It's a beautiful day for deck knitting

The heat and humidity have dissipated so we are back outside! Yay! 

We caught up on current events and book reviews. 

It was a perfect setting for Sourdough Snickerdoodle Muffins.

We added quite a few FOs to the inventory. Barbara B's granddaughter, the very talented 14 year old crocheter, made these hats for my Friday group, The Delaware Avenue Stitch Angels. I'm thinking of keeping a few to add to the Chicks' next project, Moms Start Here, in Troy, NY.

Carole completed her Oh Baby! Cardigan and made a sweet 2x2 ribbed hat to go with it.

Cinzia knitted a beautifully cabled cowl...

And Margaret brought a bag filled with goodies! She made two knotted earwarmer/headbands...

four Helix Hats...

A Welter Hat and a Fair Isle hat...

and finally, 1898 Hat, Look Out Winter Hat, and two more of her own design with a pair of matching fingerless gloves.

I completed the headband/earwarmer I designed. I like the way it turned out so much that I immediately cast on for another to donate to my other knitting group. If you would like to knit one, the pattern is written up on my Ravelry page.

For the Falcon Boutique, our current recipients, I started a Helix Hat with small amounts of left over yarns that didn't have enough quantities for anything else.

Jan worked on her Triangle with a Twist Shawl. 

This is a good basic shawl that looks more difficult than it really it to knit.

This hat pattern was available for free for a limited time so I grabbed it for the Chicks to share and...

Margaret was the first to start the Mt. Airy Trail Hat.

Carole just started the 1-2-3 Baby Beanie. It's a freebie on Ravelry so if you have any babies that need a hat, this would be a good one to knit.

Maureen has been busy with grandchildren so she might not have her Reversible Stripes Scarf finished in time for this round of donations. Not to worry, there are plenty of opportunities coming up in the future.

Tina is just starting the One Chevron Scrap Cowl.

As you can see in this picture, it can be made using left over scraps of yarn.

Barbara B is almost finished with her Top Down Raglan Child's Sweater. At least that's what I think this pattern is. She'll let me know if it isn't.

Dorah is working on a Helix Hat to match the fingerless gloves she was knitting these past few weeks. However, she started the hat before remembering that the blue and gray yarns were supposed to be...

used for the thumbs on the gloves! We tried to convince her to just bind off the thumbs now. 

We'll have to wait to see how she resolves this.

Nancy made progress on her Brick by Brick Cowl which uses the mosaic method of knitting. Those colors are glorious!

We are waiting to hear from the boutique to find out when we can deliver so next week we will probably label and sort everything. Until then, keep those needles clicking!

'

Another hot day

Ninety degrees in full sun is just too much when you're knitting with wool, so we opted for another day inside. Happy knitters make nice clothing!

Our treats from Barbara B's magic oven were sourdough chocolate chip cookie bars. She makes many of these recipes with the part of the sourdough starter that is removed when the batch has to be fed. They call it discard but it would be a shame to waste it when you can make so many yummy treats with it.

 I finished the headband I was knitting last time. It can be worn with the knot in front like a turban or...

with the knot in back. It's a simple seed stitch design with slipped stitch edges.

This week I'm knitting another headband using a stitch pattern I found on YouTube. When it's long enough, I'll stitch the short ends together.

Dorah ripped out the section of her mitten that was supposed to be knitted with blue yarn and started over...

only to speed on automatic pilot and almost do it again. She caught it just in time to add in the blue yarn.

Maureen's Reversible Stripes Scarf is coming along. She is doing a great job of keeping in pattern. I don't think I would trust myself to knit this in a social setting.

Jan is knitting the Swirl Hat and her yarn is complimenting the pattern perfectly. A soft tonal or solid helps to highlight the movement of the design. A heavily variegated yarn would camouflage those diagonal bands. 

Barbara K's basic triangular shawl has grown since last week. She wanted the yarn to take center stage so a simple triangle with 4 increases on every right side row fit the requirements.

Carole decided to frog back some sleeve stitches on her Oh Baby! Sweater to shape the sleeves differently. I think she said they were too narrow and she wanted to make them a little fuller.

Barbara B was having issues with her sleeves too. The Top Down Raglan didn't have any decreases and she wanted to have some shaping in the sleeves so we checked out a couple of other patterns and she decided to throw in a few decreases along the length of the sleeve to make it less boxy.

Last week Nancy wanted to know the difference between Fair Isle knitting and mosaic knitting. After hearing how much easier it is to knit mosaic and slipped stitch knitting, she searched for a pattern and she's hooked!

You can see where the slipped stitches ride above the stockinette round in her Brick by Brick Hat.

Margaret made a ton of progress on her Helix Hat since last week. Now you can see the stripes traveling up the hat.

That wraps up another session with the Chicks. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Raindrops and Blueberry Lemon Bars

The raindrops and muggy air kept us inside with the AC today. No one seemed to mind though.

Barbara B made sourdough blueberry lemon bars for us. Soooo gooood!!! She used whole fresh blueberries so the taste was fresh and bright.

 We had a few FOs today too. Nancy finished the Helix Hat that was knitted with a gradient yarn and solid white yarn. We both love the results. And the pompom for the finishing touch is perfect.

I finally remembered to get a picture of the shawl that Jan completed. This was one my daughter designed and started and then life got in her way and she never got back to it. She gave me a bag filled with WIPs and this was the one Jan chose to complete. I am so proud of her too! She was able to examine the pattern and read the stitches so she could continue the design and finish it. This will go into our inventory for a future donation.

Barbara B knitted a Raglan Cowl using Plymouth Encore Worsted. Such a pretty teal color! It starts at the top of the neckline and grows through the raglan increases.

Maureen worked on her Close to You Shawl and...

an 1898 Hat. She had a lightweight variegated yarn left from another project which blended perfectly with the solid blue yarn. What a great way to make this hat unique!

This is Jan's Leftie scarf by Martina Behm. It uses mini skeins of multi colors to create these cute little leaves at the long edge of the scarf. Jan is knitting it for a friend and wondered if it was long enough. We all agreed, if you have to ask, it probably is so, you can stop knitting. She appreciated that answer!

Tina wasn't here when we all started the Welter Hat so she got a private lesson on the short row portion. As I said before, the pattern can be a little tricky so it's important to use stitch markers to denote every finished short row and another of a distinct color to signify the right side of the work. Maureen had a great suggestion to make all the short row indicators on the right side one color and all those on the wrong side a contrasting color to make them easier to count.

Barbara B bought this adorable yarn at WEBS called Plymouth Dream Baby DK Paintpot and it's perfect for her Top Down Raglan Child's Sweater. It's a self patterning yarn and now I feel like I need to get some too. LOL!

Carole used her fancy neck lamp magnifier while she worked on her Welter Hat. 

And while I planned to knit on my Welter Hat, I found I was too easily distracted from the pattern by good conversation so I put it aside to work on it later.

I knitted the Bandana Cowl instead that started out as another shawl my daughter was going to knit but I couldn't bring myself to knit yards and yards of this pretty yarn for what seemed like an eternity. Plan B was put into effect and a cowl it is. I think a few more inches of stockinette and then I'll give it a garter edge border and bind off.

Nancy received a free pattern called The Bright Side when she purchased a skein of "Dark Side of the Moon" by Alexandra-The Art of Yarn. The yarn is dyed in sections so that the shawl is knitted in stockinette stitch until you reach a burst of color. The pattern is available for free on Ravelry.

 Then you knit that colored section in the opposite stitch that shows up to create this raised section that shows up randomly across the fabric knitted. It's a very clever method which Nancy says is good for social knitting but also has enough going on to keep boredom away. 

Nancy was inspired by one of the knitters in my other group who was knitting the same shawl with a black background and multi colored bars.

It's still raining but I won't complain. Next week the first heat wave of the summer is supposed to strike and I'm not looking forward to it. Between allergies and humidity, I'm already looking forward to winter. But I am grateful to have air conditioning so I can hunker down in my comfy chair and knit the day away. Until next week, keep those needles clicking!