Chunky yarn cowls and neck warmers! 'tis the season :)

I had to find all sorts of patterns to use up the chunky yarn I wrote about in my last blog post, and hats and neck warmers/ cowls appear to be a good use of this kind of yarn. So, of course, as I started searching, I found that all the generous souls of blogland had put forth their magical creativity into tons of these projects...

The white one is the Buttoned shell stitch cowl from Stephanie of All About Ami, and the black and white one is from Petals to Picots! Loved both of these patterns, I will surely be making a tone more of these. I added a hand painted parrot bead/ button I had purchased in India last summer to add the Awww :) factor.  These would make such fun gifts too.
I am now making some of the Candy Swirl Placemats (from The Crochet Crowd) for my younger daughter to give as Christmas gifts to her teachers. That's another fun crochet project and gift to whip up!
And yes, I'm now looking forward to Winter break...I get 16 days off, which means more time to crochet :))