Small but mighty group!

Everyone looks so serious as we discussed the aftermath of storms in the south and another Hurricane Milton bearing down soon. A local nursery business, Seven Zocks, is pairing up with a nearby restaurant, Romo's Pizza, to collect items to fill a rented truck 

and drive it down to the survivors of Hurricane Helene. 

We each will be shopping for necessities to donate along with our prayers for those affected.

Nancy completed a lovely scarf with matching beanie called A Cabling We Will Go.

                                          

She also completed this the Grace Gardens Cap which is a purchased pattern on Ravelry.

Dorah finished a hat using a brightly colored variegated yarn that makes the cap look like a Helix Hat.

Her current project is a Helix Hat which before she went home...

she completed the knitting and wove in all the ends.

She immediately cast on for another cap using two complimentary skeins of yarn to bust through her stash more quickly. She learned a trick for making sure the stitches don't get twisted when knitting that first round of a circular project. Just knit the first row flat and join on the second round, using the tail end of the yarn to sew up the little space that's created when switching from flat knitting to in-the-round.

My needles are working with the Willow Oak Toque, another purchased pattern on Ravelry. I was fortunate to have found this pattern on opening day when it was offered for free for a limited time. The pattern offers three different options for knitting the cuff, extra long and folded, single brim, or provisional cast on with stitches knitted together with the live stitches to mimic the Italian tubular cast on. I chose the tubular which was fiddly but it makes a nice warm fabric for over the ears.

Barbara K completed one Upward Bound Beanie and has started a second one. 

The fuschia yarn is a stunning color! The stitch definition on Barbara's knitting is perfect for highlighting the design of the hat.

Jan started the Reverb Shawl after admiring the one Nancy made for herself. This is a good social knitting and TV knitting project which allows the knitter to participate in conversation without making mistakes.

This is Nancy's River Rush Slouch, another freebie on Ravelry. The denim color makes this a good gender neutral hat.

Maureen is making slow but steady progress on her Sunnyside Cardigan, a gift for a friend. The free pattern offers two options for the details on the buttonbands and along the raglan shoulder line.

Well, I need to put dinner in the oven soon and the prep takes time so

 I'll wish you a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Happy New Year

Barbara B, Margaret, Nancy, Barbara K, and Dorah joined me for a quiet afternoon of rest and recovery from the holidays. Some of us had a holiday filled with family and happy chaos and some of us celebrated in a more tranquil manner. We all agreed that elastic waistband pants are our friends!

There were some wonderful additions to our inventory for Knit the Rainbow. Barbara K has become a quick convert to using up stash yarns to make Helix Hats. Even if you think two or three colors might not be friends, they will go together beautifully in a Helix Hat.

Here is Dorah's Helix Hat too. The pattern works with solid colors or gradients and even speckled yarn.

But Dorah's absolute current favorite pattern is the LOSY Hat. This hat is made up entirely of leftover sock yarn, hence the name.

This is Dorah's hat that she was looking forward to keeping for herself. She bought a kit at the Fiber Festival of New England which included the amount of yarn and directions for one hat. The only problem is that it turned out too small for her head so she is adding it to our inventory. She did a great job on the stranded colorwork too!

Margaret used up small amounts of two different yarns to make this soft cozy hat that will surely become someone's favorite.

This hat I made is called A Cabling We Will Go and it worked up very quickly from clearly written directions. It takes approximately 170 yards of yarn so one skein of worsted weight yarn is all you need.

Barbara B is following a chart to knit the dove gray blanket called...

ABC Baby Blanket. She is using a long circular needle to accommodate all the stitches required for the width of the blanket.

I'm working on the Equinox Hat from Berry Meadow  which was a kit that included the pattern, yarn enough for one hat, and directions for two hats, a lacy version and a more simple striped version. The hat is started at the top of the inner lining with a pinhole cast on, knitted all the way to the other end, and then decreased to the crown at the top of the outer hat. When completed, the striped portion will be stuffed inside the lace portion to create a double thick, reversible hat.

Dorah's current project is the Splendid Squares Hat.

She is using a luscious purple worsted weight yarn that is creating a thick, warm fabric.

Barbara K has another combination of colors for yet another Helix Hat. 

At this rate she is going to run out of yarn! LOL!

Nancy is working on a very textured stitch for her hat using a colorful alpaca blend yarn.

And last but not least Margaret is almost done with the cuff portion of her 1898 Hat, a favorite hat for all of us to make. The ear band/cuff is knitted flat combining contours for the earflaps. This piece is then folded in half to make it double thick, grafted together at the ends to make a continuous band and then stitches are picked up from the edge to knit the crown in the round. It is a cleverly designed hat and I'm told it's very warm. It was designed for the Seamen's Church Institute: Christmas at Sea and their website has free patterns for other clothing items as well.

As I look out my window I can still see bright green grass and sunshine but that could change by the end of the week. It's a good thing I have lots of yarn and great patterns to keep my needles clicking! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and hope there are good things ahead for us all!