Last week was a productive week, with two knitting projects coming off the needles, which I hope to share soon, after I get some natural light photos. This means I was able to move back to a couple more projects. My Andrea Shawl is still in the stripe decreases. I should really get onto Ravelry to look at the projects I favorites to find out when, exactly, I’m supposed to stop decreasing if I’m going to adapt the shape to one that many people suggest stays on better than the one in the pattern. Tonight I had a sudden flash of insight into where I’d stuffed the project bag containing my Sock Madness sock. With one sock fully knitted, it seemed a likely contender for my finishing the pair by month’s end. Let’s hope I’m slightly more focused than I was with the first sock, which took me two weeks to complete. Also sitting within arm’s reach of the couch, but not pictured, are a pair of nearly completed socks, a pair of nearly completed fingerless mitts, and the other pair of vanilla socks I had in progress around the house.

As for my reading progress this week for Bout of Books, I read the entirety of Patrick Ness’ The Rest of Us Just Live Here (YA fantasy’ish about the kids who aren’t the Chosen One) on Monday, began R.S. Spratt’s Friday Barnes, Girl Detective (kidlit gumshoe genius) on Tuesday, and finished listening to The Heist (adult caper/romance between an FBI agent and an extremely attractive and suave world-class thief she’s been pursuing for years), by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, tonight. Summer reading’s been extended a couple more weeks here in D.C., which may mean I’ll tackle some longer books, rather than just all the short ones in the house designed to bump up my numbers. (Although, to be fair, all those short books are currently sitting in a pile on my coffee table, so maybe I’d still better tackle them first.)