Warm heads and necks

The 1898 Hat is a self-knitting hat. This is my third so far and it's a pleasure to make. The pattern calls for 180 yards of yarn so Cascade 220, which is 220 yards, or Plymouth Encore, which is 200 yards, are perfect for this project. The earflap section is knitted flat and then folded, the edge from which stitches are then picked up and knitted in the round to the decreasing portion of the crown. Seriously, if I didn't do anything but knit I could make it in a day and a half. Unfortunately, I do have to get up and move every once in a while if I want to stay healthy. Man! I hate when life gets in the way of my hobbies! 😉

 Elaine is working on a double cuffed hat too. The 1x1 ribbing will be folded up after she works the cable design. This hat uses worsted weight yarn too.

 Barbara is making a 2x2 ribbed hat with the Shields of Garnet yarn from Periwinkle Sheep. All three of us were lamenting the fact that we might run out of yarn before we reach the end of our hats so we brainstormed a solution. Make it a ponytail hat! You know, those hats with the hole in the top so you can pull your ponytail through?

 Margaret finished her lovely Fair Isle hat for which she designed the pattern herself. Her original written pattern was a freebie but after starting it three times and finding an error in the chart of the design, she decided to make up her own Fair Isle pattern. It turned out lovely!

 Carole added a few things to the inventory tonight. She loves the Birthday Cowl, a simple repeating pattern which is good for mindless knitting.

 A friend of hers made this pretty cowl and decided to donate to our cause. Thank you Carole's friend!!!

 Carole's Wolkig is growing and soon may be finished. We compared it to my completed cowl and she has a few more inches to go or until she's bored.

 Beth worked on her Fair Isle cowl which is knitted in the round. That yellow yarn at the edge is for the provisional cast on so she can graft the two ends together and you'll never know where it starts or ends.

 She also added to our inventory with a pair of cozy, thick, bed socks. They were her first attempt at toe up socks, proving to Beth that she prefers cuff down. That's ok, you never know until you try.

We're still waiting for spring to arrive here in the Capital District of NY. Someone said we even had snow flurries this morning. Even I am getting annoyed at Mother Nature and I LOVE winter! Come June we'll probably all be complaining of the heat and humidity. So I guess I better enjoy the cool air while I can. 

I think Rumplestiltskin is real!

Margaret started off the evening with her completed cowl, The Cool Side of Warm. It has a little slit at the neck opening so it can fit over your shoulder. The Cascade 220 yarn makes it a warm fabric just right to keep out the cold winter air.

 Then Margaret had to wind two new colors to start a stranded hat pattern.

 Her choice of cream and chartreuse will look very nice.

 This is what it will look like when it's finished.

 Barbara is almost finished with her Cushy Cowl. That tonal red yarn is beautiful!

 Carole added some length to her Birthday Cowl. It will be completed soon too.

 Dorah had an oops evening. The Wolkig cowl she was making had an accident and needed to be frogged so I got a picture of the darling stitch markers she is using to keep her place.

 And lastly is my Wolkig cowl which seems to be taking me forever to knit. I think there are yarn gremlins who sneak out at night to add to my ball of yarn so it never runs out.

Hey Gremlins! Go back to Rumplestiltskin where you belong!

A quiet evening of knitting by the fire

Margaret finished a hat this week. She said she saw this hat knitted up but didn't have a pattern so she figured it out on her own and made it. It's lovely and she did a terrific job!

Now she is trying her hand at the Birthday Cowl which Carole and I just finished. She is using a cheerful green yarn from Cascade 220 which will give nice stitch definition.

Margaret needed some more yarn for a chemo hat project for a friend so she wanted to hurry up and wind it. Oops! Never hurry when trying to wind a ball of yarn. But with teamwork, we managed to untangle the mess and finish winding it.

Remember the cowl I showed you last week? The one that reminded me of a loaf of challah bread? Well, this weekend I spent a total of 8 hours (not consecutively but my hand looked more like a claw than fingers when I finished) needle felting buttons for it. I stuck my finger once and learned pretty quickly how not to hold the yarn while felting! Boy! Those barbed needles hurt!!! I'm almost finished knitting the cowl so maybe by next week you'll be able to see the finished cowl.

Carole finished binding off the last row of stitches to her Birthday Cowl tonight. She is going to give it a steam blocking to even out the edges and then it goes into the inventory next week.

I must get back to my knitting. Have a good week and keep those needles clicking!

Hats, hats, hats!

Since our afternoon ladies have conflicts for the next few weeks, Barbara joined the evening group of knitters for the rest of the winter. She started a spiral hat tonight with a pretty teal yarn.

 Maureen added a few inches to her Yarmouth Fair Isle Hat brim. After tonight she'll be working long hours for tax season so we won't be seeing her until after April 15.

 Carole worked some more inches on her Birthday Cowl and is almost finished.

 Margaret's hat is showing progress. It has really nice stitch definition to show off the pattern too.

 Last week I showed you this Birthday Cowl I had started (just like Carole's) but after I saw how nice the stitches looked on Carole's cowl I realized that this yarn was just a little too lightweight for the project. So I frogged it to make something else and...

 found this lovely forest green Berroco Vintage to make the same pattern. The yarn is just a little heftier and made much better stitch definition for the cowl. Now I'm happy!

 I also finished the Reversible Rivulets scarf. I'm going to keep this one in my repertoire. I really like the way it turned out.

 Can you tell I had startitis? I just had to cast on for different projects! This cute headband earwarmer has a button in back so you don't have to mess your hair to wear it. It was a suggested video tutorial on Youtube and I knitted it in a day.

 Then I saw another suggested Youtube video which was in German so I had to pay close attention to the tutorial since I had no idea what the knitter was saying. I did finally figure out the numbers she was reciting as she counted. Anyway, this was the Rapunzel Schal and after some hunting through Ravelry...

 I found the written pattern in English! The ladders are knitted and then intertwined to become the braids.

I think it looks sort of like a loaf of challah bread. No? It's a fun project to knit and when it's long enough I will sew the cast on edge to the bind off edge to make a cowl. Maybe I'll have it finished in time to show you next week. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

Wrapping up our donations

The afternoon ladies and I worked on labeling our current items to donate to Community Maternity Services in Albany, New York. Actually, Cinzia knitted on a communal project started by our night time Chick Maureen. Her friend's daughter recently received a cancer diagnosis so we are all knitting some inches on a lovely, warm, cuddly prayer shawl to send to her so she knows we're all praying for her recovery.

Our inventory contained toys, sweaters, booties, vests, a bib, and some mittens....

blankets, hats, scarves, and cowls for a grand total of 80 items. We decided to include some gifts for the moms too to let them know we think about them too.

Our evening meeting started with Carole knitting her share on the shawl while Maureen thought about the Yarmouth Fair Isle Watch Cap which she started.

Her knitted ribbing for the beginning of her hat is so nice and uniform.

Margaret started a beanie hat with a provisional cast on which she will rip out later to reveal live stitches for knitting the edge. I like the colors together.

Carole started a Birthday Cowl not knowing that...

I did too! I like the way her stitches are nice and firm and uniform. My stitches are kind of wonky. I think it's because she used Cascade 220 which is a heavier worsted weight than what I'm using. I think I'll frog it and start over with a smaller needle.

I'm still working on my Reversible Rivulets scarf too. I have knitted more than half of the second ball of yarn so I can't be too far from finishing. Maybe by next week I'll be able to show you a finished scarf.

Cinzia's daughter, Sofia, finished her sweet Cabin Fever jacket and asked Cinzia to bring it to include in our inventory. She did such a beautiful job for the first sweater she ever made that I convinced Cinzia to keep it because it is so special. I still have the first sweater I ever made and it's not nearly as professional looking as this! I think she should keep it as a remembrance of our lessons together.

She can always knit another to donate later.

Baby, it's cold outside!

We Chicks have been working hard on warm items to donate to The Romero Oncology Office in Latham, NY. Up first, Barbara made a lovely gradient hat and scarf set. The denim colors will be perfect for casual wear with jeans! Her Mistake Stitch Scarf took up so much yarn she had to hold her breath right to the last bound off stitch! She was left with only a few inches of yarn. I love when it works out to the very end!

 She also finished a darling confetti colored cowl that is sure to lift someone's spirits. She couldn't find the ball band so we don't know what the fiber is but it sure is soft!

 Barbara's next hat is from the One Skein Wonders book.

 She started it today and is already a good way through the lace band. It's really a two in one pattern. You can knit the band only and make it an earwarmer or continue up the crown and make it a hat.

 Elaine finished her scrunchy hat and had enough yarn left to start...

 another hat. This too, is a very soft fiber.

 I started the Cushy Cowl two days ago and finished it up today.

 It used to be a free pattern on Ravelry but it was deleted by accident. So here it is if you'd like to make it.

104 yds Chunky yarn 

Size 10.5 circular needle, 16” long 

Cast on 68 sts (76). Place marker for beginning of round and join without twisting. 

Rnds 1-2: *K1,P1* repeat between * to end of round 

Rnds 3-4: *P1, K3* rpt between * to end of round 

Rnds 5-6: *K1,P1* rpt between * to end of round 

Rnds 7-8: *K2, P1, K1* rpt between * to end of round

Work pattern 5X (40 rounds)

Bind off loosely.

 Maureen picked up this yarn from my stash on Saturday and has already knitted so much. The pattern is really nice but do you think I could remember it? If you think back to last week, she was making the cheerful yellow scarf but when she thought about it, she knew she could never finish it before her busy season took over at work. So she looked up this hat and VOILA! She's almost done!

 Carole's hat has grown many inches since she started it last week. But she was getting bored going around, and around, and around so....

 She picked up her Hitchhiker scarf. It's going to be nice and long considering how much yarn is left in the skein.

 The Birthday Cowl I showed you last week is done and blocked. This is Paton's Classic Wool Tweed and I like how it turned out. It's gender neutral and the yarn blocks beautifully.

 I found this hat pattern during one of my surfing expeditions. It was a good mindless knitting project. The cuff is double thickness so it is nice and warm. The yarn is from Berroco called Comfort. It's a nylon/acrylic blend which is very soft next to the skin and machine washable too.

My weather app says it feels like 23 degrees outside tonight so I think I'll make a nice warm cup of tea and cuddle into a warm blanket. Have a great week!