Yarn Along: Orange and Black

~ 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! ~ via Ginny

Not a whole lot of book or nook reading going on these days. I spent last week cleaning up from our week away when we were snowed in at my mothers and recharging our family batteries. The first part of this week we spent at my mothers house, where there is internet (still none at my house as of right now), so I've been catching up with my usual blog haunts and meeting new (to me) bloggers. I spent the last half of RED reading this one last night. The only real books I read these days are a page or two of Stompers. The only ones he'll sit for are lift-the-flaps. I had to take Find Spot away from him because he ripped half the flaps off. He got a handy-me-down for Christmas called Dirt is Delightful that he's been rather attached to, it has flaps. So far the flaps are all in tact. My friend gave me a few of her daughters lift-the-flap books from when they were little (the youngest will be 5 this spring) some are already missing flaps so I won't feel so bad if when he rips off the flaps.

My knitting projects keep increasing. I have never had so many projects on my needles before. I put them in a three day rotation. Day one I work on #1, Day two I work on #2, and logically day three I work on #3. I'd like to skip project #2 all together, but since I finished the first gauntlet I might as well do the second. The first project in the picture is the gloves from Knitting Year-Round, I am almost to the fingers of the second glove. The instructions are very clear and I will probably use this pattern as my go-to for gloves in the future. I don't think I'd recommend buying the book, I got it for a song at a used book store Twice Sold Tales and will probably only use it twice. The second project is the second glove--second!--of the gauntlets. The first is at home, where I am not, and I will take a photo of it on my sisters hand as soon as glove and sister are together with fresh batteries in the camera. The third project is a finished one, I just need to weave in my two ends. It is an adaption of this scarf. I was looking for a leaf pattern to make a cowl and I found this through a fellow bloggers pintrest board. I worked 2 1/2 repeats with 4 rows of garter stitch on the top and and bottom. You will probably see this cowl again in a give away this February. Unless, of course, I fall madly and deeply in love with it before then. I do wish I had cast on more stitches as it's a little tight, but I think it will loosen with wear. This is not the same cowl seen in my last Yarn Along. That one I messed up so bad on that I worked four rows in garter and bound off. I wear it constantly, it could be taller, but it works all the same.

I think the next projects I will work on in my second fingerless mitt and a Valentines cow for Stomper. I finally got the Spud and Chloe at the Farm book and the yarn that I wanted to use to make some of the animals, so now I just need to knit.

I didn't used to keep more than one project going and didn't understand those that did, but now I get it. The gauntlets I've been working on for months, and I hate them. I keep putting them down to start other things like the orange gloves, but then I get bored of just knitting so I want something interesting to knit that's not hard (unlike the gauntlets) so I start something new, hence the cowl. I've been itching to write my own pattern again so I may cast on for a fourth before too long. I have a love/hate relationship with having so many projects, it's good that I can knit with my mood, but I feel so unaccomplished and that is hard to deal with at times. Oh well, knit on my friends!