A Mixed Bag of a Weekend

How is it already Monday again? And why do weekends always go by so quickly, even when you're not doing much? (And why don't dogs understand that weekends are for sleeping in?)

My weekend started early -- at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday. Ruthie is still having some occasional tummy trouble, and I guess that's when she needed to go. (She's now getting daily probiotics and some pureed pumpkin with her meals. Things seem to be getting better.) It was a much earlier start to the day than I'd hope for, but there is something kind of fun about being the only one awake and having a slow start to the day, particularly if there's a puppy curled up next to you while you nurse your coffee. Because that first trip outside was so early and because Molly and I were going out to lunch with my mother, we got an extra walk in during the day, and I don't think Ruthie minded one bit!

Before I passed out early for the night on Saturday, I managed to finish up my mother-in-law's socks:

I used my usual sock recipe for these, worked over 68 stitches with a US 0/2.0 mm needle, but I worked the entire sole in 2x2 rib after picking up stitches for the gusset. Years ago I knit a sock pattern that had ribbing on the sole, and those socks always felt like a bit of a foot massage. My MIL has neuropathy in her feet, so I thought these might feel good. The yarn (Lorna's Laces Solemate) also uses an engineered fiber that's supposed to regulate temperature. It's exciting enough to have finished the socks, but do you know what's extra exciting? This skein was the last one from the stash enhancements that came home with me from SSK last summer. (We'll ignore the fact that I still have some yarn in my stash from my very first SSK in 2017, right?)

Now that I've got finished pairs of socks for both my mother and my mother-in-law and it's only mid-March, I though I'd knit two more pairs for my sisters-in-law so that all the moms in my family can have a new pair for Mother's Day. I've already cast on the next pair, using a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works that only recently came into the stash, as it was the "reward" skein for completing the FDW component of Lisa's make-along last year. The colorway is called Wishes for the Journey, and as you can see, it has an unusual stripe pattern.

These are such happy colors that feel so appropriate for the first days of official spring, just as flowers are starting to bloom and green is appearing on trees.

I've got a busy week ahead: It's the start of commencement season! I still plan to keep my usual blogging schedule, but I will likely spend much of this week reading lists of names rather than reading books. The upside is that Molly is on spring break this week and next, so I'll get a longer stretch of quiet time in the afternoon (while Ruthie naps) because I won't have to leave to pick her up at school. She's also promised to bake some cookies this week, so I can have a treat for finishing all that tedious work.

This weirdo hopes you have an easy start to your week!

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!

A Fitting End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unraveled, Week 8/2026

Happy final Wednesday in February! I don't know about you, but I'm happy to see this month come to an end -- I often say that January is my least-favorite month and February is a close second, but only because it has chocolate. While we haven't gotten the feet of snow that the Northeast has, we have gotten some more and some colder temperatures to boot, so I'm looking forward to the retreat of both of those things that March usually brings.

Today, as per usual, I'm joining with Kat and the Unravelers with an update on my making and reading. Rather than unraveling this week, I've done quite a lot of finishing. First, there's the hot pink hat:

I'm pretty tickled by the fact that this was knit with yarn that is technically bulky but it weighs only 37 g! It's gotten a bath and is now drying. I'm still toying with the idea of turning it into a pattern, but I think the sizing would be limited by the way I've worked the decreases.

I also finished my cowl and wound in all the ends on Monday night (thank goodness for my reading glasses!). It's likewise drying from its bath, but you'll see it soon. In the meantime, I've turned back to the socks that I started on January 1 and have long neglected.

I'm now through the gusset decreases and well into the foot, and I'm fairly confident I can finish this one and its mate relatively quickly. The only reason they've been on the needles so long is because I've barely worked on them. I knit on them on the plane home from Florida, during the weekend we traveled to Chicago in January, and maybe a bit when we've been home, but otherwise my attention has been on other things.

The improvement of the weather last week meant that I was able to get outside to exercise again, and that meant more time to listen to podcasts and audiobooks, so I've got three finishes this week.

I'd never heard of Mona's Eyes until we were in a Barnes & Noble in Florida and I picked it up off a big display to read the blurb. It sounded interesting, but I didn't want to buy a hardback book only to have to pack it to bring it home, so I waited and found the audiobook on Hoopla. The book tells the story of 10-year-old Mona, a Parisian girl who briefly goes blind. The doctors aren't sure what's wrong with her or whether she'll keep her sight, so she is to keep coming back for tests and also go see a psychiatrist to help her deal with the fact that she might be going blind. Her beloved grandfather, charged with the responsibility of taking her to the psychiatrist, resolves instead to take her to one of the museums each week to focus on a single work of art, thereby filling Mona's head with some of the beauty in the world. Each chapter thus focuses on that piece and its artist as well as the life lesson the grandfather believes it holds for Mona. I had mixed feelings about this book. I took AP art history in high school and minored in art history in college, so I loved the deep focus on works of art created across centuries. But I also felt that the plot itself was thin and a bit far fetched, really only there to serve as a way for the author to show off his extensive knowledge of art (his full-time profession is in academia). Audio probably wasn't the best way to read this book, either, given the highly visual medium being discussed, and I found myself googling some of the works of art that I was less familiar with (I've heard that there are images inside the dust jacket of the hardcover). Overall, I didn't regret reading it because it took me back to my days in class and in museums, but I wouldn't recommended it to someone who isn't an art history nerd like me. I gave it 3 stars.

My second audiobook of the week was Gilead, in preparation for next month's Read With Us Zoom. I'd previously read this book back in 2021 and didn't like it all that much at the time, finding it too "churchy" for my taste. For my reread, I though listening might be a good way to approach it from a different angle, and I did like it a bit better this time, perhaps because it felt less like reading a sermon and more like having a conversation. It's a quiet novel, in which John Ames, a minister in his 70s, has learned that his heart is giving out, so he writes a long letter to his 7-year-old son, who he knows he will not get to see become a man and to whom he wishes to leave some thoughts and reflections and hopes. I still found the book to be overly religious for my taste, but this time around I focused more on the fact that, at its core, this is a book about a man facing his own mortality and wishing he had more time with his son. That perspective shift made me like the book a bit more on the reread, bumping from 2 to 3 stars for me.

Finally, the big finish for the week: Anna Karenina. It took me a little more than a month to get through this one, but I read it slowly, averaging about 5% a day (I read it on Kindle), as a buddy read with Katie. We'd set out to read some big Russian classics together a couple of years ago but needed a break after War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago. This last tome was my favorite of the bunch. Anna is still a young woman, married to an older man and with a young son, when she falls in love with the dashing Count Vronsky, embarking on an affair that will bring her love but also a life outside the standards of society. In stark contrast is Kitty, a younger woman who also believes herself to be in love with Vronsky but who, when rejected by him, eventually finds true love with Levin, with whom she builds a partnership based in love and mutual respect. My belief is that the point of the book was for the reader to compare the two women and draw conclusions from how their lives turned out; naturally, as it was written by a man, my assumption is that the author wanted readers to choose to believe that Kitty is the virtuous example women should follow. But Anna, though she annoyed me, presents a worthwhile question to ponder: Why should a woman have to choose between being happy and being accepted? As was the case with the other Big Russian Books, I thought this one was a bit overbloated with side characters and side stories that didn't add anything to the main narrative, but they didn't stop me reading -- nor was I troubled by knowing Anna's fate from the get-go. I really enjoyed it, and I also enjoyed rewatching the 2012 movie now that I knew the full story. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?

I'm Not Saying Anything

Last week I may have tempted fate by saying I was planning a quiet weekend and ended up with a sick dog. This week, whether it was related to that or she ate something, she had some pretty bad tummy trouble; at least this time around, when I heard her barking and crying at 12:30 a.m., I figured something was wrong and went downstairs to investigate. That ended up being one of two trips outside that night. Thankfully she did not need to go back to the vet and I was able to swing by to pick up some prescription food and a probiotic. Both of them have helped immensely, but two nights of interrupted sleep plus extra potty breaks have made for an exhausting week, so I'm happy to see the weekend arrive if only so I don't have to worry about work on top of everything else.

Aside from getting through the days without losing my mind, my main accomplishment over the last couple of days has been finishing up my Melt the ICE Hat (Ravelry link):

I used some HipStrings Buoy DK leftover from a sweater and, because I wanted the hat to be a little smaller, size US 3/3.25 mm needles. My only other modification was to add about an inch of stockinette above the ribbing before starting the decreases. Once I actually followed the pattern for said increases, rather than assuming I knew better, everything worked out fine. The hat is currently blocking, and I'm hoping that helps with that weird rippling you can see in the pre-blocking photo above.

I'm on the last repeat of colors in my cowl and finished up the ribbing of my hot pink hat yesterday, so things are moving right along. Maybe next week I'll get back to the sweater I cast on weeks ago!

This weekend we've got a birthday party to go to tonight, Molly has her school semiformal tomorrow (the Mister and I are having a date night while she's there), and I think we're having dinner with the Mister's side of the family on Sunday. Other than that, I'm planning a Costco run, some walks as the weather allows, and naps with Ruthie. I'm hoping to finish reading Anna Karenina this weekend, too -- I have less than 10% left! I'm hoping for only the usual amount of excitement. Fingers crossed!

Unraveled, Week 6/2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winter Weekending

How is it already Monday again! Ruthie still doesn't understand the concept of sleeping in, so to a certain extent, weekends don't feel like much of a break for me. At least there was not a lot to do this weekend -- and the sun actually came out! It really tells you how cold it's been that when we went out for a walk after lunch yesterday and it was 17ºF but sunny, it felt downright balmy! It's the longest walk Ruthie has taken since the storm, too. Perhaps she wanted everyone to see her new coat:

I spent Friday evening grafting the ends of my cowl together, blocked it on Saturday, and wore it yesterday:

I didn't use a pattern for this, but I've knit enough that I didn't need one. I started with a provisional cast-on of 110 stitches, joined my working yarn, and knit until I had just a little left (I could have managed another round or two, but I got to a stripe that was close in color to where I started and decided to end there). I put the provisional stitches back on a needle and rotated one end of the tube 180º so I'd have that little bend in the tube to make it sit nicely around my neck. I grafted the ends together and that was that. I ended up using exactly 100 g, leaving just a small amount of yarn leftover. Easy peasy and very cozy.

The rest of my knitting time over the weekend was spent on a new pair of socks that I'm attempting to finish by the end of the Pigskin Party (which wraps up with the Super Bowl, so next weekend). I'm using the second skein of Woolens and Nosh self-striping that came home with me from SSK last summer. The colorway is called Loud Plaid Shorts, which I think is just perfect for these awesome bright colors.

These colors are the perfect antidote to the gray and white (and brown) that is all of the outside right now. We actually got a little more snow yesterday morning, not that we needed any, and with no high temperatures above freezing in the extended forecast, it looks like what we have is going to be sticking around a while. At least we got mail delivery on Saturday, for the first time in a week!

There's not to much exciting ahead this week, just the usual Monday-Friday work and school stuff. At least it will no longer be dangerous to be outside and the roads have cleared enough that we can actually drive places. I think it'll be a while yet before I can run outside (some people never cleared their sidewalks, so they've now turned to ice), but at least Ruthie and I can probably take some regular walks. I'm sure she's looking forward to smelling some new things as much as I'm looking forward to stretching my legs!

Too Much Drama

Friends, I am always happy to see Friday come around again, but this week, I am extra relieved because we have had A Week. Not long after my post went up on Wednesday, we got a text from my mother that my aunt (her sister) had been rushed to the ER the previous night with a brain bleed. Oh, and she'd also tested positive for COVID and both my parents had as well. She was scheduled for surgery that afternoon. To say that I was anxious that day until we'd heard from the Chicago family would be a massive understatement. I will spare all of you the worry and let you know that the surgery was successful, that she's expected to make a full recovery, and that my cousin reported yesterday afternoon that she was cracking jokes and correctly answering questions on legal terminology. Phew! Also, it appears that no one who left Chicago on Sunday, as we did, got infected. My mother says she feels like she has a bad cold and my father is asymptomatic, but I feel bad that after avoiding it for almost six years, they finally caught the 'vid. I'm just relieved that they're not too ill.

After all that drama, we woke up yesterday to ice everywhere because it warmed up enough yesterday for some light snow to turn to rain, which then of course coated everything. Molly had a two-hour delay, so I drove to her school, and then I proceeded to slip and slide everywhere trying to walk the dog and exercise.

And if that's not enough, have you heard there's a huge winter storm moving through a good portion of the country this week? The last forecast I heard for our area is 8-12 inches of snow, mostly falling Saturday night and Sunday. I'm glad this is hitting on the weekend and we can be home, but it's going to be a mess, and our city has already been struggling with clearing the roads. It's very possible we'll all be home again on Monday.

As far as knitting goes, I have been doing it a little (not as much as I'd like) but don't have much to show for it. I did cast on my sweater, but all I've gotten done is about an inch and a half of ribbing. And I cast on for a tube cowl -- a long tube that I'll graft together -- in one of the new skeins of Fibernymph Dye Works fingering. The only photo I've taken in the past couple of days is the finished but not yet blocked charity hat:

Though we'll be hunkering down for the storm, we're planning to get out and about on Saturday. I'm going to send the Mister to do our grocery shopping after he takes Molly to take her learner's permit test(!). In the afternoon, the girls will be headed to see Wicked, which we were supposed to go see with my mother and which she'll obviously have to miss. My sister-in-law is coming, and one of Molly's friends will use my mother's ticket. We're also supposed to get together with the Mister's side of the family on Sunday evening for a birthday dinner for my father-in-law, but we'll have to see if any of us can actually get out. Honestly, I kind of hope we're snowed in for a day or two -- I'd really like a quiet day at home!

Stay safe and warm this weekend, friends, especially if you're in the path of this storm.

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!

Unraveled, Week 2/2026

It's Wednesday, and as predicted, I've had a little setback with sinus infection (which may or may not have happened after I read through the agenda for the retreat and saw "team-building improv session"). While we have miserable weather today -- rain turning to snow -- I will be staying warm inside with Ruthie, and I'll kick things off by joining Kat and the Unravelers.

As promised, here is the official FO post for the cowl, which has now had all its ends woven in and been given its spa treatment.

Pattern: Static by Kacey Herlihy (Ravelry link) size large

Yarn: Emma's Yarn Simply Spectacular DK (75% superwash merino/25% nylon) in Terrazzo (main color) and Simply Spectacular DK Smalls in After Dark (black), Wish You Were Beer (gold), and Briar Rose (pink)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Started/Completed: January 5/January 11

Mods: none, other than binding off in pattern

This was such a fun knit. I either bought the pattern during a past Down Cellar Studio event or won it as a prize, but it was in my library regardless and I thought it would be a great use of the cowl set I picked up from the SSK giveaway table last summer, a full skein of DK plus three DK minis. Because of the three colors, it made perfect sense to do the large size with three colorwork bands (the smaller option has just two). I ended up with just small amounts of the colors and about 20 g from the full skein, so it was an excellent match of pattern and yarn. And I had such fun with this motif that I will definitely be knitting this cowl again -- though wouldn't that motif look fabulous at the bottom of a sweater? For now, this cowl will go in the charity pile, but I think eventually it'll keep someone very cozy because all that stranding makes for a very squishy fabric.

Speaking of charity knitting, the hat has grown a little during Ruthie's afternoon naps:

I should be able to finish this up by the end of the day (even with needing to make sure I catch all three strands in each stitch, this fabric works up quickly!) and then will need to sort out my next almost-mindless knitting.

It's been another good week of reading, with lots of audio!

I am grouping the three audiobooks I finished this week together because they're all Emma M. Lion -- volumes 5, 6, and 7. These books are such a delight, and they've been such a nice diversion from the heavy news from around the world the past couple of weeks. I have so enjoyed the most recent finishes that I've been reflecting on the previous books I've read and bumped them all up to 5 stars. They have been fabulous on audio, but I am planning to buy myself physical copies so I can have them in my personal library.

My other finish this week was Steven Rowley's forthcoming Take Me with You. Jesse and his husband, Norman, have been together a long time, and like many middle-aged couples, they are finding some aspects of their life together a little disappointing. But it's a shock to Jesse when he wakes up in their Joshua Tree home in the middle of night to bright lights outside and then to see Norman step into that light and disappear. Was it a dream? An alien abduction? Or did Norman simply leave him? Whatever happened, Jesse realizes that Norman is gone and he has to get his life back on track. Meanwhile, Norman's younger sister, Lally, has realized that she's not getting any younger and wants to be a mother, but to do that, she needs the embryos created from her eggs and Jesse's sperm back when Jesse and Norman thought they wanted to be parents, but she needs to find Norman to get him to sign off on releasing the embryos to her. Throw in a private investigator and a conspiracy theorist living next door in an Airstream camper and it seems like one of Steven Rowley's typically outrageous and hilarious books. But that's not what this book is. Yes, it is funny, but it's more touching and thoughtful than laugh-out-loud. This new novel speaks to those moments in life when you're on autopilot, or so you think, and suddenly everything changes, forcing you to correct your course and perhaps even question if it's a course you want to stay on. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 19, 2026.

I'm taking a little break from Emma for a few days, at least, while I catch up on some podcasts and am currently reading The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) on Kindle and The Devil's Grip on paper. How about you -- what are you making and reading this week?

Restorative Weekending

It's a new week, and I'm happy to say that the weekend was a restful one. Ruthie thankfully slept in a little both days -- until almost 7 on Saturday! -- and that combined with taking a decongestant before bed allowed me to get some much-needed sleep. Saturday I woke up without any sinus pain for the first time since this infection started, and I'm hoping that means I'm past the worst of it. I would still happily sleep longer and nap, but that's pretty much the case anytime.

Other than a trip to Costco (we very badly needed tissues, among other things), dinner out with the Mister, and walks with Ruthie, I didn't stray much from home all weekend. After we had a bit of "sprinter" last week, it got cold again, with rain on Saturday and snow on Sunday, so I was quite content to curl up with a warm puppy, a book, and my knitting. And I got quite a lot of knitting done! You'll have to excuse the very poor lighting, but here is a pre-blocked but finished Static cowl:

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and can see myself making it again. This one, unless I decide it's perfect for someone I know, will be added to the charity pile; I really knit it to meet the requirements of the challenge and to use up the yarn. Once I weave in all the ends and block it, I'll take some better photos and give you all the details.

I also used the weekend to finish and block my sweater swatch, and it looks like I'll have to go through the process again with a larger needle, as I'm getting 18 stitches and 38 rows with a US 7/4.5 mm and the pattern calls for 17 stitches and 34 rows. I'll see what happens when I go up to a US 8/5 mm. There's always a chance that will be too big, in which case I'll use a 7 and perhaps make a larger size to compensate for the difference in gauge. But I'll wait until the next swatch is done before I determine my next step.

In the meantime, I've pulled out some fingering scraps and am holding them triple for another charity hat (apologies again for the photo -- there really was no natural light to be had yesterday):

I'm once again knitting the Sagamore Flyover hat (Ravelry link), which is so easy and fast to knit and has great texture. I've knit a ton of these with fingering scraps for some really warm hats. I'm using up some bright Fibernymph Dye Works leftovers in this one.

This is going to be an interesting week. The Mister is traveling for work and will get home just in time for us to all leave for Chicago for my cousin's daughter's bat mitzvah. Wednesday is my all-day work retreat, though I suspect I might have a relapse of my sinus infection and be unable to attend (oh darn!). At least it's a short week because of our trip and we all have next Monday off to look forward to. Let's hope there aren't any curveballs thrown our way!

There's No Place Like It

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

(c) Carol Sunday

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

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

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

Unraveled, Week 53/2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unraveled, Week 52/2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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