Inside knitting today (cough,cough)

There are wildfires 4+ hours north of us in Quebec so when you step outside you can smell smoke and the sky is very hazy and yellow. I hope our neighbors to the north will be alright. As a safety precaution, I thought it would be a good idea to stay indoors today. It wouldn't be nice to donate items that smelled like a bonfire. Not to mention what the smokey air would do to us!

Carole finished her Close to You Shawl in what seems like record time. Her yarn is more of a rich emerald green but the camera turned it into a teal blue. Either way it's gorgeous.

Barbara B. completed the Ex's and O's Hat. How I wish you could see the rich red color in person. 

It is stunningly red!

I worked on the Lexis Hat over the weekend because it's too fiddly for social knitting. After I tried this pattern multiple times with a deeper teal yarn and decided the yarn didn't want to be a hat, I decided to try it in the light teal yarn and NOW the yarn is happy! And so am I! To neaten up the stitchwork I knitted all my knit stitches through the back loop. I wasn't happy with the loopy-droopy look of the stitches when knitted the traditional way.

Barbara B. is making a lovely shrug for herself called the Wrap Me Up Sweater Scarf and here you can see all her stitch markers to help her shape the sleeve. The yarn is a soft Suri alpaca and merino blend that is as soft as a cloud.

Barbara K. wanted to know how much longer she should knit her striped Mistake Stitch Scarf. A good rule of them is to make it as long as outstretched arms from fingertip to fingertip, unless you want it to wrap multiple times around the neck. Then you can knit as long as you desire.

Margaret made up this hat pattern as she went along and actually finished it as she was leaving so I didn't get the end product picture. But it's ready for the inventory.

Janna worked the last border stitches of the Arona Cowl and won a close game of yarn chicken!

That's the game where you hope to finish the project before you run out of yarn (and naturally can't get any more of it because it's discontinued or the company closed or some such dilemma). As you can see on the upper right corner of the picture, there isn't much white yarn left, just enough to weave in the end. That was a real WHEW! moment!

Cinzia is finishing up the back of the lacy T-shirt shell called Panopeia in that buttery soft yellow yarn that we received as a gift from a generous soul who was sifting through her stash. This was the perfect pattern for it too!

And Maureen worked with an equally buttery yellow yarn for her Bewind Hat.

Janna brought her personal project she's making for herself to show us her progress.

 It's the Yara Shawl that requires four colors of yarn and follows the mosaic technique for the pattern.

It's going to be stunning!

Carole cast on stitches to start the Changing Staircases Shawl using a yarn she found in her stash that's been hiding for a few years.

   By the time she was ready to go home she had already knitting a few inches. 

I'm working on the Sophie Scarf using a pretty celadon green yarn just like the one Barbara B. is using, the Suri alpaca and merino blend. The pattern is pretty adaptable to any weight yarn as long as you use the corresponding needle size for the weight yarn you choose. It has a built in I-cord edging from start to finish.

                                           

Well, if you live in the Northeast, stay inside if you can. The air is pretty thick and there is a yellowish haze. Stay safe and keep those needles clicking.

A breezy day

The breeze made it a bit chilly today so the sun felt extra cozy on our backs. But we won't complain! It's so nice to be outside again.

I visited my sister last weekend and she inherited the family trait of not letting anyone leave empty handed. She made some cowls and generously donated them to the Chicks' inventory for our donation to the homeless women veterans.

They will be added to Barbara K's Ex's and O's hat, the second one she's made...so far. 

She is thinking it would make a nice addition to her granddaughter's wardrobe, in colors suitable for a young lady still in grade school.

Jan A. completed her Swirl Hat. In the beginning she was a bit confused because the tail end of yarn from the cast on row was her signal that she had finished a round but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. That's because the beginning of round keeps changing with each row so you get the swirl effect.

Carole's Brioche cowl threw her a curve ball too. She put the knitting down and when she returned to it, she couldn't picture which direction to knit. The two yarns left in the middle of a round are at different spots along the needle which can present the problem of which one to pick up and knit. She solved the problem by never leaving off in the middle of a round.

Barbara B. is making a treat for herself. It's the Wrap Me Up Sweater Scarf in a most beautiful coral color. It uses DK weight yarn, a little over 900 yards.

Barbara K's next project is a basic beanie. I think she needed a rest from reading charts.

Jan A. added many more stitches to her Close to You Shawl. It uses fingering weight yarn but I'm sure you could adapt to any yarn with appropriate needle size change.

Maureen's colorful socks are coming along nicely too. Making them on magic loop, two at a time seems to make them go faster, or is it just my imagination?

I have about three more rounds to make on this cowl and then I'll be binding off and adding it to the inventory. It's the Knit Round Turtleneck Dickey found on YouTube.

I'm back inside now and my kitty, Fozzie, is begging for me to follow him to the couch so I can cuddle him. So I will obey the "King's" request and remind you to keep those needles clicking!