Pumpkin Sunrise

Can you see that snow?  I'm in snow heaven!  I measured about 25 inches out there when it was all said and done.  Quite impressive and the best part is that I still have electricity, what a blessing! Alrighty, my knitting is nearly the same.  I am enjoying knitting my top down sweater and since I restarted it, I'm not making grave errors.  Phew!  I have about twelve rows or so until I separate the sleeves from the body. I started a new project yesterday during my snow day.  My poor husband was snow-blowing all day so I started his cowl that he's been asking about since Christmas when I gave one to my son in law.  My husband picked out this madeline tosh merino light while in NYC in a yarn shop. (Knitty City) I continue to read Maeve Binchy's Chestnut Street.   The book is a final collection of her writings before her death and is a series of short stories.  Bite sized reading!  I received Taproot Magazine in the mail this...

My reading is the same as last week and I'm nearly done reading both books.  I love Britt-Marie and all of her thoughts and reflections.  Britt-Marie is my soul sister with her love of list making!  Backman's writing style is quite refreshing, poignant and funny.  He can be quirky too. As you know, I love anything that Anne Lamott writes, so her Small Victories  book which is essentially a collection of essays about faith and life, makes me want to be a better writer and an observer to my everyday occurrences. My knitting is chugging along.  The shawl is nearing the end and each row is pure bliss.  My top down cardigan has met with some problems.  I had to rip back and fix a crucial step in the construction so while the sweater here looks like there is progress, I am facing a little bit of catch up knitting to match the above photo.  I'm okay with that, mistake finding is humbling :) What are you knitting and reading this week? J...

Much to my delight, I found Britt-Marie was Here  in paperback over the past weekend at the bookstore.  I've been wanting to read this book for quite a while.  Backman's writing style reminds me of Roald Dahl for adults.  Also I started Small Victories by Anne Lamott, she is such a fantastic writer and observer of life.  She's a treat to read! Today I'll be doing afterthought heels on my socks in a pretty lilac that doesn't match but definitely "goes" with the socks.  I continue to make progress on my shawl and sweater , but no photos today. What are you knitting and reading? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I started another top down raglan cardigan for me over the weekend.  I thought long and hard about what pattern to use with fingering weight wool and decided to knit a cardigan that fits beautifully and I've knit twice.  I'm in my happy knitting place! I'm enjoying My Name is Lucy Barton  so far.  I should be done with this book some time tomorrow.  This novel explores a mother-daughter relationship and how life experiences bring complexity to our interactions with the ones we love.  If you are a mother or daughter or both, you might like this book. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Hello!  I'm thrilled to share with you my knitting and reading this week. On my Asana Shawl , I've reached the lace and beading section.  Beading my knitting is right up there with pure bliss.  If you haven't done any beading you should. I highly recommend the dental floss technique of placing beads. Ingenious!! My sock , oh my sock....I am done with the first one and am starting the second sock.  I'm doing the afterthought heel trying to maintain the integrity of the disappointing striping.  I love Trekking XXL sock yarn but this colorway is quite disappointing. Last but not least, I'm thinking of knitting another top down cardigan sweater.  I loved all of your suggestions in this post  but I keep wearing this and this  every single week.  So I'm going to do another one, minus the lace insert.  Now I just have to find my notes.. I continue to read The Sellout which is not a quick and speedy read.  Following the heels o...

Good morning!  I'm reading another book and feel like I'm just whizzing through each one.  That's what happens when you read a long non-fiction book.  Anyways, I received this book as a Christmas present and only just started reading last night.  So I have no opinions. My knitting has been making steady progress.  The socks are slowly showing the stripe and I've tried three times to get the stripe to be straight.  I gave up and decided that a swirl is what it is.  Oh well.  My asana shawl is still at the increasing stage and now that I've got many stitches on the needles, the knitting is soothing and relaxing. Oh and I finished my citron and posted yesterday ! I'm contemplating a sweater cast on....but not sure which one I'll do.  I want it to be a cardigan in fingering weight that is top down construction.  If you have any ideas that fit the criteria, let me know in the comments.  I also have some sport weight wool too. ...

  Blink, Blink.....see that?  Isn't it wonderful I am reading something NEW!  After my long read of Alexander Hamilton and dense complex sentence structures, I am whizzing through this book.  So far, I'm enjoying the relaxing read. And no, I'm not going to start any more history reads for a few months.  I'm recovering from expanding my knowledge. I decided to start a pair of socks for myself because that's what I do when I can't quite decide what to knit next.  I knit a small accessory.  I bought this sock yarn for my husband some time ago, but then I thought, "Hey, I like purple too!".  So now they are mine. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Both of my projects are growing and I'm pretty thrilled about that.  I love how my citron shawl  is showing off the gradient changes.  Now I have a crazy idea to add another yarn to make this a bit larger when I run out of the gradient.  Any ideas what color you would add? My anisos shawl that I talked about in a guest blog post yesterday is also a delight to knit.  I am past two charts which were the meaty parts of the pattern and now I'm blissfully knitting away on the body which is a mix of garter stitch and stockinette stitch.  I have to pay attention and not watch TV but I feel a bit more relaxed while working on it. My book!  Hey, did you see I started a new book?  I am reading, Norwegian Wood based on high recommendations from both my nephew and my son.  As you well may know, I'm still reading Alexander Hamilton .  One day I will be done.. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dream...

Good morning! My photo today is a bit deceiving... I threw in the Hamilton book but barely read two pages this week.  I'll blame the company that was in my house.  Having both my family here visiting and then my sister and her family visiting gobbled up all of my free time. The citron shawl has made great progress due to its ease in knitting.  This project can be executed while talking and multitasking on most of the rows.  I like that.  My sister and I sat in the front room knitting away (and talking). I'm participating in a yarn along with Girls in Sheep Clothing blog .  They chose Anisos shawl and while this photo above is pristine and beautiful and shows great progress, I stupidly dropped a stitch in a yarn over area and was unable to fix it last night. (I'll blame watching Doctor Who, Series Five with Amy Pond...)  So I ripped all of it out and started over. This knit is NOT for multitasking...Ha! Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams...

Apparently this is my sixth citron shawl , so says Ravelry.  I love this pattern immensely!  This shawl is my Christmas day cast on with some lovely wool that my sister bought for me on her vacation out west.  The yarn is wonderful to work with!!  I'm planning to make this shawl big and will need to add to the yarn but for now I'm happy with what I'm knitting. I started a new book! Mosquitoland is a YA novel that my son said was pretty good.  Unfortunately my time to read is severely limited this week.  My house is full of family and more family will arrive over the weekend. I finished Commonwealth and did not care for it.  The middle became interesting and I was completely invested.  The ending left me wondering all sorts of things. Overall, lots of people love this book (according to Goodreads) so I find myself thinking that maybe it is me? What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I've been quite pleased with finishing all of the Christmas knitting.  In fact, I even started to focus on some of my selfish knitting (for me, you know).  Then I remembered I wanted to knit a hat for my nephew to give to him over the New Year's weekend.  So technically this isn't "Christmas" knitting.  However, I love having another easy deadline to meet! I am using the wurm pattern once more,  I LOVE to knit this hat pattern up!! As you can see, I'm slogging through Alexander Hamilton, I love this book and thoroughly enjoy reading about this country's history through the eyes of one founding father.  I have high hopes of finishing the book before the end of the year.  I've picked up my reading, trying to read when I even have five minutes to spare.  I'll keep you posted if I finish or not. The Commonwealth novel is almost done!  I thought the beginning was a bit slow but the middle picked up some.  I'm interested to see if ...

I'm on my last (or second to last) secret knitting project !  I feel like I'm making such great progress in my self imposed goals.  I'm getting giddy with seeing an end to knitting for others. My reading is so so so slow.  I am still on the same two books.  I am loving Hamilton but it's a dense read.  Commonwealth surprisingly got interesting last night.  I can't wait to read more tonight :) Oh I finished all the fair isles here . What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Well well, I am on my THIRD fair isle hat out of the three I am currently knitting.  The red one is finished and only needs a soaking and blocking spa day.  The blue one is the last one and I am making great strides since I took the above photo while the daylight was out and about. My reading is a little slow.  While I'm enjoying this book, I keep falling asleep at night.  So I should read during the day but the knitting is taking precedent to meet my goals.  I hope after this weekend I'll have more time to read. Oh and I'm still reading Alexander Hamilton and love my history lessons when I do set aside 30 minutes a day. Did you see my finished trees ? What are you knitting and reading this week? joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

As you know, I'm knee deep in holiday knitting.  I have yet to knit:  two fair isle hats, a wurm hat, and a cowl by Christmas day (and maybe a pair of socks...).  Yet yesterday, I set aside some time to start a lace weight shawl for myself.  Many of you might think this is thwarting my self imposed goals, not so!  I consider this a self care knitting project.  I was quite joyful during my self indulgent hour of knitting. The amethyst shawl is the Asana Shawl and I am thrilled to be facing miles and miles of garter stitch.  Who knew I'd be such a fan of this squishy stitch pattern. I am still reading Alexander Hamilton and enjoying it immensely.  I'll be reading this for quite some time and I'm in this for the long haul.  I started Commonwealth a few days ago.  I have no opinions as of yet but so far I'm enjoying the plot. Oh hey!  I'm having a giveaway  hurry up to enter by Thursday midnight! What are you knittin...

I only just realized that I have a mere seven days to get done what I want to get done before the Thanksgiving holiday.  My self imposed deadlines are looming.  So I went into high gear knitting for the mitts.  I finished the one in the above photo and started the second pair of mitts.  The second pair is the last pair.  To the right in the basket is my super secret knitting project that I cannot show you.  Sigh. I have a difficult time with secrets....so let's see if I can hold out for a few more weeks?? I continue to read The Book of Speculation  which started off quite good but now I'm just wondering why all the character's conversations seem forced and unreal.  The plot gets weird and I'm suspending belief to finish.  I have less that 80 pages to go.  Thank goodness. Alexander Hamilton is FANTASTIC.  Each sentence is loaded with information.  This is my first time reading a non fiction historical book.  I must...

Good morning! Oh my goodness, my knitting and my reading is swelling in overload.  I have some personal knitting goal deadlines for Thanksgiving. So I'm knitting once again a couple of mitts using the fetching pattern I adore.  I have this pattern memorized, burned into my brain.  That's the kind of knitting that feels like visiting an old friend.  You know, when you meet up with a buddy and no matter the span of time that has elapsed, your conversations fall into a comfortable rhythm.  So good! Now onto the huge gigantic tome I'm reading.  My son mentioned in a conversation that he was going to start reading Alexander Hamilton.   Without thinking, I said "oh, I'll do a read along with you!".  My sister and my nephew are also on board with this read along.  My daughter is still "thinking" about it.  She is participating in  nanowrimo and has limited time.  My book arrived on Monday and so I started.  Wish me luck...

I started a delightful test knit for Lisa from Happy in Dole Valley .  This knit is a sweet wee bonnet and I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to be knitting with 100% wool!  I was working on an acrylic blend and while my hands felt fine, the texture was off.  There is something about natural fiber (wool!) that is a tactile delight.  In fact, I feel the urge to go out and buy some more wool to start some more quick holiday projects. I finished my cowl and hat and posted yesterday . I'm reading the same book, so far it's going good.  I find the switching back and forth from present to past a bit disjointed, however, I'm getting used to it.  I have no idea where this plot will take me and that is okay for now.  Since I'm knitting more, my reading becomes less.  Oh to find that balance. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I started a new knitting project over the weekend when I remembered that I wanted to knit another sweater for the dog groomer's baby.  I love to knit for babies, the projects are speedy!  I love this pattern so far but I am not thrilled with knitting with Lion Brand Wool Ease.  The acrylic content is unforgiving in my hands.  However, I wanted this project to be machine wash and dry AND from my stash.  Hence the choice. Shamefully, I am not finished with my previous book, The Daughter even though I had high hopes of increasing my reading every single day.  However - today is the day.  I'm less than 10 pages away and I have no excuses. Next up is this book in the photo, which I have to say, I love the cover art.  A pile of books?  Yes please. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Good morning! I have made some steady progress on the fair isle hat , and I am loving the pattern as it slowly emerges row by row. It's also nice to not be making mistakes.  I've hit my colorwork groove! Oh and I posted yesterday about my yellow shawl. I continue to read my book from last week, The Daughter and I'm enjoying it overall.  The plot at times is quite far fetched but I'm going with it.  The writing is good and solid, the mystery over her daughter's disappearance affects many people and reading the family dynamics is fascinating. I picked up this book, The Power of Habit  after hearing it on some podcasts.  Since I'm a fond lover of positive habit creating and tracking progress, I thought this would be an interesting read.  Lots of the writing reminds me of some of my university psych classes way back when.  Good stuff! What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Good morning!  I have been busy with the fair isle hat and I finally (!) stopped making mistakes.  Well I think I've stopped making mistakes.  Phew.  I must say that sometimes I am amazed at what will get me to rethink my skills.  But I'm happy to report my faulty start was all due to my attention to detail and reading my color selections correctly.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the fair isle knitting! I'm making steady progress on my cowl.  I don't want the knitting to end!  However I am getting close to finishing and will probably cast off over the weekend if not sooner.  Easy knitting is happy knitting and best of all, I don't have to think much on that project. I am half way through The Daughter  and like it overall.  It's a bit suspenseful and a lot of questioning how well we know our family members.  I'm interested in relationship dynamics so I'm glad I picked this book off of a display table in a bookstore. What are...