I’ve been looking forward to this week’s yarn along. Some weeks I feel like I’ve been all over the place but this past week has been pretty focused on a single knitting project and a single book.

Thanks to the sickness in our house over the weekend I got lots of knitting done. I finished the fingerless mitts for my daughter – and have since encouraged her to perhaps remove them for eating and bathroom visits…And as promised I started the raglan pullover I am hoping to complete for my little guy’s birthday at the end of the month. I don’t know how it happened but I seem to have hit a knitting streak – I started the sweater on Friday and am already on the bottom ribbing. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum. This has never happened before – such focus on a single project.

My hubby and I have been trading off on who gets book time with our new favourite, The Backyard Homestead. I’m thankful to have received so many recommendations on this title because it is right where our thinking is these days. We are dreaming big but not really sure where to direct our vision. The conversations we are having about homesteading are raising some rather looming questions (which at this point have no answers). Our current (tiny) yard is shared and while our neighbours approved the flower garden we put in a couple of years ago, I don’t know how supportive they would be of raised beds, compost and manure. And, chickens, well – totally out of the question. We are hoping and praying that there will soon be an opportunity for us to move, not necessarily out of the city but at least to a private lot where we can get started with more of these ideas.

The book covers a lot of territory and we have only touched the edge of the information offered. I am excited to read more and have definitely added this one to our wish-list. And if nothing else, while we wonder and ask and wait we have lots of time to educate ourselves. So, that being said…Anyone have any other book suggestions for us?

Thanks for stopping by! As always I’m excited to see what everyone has on their needles – I’ll have to be really committed to finishing this sweater because the yarn along always offers so much knitting inspiration!

So I’m going to be a little mean with this week’s yarn along so bear with me. I finished the Fisherman’s Pullover (apart from the blocking) but I am only giving a peek of it here today. There was no way I could stick anywhere close to the single picture rule of yarn along after all the sweet pictures I got of my guy modelling his new sweater today. He obligingly pulled out all the ham he could muster so I decided there would have to be a special post tomorrow.

In the meantime, though, I’ve finished off one of the fingerless mitts I started for my six-year-old. She’s been wearing the single mitt around today and asking often if I’m done the second one yet. I used this pattern as my guide (Ravelry notes here). These are so simple and quick – very satisfying!

I’m also starting on this raglan pullover for my almost two-year-old (yes, I keep mentioning it but I am really going to get past that cast-on tonight). I’m really excited to see how it goes and even made a swatch. I thought the wool I chose might be too fine but the swatch seemed alright…fingers crossed. The designer, Jane Richmond, has a 3-for-2 sale in her Ravelry  shop right now if you wanted to grab any of her patterns. I went a little crazy buying patterns when she had a similar sale last year.

I had some great books come in for me at the library this week. I’ve heard good things about both of these books: The Backyard Homestead, which I’ve been excited to read for some time, and Knitting Rules, which someone recommended on the yarn along last week (sorry I forgot to write down who suggested it). On the topic of the first title, my husband and I have been talking about homesteading and what it would look like for our family for a couple of years so I’m hoping this book will get us thinking about it a bit more realistically. After my husband watched a couple of the videos here this week, he is even more enthusiastic about how we could make this dream a reality. I haven’t read any of Pearl-McPhee‘s books but I’m hoping that Yarn Harlot will teach me how to properly do some of the knitting techniques I’ve sort of guessed at over the years. I have a feeling both of these books are going to end up on my book wish-list, at the mercy of my non-existent book budget.

I love how these Wednesday’s keep me going with knitting – although all this knitting is certainly cutting into my reading time. Once again, I’m excited to see what everyone else has on the go over at Ginny‘s yarn along this week. Thanks for stopping by – be sure to come back on Thursday if you’re are interested in hearing more about my son’s Fisherman’s Pullover!

Joining Ginny for yarn along at Small Things to share what I’ve been knitting and reading this week.

The anticipation of yarn along has kept me working away on the Fisherman’s Pullover for my newly turned five-year-old. He is anxious for it to be his and three of his siblings have requested a mama-made sweater of their own. I hope I can finish what I’ve started but of course I’m more than pleased that my knitting meets the approval of four rather choosy children. Little brother hasn’t weighed in on the matter…yet.

I finished the body of the sweater and made it to the ribbing on the first sleeve before I started panicking that I may run out of my beautiful Puffin wool. I decided to move the live stitches to a spare circular and work on the second sleeve so I can get as much length (hopefully evenly) in the sleeves as possible (I’m anticipating how much this long boy will grow over the summer and want to get those sleeves as long as my wool will allow).

While I was contemplating the sleeves I started a quick pair of fingerless mittens for my six-year-old as a reprieve. I accidentally felted her previous pair when I threw her muddy coat in the laundry this week, oops – they are felted beautifully now for little sis! I don’t know if I’ll end up finishing these in a hurry or not. I’ve made multiple pairs like them in the last year and sometimes they fly off the needles and sometimes I take them nice and easy. Do you find you knit at different speeds depending on your mood? I read Elizabeth Zimmermann’s advice last week not to knit while angry but I imagine my tension may change a little depending on how laid back I am, how many (little) people are speaking to me at the time and how easily my eyes are staying open (or how easily they are drooping). These feel like a low-key knit.

I am still reading through The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (and loving it) along with The Knitting Workshop but decided to show some of our most recent library acquisitions. An old family favourite (Tikki Tikki Tembo because I love saying his name over and over), some new family favourites and inspiration for mama. I discovered our library system only has two Elsa Beskow books on its shelves – The Tale of the Little, Little Old Woman and Pelle’s New Suit. Oddly, Pelle’s New Suit is only available there in Arabic – which of course I didn’t realize until my husband arrived home with our stack of library holds. The kids were perplexed at my choice (and the cover which opens at the left) but the illustrations are enough for me. My mama book, Craft Hope, is one I learned about on Dana’s awesome blog (she has a pattern featured) and I love both the patterns and the concept – each of the patterns can be made and donated to a specific charity (learn more about Craft Hope here).

I really have so little left to finish up my sweater that I hope I can unveil it next week. I’ve already bought wool for my next sweater project and I’m itching to get going on it (first things first, though, I know).

Can’t wait to see what other’s are up to on this week’s yarn along! Thanks for coming by!

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.