~ 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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First, I was able to get the pictures taken and the designs written for those two I mentioned last week:

The Christmas Scarf in a cashmere/silk/merino blend and the Multi-faceted Shawl in a wool/silk blend. Both fun to knit and available on Ravelry or Craftsy. The Christmas Scarf is a companion to the Christmas Collar I posted a few weeks ago.

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But on to this week’s yarn-along!

On my reading table, I continue to read GK Chesterton … he is an amazing writer and I’ve got all kinds of dog-eared pages, underlining and margin-notes of pithy quotes and provocative thoughts. I’ll begin posting those soon.

And …. since SCHOOL started for us this week … we also started our read-aloud. Looking for the King is proving an excellent read-aloud and the kids are enjoying it. It probably helps that they spent the last three weeks of summer vacation watching Merlin on Netflix, so they’re attuned to the whole Arthurian era but I think it’s also because this first-novel is a GOOD book. Yesterday, the kids worked with Sculpey while I read … and HotRod (9) created his own Merlin which he will place above his home-school space to “make him smarter this year”.

On the knitting needles: I’ve just about finished a pair of fingerless mitts. These are for teaching a class at the 2nd Annual Getting Cozy with Cashmere workshop I’m leading down at Jane’s farm in Barboursville. [We had such a blast last year, you might not want to miss this one ….]. The mitts are NOT supposed to match — the class will be on designing your own color-work combination based on a main color and four coordinating colors. In the next week or so, I’ll be designing a lace sampler scarf for the other half of the workshop — a chance to learn all about lace and work some traditional lace patterns into a lovely, 100% cashmere scarf. The cool thing about this workshop — you get Jane’s yummy yarn to play with as part of the cost of the camp.

Other opptys for learning to knit: I’ll be teaching four classes at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival (in Berryville, VA) on September 28 and 29 (basic knitting, reading/making charts, finishing tips/techniques, and colorwork) — class registration ends on September 1st! I’ll also be at the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival on Sunday, October 7th … demonstrating and answering all knitterly questions as well as helping Jane in her Spring Gate booth. If you do come down for this annual event, please find me and say “howdy”!

That’s my yarn-along … what do you have on your reading table and knitting needles? Won’t you come play along with us over at Ginny’s?