Buttons

When you can't find 5 matching buttons that you like do what Kathleen did. This sweater is so cheerful with it's colorful assorted buttons! It reminds me of a box of crayons.

 Kathleen knitted a summer sweater and hat set and added cute pink buttons here.

 And the yellow buttons look darling on her blue shrug.

 Having just enough yarn left, Kathleen finished off her delivery with a sweet little hat.

 Barbara was back from vacation and got to work on the blanket she started before she went away. And Elaine started the last skein of Berroco Comfort to finish off her Mistake Stitch Scarf.

 Beth used a nylon/acrylic blend yarn for this cute little hat. It's as soft as a cloud.

 Now she's working on a gathered yoke sweater. It's knitted top-down without seaming. I think this might be the pattern.

 And Carole made great progress on her Peanut Warmer sweater with the asymmetrical front.

 Dorah is darn near finished with the hoodie. I think all that's left to do is make the ties and sew the hoodie seam.

 I finished the Sunnyside sweater last week and this week added the hat to match. 

 I do love these buttons!

 What do you make with small amounts of yardage of yarn? Why a pair of thumbless mittens of course! That I-cord is supposed to be passed through the coat sleeves so the mittens don't get lost.

I think I should make myself a pair! I'm always misplacing my gloves!

Itty bitty clothes

The baby clothes are knitting up quickly! Kathleen brought in multiple FO's (as ususal, she is our most productive knitter). This little jacket pattern was from her calendar that shows a new pattern for every day of the year.

These mittens and hat were made with the remnants of yarn left from Kathleen's previously knitted sweaters. She doesn't waste an inch of yarn!

Now she needs to find some buttons for this cute little number.

Elaine finished the hat she started last week and continued to work on her Mistake Stitch scarf.

Cinzia showed us the progress she made on the double breasted number she's working on. 

I finally finished those sleeves on my Sunnyside cardigan.

I love those precious little buttons!

Now I'm taking the pattern for the design along side the button bands and making a hat to match the sweater. I'll have a ton of stitches to pick up along this edge!

Dorah's little blue sweater is getting it's sleeves.

And we had a visitor tonight. Gretchen is Beth's daughter and she set up the finishing touches to the afghan Beth knitted so it can be steeked. Steeking is when a knitted item is cut, yes! CUT! down the space between two stitches in order to make a new edge. An example would be in a circularly knitted Fair Isle patterned sweater. It would be knitted in the round and in order to make it a cardigan, it would have to be cut and have button bands knitted onto the steeked edges.

This blanket was beautifully knitted by Beth and will be steeked by Gretchen. The idea behind the pattern is that you knit one very large blanket and cut it in half, then add buttons to make it whole again. So the user has the option to use it as one blanket or two.

Carole's Peanut Warmer is now showing the markers for the raglan shoulder lines. It's going to be so cute!

Beth needed something simple to knit after working so hard on that beautiful blanket so a straight forward hat fits the bill.

She also knitted up this pretty purple baby hat.

And just to give me something easy to work on, I casted...cast...(I'm not sure of the proper tense) on a pair of baby mittens. Another inch or so of stockinette and then I can knit the ribbed cuff.

Finally, this weekend I went to Pennsylvania to help my number 1 grandson celebrate his 8th birthday. There he is hamming it up for the camera while his little brother waits patiently for him to blow out the candles. We had a great time playing the arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese. 

But 3 hours in that place is about all I can take!

That was enough of a break

Last week I did very little knitting but I didn't abandon it altogether. I just didn't knit in my usual spot. I was on...

The NCL Breakaway on a cruise to the Bahamas! My husband insisted (ok, it didn't take much arm twisting) that I get some sunshine before I drove him crazy and we thought this would be a great way to break up the dull, cloudy weather here in the Northeast. 

We were able to soak up 3 whole days of sunshine and now that I'm back home, I am hearing some spring songs from the birds. So I guess springtime can't be too far off in the future.

When I returned home I got right back to work on the Sunnyside cardigan and I'm finishing up the sleeves on a magic loop (even though the video is for socks you can adapt to make sleeves), both at the same time. This is a great way to assure that your decreases are in exactly the same place on both sleeves without having to take notes.

While I was away Kathleen was busy making a matching set. She needs to find some cute buttons for her Baby Surprise Jacket and then the set will be added to our inventory.

Her Cabin Fever jacket is finished with an eclectic mix of buttons, each one has a different pattern. It looks so cute!

Her next project is a pattern from her Knitting Calendar.

Almost everyday of the year is a new knitting pattern. Some patterns are long enough to overlap a couple of days. This is going to be sweet.

Elaine's Mistake Stitch Scarf is slowly growing in length plus she started a hat for our baby clothes project.

Cinzia had to work on a personal project so she could meet a deadline. This baby blanket is knit in modular sections and then....

the blocks will be assembled into a large blanket. It's going to be so cute, just like a quilt.

Carole finished blocking her cabled Sunnyside cardigan. Great job Carole! Those cables look complicated but it's not difficult at all. It just requires a little concentration until you reach the underarms and then you can breeze through to the end.

This week she started another baby sweater in a pretty soft green using Berroco Comfort, an acrylic and nylon blend that gives great stitch definition.

This is the sweater pattern and that yarn will show up the details beautifully.

Dorah almost finished the first sleeve of her baby hoodie with a few pattern adjustments. This is going to be so cute!

Her other project shows the importance of using the recommended yarn and gauge in a pattern. To look at this sweater it is perfect for a toddler. However, Dorah was planning on knitting a newborn size. Upon closer examination, we totally missed the notation that suggested the yarn be DK weight and so she used a worsted weight yarn. Now there's nothing wrong with the proportions of this sweater EXCEPT that Dorah was hoping to make a newborn size. So she is going to finish this and start another in DK weight and see how that goes.

Well, I have a bunch of errands and chores to catch up on. Yeah, right! I'm going to knit but don't tell anyone! 

The afternoon crew busy with knitting

Bad weather and a migraine conspired together to cancel our evening session with the Chicks but the afternoon ladies got together to share our knitting.

Kathleen finished her Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket and found the perfect buttons for it. She used an acrylic yarn so it can be tossed into the washing machine and dryer without fear of shrinking.

 Kathleen's daughter, Pat, visited her over the weekend and left her newly knitted Brickless to show us. It's a lovely scarf/shawlette which uses 3 different stitch patterns to adorn it.

 Barbara graciously offered to be our model to show only one of the many ways Brickless can be worn.

 Elaine decided she needed an easy pattern on which to work while we talked so she's working on our future inventory to make a Mistake Stitch Scarf using Berroco Vintage yarn. This is a very easy stitch that makes a thermal fabric that is cozy and warm. The pattern is made with a multiple of 4 + 3 extra stitches (ie: 39 stitches, 36 + 3= 39), then the pattern repeat for every row is K2,P2 to last 3 stitches, then K2, P1. Bind off in pattern, weave in loose ends and wear it!

 Kathleen started another sweater, her favorite Cabin Fever Cardigan. The yarn is a nice blue and white tweed from Plymouth Yarns Encore. This yarn is a blend of acrylic and wool so it too is machine washable and dryable.

 

 My needles cried out for some scarves even though we're working on baby clothes so I started two this week. The first one is Chinook, a very easy triangular scarf on which the edging is knitted simultaneouly with the body of the scarf. This pretty bronze colored yarn has a slightly golden thread running through it.

 The second scarf is Ripples. I am using Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors II Sock Yarn in the color Stones Dancing in the Fog. These are both fun projects to knit and I'm really enjoying them.

 I showed you this sweater last week and this week it has a finished bottom edge and the sleeves are on the magic loop needle. I'm knitting them both at the same time so I can make sure the decreases and the lengths are exactly the same in both sleeves.

I found a video that someone posted on Facebook that shows hand exercises for people who knit or crochet for long periods of time. When we knit our hands are in a clenched position for so long that it can cause repetitive stress injuries but this video shows how to avoid this with a simple rubber ball. Try it and let me know what you think. It has helped me.