As you can see here, my Tour de France shawl is not done, even though the bike race is. Alas. It is now the length of the hypotenuse of this table, which is on the local coffee shop patio, where I went after volleyball this evening, because it was too nice to come inside.

I will not be knitting on this exclusively anymore, since my Augusts are supposed to be dedicated to finishing up socks that have been lingering on my needles. I have two pairs in particular that I’d like to see finished — my Azalea socks (which I think are a single toe away from being done) and my Posey socks. I think both are doable, plus possibly another pair or two. We’ll see.

My reading du jour is Andrew Shaffer’s Hope Never Dies, the Obama-Biden mystery that recently came out. Since the two of them were spotted at one of my favorite D.C. bakeries earlier this week, it seemed only fitting to start reading it immediately upon getting home from the library. It is an enjoyable potboiler, but no great work of literature. (I’m not clear on whether Shaffer himself has never met a metaphor he doesn’t want to use or whether he thinks that’s the case for Joe Biden, who narrates the story.) But unless something changes in the final hundred pages, I’d totally read a series based on these two.

I’m also still reading Audacity Jones to the Rescue, which is now taking place in D.C. in 1910 and making good use of local landmarks of the time, and The Wild Book. The Pink Carnation lingered about halfway done on my reading pile for a year, but I made some more progress when I took it with me to San Francisco.

I also made progress in American Street, which expired (again) from Overdrive before I could finish it. It looked like I was only a few chapters away from the end, but it doesn’t narratively feel close to being done, so who knows? Murder Games expires in three days, so I guess I’d better return to that one before the same thing happens there.

If you’d like to see what other people are reading or knitting, head over to As Kat Knits for the link-up.