~ 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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I love fast-knitting that results in a beautiful item. Here’s my Sweetheart of a Shawl that I knit when Kit and I watched a chick-flick instead of college football on Saturday night. You’ll love this shawl (available as a downloadable pdf for $3.00) since it not only uses just 90 yards of a bulky mohair, it knits up fast (I finished it during the three hours that Kit and watched movies), and is a very versatile piece to add to your wardrobe. The yarn is Universal Yarn’s Spice Berry in their Herbes des Provences colorway — check your LYS (I know Dog House Yarns in Culpeper carries it).

One of my once-unbreakable rules of knitting was to never have more than one project going at a time. Unfortunately, I’ve broken that rule lately and so have a couple of UFO’s (un finished objects) haunting my dreams: the pink cashmere vest is such SSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWW going because I actually have to concentrate and watch my knitting as any error is VERY pronounced. And I’ve set aside the blue shawl to work on other, quicker projects. The picture here is from JULY 27th! yarn-along … I’ve gotten much further on both pieces … but they still remain UFOs.

As far as reading and books and trying to stay above water — well, we started school a week ago and have been immersed in all that that entails. Read-alouds have started and we’re currently reading an excellent fantasy book: Under a Fairy Moon written by a Catholic Canadian school teacher. It is excellent! My pile is shrinking but still there … I am currently reading The Realms Thereunder (as a pre-read for Hambone — I’ve got mixed feelings on this one, but since I am only about a third of the way thru, I’ll keep going and see if it gets better) and trying to keep up with the reading for the St. Brigid’s Club.

I need colder days and nights … power outages … holidays in order to catch up on all my reading and knitting!

Won’t you come play with us … check out Ginny’s post at small things … and join in the fun!