Ribbit in the Snow

We're buried in snow here! My office has been closed the past 2 days so it's been 2 days of shoveling and playing in the snow. By now there are paths on the sidewalks and some cleared driveways but the piles of snow are over our heads. Normally we get maybe 2 days of snow to briefly play in so this is crazy for Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, I finished a project, Ribbit, a free pattern from Susan B . Anderson. She's the author of Itty Bitty Toys and other cute knitting books and also has a great blog with free patterns (one of which is Ribbit and the similar Rabbit). Besides being obviously cute I thought it was a fun twist to have the body be stuffed with a tennis ball. Ribbit is bouncy but much less than a plain tennis ball.


I actually started Ribbit way back in the summer, paused to get a tennis ball and never picked him back up. These past 2 weeks I've really been working on finishing up some works in progress and I'm glad this froggie was one of them. I think the best part of little toys like this are the details and the feet and toes are the star for me. I love them! They were crazy slow (for me) to knit but worth it. Raveled here.



And of course I need to share a few other snowy pics!

More Malabrigo - Colonnade Shawl

Can you handle seeing one last project with Malabrigo Burgundy? I promise, this one is the last, I only have tiny scraps left. For this shawl I paired the Burgundy with Malabrigo's Stonechat colorway. An interesting name for an interesting color combination! It's mainly burgundy and olive with some brown and lighter red mixed in.



The pattern is Colonnade by Stephen West and it's free on Knitty.com. I found it pretty quick and easy and I did a few minor modifications - more rows of the burgundy and a few less of the lace pattern just so I could use up all of my yarn. I started this project early in January during a burst of "start-it-itis". I think I cast on a half dozen projects in a couple days and I'm working on several of them now.



Of course I blocked it like crazy!


I like the shaping, 4 sections rather than a traditional triangle's 2 halves. I did add the loop and toggle button too. Raveled here.