~ 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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Well, good morning! Another Wednesday, another yarn-along with Ginny and others. I always look forward to this weekly post, giving you a glimpse of what I’m working on … what I’m reading … and often, what I’m planning.

So here we go.

First, the fabulous read-aloud … so far, anyway. You might remember that we had started reading The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. It’s a great read and we’re about a third of the way through the book. But the other day I rec’d a review copy of a brand-new book from Hillside Education: The King’s Gambit by John McNichol. I asked the kids yesterday if we could read this as our current read-aloud as I thought they might like it … well, skepticism was all over their faces, but they agreed after I promised that we would TRY IT and we could stop if they’d rather return to Austria and the Von Trapps.

Well, after the first pages they were hooked … after an hour, I had to stop so we could eat lunch. Yes, this book is funny, exciting and so far, a very unique story! I’ll keep you posted on what we think of this fabulous family read-aloud.

I’ve started a baby tam in a lovely shade of light purple … the colorwork will use up some of the yarn leftover from my Miss Ellie’s Garden … I’ve got the base all done and am just about ready to turn and start the colorwork top (see the graph in the picture … that tells me what to do when … the final may look different as I change-up as I go). I love doing colorwork, especially on something so small; it just flies off the needles! I’m planning some booties and possibly a yoked-sweater … unless I get the urge to make something without pastels (which are not my favorite colors to knit with!). But we’re having such a baby-boom amidst my young friends, that I may be using pastels for a while yet.

On to the knitting needles: as you can see, I finished the sweater I mentioned in last week’s yarn-along … it’s a cotton/acrylic sweater for HamBone with a slight v-neck and a bit of color-work at the bottom. Titled “St. Andrew’s Sweater”, this is a perfect garment for hitting the greens or just looking nice for Mass. One thing I want to show you, which as knitters you’ll understand the coolness of this, is the sleeve and armhole. This sweater is done COMPLETELY seamlessly … worked in the round to the underarms … then the sleeves are worked to the underarm … then all are joined together and through a series of various decreases, the sleeve is “set-in” without having to sew! Lovely, eh? I then finished the shoulders with a bit of a slope to fit better. The v-neck is ribbed in the round after the shoulders are 3-needle-bound-off.

Isn’t this cool? It wasn’t my idea but rather my version of EZ’s in her book Knitting Workshop, a classic of knitting unventions. I’ll be writing up a post about my EZ year and how I’m revisiting all her books …. so stay tuned if you’re interested in hearing my adventures during this EZ year!

So, what’s on your needles and reading table … want to come play over at Ginny’s