Mid-February 2026

Welcome! I am happily ensconced in my cozy burrow while writing this post. I haven’t checked in with this space in the last couple of weeks but my opening picture says it all: we’ve all been curled up in piles of books so far this year. It has been cold – not complaining, just emphasizing – so we’ve been baking a lot and enjoying afternoon teas to help ward off the temperatures while reading winter stories and enjoying our time learning at the table.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been tea and winter stories. We’ve had some rough weeks around here overall. Sick children, behavioral challenges, complete obsessive and compulsive fixations that just about did me in. Lots of tears, lots of doubts, lots of questioning my own abilities and sanity. And still, dare I venture to say… I think we’ve moved through it?

Three things have kept me sane: time at my desk, knitting, and reading. I’m sharing a little bit about those three things in today’s post.

---

Desk Time:

---

Here was my very messy desk this morning. I have been spending as much time here as I can. I have a few ideas banging around in my head and I’m very slowly getting them out of my fingers and onto the screen. I finally have some feasible ideas for my Substack (currently private but I will be making it public again soon) and am working on a few things to publish.

So that is exciting! I’m looking forward to finding even more time for this and for the words to flow more easily. But I’ve also been curled up in this space and writing letters (do you want a letter from me? Let me know in the comments and I’ll email you for your mailing address — and no pressure to respond to anything I send you!), which has been so much fun.

---

Knitting:

(I apologize for how bright and washed out these pictures are. We had a LOT of sun when I took them.)

---

Currently on the needles:

(Left Picture) Inclinations Cowl with a skein each of Manos del Uruguay Maria in Denim and Tabac (Ravelry link): I’ve made it to the second section so each repeat is growing by two stitches. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes sitting down to finish “just one repeat” a little daunting. But one repeat of the pattern = 4 rows, which is my typical goal for daily knitting, so I’m keeping at it. This is my second effort at this cowl; I frogged the first one because I didn’t like how the colors were working out. I am very happy with this combo!

(Right Picture) Plain Vanilla sock in Nightingale Fiber’s Sweet Pea: I started this sock a couple of days ago and am loving the colors in this yarn. You can’t really tell but they are the sweetest pinks and greens. I was using this yarn in the first Inclinations Cowl that I frogged because I didn’t like how the colors were pooling. The color repeats work much better in a sock pattern!

A Reinvention:

I finished this Quill hat in 2024:

---

But it was always a little bit too big and difficult to wear, even when folding the brim. So I unraveled it at the end of 2025 and, following Sarah’s Spinning In Infinity pattern (Ravelry link), gave it a new life:

---

This picture is a little wonky because I’ve worn it almost every day for the last month but the fit is so much better and I love wearing it. I was hesitant to unravel it but knew I would be much happier with the hat if it actually fit well. It was a good choice.

---

Reading:

It’s hard to know what to write about my reading right now. I have been doing so much of it and it has all been so good. I’m trying to figure out the best way to share it but until then, I’d like to share a picture of the books I finished in January:

---

I don’t think I can even pull out my favorites from the month because it was so varied and interesting. But here’s the list in a different format from my notebook:

---

This is the problem with getting behind with sharing my reading: it is impossible to catch up. I have a lot to say about all of these books but that will make this post much longer than I want it to be and will probably exhaust me for the rest of the day. So please just know – it was a good month. And if you have any questions about any of these books, I’m more than happy to chat about them.

Currently reading:
📖 Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor: Enjoying this contemporary novel about an artist in NYC.

🎧 The Men We Reap by Jesmyn Ward: memoir by one of my favorite writers. I’m only half an hour in and can’t say much about it yet, but I can tell it’s going to be fascinating.

🐌 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: I have read just over 500 pages and am still loving it so much. I look forward to my time with it every day!

---

And it’s Friday! That means that I’ll spend tomorrow morning at the library. And after that, I hope to get in a lot of reading and a little bit of knitting throughout the rest of the weekend.

I hope you have a lovely weekend and find time for the things you need. Take good care.