The Superheroes to the rescue!

This weekend was the annual costume party at our club and my grandsons brought their mom up to celebrate. Or should I say Deadpool and Captain Jack Sparrow brought the Black Widow?

 Captain Jack was a bit overwhelmed by the haunted house but he soon recovered when he spotted the candy cauldron.

 Deadpool was pretty spooky with that shrunken head.

 After dinner was the "Let's see how much sugar you can pile on a shortbread ghost", otherwise known as cookie decorating time.

 It must have been delicious...

 there were only a few crumbs left.

 It looked as though Captain Jack was going to offer me a bite of his Peanut Butter cup but...

 no such luck. It disappeared quicker than you could say, "Pretty please!"

 This afternoon the Chicks showed off some of their FO's. Elaine made a hat for her granddaughter which turned out to be too big so she will make a smaller one and then have one for her daughter-in-law to match.

 Kathleen gave her daughter her knitted hat so she started a new one for herself. A straight forward 1X1 ribbing will fold up onto a stockinette cap.

 Cinzia picked up a crocheted scarf where her daughter, Elena left off. Now that school has started her girls don't have as much time to knit and crochet anymore.

 Barbara created a little stash busting pattern to make a scarf which will look great with denim jeans.

 Maureen was overjoyed to turn in her finished Mistake Stitch Scarf and added a cowl to the inventory too.

 I thought Dorah's Mistake Stitch Scarf looked a lot like her favorite team colors.

 She had to leave early tonight so she wouldn't miss a minute of the World Series.

 Carole made a scarf for a friend using Martina Behm's pattern called Easy. She used a self-striping yarn from Zauberball. The colors are gorgeous.

 Here is Carole's current project called Cushy Cowl, a pattern by our friend Karin.

Another lovely yarn by Zauberball is the one Beth is using for her September Circle cowl.

 Last week Beth was concerned that the hat she was knitting was using up yarn more quickly than expected. Rather than run out and not having more of a matching dye lot she frogged it in favor of...

 starting over in a smaller size.

 Maureen's hat has pretty cables and she will soon be decreasing for the crown.

 Last week I started the ZickZack scarf using a silk/cotton/acrylic blend yarn. The colors are blending nicely together.

Have a good Halloween and don't eat too much candy!

I am not lost!

Last Tuesday morning we met a woman at our local Panera who wanted to interview and photograph us for a paper she was writing for her graduate degree work. She sat with us for over an hour while we enjoyed telling her about our work.

 Of course we had to be knitting too. Our hands can't be idle.

 Her photography skills captured every stitch...

 And even the moments when we were thinking or...

 concentrating.

I love how we always look like we are having fun. Well, we are!

This past weekend was the New York Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York. I wasn't planning on going this year but my Sunday schedule opened up and suddenly I had the time to go and soak up the atmosphere.

I arrived bright and early as you can see by the long shadow. Unfortunately, I was not aware that on Sundays the fair gates open at 10AM not 9!!!

 That's ok! I brought my knitting! So I had something to do while I waited and I had a good view of the pretty trees from my car.

 It wasn't very crowded at all. When I've attended the festival on a Saturday I could barely get up to a booth to see the yarn. Not a problem on a Sunday!

 I've been attending this festival for at least 10 years and this is the first time I've seen a sheep being sheared. He was very cooperative too! Such a Big Boy!

 I wandered around the fairgrounds for almost two hours and saw everything there was to see and didn't buy a thing except lunch! Well, I really just wanted to enjoy the fall colors and breathe in some fiber fumes anyway

 When I came home I noticed my neighbor's maple tree in full glory and had to capture it with my camera. Just breathtaking! Just a few more days to enjoy the colors, if it doesn't rain.

 This afternoon we got to work labeling our items for distribution. And look who joined us!

 We were overjoyed to see Kathleen! She got lots of Chicks Hugs today.

 Busy as bees labeling our scarves, hats, mittens, cowls, and socks.

Our count was 108 items but there are still a few to be finished and added to the inventory. These items don't have our usual baby chicks label. Since they will be left out and about the Albany, New York area they have a special label.

Anyone who finds these items can take one if they are cold.  I'll let you know when distribution begins.

 It was good to get the whole afternoon gang together again!

Another knitting day with the Chicks

I think last week I showed you Beth's team scarf in the final stages. Well, yesterday morning she showed us the finished project. It looks great. It can be worn as a single wrap around the neck or doubled up to keep out the winter cold. The randomness of the stripes lends a wonderful pattern.

My ribbed watch cap took just a couple of days worth of knitting to finish. By evening's end...

 it was ready to go!

 Liz is almost done with the never ending Mistake Stitch scarf. Sometimes those things seem to take forever!

 Cinzia finished her ZickZack scarf and it's nice and long for warmth. 

 Her daughter, Elena, added a pair of fingerless mitts to our inventory too.

Carole's hat has reached the decrease portion of the pattern. You can see where it's beginning to taper in for the crown. Next week we'll probably see the finished hat. 

That's all there is this week but check back next week for more wooly goodness.

Sand and scarves

I've been planning on a short get-away for a few weeks now and last week it finally happened. DH and I snuck away for four days at the Delaware beaches. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and immediately headed for the sand on Rehoboth Beach. You can tell by the extremely thick cloud cover that we didn't exactly have to worry about getting a sunburn.

 But that didn't stop us from parking our chairs on the beach. We spent Wednesday morning on Bethany Beach dodging raindrops here and there but I did get to sink my toes in the sand.

 We had to follow the weather reports very closely because Hurricane Joaquin was heading up the coast, or so we thought. By the looks of the waves, it sure seemed as though a big storm was brewing.

 But we were able to breathe a sigh of relief when it was reported the hurricane took a sharp right and headed back out to sea. However, Thursday afternoon when we returned to our hotel we found the entrances had been sandbagged and barricaded. So the locals knew something we didn't. Our decision to leave early Friday morning for the six hour drive home was a wise one. We avoided the flooded roads but visibility was gruesome! It felt good to be back home safe and sound....

And back with my Chicks. Liz and Elaine worked on their scarf and hat, respectively. I was hoping we would get to knit outside again before winter but as you can see by the sweaters being worn, it was not to be. 

 Elaine wrapped up her cowl project and now it's in our inventory. 

 Maureen doesn't have much yarn left to call it a day on her Mistake Stitch Scarf. It's a good thing too! I think she's about ready to pull her hair out on this one! Sometimes a scarf is just too darn long!

 But shhhh...don't tell Dorah! She's knitting the same scarf!

 Carole finished the cowl and had enough yarn left over to start a hat to match.

 It's going to be a nice one too.

 She already has quite a bit knitted.

 Beth finished her Last Minute Cowl. It's a toasty warm knit for which she used Lopi yarn.

 I finished a Totally Biased Cowl using a bulky weight yarn. I can't tell you what it is because it had no label but it's pretty and very soft.

 Beth showed us her Crackerjack Scarf. The pattern is designed around the colors of your favorite sports team and the rows are knitted according to wins and losses for away and home games. Looks like the wins are outnumbering the losses.

I embarked on a new endeavor today. I offered to lead a knitting group at Ingersoll Place Assisted Living where my father used to live. I wondered why I didn't see any of the residents knitting and when I inquired, I was told there had been an interest expressed and would I be willing to get a group going. So this afternoon was our first session. We discussed what types of things the ladies wanted to knit and what techniques they might like to learn. So the first thing I'm going to show them is how to knit a hat using the Magic Loop technique. Wish me luck!