As of this morning, there were just 10 crochet days left until Christmas. Nine if you celebrate on Christmas Eve, and even fewer than that if any of the gifts need to be sent across the continent or two the next state over. If I didn’t know it before, it is clear that the count down to Christmas is here.

In my case, I have projects that once they are completed will need to be sent both to South Carolina and California, so this weekend, I had to take a brief hiatus from my South Carolina bound project to work on my California bound projects.

As is true of the South Carolina project, my California bound work is focused on hats, with this weekend’s focus being on slouchy beanies.

Using Red Heart Super Saver royal for the hat on the right, and Red Heart Super Saver soft navy and black for the left, I made two slouchy beanies using a pattern devised by Kate Steinke (aka the crochet engineer), a mechanical engineer by training who teaches in the School of Crochet at my neighborhood LYS, Yarn Tree Studio.

In relatively short order, I had two of three hats needed done:

With most of my west coast crochet done, I was able to refocus my crochet energies on my South Carolina bound work.

I started by weaving in many of the ends on Tamara Kelly’s Eloise Sweater, and then finished crocheting the second cuff before moving onto the trim.

Here is a view of the interior:

and here is view of the nearly completed front:

With any luck and a lot of perseverance, I just might get everything done.