Mostly Sweaters

Most of us are working on sweaters this week. They are tiny enough to knit up quickly but still interesting enough to keep one from getting bored.

My Sunnyside Cardigan started to look like a sweater tonight. A few more inches to go on the body and then I'll work the sleeves. 

 Dorah's baby hoodie started out with just a hood but by the time we finished tonight she was...

 this far along. You can see the raglan shaping and the button band front.

 Carole's Sunnyside Cardigan has only an inch or so to go before she binds off the body stitches and then it's on to the sleeves. The cables are looking nice!

 Elaine made progress on this little shrug sweater today.

 It's going to be so cute in this pretty rose colored yarn.

 Kathleen and Cinzia conferred on the Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern for the Baby Surprise Jacket. Then Cinzia spent the better part of the next half hour trying to untangle the ball of yarn so she could knit. Sometimes a center pull skein is just a big knot!
See that pretty scarf Cinzia is wearing?

 Her friend made it for her birthday last week. Such a pretty lace edge!

 Kathleen came armed with a big inventory of her latest accomplishments. That's the great thing about baby clothes, they are small enough to crank out a bunch in a week, if you have the time to knit.

And this cute little Baby Sophisticate shawl colored sweater was a hit with it's little square buttons. Kathleen ran out of light blue yarn to finish the collar so on to Plan B and it looks great.

Kathleen started her Baby Surprise Jacket with a pretty variegated yarn. She went home with 3 more skeins of yarn to start a striped one for next week.

And Elaine finished her Seed Stitch edged cardigan with lime green buttons. So cute!

And lastly Barbara accomplished a lot of knitting during the week. This lovely Feather and Fan blanket is from the Plymouth Eight Hour Baby Blankets book. The patterns in the book call for using two strands of worsted weight yarn but she is adjusting the pattern for a single strand of worsted.

                                      

Another week of beautiful knitting! Now it's back to the needles so I can show you something new next week. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Read the label carefully!

Last week Dorah and I went through hundreds of patterns looking for just the right thing to knit. We began to notice a pattern forming that the items we chose to knit were being modeled by the cutest babies with the chubbiest cheeks. HA! She decided on a cute hoodie with I-cord ties instead of buttons. Then we hunted through the stash to find just the right yarn and chose a Knit Picks yarn in the prettiest teal blue. Tonight, after she had knitted a good portion of the hood, Dorah noticed the ball of yarn was shrinking very quickly and there was still a whole sweater to knit. All too soon we discovered that we had chosen two skeins of yarn totaling 200 yards and the pattern called for 400 yards of yarn. Ooops! Neither one of us had noticed the faux pas! So back to the stash and luckily we had a nice Encore in a tweedy white and blue. Back to the needles to start over.

 Dorah did make progress during the week on a gift she's knitting for a friend's baby. Those top-down patterns are great for a quick knit, no finishing after the last stitch is knitted except to sew on buttons.

 Carole started the Sunnyside cardigan last week and has already put the sleeve stitches on holders and is flying through the stockinette body portion. This week she will be on the hunt for the perfect buttons. This lovely yarn will give her lots of options.

 These little socks worked up quickly as I knitted them both at the same time on one needle with the Magic Loop method. I think I have enough yarn left to make another pair.

 I started a Sunnyside cardigan too. Carole chose to knit the cable version while I am knitting the lacy version. All those stitch markers are my landmarks to notify me when to knit the lace pattern and when to increase stitches for the raglan sleeves.

I can't wait to finish so I can show you the cute buttons I bought for it.

Delivery Day

This week's post is about last week too. Last Tuesday, after my 1 o'clock Chicks went home, I started feeling under the weather and didn't get to post the pictures of our labeling assembly line. But we did get to label and inventory all the items that went out for delivery today.

Our donation recipients were the residents of St. Anne Institute in Albany, NY where we were warmly greeted and thanked by Pat Leonard, Director of Volunteer Services. With this donation today, the Chicks have passed the 2,000 mark of items donated since we started in 2005!

Cinzia finished her cowl just in time to include it with...

her cabled mittens and off they went together today to warm a lovely young lady.

For this week, Barbara's feather and fan baby blanket is chugging along for our upcoming charity work.

And we haven't seen Kathleen in a few weeks since the weather turned so frigid. It was good to catch up with her today and see all the knitting she accomplished while being snowed in the last few weeks.

The pink hat is a Periwinkle Sheep yarn that is machine washable, great for baby knits.

Here is Kathleen's favorite Cabin Fever jacket pattern. It is a top down, seamless pattern that works up in a jiffy. And she had enough yarn for ...

a matching cap. Can't you picture a chubby cheeked cherub smiling under that lacy brim?

Another pair of mittens will be set aside for a future donation when we will need larger size items again.

Kathleen's keyhole scarf will stay put when it's worn on a windy day.

And her two cushy cowls will definitely keep someone cozy and warm.

We thought the last of this yarn had been used up but Kathleen found just enough to make another pair of mittens.

It was so nice to have a full house this afternoon. Busy little bees!

Elaine is working on this seed stitch border sweater in a pretty...

sweet pea green.

Hubby came home from work early and tempted us with chocolate treats from the Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Housatonic, Massachusetts. If you ever find yourself in their neck of the woods it's worth the extra few miles off the main road to check out their goodies. For Christmas breakfast this year I made their Pannetone into a baked French toast with a layer of their Pecan/Cherry bread. Wow! It was good! And you have to try a little chocolate treat they make called a boucheron. It's a mouthful of chocolate heaven!

Tonight Dorah and I knitted together while everyone else had conflicts with the schedule. Dorah started this darling hoodie. I think we were both attracted to the pattern more because of the cute baby cheeks than the pattern itself.

I started a pair of baby socks the other day and feel like it's taking forever to reach the 3 inch cuff length. They aren't that big! Why is it taking so long?

Probably because I've also been working on my son's sock blanket. Size 3 needles and fingering weight yarn takes a lot of patience to say the least. But I love the way it's coming along. The finished size will fit the top of a queen size bed so I'm only about 1/3 of the way through. Considering I started it June 14, 2014, I have made quite a bit of progress.

Let me say thank you to my team of dedicated knitters for again making a successful delivery day! You ladies are the best!!!