cables & flannels

Happy last day of January! I went through my WIP basket Monday night and discovered that there were not one or even two but five unfinished cowls waiting for attention. It's a good thing that I like to wear cowls with my flannels during wintertime because there will be lots of them coming off the needles in February. First one to be completed is the reversible braided cowl knitted with Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande yarn.

Yes, the yarn is as soft, warm and cozy as it sounds. This pattern is definitely a contender for Christmas gift knitting since it is so fast and easy to make. And who doesn't love squishy cables?

What kinds of projects are multiplying in your basket? The temptation to cast on for another pair of socks is pretty hard to resist (especially when I keep splurging on new sock yarns, patterns & books ... need to stop my bad habit of midnight window shopping ... sometimes I hit the buy button when I'm half asleep LOL) but so far I've been sticking to my finishing goals: knitting on one project at a time until it's done & reserving the evening hours for sock knitting. We'll see how long that lasts! Next up is a new design using just one skein of this luscious yarn:

And in other happy news, my husband & I just celebrated our 20 year anniversary. Feeling so blessed to share my life with such a wonderful partner in crime. We met out of the blue in college (although he has since insisted that he planned the meeting all along) and now I can't imagine my life without his oddball sense of humor and aggravating little quirks. On our first anniversary, he gave me a hickory farms cheese set. And on our 20th I got this:

It's nice to see that he's gotten wiser with age!