The blanket continues to grow. I continue to enjoy a bit of daily knitting meditation.

Last night I cast on a Pollen Hat in leftover Manos to use for the rest of the Andrea Mowry KAL. Unfortunately it was too addictive, so I’ve already completed the hat. I did one less repeat than called for in the pattern, as I am nor comfortable with super slouchy hats (I don’t know many people over 40 who are). I am not looking forward to the weather being cold enough to need a wool hat.

I’ve decided to start a Weekender for the rest of the KAL. It is unlikely I’ll finish a sweater before our next meeting in a week.

I did some blocking today, so now I can call my projects finished.

I had the perfect buttons for the baby sweater. I ordered buttons from GloriaPatre Spin N Knit last winter and when the package arrived they included four bonus buttons. I don’t think I could have found better buttons if I had searched for some.

I love my shawl even more than that I’ve blocked it. I didn’t take the time to take good photos of it, so please enjoy this awkward selfie of me wearing the shawl with a dress that clashes with it.

I’m off to speed knit a few more projects. I’m in the mood to knit and can’t be bothered to look at any other crafts at the moment.

In totally unrelated news Elliot can now climb trees and Audrey has a new trick for the swing set. I’m in the mood to knit, but I’m not in the mood for cold temperatures and being stuck indoors.

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I was visiting my parents earlier this week, and I managed to pack the right amount of knitting. I only consider my projects this week WIPs because I haven’t blocked them yet.

I finished my Range shawl and I absolutely love it. Andrea Mowry is a knitting treasure – her patterns are so addictive.

I also finished the Roxy baby sweater. I have buttons picked out and will sew them on as soon as I block the sweater. This was a super fast knit, which is what I am in the mood for. The color is totally off in this photo, but I suppose that is what happens when you take a photo of a sweater on a Halloween tablecloth at night.

I’m now going to remember how to do the German long tail cast on so I can start a hat. I need to have an Andrea Mowry project for the KAL I’m participating it.

I hope you had a productive week too.

I don’t know how you like to party on the weekend, but I like to party hard. How do I do this? By going to super fun parties, like the one I went to today. OK, it wasn’t so much a party as hanging out with my cousin and making a whole bunch of coasters.

We set up our sewing machines and got to work. my aunt was quilting in the same room, so we all had a great time talking and crafting. At the end of the afternoon I had completed all of my coasters.

First up: Halloween coasters. I started with these because it is time to decorate for Halloween.

After Halloween I moved on to Christmas. A person can never have too many Christmas coasters.

I finished up with 4th of July coasters (which will probably be used after Christmas until it is time to decorate for Halloween). For about half of the summer coasters I sewed a layer of cut up (new) waterproof mattress pad in the middle (Thank you Jamie for the great idea) along with the batting I used for the rest of the coasters. Summer is the only time my house might be warm enough to create enough condensation for a drink to sweat. For the most part I use coasters for tea or coffee, so waterproofing isn’t much of an issue for me.

It was much harder to sew with the plastic in the coasters, so I might have to break out the pinking shears and try to freshen up the edges of the summer coasters. Or I might ignore it. Only time will tell.

I feel very accomplished having finished my coasters. I am addicted and will pick up other holiday packs of fabric when I find them. I really liked that this was a craft my cousin was working on too. Normally when we craft together we are working on different crafts, and I enjoyed having a shared project a lot.

I hope you partied as hard as I did this weekend. If you did, please share what you made.