The Closest I Get to Participating in Black Friday

I am not a fan of Black Friday for many reasons.  Staying home, crafting things, and maybe doing a little shopping on Small Business Saturday on a weekend devoted to the consumer hordes is my personal rebellion against the status quo.
This year, Alex Tinsley has put out a knitting pattern collection (two of which I plan to knit once this move is done) called Knit It Black that I thought it perfect to mention today.
It's thematic and supports a cause I appreciate, works for me.

Having to be responsible....

There's been far less time to knit on large projects lately.  Mostly it's been going through old boxes in the garage and breaking down disintegrating shelving to get rid of things before the movers get here.

I did stop to put together my bag of travel projects, labelled for ease of identification:

Small knitting projects are getting lots of love right now.  I finished a green version of the Scathach hat.

It may not look exciting, but it's tightly knit and warm, knit in Valley Yarns Northampton Bulky, in the discontinued color Forest.
The next two projects getting most of my attention right now are to warm my feet.  The Bovary socks by General Hogbuffer and the Tangled Rose socks by Linda Antons.

The pictures show the colors fairly accurately.  Bovary is being knit in KnitPicks Chroma Fingering in the Lupine colorway.  Tangled Rose is being knit in Cascade Yarns Pacific in Beet, there is a skein of Cactus waiting to become a second pair.  Both have been incredibly enjoyable knits, resulting in beautiful things to put on my feet, (which will be more wonderful when I finish the second sock in both pairs).
As I have announced to the family, it will be a Sock Holiday this year.  When Daughter was told she was getting "socks in potentia" she giggled.  Boy is just thrilled I am finally willing to knit him socks, even though his feet are not much smaller than his father's.  Husband knows about his one pair, but not the pair I plan to knit out of super outstandingly awesome secret sock yarn I may have recently received, (with enough for a pair for myself as well) and already hidden away until I can sneaky knit a pair of fingering weight socks for U.S. size 13 feet.
 It may be a high bar. 
There are also six lace shawls in the travel bag, five have beads.
 I am aiming for the highly accomplished side of yarn insanity.

I was only going to make one...

Maybe two at the most.  I'm not quite sure what happened, but this is the result:

The pattern is Leafy Washcloth by Megan Goodacre.Worsted weight dishcloth cotton on larger needles makes for a finished project in just about an hour, which may be much of the appeal.  It also means putting a bit of a dent in the yarn stash with minimal effort and useful results.

I may knit just a few more.

To break the jag of washcloth knitting, I cast on a sweater, Uncomplicated by Alicia Plummer.  The yarn is KnitPicks Stroll in Inverness.

There's also an assortment of socks, shawls in progress and the prep work for the travel knitting bag(which is over-packed, I am okay with this).  I really am hoping to get a few more things finished before the movers get here, but that may be overly optimistic.

So...Halloween happened

My enthusiasm wasn't really there this year.  I still decorated, inside and out.  The kids carved pumpkins and took up station on the front porch (they were quite enthusiastic):

I wore the costume I had put together, but it just didn't seem near as flashy as everyone else's.

Though some of that probably comes from dressing as a character that you just have to raid your own closet for.
The evening concluded with a down pour paired with a flash flood warning.  On the up side....it means we have candy left!