All sweaters, all the day long

We had a sunny, breezy day on the deck yesterday. It was so sunny in fact, that I had to put the drapes up to keep it comfortable enough to knit. My deck has magical powers that put everyone to sleep after only a few minutes of relaxing. And no one, I repeat, NO ONE MOWED THEIR LAWNS!!! It was a very peaceful afternoon of knitting.

 Kathleen started off "Show and Tell" with her finished Cabin Fever favorite. She made it with a sturdy acrylic and has enough left for a hat and possibly mittens too.

 Another group fave is the hoodie from the knitting book "60 Quick Baby Knits". You can't see it from this angle but Kathleen used the Kitchener Stitch to finish the top of the hood. You can find a video demonstration here. The original pattern calls for a three needle bind off but we've been trying it using kitchener and it gives a neater, seamless finish. Kathleen, you did a great job of finishing!

 And rounding off her gifts to the inventory is a cute baby watch cap. It will match some previous donations of sweaters made with the same yarn.

 Liz progressed down to the sleeves on her sweet hoodie. You can see the sleeves being separated on stitch holders there. The body will be finished and then she'll go back to knit the sleeves on circular needles.

 Speaking of Liz, do you remember about 2 weeks ago I showed you the hoodie I said she knitted? Well, forgive me for the "senior moment" but I mistakenly credited Liz when I should have said Kathleen. So now I feel better!

 What do you do when you spend WEEKS knitting a darling pink hearts baby afghan for a friend's daughter's baby shower and the grandma-to-be announces casually that the mama-to-be HATES PINK?!!! Well, Maureen dove into her stash of UFO's and luckily surfaced with an almost finished darling baby sweater! Whew! That was a close call! We all agreed that our hand crafted gifts should be used, loved, and appreciated for the time, talent, and effort that goes into them. We would hate to see a lovingly crafted gift buried on a shelf somewhere.

 Even though Beth's eyes are weary from the bright green stripes on her Wynkyn cardi, we all love how it looks. She started to panic because the yarn ball seemed to be running out quicker than the length of the sweater was growing. Her solution was to put the bottom hem on hold and knit the sleeves first, then finish the bottom. Much better solution than mine...I just knit faster and pray I don't run out before it's finished! LOL!

 Another sweater Beth is making is the pullover free pattern from Ravelry call "Flax". It has a range of sizes from newborn to adult and did I mention? IT'S FREE!

 The shoulder design is very unique. You can see here the shoulder is defined in garter stitch to separate it from the stockinette body.

 Lastly, I have finished the sleeves and half the body of my Mitered Baby Jacket. The needle is on one half of the body and the other half has the stitches on holder threads. Hopefully this will be done by next week (that all depends on how much knitting time I have this week).

I hope you will have plenty of time to keep your needles clicking!