I did finish my bunny hat while I was away. This knit up very easily and fits quite nicely. If I were to do it again, I might make the ribbing a bit longer but it fits very nicely otherwise.

For car knitting I took my Cherry vanilla hurricane shawl which I bound off just as we were approaching Hyde Park. I think that’s sort of fitting as the white yarn was spun from a fleece bought a Rhinebeck a few years ago. It was nice to have that extra layer on Saturday when it was very windy and definitely chilly.

You knew I did some shopping, right? I have some of those beautiful turned wood stick shawl pins but they always seem to fall out so I was very pleased to find this lovely enameled pin. I bought a bag full of merino roving- 1 pound of this white as well as six ounces each of a medium and dark brown. The locks pictured are from the softest fleece I have ever touched- 13.3 micron merino. My old slippers have been driving me nuts as the lining in the right slipper constantly rides up behind my heel. I can send these back for resoling when needed which I like much better than buying new ones every few years. Jason thought one of these lovely baskets would make an excellent veggie basket for the garden next year so we bought one of those as well. You can see all my photos from the weekend here.

I finished up a square for a Vermont Strong afghan and you could knock me over with a feather. It’s the first time I have ever knit a square that came out the right size the first time through.

I also pulled some raspberries out of the freezer to make chocolate covered raspberries at Daniel’s request. I used a package of Wilton chocolate melts, raspberries and some homemade ganache. They were pretty good but I want a more even chocolate to raspberry ratio so it’s back to the drawing board for something more truffle like.

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This is what occupied my time during a good portion of the power outage. The pattern isn’t available anymore but you can probably reverse engineer it. It’s quite similar to the knitted winter shawl (bottom button) only more stripey. The yarn is handspun with the natural color being from Tarragon’s fleece that I buy every year. The red is a merino braid in Black Cherry from Spunky Eclectic. I needed something easy to knit in low light conditions and this fit the bill nicely. It’ll come along more slowly now that I have power back and can see to do other more complicated things.

I finally quit being lazy and finished up my Pisqu socks. I’d been avoiding cutting and pasting the charts in the larger format but finally opted to go with the old small chart that was ready to go. Once I started knitting the second sock was finished in no time. I’d only had the foot left to do. These will be very toasty when winter comes!

This little square will join many others to create an afghan for someone in need. Several of us will get together on Monday to seam them all together. The little squares are a quick knit but it does take while to seam and weave in the myriad of ends to form this ten-inch square.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a good purging of patterns since I began knitting in 2004. This  past week I’ve done a massive reorganization and sent quite a few to the recycle bin. Many were set aside to be sent to Spinderella’s where they’ll go into care packages for women in service (as long as they get there quickly enough, if not they’ll go into a package at a later date). I emptied 5 or 6 binders full of patterns and whittled down to a single binder. (package goes out Saturday so it’s too late to jump on the bandwagon but if you follow them on Facebook or join the Ravelry group you can participate next time around)

I finished the first three days and my shoulder is telling me it’s time to slow down and take it at a slower pace. The yarn is handspun corridale, a prize winning fleece that Rose battled through the Rhinebeck fleece sale to snag for me. It’s quite nice to knit with and will make a lovely cozy scarf when it’s done.

I’m working on a scarf in which a piece of the pattern is released each day from Dec. 1 through 24. I doubt I’ll be able to keep pace with all that is going on but I’ll follow along as and when I can. Here’s the start of my scarf done in homespun corriedale.

Gwen seems disinclined to go upstairs to sleep in her basket so I’ve brought it down and put it beneath the tree where all three girls like to hang out.

On our way to the fiber festival Sunday I knit this cute owl coffee cozy. It’s a gift for the friend of a friend and it was a very quick knit. On the way home I knit the plain vanilla coffee cozy. I almost wish I was a coffee drinker!