Thanksgiving!

I love fall.  It has always been my favorite season.  Not only does fall bring my birthday (September 12), my Mom's birthday (October 30), Halloween (October 31), my Dad's birthday (November 24), Thanksgiving (wherever whim and fancy allow it to fall, no pun intended), knitting weather (this is debatable, as I knit all year round, but crave the needles as the temperature plunges).  Fall also brings those wonderful little feelings, like coming in from the crisp outside air to a warm room, tossing off scarves and jackets and mittens and putting on slippers and setting hot chocolate up to heat on the stove and glancing out the window and realizing your world has changed from calming green to energizing fire- orange and red and yellow and brown.

But however much I love fall, it always brings with it a slightly sour taste, as right on its heels is the dreaded winter, a long black abyss out of which I always doubt I will emerge.  If only fall were followed by spring.

For all of our sakes, I will save what I'm currently knitting for another post, but I've been spending quite a bit of time on my newest and biggest undertaking, founding The Columbia Organization of Charity Knitters, a link to which will heretofore be on the sidebar of this blog.  Feel free to become a fan and get frequent updates on our progress, knitting hats for local homeless men and women to help them through the cold New York City winter.

The latest Fall occasion was my mama bear's birthday, and for that I created this:

The Swallowtail Shawl, a beautiful combination of Claudia Handpaints, yarnovers, nupps and peaks, which culminated in a happy birthday surprise.

Now I'm struggling with my next challenge- what to make for my dad's birthday that can be completed in two days and will be greatly appreciated by a stoic and serious man?  I've casted on in a bulky gray yarn for the trilobite hat, but I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that I just don't have enough of the stash yarn I've chosen to finish the thing.  With my deadline swiftly approaching, I simply don't have time to make any missteps here.  So I'm thinking of frogging and starting over again with something a bit more... bountiful.  This might call for a shopping trip.