We could look at this photo as a complete failure, having failed to complete sock or book, by the end of October.

Or…

We could look at it as getting a really nice jump start on the 2020 Halloween season. I know which perspective I’m going with.

Head over to As Kat Knits for what other folks are knitting and reading this week.

No knitting. No knitting pictures. I’m definitely feeling stuck, which probably means I need to just pick up one of my projects and put a few stitches in it. And then do it again.

I’m glad to report that while I put aside The Library Book (I was suddenly able to renew it), I did pick up NPR’s Linda Holmes’ debut novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, which friends had loved. They had said it was a quintessential summer novel, because it takes place in Maine and includes a lot of baseball, but that actually made it a perfect fall book for me, since that’s when I miss New England the most. I can’t imagine it will take me far into the weekend to finish it, particularly since there’s no baseball to watch tomorrow night.

I’m nearly done with Jenny Colgan’s The Bookshop on the Shore, which also seems to fit with my mood, since in my head I kind of assume Scotland is not unlike Maine. If you liked the first Bookshop book, I think you will enjoy revisiting the town in this companion novel (but not really a sequel).

Next up, I think, will be George Takei’s graphic memoir about growing up in an American concentration camp.

Have I mentioned that my new job is kicking my ass?

It is virtually guaranteed that at some point each evening I will require a nap.

I spend a large part of every workday reading and learning, which means that when I get home, my brain is fried. This is too bad, because I both really am enjoying the nonfiction book I’m reading and need to get it back to the library before Sunday.

And even though I ought to be able to multitask while I watch tv, I instead tend to stare blankly at a program, hands idle.

I haven’t finished the final couple rows of my shawl, which is all it’s needed for weeks. I haven’t touched my zigzag shawl for months. And while the Halloween yarn I bought to turn into Halloween socks is, at least, on the needles, it seems unlikely to be wearable in the next two weeks unless I’m hoping to turn it into a Halloween cuff bracelet.

But there’s one more baseball series to watch, starting next week, so I suppose anything is possible.

No pictures of knitting or books today. I was going to spend the time after volleyball knitting on my shawl (which has remained two rows and the bind-off away from completion for weeks now!), but instead I napped. I did cast on for a new pair of socks with the Halloween yarn I bought this weekend. And I’m attending a local candidate’s forum tomorrow evening, so I’ll be knitting on something while I’m there.

The reading front has been similarly barren. I’ve got The Library Book going in the evenings, Murder in the Locked Library if I leave my desk for lunch, and I just resumed listening to The Bookshop on the Shore tonight.

Visit As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and crafting.

I did a little shopping today.

The yarn was a splurge when I decided that since the bank has closed earlier than I’d expected it to (and I couldn’t get a roll of quarters to do laundry), I could stop by the yarn shop across the street. They’d recently gotten in a nice assortment of self-striping Havirland Pax Sock. The colorway is The Final Girls (all the Halloween-themed colors seemed to be named after horror films).

The books and cd are all second-hand via the used book sale from my local branch’s Friends of the Library. As a bonus, some of the books were free because I joined the Friends. Most of them I wouldn’t necessarily have bought if they’d been new, but I’ve been on the holds list for The Wedding Date and would have borrowed Christmas Bells toward the holiday. And if I don’t like them, I can donate them back to the library and some other schmuck can buy them next time.

Happy Saturday to me!

It was a lovely afternoon yesterday and so Rudi and I spent the latter portion of it outside, hanging out at the popsicle shop. I’m at the final couple rows of my shawl, so I was able to knit and read at the same time.