Is it going to rain EVERY TUESDAY?!?!

Someone asked who watched the World Cup Finals and Dorah started a whole conversation just by saying it was boring! Then I chimed in that it couldn't be any more boring than football. So if my grandson's ears were burning today, I'll know why. 😄 And as what usually happens, the topic changed to food and somehow we were wondering who was the first person to look at an oyster, lobsters, and alligators and think, "Gee! That looks like something I could eat." It's a good thing Barbara B makes delicious sourdough treats for us!

 We had strawberry-chocolate chip-sourdough muffins today. Mine hit the spot just right.

There were a few FOs to add to the inventory. My 100 Colors Cowl on which I knitted last week is finished. I used a Wonderland Yarn for the solid gray and Lang Super Soxx for the variegated. It is a little subdued for my taste but not everyone has the same taste so I try to knit outside my comfort zone now and then.

Dorah's Workday Scarf is ready for the inventory and it is beautiful! 

The colors are like a summer sunset.

Maureen finished her Through the Forest Hat using a yarn that was gifted to her. It is a merino and polyamide blend so it's machine washable.

Barbara B finished the Trellis Hat which looks like a gender neutral pattern. I couldn't find the pattern on Ravelry so maybe Barbara B can leave a link in the comments section.

Her String of Lights socks are finished too. They look beautiful and her stitch definition is perfection!

Tina finished her hat from last week. The pattern was from a book. Did I get the name? NO!😖

But I got the name of the hat and a picture from the book. Gotta give me a little credit. When I asked for the name of the hat pattern, Maureen said it's the "Don't talk to me while I'm knitting" hat! Yeah, I have a bunch of patterns like that. 😉

I followed this video to knit this designer's variation on a Sophie Scarf. Susen Mehralieva has a collection of scarf patterns that follow the same basic shape of the Sophie Scarf but she adds her own little bit of spice with cables, lace, and various other patterns to change up a plain garter stitch scarf. Check her out on YouTube. I'm using Plymouth Royal Bamboo Yarn, a fabulous fiber which unfortunately has been discontinued. It has an amazing drape and weight and the luster is lovely.

Dorah took the leftover yarn from a previous project and added a solid navy blue to make her favorite Helix Hat.

And Barbara K is starting the 5" of ribbing for her hat.

Margaret closed the cuff of her 1898 Hat and is on to knitting the crown.

Maureen started a Shelby Nichols pattern called Celtic Feather. 

Her patterns are well written and easy to follow.

Tina started another hat, the pattern she found on YouTube. It begins with a moebius band which is bound off and stitches are then picked up to knit the crown. It is knitted with two strands of yarn and has twisted braids in the design of the crown.

Jan's hat is showing some of the cable work which will follow up the crown to the close at the top.

Barbara B is knitting another Shelby Nichols pattern called Hot Springs Willow Hat. It has a faux cable design up the crown.

Someone is bugging me for food so it's time for me to go.

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

You could poach an egg out there!

It's 93 degrees, feels like 97! and humid! UGH! I don't know which is worse, the heat or the fact that I can't breathe underwater. But thank goodness for air conditioning! I always say if I don't have goosebumps on my arms, it's not cool enough. I guess that's what happens when you were a polar bear in another lifetime. 😉

Barbara B made sourdough pretzel bites which we dipped in Dijon Mustard while we...

chatted about grandkids, kids, vacations, and food. 

Barbara's pretzels are a big hit among the Chicks! And as Barbara said, the recipe says it makes 6 large knotted pretzels so if she makes them into little nuggets, we really aren't eating all that much. 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!😉

Barbara K has made progress on the pink hat she is making to match the scarf from a few weeks back. The bulky weight yarn makes it a quick knit!

Margaret was funny! She "confessed" that she really didn't have time to knit at home so we made her recite 3 Hail Marys! LOL! Her Helix Hat is coming along.

Dorah's baby alpaca scarf is a little longer. Sometimes the Chicks don't want me to take a picture of their projects since they think it's taking too long to complete. But that's the whole point! We aren't little elves that wave our magic wands and have a 60 inch scarf knitted overnight! 

Wouldn't it be great if we could though?!?!

Barbara B's Mill City Shawl is a pretty combination of stitch patterns.

A close up shows the diagonal pattern.

Carole's Sophie Scarf is getting longer. 

 

And so is her One Row Handspun Scarf. She frogged the progress she had made because she didn't like the way the edges were looking. On the remake she decided to slip the first stitch purlwise with yarn in front and knit the last stitch. With this method, you have to add two extra stitches to your cast on for the edge stitches.

I had these two balls of yarn left over from my Grid Gambit Cowl and decided to design something with it. I'm calling it Corrugated Cowl and when I get the pattern written up and test knitted, I'll post it for free on Ravelry. 

And here's a quick lesson on how to pick colors for a colorwork project when you want a sharp contrast. Take a photograph of the yarns you want to use and edit it to look like a black and white photo. If the grays are too close in color to see a defined delineation between the patterns, then you know they won't work in this project. You need a sharp contrast as you see here. (forgive the underlining. My computer decided this is the way things will be from now on😡)

Fozzie is bugging me, nipping my elbows as I type and trying to bite the wires to my computer so I guess I'm finished for the day! Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

We're back to deck knitting

 Even though wintery cold, sunny days are my absolute favorite, I have to admit that springtime fills me with joy when I walk through my neighborhood and see colors popping everywhere.

And I have to take advantage of walking while it's still cool enough. The temps hit 80 degrees this afternoon so these lovely blossoms will drop soon to be replaced by other pretty flowers.

There were just five of us this afternoon to enjoy the random breezes that wafted through the deck, occasionally ringing the windchimes.

Margaret started a Helix Hat with some pretty teal colored yarn.

It didn't take her long to finish the cuff and add the purple stripes. Such a pretty color combo!

Maureen's Reversible Stripes Scarf was sent to the time out corner for a while but it's back in circulation and ready to be completed.

Jan's Simple Little Scarf is in the early stages. She made some modifications to the original pattern which had a 3 stitch I-cord edges but she didn't like the bulk it created. She went up in needle size and made the edge with knit 1 stitch at the beginning of the row and slip the last stitch purlwise with the yarn in front. This creates a neat chain look edge.

Tina is using the Navajo Ply technique on her Petal Showers Hat which sports a pretty little flower like motif in the design.

I'm working on a cable/braided headband which I found on YouTube and wrote the instructions for my personal library. It's a pretty easy pattern but just gets fiddly when you reach the middle where you have to make a one row cable. Then it's smooth sailing the rest of the way.

I'm still sitting on the deck but between the pollen and neighborhood lawnmowers, I've decided it's time to get back to the AC where my throat won't tickle anymore. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Our first outdoor knitting day!

We had a breezy 82 degree afternoon for a very pleasant knitting session. The sun kept moving until we no longer had a large enough patch of shade for those of us who didn't want full sun but a little sun on my GLOW-IN-THE-DARK pale legs can't hurt. 😉

 Barbara K finished two hats that have been in progress the last few weeks. This helix hat and...

this striped hat used up some of the leftovers from her stash. Both hats are a great example of what to do with small amounts of yarn.

Barbara B finished a helix hat too. The colors of this remind me of a fuzzy bumble bee.

This is her Beacon Hat: Worsted which was last week's WIP.

Dorah made good progress on her baby alpaca hat she started last week. 

The fiber is soooo soft and hypoallergenic too!

Barbara K worked a few more inches of her striped scarf with the lovely color changing yarn.

Jan was having issues with a red scarf she was trying to knit. But we think the yarn didn't want to be that scarf. So she pulled out her Simple Sideways Triangle Scarf to restore her tranquility. She and I were trying to make sense of the red scarf pattern which was a poorly written pattern but finally decided it wasn't worth the aggravation. I know not all pattern designers are professional but it would be nice to have a friend knit the item from the written instructions before releasing the pattern to be sure it makes sense!

Nancy continued on with her Dupont Street Hat with the slipped stitch motif.

Tina is determined to knit down her stash and found a sparkly fingering weight yarn which was too fine a gauge for the hat she wanted to knit.

So she searched on YouTube and found out how to do a Navajo Ply which turns a single strand into three and makes it a heavier gauge, in this case more of a DK weight yarn.

Barbara B found a pretty variegated purple yarn in her stash to create the Zomboni Scarf. That's zOmboni, not like the vehicle that cleans the ice hockey rink.😉

I had some natural colored superwash wool left after finishing the All Wound Up Beanie... 

so I used a knit into the stitch below technique to make a thermal ear warmer. Just a few more inches and I can sew up the short ends.

Her treat today was a box of homemade sourdough oatmeal raisin cookies. Yummy!!!

As soon as the ladies left, I came inside to see this! His stare was kind of creepy. 

Like the twins from that Nicholson movie.😟

Well, the stare worked! He got his afternoon snack and now he's napping somewhere, only to reappear when he hears a wrapper crinkling or at the next mealtime, whichever comes first. 

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!