Bella Bella

We've been having a run of really warm days - mid to upper eighties, little wind, blue, blue skies. It cools off considerably in the late afternoons but not nearly as cool as November should be. However, I think we are about to get back to normal. This evening there is a nip in the air and they say the fog will be in tomorrow morning. I packed my summer clothes away almost three weeks ago, so it's been tricky getting dressed in the morning. Luckily I have some long sleeved tops that are light-weight enough to be comfortable. In the cold weather I usually wear them under a warmer top.



This is our neighbor's tiny chihuahua Bella. I ran into them one cool morning when I was walking and volunteered to knit her a sweater. This only took me a couple of hours and is made of Lion Brand Wool-ease, worsted weight. It's a little big in the tummy area as the pattern didn't have any directions for narrowing the body. I'm now working on another sweater using the same yarn. It has a bit more shaping, so I hope it fits better. Bella isn't used to wearing clothing and she just hunkered down, hoping it would go away.
I had to frog the second purple pattern sock after I started the heel. My count was off and the foot was at least an inch longer than the first sock. I would just have ripped it back, but the toe cast-on was sloppy and somehow I had picked up an extra stitch, so I decided to bite the bullet and start over. I'm almost back to the heel turning again so this pair should be ready to wear in a week or so.
I'm also making good progress on the Mystery Shawl. Only about 40 rows to go on the second half. I really need to order the lace blocking wires from KnitPicks. I'm afraid if I don't block it right away it will join the ranks of the almost finished.
I'm back to working on the Orange Crush quilt. EAS stayed over Saturday night and helped arrange some of the blocks to get me started. I also finished another catnapper. The free motion quilting isn't perfect by any means, but looks pretty good from a couple of feet away.