A happy all hollows eve

Here have a pumpkin:

Sorry, I couldn't help myself, I am far too tickled by how fun and easy it is to needle felt things.

Well, yes, it's Halloween, and the air has a definite nip to it, although, im sure all the local children are happy, we are supposed to have rather warm (65) weather today, perfect for trick or treating.

In celebration of the chilliness, I present the modified Ganomy hat!

Original pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac.

Obviously I made some changes, I don't lake hats that go to far beyond my head, and I prefer a snugger fit, so I added more decreases to get it to come to an end more like a normal hat. It came out a little shorter that I would have liked, but it covers my ears, always a happy thing. (I seem to be having measuring difficulties, I think I should have measured at the front of the head, instead of the ear flap, oh well.) the hat also gave a good excuse to try out a two colour horizontal braid, I recently bought "Folk knitting in Estonia" by Nancy Bush, which has a ton of great patterns in techniques. (I would put an Amazon link, but apparently Amazon doesn't think it exists.)

Then there is this:

Someday I'll get a better picture, this is my house shawl, Arachne's Veil, made from Knit Picks Gloss in black, it's amazingly snuggly and warm, I love it. I may be publishing the pattern soon, but we'll see how ambitious I get.

And then because humans aren't the only ones who get cold...

A sweater fro my mom's Basset Hound, Duchess. She is quite old and has developed a thyroid problem, which is making her loose all her fur. She loves being outside, so I'm making her a sweater, so she can stay out longer. I found a really cool customizable pattern here, and am modifying it so that it opens in the back, and all mom has to do is lay it on the floor and have Duchess step into the leg holes.