Keeping it warm

Kathleen's Cushy Cowl is a free pattern on Ravelry that was designed by our friend, Karin of Periwinkle Sheep. It's an easy pattern but it takes a good two or three inches of knitting before you can see the diamond pattern forming. And it can be made using any weight yarn with the appropriate needle size. 

 Kathleen's little handmade bows added a sweet touch to her finished slippers. She used a bulky weight yarn so they knitted up in a flash.

 She also made a lovely cowl and matching hat with some Periwinkle Sheep yarn. The cowl was a scarf pattern that Kathleen used the kitchener stitch to graft the ends together for an infinity scarf.

 Elaine added another pair of slippers to the inventory. These are the ones I showed you in progress last week. She was all set to knit a sweater when she realized she brought the wrong pattern with her. So she had a relaxing afternoon looking through my knitting books for inspiration for her next project.

Back to Kathleen's projects, she has a keyhole scarf in progress too. The straight garter stitch portion will be knitted to 17 inch length and then a tapered end which will fit through the narrow section.

 Barbara finished her Mistake Stitch cowl using two strands of worsted weight yarn to sub for a bulky weight yarn.

And she finished up her shawl and is running in the ends. It looked so good that it didn't even need blocking.

 Cinzia made a pair of mittens from a pattern and decided she didn't like the thumb placement so...

 She redesigned the pattern so that the thumb would sit slightly off to the side so there is a definite right and left mitten.

 My crazy Liberty Wool cowl is growing steadily. I change yarns every 4 rows using a slow changing color yarn. When I'm happy with the length I'll graft the ends together.

 Beth is cranking out another pair of Basic Cabled Mittens with that pretty purple yarn. 

 And Maureen's cowl has grown a bit since last week.

 Carole finished the ribbed border and worked in the ends on her cowl.

We'll be wrapping up this project soon and then it will be time to knit baby clothes. We are all looking forward to making some cute baby items for a change. It's good to switch up once in a while because you know my motto... if it's not fun, don't do it!

Trying to stay warm

Show and Tell this week starts with our FO's, Finished Objects. This cowl started out as a scarf using the No Purl Ribbed Scarf pattern which is free on Ravelry. I used Cascade 220 yarn and intended to make a cozy brown scarf but as you can see it didn't quite make it to scarf length. Knowing it needed some accent of color, I hunted in my stash and came across this bright turquoise, also Cascade 220, and loved the two colors together. VOILA! A cowl was born! Another stroke of luck hit when I found matching buttons in the button can. You just never know when inspiration will strike.

 Barbara's stashbuster headband/earwarmer turned out to be lovely and stylish. She too had perfect buttons just waiting for the right project to accent. I think she used a bulky Malabrigo yarn for this item.

 Carole also busted the stash with her Turban'd headband/earwarmer. There was just enough yarn left to eek out a cozy band.

 Elaine added another set of slipper socks to keep someone's toesies nice and warm. There are many free patterns out there for this old time favorite for Grandma's slippers. Here's one and here's one and here's another one. Take your pick!

 Mochi Plus yarn is the star of this cowl. Crystal Palace makes the yarn and it has the most beautiful color combos and long, slow color changes. I used the Basic Brioche Cowl pattern, free on Ravelry.

 Elaine worked on another pair of slipper socks this week. They seem to just fly right off her needles!

 And Barbara's cozy shawl is just about finished. The colors look lovely with her sweater. Sorry Barb! You have to donate it! LOL!

 Maureen started a Honeycomb Cowl with some lovely lace yarn she received as a gift. Too bad I can't remember the name of it. It's right on the tip of my tongue...Nope! Can't think of it!

 Carole's cowl is lacy and pretty. She'll probably have it done by next week.

 And lastly I started a Color Theory Cowl with 2 skeins of Classic Elite's Liberty Wool. I can't wait to see the color changes on this one.

The temps almost didn't make it above zero today. Thank goodness I didn't have to spend much time outside. Although I did have to pump my own gas today. BooHoo! Poor me! LOL!

I hope it's warm where you are!

Filling the coffers with yarn

Barbara's pretty cabled hat is finished. She used Periwinkle Sheep Yarn. Our friend, Karin, kettle dyes in small batches the most beautiful colors!

 She also made a baby afghan as a gift for a friend. She was 8 rows from binding off and ran out of yarn! She emailed all of us and other knitting friends and stores until she found a skein to finish it off. We've all had nightmares of that happening. Thank goodness she found some yarn to complete those last rows.

 This pattern is from the Plymouth Encore 8 Hour Blankets pattern book. Each blanket uses two strands of yarn and work up quickly. This blanket has a nice modular looking block pattern that's knitted across the whole row so there is no sewing together little squares of knitting.

 This afternoon Barb started knitting a scarf using this beautiful bamboo/cotton blend yarn but she wasn't getting the results she expected so it was frogged and set aside until inspiration strikes. I can't wait to see what she creates with it.

 Kathleen arrived with her usual tote bag filled with finished items. Barb and I laughed at those striped mittens because we had so much of that striped yarn that there must have been at least 3 hats, 2 sweaters, and now these mittens. I think that's the last of that yarn.

 Kathleen's magic bag also magically produced this lovely hat and matching mittens and...

 this beautifully bright Chinook scarf, which Barb so graciously offered to model for us. Kathleen used more Periwinkle Sheep Yarn for this.

And YAY! The never-ending scarf is finished! The pattern is only 4 rows long and easy to memorize but after awhile it gets tedious. So Kathleen was happy to be done with it.

 And lastly, Kathleen added a pair of slippers which she decorated with little handmade flowers.

 This week Kathleen will be making this sweater vest using...

 this heathered Cascade yarn. Pretty color!

 On to the evening knitters.
 Beth made a baby sweater using our favorite Sunnyside Cardigan. It's a baby gift
for a friend.

                                          She finished her cowl and moved on to...

a Mistake Stitch Scarf. We talked about how sometimes we need a mindless knitting pattern that we can just breeze through without thinking and this fits the bill.

Carole's Saroyan has grown in length since last week. It's going to be a beautiful addition to someone's wardrobe.

Look at all the progress Maureen made since last week! I can't wait to see her slouch hat finished.

Ravelry offered a free pattern called Color Theory and I had some Plymouth Gina yarn and 

Tah! Dah!

This is my DD's pattern for her Parallelogram cowl. Now I'm working on a hat to match.

And here's my Lil' Scarfette. I'm using the Magic Loop method of knitting in the round instead of using Double Pointed needles. This scarf will be a double thick, long rectangle with points on both ends using a sock weight yarn. The beginning was a bit tricky but once I had more stitches on the needles it started to breeze along.

The weather is getting cooler around here so soon we'll be knitting bigger projects again. Check back next week to see what we're adding to our inventory. Have a great week!

Catching up

Two weeks have elapsed since I last updated you on our progress. The last time we met Kathleen started a mistake stitch scarf. I'm sure she has finished it by now.

 I used some stash busting yarn to make this reversible cowl of my own design. The chevron stitch edge was a bit of a challenge because I had to twist yarns to achieve this technique. By the time I got to the end of the round it looked like a cat had his way with my yarn. But the next round reversed the twists and so it all worked its way out.

 Carol used the softest alpaca yarn to make this lovely lace hat.

 Beth showed us her mystery shawl in progress. The clues to the stitches are given in stages so you don't get the whole pattern at once and you don't even know what's it going to look like until it's finished. Can't wait to see it blocked and beautiful.

 And after many weeks of knitting her scarf is done!

 I used Cascade Eco Alpaca and Alpacas of Grafton Mountain yarns for this Foolproof infinity scarf. 

 I like it doubled up cozy around the neck. It was a very captivating pattern that was easy enough to knit by the TV but interesting enough not to bore me.

 Barbara chose this pretty coral/pink Baby Alpaca Grande yarn to make....

 This cowl but didn't like the way it was turning out. On to Plan B.

 She designed her own cowl pattern and it is beautiful! And sooooo soft!

 To the inventory Barbara added two pairs of dorm boots. She used silicone on the soles to make them slip-proof. It really works.

 And finally she finished the cabled headband in a pretty purple tonal fingering weight yarn.

 Tonight's collection started with Carole's baby alpaca Koolhaas hat. The pattern can be purchased from Ravelry.

 Maureen finished her two tone cowl. Her stitching is so even and the colors look great.

 On to her next project, a headband earwarmer.

 Just like the one Dorah made a few weeks ago.

 Carole started a Honeycomb Cowl tonight. I love her colors!

I'll be taking a few weeks off to care for family matters. Take care and keep family close. 

Enjoy your holidays.