Hello!   Happy Birthday to me!  Happy Valentine’s to everybody!

This is the Dotted Rays Shawl by Stephen West. I love it!  It’s one of my favorites.  It’s an easy and relaxing knit.  The first three stitches are a provisional cast on and that’s the hardest part of the pattern.   Once you pass that, you are in easy breezy land!  It’s garter stitch the rest of the way with a few yarn overs for the “dots”.

I used my own yarn from A Chick That Knitz in the color-way Romantic Robin.  I made it a fade.  There are many ways you can use yarn color to make it your own.  Browse all the beautiful shawls here on Ravelry

I’ve started a YouTube channel for A Chick That Knitz and a friend and follower sent me a huge box of presents to celebrate my new studio.  I made this for her.  It’s some of the first yarn I’ve dyed and it’s made of Worsted weight Superwash Merino Wool.  I will have my shop open this Spring.  That’s another plus, you can use worsted weight yarn instead of the fine fingering yarn (you can use that also) so the shawl knits up relatively fast.

I also want to show off some of Amanda’s cookies.  Amanda is Lauren’s mother that lives in Texas.

They are so cute!

Look at those on the right with the coconut!  Beautiful!

I highly recommend taking some cookie decorating classes on Blueprint (formerly Craftsy).  Neither of us could have done this without it.  I bet there are some free tutorials on YouTube regarding “Flood icing” .   They will teach you how to get this beautiful icing for cookies.  It’s powdered sugar, water, and a secret ingredient called meringue powder.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I think I will make some cookies myself.  I had to stop making them so much because I was eating them all!  They are so good, you can’t have just one cookie.

Have a fantastic week and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tammy