Yesterday it was so warm I spent the early part of the evening sitting outside at my local coffeehouse with my book. I had a tshirt and sweatshirt on and added a scarf while I was sitting there after sunset, but didn’t need to break out my hat or mitts from my bag and I certainly didn’t need a coat. Today it blustered a lot and snowed a little (not enough to stick, but still).

Anyway, this was what I was reading yesterday, but it was so charming that I was quickly done with it. If you enjoy historical fiction (it’s set in WWII London) that mostly (see previous parentheses) ends on an up-note, do check it out.

I’ve tried starting both An American Marriage and Washington Black, but I don’t want to read bleak but Important stories right now. Which I recognize makes me the worst type of liberal White reader, so I’ve just put them to the side for now rather than taking them back to the library just yet in the hopes that I can get out of my own way in the near future. I pulled out (carefully, because it was under my holiday light display) the illustrated version of the third Harry Potter film and picked up where I left off back in the fall, figuring it may help me over my reading hiccup. Or it may not, but at least I’ll have enjoyed it.

My knitting is also experiencing a hump. I could show you the various skeins of yarn I’ve pulled out of storage (quite pretty!), the older projects I’ve moved closer to the couch but haven’t otherwise touched (I could have FO’s with so little work!), or the six rows I actually knit on the beginning of that blue shawlette I thought would be done by (this, rather than next) New Year’s, but none of it is really knitting, but knitting-approximate, and we all know the difference.

Anyway … maybe by next week.

Head over to Kat’s where you can see what people who actually pick up their needles are making.

What you see here is the start of a new shawlette. It’s a pretty blue and a soft yarn and I’m hoping the pattern works with it. I’m knitting it on larger needles than I usually work with, so I’m hoping the sections will fly by.

I finished Winter Stroll tonight, staying up after everyone else went to bed to read by the Christmas tree. It was fine, and I will definitely finish the trilogy up next Christmas, but it wasn’t anything amazing. Winning Her Holiday Love is the other Christmas book I brought up with me and I imagine it will be a quick read. I mean, we’re going home tomorrow, so it won’t be done before I leave Connecticut, but definitely by the end of the weekend. I started listening to Cornelia Funke’s When Santa Claus Fell to Earth when we were driving up and figure I’ll finish it on the drive home. It’s not a long kid’s book, so the audiobook is only a couple hours.

This is the final Wednesday of the year, so you should head over to As Kat Knits to see what everyone else is reading and crafting.

It was a hectic week, which means not much knitting got accomplished. Nothing old is done. Nothing new is started. Tomorrow I vow to do one or the other.

I’ve done better on the reading front. I read the first chapter of The Muse of Nightmares, which is dark (duh!) and kind of maybe don’t want to read it right now. I was able to renew it, so maybe I’ll put it aside and try again next week. I have plenty of other paper books to choose from, including Glad Tidings, two holiday romance novellas which have been perfectly adequate bathroom reading but seem unlikely to advance beyond that. I think I’ll finish The Wolves of Willoughby Chase next, provided I can lay hands on it quickly. Otherwise, Christmas Caramel Murder, Christmas at Eagle Pond, and Ghosts of Greenglass House are the leading contenders to read next.

I’m listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming, which she reads, and I now feel like I have a wise girlfriend keeping me company while I wash the dishes at night. I also have Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery out on audio, which is by the same author who wrote The Bookshop on the Corner, which was fine, but nothing particularly special. I’ve listened to the first few chapters, because a lot of people seem to really think it’s sweet, but I’m not sure I’m invested enough after the first few chapters to keep going. There’s probably another half hour before we learn what the driving force of this book’s plot is going to be (there’s been almost 45 minutes of set-up so far), so I suppose I’ll give it that much. Otherwise, I’ll probably just return to hanging out with Michelle.

I’ve been feeling a bit unbalanced and realized that might be because I haven’t done a lot of knitting or reading lately, so this evening after Rudi went to bed I did both. I pulled out the long-lingering shawl, ripped back the partial bind-off I’d done and redid it. I don’t love the way it looks, but I’ve decided that I’m unlikely to not wear it because of that, so have forged on ahead. I still have 200 ever-shortening rows to go, though, so I’m not sure I’ll get it bound off before the end of the month, but probably before next week.

Reading wise, I managed the first essay in fellow Camel Sloane Crosley’s Look Alive Out There, which was about the dysfunctional ways urban neighbors become entwined in each others’ lives, while up in Connecticut, and I’m looking forward to the rest.

I can’t seem to force myself to open The Muse of Nightmares right now, so I’ve returned to The Alcatraz Escape, which has been in the works nearly as long as my shawl. I’m also finishing the final two chapters of Sam and Ilsa’s Last Hurrah on audio. I’m not loving it, which is disappointing, but it’s probably a good book to read right now, all about leaving one’s comfort zone and finding new adventures. Both of those seem likely to be done before the weekend, which is good, because right now things leaving my apartment is a big goal of mine.

Hopefully next week a whole slew of knitting and reading!

(Head over to As Kat Knits to see what everyone else has going on the needles and the page.)

This is cheating a bit, because I completed these socks back in August, but I’m pretty sure I never showed you the finished socks. Today was my first time wearing them, August not being particularly conducive to sporting wool, so I thought I’d get a couple glamour shots from the park I visited (Chuck Brown Memorial/Langdon Park). Unfortunately, I didn’t remember I wanted to take pictures until the sun was already down (which does somewhat negate the purpose of waiting to model the socks until the clouds went away), so I was racing against the gloaming.

These were supposed to be my springtime socks, knit in time to model with the local azalea bloom season, but those plans didn’t come to flower.

The details:

The yarn is Knitterly Things Vesper Sock in merino in the In the Wildwood colorway. I knit my standard picot stockinette default for stripey socks, but used two needle sizes this time — 2.5 mm for the leg and 2.25 mm for the feet. I started them April 26th and finished August 12th.

Expect more shots of FOs in the next week!

Moping is excellent for making progress on stripey socks, so as soon as the sun returns, I’ll have some FO shots for you. In the meantime, take a gander at this washed-out photo that I’m not going to retake tonight. I bought this yarn back in March, with the intent of knitting complementary Christmas socks (cranberry and frost are the colorways), and the time has come to set that plan into motion. I think. Unless I decide to knit something else with them. Time will tell.

I picked up the latest Robert Galbraith book, Lethal White, yesterday after voting, but didn’t have the energy to start it until tonight. I’m already enjoying it quite a bit! This is good, because Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, which is about two families 150 years apart facing tenuous futures with regards to their finances/employment/housing, is feeling much less enjoyable than it did a week ago. I have tremendous faith in Kingsolver, though, and know she will plot a path through this difficulty that will leave me feeling better about the situation than I do now. But when both books get too stressful, I’m ready to begin a re-read of The Prisoner of Azkaban, which has the added benefit of staying open in my lap while I knit.

You can check out As Kat Knits to see what everyone else is reading and knitting as we head into the woolly months of the year.