WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along

It's kind of been an exhausting, discouraging week.  Lots of grading, headaches, kids with drama, sore back, upset stomachs, broken stuff, insomnia, etc.  But I have managed a little bit of knitting and sewing.

The second interminable argyle sock has been advanced by almost 2/3 of a diamond.  I am resolutely not yet thinking about how I'm going to handle it if I run out of the blue.  I'm reading some oldie-but-goodie books.  Don't Panic... Dinner's in the Freezer is responsible for the beef stroganoff brewing in the crockpot as I type.  These ladies came to speak at my MOPS group in the mid-90's in Denver, when Daniel and Secundus were little.  If you like to have meals frozen and ready to go for your family, this book and its sequel are very nice.  And I recently read Emily Goes to Exeter and am working on its sequel, Belinda Goes to Bath, by M.C. Beaton - or as she was known at the time of their original publication, Marion Chesney.  These are fun, frivolous Regency romances with witty and enjoyable characters (she went on to write the Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin mystery series).  This is the "Travelling Matchmaker" series about a housekeeper who has received a small income that allows her to seek adventure on the stagecoaches of the day.  Hannah Pym will be a recurring character in each of the six books; the people she interacts with change with each book, and there is always a somewhat humorous happy ending.  I used to check these books out of the library around the same time as I was schlepping little kids to MOPS.  I seems like a long time ago now.  I borrowed these through the Amazon Prime lending library.  I've been browsing free books and I'm also reading A Charming Crime by Tonya Kappes, which has fun elements but certainly doesn't rise to the quality of writing in the Beaton books.  Check out what others are knitting and reading at the yarn-along over at Ginny's blog.

And in the quilting world, Celtic Solstice is maybe halfway seamed together, and draped along the Megaquilter table where I'm lazily working on the Farmer's Wife.  You can see the stack of blocks from the APQ quiltalong peeking out on the left.  So, as January winds down, I'm not really finished with any of my goals for the month, but making small progress on them at least.  Check out what other quilters are doing over at Freshly Pieced.