The Girdle of Melian

ear-end knitting review!

Throughout the year, I didn't have time to knit much, or focus on other hobbies, but I did manage a few projects, including some baking...

There was the week I baked bread from scratch and made Oreo cheesecake!

I signed up for both Bold Beginner Knits and Knitting Season by Kate Davies -- someday I hope to have time to knit some of these beautiful patterns!

Knitting Season also includes the collected essays Wheesht, which are very thought-provoking and insightful.

My year-end knitting review for 2018 featured the quilt made for me by a special group of friends. The first four months of baby-on-a-quilt photos are in that post.

Here are the next five months:


5 months
6 months

7 months


8 months

9 months

Near the end of the year, I knit some cute mittens and an unsuccessful hat.

Since then, I've been experimenting with a pair of leggings for a friend. Trying to get the right combination of pattern, needle size, and her chosen yarn!


For this year my goal remain…

ear-end Writing Review!


Here's what 2019 looked like on the blog and writing fronts
(aside from the newborn and kindergartner, the day job, the Master's degree, the book reviews, and the other hobbies...):


January to March
A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 1: I got my 2018 writing review done

I blogged about my favourite pen!

I wrote thousands of words as part of the thelitforum houseparty set on the Titanic!


April to June
A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 2: My goal was to edit The Handful of Time. I started, but didn't get beyond the first few chapters. Instead, I blogged about writing romance...

I redid the Friday Five questionnaire

I did the April (500-word story) and May (test your character's moral code) writing exercices on the forum and shared snips

Then I revisited how I started writing (see more below)


July to September
A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 3: My goals were to keep going on edits for The Handful of Time and edits for my short story Blackbird's S…

ereis this year’s Annual Books Read Statistics and Thoughts Post!





Here are the statistics for 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 (and the list), 2010, 2009 (and the list).

Books Read: 278, including the following (roughly, and not counting any of the houseparties we’ve done on thelitforum.com (which run to hundreds of thousands of words; various essays, journal articles, book excerpts, etc. for school; or the ongoing rereads of board books from previous years):
36 novels 181 board books, MG, and YA
31 essays and non-fiction and comics 14 short stories and anthologies 16 poems I’m not sure if it’s because I’m also doing a Master’s degree or because I’m reading more and more books to the kids, or both, but the number of novels I read seems to go down every year. I’d like to find a way to change this and bring up the number once more – as long as it doesn’t interfere with editing my own stories!

2018: 66 novels, 133 board books (plus ongoing rereads), 27 essays and non-fiction and …