Lately / October 2025
Hellooo!
October has been such a whirlwind. I’ve been to a protest, Trunk-or-Treat, corn maze, apple orchard, 50th birthday party, parent-teacher conferences, and a Halloween karaoke party, all in just the last two weeks. How!?
It’s been a while since I last checked in. Elliot moved out and started college in August, and Clementine and Hugo are back in school — Hugo is now in middle school, Clementine is a junior in high school — so it's been a bit of an adjustment for me figuring out how to work from home with a puppy. It still feels so weird without Elliot here *sobs*, but since he’s only an hour away he’s been able to come home for a few weekends already.
Surprising no one, Marigold is taking up most of my time and attention. This is a dog that Clementine begged for, desperately, since she was nine and now barely has time to snuggle let along spend significant amounts of time with, so by default I am The Main Person, which has its pros and cons. Maybe this would have gone differently had I not waited so long to get a dog but — to my credit — I knew what I could handle while Hugo was in elementary school, and a dog was not one of them. So anyway, here I am, embracing my Dog Mom Era. Going to puppy classes, taking her to the vet, buying ridiculous toys and banana costumes on chewy, and watching my photo stream transform entirely into dog photos. She is both completely delightful and has me questioning my life choices on the regular.
I’m happy to say that both sessions of the Squamadu retreat I am teaching at next summer have now sold out (yay!), but I have some additional upcoming teaching opportunities that are currently in the works for me, both online and in person, which I’ll be sure to post about as they are announced. The first one will be a Zoom Class held on November 18th hosted by Pattern Review called Top 10 Garment Sewing Techniques where I will share — you guessed it!! — my favorite garment techniques. ** More details and sign up here!! **
(and of course just a reminder that you can subscribe to my blog posts via my Substack or my main newsletter if you want to hear about other classes and workshops as they roll out)
Here are some other things I’ve been into and up to these past few months…
reading: My favorite vacation read this summer was Chain Gang All Stars. Super riveting, fast action, and such a devastating plot. Fleishman is in Trouble was also really fun…what a terrific surprise the second half was. Currently reading All Fours by Miranda July because I refuse to be the last perimenopausal woman in America to read it.
13 Signs You Used ChatGPT To Write That <-Huh, interesting. Just in case you couldn’t tell, this website is 100% Ai-free. via Meg’s newsletter
knitting: I'm continuing to make good progress on my Orna Sweater by Brienne Moody with Bread & Butter Everyday yarn from AVFKW. I am one sock into the Pebble Socks, as I got all inspired a day before the PebbleKAL started but didn’t buy my yarn (shown below) until Day 2, and therefore only managed to cast on a day after it ended. Oh well! Just out here taking my own sweet time with this KAL, LOLZ.
enjoying: Elise Cripe’s newsletter, Scattering Seeds, has been lovely to get in my inbox since she quit Instagram almost two years ago. She also just moved off of Substack to Beehiv which I find intriguing. Are there fewer Nazis on Beehiv? Who knows.
listening: OK, what are our favorite Life of a Showgirl tracks? Predictably, mine are Wi$hli$t, Eldest Daughter, and Cancelled. And I like the new Tame Impala album is giving nice chill vibes for knitting in the evenings.
pounding: flowers onto fabric during a lovely afternoon with friends hosted by my friend Emily. Feels good to channel my rage into something creative.
sewing: I used some hand-dyed indigo linen to make a Gemma tank. I am now hand-stitching the bindings, which means that by the time I am finished, it will be spring. Just in time to wear it!!
watching: I'm rewatching Six Feet Under on Netflix right now – I had watched it when it first aired on HBO and it's holding up surprisingly well for being almost 25 years old.
For the first year in a very, very long time, I will not be out trick-or-treating tonight. Hugo has decided he doesn’t want to go, and Clementine is going with friends, so we’re going to stay cosy inside and have a movie night. If you’re out and about tonight, be safe and have fun!!
xo
Rae
