I’m quite pleased that we’ve made it to another Yarn Along Wednesday and I feel like I have something to show for it!

After last week‘s set backs it’s been great to move on to the quick and easy body work of my Fisherman’s Pullover. There are mistakes aplenty but having something that actually resembles a sweater has gotten me excitedly thinking about the possibilities of more and more and more sweaters – perhaps one of these (yep, still drooling over it) for my little guy or this for my 6-year-old. You’ve seen me do this before, right? I love to dream about the new projects although I’m usually a little freaked out about starting them.

But before I get ahead of myself I have a couple of inches left before the bottom ribbing and then there are the sleeves – the next big challenge. Hopefully they will knit up as easily as they sound.

In this magical week of knitting triumph I’ve even found a little time for reading. Wonders never cease! I’ve been enjoying the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of twelve short stories. I’m not usually one for short stories but I am enjoying the grab-and-go appeal of a shorter read. The stories themselves are so great! I love the way they are written and I love the character of Sherlock Holmes. We’ve enjoyed the old-school Jeremy Bret version of Sherlock Holmes from the library and I’m realizing what a great job he did acting the part true to the original stories.

On the rather opposite end of the reading spectrum I’ve also gotten into Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. I love her witty, opinionated way of writing and her no-nonsense approach to knitting. I’m discovering more and more why so many knitters admire her writings. I had Knitting Without Tears out from the library a few weeks ago but didn’t get too far (more from time constraints than lack of interest) so I will have to check it out again.

I’m so glad I have these yarn along posts to keep me on track with knitting and reading – both things I adore but which can so easily be pushed aside. Visit Yarn Along at Small Things if you’d like to see what other knitters have been up to this week!

P.S. Thanks for the well-wishes over my injured thumb last week. It’s doing quite a bit better this week!

Here we are approaching another fabulous Wednesday and I fear I don’t have so much to report.

If you missed this post, I’ll give you a quick update: the jays are on vacation for a week in the mountains, 10 minutes from an awesome ski resort and about 30 seconds (walking that is) from the indoor pool in the complex where we’re staying.

Thanks to sunny days on the ski hill, the proximity of the aforementioned pool and little children who want to play outside for ten-minute intervals every thirty minutes (requiring lots of wardrobe changes), it hasn’t been quite the knitting and reading dream vacation I’d imagined. Not to say we aren’t having a blast!

At least I can knit during the evenings without thoughts of clutter, laundry and school plans, right? Uh, that was the idea until I fell yesterday on the ski hill and (I’m guessing) sprained my thumb – more on that in another post. And reading, well, that was out of the question as my eyes stayed open for about five minutes last night without something busying my hands.

I did have some stolen chances to work on my  Fisherman’s Pullover earlier this week. It’s been a frustrating process with four do overs but thanks to kind suggestions from many of you here last week and some sweet help from Kristi at Three Little Knitted Frogs (my new knitting guru and inspiration) I think I have conquered the short rows (for this pattern at least) and I’ve moved on. Phew.

Now I’m onto the raglan increases and so looking forward to long boring body work after the frustrations of the yoke shaping.

As I already mentioned reading has not been very successful this week although we did listen to a fair number of Magic Treehouse books on the way out here. I did want to share the book my sister is reading now, The Birth House. I read it myself a few years ago on a friend’s suggestion and thought it was a great read, although there were a few bits I didn’t love as much (not that I can remember what they were after all this time).

No, I couldn’t resist this spectacular backdrop.

It follows young Dora Rare who becomes apprentice to an Acadian midwife at the beginning of the First World War. In the face of a growing opposition to natural birthing and folk remedies in their small Nova Scotian village, Dora fights to protect the traditions and wisdom that have been passed down to her. Midwives, natural birthing and Nova Scotia (where I grew up) – all dear to my heart. Read more about it here.

I hope I’ll be getting back to my sweater and knitting aspirations very soon but in the meantime I’m going to soak up all the lovely moments that this escape to the mountain offers.

To see what others are bringing to this week’s yarn along visit Ginny at Small Things.

Joining Ginny for another week’s yarn along.

First I must thank you all so much for wonderful feedback on last week’s hat dilemma! I decided to go with the light-coloured (yellowish) wooden buttons – although the dark brown and red buttons were close contenders. I was so glad I got the hat done when I did because it went from unseasonably warm to frigid overnight and it was needed.

Trying to catch the last of the light. And yes, as Dan lovingly pointed out, the buttons are crooked – I’ll have to fix that.

I’ve been dutifully finishing up my UFOs (unfinished objects) and almost have the two last mittens done. (Okay, so admittedly the mitten pictured looks a lot like the mitten pictured last week but last week’s was #2 of 4 and this is #4 of 4.) I also have the second of these fingerless mittens to whip up and…hooray…two of my three work in progress bags will be empty and ready for new projects!

What to start next is proving more of challenge than I thought it would. Each week I see your Tiny Tea Leaves, Milos and Fisherman Pullovers – I was planning this one for my little guy but it is all too beautiful (and yes, I love Jane Richmond‘s designs). I’m almost afraid to see what everyone has on needles this week in case I change my mind again!  (Sorry for all of you not on Ravelry if you can’t view some of those – I’m trying to use other links if I know of them.)

As for reading, I started and finished Reckless in about a day. It started out darker than I expected but I did enjoy the story very much. So far, I’ve enjoyed all of the Cornelia Funke books that I’ve read – perhaps this one the most. Now I have just started thumbing through Elizabeth Zimmerman‘s Knitting Without Tears. I’ve heard no end to her praises and thought it was time I checked her out – and then of course I read this post today and had to laugh at the timing, I may be having EZ dreams myself. If I get into some fiction, I’m going to start the first of the Sister’s Grimm series, The Fairy Tale Detectives – once again I admit I love, love, love juvenile fiction.

Looking forward once again to seeing what everyone else is up to! So inspiring to see all the projects on the go.

My plea for this week:

Have any of you knit any of the above sweaters? Can you offer any advice for a novice sweater knitter like me?

Joining Ginny again this week at Small Things for yarn along.

We’ve had a full and lovely week preparing for and celebrating Valentine’s Day. Although my hands have been busy with hearts, sweets and a bit of sewing for my little Valentine’s, I have managed to finish my hat – well mostly. I closed it off and blocked it today before sewing in the ends. It seemed rather lumpy and I feared I might be taking it apart but when I gave it a quick try on while it was still damp I found the blocking seems to have done wonders! I have not blocked any of my knitted items before (I know, *gasp*) because I have mainly stuck to small things like mitts, hats and toys. I thought blocking seemed really intimidating, turns out it’s not so bad (will I be saying that after I block my first sweater?).

To finish the hat I need to pick three buttons and I have laid some possibilities out on the hat but I can’t decide which direction I want to go. I’m asking for opinions here. What do you think?

I’m tempted to abandon my, albeit weak, resolve to clear off my existing projects – especially after seeing all the sweet sweaters and vests that other yarn alongers are working on. Considering that three of these unfinished projects are belated Christmas gifts – two pairs of these mittens (shown in the photo above) and a surprise gift, duty would dictate I finish what I’ve started. In the meantime I am going to dream about what I am going to do with this wool from my stash.

I have almost finished listening to Howards End. It feels a little like cheating and some of the volunteers here read it all wrong (in my humble opinion) but it has been nice to listen to while I’ve been sewing or folding laundry this week. I’ve enjoyed the story although I did prefer Room With a View. I should have it finished this evening and I’ve decided to choose Reckless from my tall stack of library fiction. As you can see I’m also still enjoying Wee Wonderfuls and Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. They are both falling into the category of drool-worthy and daunting.

Since there is nothing really new on my book pile this week I thought I’d also show a little peak of what my two oldest daughters and I have been enjoying at bedtime. Destination Moon proves to be another entertaining Tintin Adventure – not to mention straining with all the different voices to keep track off! The Magic Tree House books are so wonderful for the kids – just at the right level for them. We all enjoy the mix of adventure, excitement and information. We’ve learned lots – so far Tonight on the Titanic has been my favourite – I even cried while we were reading it. I don’t know about our current title – my kids are really sensitive to anything ghoulish (as am I for that matter) so I don’t know if we will actually get through this one. I may have to abridge it for them.

Looking forward to seeing other projects that are on the go this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Another week come and gone?

I am thoroughly enjoying yarn along with Ginny and all the knitters who join in there but Wednesdays come as a stern reminder that I haven’t accomplished quite as much as I’d hoped in the week that’s past. We’ve been busy with Valentine’s Day projects and plans this week which has had me neglecting my novels and knitting.

I’m still reading Howards End – slowly indeed but savouring it more than dragging through it. Somehow I just haven’t found time to pick it up much this week despite toting it along with me all week. On our trip to the library this week I picked up far too many novels for my reading pleasure and I’m a little worried that Reckless or The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (anyone have anything to say about either of these titles?) will sneak onto my reading path before I’ve finished this current read. I am bad for reading too many books at once. I would rather get through one but they are far too tempting and I get pulled aside by another title.

My husband did bring home a couple of exciting books for me from the hold shelf at the library this afternoon. I’ve had my eye on these for a while. The first, Wee Wonderfuls, had a rather long hold list so I was waiting a little while to see it. It is a beautiful book of which I have heard rave reviews and although I haven’t had much more than a peek through it, it was enough for me to fall in love with Hillary Lang‘s beautiful dolls.

Along with dreaming of sometime making a doll, I spend far too much of my time dreaming about making a quilt. I am weak for patchwork but feel very inadequate to the task. Even if it doesn’t have me sitting down, rotary cutter in hand, I know that the second book that came home today, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, will definitely inspire more dreams of quilting.

As promised, I finished the little pink mittens for my daughter and she has been wearing them on every occasion much to the warming of my heart. My hat is so close to being finished – I’m decreasing and probably only need an hour of knitting to finish it all up. Finding that hour of knitting is easier said than done, though.

New projects are more fun to consider than finishing the projects I have on the go but in the spirit of good non-procrastination I’ve decided I am going to try to clear off my needles before starting something fresh. Then I hope to start this sweet sweater I’ve been dreaming about for one of my boys with this wool.

We’ll see how that goes.

Looking forward to seeing what others are sharing this week on yarn along!

*We have more Valentine’s Day projects and treats coming up this week – if you’re interested in seeing what we’ve been up to have a peek here and here and check back for more fun tomorrow!