It's snowing....again!

As I look out my window I'm thinking it's a good thing I cancelled knitting for tonight because it started snowing while the afternoon knitters were still here. Reports say driving will be dicey for commuters heading home so I don't want my Chicks to drive in dangerous weather.

My afternoon Chicks were productive this week. Elaine brought a collection of finished hats for the inventory, starting off with a child's striped hat...

a lovely mint green slouchy hat...

a nice warm cocoa colored man's hat...or woman's...

and two more children's hats.

Debbie brought us the first sweater she tried knitting for a baby who is now three years old. So some lucky recipient of our donations will now benefit from her hard work.

And it's actually a complete ensemble! There are pants, booties, and a hat to go with the cardigan. Good work Debbie!

Elaine is on a roll with her hats. She immediately cast on for another in a pretty heather green worsted weight wool.

Cinzia worked at redesigning a pattern which called for fingering weight yarn by converting the measurements for bulky weight yarn. The Flying Triangles Cowl was supposed to be 60 inches in circumference but in bulky weight yarn it would have been huge and weighed a ton! It looks great with her adaptations.

Janna's Chevron cowl is growing, slowly but surely. The pattern perfectly highlights the color changes in her yarn.

Debbie picked up where she left off on her 1898 hat.

My third Treppenviertel cowl required so much purling that I learned how to use the Portuguese knitting technique for purl stitch.

I don't like putting the yarn around my neck so the next accessory to accomplish the technique is using a pin attached to your shirt, up near your shoulder. I didn't want to invest in one of these for just a small project so when I couldn't sleep last night I began to think about magnets and clips and VOILA!

I remembered seeing a knitting hack somewhere for holding yarn in a bowl and thought I could just adapt that clip to holding it to my shoulder! It worked!

I wish I had thought of this before I finished my second Treppenviertel!

Now I need to get back to my cowl and finish it!

Have a great week and be careful in that snow!

Hats and cowls galore!

Starting our show and tell this week will be a Brioche cowl with Latvian braid edges made by Cinzia. She used an Aran weight yarn with size 7 or 8 needles, I can't remember for sure. The yarn is Cascade Eco Wool which knitted up nicely for this project.

She also finished a beanie hat with a 100% Baby Alpaca yarn from Blue Sky Fibers called Melange. It is so soft and warm, like an angel spun it.

 

Dorah's Railroad Tracks hat is beautifully finished. That twisted rib shows the stitch definition so nicely.

I completed a Throwback Pixie hat with yarn from Filatura di Crosa Zara. Last winter I made a whole bunch of these because they were like Lay's Potato Chips, you can't have just one! I might have to cast on for a few more after I finish my current WIP's.

Barbara B. did a test knit for these mittens and had enough yarn left to make a matching hat. Such a pretty pink!

Her only wool project this week was this bulky knit cap. Her husband is violently allergic to wool so she has to knit with synthetic yarns. I don't know how she managed to sneak this one into the mix but I'm sure glad she did!

Her next two projects were kits which included these cute little heads. The ball of yarn includes all the different yarns in one continuous ball.

I love the comical little faces!

Barbara B. finished her Brioche cowl too. She had a few blips in the learning curve but we like to call them "Design Elements" and Look! A whole new design! Like it was meant to be!

I used Cascade Yarns Elysian to make the Treppenviertel Cowl. It was an easy pattern with just enough going on every fourth row to keep my interest peaked.

I had so much fun making it, I immediately cast on for another with Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine on a size 2.5 needle. And then, because my hand cramps when I knit for too long with such a skinny needle...

I cast on for another Treppenviertel with a DK weight yarn and size 7 needles with the same Zara yarn that Cinzia used in her hat.

Janna is at the beginning rows of her Chevron cowl. I didn't get the name of the yarn.

Barbara K. is flying through her Mistake Stitch Scarf. This easy pattern makes a nice warm thermal barrier against the cold.

Dorah tried her hand at Helix knitting and is doing a great job with a great color combination. And look at her beautiful twisted ribbing. It's just like 1X1 ribbing but you knit the knit stitches through the back loop which lifts it up proud and defined.

Barbara B. cast on with yarn that was left from the bulky hat and made a warm ear band for those who don't want to wear a whole hat.

And Maureen just started the flat knitting portion of her Throwback Pixie hat. When she first read the pattern she had the same reaction I did...something sounds wrong here. But I was told by the designer to trust the instructions and just do what they say.

Sometimes I have a hard time picturing what the pattern should look like and my brain gets ahead of my hands. When I just took the leap it all worked out fine. In this case, it was the right thing to do!

Keep those needles clicking and I'll see you next week!

Two bags and a hat

I had to be out of town yesterday but I didn't want to leave you hanging with nothing to see so....

For my personal use, to contain my knitting projects, I made a couple of walking project bags. This sheep fabric was so cute that I didn't think about the direction of the flow of the pattern and purchased the amount called for in the pattern. It wasn't until I began to think about cutting the pieces that I realized the sheep would be right side up on the front but up side down on the back. So with a bit of fiddling and puzzle piecing, I rearranged the fabric, made a few extra seams, and now the sheep are not getting seasick as they run around the bag.

 This is how the bag hangs from your arm so you can walk and knit or crochet while exercising. I say "you can walk and knit" because if I tried it, I would end up in the ED getting stitches in my face!LOL! But it could hang from the handlebars of my exercise bike while I watch Netflix and ride to nowhere.

 I finished my Zoe hat a few days ago and I like how the pompom came out, a nice finishing touch.

I like the method this woman uses to trim the finished pompom between two cardboard rounds. The tutorial for trimming starts at about minute 12:25.

The Chicks will be back next week.

We're baaaack!

We all had a nice long break for the holidays and now it's time to get those needles clicking again.

Barbara K's daughter-in-law loves her new cowl that Barbara made for her Christmas gift. This was the stealth project she was knitting the last few weeks before we broke for Christmas. I love the poinsettias and antlers too! LOL!

Janna finished her 1898 hat and grafted the ends all by herself. You can't see it in this picture but she did a great job for a newbie!

Barbara K. was going to start a baby cardi today but first she had to deal with the "yarn barf" that appeared when she tried to find the center pull of the yarn skein. I have to give her credit for fishing around for almost an hour to find the end. 

Elaine's hat is almost done. A few more rows of decreasing and it will go into inventory.

Since Janna finished her hat she needed some yarn for a new project. This Berroco Jasper was just the fiber she needed for the Chevron cowl. And Santa brought her a set of Zing Interchangeable Needles which she loves! They are like jewelry for your knitting!

Debbie started a hat this week with a soft, creamy yarn.

And I started the Zoe hat with some Cascade 220. The pattern calls for a cable needle to do the twists but I opted to use the right and left twisted stitch instead of taking time to use the cable needle.

Check out who came to visit tonight! Beth (on the left in the green sweater) is up from NC for a week and needed a night off from packing for the permanent move down south. She's working on a baby sweater for a new addition to her family.

The Sunnyside Baby sweater is a top down with cables accenting the raglan line of the shoulder.

Dorah added her finished fingerless mitts to the inventory. She was working on these before we broke for the holidays.

And Margaret finished her 1898 hat too.

Next up on Dorah's needles is the Railroad Track hat.

And Margaret is using a super bulky yarn for a hat. She started it tonight and is almost finished already. 

Look at those pretty colors on Carole's Helix hat. That's going to be so pretty!

She is also crocheting flowers for added texture to a quilt she is making for Alzheimer's and dementia patients in nursing homes.

                            

I finished two Chevron cowls in the last weeks and today I blocked them. They should be dry by tomorrow and then they'll go into inventory too.

As will Margaret's baby hat.

The Olivia Cowl jumped right off my needles the other day. This is one quick knit!

I haven't used my sewing machine in years and was afraid if I left it idle too long it might not ever work again, so I had it tuned up and it's purring like a kitten now. I've been watching Youtube videos of these cute little project bags and the sewing bug bit me. I went to Log Cabin Fabrics (where I left my Bernina for her tune up) and found the cutest fabrics. So naturally, I had to make a project bag for myself.

But now I remember why I prefer knitting. I spent an afternoon at the sewing machine and by bedtime I needed an Advil to stop the pain in my back.

Knitting is much kinder, ergonomically speaking, so my sewing projects will be few and far between.

That's all for now. Keep those needles clicking!