Back at the beginning of the year, I vowed I was going to try to achieve three preset goals each month. That fell by the wayside, but I thought I’d revive it this month and see if I could get back into the habit.

This month I’d like to:

1. See a show: As we were watching the Tony’s this year, we bemoaned the fact that we’ve gotten out of the habit of seeing plays and musicals. We’re heading to New York later this month, and high amongst our goals for the trip is to see a show.
2. Finish at least three pairs of socks: August holds one of my favorite online knit-alongs — the Sock Knitters Anonymous finish-along. Last year I completed two pairs and I’d like to exceed that this month. I probably have a dozen pairs that are in-progress (starting from earlier this year and dating back as far as 2009).
3. Complete a bike ride of at least 20 miles: I’ve done several 10-mile days this summer, so it feels like a longer trip is in order. It can be 10 miles out and 10 back (like a ride to Old Town) and there can be a good space of time in between, but it would be nice to get a lengthy daytrip in before Labor Day.

What things would you like to do this month?

Wednesdays are for sharing books and knitting projects as I yarn along with Ginny.

Color Affection 3 continues to grow. I’m nearing the end of the third section now, which then only leaves the solid base and binding off. We’re heading out to watch a biking-themed movie tomorrow night, so I hope to finish the stripes then, or maybe Friday evening. Either way, I think this one might be off the needles by this time next week.

Two new books this week. I bought The Cats of Tanglewood Forest last year for the Once Upon a Time readalong, put it on this year’s list, as well, and then didn’t start it until the first day of summer. But that’s ok. The illustrations are lush (as you can probably tell from the cover), but I’ll need a few more pages to determine how I feel about the story of cats turning a girl into a kitten (to save her life) using their version of magic.

Beauty Queens appeared on a number of best-of lists a couple years ago and I went hunting for it at the library last week, as I felt a stirring for a survivalist summer read. I started it earlier this evening and am already more than 150 pages into this satirical novel about teen beauty pageant contestants who survive a plane crash onto what they believe to be a deserted island. Their ambition, mettle, and talents are put to the test as they convert evening gowns into rainwater collectors, spear fish with curling irons (sharpened to a point with manicure sets), get to know each other (and themselves) a little better, and explore personal and societal expectations of what it means to be a teen girl.

Let’s have a look-see at what I’m carrying around with me these days, shall we? You haven’t seen any of this before:

Yes, it is another Color Affection shawl in different colors from the last one. No, the previous one hasn’t been finished yet, but I’ve put it aside in favor of this one for the time being. Yes, I do think I might get tired of this pattern. No, it doesn’t really matter.

On the book front, what you see here are two books I’m reading for the Once upon a Time challenge. Wildwood is a contemporary middle-grade fantasy story written by the frontman for The Decemberists. Like his songs, Colin Meloy’s novel is chockablock full of words that would make Mr. Roget radiate with repletion. Yet the story, of a girl whose baby brother is stolen away by a murder of crows and who braves the untrespassed nearby forest armed only a backpack and her annoying classmate seeking to retrieve him, is fun and original and the dual narration doesn’t feel gratuitous. I’m about halfway through and look forward to finishing it this week.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns is a more traditional fairy tale. Our protagonist, a fat, 16-year-old, second-daughter princess, is married off to a stranger/king and then must move to his country via a jungle and desert journey during which time they are beset by brigands (eat you heart out, Meloy) all the while downplaying that she has God’s blessed gem living in her belly button. Oh, and there’s going to be a war. Okay, so maybe “traditional” was a bit of a stretch there earlier. But it’s compelling and I’m enjoying watching Elisa grow into the person she didn’t think herself capable of.

And on the audio front, I’ve finished with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I highly, highly recommend both in print and audio formats) and tonight started a re-listen to the first Harry Potter audiobook. I still wish I could track down the British version, read by Stephen Fry, but the American version is perfectly fine, although if I recall correctly, the narrator isn’t great with girl/women voices and should never have been given the go-ahead for his rendition of Hermione. I particularly like audio for re-“reads” and I’m finding that it’s a nice alternative to tv for late-night knitting.

Yarning along with Ginny. 
 
 

I admit my socks look much like they did a fortnight ago (I’ve added one icord of 14), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting.

The square is for a quilt being made in remembrance of an acquaintance of ours. He was hit by a car last fall, suffered serious traumatic brain damage, and died last month as a result of complications from the surgery to close his scalp after the swelling had finally gone down. Rudi learned the quilt was being made and asked if I’d be willing to knit the square from us. He picked out and bought the yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Marigoldjen Yarns worsted in Paradise Islands), and I did the knitting. The heart, which I decided to add at the last minute and which is hard to see in this photo, isn’t centered vertically, but I think it’s okay the way it turned out. I’ll block it tomorrow and Rudi will be able to send it off to the knitter who’s collecting the squares and putting them together as soon as it’s dry.

The other knitting is a gift, so I won’t talk about it much, but knitters will recognize it as a Color Affection shawl, which I made for myself several years back and which I wear all the time. I’ll share more information about it once it’s done and with its recipient, but I’ll say that’s nice, mindless knitting, good for multi-tasking.

On the reading front, I’ve got three things going on: My book books are Arabel’s Raven, about a young British girl and her troublemaking pet bird, Mortimer, and A Snicker of Magic, about a young American girl whose mother has brought her and her little sister back to the small town where she grew up — a town once renowned for its now-defunct magic.

My audiobook of the moment is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was one of my favorite books of 2009. It’s performed by a cast of voice actors and I’m enjoying hearing the letters read aloud as much as I’d enjoyed reading them myself five years ago. I’d been thinking it might be time to revisit the book, and when I saw it was available in audio format, I recalled co-author Annie Barrows saying that they’d done a particularly good job with it. It’s perfect for keeping my attention while knitting.

How about you? Are you reading or knitting anything particularly enjoyable?

(Yarning along with Ginny.)

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.)

Now that I’ve finished my second knit object of 2014, I thought it was probably time to share with you my first:

This is the Y Not Cowl, which I knit as a last-minute Ravellenic Games contender last month when I realized that the fingering-weight-sweater-while-Rudi-was-sick-project was probably a little ambitious for a two-week period:

The yarn is the ultra-soft Fibre Company Tundra in Snowdrift, which had been sent to me with the pattern, by Colleen earlier in the month. I knit the pattern on US 11 needles, using the modifications Colleen suggested on the pattern (ribbing on both ends, rather than just one, and fewer pattern repeats).

As you can see here, I finished up before the Olympic cauldron was extinguished:

However, I forgot about the time difference and neglected to read the instructions carefully, so the cowl is not a medal winner.

But when you’ve had a winter like we’ve had, we take the wins we can get, and winning the First FO of 2014 is a pretty awesome award if you ask me, particularly when it’s an accessory that’s so versatile at this time of year: