A new little chick

Yesterday Liz came to knitting armed with a boatload of FO's! She knitted three different sizes of this darling sweater from a free Ravelry pattern. The blog page offers different versions and sizes based on the same basic recipe. There are also links to other patterns, including a matching hat.

 Her finished hoodie looks so cute too. I love the picot bind off edging. It's a very easy technique that involves YO's and sewing the hem back. You have to make sure you have an even number of stitches then proceed to knit a row of K2tog, YO, (you decide how many stitches you want to knit between the eyelets) ending with K2tog. Then knit a few more rows of stockinette and bind off. Fold the fabric back along the YO row and sew the selvedge to the sweater. Alternately, you could pick up and knit a stitch from the row with a stitch on the needle, sort of like a 3 needle bind off. That's if your sweater is a top down construction. If you knit it from the hem up, make a provisional cast on, knit to the depth of the hem and do a row of K2tog, Yo, (again, you decide how many stitches in between eyelets) ending with K2tog, then fold back, wrong sides together, and knit the stitch on the needle together with a live stitch from your provisional cast on. Make sure you start by picking up the first stitch of the provisional cast on or your hem will be all wonky. Or you could just look it up on YouTube! That's how I brush up on all my knitting techniques.

 Two sweet preemie hats.

 Kathleen also added another pair of  mittens from her favorite knitting pattern.

 Now Kathleen is getting a jump on the next donation project by working on a scarf for the Homeless Female Veterans Home in Saratoga County.

 Carole is wrapping up the last sleeve of her Sunnyside Cardigan. The self-striping sock yarn makes a cheerful garment.

 Maureen finished her Cabin Fever Cardi and has started a hat to go with it.

 Cinzia finished her blanket and just has to block it. I thought I took a group photo of last night's gathering to show you her daughter, Sofia, who will be joining us for the summer. She is a high school student and quite a good knitter already and she just started serious knitting last year! I apologize for somehow losing that photo but.... 

 Here is a picture of the booties she already started last night. She's doing a great job for a new knitter! I'm so happy to see another generation taking on the skills of knitting!!!

Welcome to our flock Sofia!

 Speaking of booties, here are the ruby slippers I made for some friends who are expecting their first child soon.

 I loved this little pattern so much that...

 I just had to make more of these sweet little shoes! The first pair took about six hours to make. These periwinkle blue ones took five. Maybe if I make another pair I can cut it down to four!

 Finally, let me wish my DH a happy anniversary! 

37 years!

There's a new Chick in town!

Today was a special day. We welcomed Deeva Rosenzweig into the flock. Her daughter, Dorah, was the knitter featured with the Flirtatious shawl last week and the week before. We are very happy to have another knitter to help with our inventory building.

Barbara finished the red and grey cardigan but it needs buttons so maybe we'll see it next week. She will be working on a pretty cabled hat for the next project but first check out the pattern for supplies.

Kathleen is about three quarters through the white baby blanket and will probably have it finished by next week.

Beth dropped off a cute pair of booties last week to add to the inventory for the USCRI, the organization which helps refugees and imigrants settle into their new home.

Also going into inventory are three sweaters I finished a little while ago but they finally got their buttons. This first sweater used two skeins, about 400 yards of sock yarn and there was plenty left for the hat.

The red buttons matched the yarn perfectly.

This sweater was made with an alpaca and bamboo blend yarn that practically floats on its own. It's so soft!

Don't you just love these buttons? Robena has the best buttons!

This little jacket was made in modular sections which are sewn together. It is also made using sock yarn.

Robena's buttons again.

And this last project will never see the light of day. I decided to make myself a top down summer sweater using a bamboo and acrylic blend yarn. I love top down sweaters because you can try them on as you go along and know that the finished product is going to fit. And this was perfect....the first time. The second time I thought it seemed as though I might have lost weight. Am I seeing things? Every other piece of clothing I own fit the same. Well, much to my dismay, the sweater was stretching like Silly Putty every time I put it on! Needless to say, it got frogged and the yarn is in exile until I'm darn good and ready to forgive it. It might become a scarf or something.

That will teach me to buy cheap yarn!

WIP's and FO's

For those of you who don't speak "knit-ese", WIP stands for "work-in-progress" and FO is "finished object" and we have some of both this week.

But first Barbara and Elaine had to catch up on their knitting news because it's been a few weeks since we last saw Elaine. She was checking out our new knitting pattern book and Barb was looking through the latest KnitPicks catalog. See anything interesting, ladies?

Elaine is working on a baby sweater but had a hard time today mixing conversation and knitting. Those eyelet patterns are a bugger if your concentration goes awry. Kathleen finished two pairs of mittens and.... a cardigan sweater. The buttons, which she found in her button box, fit just perfectly. I finished a weskit style sweater vest using some Icelandic yarn that was donated and half knitted. I frogged the sweater but since the yarn didn't have any labels I didn't know how much yardage there was. As a result, I had to do a quick redesign in the last six rows of the front neckline where you see it dip because I knitted down to the very last inch of yarn. The side seams had to be sewn with grey yarn but you can't even tell. Another Baby Sophisticate sweater just fell off my needles as did a hat to match. Aren't these buttons just perfect? And lastly, it took me a day to make this pair of newborn booties with leftover sock yarn. I think I used about 150 to 200 yards of yarn. At least that's what the pattern calls for. If you would like to make a pair the pattern is free http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babyslippers.htm

Our evening group did not meet this week, so we'll have to catch up with them next time. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

Finished Objects

I was very busy this week finishing up some gifts and donation projects.

My favorite booties are a free pattern which you can find here: //http://www.fuzzygalore.biz/patterns/cbbooties.shtml

They require only a bit of sock yarn which I find leftover after knitting a pair of adult socks from approximately 420 yards of fingering weight yarn. The pattern calls for ribbon ties but a three stitch I-cord works just as well.

I recently found out that a friend of mine suffered the same experience as my family. Her daughter gave birth to a stillborn girl, so I wanted to make prayer shawls for her and her daughter. I used Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors Sock Yarn ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/franknit) from my friend Karin, who hand dyes all her yarns and she dyed this one in memory of my granddaughter, Eliana. I thought it would be the perfect color to use for these prayer shawls in memory of another precious angel.

Here is Ishbel being blocked on my family room floor. No one is allowed to walk through that corner of the room when there is blocking happening. The color is true to this photo but the next few are a little washed out.

The details of the lace portion are so pretty and not too difficult to knit. All the work is done on the right side, leaving the wrong side for you to sail through nothing but purls.

The finished shawl measures about 20" X 40", just enough for a little shoulder cover.

The second shawl in "Eliana" is a pattern called "The Lazy Day Lace Shawl", another free pattern which can be found here: http://www.marykeenanknits.com/LazyDayLaceShawl2a.pdf

This is a good "TV" project as the pattern is easy enough to memorize and watch TV. And you don't even need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. LOL!

A simple geometric pattern is set off by this teeny tiny cable up the center.

This hat was a free pattern offered on Ravelry, the site for fiber artists of all kinds. If you are a member, you can find the pattern here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2x2-ribbed-for-his-pleasure

I used a sock yarn, actually the same yarn that I used for the booties up above. It took me about a week to knit up. I have lots of ideas swimming around in my head for all the yarns waiting to become something warm and cozy so I must get back to my needles. Enjoy the Superbowl tonight.
I'll be knitting.