Autumn in New York means time to distribute

On Sunday my husband and I took a ride up to the John Boyd Thacher State Park to get a bird's eye view of the changes that come with autumn. John Boyd Thacher was a former New York State Senator and Mayor of Albany way back in the 1880's. In 1914, his widow Emma gave 350 acres of land on the Helderberg Escarpment, where the couple had a summer home, to New York State. The scenes looking into the valley are breathtaking and there are areas for camping and picnicking. We always make time to catch a glimpse of the changing season.

But I don't have to go that far to see beautiful fall colors. Right in my own neighborhood are some gorgeous maples that always put on a great show every October.

And with the temperatures dropping, we Chicks have to get our items ready for the yarn bombing this Friday. The assembly line is ready for labeling all the warm woolies.

We collected and labeled 88 items of clothing, 105 if you count sets and pairs individually. These items will be added to those that are collected from my other knitting group, The Delaware Avenue Stitch Angels (https://stitchangels.wixsite.com/home). On Friday they will be delivered to The South End Children's Cafe in Albany and a few more items will be hung on the fence surrounding the community garden a block away for those folks in the neighborhood who might need some warmth in their lives.

We Chicks have already begun knitting the next rotation of items for Grassroots Givers, an organization that connects needs in the community to those who can share resources. They like to pair hand made cotton dish cloths with a bottle of dish detergent so Maureen is working on her second dish cloth. The burgundy one on the table is an easy free pattern on Ravelry. There are many variations on the theme available for those who would like to make unique designs too.

Margaret is trying her hand at a top down baby sweater called "Sunnyside". She just started it today and is working her first buttonhole.

The free pattern has two styles available, one lacy and one cabled.

Carole is making this cabled hat using...

this cozy, oatmeal colored yarn. She just started casting on so I suspect by next week you'll be seeing the hat or most of it.

Barbara B. Is using a very colorful yarn to make this adorable hat    https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bewind-hat  which is another free pattern on Ravelry.

Jan P. is back after too long a hiatus. She's making one of my all time favorites, The Reversible Stripes scarf which uses two different gradient yarns. I haven't made one of these in a long time because I spend more time turning it over to try to figure out why the stripes are horizontal on one side but vertical on the other. LOL! I'm feeling inspired though. I'll have to go stash diving to see if I have some gradients that will work for one of these lovely scarves.

My project is the Glacier Cowl for which I'm using a superwash merino. I'm hoping there is enough yarn left over when I'm finished so I can make a matching hat using the good old standby Ribbed Watchman's Hat. 

And from the corner of my eye, I can see someone is ready for a snack. I can feel his eyes penetrating my brain to send a message. Ok Fozzie, I hear you.

 I hope wherever you live you get to enjoy the weather and if there are fall colors, enjoy them too. I'll be back at the end of the week with pictures from the yarn bombing. 

Until then, keep those needles clicking.