~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.
I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny at small things

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This is my big project for this week — a tam I started at the knitting workshop I led this past weekend. The cashmere is excellent for the fair-isle colorwork because of the halo of the fiber, blending the colors nicely; you could also knit this up in wool or a blend, but you want to make sure the yarn has a bit of a halo to it to get the same effect as shown with the luxurious cashmere. The design is available for download at my Ravelry store. BTW, all my designs are available on Ravelry … you can also see most of them on my Facebook page (while you’re there, if you could “like” the page, I’d be ever so grateful!) or here on my website.

I’ve also been working steadily away at Mr. and Mrs. Claus for a DHY shop model — I love Jean Greenhowe’s designs, but I’m tweaking this one just a skosh to work more in the round and changing a few of the colors, etc. I’ll post a pic of Santa (as he’s almost done) and then Mrs. Claus will be my Thanksgiving knitting to have her to the shop by the first weekend of December. BTW, Rosanne carries this booklet at Dog House Yarns.

On the book front, we’re continuing our Stout Hearts and Whizzing Biscuits read-aloud … thoroughly enjoying it once we got into it. Very funny images and a clever story line. For the girls’ club I’m running, we’re currently reading Louisa May Alcott’s An Old-Fashioned Girl — my girls are LOVING this book and were a bit upset that I didn’t ask them to read more for next meeting!

My reading is mostly knitterly or Christmasy — our Christmas theme this year is pioneer Christmas, so I’m delving into all things Americana for Christmas ideas (including gifts, decorations and foods) … using books like Marcia Adams’ Christmas in the Heartland, The Farm Chicks Christmas, and A Homemade Christmas. If you know of any other pioneer/Americana type Christmas books, please let me know (send me an email as I have turned off comments here).

Knitterly reading includes: Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales (audiobook) and a wonderful new book from Storey that I’m really lovin’: The Knitter’s Life List … this is a mix of all things knitterly .. to do, to know, to explore, to make and includes online museums to check out, novels and movies with knitting in them, and lots of fun things. This is one of those books every knitter should get in their stocking this year! EXCELLENT