Front Side

Back Side

As I mentioned yesterday, I had messed up my Feel Good Shawl, by putting the center increase off-center in the last repeat that I did. I decided to do surgery and see if I could fix it by just dropping down the three stitches and fixing them back up. And then I tried to fix that by dropping down one stitch and fixing that. And then I decided I should just frog back to an area before I had tried to fix the problem and pick up and knit from there, with much better results.

Apologies for the blurry shot of the back. Clearly the project moved at the last second.

The good news is that tonight was the first time I felt confident reading my knitting and understanding what I should be doing, which bodes well for fewer mistakes (fingers crossed) and faster knitting.

I am making progress, albeit slowly, on my Feel Good shawl, but when I went to take a photo to show you, I found a mistake four rows back. So I’ll fix that tomorrow and show you then. In the meantime, check out the yarns I’m using above. The three gradients are Freia shawl balls, the dark blue is Smooshy, and I think the pink is PennyRose.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic asks us to share the most anticipated books coming out in the second half of 2022. Here are some of mine:

1. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
2. Booked by Kwame Alexander
3. Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age
4. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
5. Sonali Dev’s The Vibrant Years
6. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns
7. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (A bonus mystery is who edited this compilation of Miss Marple stories penned by modern authors, since even the publisher’s site doesn’t list that info.)
8. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
9. A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
10. Dhonielle Clayton’s Whiteout

How about you? Are there books coming out before the end of the year that you’re particularly looking forward to?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As my friend Katie and I were cycling between our game and the bar, we passed through the grove next to the D.C. War Memorial, which was sprinkled with fireflies. When we emerged onto the Mall sidewalk, we were greeted with the most amazing sunset.

2. My favorite Nationals player, pitcher Sean Doolittle, is also a big reader, and he was invited by the Library of Congress to take part in a public chat with Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. Rudi, my friend Sarah, and her friend all got tickets, but Rudi and I went early to tour the building, since Rudi had never been. As a special treat, the Reading Room was open to the public. You could hear the angels singing.

3. The gnats drove Rudi and me away from the Capitol Reflecting Pool and off the Mall. On Pennsylvania Avenue, the Mellon Fountain was running so briskly as to keep the bugs at bay. We rested next to it for a good 15 minutes, soaking in the cool air, before continuing our walk home.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

The Tour de France and its corresponding knitalong begin on Friday, and, as usual, I’m down to the wire on making a decision. I thought I’d see what folks thought of some of these shawl patterns, all of which could be made from yarn in my stash:

From Summer to Fall uses 3 colors, with lots of garter stitch and sections of lace.

I have knit two Cally Monster shawls for Tour de France projects — 4-Ever in Blue Jeans, which I wear all the time, and my latest finish, Fully Charged. I considered Love Grows Here several years back, but decided against it that year. For the main color, I could either use the lilac I’d suggested at the time or the two mirrored shawl balls in gradients of green my parents gave me for my birthday this year.

I keep talking about learning how to knit brioche, and now could be as good a time as any, with something like Sylvan Tales Shawl, Sukha (which uses mohair as one of the yarns) or, more simply, the Feel Good Shawl.

Stripe Study is a two-color shawl, which would work well with some of the gradients I have.

Thoughts?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the top ten books we’re excited to read this season.

I love these quarterly looks ahead at what we’re planning to read, even if I’m not excellent at executing them (I’ve read two from this spring’s list and should finish two others this week). But what are lists like this for if not for an aspirational jumping off place?

So here are ten books I’m hoping to cross off my list before summer ends:

1. Wayward Son, by Rainbow Rowell (Rudi gave me this as a Christmas present during the pandemic, and then I wanted to wait and reread Carry On before starting the sequel. I have yet to stumble across where I put it. Obviously the only answer is to take the first book out of the library, so I can get on to the second one, which is set on a summer break roadtrip, one of my favorite tropes in YA literature.)
2. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray features another of my favorite tropes — retellings/reimaginings of classic literature — set as a whodunit during a summer garden party.
3. Flying Solo by Linda Holmes (Being from southern New England, I have a biased view of Maine as a summer vacation spot, which makes this feel like a prime season to read Holmes’ sophomore novel.)
4. When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (A speculative fiction adult novel by one of my favorite middle-grade authors would be an easy yes in any season, but I’m hoping it’s a little bit of a balm in a post-Roe world (how it physically hurts to type that!).)
5. Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics is her first foray into adult romance novelwriting, and I’m excited to see her succeed!
6. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is definitely a more serious romance, but has been well-received by people whose taste I tend to appreciate.
7. People We Meet on Vacation or Beach Read by Emily Henry (Honestly, I’m not particular which of Henry’s previous two works I read. They’re both set during the summer and feature readers, and I am in. Plus, it should be at least a little easier to get one of these than her most recent book.)
8. Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer is another setting that seems obvious for listening to while working in the garden or sipping a strawberry daiquiri in the park.
9. Steven Rowley’s The Guncle (short for gay uncle) looks hilarious and heartbreaking in turns.
10. Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) by Eliot Schrefer gives a scientific answer to that stupid question from when I was growing up: “If being gay were natural, wouldn’t animals be gay?”

What books are you looking forward to reading this summer?