Labeling Day

Dorah, Maureen, Barbara B., Jan, and Carole helped organize and label everything we've been making for the last few months.

Our original recipients fell through so we reorganized and all these lovely items will be delivered tomorrow to The Grassroot Givers on Washington Avenue in Albany.

Each piece gets a label with laundering instructions and our Chicks logo attached.

Barbara B. made this lovely shrug with a merino and alpaca blend yarn and gifted it to Jan for her mother. This is a great shoulder warmer right down to the wrists.

We collected 60 hats, 25 cowls, 4 scarves, 6 sets of hats with matching cowls (12 more items), 12 shawls, 1 blouse, 5 headbands, 2 pairs of mittens (4 items), and a pair of socks (2 items) for a grand total of 125 items. 

I now count pairs as individual items because we are still knitting two things not one large one.

Afterward, we took a well earned rest, mostly because some of us didn't bring our knitting.😉

Carole worked on the Oktoberfest Hat using a beautiful hand dyed yarn which is actually a blend of autumn colors not purple as you see in this picture. 

The editing features on this computer are not up to snuff.

                              

This is a more accurate rendering of the yarn color. It's a free pattern and a good gender neutral hat.

Carole also showed us her progress on her variation of the Musselburgh Hat. After seeing how I combined sock yarns using the Helix method, she decided to give it a try and it looks great!

I finally reached the other side of the reversible Helix version of my Musselburgh and I'm loving the purple! When this is finished, the wearer will have the option to wear the crazy stripes with a solid purple cuff or the purple hat with crazy stripes cuff.

Barbara B. worked on her baby blanket which has a simple knit some purl some stitch to create a nice block pattern.

Then she shared a brilliant idea of hers to use one of those spring loaded cord keepers (that you find on the end of the ski jacket ties) to move the stitches along the needle cord when it's a wide project like her blanket. It saves some time and effort if you don't have to stop every few stitches to push the work along the cable cord. She's a smart one!

While my computer is open I have to write the inventory list that accompanies the donation for tomorrow. So have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Do I have yarn?

Barbara B. asked if I had yarn to share with her to save her a trip to the store. Have I got yarn?

😆😆😆

Does the bear poop in the woods?

I brought only two bags of worsted weight and DK weight so the ladies could sift through and pick what inspired them.

Some of the yarns were hand dyed by my daughter when she was inspired to use KoolAid to make some lovely tonal yarns. Margaret has one of her peachy colors in her hand. On the table where you see three balls of green are more of her handiwork. She did a beautiful job with colors but her job takes up too much of her time now so she no longer dyes yarn or knits. I am the lucky recipient of her yarns which I am happy to share with my Chicks.

Maureen is finishing up a baby gift, the Sunnyside Cardigan, a free pattern on Ravelry. She's making the cabled version here but there is also a lace edge version included in the same pattern.

For donation, Maureen is making a Helix hat with three colors that look so nice together.

She finished her cowl which you saw in previous posts.

Margaret learned the Latvian Braid to use in the hat she's knitting. It makes a fascinating horizontal braid right in the field of stockinette stitches.

Barbara K.'s hat is growing nicely. Or maybe it's a cowl...I can't remember. Sometimes we all get to talking at once so I miss snippets of conversation. I'll check with her next week.

Janna's Easy scarf shows where she turned her work and is knitting short rows to continue the stripes  perpendicular to the beginning of the work. The stripes are a different width which adds to the beauty of the work.

Barbara K. finished her Mistake Stitch Scarf which matches the hat she added to the inventory a few weeks ago.

And Margaret was delighted to turn over into our inventory the scarf and hat which she had been knitting for a long time. The color is actually a deep purple that looks almost black. It's a good neutral color to go with anything.

 I went for my daily walk this morning so as the clouds currently cover the sun, I'm happy to hunker down and continue knitting on my project. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Some FOs and WIPs

Jan A. brought a bunch of FOs this week. She started Show and Tell with this scrappy scarf. Love it!!!

She used Caron Simply Soft for this Basket Weave Cowl. It's a soft acrylic that shows great stitch definition.

Another cowl with pretty sage green yarn.

And two hats and a scarf. Love that touch of rose on the edging!

I was inspired by Dorah's Helix knitting last week so I dove into the stash for leftovers and come out with two hats!

Jan continues to work on her Exordium shawl. 

Barbara K. finished the ribbing on her Beloved Hat.

We had a good laugh as I approached Liz because she exclaimed, "Don't Ask!" when I saw her project. She ran out of yarn (how does that happen?:) ) and had only white cotton so she started a diagonal baby blanket.

Barbara B. finished one shortie sock and is making progress on the second. I think she said the yarn is from Knit Picks and is called Gumball.

I enjoyed making Easy scarf so I started a second. I forgot how long it seems to take until you get to the halfway point.

And this is Maureen's version of her Easy scarf. Beautiful blues and greens.

Well, my grands and the bridal couple just arrived to complete the plans for their wedding on Thursday. I'll be busy teaching the boys how to knit once things quiet down around here. Enjoy your week and keep those needles clicking!

 

First day in a long time

It’s been many months since my Chicks and I have been able to meet in person. Some of us have had all our doses of vaccine, some have had the first, and some are still waiting. But with our masks and at least six feet between us, we were able to take advantage of the gorgeous day on my front lawn. 

Cinzia started us off on show and tell with a pretty lace scarf using Mini Mochi gradient yarn. The long color changes work perfectly with the pattern.

Barbara B. made some gorgeous cables in her hat. The yarn is perfect for showing off the stitch definition.

I’m working on the Treppenviertel cowl using Lion Brand Wool-Ease, a machine washable worsted weight yarn.

My iPad won’t load the pictures in the order in which I’ve chosen them so the next two are Carole, Janna, Annika, Cinzia, Debbie, and Barbara B.

Carole is using up some yarn that “exploded” in her stash to make a Helix hat. You should try it. It’s fun and a good way to use up leftovers.

Janna has some Knit Picks gradient yarn for a lace scarf. She wasn’t too sure she liked how it was progressing but I assured her that when she blocks it, it will make all the difference in the world.

Annika’s scarf is an easy repeat which twists one stitch to create the spine down the fabric.

And rounding out the set is Debbie’s lovely cabled hat. She too has great stitch definition in her design.

 Hopefully, this will be the first of many outdoor meetings we Chicks can have.  It’s so nice to be able to talk to each other face to face, even if we cover it with a mask. Until next time, keep those needles clicking!

Quiet knitting

There was some lovely superwash Cece's Wool Yarn Baby in the colorway "Looks Like Rain" left over from a project I had woven a couple of weeks ago which was just enough to make a pair of fingerless mitts called Happy Hands Fingerless Mitts. This is the same pattern Barbara B. was making last week.

 Janna's hat turned cowl is growing by the inch. She started with the idea of a hat but the gauge was off so I suggested that instead of frogging all those stitches why doesn't she knit for a couple of inches and then switch to a larger needle for another few inches, and up the needle size again until she had a tapered cowl. It's looking so nice!

 Jan's cowl is on the last section and should be bound off soon. The colors are so pretty!

 This lovely persimmon colored alpaca/mohair/acrylic blend yarn is going to be a cute beret. Those markers remind me when it's time to increase a stitch.

 Carole finished another Helix Hat with such nice colors. The gray and purple look so nice with the heather rose.

 Maureen has a personal project on which we will all get to knit love and prayers for a dear friend's daughter who is facing a health crisis. This will become a cozy wrap to envelop the young woman with warmth and strength to face the coming battle.

 Carole's Ikigai cowl is looking lovely too. That mini cable is accomplished with a YO (yarnover), slip one stitch, knit one stitch, pass the slipped stitch over. I can't wait to see it finished! 

See you next week after we celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Deck weather is back!

It's been 3 weeks since we were able to sit outside. I was away 2 of those weeks but we've been having a heat wave which would have prevented us from enjoying outdoor knitting. Today we had a lovely, humid-free afternoon.

 Cinzia is back from her whirlwind vacation through Italy and France with her family. She brought us her finished Helix hat. That black yarn really makes the color pop!

 Debbie finished her first pair of toe up socks. She feels confident enough now to attempt two at a time next. This cheerful yarn is perfect for the child size socks.

 Barbara was inspired by the Palindrome scarf to make this lovely cabled hat. She used a worsted weight heathered yarn which shows off the cables perfectly.

 And Janna's toe up socks have perfect stitch tension. She did a really good job of picking up stitches from the waste yarn too.

 In the 2 hours of knitting she finished both socks and they are ready for inventory. She too will try her hand at two at a time now that she feels confident that she has the concept of sock knitting.

 Liz finished her boot socks using the good old DP, 5 needles technique. We all loved the contrasting heels and toes.

 Carole worked her Cascade sport weight socks past the waste yarn for the heels. You can't see the waste yarn because it's on the other side of the sock but it's there.

 Maureen's child size socks are coming along nicely. I love the colors of her yarn.

 And Margaret has wrapped her head around the two at a time now. She was having trouble initially but we figured out it was because her circular needle had a very stiff cable which had her wrestling it constantly. It's so important to have good supplies with which to work. It really makes a difference in the enjoyment and also the quality of your work. If you're going to invest this much time and effort into a hobby, it's worth spending a little bit more for the tools. And if you take good care of them, they'll last a good long time (unless your dear husband decides to vacuum your knitting room and catches the needles in the hose).

 My Knit Picks Wool of the Andes socks seem to be taking forever but that's because I'm knitting a Christmas gift also which is very time consuming.

It feels good to be back on our regular schedule again and to be able to sit outside is so refreshing! 

Check back next week to see our progress. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!