November has been pretty easy to savor so far — lots of blue sky and cool, bright sunlight.  There have been cozy, stormy nights, too.  Being off Daylight Savings Time means night slams down between 5:00 and 5:30 now (depending on cloud cover).  And we all know that long evenings are bliss for knitters!  Fire up the scented candles and keep the hot tea coming!

Today, George had his first Eggnog Latte of the season and I started listening to Sting’s “If On a Winter’s Night” album — which is my precursor to Holiday music — but I was able to walk past the Christmas wares at Fred Meyer without more than glancing at them (okay, we more than glanced at the huge selection of crazy Christmas apparel! Not just Grinch jammies and the trendy Ugly Christmas Sweaters, but matching dress clothes for the entire family in garish Holiday-themed prints!  Not sure I get it….). Anyway, I am enjoying the seasonal-ness of the season without hopping into December mode.

On the knitting front, I finished the adorable baby sweater and was so happy to present it to the mom-to-be at her shower on Saturday 🙂

Her sister was there with her little son and he was wearing the sweater I had knit for him!  She said he wears it all the time and is so pleased it has lasted 2 years.  That made my heart happy!!

I am making good progress on the Color Blocks Puzzle Box Sweater that I plan to wear at Thanksgiving.  And am finishing up a hat for myself — in time for the temperature drop we are promised for the end of the week.

And it is all to the good that I am on top of my knitting because I am completely entranced with crocheting pine cones now!

These are Yarn Freak’s pattern on Ravelry — using crocodile stitch for the scales.  So much fun!  I have plans to make some plain ones for general decor and also some sparkly ones for the Holiday Season!