Knitting & Reading

I've wanted to join up with something for some time now ... something like a swap or a link to share some of my similar interests.  So today I've decided to link up with Ginny of Small Things and her Yarn Along, posting what you're currently reading and what you're currently knitting.  Easy enough, although I don't always have something on the needles, nor do I always have a book that I'm reading.  But these links are nothing if not inspirational to get a person's mind clicking away.  Gives me a purpose and a reason to start (and finish!) some projects :)

 

Today on my needles is a new project I've started for my daughter.  Her grandmother (my MIL) made a quilt for her last year, and my daughter wanted a new pillow to go with it.  The quilt is quite colourful ...

I've been wanting to knit this cute pillow for some time now, but couldn't think what yarn to use for it. 

This is from a children's learn-to-knit book, "Knitting for Children" by Claire Montgomerie.  The suggested yarn is cashmere merino silk (pretty nice yarn for a children's book!).  I thought it would look nice in cotton, but I didn't have enough in my stash.  And since I'm trying to use my stash yarn to contribute to the Stash Buster Challenge at the same time, I decided to use up what's left of two balls of merino in bright pink & lime green.  The girl's room is lime green, so these colours will look great.

 

 

I've only finished one strip of the pillow so far, and I'm fast running out of yarn!  Of course, I had to buy a larger pillow form than the 12 x 12" form they suggest, so my strips have to be a bit longer.  I may have to dig a little deeper for some more yarn to finish this off.  I had hoped to use only these two colours, but we'll see.

 

I was at the thrift store last night, and although I didn't see any good canisters for tea etc. (husband breathes sigh of relief!), I did scoop up this book ...

 

It's a children's book (gosh, my whole post is related to children's crafts & books!).  A long (long) time ago, my school teacher read this book to our class, "Beautiful Joe" by Marshall Saunders.  I loved this book, but I never had it in my own library.  I still remember how I was struck by the fact that it was written in first person (or in this case "first dog"), which I thought was so interesting and more intimate (I still prefer books written in first person).  It's quite harsh in the beginning of the story, and it's a wonder my teacher thought to read it to us, but the whole class enjoyed it.  So when I saw it on the shelf last night, I just bought it without a thought.  So I'm reliving my childhood at the moment :)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy