A visit to the first festival of the season

Barbara B., Cinzia, and I went to the Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival on Sunday a week ago because, you know, we needed our fix.😉 I don't know about you but this to me marks the beginning of autumn, even if it is 80 degrees out!

And a visit to the festival always has to include a stop at the Ice Cream Man for the best ice cream! But beware, their servings are huge. We each ordered the kiddie size and had more than enough to satisfy our sweet teeth.

Jan and Dorah attended the festival on Saturday and Jan bought yarn to make the Leftie Scarf which requires a contrasting yarn to make the little leaves. Each leaf on Jan's scarf will be a different color on the pastel variegated background. I'm looking forward to seeing it completed.

Barbara B. bought a "two-fer", or maybe I should say "three-fer", buy the yarn and pattern for fingerless mitts and get a thermo-insulated cup. But if she's going to use the cup for wine, she can't knit too. Friends don't let friends knit drunk!

Her other purchase was this project bag which included a hat pattern and enough DK weight yarn to make it. The blue and gold yarns came with the kit. The pretty burgundy and pink yarn jumped into her basket at another booth because it just HAD to be that hat.

 

I was also tempted by the same kit.

The hat is a double thick reversible hat with a solid inside and lace outside. The pattern was available only with the kit at the festival.

This was the DK weight yarn that came with the kit.

It's a baby alpaca which you know is as soft as a cloud!

When I walked past the Periwinkle Sheep booth, these beauties jumped into my bag, begging to be the same hat!😆

I finished my Helix reversible version of the Musselburgh Hat. The ladies talked me into keeping this one for myself so I immediately cast on for another to donate to our next project.

The thing I love most about this hat is that it is four hats in one! Look at the variety of ways to wear it!

On the right you can see Barbara K. working on her helix hat while Carole worked on her reversible Helix using variegated sock yarns too. She is almost at the halfway mark when...

She will start the second half of the hat with this gorgeous teal blue! It's going to be stunning!

Barbara B. is using a solid pink and a variegated rose to make this sweet baby cardigan for a friend's baby girl.

The Basic Raglan Baby Cardigan Sweater has a link on Ravelry for a free download.

Jan wanted to learn how to make the Latvian Braid and found a hat pattern with the feature but she didn't like the garter stitch edge so....

she decided to make a ribbed cuff instead. As she said, there are no knitting police that say you have to knit exactly what the pattern says.

She made the first one with the garter edge so she had the experience to change it. Nice braid Jan!

Maureen went stash diving to make a lap blanket for her husband. She's going to get to use up lots of leftovers for this one.

Cinzia started the cuff for the Sonoma Vines Toque which was offered for free the day it was released. 

Carole added a lovely pleated scarf to the inventory but she said it's a vintage pattern that is not in the Ravelry collections. It is made of a combination of stockinette and reverse stockinette and carefully placed knits and purls to create the pleats.

Cinzia added a few scarves to the inventory too. This first one is the Waldkind, a paid pattern on Ravelry. She made a few modifications with yarn weight and adjusting the shape of the leaf a bit.

And she had the last few balls of a novelty eyelash yarn to make two more scarves. The colorful bits are shiny satin and add a bit of sparkle to the fluffy yarn.

 We have a couple of more days of crazy warm weather before it starts feeling more like autumn so I better get my new hat started so I have a bunch of hats to rotate all winter long. I hope you're enjoying the sunshine and warm temps. Maybe you can even be outside while you keep those needles clicking!

It's a deck day

Maureen and Carole survived their family vacations to Cape Cod and Bethany Beach. The families brought along the grandchildren so Maureen had a set of twins under one year old and three toddlers and Carole had three year old twins and her very pregnant daughter to juggle among the other adults who accompanied them. Carole said the undertow and waves at Bethany Beach were a challenge when the boys wanted to go swimming. Maureen had a pool at their Cape getaway, but it's still challenging when the parents of all these kids want to take a break too. Thankfully, everyone survived unscathed. But I'll bet Carole and Maureen would like another vacation to recover from the last one. LOL!

Barbara K. has come a long way on the hat she's making for her granddaughter. It's the Ex's and O's Hat on Ravelry and is a paid pattern. She needs bright lighting to knit that black yarn. You know the saying? If someone knits something for you with black yarn it means they REALLY love you!

Her project for donation is another Helix Hat. We told her they are addictive and she has fallen into the trap. It's a great stash busting project for left over scraps of yarn.

Maureen is making a Helix too. She just added the third color round.

And Margaret is making a Helix too! See! They are addictive! 

I'm starting the stockinette border on my In Threes Cowl which should be finished soon. I have 13 more rounds of stockinette to knit and then it has to be sewn into place.

Jan finished a lovely hat and cowl ensemble with a self patterning yarn.

And Barbara B. finished the Elis Cowl and blocked it to open up the Indian Cross Stitch lace. This is a freebie on Ravelry.

Carole took the design from the In Threes Cowl and turned it into a hat. Very nice!!!

And she completed her test knit of the same pattern which turned out beautifully. Now I need to find the fortitude to write it up so I can post it to Ravelry. Computers and I are not on speaking terms so it will be a challenge.

Carole also finished her Eyelet version of the Hitchhiker Shawl. She found the variation in the notes of another Ravelry knitter who decided to take the original Hitchhiker pattern and make it her own.

I finished the Waldkind and had some yarn left which I thought would be enough for a headband to match.

Not so much! It might fit a baby's head. Next time I'll use a larger quantity of yarn to be sure there is enough for a headband too. I used the Bouquet of Headbands as a guide but modified the pattern for I-cord edging.

I'm so hungry I could eat a horse so I'm going to finish and grab a snack.

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

My cheeks hurt from laughing so much

Our topics of conversation today turned hilarious but unfortunately cannot be repeated delicately enough to tell you about them. Let's just say some of the conveniences that benefit our children would have made our lives so much easier if only they had been invented 40 years ago! Barbara B. really got us rolling with laughter when she said she couldn't wait to read the blog today to see how I was going to word it. I promise not to throw anyone under the bus but my face still hurts from laughing! Ahhh! It's nice to have friends to share a hearty laugh!

This week's episode starts with some FO's. Margaret did not run out of yarn on the hat she was knitting last week. She was down to a very small ball of yarn and wondered if it would make it to the end. Even if it didn't, there's always Plan B where you bind off early and leave a hole for the pony tail to fit through.

Dorah went stash diving and found this lovely hand dyed yarn that is so soft! It didn't have a label so we don't have the fiber content but it's like a silky cloud!

Barbara K. is hooked! We told her she would enjoy Helix Hat knitting and she agreed with the first of her Helix knitting using Cascade 220 leftovers. A few pictures down you'll see the second one she has already started.

Dorah blocked her Changing Staircases Shawl and it's ready for the inventory. It's a lovely shawl and she said an easy pattern to knit while watching TV or having a conversation.

I finished the Carol's Clever Little Shawl for myself in time to get some wear out of it over my summer sundresses. It took me about 8 days to complete and I love the tencel/wool fiber content for the way it drapes gracefully over my shoulders.

Currently, I'm working on two projects simultaneously. This is the 1898 Hat which I dropped the needle size down to a 6 to make it a bit smaller. The stitches become denser as a result so it will be totally windproof!

 

The second project is called Waldkind which translates to Kid of the Forest. It was a paid pattern on Ravelry and starts out in a very unconventional way. The pattern instructions have you pull off a length of yarn to completely knit the leaf from a provisional cast on and then the stitches are picked up to continue knitting the I-cord and scarf or shawl if you prefer. It ends with another I-cord and leaf at the opposite point. I estimated how much yarn to start with and ran out about 3/4 of the way through the leaf. Luckily, the yarn is alpaca and I could spit splice the other ball of yarn to finish the leaf.

Barbara B. is working on the Elis cowl which is a free pattern on Ravelry. The lace stitch is called Indian Cross stitch and will need to be blocked to reveal the beauty of the pattern. The yarn is such a pretty color and very soft to the touch.

Maureen added some length to her Close To You Shawl but needed to work on...

the baby gift she's making for a friend. 

She has one sleeve done, one to go on the Olive You Baby Sweater.

Margaret started another Helix Hat as well. It's a great pattern for stash busting those small balls of leftover yarns that are too much to just toss away.

And as promised, here is Barbara K's next Helix in the works already. 

Dorah couldn't find the name of the pattern for this shawl she started but it is knitted straight along one edge and increased on the other until you reach half of the ball of yarn used up and then the side is decreased down to the other point. She is using a Poems yarn that has a gradient effect.

The name of the pattern Jan is knitting made me LOL! It's called Sleeping with the Zucchini! It is an asymmetrical triangle with a lace border so it's easy but will hold the interest of the knitter making it.

My husband came home from serving his duties as a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador for the Capital District and bought dinner from the ribbon cutting celebration. The restaurant serves authentic Lebanese food and I can't wait to dig in. I'll let you know how it is next week but just the aromas tell me I'm going to love it.

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!