And I almost forgot...

I almost forgot the cutest pictures of all! Rufio in his Halloween costume!

I love Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays ever because it's so silly. I love the decorations - ghosts and pumpkins and monsters...so we've been getting into the holiday spirit lately. I found this excellent little guy to hold our Halloween treats, and some cute little ghostie candles.

















And then, inspired by a fabulous pattern by Marie-Jolie at Permission to Unwind, I made myself a pumpkin patch!

I love this pattern!!! It felt a little empty at the top, however, so I made a tiny leaf to go on my pumpkins. Here's how I did it:

1. CO 2.
2. Inc in each stitch (4)
3. Divide stitches evenly on 2 needles (from here, the leaf will be knit in the round on two needles).
4. K 1 round
5. Inc in each stitch (4/needle)
6. K1, inc1, inc1, k1 (6)
7. K2, inc1, inc1, K2 (8)
8. K3, inc1, inc1, K3 (10)
9. K4, inc1, inc1, K4 (12)
10. Knit 2 rounds.
11. Ssk, ssk, K1, inc1, inc1, K1, K2tog, K2tog
12. Ssk, ssk, inc1, inc1, K2tog, K2tog
13. Ssk, ssk, k2tog, k2tog
14. Ssk, k2tog
15. Knit 1 round
16. K2tog
Knit remaining two stitches together and draw the end through to finish. Voila!

And a tiny mouse, pattern here :)

More tiny projects...

I'm in full craft mode for the church fair, so I've been making lots of little projects. I found this cute pattern for hearts at Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-hearts) and I think I'll make them into Christmas ornaments.

Each one takes only a few minutes to knit, and it's a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn. However, looking at those pictures makes me realize that cushion is really dirty. Eew.

I also knitted this cute little guy (pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stuffies). I can't decide if he's really ugly, really cute, or so ugly it's cute. You decide.

Finally, today is my grandmother's birthday, and I wanted to make a little gift bag for her present. I got the idea here. However, my first attempt came out way too small, so I tried again, slightly larger. Here are my two attempts, plus the gift for Nana. She loves that color blue (her whole kitchen is that shade) so I picked up that ornament while I was in the Netherlands this summer.

I was pleased with the result - it gives a nice homemade touch to the present.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Ok, not really. But I made a Christmas stocking anyway. A woman my grandmother knows was collecting handmade Christmas stockings in red, white, and blue to send to soldiers in Iraq, and since that seemed like a good cause, I made one too.

Here it is.

Being Sick Stinks.

I've been sick in bed for the past two days, and pretty much going out of my mind with boredom. I haven't gotten much done in the way of knitting, but I thought I'd post this old project anyway. Mrs. Pollard gave me this pattern for a cute mouse mat for Rufio (for more info, look here). The idea is that if he sits on it instead of on my furniture, it will keep the cat hair contained... although Rufio only seems to like to sleep on hard surfaces, so that hasn't really been a problem. But in any case, it's cute.