Yarn Along: Christmas projects, and the Knit for Victory Sweater

I've gotten some knitting done this week, and so have progress to show!  I've shelved my Vintage Cardigan for the moment, as I'm sort of tired of it, and I'm not happy with how the neckline came out.  It might end up in a UFO (unfinished objects) pile.  I'm half finished with one sleeve, but can't quite make myself get to it.  probably I'll be fine with it once I finish the sleeves and block the whole thing, but right now, meh.

In other knitting news, I'm starting to shape the shoulders on my Knit for Victory sweater, and I'm starting to see it shaping up nicely.  With sweaters, I always feel the beginning goes terribly slow, and then it seems to fly along.  I did decide to use the "wrong" side of the pattern as the outside, and I'm liking it very much.  Reminds me of some 1940s knitting patterns I have saved on my computer.  And yes, those are straight needles.  Knitting in the round drives me kind of crazy, even though it would make it easier for the long length.

I also received my yarn order from Joann.com (they had a great yarn sale plus free shipping a week or so ago!), and I had bought some Caron Joy bamboo yarn without a specific intention for it.  I decided to make the girls matching pilot caps for Christmas, and am hoping to have enough left over to squeak a pair of booties for Ponchik as well.  I started the cap and had to frog it back 8 rows because I did the inital M1 increase incorrectly and had to go back and fix it (after watching a YouTube video to remind me how to do it!)  The yarn is actually a much prettier shade of blue in person.

I'm reading Game of Thrones for the first time and I'm liking it.  I started watching the HBO series this fall, and couldn't get through the first episode, I was so bored.  I may give it another try later, when I'm more enmeshed in the books.  The series does follow the book faithfully, at least so far.  The book isn't particularly fast going, but I find myself better able to get lost in the book than I did with the visual version.

I also just finished reading The Bloodletter's Daughter, which was quite fascinating.  It is a fictionalized version of a story that happened in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) concerning a mad Hapsburg prince in the early 1600s.  My only complaint is that the author made a few howling historical mistakes, such as identifying the monarch of England as Elizabeth the I (who was dead three years at that point, and James on the throne).  But as most of the story takes place in central Europe, I was able to overlook it, and simply enjoy the book for the most part.  It was also the first book I read entirely on an e-reader.  We had a loaner iPad from my husband's work for a few weeks, so I downloaded my kindle app onto it, and read the book on the iPad.  I like it better than reading books on my iPod, that's for sure!  I still do like the feel of a real book in my hand, but I'm warming to the e-reader idea, especially since I can carry so many books with me at once.  I read very fast, and this is a great feature for me, especially on trips.

 Join us for Yarn Along!