November ramblings

Happy December first everyone!  I woke up to sunny skies here in MD but temps that finally required me to get out a winter coat – such a nice start to my birthday month!!!

Figured that now is as good a time as any to do a quick recap of projects I’ve been working on…at least the ones I can share!

This beautiful cowl was a birthday gift to my Mother in-Law.  Jon’s parents did a bit of a “drive by” stop in MD on their way home from Myrtle Beach and had dinner with us the night of the 20^th.  Her birthday had just passed earlier that week so I’d held onto her gift to give her in person.  I loved it so much that I took many pictures before wrapping – I just LOVE the colors in the yarn

The pattern is a “V-stitch” with my lighted K hook, and I chained on 40 to begin.  I used 2 full skeins of THIS yarn and it makes a cowl that wraps around your next twice and fits snuggly.  I would suggest a 3^rd skein if you want it longer (the dye lots very a great deal with this line of yarn, so be sure to get enough the first time!)

I loved the finished product so much that I’ve been back to AC Moore to scope out my other color options (since purchasing in Marble at AC Moore, I happened to be in the Walmart in WNY the day before Thanksgiving and this yarn sells at almost $2 LESS a skein that at AC Moore full price!!!  Walmart had more colors in stock too, wish I’d known this before buying and starting to use what I already had.  Please learn from my unfortunate mistake (that comes from not having a local Walmart to browse yarn at!)

I wanted this to go with my red pea coat that I got for Christmas last year.  There is something so festive about a red pea coat but I seem to only enjoy it through about New Years.  This means I didn’t get too much use out of it after receiving on Christmas Day last year so I’ve been looking forward to colder weather in order to wear everyday!

I literally whip stitched this together this morning so I could wear it today for the first of our winter weather – I love it!

As I’ve mentioned before, we spent Thanksgiving in Michigan – Ann Arbor area to be exact and I was looking forward to heading north and having some cooler weather!!  I made these in anticipation of chilly weather while walking the U of M campus.  On Friday it was 65 degrees and sunny in Ann Arbor!  I brought the gloves but wore them little.  Pretty happy I didn’t race to finish the above gray cowl to weather too since I left my pea coat at home and wore my North Face all weekend.

They match the cowl perfectly and both work great with my now famous pea coat BUT I’ll be remaking the gloves if I can find the time.  I thought I was going to love them longer to keep my forearms warm.  Turns out I was wrong.  This extra length means I can’t wear them if I have bracelets on and when I got to work this morning, the 4” cuff of my cotton sweater was wrinkled and crinkly from being “squished” during my commute.  A co-worker has already asked to have them if I remake new ones.  Bold yes, but she told me that she cut a pair of tube socks for fingerless gloves, I figure it’s the least I can do to hand these off to someone in need like that!

What else…..OH YES!  In my haze of sickness when I got home on Tuesday night I had the BESTpackage in the mail!  Look at all the fun I’ll be having thanks to Debi’s giveaway!!

Had fun on Tuesday night flipping through the pages of the book getting new ideas of projects that I didn’t need to start right away.  Of course, I started one last night while watching the NYC tree lighting!  Debi I’m sure you can already guess what this is, and I’ve gotta tell you – my Mom is gonna LOVE it!

I’ve finally kicking the last of my flu bug so while tonight will be bedding and towel laundry, and most of this weekend will be spent unpacking from Thanksgiving, putting away the Thanksgiving decorations and decorating for Christmas (very excited about getting our tree on Sunday!  We’re a week late thanks to the flu).  It’s December first though so the crocheting really needs to kick into turbo gear if I’m ever going to get everything done in time! 

Yes, I say this every year.  I tell myself it’ll be different next year.  I try to start earlier next week, but here I am once more already thinking “how will I ever get it all done in time?!?”