Cold and dark of January plus a couple families I I know having babies led to several quick knits. Hodge, a free pattern on 
Ravelry, is my favorite knit bootie pattern, so each baby got a pair. I love the construction of this knit, in 
spite of my cumsy fingers stumbling over stitches. A big plus: these booties stay on those itty bitty feet. And of course, Hodge is adorable, too. Each time I've knit a pair of these, I think I'd love to make a pair sized for my own feet. One of these days, I just might get around to doing that.
Along with booties, I knit each baby a hat, that pattern is also a freebie on Ravelry, 1-2-3 Baby Beanie. One baby, a girl, was born a full month early, and I wasn't sure about her size. It mostly fits her. I also didn't know what colors the family like so that's why I knit both hat and booties in a natural color merino yarn for her. I apparently did not get a photo of that hat - 
oops. The second baby hat, for a boy, has 2 yarns held together: my handspun grey angora I dyed cherry red, and a commercial merino yarn I dyed shades of blue and cherry red. The mom seemed quite happy with it, said the baby would wear it home from the hospital. I am honored!
I also knit for myself because apparently I cannot have too many cowls and pairs of fingerless mitts. My favorite cowl pattern for handspun multi color yarns is a simple welted stitch. I don't use an official pattern, 
it's just alternating sections of garter and stockinette. I tend to do 5 rounds of garter followed by 5 rounds of stockinette, but I adjust depending on weight of the yarn. For this latest welted cowl, Cirrus, I tried a new to me cast on, Chinese Waitress cast on, suggested by a friend. My fumbly fingers finally figured it out and I love the look. For the cast on to show properly, I had to turn the cowl inside out which works ok because this cowl is reversible. In the future, I will do a couple rounds of stockinetter first then a garter section, which will show the cast on on the right side. Turns out, there is a corresponding bind off, Chinese Waitress bind off. I am very happy with my little Cirrus.
Then I knit a pair of Point Edwards fingerless mitts using a purchased yarn, and followed that up with a pair of Lambing Mitts. Lambing Mitts pattern has disappeared, at least temporarily, from Ravelry, but I 
did find it on the wayback machine. I need to tinker with thumb construction on the Lambing mitts because I want a more distinct line between hand and thumb gusset. I used my handspun yarn for the Lambing Mitts, and have plenty of yarn left to make a matching cowl.
That pair of mitts slid me into February and my knitting continues. Current project is Heart Cable headband, a Valentine's Day gift for my granddaughter. Seeing these hearts unfold just makes me giggle 
with satisfaction! I made a mistake in the first heart, fairly obvious but with it's position at the provisional cast on, it won't really show when she wears it. And it's a good way to show her it's ok for things to be imperfect. I purchased the yarn years ago and I love it for it's great stitch definition. Sadly, it's since been discontinued. I have another full skein of it plus this headband is a small project so will have lots of the skein left. Plenty to knit something for me in this yarn.
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