already read it will be surprised that I've finished Nesting, the next Read With Us selection, and now I understand why some of you stayed up past your bedtimes to finish it. To say that this book was an easy read is a bit misleading because it deals with very difficult things, namely spousal emotional abuse and how difficult it is for women -- especially women with children -- to leave and start over. I thought the author did a phenomenal job of showing first how difficult it is to leave a partner who has completely isolated you from your family and friends and made it so that their voice drowns out your own thoughts and then, when you do manage to leave, how hard it is to access the resources you need to survive. I was rooting for Ciara the whole time, and my heart broke each time she faced another barrier. I gave it 5 stars.

Finally, if you're a fan of Shakespeare, I highly recommend Judi Dench's Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent. It's technically an audiobook, but it feels more like an audio documentary. Dench and her coauthor, Brendan O'Hea, go through the many Shakespeare plays that she has appeared in over the course of her career. They discuss the plays and the writing and the roles, but it's also a wonderful look back at her career, the many talented actors and directors she's worked with, and her personal life. I wasn't familiar with a number of the plays, but they do such a great job of summarizing the plots that it really doesn't matter. It's thoroughly entertaining. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm at one of those points where all my library holds have come in at once, so I had to delay another audiobook but have started Onyx Storm. I'm not very far in just yet, and honestly I'm not terribly excited about it right now, mainly because I can't really remember much of what happened in the last book. And I'm deciding whether to go back to a physical book I already started (but was a little bored by) or start a new one.

What are you making and reading this week?

How I Spent My Mother's Day Weekend

The reality of weekends with a puppy, might like weekends with a baby, is that they're not that much different from weekdays, though at least there is no work to be done or, as was the case for me, no dinners to cook. Aside from the 40ºF weather that greeted me first thing on Saturday, it was as perfect a spring weekend as I could hope for -- beautiful blue skies, warm sunshine, low humidity. Of course, that meant that the Mister disappeared on his bike for several hours both days, but it's not like I wasn't going to be stuck at home most of the time anyway!

I did get out for a walk on Saturday morning in order to run a couple of errands. I finally figured out how to log in to our library's online system so that I could put physical books on hold, and there was one ready for me to pick up, so I figured I'd walk there to get it (the main branch is about a mile and a half, maybe a little less from our house). It not only gave me some exercise, but it also gave me some amusement for the weekend -- this is how I spent much of the two weekend afternoons:

I was on a long wait list for Nesting in ebook format from the library and was worried I wouldn't get it in time for the Read With Us discussion, but the catalog showed there were physical copies available, including one at the main branch. The print is pretty large and the hardcover stays open well enough that I've been able to knit while reading, and as a result, I've gotten close to finishing the second sock of this pair and read more than 2/3 of the book! I expect it will end up taking me longer to find a time to return it to the library than it will to read it.

Yesterday we had a delicious brunch at my brother- and sister-in-law's though it was a bit of chaos -- lots of little kids running around! It was a good excuse to do my hair and makeup and feel like a real person for a change. Molly and I took our annual photo and it's crazy to see how quickly she's growing up:

It turns out that the plants/flowers we ordered don't come in until next weekend, so I did not spend my afternoon planting -- which is just as well, because it was rather hot out! Instead, I got to read and knit while Ruthie snoozed, and that's really a perfect afternoon for me.

Here is your requisite photo of the pupper:

This week Molly has finals (can you believe her freshman year is almost over?), so while it's going to be stressful, at least the hours she has to be are curtailed. She has two exams this morning and one each the next three days. Friday is a makeup day, but barring any circumstance that causes her to need it to make up an exam, she'll be spending it at our local amusement park with friends. It's ostensibly a trip related to physics class, but really it's just a fun excuse to go. She's found a few other girls who don't do rollercoasters, so she won't feel left out, and I'm sure she'll get her fill of junk food. Next she has two weeks of mini courses (purely for fun), and then she's done for the year on May 30. And soon she'll start her summer job at a neighborhood juice/smoothie place! I'm looking forward to having her around more and having a helping hand with Ruthie and in the kitchen.

I hope your weekend was restful and that you also got some sunshine and blue skies. See you back here on Wednesday, when I promise I will have at least one book review!

Week's End Wrap-up

Oh, I am very glad to see this Friday come! It's been a long week, largely because the Mister has been away at a conference and because I had to go into the office yesterday for a couple of meetings. Plus there's been the usual puppy stuff -- keeping a constant eye on her and taking her out for frequent potty breaks can be pretty exhausting! But there have been good moments, too, and I always like to end the week with good news, so here you go:

• I've managed to run twice this week and am hoping to make it my usual three times later this morning. I haven't been doing quite the same mileage as I used to, but I'm still covering about six miles per session (running most but not all of that distance), and generally I'm able to start out doing a 5K (3.1 miles) before I have to take a walk break. And my foot has been feeling great!
  
  

  

  If I slept this way, I wouldn't be able to stand up straight in the morning!

  
  
• Ruthie had a big night on Wednesday -- she slept through the whole night all by herself. And that means I got to sleep in my bed for the first time since she came home! While she's been sleeping mostly through the night (without a potty break) for about a week, I've still been sleeping on the couch just a few feet away from her. With the Mister out of town this week, I thought it was a good opportunity to try sleeping upstairs in case I needed to let her cry it out. Granted, it's probably me who needs to deal with listening to the crying, and I'll admit that I didn't do a good job the first night I tried. But on Wednesday she didn't really do any evening snoozing and was asleep by 9, so it seemed like it might work. I didn't hear a peep from her until about 5:45, and that was after I woke up on my own at 5:30 after passing out myself. Last night wasn't quite as easy (she was whining at bit around 10 and then was up on and off starting a little before 5) but I didn't come downstairs until just before 6 and she managed just fine -- or maybe I should say I did just fine!
  
  
• This weekend we're supposed to have great weather, especially on Sunday, which is perfect for the annual Mother's Day brunch that my brother- and sister-in-law host and for the fact that I'll be getting the flowers from our synagogue's plant sale, which I asked for as my gift. I hope to spend the afternoon planting them and getting the garden started for the season.

I'll leave you with a laugh. This little flyer was tucked under the mat at our front door the other day, and I'm honestly not sure if it's for real. If it is, this guy is quite versatile! I've blacked out the personal information for his privacy, but I think what's left is sufficient to impress.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and a very happy Mother's Day to those of you celebrating!

Unraveled, Week 19/2025

Good morning and happy hump day! How are you all today? If I had to pick one word to describe things here over the past week, I'd pick DAMP. I honestly don't remember the last time we had a day without at least some rain. The grass seems to be liking it, at least!

It's Wednesday, and that means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

First up, the knitting -- there has been some. For starters, after I shared that bad mid-stripe join on the socks the other day, I ripped it back to before the start of the stripe (the original color), wound off yarn from my ball until I got to that color again, and rejoined the yarn at that point. I've since knit well past where I was.

Apologies for the lighting again -- the rain makes for a lot of gloom

If you look closely, you may be able to see where the join is, as that section is a little thicker (I used a clasped weft join, so there's a section of stitches knit with a double thickness of yarn). I think it'll settle a bit after the socks are washed, and it's on the leg and thus unlikely to cause any discomfort in any case.

I also had a bit of an a-ha moment the other evening when I realized that Ruthie likes to spend the hour or so before we go to bed snoozing and is pretty much oblivious to what I'm doing during that time. So I got out my Sugar Maple tee and worked several rounds on it!

I'd really like to get this done this month so that it counts for the SSK make-along (and earns me some door prize tickets), but there's still quite a lot of knitting left to do, so we'll see. At least once I'm done with the body, I'm done with the whole thing, and there aren't any fiddly bits left. I think it's just a matter of prioritizing it when I am able to knit.

Sadly I have not finished any books this past week -- that hasn't happened in a long time! I am making progress on my current reads, but it's hard to sustain attention for long periods of time like I used to. I hope by next week I'll have something to report!

Early May Weekending

All too soon, it's Monday morning again. It was a wet weekend here, with rain on and off most of Saturday and part of Sunday. It was a good weekend for napping, and I did some of that on Saturday because Ruthie was up at 5:50 a.m. -- and so that meant that I was up that early! Aside from the early wakeup, though, it was a pretty good weekend. And I think the reason she was up so early is because she's started sleeping through the night, so despite getting up early, it means we've both slept for about 7 hours.

We started with an early lunch birthday party for my youngest nephew, who turned 2 on May 1. He entertained us with the amusing things he had to say, like asking my sister-in-law "Do you need a helping hand?" And we finished with chocolate cupcakes.

An added bonus for me was when we arrived, my niece was wearing the tee I knit for her last summer:

The Mister took Molly and her friend to see the show, and Ruthie and I took naps. Then we went out to dinner with my parents at a Turkish place in our neighborhood. 

Ruthie did a great job both times we were out, even though we were gone for about two hours both times. She's continuing to do really well with the house training -- which really means I'm doing really well at getting her out when she needs to go! Yesterday was the Pittsburgh Marathon, and the route comes close to our house, so I took her up to watch the runners for a bit. There were a lot of people, quite a few dogs, and a lot of noise. She was very nervous at first, but she soon adjusted, so it's clear that exposing her to new situations with people is good for her.

I managed to do a little bit of knitting this weekend, too. I started the second sock for my mother-in-law and was in a groove on the leg when I came across a knot in the yarn. I snipped it out and carried on as before, only to realize several rounds later that the two ends that were tied together were different colors.

I'm not sure if my mother-in-law would notice, but now that I've seen it, I can't not see it. So I'll likely be ripping back to the start of the stripe in the first blue and winding off yarn until I get to that point in the stripe sequence. So much for easy knitting!

A Finish on Friday

Happy Friday and happy May, friends! It's been a heck of a week here, though the puppy stuff has been the least of it. We had some strong storms move through on Tuesday that caused some major damage in the area from high winds, though amazingly we didn't lose power. So many people did, though, that the city and county are under disaster declarations and quite a few schools have been closed for multiple days this week. I saw our lights flicker once or twice but that was it. To Ruthie's delight, there were tons of sticks in the street on Wednesday, so a large part of our trips outside have involved taking them away from her (in addition to trying to keep her from eating various other things she finds on the ground).

On the positive side of things, I went for a run on Wednesday! I've been trying to get Ruthie to be more comfortable in her crate and not bark and cry the whole time, so I thought I'd give it a try to see how it went. I also had a couple of things to drop at the post office, so I ran there (it's about half a mile from our house) and back and then did some loops around the neighborhood. The last time I ran was on April 11! I didn't do my full distance because it was the first time I was leaving her alone, but it felt good to be out there again (until my knee started to hurt and it didn't feel so good). I was definitely sore yesterday, but it was nothing like after my first run following my broken foot, so that's a good sign.

My finish for the day isn't terribly exciting, but it's something. Since finishing up that second slipper sock, I've pulled out the socks I've been knitting for my mother-in-law again. I'd really like to get back to my Sugar Maple tee, but it's been safer to have something small (and with only one ball of yarn attached) that I can quickly put down and away. I've worked on it this week while Ruthie has been napping and managed to finish the first sock yesterday -- though she woke up as I was about 2/3 of the way through grafting the toe, so I had to put it down and finish it up later!

Again, terrible lighting that doesn't do it any justice, but it's what I could manage to do without putting her back in the crate.

This weekend we've got some actual plans on the calendar. My youngest nephew turned 2 yesterday, and his birthday party is on Saturday morning. It was supposed to be outside, but the weather is not looking good right now, so it will probably be moved indoors and we'll leave Ruthie at home. That afternoon we have tickets to see Come from Away; originally the three of us were supposed to go, but I don't think Ruthie can hold it that long, so given that I've seen the show before, I told Molly to see if she could find a friend from school who would want to use my ticket. Then my parents are taking us out to dinner Saturday night, just to a neighborhood restaurant so we'll be close. I don't know if it's some sort of special occasion or if they just feel like they haven't been giving us enough attention lately (my brother has been having terrible back problems the past several weeks, so my parents have been helping out a lot with my niblings).

And because no post is complete without a puppy pic, here is an example of how dainty our little pup can be:

She's continuing to make good progress with house training (very few accidents, likely because she often goes to the door and sits when she needs to go out) and generally has been getting up only once in the middle of the night. What we really need to work on now is not barking and growling at other people, especially the Mister. And her DNA is on its way to a lab to be analyze, so soon we'll have a better idea what breeds are in her (and maybe how big we can expect her to be)!

I hope you have a wonderful first weekend in May -- and if you're headed to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, kindly fondle some yarn and have some ribbon chips on my behalf!