Congratulations to Linda who won the yarn, and thank you to everyone for your lovely comments.  I, personally, do not believe in the black/gray/navy winter coat.  I feel if I have to wear a coat, it had better be bright and colorful.  I have a pale blue light weight coat, a red heavy coat, a purple dressy coat, and a green cloak for those rare situations when a cloak really is the correct answer.  Of course I also feel that gloves/scarves/hats have to go with each other and with the coat.  It leads to a rather staggering number of accessories, but I’m a knitter, so that’s not really a problem.