Not Yarning Along

Rachel, who took over with the Yarn Along knitting and reading theme that was started by Ginny, has decided to pause the offical weekly Yarning Along, but have no fear, I am going to continue to have a crafting and reading post on a Wednesday beacuse I enjoy writing them, and it gives me an excellent excuse to take half an hour off from work and share what's happening in the rest of my life. I might even give the feature a new name, although I am currently drawing a blank on that! If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them in the comments. And if you want to join in sharing what you're reading and crafting on, go ahead and share that too. I've started a book post in my Ravelry group too, if you prefer to chat on Ravelry.*

This week I've been surprised by the sudden approach of winter. October was warm, but last weekend the cold snap happened and I had to dig out all the winter woollies. I am always caught out by the start of winter, never fully believing that the weather gets that cold in the UK until the first frost. My car has been to the garage for it's annual MOT and service, so I've been relying on the buses. This morning, after one person too many smoked a little too close for my liking, I decided to walk home from town. It's a good few miles, but the clear skies and glorious sunshine made it worth it. I happily crunched through the leaves and enjoyed the last of the autumnal colours.

The other thing I've been doing this week is frantically knitting to try and get the last couple of commissions for the season complete. Between 8pm on Sunday night and midnight on Monday night I knitted an entire adult UK size 7 cabled sock in 4 ply. Even I am not sure how. I know I knit fast, but that was pushing it even for me! I have one more magazine commission to complete before I can properly get started on my Christmas crafting, but things are a little more relaxed round here now.

My Christmas socks are now on the needles, and I'm pretty certain the yarn is going to microstripe, with larger white stripes and a variegated section spiralling round the leg. This pair of socks is going to become my out and about knitting, so don't expect speedy progress, but I am hoping to have them done by Christmas.

For a change, I started a small cross stitch project this weekend. I bought this kit from Hobbycraft last year, but it's taken me until now to start it. It's my first time sewing with the fabric held in a hoop, and I pretty quickly abandoned the hoop and held the fabric freehand. I am enjoying the sewing, but not the chart - the squares are tiny, so it's very, very tricky to keep track of where the stitches should be. If I had a colour printer I would be scanning the chart in and printing out a larger version to save my eyesight!

As for reading, I have paused on The Power as I've had too much else on to concentrate on the story. Last night I started reading Into The Water, which I am enjoying so far, and can read it while knitting as it's a hardback and stays open. Maybe it's time to start only reading on my Kindle...

What are you reading at the minute? How's the Christmas crafting going?

For those of you that entered my 1st birthday giveaway, I drew the winner last week and the prize went to Mary in Toronto. Thank you to everyone who entered, and for your thoughtful responses. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a different prize, how about joining my Christmas Knits KAL? It's running until the end of November, and all you have to do is knit something festive and join in the chatter in my Ravelry thread.*

*This is a Ravelry link. You'll need to be logged into Ravelry to read the thread.

Yarning Along: Festive plans afoot

I've got a much longer Yarning Along post for you today than usual. Partly to make up for the lack of post last week, and partly because I have plans afoot!

It was Halloween yesterday, and while it's not a festival I celebrate, I did make a token effort with some pumpkin carving, which I enjoyed much more the previous attempts I've made (I think I chose the right knife this year, which made it much quicker than earlier efforts). I also took my kids along to the school Halloween disco, which they enjoyed and I endured. I like parties with music, but it's not that much fun when you're expected not to dance!

  

And now it's November 1st and I can get started on my Christmas knitting almost guilt-free (I have a few commissions that I need to get finished so that I can cast something else on completely guilt-free). First up, I will be casting on some Christmas socks in this very festive yarn from Unbelievawool (it was a club colourway a couple of years ago), and carrying the project round in my brand new Christmas sloths bag from Yarn Magpie. Seriously, the bag is amazing, beautifully made and a lovely size, and who doesn't need festive creatures on their project bags. And once my Unbelievawool socks are done, I'll be knitting some Candy Cane striped socks in the new yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners (which I ordered the second I knew of its existence!).

While the socks will be my out and about knitting, my home project will be a Christmas stocking for a friend's daughter. I made a stocking for my friend's eldest a couple of years ago, and am pleased that a second was requested for their new daughter who arrived earlier in the year.

After the stocking is knitted, I shall be totally indulgent and cast on my Sincerely Louise reindeer head so it can be mounted on the wall in time for Christmas. I'm not certain the deer was designed as a Christmas ornament, but mine shall be adorned with tinsel over the festive period, and maybe even some fairy lights, so it will be super-festive!

You may remember that last year I had not one, not two, but three yarn advent calendars. You may also have noticed that I didn't show you the after photo for the sock yarn blanket. And that's because I still haven't completed all 24 days of squares, oops. My schedule required two squares per day, which was never going to happen, but over the next few weeks I am planning on adding the final 16 squares (days 16-24), so that I can be ready to add this year's advent squares over the course of December (one per day; the yarn will come from an advent calendar swap that someone was organising on Instagram). Here's what the advent section of the blanket looks like at the minute.

And in the spirit of Yarning Along, here's what I'm currently reading: The Power by Naomi Alderman. I heard of this book via Radio 4 ages ago, but was reminded of it last week and ordered a copy straight away. The premise is interesting: what would happen if all girls suddenly had the ability to control electricity and as a result became physically stronger than men. I'm a big fan of well-written dystopian novels, and so far this one is ticking all the boxes.

I finished reading Autumn just before half term, and felt the book was far too clever for me. I am actually considering reading it for the second time as I think there's a lot more I could get out of it now I know that it is character- rather than plot-driven. I have a couple of other books I am very excited to get started with over the next few weeks: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman and Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I loved the His Dark Materials series, so am glad that Pullman is revisiting that world again. I'm saving the book for a clear weekend as I suspect that once I start reading it I won't be able to put it down again! Into the Water is by the same author as The Girl on the Train, which I read very quickly a couple of years ago; I heard an small extract from Into the Water on the radio when it first came out and am excited to see what happens.

Thanks for reading. What are you excited about at the minute?

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Do you have any festive knitting plans? If you do, why not join in with the Vikki Bird Designs' Christmas KAL? All the details can be found in my Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link. Requires a Ravelry account to read; membership is free.