Ok.

 Which one of you is responsible for letting me go a month without posting? HUH? Please come forward. Because, surely, it's not my fault. It's got to be someone else out there who fell down on poking and prodding me into doing it......right? :)

Also, how is Thanksgiving already upon us? I'm feeling a little shell shocked over that and how close Christmas is, too. *scared*

 Tis the season for lots and lots of bead orders so I've been mostly keeping my head down and just trying to keep up. (Trying being the operative word here.) Muttering under my breath about how slow it will be halfway through December so I don't totally lose my mind over it. I can do it. Right? Just keep on trucking and a day off from all things work related will magically appear at some point? FINGERS CROSSSED. :)

Well, I can't go back and recap a whole month so I'll stick to the good stuff. Firstly, this year's Stitches East show has come and gone (earlier this month). I have mad love for this crazy convention-center-filled-to-the-rafters-in-yarny-goodness but I wasn't feeling it.........much?...this year. I mean, it was great to see everything but nothing was really sticking out to me. Am I jaded? Am I over the 'yarn thing'? Do I need an anti-depressant? Or have I just realized HOW MUCH FRICKIN YARN I HAVE STASHED away and how much I do NOT NOT NOT NOT need a single yard more? I think it might be the latter. Digging through the stash lately to find yarn for the husband's weaving projects have really made it clear how much yarn I have. *gulp*

Anyhoo. This is all I purchased at this year's show. I got the yarn/pattern for a pair of gingerbread mittens I wanted last year at the show and the hot pink sock yarn was 'just because'. (You don't actually come across NEON pink sock yarn very often. It's usually softer tones of pink only. Because most knitters, I assume, are adults and don't want neon colors. I happen to love neon colors but I'm not out there trying to pass as normal either. lol)

The neon colors are a thing with me right now, I guess, because I finished using up this yarn from my last post. I thought it wanted to be gloves but I ripped that out after I finished the first glove. Wasn't using up enough yarn. (This yarn was NOT cheap so I wanted to use up every last bit of it.) So I poked and poked around for a new pattern and came up with a free cowl pattern by the name of Inspira. The pattern is more an 'idea' than a hard and fast pattern. You adapt it to the yarn you want to use and just wing it.

Hmm. Cowls are kinda hard to photograph unless you are into selfies. (Which I'm not.) It's so sad and...........flat.

There. Much better with a model. Livvy loves poking her head and sitting in bags so she was a natural. Just plunked her in front of it and watched her go WHEeeeEEEEEEE A BAG, A BAG! while I snap a picture. I'm still a little dubious of how much wear I will get out of it (I like scarves) but it was fun to knit and the colors worked out quite nicely with a minimum of fuss. (The yarn changes color on it's own. No cutting/weaving ends in here!)

 I also had a MaMaMonkee as a model but I think the Livvy pic is much better. :)

This was all I had leftover of the two skeins of yarn, too. WIN! :)

Babies are babies no more. They had their junk ripped out and are officially sexless now. :) Poor Livvy and her boo-boo belly. Stitches come out the day after Thanksgiving so she's almost better now though. Just a little longer to go. Small price to pay, I think, for not being forced to give birth to your brother's babies. *snort*