All the Knitting, All the Time ~yarn along~

I've been knitting a lot lately.  I've not been feeling that great since the end of August when I had that endoscopy, and then developed bronchitis afterward (although a round of antibiotics has me finally starting to feel better, thank God!).  Knitting is a nice sit-in-a-chair-and-watch-Person-of-Interest kind of thing to do while convalescing, so I've been doing it a lot.  

I'm no further on the blue sweater, because I've been letting it sit.  It is too heavy to wear in the fall anyway, so I'm not in a rush to finish it just now.

In the meantime, I did finish a little collar with some cotton-linen yarn from Knit Picks--it has interesting drape, and the color is so fall-like (clementine, if you are interested).  I have quite a bit of yarn left over, so I might make a pair of mitts to go with it.  

I didn't love knitting with the yarn, however, because the high cotton content makes the yarn very round--it was like knitting a dishcloth.  I prefer the springiness of wool.  I will say that the instructions for this collar had a few mistakes (primarily about buttonholes, but it worked out in the end--I thought five buttons was a bit much for a collar this size, and working four was perfect.  Plus, I had four burgundy buttons that coordinated well)

I also started another project from 1918: a cranberry colored pullover sweater.  I had 7 balls of Comfy yarn in my stash, bought for a project that I soured on a few years ago, and I really wanted to make them up into something for this fall. The yarn is a cotton-acrylic mix and it is so soft and squishy, I thought it would be perfect for this time of year. 

I started out to remake the 1944 Twisted Rib sweater and got a few inches in before I realized I didn't like how it looked, or how it was draping with this yarn.  I think I need to use a regular old worsted wool for that pattern.  Anything with a little bit of drape to it just looks weird.  So I started combing through my patterns and found one from a 1918 Fleisher's knitting book that I think will turn out well:

It has an easy all-over stitch pattern, and I'm finding the ribbing has gone very quickly.  I've got the ribbing done and have started on the body (it is a modified basket stitch)  I'm a little concerned about the length (according to the diagram, it will come out to 24 1/2") which could be fine, or might end up looking too long on me.  I debated a long while about making it shorter, but decided to just go for it and make it according to spec. 

As for reading, not much at the moment.  We started listening to the Gospel of Mark in our school commuting route, after St. Matthew's dramatic conclusion late last week.  I love hearing St. Mark's gospel--so much of his personality comes through with his writing.  (It is even more obvious in the Greek).  I also managed to get a copy of Word of Promise onto my ancient decrepit ipod and started listening to Romans during odd moments.  I really like the format and pacing.  I also downloaded an audio Russian language course to start working again on my Russian language skills.  I'm feeling pushed a bit in that direction lately, so we'll see what comes of it.

I did start reading A Brief History of the Cold War this week, and found it to be surprisingly adept and concise.  There were several things in the early part of the Cold War that I was quite unaware of, and the authors quickly cover all aspects with surprising depth and accessible prose.  The book is only 100 pages, and covers the entirety of the Cold War, so it is necessarily abbreviated, but I'm finding a lot to get into.  

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!