As you can see here, my Tour de France shawl is not done, even though the bike race is. Alas. It is now the length of the hypotenuse of this table, which is on the local coffee shop patio, where I went after volleyball this evening, because it was too nice to come inside.

I will not be knitting on this exclusively anymore, since my Augusts are supposed to be dedicated to finishing up socks that have been lingering on my needles. I have two pairs in particular that I’d like to see finished — my Azalea socks (which I think are a single toe away from being done) and my Posey socks. I think both are doable, plus possibly another pair or two. We’ll see.

My reading du jour is Andrew Shaffer’s Hope Never Dies, the Obama-Biden mystery that recently came out. Since the two of them were spotted at one of my favorite D.C. bakeries earlier this week, it seemed only fitting to start reading it immediately upon getting home from the library. It is an enjoyable potboiler, but no great work of literature. (I’m not clear on whether Shaffer himself has never met a metaphor he doesn’t want to use or whether he thinks that’s the case for Joe Biden, who narrates the story.) But unless something changes in the final hundred pages, I’d totally read a series based on these two.

I’m also still reading Audacity Jones to the Rescue, which is now taking place in D.C. in 1910 and making good use of local landmarks of the time, and The Wild Book. The Pink Carnation lingered about halfway done on my reading pile for a year, but I made some more progress when I took it with me to San Francisco.

I also made progress in American Street, which expired (again) from Overdrive before I could finish it. It looked like I was only a few chapters away from the end, but it doesn’t narratively feel close to being done, so who knows? Murder Games expires in three days, so I guess I’d better return to that one before the same thing happens there.

If you’d like to see what other people are reading or knitting, head over to As Kat Knits for the link-up.

The final Unraveled Wednesday of the month finds me without having made much progress since last week on my Tour de France shawl, although I think the color changes (from pink and violet to salmon and a more reddish-violet) are more obvious now. I do have a lot of airplane knitting between now and Sunday when the cyclists reach Paris, but I am also really good at airplane sleeping, which seems a likely scenario, particularly since one of those flights is a red eye.

I started Audacity Jones to the Rescue on the metro this morning. She’s a plucky orphan whose philosophy is, “Everything will turn out splendid in the end. If it’s not splendid, it’s not the end,” which seems as good a life philosophy as any to me.

Apologies for the short post, but I have a plane to catch tomorrow and haven’t started packing…

Visit As Kat Knits if you’d like to see more knitting and reading posts.

My Tour de France knitting continues apace. There has finally been some color shifting to salmon and a different hue of purple, which is exciting, and the shawl is now longer than my arm, which gives me hope it might someday be long enough to wear. I will need to pick up my pace, since we’re halfway through the Tour and I am not halfway through the knitting. I do have many hours of plane flight coming up next week, though, so it’s a possibility I’ll get caught up.

I’m reading and loving Julie Murphy’s Puddin’, the follow-up to her bestselling book (and soon-to-be feature film), Dumplin’, about two Texas girls who become friends. When I finish it, I’ll be heading back to Moxie, about a Texas girl who rallies other Texas girls to become feminists through her anonymous, Riot Grrrl-inspired zine. As I said to my book group today, apparently I’m all in for kick-ass Texas teen girl novels this summer.

I’ve been listening to a variety of things, but what’s stuck most is Murder Games, the book by James Patterson and Howard Roughan that inspired the tv show Instinct. I always find it interesting in tv shows/films that evolve from books what gratuitous things they choose to change. Here, for instance, one main character’s tv husband has a different name (Andy instead of Tracy) and aspiring career (bar owner instead of actor) and the other main character goes by the nickname (Lizzie) that she hates. The chapters are ridiculously short (which is probably partially what makes Patterson such a page-turner) and I remember from the tv pilot who the bad guy is going to be, even if that character has not yet been introduced in the book. (I suppose it’s a possibility that they changed that, too.) I am also listening to Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings, an #ownvoices memoir which was one of the free Audiobook Sync titles from this year. It’s fine so far, but nothing especially amazing.

You can visit As Kat Knits for additional book and knitting pairings.

Here’s what I’ve knit so far on my Tour de France shawl. I opted for a different pattern than what I showed you last week. This is Around the Bend by Nim Teasdale.

The book is Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. I’ve also been listening to Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki.

Visit As Kat Knits for more book/knitting combos.

My reading has been all over the place this week. A chapter here, a poem there. A different book in each bag. Plus two audiobooks, both L.A. Theatre Works productions, Dr. Cerberus and The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, as I wash dishes and do prep work in the kitchen.

What have you been reading?

The Tour de France knitalong begins Saturday morning and I don’t yet have a pattern picked out. I would like to make a shawl and I’d like to use a couple (or maybe three) of these shawl balls from Freia fine hand paints. They’re all in the Ombré Merino line: 430 yard-long, single ply balls. The colorways are (clockwise from top left) Hard Candy, Vamp, Aloha, and Melon.

I don’t yet have a pattern picked out. Here are a few I’m considering, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know: Frozen, Sea Shanty, Royal Mile, Parallelogram Scarf, Inara Wrap, and Sea Grass.

If it’s helpful, the shawl I wear the most is my Color Affection. I don’t love knitting feather and fan, so I’d rather not make a shawl that’s entirely comprised of that stitch, but I’m not against a section or two of it. I don’t know brioche, but it’s on my list of things to learn this year, so would be fine with a shawl that included that.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what other folks are reading and knitting.

One of the art installations at the Smithsonian Arts & Industries building I didn’t share from last weekend’s By the People Festival was “LUX,” by Jenny Sabin Studio. Described as “a knitted light installation, immersing visitors in a responsive glow of photo-luminescence,” the piece included color-changing lights projected onto a gigantic canopy of knitted tubes and holes.

I didn’t think it was much to look at as a whole, but as you can see, individual segments were quite fetching:

Even assuming this is made by knitting machine, it would have taken a lot of work to create.