WIP Wednesday - On the Needles and Between the Pages

On the Needles
"Sleeves" by Martina Behm. I've been more or less monogamous this past week, and have finished the first sleeve and started the second. The colours are a tad off - the third one is light blue, not white - but I actually think it looks pretty good either way :) It's an easy and mindless knit with awesome yarn, and I love it :)

Between the Pages
I've finally got my reading mojo back :) At least it definitely feels that way, since I managed to read 3 books over the weekend! (Long weekend, so 1 book per day). I've been rereading Tamora Pierce, and was in the mood for more fantasy once I finished that, so I dove into Maria V. Snyder's Glass-trilogy. It takes place in the same universe as the Study-trilogy (which I read in 2012 and loved!), and so far definitely lives up to my expectations! I'm about a quarter of the way through the last book in the trilogy.

Stash Stories
My stash has multiplied quite significantly over the past week, with no less than THREE new sweater-quantities entering the fold.

I've mentioned being completely enamoured by the Järbo Garn Mio that I'm using for "Sleeves" (100% merino, either fingering or light sport weight), and as it was a good price, I decided to get a bunch for myself too - despite not having any fixed ideas of what to use it for.

That was last Wednesday, then yesterday I biked past my local yarn shop to get some new needles, and discovered that they were having a 50% off everything sale! Unfortunately because they're closing the store, which saddens me :( But a 50% off sale is always worth utilizing, and as I've long been thinking I'd love to knit another "$5 in Paris" using the same Easy Care Big (100% merino, aran weight) as my existing one, I figured I might as well go for it. Unfortunately they didn't have enough skeins in the colour combination I most wanted (rust red and burgundy), but I did get enough for two other combinations I think will look nice :)

Events / Challenges / KALs
Two knitting KALs and one book challenge this time :)

The Just One More Row podcast are hosting the "Christmas in July" craft-along for July and August. The only rule is that the projects have to be started and finished in July/August (no WIPs) and the finished objects have to be either Christmas presents, Christmas ornaments or in other way Christmas related. Any craft counts and double-dipping is encouraged :) I found a bunch of Christmas ornaments I wanted to knit LAST year, but never got around to knitting any of them, so I'm definitely planning on jumping in on this one! Specifically I want to figure out a pattern for a knitted version of the Danish Christmas heart ever since I found a crocheted version last year. The CiJ CAL seems like a perfect opportunity to try my and at that!

The Year of Projects should be starting up soon too. I'm seriously considering joining that one this year as I want to challenge myself to actually use up some of the sweater-quantities worth of yarn I've discovered hiding in my stash... even before the three new ones were added this week ;)

And finally, a bookish event - the Books on the Nightstand are hosting a "Summer Bingo" on their Goodreads Group. You don't actually have to neither join the group or listen to their podcast to join in on the challenge - just go to BOTNS Bingo! and print out your bingo card! I've printed out two, because what's the fun in having just one bingo card?! ;) Each book can only count for one square on each card, but the same book can absolutely coun't for a square on multiple cards :) I started on June 1st and already have 7 squares on one card, and 6 on the other!

Will you be joining in on any of these? Let me know! :)