Welcome to my overdue PEARL Update — my creative maker weekly update where I share Projects, Experiments, Art, Reading, and a little bit of Life. These updates have quickly become one of my favorite ways to pause, reflect, and gather together the little threads of creativity that make up a week. I’ve been posting these updates weekly on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
This one is arriving a little late, but honestly… that feels fitting for the kind of week it has been.
Projects
For this Finished Object Friday… unfortunately, my Sports Cardigan is still very much in its WIP era.
As it turns out, my drafted dimensions were not entirely correct. I truly believed I had done the math properly, but somewhere between the planning and the geometry, things became… less mathematically sound than I hoped. Apparently, I’m more of an algebra girlie than a geometry one. 😂
Thankfully, crochet is forgiving.
Instead of throwing a fit, I’ve shifted into a more “made-to-measure” approach, stitching everything together one row and column at a time and adjusting as I go. It’s actually becoming a really interesting lesson in g
arment construction and trusting the process, even when the process is slightly chaotic. Like, when I accidentally sewed “Hill City” as “City Hill”.
The cardigan itself is inspired by the Hill City Howlers colors and designed to be lightweight enough for summer baseball games, especially since I’ll be singing the national anthem at some of the games again this season. It’s part handmade wardrobe, part hometown pride, and part “I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so naturally I decided to make it myself.”
In happier project news, I did finish my April socks this week and immediately cast on my May socks. I am determined to knit a pair of socks per month in 2026.
I was also selected as a tester for the Cardamine Vest by Wildflower Designs, which I am incredibly excited about. The design feels very “yarn festival meets renaissance fair” in the best possible way. My wedding skirt was based on the Wildflower Designs Coquelicot Skirt, so I already know I love her aesthetic and drafting style.
I can’t wait to get started soon!
Reading
I am still reading Wicked.
At this point, I’m at 87%, which somehow feels both incredibly close to the end and (it feels) impossibly far away.
There is so much in this book that I absolutely did not remember from the first time I read it years ago. Some of the themes are hitting differently this time around, and I also somehow completely forgot just how spicy parts of this book are. Not “throw the book across the room” spicy… but definitely more than cinnamon candy level.
Will I finish it before the end of the month?
Honestly… I’m only at a maybe.
Experiments
This week’s experiments are all about pizza!
A couple of weeks ago, we got a new induction range, and I am obsessed with it. The oven has a pizza setting that reaches 750 degrees (F), which feels slightly unhinged in the best way possible.
This week, I experimented with making pizza dough using sourdough discard for the first time. I see why people become obsessed with homemade pizza.
My favorite pizza of the week was a Fig & Pig pizza, which felt equal parts cozy and fancy. Sweet fig jam, savory toppings, crispy crust… absolutely worth the (still) flour-covered kitchen.
I’m still not fully convinced that I’m destined to become a full sourdough bread baker, but sourdough discard recipes? Those may have permanently won me over.
Art
Lately, I’ve been falling down the rabbit hole of designing visible mending patterns for future markets and fall fiber festivals.
There’s something incredibly satisfying about turning repair into embellishment and creating patterns that encourage people to mend and keep loving the things they already own.
I’ve been sketching ideas inspired by florals, geometric motifs, little cozy details, and things that feel both practical and beautiful. It feels like a lovely intersection of storytelling, sustainability, and slow making.
Life
This week, I’ve been trying to listen to my body a little more.
After the concert and the market last weekend, I realized I was carrying a level of exhaustion that doesn’t really disappear just because there are more projects I’m excited about.
So I’ve been taking things slower where I can and resting more. There’s always more to make, more ideas to chase, more projects waiting in the wings. But sometimes the most creative thing we can do is allow ourselves to pause long enough to recover.
And that’s this week’s PEARL — a little window into my creative maker weekly update this week. Thanks for being here and following along with all the creativity, experiments, detours, and occasional geometry failures.
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