Readathon

In the quest to read more this year, I joined a May readathon. I will post results after the month has ended, BTW.

I stumbled across readathons on YouTube while I was looking at reading journal setup videos. The first few I heard talked about seemed too cumbersome for me. If it's difficult, why do it? Reading is supposed to be fun.

Then I heard about this particular readathon, and the prompts for choosing books were much simpler than the other ones I'd seen.

I decided to give it a try. Maybe I'd fail spectacularly, but you don't know until you try, right?

I downloaded the files and filled in the To Be Read worksheet on the spreadsheet they had. I also sent it to a couple of my friends. We're doing a book club read. Or maybe a book buddy read? How many people do you need to have a book club? There are three of us, we pick a book, and we discuss that book. I call it a book club.

With three of us in it together, I was sure I'd do better than I expected. Plus, I've started listening to audiobooks while I knit, so that's increasing my reading time.

Double plus, I can put a readathon spread in my still-imaginary book journal!

An aside: When I was downloading the readathon files, I accidently downloaded the year long, book a month, reading thing that was similarly named to the readathon. One book a month? The prompts looked completely doable. I was in! And the first book I read in April (when I downloaded the files), fit one of the April prompts.

I did miss the first three months, but I'll go back and do those late. Why not? It's all about reading more after all.

Reading Journal, the Fiction Edition

Back in 2024, I mentioned that I was going to create a nonfiction reading journal. Posts are here, here, here, and here. I had the best of intentions, but didn't get very far.

In 2025, I made a resolution to read more fiction. Then began a great debate. Do I do a reading journal for the fiction books I read? After all, I'd failed mightily with the nonfiction reading journal. I'm not even sure where it is right now.

I decided yes, I do want to do a reading journal.

Next dilemma: Do I create a separate fiction writing journal or combine it with the nearly unused nonfiction reading journal?

This one took longer to decide. It seemed silly to start yet another journal when the last one is virtually empty. On the other hand, I'm sure I could do a better job this time, and maybe if it looked more attractive, I'd continue to do something with it.

After days of debate, I decided I would do a separate reading journal for fiction.

And this is as far as I've gotten. I don't know how I'm going to decorate it or how I'm going to set it up. I don't know which journal I'm going to use. Then there's the um, hey, remember the Hobonichi Cousin planner that was supposed to be your media journal for 2025? The one that's sitting unused? Maybe use that?

Yeah, I ignored that little voice. Brand new journal it is!

Then the next debate began: What size did I want to use? About the only size I don't have in an empty notebook is the B5. I do own the B5 size, but I'm using it. Well, sort of using it. I started it, put some stuff in, and abandoned it.

This debate only lasted a few hours. I have a number of 8x8 square notebooks, and it would be silly not to use that size since I specifically bought them to be book journals. (Although one is my ADHD declutter the house Pirate Book...that so far as failed spectacularly.)

Have I set anything up yet? No! But I have read books and saved the book covers. When I have enough to fill a sheet of stickers, I'll print them out and think about tackling the new fiction reading journal.

Still Not Brave Enough for a Sweater

I keep saying I'm going to knit sweaters. I really want to do this because there are some super cute patterns available. Unfortunately, sweaters intimidate me.

Shawls, however, are my jam.

I never wear shawls, but the reason I like knitting them is that they're not difficult, I don't need to worry about having the right number of stitches per inch because who cares if the shawl is bigger or smaller than it's supposed to be? It's more interesting to knit than a scarf or hat. They also take a little time, so it's not a few days and done, but neither is it like when I knitted the blanket. That took six months.

The other bonus is that I have yarn kits handy for a number of shawls, so I don't have to buy anymore. I can use what's on hand.

When I needed something else to knit, I raided my yarn stash and found a kit I'd bought in 2021.

The Winston Shawl ended up being a fun knit! I liked it because it was easy enough for me to memorize the pattern section I was working, but it was challenging enough to be interesting. I like to watch TV while I knit or listen to podcasts, so the sweet spot is something interesting, but not too hard.

I wish I was a better photographer. The colors appear all washed out in this shot, but the yarn is rich and vibrant.

I learned a few new skills on this project, which is always the goal. I picked up 437 stitches to add the green section at the bottom, which is a skill I've struggled with in the past. This took me multiple tries, but I finally did it. I learned how to knit the honeycomb look. I also learned out to do an attached I Cord at the top of the shawl.

I swear the yarn is navy blue and the green/blue yarn is really rich in color. I don't understand why I take such bad photos.

I've got another shawl to work on next. I found this yarn kit while I was hiding in the closet when the tornado sirens went off. But that's another story.

Not My Goal

I began knitting as stress relief back in early 2017. It was a way to relieve anxiety without getting a prescription. Since then, I've probably reached an intermediate knitter level. Maybe borderline advanced.

From the beginning, I chose projects that would teach me new things--new stitches, new ways to bind off, anything I hadn't tried before. It helped me become a better knitter faster because I operated under the premise that if I messed up, I could always undo it and start over.

Despite my desire to learn knitting and my choice for adventurous projects, its primary purpose is stress relief. First, last, and always.

There were knitting designers I really liked, and I began subscribing to newsletters. Discount codes for patterns are always welcome and it also gave me sneak peeks at what they had coming up. As time passed, I got more and more designers.

And then one of these designers stopped sharing patterns or coupon codes. Every email from her was about taking her class to become a knitting designer.

I don't want to design knitting projects.

I want to knit projects other people created. I don't want to sell patterns. I want to buy patterns and knit them and just have it be a hobby, not a job.

Once upon a time, writing was for fun. Then I sold my first book to New York, and it became a job. Writing is still a job, and while it's the job I always dreamed of doing, it's not relaxing. I worry about every plot point, every story detail. I fight with my characters because they go on strike if I write them doing something they don't want to do even if it advances the plot and makes my life easier.

I need knitting to remain a relaxing hobby. I don't want to worry about anything except having the correct stitch count on the row. Heck, I don't even do lace knitting any longer because it stresses me out.

I finally unsubscribed from this woman's emails. She wasn't about knitting patterns any longer. She was all about selling her class to women who dream of being knitting designers.

That's never been my goal.

Chaos Reigns

There are a few things that cause me to struggle with my ADHD. Some of them I forget until the next time I run into the issue. Some are just obvious. My frustration now is about organization.

I want my office neat and organized. I hate writing in here with clutter and chaos everywhere, and yet I can't seem to find the energy to start tackling it.

It's overwhelming and that paralyzes me.

There's also finishing up my dad's bedroom. He lived with me for about seven years before he passed away so there was a lot of stuff. With help, I managed to handle most of it, but there's still a fair amount left to be done in there. Plus, I put a lot of my craft stuff in there to get it out of my office. Now not only is my dad's room loaded with his stuff, but it's now also loaded with craft supplies.

Another room that's overwhelming me now.

Then there's my closet, the pantry, the kitchen, and don't even ask me about the bonus room upstairs.

I had this idea of breaking things down to its smallest component and doing one tiny thing each week. I even took a notebook and created an entire theme for decorating it. And I haven't done much of anything with it.

Recently, I bought a spiral-bound workbook for organization. It has checklists and things like that. I haven't really looked through it yet. Until this book is completely finished and uploaded for its July release, I need to keep all my focus that direction, but I did glance at it and I'm worried it was a waste of money because some sections pertain to things that I don't need.

I guess we'll see when I have time to get there.

It's too bad professional organizers are out of my price range. With ADHD, I do better if I have someone working with me and that's what an organizer would do. They also cost the moon, so workbooks it is. Maybe even a few online videos.