The Best Things in my Brain, June 2026

I’ve always been a person who loves to learn and find new things and share them with others, but these things don’t always warrant a full blog or social media post. So I’m offering a once a month, short and sweet post on the best things I learned, read, heard, or saw recently.

It is high garden season here in Chicago so the best thing in my brain right now is lots of beautiful flowers!

Best Thing in my Brain, Non-Craft Edition:

We had a very, very wet and cool spring really through the end of April, so once it started warming up in May the flowers were more than ready. Below is a gallery of some of my favorites, including my beloved peonies, my new favorite columbines (these are gorgeous – I bought the seed packet on a whim to add some color having no idea how tall and long-lasting they are), and my best reclamation project so far, my backyard rhododendron.

The first two years we lived here, that rhody didn't bloom at all and the leaves looked yellow and sickly. A combination of tree trimming to give it more sunlight, moving the garden edging that was restricting its root growth and a little rhody-specific fertilizer, and there are blossoms everywhere! (It gives me hope I can rehab our front yard rhody, which took some accidental damage during our porch reconstruction.)

Best Thing in My Brain, Craft Edition:

It’s summer knitting season in the Northern Hemisphere – Tangled Together has a great roundup of knitted tank top patterns that are bra-friendly. As someone who just doesn’t feel comfortable walking around without some kind of bra, I very much appreciated these!

If you have issues with your ribbing looking uneven, what kate makes has a few tips that may help. This includes a discussion of alternate ways to work purl stitches if you’re a person whose purl stitches and knit stitches have very different gauges.

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?