"Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading" starts the Yarn along post in Ginny's Small things blog. Well, you got me with that sentence, because what could be better than knitting and reading? Both at the same time, if possible, please.

I was running around the house to find my currents WIPs - knitting and reading - and realized that I have a pretty similar approach to both. You need to have the right book for the moment and the right knit for the occasion. It turns out that I can't really play the yarn along according to rules, as I have no idea how to choose *one* book and knitting for posting one pick. So I'm just going to show what I'm working on in no particular order. Except for the first one, as it's a novel by the very talented Laura Lehtola, nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for a debut novel. I have only read half of it so far, but I can recommend it already! The knitting is going to be a cardigan for Business woman.


One of the reasons for having so many half-read books on my night stand is my fear of not having enough to read. That's why I always pick up a new book if I have to travel somewhere. Imagine the horror of being on a long haul flight and finishing your book before reaching your destination. What would you do for the rest of the flight then?! I started "NW" by Zadie Smith on my trip to Australia last year. It's not quite "On beauty", and it's in English, so I haven't gotten around to finish it. Now I know that some people prefer to read in the original language that the book was written in. For me, English is the language I use at work, so I want to relax and enjoy my novels translated into Finnish. The knitting is an experiment with my new Helmipöllö pattern: I wanted to see if using a thinner yarn and smaller needles would make a children's size for a charity project.


"Kohti" by Juha Itkonen is a victim of travel reading as well. I found the book on my parents' yacht and took it home with me to finish, but never did. The pullover-to-be is Robin by Helga Isager, knit with Isager Spinni.


"Signaali" by Pirkko Saisio is a book that was read at a knitting event at a library. I love these knitting evenings when you can relax and knit and someone reads short stories - or in this case the first chapter of a novel. I think that I might need someone to read the rest of the chapters to me, as the book has been waiting on my nightstand since April... The blanket is also a long-term project that stays on hold and then I knit a row or two if there's nothing else to knit. Usually there is.


While running around the house trying to locate my books I noticed that I can't find Katherine Pancol's "Muchachas" part two, which is not nice as it's not my book. I have signed up for a reading event about the trilogy and obviously there's no point in going if I haven't read the book. Good thing is that I haven't lost any knitting projects. Actually, I met a friend for lunch today, and she returned this cardigan project that I left at her house a couple of weeks ago. No hurry with that one, as the linen Sparrow is more of a summer knit anyway. The book by Kalle Kniivilä is called "Putin's people", it's about the silent majority in Russia: the people who support Putin. Why do they not want democracy? Really interesting read.


Another Putin book, this one Masha Gessen's "The Man Without a Face - The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin". Isager Spinni and Isager Alpaca1 are combined to make a Pine cardigan by Helga Isager.

Actually, the number of my WIPs is currently 11 and the book pile on my nightstand much higher than this, but as I enjoy knitting and reading so much more than taking pictures of them I'm going to leave it at this and go knit and read a bit.