The knitting traveling plan is to replenish my rather bedraggled washcloth stack. I can knit it from memory without a pattern and without looking at it, which are both necessary for car knitting! I finished Counting By Sevens with a kleenex box at my side. Oh my word. It is so very good, but goodness you will need tissues! It’ll make you notice and love the family you have all around you.

Sharing with Ginny.

It started a bit unexpectedly. I was feeling “a bit stab-y” as I relayed to my Beloved. I went into my stash and found the softest yarn I could find, took a few minutes to cast on, and then returned to the fray. He began to chuckle- it turned into a full-bellied laugh, and I looked at him innocently. “What?” “You say you’re feeling a bit murderous and you go and find sharp knitting needles…” Ahem. Yes. I haven’t knit all summer, but it was definitely time. I don’t know what it is about knitting for me, but (aside from the sometimes #$%^#& cast-on and/or cast-off) knitting definitely calms me and helps me keep focus. It’s very meditative. I needed meditative the other day! I’m not sure what I’m making yet, either. It’s a stash buster. I’m thinking possibly of making it into a pillow cover. It’s unbelievably soft! I think it is some leftover bamboo yarn from a failed project very early in my knitting escapades. Is it wrong when you want to pet your knitting?

I didn’t start the summer with a reading goal in mind. I just wandered…there are a few missing from the stack.

I haven’t read The Spark yet. I remember running across their story on social media some time in the spring and being fascinated by his learning journey. I’m looking forward to digging in.

I’ll admit to getting sucked into The Flight of Gemma Hardy by it’s cover and then a brief reckoning of the back blurb. I didn’t realize she had [heavily] borrowed from Jane Eyre. I wasn’t but a few pages in before I groaned with recognition. It was a betrayal. I jumped ahead about two thirds into the novel, where it got interesting for its own sake. In my opinion, the author should have took her ideas and characters in Iceland and turned that into the novel, not copy Bronte’s plot the whole way through. I don’t know why it has become okay to so brazenly and openly “borrow” (ahem, Austen re-creators I’m giving you the stink eye) from these authors. So make of that what you will.

The Casual Vacancy reminded me why J.K. Rowling became the success she did with Potter. It is brilliantly written- no plot holes, tight narrative, absolutely skewering character sketches. And boy, does she know how to ratchet up the suspense. It’s profane. It’s hysterical. It’s heart-rending. It’ll make you look in the mirror and think hard. It’ll make you appreciate family in a way you probably hadn’t thought to before. She is the Austen of our age, but on a much wider scale. If you’re squeamish about language or tough subjects, stay away. But you are in good hands with Rowling- she’s not using them as throw away or cliche, so I encourage you to trust her.

I picked up The Dyslexic Advantage at the library. I’m trying to understand more about Lorelei’s diagnosis. This one is interesting, but I am finding it a slog. There is a lot of technical information (numbers in studies, etc) that honestly detract from the discussion at hand. The authors would have done better to foot note a lot of the technical information and told us instead why it is important instead of cluttering up the chapters. A bit ironic for a book about dyslexia, actually. I do appreciate their viewpoint that dyslexics are highly gifted in other areas- something I already knew to be true for Lorelei.

I picked up my old Austen compilation from college and read Persuasion, which, remarkably, I had not read before. (I also have not read Lady Susan.) It was a good jaunt. It’s not one of her best works, but I did think her considerations of constancy and loyalty were interesting.

Aimee recommended The Homemade Pantry on Instagram earlier this summer, and I too, recommend it highly. Especially for mamas of large families. The recipes are clear and easy to follow (and also easy to substitute for gluten free). It was well worth my investment.

Sharing with Ginny.

I finished another Garter Stitch Cowl in Grey last night for my husband. (Here’s mine from this summer.) This was an extremely fast knit this time- literally the fastest I’ve ever completed a project to date- from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday evening. I think what is most gratifying about this one is that there are no mistakes. When I made one I was able to figure out how to fix it without frogging, or caught it quickly enough to only have to frog a few stitches. The one visible mistake I made (an extra purl row) I was going to go back and fix, but my husband liked the way it looked and asked for another line another third of the way up. It gives it a delightfully chunky ribbed look.

I finished both The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne and Glimmerglass: A Novel in the last few weeks. I liked the quick read about the Bronte sisters- I had read Jane Eyre previously and was curious to know more about these authoress sisters and this book was a great introduction. (So many author biographies can get scholarly and dry!) Glimmerglass was introduced to me via a reading/book signing back in the fall. The portion she read aloud absolutely whet my appetite to find out what happened next,  but I was too broke at the time to buy a copy. I finally found it at the library last month. It’s a lovely fairy tale of a book with a mystery or two. She has such a lyrical voice…it’s a very falling down the rabbit hole sort of book. The twist will surprise and delight you and scare you by turns.

Sharing with Ginny.