Knitting Sandwich

yarn along 05.23.12

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along:

it's lily bookclub week again!  yay!  this month her choice was ramona and her mother by beverly cleary and my choice was oddfellow's orphanage by emily winfield martin of black apple fame.

the ramona books are some of my absolute favorites from my childhood and i don't think there are words for how happy it makes me to watch lily devouring them for the first time.  it simply warms my heart.

i am a huge fan of ms. emily winfield martin's art, so when she announced she was publishing a children's book based on her oddfellow's orphanage series of paintings i immediately pre-ordered myself a copy.  the book did not disappoint - it is charming and sweet and magical and absolutely perfect!  

i have to share one more photo because it is so completely charming:

and knitting?   well it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks but i've been managing to squeeze in some time to knit here and there.  i'm working on my may square for my square-a-month blanket for bundles of joy.  i should be able to finish it up today (although i've been saying that for the past three days!  sometimes life just gets in the way of knitting!)

hope you're all having a wonderful week!  what are you reading right now?

-melissa

yarn along 05.02.12

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along:

reading: mocking jay by suzanne collins - brian and i are about half-way through the final installation of the hunger games trilogy.  and oh goodness things are heating up!!  if brian and i weren't reading this together i totally would have stayed up half the night last night finishing the book!

crocheting: an andalucia skirt (rav link) for lily.  i love how quickly crochet goes - i began this project only monday and already have made quite a bit of progress.  i'm loving the fan pattern too - it's very zen-inducing and soothing to knit.  (or crochet, as it were.)

what are y'all reading this week?

-melissa

yarn along 04.18.12

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along.

this week has found me thoroughly enjoying myself as i knit up a pile of dishcloths (these are for a gift, so i can't show you any more specifics), and reading my books for lily's book club.  

this month she chose wolves of beyond - frost wolf and i chose children of the noisy village by astrid lindgren.  lily has finished both of them already, but i'm only half way through frost wolf.  bookclub doesn't meet until next week though, so i should be able to make it!

-melissa

yarn along 04.04.12

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along.

this week finds me spinning up some very sheepishly lovely fiber from smokey mountain fibers.  it will be for the back of my handspun logcabin cushion cover, but as i was spinning last night my mind was a whirl (pun totally intended) with ideas and things i wanted to spin up.  so it's fair to say i may have recaught the spinning bug.

and reading.... ah i have finally climbed aboard the hunger games bandwagon!  brian and i are reading this together (which means he reads out loud while i knit or spin, as the case may be) and we just began last night.  he actually gave me the book for christmas but we had to (a)finish listening to dance with dragons (b)listen to the final book in the inheritance cycle (c)have a addictive marathon viewing of the first season of game of thrones and now with all that out of the way we are ready to dive into the hunger games. when we finish the book maybe we'll go on a date and see the movie!

-melissa

yarn along 03.14.12 - kittycat edition

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along.

this week i am rippling along (pattern: neat ripple by lucy at attic24 - rav link) and have just finished reading the cats of rockville station by jean craighead george.  the book is my pick for the new bookclub that lily has created.  here are the "rules:" there are only two members - lily and i - and we each read a book, then trade and read the other person's book.  then we meet at the coffee shop, eat a giant cookie and talk about the books.  

we're supposed to have our first meeting next wednesday after school and we still need to trade.  she keeps changing her choice of books though (every book she finishes she decides is the book she wants to choose), so i need to pin her down before i start reading.

and speaking of cats..... here's some completely adorable shots i got of peapod this past weekend:

books, yarn, and cats... what more could you ask for?

-melissa

yarn along 02.08.12

joining up with ginny at small things for the weekly yarn along.

this week on the needles is a like sleeves for kids (rav link) that will be for lily's birthday.  after letting lily chose whatever pattern she wanted for last year's birthday sweater (and having to knit the neverending ruffle because of that) this year i decided to show her just one pattern and ask her if she liked it.

luckily for me, she did.  not only does it not have a giant ruffle, it doesn't even have sleeves!  it should knit up quickly (and be super cute to boot!)

and the book?  oh goodness am i ever excited!!  it's an early birthday present for me and just arrived yesterday.  i haven't started it yet, but i am already dreaming of tearing out all my grass and growing potatoes in my front yard!  bring on the suburban farming revolution!!!

and the pig?  oh that's just the piggy bank my parents got from their bank when i was born.  i love her.  

-melissa

yarn along 02.02.12

found via knitter sue - the weekly yarn along, hosted by ginny at small things.

~ 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! ~

i guess right now i'm technically reading love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez but while i'm knitting i've been listening to the inheritance cycle by christopher paolini.  i've been re-listening to the first three in preparation for the 4th and final book which came out last fall.  

i'm in the middle of the third book brisingr right now.  they are so much fun, and even more so as audiobooks.  the narrator, gerard doyle, does a completely fantastic job with all the voices - especially saphira the dragon.   

i don't know if i'll do this every week, since we do have the sidebar listing what we're reading just to the right over there on the blog... but i thought it sounded like fun - especially if it entices y'all to play along.  what are you reading/knitting right now?

-melissa