Knitting

It is more of the same on the knitting and reading front this week.  The Garter Stitch Cardigan is growing I have completed the back and am now working on the right front.  The body of this cardigan is worked in one to the armholes at which point you divide the work and each section (fronts, back and sleeves) are worked separately.   I always forget, as I don't knit them that often, how quickly baby knits knit up.  When I read on blogs, folks who have knitted a baby garment in a week I wondered how they do it but if it is all you are knitting I can see now how easy it would be to do that.  

I have also been working on Slippers I have cast on the first of pair number four, the sole and heel are complete, the cuff is now growing.  I have finally got round to sharing my finished off Antler Cardigan in this post.

I am still reading The Elephant Keepers' Children and I am struggling to put this down now.  The story thus far has been building each of the characters weaving them into the narrative.  There are many characters in this book and they have such wonderful names, such as Professor Thorkild Thorlacius-Claptrap, a builder Svend Sewerman, a computer scientist Leonora Ticklepalate, a detective with a weakness for food and drink Albert Winehappy, I have found it easy to remember them!  Now all these characters are enmeshed into the narrative the pace is picking up to the point that it has become more of a page turner, I am intrigued as to where it will go next and have no idea how it will end.

Joining in with Tami and Ginny.

Knitting

I have been knitting various projects recently.  I have finished my first Christmas knit which I will share another time.  I have also been trying to knit a pair of slippers, I say trying because I am struggling with the gauge.  I have bought a variety of yarns to knit these and cast on to make a small pair having done a gauge swatch.  I was unsure of the construction so when I got to the stage where I could see the size I realised they were far going to be far too small, even allowing for a small amount of stretch and blocking.  I tried again with a different yarn, again doing a gauge swatch before hand on larger needles and still they are too small.  I am going to try going up one more needle size and if that doesn't work going up a size on the pattern, this means that I will have to write a bigger size!  I have read through other notes in Ravelry and was amazed at how many knitted these and found them too big, I must be a very tight knitter!

One project that is progressing and staying on the needles is a jumper which I shared a couple of weeks ago, I have reached the stage of the front cables.  I was happily knitting this whilst watching a DVD last night when I realisd that I had gone past the stage of shaping the armholes, I had to rip it all  out!  This is not mindless DVD knitting anymore, I have now written out the shaping rows so that I can do these without having to concentrate quite so hard.  I am likely to have some knitting time this weekend so I hope I can get this piece finished and maybe one of the arms.

I started a reading great book this week, I have read a few books by this author and whilst in the library picked up another of his.  The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Høeg (he also wrote Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow or Sense of Snow in the US) is set in the authors native country,
Denmark and is written from the perspective of a fourteen year old boy.  It tells of three siblings and their life alongside their eccentric parents on a fictitious Island.  The parents have gone missing and the children set out to find them, with some madcap adventures on the way.  Some of the characters names are wonderful and add to the charm of the story.  I am enjoying reading this book!

Joining in with Tami for this weeks work in progress.