Currently Obsessed With is a once-a-month (but sometimes more) feature where I talk about my favorite things from the last month.

Crochet:

Not a lot of crocheting has been going on, except for my blanket.  It’s still hot but it’s cool enough that I feel like I can sit under a blanket.  Once I finished the blue, I knew I had some decisions to make about how much bigger I wanted it to be.  I had 4 skeins I wanted to use, and with each color getting smaller and smaller, I decided it was time to finish the blanket.  The neon green/yellow/pink/orange was the last main color, and then I started the border, which was the really pretty pink and blue and the green and blue.  I like the color changes, and everything goes well together, but I kind of wish I had alternated between variegated and solid colors, just because I think the contrast would have been a lot nicer.

I had a fun time picking out a border, and this book of crochet borders is actually really helpful.  I had to pick a border once I made the decisions to finish the blanket so I would know how many more rows I needed to do, and I really liked the one I picked.  I’ve found with granny square blankets that a single crochet base row doesn’t work too well, just because the corners don’t lay completely flat, even with other rows.  Half double crochet works pretty well, so that’s what I ended up going with for the 1st row of the border.  The 2nd row was a puff stitch, and it wasn’t until I finished that row that I realized I did 2 puff stitches in the corner instead of 3, but it looks fine and I’m the only one who’s going to know. Considering it’s for me, it doesn’t really matter, and it’s too big to completely undo that entire round.

Since I used Red Heart Super Saver for the whole blanket, it’s super scratchy and itchy, and it definitely needs to be softened, so I still need to do that, especially if I’m not going to be using on my bed.

As for my next project, I’m not sure.  I am dressing up as Sadness for Halloween, so I’m going to make a hat and a scarf or cowl as part of my costume.  That will definitely be my main project for the month, but I don’t think it will take too long.  I also started ANOTHER blanket.  I have a lot of yarn I’m not sure what to do with, and I’ve done enough blankets this year that I’m kind of hooked on them now.

Books:

This was not a big book buying month.  I got the two new Nightvale books, which are just the scripts from the 1st two years, but there are forwards from different people and artwork throughout the book.  I haven’t read them, but I have flipped through them and they really cool.  I might read them while listening to the podcast, and might be a fun way to revisit the old episodes, which I haven’t listened to in a while.

I also got Veil Of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald from Audible.  I still have a couple of audio books from the library I need to get through, but once I do, I really need to start listening to the books I have from Audible.

T.V./Movies:

I haven’t made it to the movies, but I’ve watched Season 3 of Blacklist now that it’s up on Netflix.  And fall T.V. is back, so I’m watching my usual stuff, plus a few new shows!  I really like Designated Survivor so far, and there are a few other shows that look good/interesting but I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet.  I’ll probably talk more about it if/when I do.

Around The Internet:

Romance novels as feminist texts.  I really like to see positive stuff about romance.

I’ve seen a lot about the Bullet Journal but I never thought about using it for blogging/reading.  I’ve never considered using it, but now I might have to check it out.

Diversity and mythology– I haven’t looked at any of the links, but it seems like a pretty good list.  I feel like I’ve been saying this for a while, but I like when non-European mythology is in a book.  There are so many different myths and stories, and yet Greek seems to be really common in stories.

These photos taken by a pilot are amazing.

As are these photos of the Northern Lights in Norway.

I really like these tips from a butcher…even though I don’t go to one, and just get what I need at the grocery store.

September Stuff:

• The Welcome To Night Vale book tour.  They stopped at Mysterious Galaxy for a Q&A and signing, so of course I went.  It was fun, and I loved hearing them talk about Night Vale.  Like, I had no idea that they take turns writing and editing each episode- I assumed they wrote the episodes together.  And they don’t give Cecil a lot of direction.  Instead, they just let him do his thing.  Sometimes, he does a different voice than what they expected or imagined, but it seems like they just go with it.  There’s a lot I could talk about, but those really stuck out. (I do like this blog post, which is written by the person who moderated the event).
• My grandma went into the hospital last month, and she was there for a few days, but she is having trouble swallowing, so most of her food has to be blended/pureed and everything she drinks has to be thickened.  And she has pneumonia right now, but she’s okay otherwise.  I just haven’t had a lot of mental energy, so even though I read like crazy at the beginning of the month, it soon evolved in re-reading because I just couldn’t handle new books.  For the most part, anyway, but I think I’ll be back to my usual reading life soon.

Stuff To Look Forward To In October:

• Getting ready for NaNoWriMo!  I have around 6 or 7 ideas, and I’m not sure which one I want to.  There’s the one I’ve been working on the last couple of Novembers, but have done no other work on, an original idea that has a 30 day outline, plus another original idea that has two chapters outline.  Plus 4 ideas for Harry Potter fanfics- one is outlined enough to get me through November, should I decide to write it.  One has about 10 chapters outline, one has a couple of chapters outlined, and one just sort of came to me recently, so I still need to outline it.  I’ll definitely be talking about it more sometime this month, and knowing me, I’ll probably pick closer to November.
• Getting back into blogging.  I took an unplanned break, and most of what I’ve posted was already scheduled (which I’m glad I did, looking back).  But I have a bunch of reviews I still want/need to write, and I really miss blogging regularly!

Music: 

I’ll leave you with a couple of songs that I’ve been listening to a lot.

• SOS by Joseph.  I love Joseph, but this is the only song I have from their new album..for now, but that should change soon.

• Closer by The Chainsmokers and Halsey.  I don’t know why I can’t stop listening to this song but I’m just going to go with it.

Have a good October!