This is the second of my fingerless Christmas mitts. (The Christmas socks didn’t get finished either.) I don’t know exactly why I can’t seem to focus on the work, but it seems like I’m ignoring every warning sign, knitting along merrily even as neon-hued doubts flash across my brain. So each new day usually begins with frogging and reknitting.) But I will persevere. The mitts can be worn off-season and will be ready for the 2014 holidays.

Reading-wise, I’m more focused (although people subscribed to my Goodreads updates might disagree). This is Ruta Sepetys’ Out of the Easy, a novel of historical fiction that takes place in New Orleans in the 1950s and focuses on Jo, a poor bookworm who’d like to get out of town for college, but who is held back, in part by being the daughter of a prostitute. I already had the book out of the library when it earned a finalist spot on the Cybils list, so I quickly bumped it up to being one of my first reads this year. So far, so good, although I fear the book is about to get tense.

(Yarning along with Ginny.)