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.)

The Broke and the Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesday list asks about the Top Ten 2014 Releases I’m Dying To Read. I’m pretty sure I’ll still live if I don’t get my hands on these, but they have top billing on my radar for next year’s new releases:

1. Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Because she is awesome.)
2. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde (Book 3 of the Dragonslayer series)
3. Threatened by Eliot Schrefer (The next ape book by one of my favorite Cybils authors)
4. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (Sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children)
5. Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill (I’m thinking this could be the female version of Will Grayson, Will Grayson)
6. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (It looks charming in the same way her
   The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was.)
7. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (The latest novel from the author of Anna and the French Kiss.)
8. Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper (A debut novel from one of my Cybils co-judges.)
9. The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale (A graphic novel along the lines of Rapunzel’s Revenge, perhaps?)
10. My Real Children by Jo Walton (Her latest novel about alternate-timeline lives of a woman.)

(Yes, I’m tardy with the list. I was tired last night!)