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In progress: July 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51:   Nothing. Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys: Finished Chapter 4.  Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Took it on vacation and did two pattern repeats (!) mostly in the car. It's now just over 6" long. I agreed with a comment I saw on Ravelry, that this was a very tedious pattern to knit. And I loved seeing some people had abandoned the key pattern at the armholes, or done the sleeves plain, or the like. I'm optimistic that it will become less hellish when I get to the armholes. Maybe I'll get there sometime around Christmas?  Quattro socks (knitty). Tidied up the danglers on the first sock, finished the second. I did not enjoy this pattern, though I will try it once more in a different size and with a different organization of balls of yarn.  Plain ordinary socks #2 : Last month I had started the cuff on the first sock. Now I'm just pas...
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What I read: July 2026

  LHC #327: "Interference" by Sue Burke. Hard copy. Sequel. All the characters seem sort of neuroatypical. I liked this volume better than the first, but it's totally necessary to have read the first one to enjoy this, I think. The 120-page chapter narrated by Stevland the bamboo plant was a challenge, but if it had been told by anyone else it would have been twice as long, so there's that.  "The Candy House" by Jennifer Egan. eBook, for office book club. It's a mosaic novel, and some characters' chapters were easier to read than others.  LHC #328: "How Infrastructure Works" by Deb Chachra. Hard copy. It made me think about the social contract in a much bigger way, really cool and interesting. I found this oddly organized, though I don't really know what I expected. What a smart author though, such interesting connections!  LHC #329: "The Golden Enclaves" by Naomi Novik. eBook. Third book in a trilogy. Alex had told me she...
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In progress - June 2026

  Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing.   Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys: Got bored of working on Chapter 4 and started working through the rest of the setting that starts with Chapter 4. For this project, working through each setting as a block seems like a good strategy (so far).   Critted 4 Got back  2 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Another inch.  Bongo Basketweave (knitty): Started the month with just the finishing to do. Done!  Plain ordinary socks. Started the month halfway through the leg of the second sock.  Done! Quattro socks (knitty). Started the first. I'll probably do 3 pairs of these, finished the first sock except for about 50 danglers, started the second.  Plain ordinary socks #2 : Needed something mindless to work on because the four balls of yarn on the Quattro socks are too fiddly. Did a cuff.  Sashiko project: Nothing.  ...
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What I read - June 2026

LHC #324: "The Annual Migration of Clouds" by Premee Mohamed. eBook. Beautifully written, but I wanted it to be more expansive.  LHC #325: "How to Suppress Women's Writing" by Joanna Russ. Hard copy. Very angry! Now I know about Aphra Behn!  "The Crow Trap" by Ann Cleeves. Hard copy, lent to me by a friend. I read it on the train. It was fine.  LHC #326: "On the Ravine" by Vincent Lam. Audiobook. A bit pedantic. I learned a lot, but I had to listen to it at 1.15 speed. Everyone made pretty bad choices. I found Memorex/Iawagaing (forgive my spelling, audio book!) sort of unbelievable but whatever.  "The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins. eBook. This was awesome. Great voice, so funny. I loved this book. Everyone made such bad choices! 
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What I read: May 2025

"Karate Do: My Way of Strife" by Norma Foster. Hard copy. I've saw her in person once, in Edmonton in 2019. My sensei lent this to me. His marginalia was great. because sometimes he was there.  LHC #322:   "A most remarkable creature" by Jonathan Mieberg.  eBook. Loved it.  "The Dream Hotel" by Laila Lalami. Hard copy for office book club. I found part 1 very distressing and was happy to set it aside because that was all Book Club was covering in our first meeting. Then the meeting got postponed and I missed it because I was out of the office, and I read parts 2 and 3 for the next meeting and found it hard to not keep going! The ending left a lot of things hanging for me, but that's okay.  LHC #323: "The Fractured Dark" by Megan E O'Keefe. Hard copy. Sequel! I enjoyed it until the main characters hooked up, and then all they did was touch each other all the time and it was so cloying. Ick. Don't know if I'll read the sequel. ...
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In progress - May 2026

Wind/Water/Salt   Chapters 39-51:   Nothing. Persephone  (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys:  Worked on giving Chapter 4 a shape.  Critted  4  Got back  1 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Aberlady  (AS Celtic Collection). did an inch or so while listening to an audio book.  Ankylosaur  (Knitty). Started the month with one sock done to the gusset and the other done to the toe. These are done.  Bongo Basketweave   (knitty): Started the month with the back done and four inches of front. Finished the front and started the sleeves top down at the same time because I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn. Indeed, I knitted the sleeves until there was none of one of my colors left and stopped. Just the finishing to do now. I hope my half-length sleeves don't look too stupid when I'm done, but that's something to find out next month.  Plain ordinary socks. Started...
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What I read: April 2026

  LHC #318: "Lolly Willowes or, the Loving Huntsman" by Sylvia Townsend Warner. eBook. It was published in 1926 so it's stylistically a lot different from modern, but there was such a sense of humor!  "The maid who brought her morning tea and laid the folded towel across the hot-water can had an experienced look; when she drew the curtains she looked out upon the day with no curiosity. She had seen it already."  I loved how it ended. I really had no idea where it was going.  "The Water Outlaws" by SL Huang.  Hard copy that I got for Christmas 2024 I believe. Really fun, but I had a hard time keeping the characters' names straight.  LHC #319: "City of Lies" by Sam Hawke.  Hard copy; 3 copies in the TPL. Not for me perhaps.  LHC #320: "School of Shards" by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko . eBook. Satisfying ending to the trilogy. I definitely liked it better than book 2. Glad I read it.  LHC #321: "Wayward Son" by Rainbow R...
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