Finished Object Friday and a Birthday Wish

I've got some great things to show you for Finished Object Friday!  Remember the Spud and Chloe yarn I bought a few months ago?  I have been tearing through it and I'm excited to show you the end results.  I fell in love with the Turtle color, which is a beautiful, vibrant green and instead of knitting up frogs for my son with it, I bought a few more hanks and have made a really beautiful cowl, mitt, and hat set for myself.  It is January right, which is suppose to be selfish knitting month! :)

The cowl is Susan Anderson's Twister scarf.  When she posted this pattern a few weeks ago on the Spud and Chloe blog, I knew it was just the pattern I was looking for.  The end results is a cowl that can be worn in lots of different ways, although I've primarily been wearing it tripled up close around my neck since it has been bitterly cold here in the DC area.

The mitts are the Fetching Mitts that I've had bookmarked pretty much since I joined Ravelry six months ago.  I was a little intimidated by the way the thumb of this pattern was written up but it was actually quite easy to execute.  My only regret is that I didn't make them a bit longer to cover my long fingers.

The hat is still a work in progress.  Any guesses on what the pattern is?  I'll give you a hint...it's one of my FAVORITE HATS EVER!

In other news, today is my dog Dizzy's fourteenth birthday!  I feel so lucky to have had so many great years with truly one of the best dogs in the world.  I hope we have many more together!  Here's a shot of my first baby!

Tomorrow I'm planning another outing to Fiber Space to pick up the pattern and yarn for my first knit-along.  I'll fill you in on those details later in the weekend.  Enjoy!