More Yarn!

We Chicks have another Yarn Angel! Many thanks go out to Shelly for her generosity to our group. As you can see by the expressions on the faces it's like Christmas in May!

Barbara found a soft yarn to cuddle and patterns began swimming in her head.

I think she found another one she likes in that bag.

Kathleen had an armful but I think she's waiting until she finishes her current project before she stakes her claim.

Watch out Barbara! Liz is looking at that one you liked. LOL!

I found a couple I liked too. This will make a nice cowl.

Ok! Now it's time to get back to business ladies.

Barbara finished the Feather and Fan blanket.

She used a cotton yarn which makes it a good spring and summer weight blanket. It also shows up the stitch definition nicely.

Liz and Kathleen were hard at work on their hats and while Barbara was still plugging away on her Mistake Stitch Scarf.

Cinzia's baby sweater looks so cute! Can't wait to see it finished.

Kathleen's Mistake Stitch Scarf is finished too.

This evening Beth enjoyed checking out the new stash too. Carole looked through it earlier and oohed and ahhed her way through every bag.

Beth finished a baby hat and made a cute little knitted button for the top.

Then she showed us this pattern she bought years ago to make herself a sweater. She even bought the recommended yarn. 

After many starts and stops she finally came to the realization that she doesn't like the sweater, it will never fit her, and the yarn is as smooth as sandpaper!

She had to make an executive decision and it will be frogged to become this.http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/irish-hiking-scarf

After a rough start with the Irish Hiking Scarf, she frogged the scarf too. There's just something about that yarn! The pattern said to cast on 40 some odd stitches and "odd" they were. The scarf was about 20 inches wide! I can see this yarn is going to give her a run for her money.

 

Carole's baby sweater has made it to the underarm and the sleeve stitches are on hold so she can knit the body.

I made good progress on the Palindrome Scarf using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice that I found in my stash from a long time ago. I'm surprised at how quickly it's knitting up.

                                         

Two weeks ago I attended an open house at my friend Karin's studio. I couldn't resist this beautiful chambray colored merino and silk blend yarn to make myself a scarf. The color, The Rising of the Moon, is going to go great with my jeans. This pattern is called Cathedral and I think I'm going to love it.

This is something else I made just for me. It's the Foolproof infinity scarf. I used MadelinTosh for the mustard color. Its a blend of cashmere and merino. The turquoise is another of Karin's beautifully hand dyed yarns and it's a blend of silk and merino. 

You'll have to use your imagination to feel the softness of these yarns together.

There were only three of us knitting last night. Carole used a Cascade worsted weight yarn to make a headband/earwarmer. We all had a chuckle when she made the observation that post it notes only work when you remember to move them to the next row of your pattern. LOL!

 Maureen used Lamb's Pride wool for a creamy white headband. The yarn was left from a previous project and she thought there would be enough to finish the headband. Unfortunately, she was only a few yards from the end of the ball of yarn and no where near the end of the headband. But I remembered having seen another small ball of the same yarn in our stash somewhere. I found it in the second bag of yarn! I'm so glad I didn't have to go through ALL the bags of yarn!!!

 I used a Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors yarn which I think has since been discontinued. It's called Saffron and the pattern is from Ravelry.com called "Ripples". This will be a shallow shawlette that can be worn as a scarf too.

I liked it so much I decided to make one for myself. This is Periwinkle Sheep Wink, a lovely fingering weight yarn with a small sparkle thread here and there. This color is called "Quinceanera". I decided to put beads on all the yarnover spaces between the ruffles.

It seems to be taking forever to knit this one but it will be worth the extra effort to bead the ruffles. Maybe it will be done for next week's post. I'll be keeping those needles clicking. How about you?

Mmmm! Warm Woolies!

Last night there were just four of us. Dorah zoomed through the start of a hat using Lamb's Pride yarn. Once she found her escaping ring markers there was no stopping the woman!

 Beth and Maureen made lots of progress on their scarf and cowl, respectively. My guess is that they are almost finished with both.

 I took a class on Saturday for this cowl call Foolproof. It states in the pattern there is no casting on stitches, no binding off stitches, just straight garter stitch knitting with increases and decreases. This designer is a genius! I can't wait to finish it!

  I tend to be a stress knitter. What I mean by that is if I need a gift for someone I wait until the last minute for the stress of gift buying to inspire me to knit something. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so much. This time it works though.

 My go-to pattern for fancy fingerless mitts is Cafe au Lait. I had some aqua Oh So Fine Sock Yarn left over from my Murphy Catkin and decided to use some of it for these mitts. I love the interlocking pattern. I might have to knit another pair for myself to go with Murphy.

 The past few weeks I've been showing you progress on my Mini Mochi Noro Striped Scarf and now it's finished. I love the progression of colors.

Well, enough dilly dally-ing for me. I have tons to knit with a few deadlines which HAVE to be met! Have a great week and I'll see you next time.

All Hands On Deck

Three of us have finished one fingerless mitt of the pair we are knitting for cancer survivors of New York Oncology and Hematology.

First up is Karin's. She is using a pattern from Knit Noro: Accessories: 30 Colorful Little Knits

 Carole found a pretty pink yarn after stash diving and turned it into this beautiful cabled mitt.

 I am using a self-striping sock yarn and size 1 needle for a 3 X 1 ribbing. I'm about halfway through the second mitt.

 Maureen is working on the baby sweater and hoping to finish it to get it into this week's donation to The Christ Child Society, Albany Chapter. 

 Here are the items we will be delivering this week.

 Maybe winter will arrive sometime soon so these kids will actually get to wear a sweater or two. We've had a crazy winter and not much snow. It was 42 degrees today!

 I finished my Daybreak Shawl using Karin's hand dyed Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors Sock Yarn.

 The dark teal is "Past Midnight"

 and the light color is "Cloud Dancer".

This pattern was an easy knit but by the time I was almost finished I made the mistake of counting the stitches on my needle. I finally got tired around 500! And there were still more to count. I'm glad I made this with fingering weight yarn but next time I think I'll try it with a heavier weight. 

Let's shake things up a bit!

The afternoon Chicks are usually featured first in the blog each week so this week I'm changing it up a bit.

Our evening session started with Beth showing us her finished "Flirtatious" shawl (the pattern can be purchased on Ravelry.com) that she knitted using "Wink" yarn from Karin's etsy shop. The color is a beautiful lilac or lavender, not sure what it's really called. Nice job, Beth.

Then we have a new member of the Chicks, Carole. She's a friend of mine from another group which meets at our local Panera to knit once a month. She is working on a pair of mittens. Welcome Carole! I'm so glad you could join us!

Maureen is showing progress on her Baby Sophisticate sweater.

And Karin is making a shawl called "198 Yards of Heaven" a free pattern on Ravelry.com.

Now for the afternoon ladies. Barbara made this colorful hat using Noro yarn. Her pattern came from this book.

She is currently making a pair of fingerless mitts to go with it. Liz is making another pair of socks after the success of her first pair.

Kathleen made a lovely stole for her granddaughter-in-law using a cozy, warm brown yarn.

The edging is crocheted on after the stole has been knitted.

It's a pretty simple pattern stitch which makes a lovely design.

Kathleen made another one to go into our inventory for the homeless female veterans.

I've been working on a bunch of projects all at once, trying to get Christmas gifts knitted in between donation projects. I can't really show you any yet because I don't want to spoil the surprise. But I will when the gifts are opened during the holidays.

Are you doing any holiday knitting?