An almost full house

Even though three of my Chicks were absent, we still had a pretty full coop today! We were all happy to be inside protected from the blustery cold outdoors.

The treat du jour was Barbara B's sourdough raspberry shortbread bars, so good! I wonder if she ever makes a dud. Maybe she just doesn't tell us about those. LOL!

 

Barbara also knits in her spare time 😂. The top of this hat is striped as in a Helix Hat so she is working out how to best arrange the three yarns to make it easy on herself.

The Cold Brew Hat pattern is for sale on Ravelry. 

It has lots of design features to keep the knitting interesting.

I started the Ottlie Scarf and everything was going smoothly, as long as I was knitting alone in my room. This afternoon was a different story. I always stop knitting a repeating pattern at the last row of the repeat so there is no question about where I left off. But this time, it didn't look right. This was the picture I took last night before everything went south. Now I have to frog it back to the beginning and start all over since I haven't been able to figure out what row was my last. UGH!

Luckily, I had a brioche ear warmer started. This is Royal Icing Headband which is offered on Ravelry for sale or free with a code. If you read the description, it tells you how to get it for free. The Chicks have requested we do a KAL of this pattern so look for it in the coming weeks.

Nancy started the Dotty Cowl, a pattern she has enjoyed knitting in the past.

You can see the start of the checkerboard design emerging.

Dorah is finishing up a pair of socks for her daughter before winter is over. She had a recommendation for everyone that gave us all a chuckle. After recently flying out of state to visit one of her kids, she remarked how pleasant it was "flying while gray". She said she never had so many people be so helpful in getting her luggage into the overhead compartment. See! There are some advantages to being a senior citizen. Personally, I always ask if there's a senior discount. 😉

Margaret jumped on the Helix Hat bandwagon and picked a pretty combo of colors.

And Barbara K's Helix Hat is almost finished. What a pretty pastel combo!

Maureen continues to work on her Helix Hat and started a hat for which I forgot to get the pattern name. It looks like bulky weight or Aran weight yarn so it shouldn't take too long to knit.

Carole finished a pretty powder blue cabled hat using bulky weight yarn and 8 and 10.5 needles.

The Easy Cabled Hat is a freebie on Ravelry.

And she's pretty close to finishing up her colorufl 2X2 ribbed beanie.

A couple of weeks ago I was working on the Hoodola by Laura Nelkin. I thought I wouldn't have enough yellow yarn to make the casing for the opening and still have more for the I-cord so I found two sock weight yarns that had just enough yellow to hold the theme and made the casing with them held together. Then there was plenty of yarn for the I-cord!

The Helix Hat that was in progress last week is now in the inventory. I made this with superwash merino yarn so it can be machine washed and dried, gentle cycle.

And I slipped a little something in between donation projects for myself. It's the Easy Goes It Scarf, not to be confused with the Easy Does It. I bought the merino/bamboo fingering weight yarn at a Whole Knit n' Caboodle studio sale last summer in a one of a kind colorway. I love the way it turned out! Teri said she was experimenting with dying a cake ombre' and I love it!

Well, I guess I better get crackin' on that mistake in the Ottlilie scarf. It will have to be an isolation project that I knit all by myself without interruptions! So have a great week and check back next time. Maybe I'll get back on track by next Tuesday. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!!!

Twas the week before Christmas

All the Chicks were knitting! And...

eating! We had two treats today! Barbara B made sourdough molasses gingerbread cookies and Jan made chocolate bark. Yummy on both plates! Barbara was out sick last week and Jan was afraid we'd go hungry because she wasn't sure if Barbara would be here this week so she made the bark. My Chicks take such good care of each other.

Carole finished the Squarshy Hat for the inventory. It uses bulky weight yarn so it works up quickly.

Nancy made a Swirl Hat for her 6 month old granddaughter. 

The yarn colors are perfect for a little baby girl!

Maureen's Helix Hat has such great colors! And even though it's an easy pattern, there is just enough going on to keep you interested but still be easy social knitting.

Carole chose a Christmas-y green bulky weight yarn to make...

the Easy Cabled Hat. The pattern calls for a size 8 needle for the ribbed cuff and size 10 for the crown. This would be a good pattern to practice cabling without a needle.

Nancy's current project is another hat for her granddaughter who will be the best dressed baby in town.

The Luuk Hat pattern includes instructions for sizes from preemie to adult and it's free!

Jan started a new project with the prettiest bright red yarn.

The One Skein Lima Neckerchief is a pattern that was designed specifically for alpaca yarn. Jan did bring to my attention that there is a mistake in the pattern 

but you can find the correction on the project page.

 

Dorah had some Noro yarn in her stash so she's making a basic beanie, cast on a whole whack of stitches, knit some ribbing for an inch or so, then knit every round until it looks like you should start decreasing the crown, then decrease to the closure at the top of the hat. 

I may have simplified that a bit. ;) LOL!

Barbara B started a new project called...

Basic Men's Large Beanie. She's practicing the technique for jogless stripes for multiple rounds of color and single rounds of color. 

On my needles is a DK weight yarn. I started to make a 2X2 knitted cap and then decided to make tiny twists with the knit2 stitches so it looks like mini cables. 

Nancy wore a gorgeous shawl she knitted for herself called Floatini. It requires a smooth fingering weight yarn and a mohair to create the leaves. If you like knitting short rows as Nancy does, this is the pattern for you. She used the German Short Rows technique but YouTube has many videos to teach other methods for short rows as well.

 We won't be meeting through the weeks of the holidays so let me take this time to wish you all a blessed holiday season and a happy new year. And don't forget...keep those needles clicking!