I admit my socks look much like they did a fortnight ago (I’ve added one icord of 14), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting.

The square is for a quilt being made in remembrance of an acquaintance of ours. He was hit by a car last fall, suffered serious traumatic brain damage, and died last month as a result of complications from the surgery to close his scalp after the swelling had finally gone down. Rudi learned the quilt was being made and asked if I’d be willing to knit the square from us. He picked out and bought the yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Marigoldjen Yarns worsted in Paradise Islands), and I did the knitting. The heart, which I decided to add at the last minute and which is hard to see in this photo, isn’t centered vertically, but I think it’s okay the way it turned out. I’ll block it tomorrow and Rudi will be able to send it off to the knitter who’s collecting the squares and putting them together as soon as it’s dry.

The other knitting is a gift, so I won’t talk about it much, but knitters will recognize it as a Color Affection shawl, which I made for myself several years back and which I wear all the time. I’ll share more information about it once it’s done and with its recipient, but I’ll say that’s nice, mindless knitting, good for multi-tasking.

On the reading front, I’ve got three things going on: My book books are Arabel’s Raven, about a young British girl and her troublemaking pet bird, Mortimer, and A Snicker of Magic, about a young American girl whose mother has brought her and her little sister back to the small town where she grew up — a town once renowned for its now-defunct magic.

My audiobook of the moment is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was one of my favorite books of 2009. It’s performed by a cast of voice actors and I’m enjoying hearing the letters read aloud as much as I’d enjoyed reading them myself five years ago. I’d been thinking it might be time to revisit the book, and when I saw it was available in audio format, I recalled co-author Annie Barrows saying that they’d done a particularly good job with it. It’s perfect for keeping my attention while knitting.

How about you? Are you reading or knitting anything particularly enjoyable?

(Yarning along with Ginny.)

I’ve been meaning to write a post declaring my participation in Carl’s annual Once Upon a Time VIII Challenge for more than a month now, but for whatever reason, I haven’t made the time to do so. However, I thought I’d share that I am participating and I have been reading books in the fantasy/fairy tale/folklore/mythology realm and am looking forward to reading more before the end of spring. I’ll be taking part in the Quest the First, which calls on me to read at least five books.

Want to see what I might read? Check out the to-be read pile:

Currently, I’m reading and enjoying Seraphina, a young adult novel about dragons and music and politics and family. There’s a lot of world-building necessary in this story, so the start has been a little slow, but I anticipate the pace building quickly as the pages turn.

I’m also listening to several books, which is necessary when you’re knitting late at night. I started out with Mindy Kaling’s Is Everybody Hanging Out without Me?, but I quickly realized that modern memoirs, which tend to be topical rather than chronological, are hard to listen to when tired because you don’t realize that you’ve dozed off and are listening an hour later than when you last tuned in. So I moved on to Heat Wave, the first novel tie-in to the tv show, Castle.

The socks are my Sock Madness round three pair, Rainbow Pipes and Linen Stitch Sock. While the knitting is done, the embellishment is not. So there remains a bit more to do — icords and buttons — before they’re wearable. Luckily, I’ll be able to work on those at my leisure, as I failed to finish in time to advance to the next round. Next up, a square Rudi would like me to make for a quilt for the family of a friend of his who died.

How about you? What are you knitting or reading? (I’m Yarning Along with Ginny.)

Earlier in the winter, Emily suggested that a swap might be in order to help cheer her up. A bunch of us agreed that we’d like to be cheered up, too, and a few days later The Swap of Discontent was born.

Emily suggested that we try to give our recipient a cozy night in with makings for tasty drinks or treats, media to enjoy, and a one-skein project. Hand-me-downs were perfectly fair for sharing.

Late in January, a package arrived. The cats were very interested in the box itself, but I found its contents very appealing:

Inside were all sorts of goodies from Colleen in Pennsylvania: There were interesting sounding fruit-flavored teas made with German rock sugar (which I keep thinking of as Pop Rocks, but which hopefully is nothing like that). There was a book, The Light between Oceans, that had appeared on a number of best-of lists at the end of 2013. There was super-soft yarn and a pattern to make a cowl. There were keychains and a row-counter and temporary tattoos and stitch markers…

… and there was an LED barrette that Colleen assured me could be used as a cat toy.

I just don’t think she meant simultaneously.

Thank you, Colleen, for such a great package. And thanks to Emily for suggesting a swap was in order.

Today I’m yarning along with Ginny.

Look! For the first time in ages (or, at least, since Rudi’s injury), I’m reading a book (or two) and working on a knitting project in the same week!

The knitting is my Ravellenic Games project. It’s a turtleneck sweater (Hannah Fettig’s Lightweight Pullover), which you might be hard-pressed to identify, since all I’ve succeeded in knitting is the 9″ of neck. (And, yes, I am thinking about quickly casting on a new project like a hat or a cowl just so I can finish something during the games.)

The books are Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, a futuristic retelling of Cinderella featuring a protagonist who’s a cyborg, and Patricia Lynch’s The Bookshop on the Quay, which I bought on my birthday last year from a used bookstore simply because it contained the word “quay” in the title.

This is the second of my fingerless Christmas mitts. (The Christmas socks didn’t get finished either.) I don’t know exactly why I can’t seem to focus on the work, but it seems like I’m ignoring every warning sign, knitting along merrily even as neon-hued doubts flash across my brain. So each new day usually begins with frogging and reknitting.) But I will persevere. The mitts can be worn off-season and will be ready for the 2014 holidays.

Reading-wise, I’m more focused (although people subscribed to my Goodreads updates might disagree). This is Ruta Sepetys’ Out of the Easy, a novel of historical fiction that takes place in New Orleans in the 1950s and focuses on Jo, a poor bookworm who’d like to get out of town for college, but who is held back, in part by being the daughter of a prostitute. I already had the book out of the library when it earned a finalist spot on the Cybils list, so I quickly bumped it up to being one of my first reads this year. So far, so good, although I fear the book is about to get tense.

(Yarning along with Ginny.)

Rudi was away tonight and instead of being responsible and getting some of the cleaning done that absolutely needs to get done in the next few days, I opted to while away the hours on the couch with books and knitting. (I’m behind on both of those as well, and, honestly, if you’re going to pick things to get caught up on, those tasks seemed so much more appealing than recycling and cleaning the bathroom.)

I read two graphic novels and started the book you see below on the left:

The knitting is the fingerless glove that I decided was too wide since last you saw it, causing me to rip it back and start over. I’m nearly done with the thumb gusset now, so there’s a possibility the pair could be done by this time next week. It’s mindless knitting for the most part, so fits well with holiday movie watching and party attending.

The books are Mary Oliver’s latest poetry collection, Dog Songs, which combines well with plain knitting, and The Universe versus Alex Woods, which I’ve seen on a number of best-of lists so far. Since I’m only in chapter two, I can’t speak yet to whether it will appear on mine.

(Yarning along with Ginny.)