Joining Kat and friends on Unraveled Wednesday.

Knitting.

I am still working on getting my knitting mojo back. The plaid afghan is back in hibernation with two stripes undone. The BSJ is in hibernation awaiting me sewing up the shoulder seams and finishing the i-cord bindoff. And I started and frogged two different projects with those two skeins of delightfully colored yarn, below.

The other afghan has been lying next to my chair for weeks. As the weather turned cold I would occasionally pick it up for warmth. Then I had an earth-shaking idea: since it seemed to be the perfect size for a lap robe, I could call it done and keep it! So I did. It was originally intended to be for Younger Son, but he didn’t really want it; he is never cold (just like his father). So keeping it for myself is a guilt-free decision.

The other things I have been knitting are a couple hats for the annual warm clothing drive in Polk County. The yarn came knitted into a sock blank, and because I didn’t soak it before starting to knit, the hats look… bumpy. I am hoping that a good soak and block when they are done will fix that.

Reading.

Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump. If you read this book and the one by Michael Cohen, you will know everything you ever needed to know about the Great Cheeto. Too bad everyone couldn’t have read them in 2015. 4★

One by One by Ruth Ware. The structure of this mystery/suspense novel is very similar to The Woman in Cabin 10, which I read earlier this year — a given number of diverse characters who are confined to certain remote location. Agatha Christie wrote this plot in And Then There None back 1939. In Cabin 10, it was a yacht; Christie but her characters on an island; in this book the characters are trapped on a Swiss ski lodge isolated by an avalanche. Decent plot, good escapist reading. 3★

The Quiet American by Graham Greene. I found this in my Kindle app on Saturday, and, since I was out of library books until yesterday, I read this one. Set in Vietnam in 1954 during the Sino-French war for Indochina, it is both dated and prescient and is told by a British reporter there. 4★

Listening.

Caffeine by Michael Pollan. This is a short audiobook, only a shade over two hours, but definitely worth listening to. The author traces the history of this drug — and make no mistake, caffeine is a drug — from its origins in east Africa to how it became the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world. Fascinating stuff! 4★

A Promised Land by Barack Obama. Given that this audiobook is over 29 hours long, you can assume that I am listening to it at every opportunity.

Watching.

Tiny Pretty Things on Netflix. The series is set in a ballet school in Chicago and follows the standard trope of all ballet movies. There is the protagonist, a lovely, excellent dancer who is variously abused, pitied, and promoted by her peers and instructors. Then there is the vicious, anything-to-get-ahead bitch ballerina who will do anything to get ahead, including throwing her competitors under the bus, or, in this case, off the roof (although who exactly did the deed has not been revealed by episode 7 of 12). The plot is standard ballet movie/soap opera stuff, but if you are me you don’t care — I just want to watch the dancing. And the dancing is, if not world class, at least good enough to keep me watching.