Thermal Stitch Afghans

So far November has made itself known with strong winds and cooler temperatures, a great reminder that we didn't fix all the drafts that we discovered last year and swore we’d fix before cooler temperatures came again.  The temperatures outside feel more like we're deep in the throes of winter rather than barely in mid-November, and quite frankly I'm none too thrilled with it all.

It isn't that I hate Winter, really it isn't.  It's simply just that I look forward to Autumn all year long and I feel a bit like Mother Nature has decided to skip it all together.  I want crisp cool mornings, sunny and warm afternoons, and evenings perfect for sitting around a camp fire with loved ones.  I'm not ready for Winter.  Not at all.

I'm determined to hold on to the last bits of Autumn, though I feel it will likely be an uphill battle.  It's hard to get excited about collecting leaves when the temperatures are more in tune with that of building snowmen.  I fully expect to look out my window and see a reindeer fly by at any moment.

It is, however, the perfect excuse to snuggle up with our newly finished afghans.  Thank goodness I finished them in time as the girls have declared them a necessary accessory for the current weather.

The girls each picked out their own yarns for these blankets (last year when I actually started them) and I used the same stitch pattern on both of the afghans.  The pattern is from the Thermal Stitch Preemie Afghan that I've used for tons of blankets over the years, I simply made my beginning chain much longer.  It makes such a lovely stitch and is perfect for a heavy winter afghan.  In fact, I'm finishing up two more blankets using the same pattern right now.

I started these as projects to work on when sitting at the dance studio while I was waiting, so they didn't really get my full attention and so took ages longer to complete than necessary.  In fact, they had both been sitting with only a few ends to weave in or a few rows to finish so completing them wasn't really a time consuming task at all.

Why is it that those final finishing steps seem to be the hardest to complete?  Surely it isn't just me?














Thankfully they seemed to be worth the wait, and have gotten plenty of use to make up for it.  The cooler temperatures coupled with the recent time change, that has thrown us all for a bit of a loop honestly, means that if you stop by you're likely to see a scene very similar to this one.




Slowly, very slowly, we are finding our new rhythm for this new season approaching.