Cowl Update.

Yes. It works, no unwinding! And it's warm! And it's pink!

Not-So Dark Cowl

Finished this Darkside Cowl yesterday. It was a great and quick project. I think it only took about four days. What prompted a cowl, you ask? Last Friday morning I was walking Ella and the wind was so bitterly cold (yes, for the AZ desert is was--your blood thins out, you know), and I said to myself, you need a cowl. I do have a scarf that I wear, but...hmmm...how do I put this...you doggie moms will know what I'm talking about here...when you have to pick up the doggie poop (they all do it) the scarf seems to unwind and, well, you know....so, anyways, hopefully problem solved here.

Pattern: Darkside Cowl.
Yarn: Cascade 220 wool in pale pink (had in stash and have about 1/4 of a skein left).
Modifications: None. I did do three reps and then rows 1 and 2 of the pattern.
Now these are, of course, two more dumpling bags. I made them for my mom and MIL for Christmas, and just now (sorry) uploaded the picture. The blue one is for my mom and the pink my MIL. Both use Cascade 220, the blue is a heather which felted differently than the non-heathered, but came out just as nice.

Hope everyone has a great second week of the new year! {Going to get a new mouse and keyboard today, this one is sticking quite badly.}

1:35pm AZ time: got new keyboard and mouse---much, much, much better!

New Year

Well, it's finally here. 2010. It's going to take a few months of trial and error before I can write the correct year. Happens every year. It takes me to, oh, about mid-March before my brain kicks in that the year is different.
First I want to wrap up 2009, at least on a knitting perspective. I like what I knit this year. Sometimes I can't say that. But this past year I feel like I did like everything. And if I didn't like it, I realized it's OK to frog a whole back of a vest {cabled} and part of the fronts because I didn't like it.
Granted, I didn't finish everything I started last year. I've still got a skirt, a hat, some mitts, socks and an owlish sweater leftover. But I figure I'll get to finishing them when I get to it.
On a personal note, my hubby and I had our 15th wedding anniversary last week. And, frankly, I think, in this day and age, that's a great accomplishment!
So, on that note, I hope everyone has had a successful first week of 2010!

Merry Christmas

The Nativity from Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, AZ [jan. 2009]

Cocoa and Snowmen, Arizona Style

Mexican hot chocolate and snowmen on a gift bag.

Happy First Day of Winter

Dumplings All In A Row

Grey, misty mountains this morning. There is some snow up on the higher peaks. Just misty clouds now, and I think it's starting to rain.

The three little dumplings all in a row. This is before felting. (For those of you who don't know, these are from IK, Fall 2008.)

After felting.

These were started back in October. I did the brown one first, then the purple, and then the green was done last Thursday and felted on Friday. Since this is the last week of school before the Christmas break, these had to be done by the weekend. I knew it would take a couple of days to dry, and sure enough, this morning they were dry. All three are gifts for my kids' teachers. The purple is for the LittleOne's teacher, and the Munchkin has two teachers this year, a homeroom/math/science and then a language arts/social studies teacher. I like all three, so this year I decided to hand-make something for them. I am going to fill them with cocoa, tea and some chocolate. Something useful for them.
My ravelry page has some individual pictures of the bags before and after felting. I don't know which one I like the best. They all came out good (if I do say so myself)!
Off to the store to finish up all those last minute things!

Something Really Neat

Check out Habit.

Their pictures and the captions/comments about each are really cool.