The Holiday Hustle & Projects That Are "In".

Apologies to all of you.  I'm well aware I have not posted since before the holidays.  Things got rather hectic around here in a push to finish all my projects in time.  Alas, I did manage to pull off everything with just days to spare.

Why is it the Holiday Hustle you ask?  Well, between October and December 22nd, I made 5 hats to sell, 3 for my family, three sets of wrist warmers, 3 cross stitch projects of varying sizes, made a tree skirt, AND finished a blanket for my wife that was 4 years in the making.  Holy cow, having written that down, no wonder I was exhausted after Christmas!

Now that that's done, I can sit back, relax, and work on things at a much slower pace and not feel stressed.  The funny thing?  I've already started on two new projects.  Go figure right? I didn't intend to start anything new till I finished the other 2 blankets and granny shawl I have going.  Yeah, that was before I asked for, and got, my first Caron Cakes yarn for Christmas.

Ah, Caron Cakes.  Probably THE hottest yarn right now for users on Facebook.  What's the big deal you say?  Well, Caron Cakes are an exclusive to Michael's stores, made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Caron company.  They are an acrylic wool blend yarn that's super soft, and so great for wearable items.  It's variegated, but the colors change abruptly, leaving stunning changes in your pieces.

Well, if you know me, I couldn't resist getting started right then.  So I picked up my purple one, and started in on a virus shawl.  I have always thought they were beautiful, but was never sure if I could pull one off.  I can.  In about 10 days I have gone farther with my virus shawl than I have in 4 months on the granny shawl.  Fortunately, at the speed the virus shawl works up, think 4 simple repeating rows, it should be done in far less than 4 months.

The other thing I started?  A corner 2 corner (C2C) blanket in the blue.  Surprisingly easy, and it looks like it will make some stellar stripes.  So now I'm back to having 3 blankets and 2 shawls in progress, and that doesn't even count the cross stitch project I have going too.  Uh, can we say I have a slight problem with WIPs?