Why oh, why is this cowl design taking so long???

Oh, wait.  It’s because a couple lovely things arrived in the mail.  See that book?  Sitting innocently next to the WIP?  That, my friends, is a distraction, pure and simple.  The stitch patterns in it are gorgeous.  Stunning.  I keep on picking it up and flipping through it, picking out patterns that I want to knit next.  So far, I have far too many patterns planned and not enough actually finished.

The other main reason why this is such as distraction, is that 2 lovely boxes have arrived: Advent Kits from Sunshine Yarns and Miss Babs.  I purchased them for a KAL, but when the pattern was release, I realized that, while lovely, it is not quite to my taste.  So the Grand Plan is to KAL, but create my own pattern.  The problem being, is that I have too many ideas, and designing and knitting 2 different shawls at once, while juggling the hectic holidays, will be a challenge, to say the least.

I chose Miss Bab’s set inspired an Escher print, so it is black and white and grey in a mix of Yummy 2-Ply (my favorite yarn) and Estrellita (a bit of sparkly fun).

The other set, is Sunshine Yarn’s Autumn inspired set.  Just look at that mood board of theirs!  How can you not drool and be inspired (and buy a set…I couldn’t resist).  

So I am dying to figure out what to knit and play with some yarn.  But first…must get that cowl done!!!!

In other news…it’s my mother’s birthday today!  So the day has been spent baking a cake for her since she is visiting.  I made the best ever carrot cake: The Classic Carrot Cake from the 2 Michelin-starred Michael Caines.  The only modifications I made were leaving out the walnuts (I hate walnuts…sorry, Mom!), switching up the cinnamon for Penzeys’ Pumpkin Pie Spice (I ran out of cinnamon and didn’t feel like going out to the store again this morning) and adding a teaspoon of spiced rum to the frosting (everything is better with bacon or rum, and I figured in this case rum was a better choice).

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!