As you can see, I’ve been knitting! I have at least one and a half more repeats of the pattern, I think, before I decrease for the toe. But I’m definitely nearly there!

I recently finished both print and audiobooks, so technically I’m less in the midst of reading Stacey Lee’s The Downstairs Girl and more that I’m about to start it. Set in Atlanta in the late 1800s, the novel focuses on an Asian American teen who works as a lady’s maid by day and an anonymous advice columnist by night.

Head to As Kat Knits to see what else folks are working their way through.

Look! I finished my Smock Madness gusset, so now I just have to knit a foot! Simple! It’s practically a full sock! (Well, maybe not. I wear size 11 shoes, so the foot is just as long as the leg. But still! More than halfway on the second sock!)

I shared with you last night my audiobooks, so tonight I figured I’d show you what I’m reading in print: Virginia Kantra’s Meg & Jo, a modern retelling of Little Women.

In this version, Marmee runs a goat farm in North Carolina. Mr. March is a former army chaplain who now runs support groups for returning soldiers. Meg is a former bank loan manager who now stays home with her toddlers, Daisy and D.J., while her husband John works at a car dealership for the Laurences.

Jo is in New York City, where she’s anonymously writing a food blog and making ends meet with a job as a prep cook in Chef Bhaer’s restaurant after having been downsized from her newspaper job.

But when Marmee gets sick, her two eldest children are going to have to take hard looks at what’s most important to them.

I’m halfway through and really enjoying it so far. All the key scenes are there, but altered, but our heroes remain themselves even though they communicate via text instead of post box in the hedge. But as we all know, the first half of Little Women is the easy part, so I’m steeling myself for a weepy weekend ahead.

Want to see what others are reading and crafting? Head over to As Kat Knits for her weekly Unraveled roundup.

The unraveling is mostly only in my reading. In Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, the main character suddenly starts experiencing years of her life in non-chronological fashion. In Livingston Girls by Briana Morgan (thanks, Jenn!), Rose’s new all-girls school turns out to be a little … witchier … than she expected. In Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez, Sal accidentally brings his dead mother back to life for a little while for a festive meal. And in Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed, Jamie and Maya are trying to figure out what their relationship is during the final, frantic days of a crucial local election.

On the sock front, I have turned a heel! Now I just need to pick up the stitches and we can start flying toe-ward! I’m looking forward to taking something off the needles finally!

Head over to As Kat Knits for more of what folks are crafting and reading.

Look! It’s most of a heel flap! I meant to finish it while I was waiting for the laundry just now, but instead I took a nap. I regret nothing.

On the book front, I took a break from Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez last week to devour Nic Stone’s debut middle grade novel, Clean Getaway, and to put a dent into my audiobook, Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed’s Yes No Maybe So. But I’m back to the Miami art school and I can now see why breaking the universe is such a problem. No one wants a hole into another dimension in their neighbor’s locker, particularly a rather large one that looks directly into a chicken packing plant. A lot of nasty things can get through that…

Head over to As Kat Knits to see people who take fewer naps and get more done with their crafts and reading.

I really need to get to the park before dusk, because then I would actually be able to spend some time knitting on my heel flap. Once you get past the gusset decreases of a top-down sock, you’re practically home free, because even if, as with this sock, there will be patterning on the top of the foot, it’s stockinette on the bottom and therefore takes less time to knit.

I am eager to reach that point on these socks, but before I can decrease, I have to increase and I’m not quite there yet.

After enjoying the last Rick Riordan imprint I read, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia, I decided pick up another, Carlos Hernandez’s Sal and Gabi Break the Universe. This was highly recommended by my friend Rebs, and she rarely steers me wrong. It’s about two younger teens who attend an arts school. One of the two is an aspiring magician, who, after his mom dies, discovers he can perform real magic, and the other is a would-be journalist and lawyer. I’m still in early days, so am eager to find out how the story evolves after the author finishes introducing the characters and setting the scene.

Head over to As Kat Knits for what others are reading and crafting.

I’m about a third of the way into Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, about a grieving Chicago boy spending his summer on his grandparents’ farm who discovers the Black and African folktales his grandmother has raised him on actually exist in a parallel universe and that he, as the latest in a line of powerful storytellers, may be needed to save both worlds. So far I’m really enjoying it and recommend it to anyone, like me, who is woefully versed in this folk tradition or whose tenuous knowledge comes largely from a certain Disney film.

I continue to be an unmotivated knitter. I finished the leg of my second Smock Madness, which means I have about eight hours of knitting left before this becomes a wearable pair of socks. And yet…

Normally, I’d be considering a couple new projects right about now, in advance of the Summer Olympics and the Tour de France, but it feels like I should trudge through some of these older projects and get them crossed off. Sadly, that’s also the story of my work life, which may be contributing to my reluctance to pick up my knitting. Finishing anything at this point would probably go a long way toward making me feel more productive on all fronts, so hopefully I will power through.

Head to As Kat Knits to see projects and books from people who do not have this frustrating lack of ambition in their work.