Finished objects

In order to finish the shawl, I ordered wool soak, fancy stretching wires, blocking mats and pins.  The whole process was fun to try.  And it worked really well.  The soak softened the wool just a touch and the wires made the pattern bloom.

Multi-colored shawl

I also finished the water bottle cozy for Claire.  Funny story with this one.  I have this strange sense of humor about Christmas.  I love for there to be some sort of funny present.  When I found this pattern, I immediately thought of Claire because she is always cold in the winter and so I thought it would be a nice way to warm up.  I also knew that she didn't have an old fashioned hot water bottle, so I started looking at the local stores for one.  The only one I found happened to also include a "personal hygene and enema system" with it (basically a bunch of tubes that attach to the water bottle part).  I laughed so hard when she opened it and was totally perplexed.  Of course, I wrapped the homemade cozy in a separate bag.