Today I’m joining Ginny’s Yarn Along, sharing what I’m knitting and reading.

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I’m knitting a wooly hat for Jeff to keep him warm this winter. The yarn is handspun by Camilla, of Twist & Twine Yarns. I love working with it and the colors are great for Jeff. (You can see my photography assistant likes to help me with my Yarn Along photos.)

 Years ago I knitted Jeff a hat and it turned out too big. Being rather new to knitting at the time, the idea of frogging it was a little intimidating. Jeff wanted to felt it. So we stuck it in the washing machine. It shrunk much more than we were expecting. When he put it on his head it looked like a *very* tiny yamaka. It was pretty hilarious actually and turned into a joke around here. We ended up using it for a felted bowl. 

Anyway, I am excited to be knitting him a hat again (and one that actually fits this time.) I cast on in the car one day and hadn’t made an adult-sized hat in so long that I had no idea how many stitches and I ended up casting on way to many. As I was knitting, it was turning out huge. So I frogged it (I’m not afraid to do that these days.) I cast on again. Now I’m wondering if it’s going to be too small? Did I reduce it too much? We’ll see after I knit a little further on it. I am knitting on circular needles in size 15. Then I realized I don’t have any double pointed needles in that size. Need to stop by a yarn shop next time I’m in town. I’m sure Jeff could make me some, but he’s plenty busy these days. 

I’m reading ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’ I’ve been surprised. Throughout my life when I heard the book mentioned, I always pictured some lighthearted and carefree boy and a book filled with his funny tales. It’s not lighthearted like I expected, but it’s very real and I like that. It inspires me to read more by Mark Twain. He is an amazing writer. Any suggestions for other good books he’s written?

This is some lovely merino and silk yarn from a new knitting friend in Canada. (Bless your heart Jayne!)

She thought the colors would be wonderful for Bracken and I agree. When I saw the yarn, I thought it would make a great little vest for him. I’m envisioning a vest with buttons down the front. I want a simple pattern because I’ve never followed a pattern before. At all. I just make my knitting up as I go along. So I’d like to find something fairly easy to start off with. I need to do some more searching on Ravelry for patterns. Do any of you have any suggestions? Do you have a vest pattern you like? (Here’s the info on the yarn in case that helps: 150 yards, DK weight, US 4-6 needles.) 

I love knitting all year long. Now that it’s getting colder I’m looking forward to all the handknits we’ll wear soon. How about you?

What are you knitting and reading?

P.S. Comments are showing up in this post from last week’s Yarn Along. Not sure what that is all about?