Here’s a quick one

I went pattern surfing and found this headband/earwarmer that’s knitting up very quickly.

 https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/serenity-smocked-headband

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From my house to yours, sending wishes for a blessed holiday.

And keep those needles clicking!

Taking a break

 It pains me to say this but in light of the recent spike in COVID cases in our area and to keep everyone safe during the holidays, I’ve decided, that as Mother Hen to my Chicks, it’s my responsibility to put our weekly meetings on hiatus until a safer time to meet. We will have occasional Zoom meetings so we can keep up with our knitting and post pictures of our progress. But I can’t in good conscience risk exposing anyone to this insidious illness.

I will be posting free patterns to keep you busy so enjoy the first called Cowgirl Convertible. It’s a cowl! No! It’s a hat! Wait! It’s both! And the pattern lists the details for either crochet or knit in different weights of yarn. 

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cowgirl-convertible

Enjoy the holidays and check back now and then to see what’s happening on this page. May we all have a blessed Christmas and may 2022 bring good health to the whole world.

Filling the inventory

We have many FO's this week to show you. Jan A. brought a whole pile of lovely hats and scarves of all colors. She's been very busy!

Jan P. finished her 1898 hat from last week's post.

And Maureen finished her pretty self striping scarf.

We have a Declan hat to add to inventory. Love those cables!

And Cinzia made an ensemble from a very soft acrylic.

This is the Workday Scarf from Cinzia's needles. It has an easy lace stitch edging.

Maureen started the Bankhead hat and is enjoying the knit. It's a good one for when you want to talk and knit at the same time.

Jan A. started another hat too.

The blue yarn goes nicely with denim.

Margaret worked on her snowflake hat and by the time we ended our meeting she had finished the crown and proceeded to the I-cord ties.

Cinzia had just started a dress for a little girl, using a sparkly yarn. This will make someone feel like a princess.

Jan P. is also making the Bankhead hat, like Maureen's, but she is not quite as far into the pattern yet.

I started another balaclava but with more stitches so it won't be as tight as the one I made last week.

I made this one exactly as the pattern says but it would fit a child better than an adult. 

That's all for now. We'll be taking a break for the Christmas holidays but will be back in the new year. Sending wishes for peace and good health to all

and keep those needles clicking!

Ready for delivery

As I prepared the Chicks’ most recent project, our blankets for veterans in hospice, I am grateful for my knitters’ generosity and skills. Thank you ladies for stepping up to make a great donation!

 

The blankets are finished

We had a few last minute additions to the blanket donations today. Carole brought her diagonal striped blanket which she steamed lightly. It helps to even out the stitches and soften the acrylic a bit to make it all more uniform.

Janna stayed just long enough to drop off her lovely blanket to be added to the collection.

And Cinzia crocheted her second blanket for the collection. For some reason, crocheting a blanket seems to go faster than knitting. Perhaps because a crocheted stitch is taller than a knitted stitch.

So here is our grand total of 11 beautiful blankets to be donated to the hospice for veterans.

We're all busy with projects for men, women, and children now.

I found a video tutorial for an adult size balaclava (we keep calling it BAKLAVA! LOL!) which had the instructions written in English on the screen which is a good thing since I don't speak Hindi like the woman giving the tutorial! I wrote the directions down so we can all share the pattern. It's knitted flat and then a small seam is sewn to connect the band around the neck.

Jan A. started a hat called...

Bankhead

Jan P. is finishing up the band of her 1898 hat.

Cinzia started a rolled brim hat.

And Dorah was going to make the Declan hat but found out she did the same thing I did today which was knit a 1X1 ribbing instead of a 2X2 ribbing. In my case I could fudge it but Dorah's hat needed the wider ribbing to flow right into the pattern of cables. So Plan B is she will make the Raven DK instead.

Carole's 1898 hat is showing the crown portion now. She's almost done.

And Maureen keeps plugging away on her scarf with that pretty self striping yarn.

 I'm testing out a pattern that is new to me to see if it's a good one for donations so maybe next week I'll have it ready to show. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

FO's galore!

There's a story that goes with this hat. I saw a Youtube video of the knitting of this hat but unfortunately, it was being knitted by someone who spoke Polish. So I watched the video about 10 times so I could write down every step of the process and translate the pattern into English. And now we can all make this hat. I'm sure you'll see some more in the future.

I knitted this beret called Slice of Pie beret. It's a thank you to a friend who gave me some yarn to use for our charity knitting. 

Maureen finished her sage green 1898 hat and it's warm and cozy.

Jan. P. brought four finished objects to add to our inventory. They are both lovely sets. I didn't catch the name of this pattern but...

this is the Irma hat she worked so diligently over the last few months. And the matching scarf is called Outlaw, designed by someone we both knew.

And here are some of the patriotic blankets in all their glory. I think a couple of more will be added soon. It's so nice to see everyone's differing interpretations on a theme.

Maureen continues to work on a pretty triangular scarf using a self striping yarn.

I tried using up some of the yarn left from the finished blanket so I'm making a watchman's cap.

Cinzia picked up her crochet hook for her second patriotic blanket.

Jan P. worked on her 1898 hat. First step is making the ear band.

Barbara B. is making the cutest hat!

It's even the same color as the one in the pattern.

Jan just started her newest project, a hat. She learned a valuable lesson too...never try to cast on and count stitches while talking. LOL!

This pattern will be teaching her how to make baby cables without a cable needle.

Barbara K. is making the Antler Hat from TinCanKnits as a gift for her son. Oops! I hope he doesn't read this! Maybe it's not a surprise.

I decorated the hearth for the season and noticed I didn't have a stocking for my daughter's fiance so Mike got his own stocking this weekend. It took me about 3 days to make this giant sock based on a basic top up pattern.

I'm not knitting any gifts this year to make life a little less stressful. Deadlines freak me out! So I'm going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the month of December by knitting only when I feel like it. (cough,cough, always, cough, cough) LOL!!!

Keep those needles clicking!

Here’s a project for you!

In Trivento, Italy there is a Christmas tree made entirely of crocheted granny squares.

                        You need to start crocheting far ahead of time to get this one ready for December!

A patriotic feeling

Our fingers were busily working on our veterans blankets today.

Barbara B. finished her feather and fan version of the colors of our flag.

Cinzia finished hers too using the diagonal blanket pattern. She crocheted two rows around the edge to keep it from rolling.

My blanket is about 90% done. I think one more band of red, then the blue, and a wide band of red to match the other end and it should be long enough to cover someone's lap and legs.

Janna took her inspiration from a book that is a collection of stitches for afghan knitting. I have the same book but I bought mine in the 1970's and hers is from the 1980's.

Jan A. held her colors together to get this great looking marled effect.

Carole's blanket is in the home stretch too so she'll be finished soon. The one thing we've all agreed on is that these blankets don't seem to be getting longer. I think it's a trick of the acrylic yarn. ;) The longer we knit, the shorter it gets. LOL!

Margaret's blanket has a good color thing going on.

And Dorah actually finished hers before the end of our meeting today. She is going to give it a good steaming to help it soften and lay flat.

Barbara K.'s afghan is almost completed too. I love to see all our different interpretations of the color theme.

The only person who didn't make a blanket is Maureen because she was away but she's busy finishing up her 1898 hat is a nice heather sage green color.

By next week we should have finished most of these blankets. We can't wait to lay them out and get a photo of all the lovely designs! Until then, keep those needles clicking.