WIP Wednesday

First a finished object. These are my railway socks from Vintage Knitting, finished in time for the January challenge in the yahoo group. The pattern is not very visible with this yarn, but I do love them and am wearing them now.















This one is an older WIP with blocks inspired by Gwen Marston's wonderful book Liberated Quiltmaking. I am considering leaving it like this, adding a sawtooth border or adding a flying geese border (both borders liberated, naturally). Any input will be welcome. I do not have any of the grey left, but have a lighter grey that might work. I love the bright pinks, they cheer me up in dreary January.







I am quite sick this week (again!), but obviously, so are my knits. My red sweater will have to be ripped back to the joining of the body and the sleeves as the raglan looks bad and does not really fit well. Without photo, but also aiming for the frog pond are a Make Waves sock in blue (to tight) and a white sock (ladders! I can not remember having ladders in my socks. But then I normally do not do them in purl stitches. I think doing the offending stitch in combination knitting should solve the problem, but it means ripping back.) Then I really wanted to knit simple stockinett socks and I made a mess out of the yarn ball- I finally cut the offending part of to untangle seperately and started the sock. I normally have left overs, so hope this will be fine.

Reading Funk

Currently I do not feel like reading anything at all. I have a bunch of books to read for several challenges and am unsurprised that I do not want to read any of those. But I do not want to read anything else either and that is unusual. None of my new books or my favorite authors really tickle my fancy...

I guess that way at least I get my Railway Socks for the Vintage KAL finished. I started sock number 2 yesterday and it was my blog reading knitting.

My red sweater is almost finished, but I do not like the way the raglan looks, it is lumpy under the arms and along the raglan line. Likely I will rip it. Ugh. But with that sweaters karma not surprising, after all I needed three starts to get that right. At least the body looks good and the sleeves are fine, too, now I just need to get the yoke right.

WIPs

Railway Socks. These are for the January Challenge in the Vintage Socks Knit Along. The yarn is not ideal for this pattern, but I like both, so I just keep knitting. I will need a second one for the challenge, so I better keep going.



These are my broadway mitts. As you can see, not much is missing, but since it is warm enough to not consider wearing a jacket when going for lunch, I feel no need to hurry them along. Especially since they are on the 3mm needles I do not really need.



This is the first of my making waves socks. As it is not going well without cable needle, they are progressing really slowly. Finishing them is likely going to be part of the Project Spectrum Challenge for February/March.




This is the mitt for Sharfika, inspired by the pink scarf I am knitting from Grumperia's pattern Sharfik.



And this is the actualy Sharfika. Neither the Sharfika nor her mitts get much work done on them, because, you guessed it, it's too warm.

Atwood April

Since quite a few people have Atwood on their list for the TBR challenge I was thinking of having a month were we would read a book by Margret Atwood. April because of the alliteration and because just now I have to much must read books. I have three books in my piles that would work. Anyone else interested?

Widow for One Year finished

This is the third time I am writting this post, so I am going to keep it short.

This was the last of my winter stack challenge, so I successfully finished my first reading challenge. As usual I enjoyed Irving's disfunctional family and the way they dealt with life and each other. The last part of the book was actually quite a bit of a turn off as all the ends tied up too neatly and it was just too much happy end. Luckily I was in the mood for a happy end otherwise it would have pissed me of quite a lot.

I am happy to have this heavy hardcover out of my bag as carrying it to and from work weighted me down quite a bit. I will happily stay with my paperbacks. I have started Das Buch vom Salz, a ficitional report from Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas cook in Paris. Despite this being in my mother tongue it is not an easy read so far, I need to get the rythm of the writing that is quite different from Irving. This book was a christmas gift from MyGuy and I am sure he will be happy to see me read it. It always makes him unsure if he got the right thing if I do not read it right away. Besides it will be a nice change before I dive in the classics for the classics challenge as well as the Knit the Classics.

Blind Assassin

This was my fourth book for the Winter Stack Challenge and I finally finished it yesterday. This book was just what I have come to expect from Atwood: dark and multidimensional. This time there were 3 lines to follow plus some newspaper extracts. The present day line, the life line and the book line were interwoven. If you do not enjoy jumping back and forth you might find this book off putting, but I always enjoy it. I could sympathize with the main characters wish to see herself in a positive light as she is aware of it. Though on occasion I got upset with her for being such a "drifter" in life.

Quite a few people are reading a book by Atwood for the tbr challenge and I am wondering if anyone would be interested in reading her at the same time, for example in April? I have Edible Woman and Penelopeide to read and Handmaid to reread, I also want to read Surfacing.

I am now reading John Irving's Widow for one Year. The main reason this has been on my tbr stack for ages is that this is a hardcover and therefore not easily tugged in a purse or coat pocket. It was bought when I still lived in Giessen, so at the very latest in 1997. 10 years later I am finally reading it. So far it is a good read. Though Irving is not exactly a light weight either compared to Atwood it's less work (so far). I am considering to rebuy this in paperback as I want to keep it for my Irving collection and the hardcover has to go as it takes up too much room. So if anyone wants it in February, let me know.

Ann Granger - Mord ist aller Laster Anfang

This is the first book for my tbr challenge. When I got the flu I needed a light read, blind assassin is neither light in weight nor in content. While Say it with Poison was an interesting mystery, it left me curiously cold. I am not sure if that is the translation that is bugging me or if the original was as stiff, but the language was just not captivating me and as an introduction of a series it failed. I am a consumat reader of series, but here the main characters did not really interest me nor is their beginning relationship of much interest.

At least I am done with it and can now list it on Amazon. (If it will let me, those guys are maintaining the site right now.)

And another pair of socks...

This are the Child's First Sock Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks in Meilenweit Cotton. This socks have been WIPs ever since blue month in Project Spectrum and I got fed up with them hoging my needles and my sock bag, so while I had the flu the last 4 days I finally finished them while watching biathlon and skijumping.

In front of the blogs I knit on my red sweater, but that has not been photographed yet again. But I just measured it against my beloved Rosedale and I think it will work great. I have reconsidered the Hybrid approach as I am not sure I will like the saddles with the shaping and the yarn. I do however consider either a yoke with moss stitch patterns or a raglan with a polo-shirt collar. Hmmm. 6 more rows at the body I think and then the sleeves, that will give me some time to consider the options. It may depend on what patterns I can find. I am thinking chevrons.

I am also reading my first book for the tbr challange and am not enjoying it all that much. Nonetheless I managed this morning to ALMOST miss my train station not once but twice. I guess I needed a getaway. My flu was annoying enough spoiling 3 days of work, but this night My Guy's father had a stroke and went to hospital. Luckily the reports are very favorable. I have not been as I consider it unwise to spread viruses or bazilla in an intensive care unit. Sent good thoughts for him, there are more health issues there.

I hope everyone else is starting the new year on a more positive note. I have made only one resolution and that is to give up coke for all of 2007. I did it for a month in 2006, but have a hard time keeping the intake down, so I am kicking the can completely this year.