FO's and UFO's

We'll start this week's episode with some lovely FO's. Carole blocked her Chinook scarf and it took to the water like a duck. It behaved just as she wanted it to, not requiring blocking wires to hold it's shape and just a pin at each point to define the shape. It looks lovely!

 And she finished a little, bitty, baby hat for the inventory. It's so cute! It's hard to remember when my own babies were small enough to wear a hat like this now that they are in their 30's!

 Carole also added this cozy cowl to the list of finished objects. The thick stitching makes it a good thermal insulator against the cold.

 If this hat looks familiar it's because I made another one exactly like it a few weeks ago. There was enough yarn left over and I couldn't let it go to waste.

 And another quick hat to add was the ribbed watchman's cap, a good old fashioned quick knit!

 Margaret is following a chart for a Fair Isle hat, bless her heart! I hate following charts but she's doing a great job and talking at the same time!!! I could never do that!

 Here is the chart she's following with her finished rows highlighted.

 Beth's cable hat is coming along nicely but she is afraid she will run out of yarn before it's finished. All our "Spidey Senses" were feeling the same thing. Well, if need be she can always knit the very top in a different color.

 I found four skeins of this soft alpaca, merino, donegal blend to make a Noro Striped Scarf. I was trying to make something that is gender neutral since I always lean toward more feminine patterns. I don't think this will pass for a man though now that I see it progressing.

 And Carole started another hat with the same yarn as the one a little further back but she's making this one a little bigger. 

One of the things that make donation knitting so enjoyable is that we don't have to worry about sizes. My favorite saying is, "It will fit somebody!"

Sunday afternoon Barbara's 96 year old mother passed away unexpectedly. She lived independently and Barbara spoke to her that morning. Please keep Grandma Boeck, Barbara,  and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

We had a visitor this week

My sister visited this week from Connecticut. We've been sitting on the deck (when it isn't 89 degrees and 100% humidity), making yummy recipes, and taking in the local sights. She even remembered to bring her afghan that she's knitting so she could join the Chicks. She met the evening Chicks today but my afternoon group had conflicts so she'll meet them some other time.

We have some lovely hats to add to the inventory this week starting with Dorah's baby cable hat. The heather green yarn shows the stitch definition nicely and look at those cute little cables!

Margaret also finished a hat to add to the inventory. She said she made a mistake but we were all able to convince her it was just a "design element" so she wouldn't have to rip out the whole thing. It looks great! I don't see a problem!

Maureen wove in the ends on her Zoe hat and....

it is also ready for inventory. Nice work Maureen!

Carole asked for my forgiveness because she found an orphan skein of yarn at her home and used it instead of one of the hundreds of skeins I have here in our Chicks' stash. LOL! As long as she doesn't make a habit of it! The pretty pastels will make a sweet baby hat.

Dorah was inspired by Maureen's Zoe hat and cast on stitches tonight to make one in a pretty pastel pink. We watched a video on knitting right twist and left twist stitches so she doesn't have to use a cable needle for a 2 stitch cable. It saves so much time and cuts down on fiddling with that extra needle.

Beth's hat has a deep ribbed cuff and the pattern will show up soon. The oatmeal colored yarn makes a nice neutral item to wear with anything.

I started a plain vanilla ribbed hat to give my brain a rest. Over the weekend I worked on a couple of projects which required my full attention.

This little bag was a bugger to start off. I decided to use Magic Loop but the pattern calls for a provisional cast on. Talk about fiddly! Next time I'll just use DP's for the beginning and switch to magic loop when I get to the pouch. Once I got past the folded eyelet section the rest was a breeze. The four corners have a row of beading. I think it's pretty cute.

That's all for now. Keep those needles clicking and I'll see you next week.

Back from a holiday break

While everyone was celebrating the 4th of July last week with fireworks and picnics I was watching some very skilled crewmen remove eight trees from my property. All but one of them were cottonwood poplars which had reached the end of their usefulness and the last one was an ash which was suffering a slow death. For three straight days all I could hear was the buzz of the chain saws and the roar of the wood chipper. Now we have the glorious morning sun shining until 2 in the afternoon as it rounds the property. Our backyard looks so much larger now too. In the fall we'll be looking to fill in some of the space with a Bloodgood Japanese Maple so we can have something pretty to admire as we knit on the deck.

The Chicks noticed right away how open and airy things felt minus the trees. It kept us chirping for quite a while!

Elaine finished her baby blanket which has been featured these last few weeks. She still has a ton of that yarn so she started another one today.

Debbie finished embroidering the eyes on all the little owls so some cute baby can be warm and snuggly in this sweet sack and hat.

Cinzia completed her cowl using Encore acrylic and wool blend yarn. The high contrast colors make the pattern stand out beautifully.

I finished the Phazelia Mitered Baby Jacket and substituted the I-cord edge with a crocheted edge instead. I usually like to do the I-cord but I was having a heck of a time getting the fabric to stop puckering so I opted for the crochet instead. It still needed a thorough blocking though.

I couldn't find a good button so I crocheted one to match.

Now I'm working on a matching hat.

Liz added a thick, cozy cowl to our inventory.

And Beth added a hat. It stretches nicely so it will grow with the lucky child who gets it.

Liz started a hat using the same mosaic pattern as Cinzia's cowl.

Notice how Liz's pattern looks a bit smaller because she's using a different size needle.

Debbie added the sleeves to the baby sweater which now needs to have stitches picked up for the button band and neck edge. I think she will be making a hat to match too.

Cinzia and I bought Turkish spindles on our last visit to WEBS so we could teach ourselves how to spin yarn on a drop spindle. She's doing a great job! We agreed that it's very relaxing to spin (almost more so than knitting but don't tell anyone we said so). LOL!

Carole's Chinook scarf is much longer than when we last met. 

And Dorah's hat is almost finished. Just a few more rows of decreasing and she'll be running in those ends.

Beth showed us a scarf she's making for herself. It's a Martina Behm pattern called Trillian. It's lovely with this self patterning yarn.

Then Beth got to work on her donation item, a hat with a nice neutral color that goes with everything.

Now that summer weather is finally here we will be conducting our knitting outside. It is so nice to listen to the sounds of nature when we knit.

Keep those needles clicking!