Joining Kat and friends. Go see what the others are up to.
Knitting.
The Sockhead hat is nearly done, only 2″ to go after the beginning of the left-most blue stripe. I am using Schopper-Stohl Zauberball Crazy in 2332 Sanuhr, which has surprised me by being only a 2-ply yarn and awfully thin. I am hoping that it will plump up some when I wet-block it. Even if it doesn’t, the hat will still be warm enough, given that the most I am ever outdoors any more is between the house/store/restaurant and the car. (The colors are more accurate in last week’s post. Apple’s photo editing function does not seem to work well when I tried to desaturate the picture. The yellow and blue are more subtle in real life.)
Reading.
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Good as Dead by Susan Walter. A woman and her husband are struck by a hit-and-run driver; she survives, but with many injuries, he does not. An anonymous *guardian angel* pays her ginormous hospital bills, moves her into a multi-million-dollar home, pays for her daughter to attend a prestigious (and pricy) private school, and generally gives her a free ticket to anything she wants. I spotted the ending twist halfway through the book, although that did not spoil anything. 3★
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No Ordinary Life by Suzanne Redfearn. Story of a struggling single mother with three children; husband is a long-distance truck driver and periodically disappears. One day her youngest, a spunky 4-yo, is filmed while dancing with a street performer; the video goes viral and Hollywood comes calling. 4-yo, and eventually her older brother, become TV stars. It turns out that the Hollywood life is exhausting and domineering. Mom is prone to bad choices, which makes her a bit difficult to like, but she fights for her kids. 3★
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The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. This is the story of a Syrian beekeeper, his wife, and their young son on their flight from Syria to Yorkshire, where they plan to join his cousin who escaped Syria before they did. I am not sure why people recommend this book. Although the story is sad and told with excellent detail, I found it rather boring… or at least, not enthralling. YMMV. 2.5★
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Listening.
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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. This one falls into the Plucky Woman in Peril genre I described last week. Husband disappears after SEC raids his workplace, PWiP is left to care for his 16-yo daughter, who despises her dad’s second wife. I haven’t gotten far enough into this one to give it a rating.
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Watching.
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Still watching Cold Case. Just started season 4. Smokey especially enjoys this show because of the soundtrack. Every show features music from the year of the cold case being investigated. He even found a website that identifies all the songs in every episode.
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The Great British Baking Show /Bake Off. I binge-watched the last half of the newest season. My favorite baker was Crystelle, pictured at left with the judges and my least favorite host. All three bakers in the final were excellent, and I want to taste all their dishes! 4★
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Bosch, season 3. Amazon Prime failed me a week or two ago when I tried to start season 3; I could not call up episode 1, kept getting season 2. But this week I persevered and figured it out and binge-watched at least half of season 3. I do like this show! 4★
kmkat & her kneedles 
I do understand the choice you made not to go with stitches. It takes extra care now, but you keep your nail and bonus, no scars! When I was in pain with a dislocated shoulder, I just kept reminding myself that the body is programmed to heal and that in the future my shoulder would be fully functional. and it is today. There is a saying that time heals all wounds. well, that is more true for the physical wounds than the emotional ones, but the wounded finger will eventually be tickety-boo. Hang in there with all the care it needs to assist it to heal.
Those colors are so great! (and I have found zauberball to bloom beautifully with a bit of a spa treatment, so I think you’ll be fine!)
I had The Beekeeper on my to read list… but maybe I need to give that a pass! Thank you as always for the recommendations!
I think I may need to check out Cold Case. (Tom and I are always looking for something new to binge. . . and you already know what I think about Bosch.) I think the hat looks great – but I get you on the Zauberball. It’s super “thin” . . . Hope it blooms like Kat mentioned. XO
The Plucky Woman in Peril subgenre generally only works for me when it’s mixed with something else—usually I like it best when it’s also a cozy mystery or something like that. Still, now that you’ve given it a name, I’ve been amusing myself by noticing the genre (though not by name) in other friends’ book reviews.
I enjoy knitting with Zauberball yarn, though I don’t generally use it for anything that needs a dense fabric since the yarn isn’t as thick as some other fingering yarns. (I usually make shawls with it.) Still, since I tend to buy them for the colors, I’ve been happy with the yarn so far.
I’ve never knit with Zauberball (which my brain always parses as ‘sourball’) so have no advice to give. I’ll be interested to hear your report on it.
I enjoyed the ending of this season’s GBBO a lot – I adored all three of the finalists and would have been pleased no matter who had won!
I have never in all my years seen that first “b” in Zauerball – er, Zauberball. I went back and read everyone’s comments just to make sure it was there. I suspect dyslexia, or my brain has installed its own word prediction program that is kinda sucky.
I am knitting a gray sock. In a yarn I don’t trust. That I know for a fact I won’t have enough yarn for. My stamina is failing. I keep thinking, “but you can add a fun color for the toe and it will be your secret!” My other near-to-hand project is the Sock that is Destroying My Will To Knit. This calls for NPA – a New Project Altogether. Or NAP.