Three Things on Thursday

Is it really already Thursday? And is it only Thursday? It's been a long, busy, hot week. I feel like I've spent most of it walking around in the heat and not nearly enough crafting. So I'm keeping this post simple and breaking things down into three categories:

1. Knitting

I've added a few rounds to my Soldotna Crop (not enough that you'd be able to tell) and started the toe on the first of Rainbow's shortie socks.

2. Designing

I'm knitting one more swatch for my sweater design using a needle one size larger, just in case. I like the fabric I got in the first swatch, but it was fairly dense, which means the stranded colorwork would be practically bulletproof, so I want to see if I can get away with a slightly larger gauge. Plus, if I can get to a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, calculations should be a little easier.

Today I also published an update to my Non-Euclidian pattern that's a cheat sheet to help you insert the heel into any sock worked at any gauge. I know this is something that Mary, at least, will be happy about! If you've already got the pattern in your library, you'll see an update. If you don't already own it, there's no additional charge.

3. Reading

I've finished four books since my last reading update, though one of them was finished that same day and was a YA book, so really I've read three. Here's a brief summary:

• Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (audiobook): This was a quick, easy read, and a YA book to boot. It was good but didn't blow me away. I did think it would be a good read and a good basis for a discussion of difficult issues among younger readers. I gave it three stars.
• A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean: This was an Amazon First Reads freebie, and I'm glad I didn't pay for it. It's gotten good reviews on Goodreads, but I was really disappointed with it. I didn't find the writing to be particularly strong, and several story lines seemed to be repeats of stories from other books. There's also a bit of a twist at the end that I found to be completely unbelievable. I gave it two stars.
• The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (audiobook): I can now say without reservation that I'm completely hooked on the Inspector Gamache series. I loved this one, no surprise. I've found that the Gamache books make my runs a lot better because I'm so focused on the story that I don't spend the whole time thinking about how miserable I am to be running. This one got five stars from me.
• Divergent by Veronica Roth: This is one of those books that everyone probably read years ago; I've seen the movies in the series but hadn't read the books, so I decided to give this a try when I saw it was available through Prime Reading. It was okay, a fun diversion, but not fine literature. I don't know if I'll read the other two. I gave it three stars.

I was able to fit all of these books into my Summer Book Bingo card under the following categories, in order: Protagonist with a different ethnicity from your own, Set in more than one time period, With an unreliable narrator, and One-word title. I've got 12 more squares to cover on my bingo card, and I'm in the middle of one book that I can put in the center squares. Think I can manage to get the rest covered? We shall see.