Good-bye to Wesley

 Hi all -

It's been several busy weeks since I last posted. Part of that time was spent with my family in Florida where we attended a family wedding ceremony for my nephew. It was a fun trip and a beautiful ceremony! Unfortunately, when I returned home, I let the cats outside as I usually do and Wesley has not returned. He has been known to disappear for a couple of days, but it's been a week and a half so it's unlikely that he will return. As you can imagine, I'm very sad. But at least he had a wonderful 15 years of living up here with full access to the great outdoors. That gives me a lot of comfort! I hope you don't mind if I share some pictures of him with you!

Wesley and Buttercup when they were adopted

Wesley playing as a kitten

Young Wesley enjoying the great outdoors

Yin-yang

Wesley

At a friend's house during fire evacuation

Up close and personal

With Lance towards the end

With Grace soon after her adoption

Wesley was an incredible cat and he will be sorely missed!!

When I haven't been traveling, I've been knitting. I've continued to work on projects for the Joji Locatelli Fall Knit-Along, which ends at the end of this month. Most of these projects are also Christmas presents, so I'm almost ready for the holidays, too!

I've made a bunch of hats as Christmas presents. For my nephews and brother-in-law, I decided to make hats using Joji's Upper East Side pattern in different yarns:

Upper East Side in Berroco Ultra Wool DK

Upper East Side in Cloudborn Fibers Alpaca Wool Silk DK

Upper East Side in Knit Picks City Tweed DK

I think this is a nice pattern for a hat for a man with a lot of nice texture. It's always fun to see how the different yarns change the look and feel of the same pattern! I'm not sure yet who will get which hat.

I made Joji's Field of Wildflowers hat for my sister:

Field of Wildflowers

I made this pattern once before in a solid yarn. I wasn't sure if the texture of the knitting would get lost in the changing colors of the yarn, but Joji's sample used a multi-colored yarn so I decided to go for it. I really like how it turned out!

I also made Joji's Lantern Lights hat for my new niece (my nephew's new wife):

Lantern Lights

This hat also has a nice texture and I made a slouchy version that I think will be very comfortable and will look good.

Finally, I just finished my At Dawn shawl also designed by Joji:

At Dawn

This shawl will be a gift for one of my other nieces. Grace is doing her first modeling gig with this shawl, sitting under the hammock as I took the picture. She's a little too hyper at this point to do more direct modeling for me, but I think you'll be seeing her in knitwear soon!

That's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Nancy