I love winter. It’s not as scenic as fall, but it is cold. Do I like being cold? I’m not insane, so no. However, I do like wearing wool coats and sweaters, and I like curling up in a blanket on the couch, and I like drinking steaming hot cups of cocoa. These are all things that I can only do in the cold of winter. Therefore, I love winter.

I have quite a few blankets at home. More than I objectively need, honestly. It doesn’t get as cold in Ogaki as it does in Seattle, so I haven’t really needed more blankets. However, my sister back home has been shivering her way through fall and into winter, so she clearly needs more blankets. What’s the point of such cold weather if you can’t become a proper blanket burrito? Then it’s just needless suffering. Since I’ve gotten so much yarn lately for crochet, I decided to make my sister a blanket for Christmas to facilitate her blanket burrito-ing. It’s not a huge blanket, since I need to fit this thing in my suitcase along with all my other stuff when I visit, but it’s certainly big enough for a nice lap blanket while on the couch watching TV or playing video games.

It’s finished now, but I’m terrible about photographing my crafting projects, so here’s a WIP from early on, when it was about 1m wide and 41cm long. And I can attest that it’s very cozy, because when I work on it (while sitting on my sofa watching YouTube on the TV), the finished portions cover my lap and keep me nice and warm and comfy. I hope she enjoys it even more in her bitterly cold Seattle winters.