Enjoying the What Is...

Sometimes there are days when things don't go the way we would like.  Yesterday was one of those days and I ended up spending my planned X day (which was meant to be a day to get some gifts finished) in bed with a very nasty stomach bug.  Thankfully I'm up and about today and things are looking a little brighter.  Well, except for a few gifts that aren't quite going the way I had pictured them.

I have this tendency to not follow patterns (yes, the same way I am with recipes); sometimes this tendency can lead to really fun and wonderful results, other times...not so much.  I saw this Baktus shawl/scarf on Handmade Homeschool's blog and was sure it would be just the right gift for my SIL.  It seemed simple enough until I decided to try to alter the pattern to look more like the one shown on the blog and I decided to use stockinette stitch (like the Karius scarf) instead of garter.  Mine seems determined to curl inwards so much that it looks more like an overgrown caterpillar than a lovely shawl/scarf.  Methinks I should have stuck with garter stitch.  I've had a few "helpful" suggestions from "the boys" that I should just finish it off and iron it. ;-)  Any one else have any quick fix ideas?  I'd love it if I didn't have to rip it all out.

Last year I started on this bag for my other SIL with the plan to make a Runabout purse.  I decided part way through that a cosmetic bag would be a better gift (thinking that it's better for women to choose their own purse) and tucked the partially knitted bag away.  Last week I got it back out to finish knitting so I could finish knitting it,  felt it, do some needle felting on and then line it as a cosmetic bag.  I just realized that in between those times I obviously borrowed the circ. needles I was using and tucked some other size in to hold the stitches in place.  It took me several inches of knitting to realize that my stitches were much smaller.  Now I can't decide if I should just rip the whole thing out and make a button hole bag instead.  (or perhaps just send a giant chocolate bar and forget knitting for this year?)

Thankfully a few things are turning out the way I had hoped.  I'm pleased with this needle-felted butterfly.  It will likely become a hair barrette, pony tail holder or decoration on a hairband - depending on what the recipient prefers.

And we had another gorgeous walk in the woods on the weekend.  I do so love living in the woods.  We followed rabbit tracks.

and squirrel tracks.

Then we found a log across the creek with more of their tracks on it - their own little bridge across the (hopefully not troubled) water.

And, we collected some more bits for our greenery decorations - rosehips, juniper (with beautiful blue berries), snowberries, oregon grape, kinnickinnic (with red berries), and some lovely sticks with pinecones still attached.

This one isn't quite done.  I still need to add all the colourful berry bits.

This one is waiting for just a few more bits too.

And we also stopped to watch the sun start setting.  I loved the way it looked shining through this, there were droplets of water too because the snow was melting in the sun but I couldn't catch those very well with my camera. Lovely.