Silver and gold... and hot cocoa

Just thinking about Rudolph and his friends makes you feel warm and fuzzy, right?

It's an amazing thing - how a thought can whisk you back to childhood.  In my pjs, carefully carrying my smiley face mug full of hot cocoa to sit on the green plaid carpet (seriously!) while Mom finished making the popcorn... not even minding that I have to sit by my little brother for the duration of the show; knowing that if we missed a single moment of the show, we would have to wait a WHOLE YEAR to see it again.

Or back to being a young mother, trying to set the same kind of scene for my daughters - but not being quite as special with the advent of VHS and being able to watch whenever we wanted.

Some things just stay with you, and for my generation Rudolph is something that will forever tie us together, along with Charlie Brown's depressing christmas tree.  So, when I was making christmas hats for a group of friends - it's only natural I thought of Rudolph.  (Can you imagine the Peanuts as hats? :oP)

I hope the hats bring some cheer... and I hope they don't typecast poor Andy as Yukon Cornelius with his red beard (although it IS perfect - come on, for Mom!).

The most difficult one to make was the tree.  It has to be dense enough to stand on it's own, which is hard to do with yarn.  It's a modified berry pie pattern for those who have seen my pie-ret.  Here's what it looks like flat out so you can see the bottom of the hat. 

Crazy, huh?

Here are more photos of the rest.  I think Sam the Snowman still looks a little scary though... those eyes of coal follow me when I walk by!

You turkey!

Thanksgiving is upon us.  Who can resist the autumn colors and feasting with family and friends?  I hope everyone celebrating has a memorable day with lots of gratitiude, fun and laughter.

I'll have a long weekend while Steve has to work.  You know what that means... lots of crafting time!  It's a good thing because my project list is at least a mile long.

Speaking of lists a mile long, here's some of what I've been up to.  You know how we feel about hockey season, what do you think of Steve's new Sundogs hat?

It's actually the pattern for Ron's hat in the animal crackers scene in Order fo the Phoenix.  Instead of the patterned colorwork, I substituted my own chart that says "Go Sundogs!".  Steve mentioned a mowhawk and I thought I needed to try making one. 

I think it worked.  He got several comments and inquiries about where he bought it at this game.

This New College-Oxford scarf from silk/bamboo yarn is part of a scarf-along in a group chatting about A Discovery of Witches.  This story is rapidly becoming one of my favorites.  Geek that I am, I 'friended' the main characters Matthew Clairmont and Diana Bishop on facebook.  It cracks me up when fictional characters post status updates.

In the story, vampire Matthew wears an 'ancient New College scarf', so this is my interpretation of that scarf.  I made a hat to match.

Steve's silk scarf is in doppler effect stripes, as in Sheldon's halloween costume...

Last week, I made this sweater. It is quickly becoming my favorite, cozy and warm - but NOT itchy. :oP Hooray for clearance yarn.

Some fun christmas things in the works now, I'll share them soon!

Oh!  How could I forget my dragon scale bag... it matches the gauntlets and hood I made last month.  Such a cool stitch pattern, I'll have to find more ways to use it soon...