Yarn Along No. 1

I'm very excited to be linking up with Ginny at Small Things, one of my very favorite blogs, for my first Yarn Along!  I have been hesitant to do this because (1) I almost always knit at night, and can never manage to get well-lit photos of my knitting and (2) I tend to read on an e-reader,* which also doesn't lend itself to pretty photography.  While I figure that dilemma out, for now I'll include a blurry Instagram photo of the sweater and a copied image of Wolf Hall, my new read.

I just cast on my very first project for baby girl!  I love knitting for my boys, and almost done with a second Norwegian Star hat for Finn (I just need to block it), but there is something special about knitting for a newborn baby girl, isn't there?  This photo is of the start of a super-simple Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater in Sublime Baby Cashmerino in the Pebble colorway.  Of course, the world of pinks and yellows and pastels is finally open to me, and I choose to knit something the color of a rock on the beach.  Oh well, I love babies in neutrals!  And this yarn is lovely - so soft and silky. 

I knit one of these tiny sweaters back in 2005 - it was one of my very first projects, for a charity drive while I was in law school.  It is terribly easy to knit, and I just love the yoking around the neck and sleeves, so I couldn't wait to make a version for my own baby girl. 

 





Photo source.

I've been reading a lot lately, mostly on my looong train rides to and from work.  In the past couple of weeks I've finished Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor (long! and a bit of a slog through endless details about military maneuverings in parts, but worth it in the end), Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge (mesmerizing, fast read of interconnected short stories set in a small town in Maine, loved it), and Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure (excellent!  I loved this guide to photography, and I am NOT a tech person).  I was a little intimidated to start Wolf Hall - any book that begins with a multi-page list of characters and complicated timelines tends to stress me out.  But I'm a few chapters in, and can't believe how brilliant it is already.  I find most historical fiction, especially about the Tudors and court intrigue, to be too melodramatic for me, but this is so, so well done. 

*Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with e-readers?  I love that I can read my books, newspapers, magazines, websites, work documents, and email all in one place, especially since I do most of my reading while commuting and don't like to have to lug a bunch of stuff around.  But I MISS books!  The pretty cover art, the feel of the pages, being able to read in the bathtub . . .  I usually have a print book or two lying around, but it just isn't the same.  And it's almost impossible to support local bookstores as much as I would like if I'm buying e-books.  What to do?