Tag Archives: Whistler by Ann Patchett

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Saturday, September 5, 2026

It’s a bit cloudy and a bit chilly this Saturday morning! I am happy for both. We desperately need the rain here in Maine as most of our state is under drought conditions. We have a well so it’s a serious issue that needs our awareness. We have stopped watering the gardens and have put our water conservation efforts in the house on high! We’ll be fine. Hopefully.

This week I got several lovely, thoughtful comments on several posts from a “man” named John Smith. I almost always check profiles before accepting comments on my blog and I am grateful that I stopped to look … it’s an AI platform and, I suspect, an AI response which, upon my review was more a summary of what I posted than a thoughtful human response. I won’t approve them and I may choose to mark them as spam. Progress is a double-edged sword.

I’ve had a busy and quite wonderful week! I started out the week with meetings, meetings, meetings and then finished the week with my teaching gig. In between was a lot of house cleaning, knitting, some stitching and even some baking. I was able to chat with almost all of our kids and am looking forward to seeing some of them soon.

Reverie Socks by Summer Lee

I have a FO! One of my wonderful students pointed out Summer Lee’s new sock pattern to me and I loved it so much I immediately went to my stash to find some yarn to cast on. I have loved knitting these socks (despite the mistake I made on the first round of the first sock.) I am wearing them today because without the sun it’s a bit chilly and my feet are very happy. I knit these in some stashed Socks Yeah! yarn in a pale pink colorway. The lace repeat was easy enough to memorize and I am tickled with the result. I really like the shorter leg length even if that leaves me with more bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn.

Vanilla Socks (adapting pattern)

Once I finished my Reverie Socks, I immediately went back to my stash to find some more yarn. I forgot that I bought this self-striping yarn that is packaged in two half-skeins so that the socks are identical. My husband had already gone to bed when I started caking up the first hank and (despite the fact that he can’t ever hear me) he complained that the swift was too noisy. I’ll wind the second bit today. LOL. I love a good self-striping sock. I think I have decided that I’d like to find a contrasting color to make my heels and toes … I’ll search for that today. Heaven knows I have quite a collection of bits and bobs. I’m using the Yankee Knitter and Summer Lee and maybe other patterns that I’ve used before. I did about an inch of 1×1 rib and then I’m just going to knit the leg. I’ll do a heel flap and gusset in a solid colored yarn and then knit the foot down to the toe and change the toe color, too. I could use more than one color, too … thoughts? I’ll show you what I choose!

I had to frog back my Jaunty this morning … only about an inch but I found a spot where I switched my knit belows and purls and the pattern looked off. It was almost something I could ignore but I decided it was only a few rows back and I decided to fix it instead. I’ve now got the stitches back on the needles and I’m ready to move on down the last part of the project.

Jaunty by Andrea Mowry

I’ve really enjoyed knitting Jaunty! I am loving the yarn and the stitch pattern. I chose to knit with Ewetopia Helix DK in two different colorways because I thought I loved the purple one best and we only had two hanks in the store. BUT the blue colorway had enough purple that I thought it would also work and give me enough yarn to make the large sized Jaunty. I was right and I am very happy with the whole project. Well, not so much with the silly mistake I made but it’s fixed now and I can move on toward the end of the project. Maybe I’ll have another FO by the end of this coming week (or sooner). (And please note the cute sock on my foot!)

So, I know have my Make Mine a Double to figure out and I have had several helpful comments on that. Thank you. I think I’m going to rewind the hank and wind off the chocolate (dark) brown color and use the blue/brown/taupe medium colors on the first and then the second sleeve, breaking the yarn in between. It’s not my first preference, I’d love the yarn to be all one thread BUT I do think that the sleeves need to have some consistent color and I think that’s the right thing to do. I’ll finish them both with the lighter beige into the creamy color so they’ll “match” the body of the sweater (sort of). I am almost to the ribbing … there’s two inches of it … but I have to try it on again to see if it’s long enough to wear with my jeans. No midriff revelations at my age! Ha! Ha!

Early next week I’ll be seeing my daughter and she can try on her Levitate Wrap cardigan to make sure it’s going to be a good fit. I didn’t have her in my house to measure so we have guessed, albeit an educated guess, at her sizing. The sweater is supposed to be a boxy fit and I am on gauge so I am hopeful that it’ll be a go. I hope to make some good progress on that next week after the fitting. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’ve read two good books about relationships that I thought I’d suggest here. The first one is Ann Patchett’s Whistler. I read this for my summer book club. We all loved it and I think I may have to re-read it because after our discussion I may be able to notice more details. Ann Patchett is an incredible writer and it’s a wonderful read. The second book was initially the book club book but was changed (to Whistler) and I missed the memo because I missed the first book club meeting. Anyway, the second book is Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Both books are pictured below. Crossing to Safety is an older book but I still enjoyed it .. even with a brief break to read the correct book club book, I wanted to go back and finish it. And now I’m going back to the first book club book which was Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I took a break from Braiding Sweetgrass to read Crossing to Safety … well, you get the idea. I have to finish Braiding Sweetgrass, too. Worthy of a read. I loved learning more about the cultural beliefs of the native Americans, in particular.

Screenshot

Ok, it’s Saturday and I have a lot of ideas on what I want to do today beginning with lunch with my favorite hubby. We’re heading into town to try a new Chinese restaurant that’s not far from work (and there’s another few restaurants we need to try, too.) Neither of us loves to leave “campus” when we’re home on the weekends so this is a stretch but we also realize we don’t get out much. We’re trying.

Gone knitting.

Monday. Again!?

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Monday, August 17, 2026

It’s Monday again! The weeks seem to be zipping by at breakneck speed. I don’t know what happened to the summer but here we are nearly at back to school season! My hubby went off to Colorado himself on Thursday so I came home from work to an empty house – a new experience since we lost our dog in early July. It was a bizarre thought more than anything and in practice, I was fine with it and have had a good weekend alone … but it certainly went by quickly and hubby’s in the air as we speak, jetting back to Maine. He’ll be here before I know it.

I thought I’d spend hours and hours knitting in my studio but I surprised myself and busied myself most of the days. I worked Thursday and Friday, of course, and then Saturday I went on an adventure to Christianson’s Farm Stand in Readfield (sorry, I should probably have taken at least one photo) where I bought some veggies and fresh corn on the cob! I made Ratatouille for dinner and added it to leftovers from Thursday night. My husband’s the cook in our house and I’d rather not be – I made enough one night to last for two nights at least! Anyway, the veggies were beautiful and delicious, too. I also treated myself to a lobster roll for lunch. We have a new place in Oakland that I wanted to try and they were sold out on Friday night when I went by. It was by far the freshest lobster roll I”ve had in maybe forever and the roll was perfectly buttered and grilled. Yum. (And no shredded bagged lettuce! IYKYK! I also made some of my “world famous” oatmeal cranberry scones. That will make my hubby happy!

Yesterday I attended a celebration of life after picking up and unpacking some groceries which meant two trips to Augusta which is out of the ordinary for me/us. It was a lovely tribute to our book club friend, Kathi and I was thoroughly impressed when her grandson stood up to remember his grandmother at the very end. He said he simply knew her as his grandmother and thanked those who told stories about her for teaching him that she was so many different things to so many people. I hope one day that my grandchild remembers me as “just” their grandmother. If that’s the case then I will consider mine a well-lived life.

I have been knitting! I started a new project after putting my daughter’s sweater on hold until I can try it on her in early September. I cast on the Make Mine a Double sweater by Millie at Tribe Yarn. I saw it in a social media post and couldn’t get it out of my head (a lot like the green linen Broadgate Tabard. I waited for a few weeks before buying the yarn because it was a serious financial investment especially since I couldn’t see the yarn in person or feel it so you know it was a really strong draw. Anyway, I cast on and started knitting – this sweater/jumper is knitted top down in the round with US10 needles and the pattern says that I can make my size with 2 hanks. I have gone back and forth on what size to make because I don’t love a ton of ease on me. The suggested ease is 10+ inches which would tell me to knit the large but I think I’m going to knit the medium which will give me more like 6 inches of positive ease. Enough for me.

The yarn is exquisite! It’s the softest silk mohair and the color changes are fascinating and they keep me knitting and knitting because I want to see how the colors ease from one into the next. My hank started with a deep chocolate brown and has eased into a blue … it’s stunning. I am loving it.

I’ve finished the knititng on my second felted bowl. I cast on and practically finished knitting this on Friday during my knitting classes. It’s a super bulky wool knitted on huge needles (I knit mine on US15 and US17a which i had) and then felted. I have a front-loader and very hot water. I’ve done the first felting and today I’ll felt it once more. I’m going to write up the pattern because I started with a Plymouth pattern that called for two strands of worsted held double and did an ombre0type color change. I used a super bulky variegated wool. I hope it’ll sell some yarn in the shop.

And today was a good mail day! I got my kit to knit up It is Magic by Isabell Kraemer in Myak yarn’s Fior di Cashmere in the original colors as the sample was knitted. This was another social media response – do you think I should stay off social media? – to a new design that I really liked and I really liked the original colorway. Myak had a sale on the kits and I jumped. The yarn arrived today and it’s gorgeous! I have a feeling that this will have to wait to jump onto the needles until I finish my Make Mine a Double and my daughter’s Levitate Wrap. I really don’t need any more yarn for any more sweaters. I will not have any room in my closet soon enough. (Maybe I have to give away a few sweaters to make room for the new ones?)

Anyway, it’s been a good time for knitting and reading. I’ve read a couple of good books that I really enjoyed. I am a slow reader (it’s not a race, right?) and I really only read at night before I go to sleep so I read maybe a book a month. I really liked Braiding Sweetgrass that we read for my first July Book Club and this time we’re reading Ann Patchett’s Whistler. I am loving it! I also bought the bonus book – we had a third meeting in the middle of our two regular meetings with the author, Susan Koen, and the book is titled Dancing in the Face of Death. It’s a memoir about her experience as a caregiver to her partner who is diagnosed with dementia. Susan was a delightful bookclub guest and there’s nothing like discussing a book with the author in the room. Hearing the stories first-hand is very powerful.

We’ve got a lot going on in the yard and on the water, passers-by both feathered and human (and too close) and the hummingbirds seem to be fueling up for their long trip home. This morning the wind was blowing and they were hanging on to the feeders for dear life! LOL. We have been enjoying our veggie garden and have a few tomatoes and squash and we are getting our first peas! (Beans are growing but no fruit yet.) And my Clivia in my atelier is blooming again! This time it has three flowers. I love the color of the flowers and it’s been fun to see it thrive … although there is a sticky bug on it that I can’t seem to get rid of that’s why it’s up in my atelier. I’ll keep plugging.

Gone knitting.