Yarn Along and a few flyby book reports

Spoiler alert: If you are one of my sons, don't scroll down below the top two pictures of Smudge. Or Christmas Will Be Spoiled and it won't be my fault. Daniel -- and this counts as a book report too -- I finished book 4 of the Wheel of Time this morning. I have no idea what is going on... they're in the desert, then they're in some kind of archetypal dream world and I'm never sure how they got there. I will have to read the summary notes for the first four books here, because there's no way I'm listening to them again before moving on. Peter, you can take comfort in the fact that my Spotify discover weekly list is much cooler than your father's. He was mocking one of my '60s songs (you know he spies on your Spotify playlist, right?), but his songs are mostly from the 1560s.

Smudge is a hard cat to get to pose, because he always wants to jump up on your lap and purr, and he can't hold still. I got these two shots, which will have to do. It's a bit cute and pathetic to see the kitty pawprints by his empty food bowl. He's not losing weight though, and no sign of fleas. He seems very sleek and fat, and has been chasing birds. There was a slug that got stuck between his food and water bowl when they were stacked and brought inside last night. I hate it when slugs sneak into the house.

Other books I am currently reading are Tom Clancy/Mark Greaney (the designated successor for Tom Clancy) "Full Force and Effect," which is about North Korea trying to get nuclear missiles, and I am midway through the most recent release of Vince Flynn's designated successor, Kyle Mills, "Order to Kill," which is about Russia assisting ISIS to try to get nuclear missiles. Because of the way I request loans from my library's Kindle app and never know when they'll show up, for a brief time I also had the first Brad Thor book out along with the other two, an author I'd like to start reading. And I decided that I can't really give my full attention to more than one thriller at a time, so I'm just actively working on the Clancy one now. I don't usually read only thrillers, it just happened that way. I also have an audiobook of Gone Girl I started listening to. I hate both characters so far. Not sure if I'll continue.

I am just now getting back into quilting and sewing after too long a hiatus, and the blog has been very neglected, but I have been knitting slowly but fairly steadily all year. So I'm linking up today to Ginny's Yarn-Along, where many knitters share their progress.

These Stashbuster Spirals socks were finished last week. They have Kat's Sweet Tomato Heels, which I've always really liked in combination with the pattern. This pair came out looking very handsome, and used up a lot of small bits and balls of yarn leftover from other socks.

This pair was started a few days ago, and though it probably will look a little more patchwork-y than the first, I think it will still look handsome. I am really hoping to have it done by Christmas. I recently took stock of my sock yarn stash: I have two skeins that I purchased at Sock Summit 2011, and I really need to knit them up rather than hoarding them. There are a few others besides those, and I probably have odd balls enough for at least 3 more Stashbuster Spirals. So when at least 3 additional socks are done besides these, then I will allow myself to go off my sock yarn diet.