Believe it or not, this is the second sleeve of the Sunset Sweater, and the final piece I need to make before I can start to piece the sweater together. I got a LOT of knitting done this weekend. I think I had forgotten how easy it is to knit through a basic stockinette sweater for a child. Scarves sound as if they should be quick, and sweaters sound as if they should be time-consuming, but that dynamic changes when the scarves involve stitch patterns and/or sport weight yarn and the sweater involves worsted weight yarn and no pattern.

I am determined to teach myself to write short-short stories. I have never felt compelled to write them or even to read very many of them, and my comfort zone when it comes to writing short stories is about 8K-10K words: hardly flash fiction. But short-short story writing seems like the sort of skill I should have, and I have decided that my teacher should be Lydia Davis. I have never read her until this week, and I had never even heard of her until her translations of Flaubert and Proust started generating buzz a few years ago. At that time, I picked up her Collected Stories, flipped through it, said “Oh, hell no! These are short-shorts!” and put the book down. But I am more open minded now, since I’ve been softened by time and experience and since – well – since I think short-shorts are probably easier to sell to magazines than real stories.

I may retain a few prejudices.

P.S. Yarn Along is hosted every Wednesday by Ginny on her wonderful blog, Small Things.

P.P.S. Also included in this photo is a book that I hope will spur on my next knitting obsession. I tried to knit slippers last winter and gave up when the pieces never fit together the way they should. So I’ve found a few new patterns and plan to try again soon.