Winter projects

This year for Christmas I made Ricardo his first hand-knit sweater. He asked for one years ago, but I refused, citing the sweater curse. Anyway, now that we've been married for three years, I felt it was safe to finally knit it. It was a clandestine operation... I knit on my days off and at night before he got home from work, stuffing it under a blanket when I heard him unlocking the door. Anyway, I'm happy to report he was thoroughly surprised.

Here's the finished product.

A close-up of the yoke.

Another close-up. There are 5 different colored yarns used.

I had a bunch of left-over yarn from the sweater, so I decided to make an afghan. I found a pattern I liked, and got started making these crochet "wagon wheels."

Charlotte gets her first whiff of wet wool. (All cats seem to love the smell of wet wool... it smells like sheep.)

At first I thought I'd make a small afghan, but then the blizzard hit, and I got the idea to make a blanket big enough to cover our queen-size bed. I have a ton of yarn in my stash (you really don't want to know how much), so this won't be a problem.

Charlotte inspects the new batch.

Now that I have over a hundred of these suckers made, I'm getting close to the amount I need. I figure by the time I finish sewing them all together it will be 70 degrees outside and I won't need a wool afghan... but I'll be ready for next winter!