Okay, I'm a little slow about posting these.  However, I've been quick about knitting lately and have had steady custom orders.  Here they are!



After my good experience knitting a lace scarf for my mother's birthday, I had the courage to do lace in other forms.  Using a basic pattern for pine cone lace (how could I pass up anything named after a pine cone?), and doing lots of figuring and unraveling, I completed this hat for Martha's friend La Quetta.  La Quetta has cancer and has been told by her doctors there's not much more they can do.  She's got a family full of children and teaches in her church's school.  She's really special to Martha and I hope this hat made her feel that way. :-)



Since the pine cone pattern went so well, I did it again in rainbow Noro for Catrina.  It was a hit!



This is an Apple Hat for Katherine, who is engaged to Mike's friend Jody.  It's crocheted from Labrador yarn my uncle gave me at Christmas.  So soft and warm I almost want to keep it for me!  (That's a good sign you've made something nice.)



This is my local yarn store, Fiber 4 Ewe.  The nicest lady, Phyllis, works here.  She's very hospitable and full of useful information.  Mike and I visit her sometimes during lunch, just to talk.  I really should have had a photo of her.  :-P 

What can I say?  February is still foggy.  I told someone today that if she got some information ready for discussion at the next Friends of Mount Rogers meeting that we could make an deformed incision.  Way to go.

Something about Fall makes me pile on every possible bit of work I can.  I'm knitting socks--what's a few extra hats and a scarf?  Napkins--sure, I'll make 46 in two weeks! 

      



These are our new Autumn hats.  Mike's is Cascade Peruvian wool and mine is a locally grown, dyed and spun candy color.  I love both of these.  I did Mike's in a k3 p1 rib and mine in crochet.  I love my new hat.  I'm usually not this girly and pink, but I loved the yarn from the moment I saw it.

      

I'm sorry the Nature Frames are blurry, but it was dark outside and I was shivering from the no campfire ordinance.  Mike and I made these with some hosts and campers at Hurricane Campground during last week's non-campfire.  We glued bits of Fall to them--seeds, leaves, acorns, oak galls, pine nuts, hemlock cones, bark and fallen lichen.  It was all stuff I found on the ground.  I loved this craft!



The napkins are for wetkneefarm.  Twenty-six, mainly red for all the tomato sauce she and Mark consume on the farm.  She's getting them on Sunday at the Clinch Coalition Naturalists' Rally.

      

Since Mike's parents are coming this weekend and I've been crafty in lots of secret Christmas ways (which I cannot share here since my dad reads my blog), I had quite a few goodies to wrap.  I've found lots of handmade and locally produced goodies to supplement my usual homemade gifts.  I will reveal that the purple wake-robin pin will be a gift for a certain mother-in-law.  :-)

The owl is the most persnickety craft--to make and photograph.  He would not come out clearly regardless of the number of photos I took!  I've been experimenting with making softies lately and the owl fabric I got at Sew What really got me inspired.  I'll just say this--he's cute, he's colorful and his name is Hedwig.  Oh yeah, and he was a real test of my patience to design. 

Whew!  I've put away the sewing machine for the first time in weeks in an effort to tidy the craft room before the in-laws come.