Brighten your cloudy day with knitting

Barbara B., Maureen, and Carole joined me this cloudy afternoon. Happily, the weather doesn't have any influence on our knitting activities!

Barbara is using a Debra Norville 100% acrylic yarn to make this bright hat. The fiber is surprisingly soft and easy on her hands. Some of us don't enjoy knitting with acrylic as it doesn't have the elasticity of a natural fiber and it takes its toll on our hands. But this one is a really nice quality and it's machine washable which is a big plus in my book!

The pattern for the Red Diamonds Hat is offered for free on Ravelry. Just follow the link.

Maureen is making the Step Zeppelin Cowl which uses slipped stitches to make a lovely mosaic pattern. If you were lucky and found the pattern during the first 24 hours that it was posted, you could have it for free but now they are charging for the electronic PDF.

Carole continues to add length to her Easy Scarf by Martina Behm. It seems to be a slow going pattern but then suddenly you find yourself at the last few rows and it's done. I think it feels like it's taking forever because the first part of the scarf is when all the increasing of stitches is knitted and then you turn a corner and the stitches decrease. Before you know it, you're sliding into home base and it's done!

She showed us her next project which is the Morton Cowl which she is making for herself. Those colors are beautiful! The variegated yarn is from Manos del Uraguay and the gray is Berroco Vintage.

I thought this plain beige yarn needed some perking up so I chose a favorite hat pattern of mine called Czapka. On one of my marathon "falling down the rabbit hole" internet searches for patterns on YouTube I came across this video which was narrated by a Polish woman, I think. I turned the sound off and watched her knit while simultaneously writing the pattern so I could duplicate it. Today I looked up the video to show the Chicks and noticed that in the meantime, someone had written the pattern in English in the video notes. Too bad they didn't do it sooner. I could have saved myself some time to knit. LOL!

Carole completed her lovely Brioche Cowl. This side is predominantly a pretty light teal color and..

Inside is the dove gray side with teal border. The great thing about Brioche stitch is it gives you two garments in one!

My kitty, Fozzie, is patting my foot as I sit here which can mean only one thing... he wants to eat...AGAIN! We've been good pet parents and have limited his feeding times to try to trim his waistline since he was quite overweight when we rescued him two years ago. I can see a change in his girth but we'll find out just how much he's trimmed down when we take him for is annual exam this week. I hope the vet doesn't give me a lecture! LOL! 

 I hope you all have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Knitting interrupted

Two weeks ago these hats were just an inch or two long. Now they are close to arriving at the point where the crown decreasing will start. Elaine and Barbara are making nice progress.

 We started talking about annoying phone calls and all the scams that are so prevalent now and how we handle them. While having this conversation my cell phone rang and it was a call from a maintenance company reminding me of an appointment tomorrow. Not ten minutes later Elaine's phone rang but she didn't recognize the number so she decided to let it ring. We googled the number and it came back with a name she never heard of. When it rang again Barbara answered it for Elaine and the rude person hesitated identifying herself. It turned out to be the same person who had just called me with a reminder calling Elaine to remind her of her appointment tomorrow too! We all had a good laugh but you just can't be too careful anymore! 

Debbie noticed that the hat she worked on last week looked a little wonky (that's a technical knitting term, LOL!) and it turned out she worked a twist of the cable in the same direction twice instead of alternating the twist. So this week doesn't show as much progress since she had to rip it back a bit. But it's perfect now.

 The ladies worked diligently tonight.

 Carole's hat has stripes of green and tan which gradually shrink and grow respectively as the hat gets longer.

 And Margaret's hands are buzzing along with her hat.

 Beth is making boot socks with a light worsted weight yarn. 

They go a lot quicker with the heavier yarn.

 She finished a pair of short socks which are great for warmer weather. That's Periwinkle Sheep yarn.

 Her mittens are finished too and ready to go into inventory.

 Margaret felted the clutch purse and...

 a shoulder bag. This one has Lopi yarn which is a great yarn for felting. 

 I finished the Copenhagen Calling Cowl that I started last week. 

I used a Knit Picks tweed yarn from the stash.

 It's long enough to wrap twice around the neck and makes a lovely, cozy wrap.

 A Cascade 220 yarn hat in a vivid green just fell off my needles! Since I translated the pattern by watching a video, I offered it to the designer so she could post the English version on Ravelry but I haven't seen it available yet.

If you'd like to make it too look on Ravelry for "Czapka" by Jolanta Mazurek and then wait until she posts the English version. For now, keep those needles clicking on another project!

Too chilly to knit outside

Spring is finally here and we Chicks were planning on knitting outside today but it was still just a little too chilly and shady. But it felt so good to see sunshine.

Elaine started the day with the hat she started last week. She commented that she hadn't gotten very far with her knitting but I reminded her slow and steady wins the race, except we're not racing, we're knitting! So take your time and enjoy the process.

Debbie mentioned she wanted to try making cables, something she had never knitted before. That's pretty darn good cabling for someone who never knitted cables! This summer I'm going to teach the Chicks how to knit using Magic Loop so we can put our DP's into cold storage. Then Debbie can zip through her hat knitting. Like me, she's not crazy about double pointed needles. 

 Debbie's other project is a cute little baby sweater, also very well done for someone who keeps telling me she's not a very good knitter. Can't prove it by this!

 Last Wednesday I saw a pattern called Copenhagen Calling that a knit night friend had made. I was so inspired I decided to buy the pattern and make one for donation. Luckily, I had some DK weight yarn which is exactly what it called for. So startitis struck, BIG TIME, and I had to cast on and start it immediately! I think I might have to make one for me in my colors. 

 Carole finished her Rambled hat. The top is so clever, turning into a square.

 And it's kind of slouchy from the side.

Dorah's hat is almost to the decreasing portion. Another couple of weeks and it should be done. 

 And Margaret's purple and green project is coming along nicely. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask what it was!

 Carole is using up leftovers from other projects and will be striping this hat.

 And Beth is almost finished with her second mitten. Then it will be on to the thumbs!

 I admired the pattern for this hat but since it was written in Polish I couldn't figure out how to make it. That is, until I noticed that the designer had recorded a Youtube video tutorial from which I could learn the pattern by watching her knit it. For those of you out there who might possibly read Polish, the pattern is called Czapka and it's a free pattern on Ravely.

I liked it so much that I immediately cast on for another in a bright, sour apple green. It should be done by next week so I can show you. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

Labeling Day!

Today was the day we all say, "Wow! I forgot I made that!" or "Who made that one? Oh! I did!"

We take a trip down Memory Lane as we sort through all the FO's and label them for delivery to the Romero Oncology Office.

Barbara put the finishing touches on her Present Cowl so it could go into the inventory for this round of delivery. She finished just in time to label and count it. She used a yarn from Spud and Chloe.

Elaine admired the hat Debbie made. You know, the one I showed you last week which was just at the beginning? It's a nice soft cotton blend yarn.

Cinzia started the cute baby sweater last week and is already at the bottom edge. She was consulting with us all about how many more stripes she should knit. My rule of thumb is, if you're thinking about how many more to knit, it's probably enough. 

I finished another pair of  Align Mitts using a vibrant sock yarn from a mystery yarn with no label.

So this afternoon everything was labeled and sorted. There were 32 hats.

18 scarves,

19 cowls,

and 4 pairs of fingerless mitts.

With 3 last minute additions our grand total was 82 items. I used to count pairs of mittens or socks as one item but I've decided you still have to knit TWO items so I count them individually now.

My evening Chicks were a little disappointed that they didn't get to participate in the labeling so next time I'll save that duty for them.

Carole showed us a hat she is making for herself called Rectangly. She feels the cold and this hat is double knitted so it's a good pattern for warmth. The inside and outside are mirror images of the pattern with two layers being knitted at the same time. It's going to take a while for me to wrap my brain around that one but someday I might try one.

Her Chicks project is a hat called Rambled. The pattern contains multiple sizes and it's free!

Margaret worked on a headband and was deep into it when she realized we were talking so much she forgot to increase to make a taper in the width. We all think it's fine the way it is. We'll find out next week if she agreed.

We must have been chatting on a bit because Dorah too "redesigned" a 3X2 ribbed hat before she realized it. So now it's a 2X2 ribbed hat! Hey! I always say, it's not a mistake, it's a design element!

A hat pattern called Czapka showed up on my Youtube feed which looked interesting. Unfortunately, the whole video and written pattern were in Polish! I must have watched the video a dozen times so I could count the stitches as the instructor cast on and knitted and purled her way to this lovely pattern. I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca which is an alpaca and Peruvian wool blend yarn. It's a bit scratchy for alpaca but it's on a head full of hair so I don't think it will matter much.

Last week when Joules was visiting I surreptitiously caught a picture of her joining us for the afternoon. I looked all through my camera and phone knowing I had taken it but couldn't for the life of me find it. The next morning I was texting my son and there it was. I had taken it to show him in a text and forgotten where it was. 

Well, that's all. I just wanted to show you how sweet the kitty is. She's a real "people person" and loves to hang out with the crowd. Enjoy your week and keep those needles clicking!