Category: misc

As I begin to dip my toes back into the world that has kept turning while mine went topsy turvy with grief and caregiving, I’m trying to figure out the balance between writing here and posting to various social media sites. My reading has been documented here since the site’s very beginnings.

That was (gasp) nearly twenty years ago! While I believe the fundamentals of a review won’t change, the overall format can and perhaps should.

For a few Fridays now, I have posted a stack of books (and a current yarn project) to instagram (here’s last weeks). That’s it, just a stack and a caption stating I plan to read some of the books over the weekend.

Would you prefer that I share my thoughts about one book at a time (as I did back in 2003) or post a summary here with individual titles linked to a review site (as I’ve done for the past several years).

Then there’s the question of what about all the books I’ve read, since say January? That’s 70 titles! I haven’t thought much about what I was reading in those extremely challenging days last year.

I posted the above image two weeks ago. That list included:

• Artyarns sandstone striations cardi in mohair ombre 2ply (colorway golden hour, June 2022 inspirations; pattern available as part of the Mohair Ombre 2 Compilation [free w/purchase of yarn. talk to your LYS for details!]) 
• Artyarns silky twist and silky twist duos a little acorn creations tunisian crochet design sample that’s almost finished.
• my notebook and sketchbook. 
• Le jardin secret by Frances Hodgson Brunett (translated de l’anglais par Carole Gratis)
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 
• Redesigning Work by Lynda Gratton // this is an ARC, as it’s already out in the world I also borrowed an ecopy from the library 
• Come up for Air by Nick Sonnenberg
• The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
• Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman // yes I’m still reading it. 
• A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker // looking for some stitch inspiration in one of my favorite volumes
• 1000 Japanese Knit and Crochet Stitches // looking for stitch inspiration
• Knitting Patterns Book 250 // looking for stitch inspiration
• (not pictured) a new review book via netgalley.

I’m curious if there will be any comments or if everyone is tangled up in the newest social media app.

This quarter I focused on Deep Work, it was an experiment in writing. With fewer distractions from social media I was able to concentrate on what I find important. Three places I’ve written more are at my other sites, little acorn creations (Tuesdays), PennyWise Consulting (Wednesdays), and pen at work (Fridays). If that’s too much to keep track of, I created a page that summarizes recent blog posts. Are you interested in a newsletter that once a week aggregates all my writing for you in one email? If so, please let me know. Each site has its own monthly newsletter that includes recent posts and some unique content.

Other Writing

Earlier this month, I wrote for Quo Vadis and Rhodia Drive, How Penny uses her Quo Vadis planner along with her Rhodia Goalbook.

I’m also writing for Anzula. Exploring how all their yarns work in crochet. Jill‘s been writing about them from a knitter’s perspective for almost a year, I’m catching up! You can see my thoughts on For Better or Worsted and Milky Way now. Squishy will appear next week and I’m finishing up Meridian. This is a fun project as I’ve not thought about the yarns I choose for crochet in this organized a manner before.

What’s in the works?

PG enjoys her chai

There are knit and crochet designs in progress for several companies in addition to swatching my way through all of Anzula’s yarns.

I also have some additional products for pen at work in the (groan) planning stage and hope to offer something soon.

PennyWise Consulting shouldn’t feel left out. I’m creating some worksheets to help small businesses with technology planning and management.

I refuse to look out my window today. Almost everything is white. Yes, the sun is finally shining and the sky is blue, but the ground isn’t green like it was last week. It’s white. The storm that blew through here on Tuesday wasn’t as extensive as initially forecast. However, it wasn’t fun either, there were high winds, nine inches of snow, and several hours of sleet. Yuck.

In a desire to remember that some day it will be warmer, the snow will melt, and there will be colour outside, here are two photos I took two weeks ago before winter finally arrived. I tried to capture some daffodils that decided to bloom too, but they just look like bright yellow blobs.