Friday Faves / vol. 23

Hellooo!!

A week ago my sister Kricket and I were waiting to hop on a plane to Phoenix, where we rented a car, drove to Tuscon, and met one of her college roommates, Andrea, for a relaxing weekend at Starr Pass Resort. There was hiking through saguaro cactus, yummy food, floating down the lazy river (!), and lots of knitting and reading by the pool. We had lovely weather and a great time.

The damper on the trip was that my sister Elli was supposed to come with us and make it a sisters’ weekend, but she was in the hospital with a collapsed lung and ended up needing surgery earlier this week. She’s home now and is on the mend, and as a super-fit 44-year-old (she’s a competitive rower) I have no doubt she will make a full recovery, but I’d still appreciate all the positive thoughts you can send in her direction.

Between Elli’s unintentional hiatus from work, a busy summer, and all of the fall travel I’ve been doing - Squam, Arizona, and we’re heading up to Boyne in Northern MI today to try to catch some fall color and spend time with Mr Rae’s brother and family — I’ve been taking a pretty slow approach to pattern development. Instead, I have been focusing on putting together fall workshops at my studio and getting my Substack up and running so you can subscribe to my posts by email. My biggest concern right now though is for Elli - I just want her to get better and not have to worry about her lung anymore. Breathing…it’s important, amirite?

A few other things to share as you head into the weekend…

sewing: I’ve been doing quite a bit of sewing; I made Kricket a Cleo skirt (top left) for her 40th birthday - more on that soon on the blog, hopefully, and made myself a shirred sundress (similar to the last one in this post) for our Arizona trip. Photo of me wearing that dress, below, scroll down.

listening: Have you been listening to Amy Poehler’s improv podcast where she plays a terrible couple’s therapist, Say More with Dr? Sheila? It is so funny. The guest appearances by her former SNL colleagues are fabulous.

knitting: I finished knitting my Pressed Flowers Shawl last week (above) and am now on to binding it off, a torturous process involving several yards of yarn and a tapestry needle.

I’ve set that aside and am making good progress on another Astragal (below) that Megan and I are making together (my first co-knitting project) with Good Wool from Purl Soho. We both got the same yarn in our swag bags at Squam and pooled them together along with a skein from non-knitting friend Amy to make a shared sweater (thanks, Amy!!!). It’s going to be hilarious figuring out how to share a sweater cross-country.

watching: The Chair for the second time, and I must say it’s as good on a rewatch as it was the first time. Sandra Oh is brilliant as the lead, and more than one scene made me laugh until I shook.

reading: After seeing it recommended in not one but two substacks (Flossie’s and Pandora's), I decided to try I Capture the Castle. I devoured it one lovely warm October weekend in my hammock and had no regrets!

Also read and loved the funny and shocking Vladimir by the pool in Arizona, which actually pairs really well with The Chair, as it too concerns interpersonal drama and scandal inside a New England college English Department.

puzzling: This 1990’s puzzle (above) was a real blast from the past. That was middle school, high school, and college for me…what a weird time to be alive. Raise your hand if you had crush on Doogie Howser.

eating: I had stale pretzels in the cupboard so I blitzed them in a food processor and made pretzel-encrusted chicken with honey mustard sauce from DALS and served them on brioche buns with slaw instead of on greens; the kids were big fans.

Also, It must be fall because I pulled out my Veganomicon and made E & C’s most-favorite recipe: a leek and bean cassoulet with biscuits on top, quite possibly the perfect fall comfort food.

reusing: I’m doing the happy dance of joy that Hugo can wear Elliot’s hand-me-down Thor costume for Halloween this year so I don’t have to try to scrounge/sew something up for him. Hurrah!

xo,
Rae

PS. see all of my Friday Faves here.

plus a few more snapshots from our weekend in Tuscon among the saguaros…