Two hours of peace and quiet

No matter how hectic life gets or unsettling the current news is, I can always count on my Chicks and my knitting to bring some tranquility to every Tuesday afternoon.

It's so fulfilling to have a purpose in life and we have found one of ours through our knitting and donations.

Jan A. completed her Stitch Sampler Cowl. It is going to be a warm and lovely addition to someone's wardrobe next year when winter is back.

Janna completed her Exordium Shawl to give to her daughter, Lidia. The colors and lace came together so nicely and I'm sure it will look beautiful on her.

Barbara B. is making thrummed mittens. Those colorful fluffs of fiber are unspun wool called roving. 

The thrums are measured off and then incorporated into the knitting to create...

a thick inner lining which keeps the hands warm in very cold weather. The thrums will get a bit felted with wear so the hand can fit inside the mitten.

Janna picked the Arona Cowl for her current project.

The design is a mosaic stitch or slipped stitch method of knitting just one color yarn per row to create a geometric pattern on the fabric. 

Her contrasting color yarn is a white, a brilliant contrast to the turquoise.

Jan A. found three great colors to make a Helix Hat. The hardest part of making one of these hats is not becoming obsessed with them. Dorah said she might need an intervention because she can't stop making them. LOL!

Maureen fished some colorful sock yarn out of her stash which she bought years ago when she and I visited WEBS in Northampton, Massachusetts. Sometimes we all need to take a deep dive into the abyss of yarn to see what inspires us.

My Hepsi's Neck Warmer is almost finished. I have about an inch of ribbing to knit and then I'll make an Icelandic bind off to compliment the garter stitch border which I'm about to start.

Then I can choose a new project to start. Let's see...what should I make? 

In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

 

If the weather continues like today we'll be outside soon

Well, not exactly like this! These are the children from the South End Children's Cafe in Albany enjoying their winter garb which we made in collaboration with the Delaware Avenue Stitch Angels in Albany and donated last October.

They were waiting for a good day to take a picture of them wearing some of the hats and scarves that were donated. 

 It's nice to know they could brave the elements safely while they had fun.

The Chicks had many FO's today to add to the inventory. This colorful yarn has been calling my name for weeks now and I just couldn't ignore it any longer. There is still more of it in the stash so the next few weeks might feature even more FO's with it.

Dorah completed another lovely "Close to You" Shawl with a variegated yarn we think would look great with jeans. This is a free pattern on Ravelry.

And she also finished and blocked the Easy Scarf which turned out beautifully!

A Jan Abrams hat in a yummy cinnamon color went into the inventory as did...

This pretty pastel hat with a garter stitch ridge feature.

Dorah is on a tear with Helix Hats. She's enjoying making color combos from her stash leftovers. She actually said she thinks she needs an intervention to get away from the Helix. I think they're great and she does a beautiful job making them.

Margaret likes making the Helix Hats too! This one reminds me of a peach ice cream sundae or a creamsicle pop!

She also completed a mobius cowl that is created with only knit stitches in the body of the piece. It looks like stockinette and reverse stockinette stitch without purling...a great trick of the mobius.

Barbara B. completed a sage green hat and is now making...

a pair of mittens to match using an afterthought thumb. That's why you see black yarn in the stitches. She will knit to the spot for thumb hole placement and hold it with the black waste yarn. Then when the mitten is completed, she will pick up the live stitches and knit the thumb.

                                          

Here is Dorah's next Helix Hat. She does a great job with them.

Jan A. is working on the Stitch Sampler Cowl with a pretty variegated yarn. Part way through her knitting she noticed her yarnovers did not align so she frogged back to fix it. She is now back on track and well on her way to finishing.

Margaret has more of the yarn which was dyed by my daughter using Kool Aid and it will become another hat.

Janna has chosen the colors she wants to use for her Arona cowl. This is a purchased pattern on Ravelry which uses the mosaic knitting method or slipped stitches to create the design so there are no floats of yarn on the reverse side that you would see in Fair Isle knitting. And you use only one color yarn per row, unlike Fair Isle knitting.

Here is that self striping yarn again. I decided after knitting an inch of ribbing that it doesn't have the snap that is needed for a hat so Plan B is to make this into a Hepsi's cowl.

It was another delightful afternoon with my Chicks and I look forward to every Tuesday with them.

Until next week, keep those needles clicking!

A pleasant afternoon

Janna. Barbara B., Carole, and Jan A. joined me today for a productive afternoon of knitting. And as you can see by the smiles, we had a good time doing it.

Let's start today's blog post with some FO's. Way back in 2020 I heard about a garage sale of yarn at someone's house in East Greenbush. I was lucky enough to snag some really nice skeins, including this one called "Papaya" for obvious reasons. It is a superwash merino dyed to look like a cut open view of a papaya and it sure does! I used a basic triangular shawl formula with an edge stitch increase on each end and an increase on either side of the center stitch and then threw in some yarnover lace patterns along the way. The bind off made a picot edge. I really like the way it came out and it will be part of the collection that is donated to the homeless women veterans.

Jan A. arrived armed with a nice collection of her FO's. From the upper left the hats are Jaye Hat, Undaunted Hat, Rolled Brim Hat, and below is the Qboro Cowl. All of these patterns are offered for free on Ravelry.

Janna's Ringelpiez Mobius Cowl is coming along nicely. There are 300 stitches per round to knit so it's going to take a bit of time to knit.

Jan A. started the Amsterdam Lace Scarf but was having a bit of a problem with stitch count being off. Once she got on track with that, she was able to get going. Sometimes a pattern and yarn just needs a good talking to!

Barbara B. is making the Pixie Hat for Everyone in a child size. When knitting is finished there is one seam to be sewn down the back.

I saw a pretty lace stitch in a foreign YouTube video which was knitted flat but I pictured it as a cowl and so adapted it for knitting in the round. I started with a seed stitch border and will finish it off the same way.

Carole is working on a two color Brioche cowl called Valin with yarn from Valley Yarns, a WEBS exclusive yarn. From this side you see predominantly blue but...

turn it inside out and you get predominantly taupe. It looks great both ways.

It is also a freebie on Ravelry.

Carole's Easy scarf is a bit longer this week too. I'm glad I'm not the only non-monogamous knitter!

Janna worked on her Helix hat and by 3 o'clock...

she had completed it! She's going to bring it home to decide if it needs a pompom.

 I'm feeling a case of startitis coming on so I need to finish at least two projects before I give myself permission to start another. If I were you, I wouldn't bet on it though. 😉

Have a good week and keep those needles clicking!