This fun, quick knit  was donated to a charity auction at work. It was a shop pattern.

It’s definitely one of those knits where the yarn is the star: Noro’s Daria Multi, a DK weight, in 55% cotton, 45% rayon. Three small 54-yard skeins equals one small purse. The yarn is, well, cord. Really nice cord. You know it’s not yarn, even though it bears the Noro name. Looking at it makes you want to try it anyway. Unfortunately, trying it made me not much interested in knitting with it again. Others must have had the same reaction because it’s been discontinued.

Still, it knitted up to a cute little purse. Fairly sturdy–enough so that it didn’t seem to need a lining. But a better seamstress than I am would have sewn one up.

I thought my button choice, for once, was inspired. I prowled through Gram’s button tin and there it was. A button in the exact shade of green that Daria dabbed into her Multi.

This is a Head Hugger knitted from Nancy Lindberg‘s pamphlet NL-12, shown here in a Wool-Ease gray heather. I knitted it many years ago and it’s held up well. There’s some pilling, a common problem with this 80% acrylic, 20% wool worsted weight yarn. But it’s stood the test of many winters and still keeps my head, neck and shoulders quite cozy.

My son dubbed it a knitted babushka, which it sort of is. But I go for warmth rather than style. If you’re looking for the pamphlet, google “Nancy Lindberg Head Hugger” and you will find that many shops still carry this pattern, including WEBS.

Hill Country Hat is included in Clara Parkes Knitters’ Book of Wool and Parkes has generously released it as a free pdf on her Knitters Review website. This is my third time knitting the pattern, shown here again in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky. 85% wool, 15% mohair, in a wonderful palette of 98 different colors.

This pattern knits up lickety-split, at 4 stitches to the inch. I (basically) got gauge with 10.5 needles. One skein was all I needed, even though I made one extra repeat of the Hills and Valley pattern, knitting 16 rather than 12 rows in the body of the hat before beginning the crown decreases.

Cold weather is bound to come to Michigan soon. A day here and a night there just won’t do. This hat will keep all heads toasty as can be. In fact, I may wear this to the dog sled races at Clear Lake State Park this weekend. The Mid-Union Sled Haulers (M.U.S.H.) will be racing as long as there’s enough snow on the ground and the weather conditions are proper to allow the dogs to work safely.

This sweet vintage-looking blanket is a Project Linus Security Blanket. Linus van Pelt is Charles Schultz’s character from the Peanuts comic strip who took comfort from his blanket and was rarely drawn without it. “Blanketeers” from all over the country knit for Project Linus and send knitted and crocheted blankets to be distributed to where they can do the most good: children.

This modified feather and fan blanket is worked up in a simple, completely reversible, three-row pattern. My large-sized one, on 210 stitches, turned out to be 44 inches wide by 42 inches long. The pattern is “reproduced with permission” from Project Linus in Betty Christiansen’s Knitting for Peace.

It is a real yarn eater, knitted of 1600 yards (8 skeins) of Plymouth Encore Tweed in #2334. No name for the colorway, which is kind of refreshing, just #2334.This colorway is actually rather shy. I’ve photographed it several times and can’t quite capture it’s true color. It’s a bit less green.

This is Stephen West’s nifty quick pattern: Windschief. I’ve knit four of them so I’d say I’ve gotten my $6 worth out of the pattern already! The pattern includes a hat, which continues the cowl’s twisted rib swath through the crown section. I’ve knit that as well and it worked out very nicely.

These are knit in Berroco Comfort, a wonderful skin-friendly worsted spun in 50% acrylic, 50% nylon. It has a nice bounce-back effect and great stitch definition. If you can’t find the color you want, maybe it doesn’t exist. Comfort comes in 66 solids, 13 heathers and 14 prints. On top is Olive (9781), Sprig (9721) is on the left, and Dried Plum is on the right (9780). Comfort is a 16-ply yarn that is presented as being split-resistent. I didn’t find it so, but think a bit of splittiness is a small price to pay for this much comfortable.

Here’s a few closer looks at the cowls:

If you want to watch the entire slideshow, at the end of each page of twenty slides you will have to return to the main page and click on the next slideshow page.

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I have been working on my Origami Pullover, designed by Linda A. Daniels, for a little over four months. It requires knitting one large rectangle and one humongously large rectangle all in knit one, purl one ribbing. I’m not kidding when I say large. 150 stitches to a row and knit for 68 inches. It’s shown here in a wonderful yarn, Frog Tree‘s sport melange alpaca. Scrumptious. But yipes, this is the most boring thing I’ve ever knit.

I knit very few sweaters for myself. Let’s just leave it at being way overweight seriously challenges this knitter. But I tried a shop sample of this on and it fit and, at the time, I thought I looked OK in it. I didn’t expect to look like the glamorous model in the pattern photo, but I also didn’t expect to look and feel so, well, so bat-like. The odd angles and, what not, don’t flatter.

But still. It is warm and cozy. I expect to get a lot of wear out of it, especially at the lake house. It should be just the thing to wear as the house is warming up after we arrive on a cold wintry evening.

This is Christmas Kitty. She’s designed by Katie Nagorney and Ann Swanson and sold as one of their Two Old Bags patterns. Kitty is actually a small pillow, but she prefers not to think of herself in those terms. She is somewhat troubled that her maker is such a bad embroiderer that she only got a barely visible nose. And missing a mouth is really not funny at all, but at least she can still purr. She’s rather proud of her vintage mother-of-pearl eyes. Speaking of purl, she thinks her knitted fur is quite the cat’s meow. The snowflakes are her favorite part. She’s not too crazy about the little “v’s” of white knitted into her stripes because she has a breed memory of fleas.

So, above is kitty forward. Below, you will see that she’s pretty easy to sneak up on.

I could knit classier Christmas stockings now. I am a better knitter. But these are ensconced as traditions. My son’s is the snowman. His dad’s and mine are a puppy and a kitten (not shown here).

Intarsia is not a technique I ever warmed up to. But for cutesy inserts, it’s the technique of choice. I guess. Anyway, every year “the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be there.”

This is a cool shop pattern, from The Knitting Room in Birmingham, Michigan, circa early 1990′s. It’s owners ago. In the pre-Ravelry era when only the knitlist linked internet savvy knitters.

This guy is stuffed with the same unspun Perendale wool that you see in his beard and mustache. Sort of a pricey way to go, but it makes him soft and cuddly. He spends the off-season packed away with the other Christmas decorations. Once released, he sometimes sits on the mantle. This year he’s standing next to the Christmas tree. Hoover, the cat, eyes him warily but hasn’t yet summoned up his courage to confront.