knitting-in the new year

Joining Ginny at small things, as always—

On the needles... It is so nice to get back to normal knitting—as opposed to holiday knitting, which always seems to multiply as the deadline draws nearer, making the whole of it much less enjoyable than it ought to be.

I'm still working under a deadline, of course. The orange knit from last time I yarned-along—a balaclava for my brother, which you couldn't possibly have guessed unless you know that orange is his favorite color and that I try to make or buy him something orange every year—is, sadly, still unfinished. When he opened it on Christmas—or rather, the day after Christmas—it needed only the 13 rows of ribbing around the face...and that is still what it needs. I started to pick up the stitches for it on Saturday night, but then I had trouble getting the stitch count right on the neck, and then some friends of ours dropped in, and there was wine, and I thought it best to leave it for another day. Which will be soon. Really.

The blue in my basket is Asher's birthday sweater, which I started on New Year's Eve and hope to finish long before he turns three (three!) in a month's time. He has been watching me knit it—every time I pick it up he asks: "That my sweat-uh? For my birfday?" He seems happy with it so far. (Ravelry details are here.)

On the nightstand... For Christmas, my wonderful sister gave me two books I've been wanting: Buddhism for Mothers and Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children . After spending an hour mulling over which one to read first—Buddhism for Mothers was the logical choice, there, but with how excruciatingly slow reading has been for me of late I am anxious to read Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children while it still applies...—I chose the first title and, with other people around to occupy my children's attention for stretches of time longer than five minutes, I managed to read a whole sixty pages before we left Connecticut. (I've read another page and a half since we got home!) It is lovely, and just what I need right now to guide my steps on this sometimes-crooked path of mine.

What are you knitting and reading this week?