WHAT? I use my exercise bike!

This beautiful gradient yarn was hand dyed by my friend Karin of Periwinkle Sheep fame. It came as a blank on which she painted the dye colors for a long and gradual color change. Since the undyed blank is actually a length of knitted fabric, it is kinky curly when unraveled to use as yarn to be knitted. This kinky-ness can alter the gauge of a finished knitted item so I soaked the unraveled yarn in a cool bath and now it is hanging to dry on my recumbent bike. When I have finished knitting my project I'll show you the gorgeous colors as they change in my shawl I have planned in my head.

 I have a second skein taking its bath as we speak. This one has a family of pinks and blush colors. I think I will make a Wolkig with it.

 Last week I finished my Lady Lindan cowl using the softest baby alpaca yarn from Cascade called Eco Alpaca. When I tell you it's soft, believe me! It's soooooft!

 I saw Maureen over the weekend and she had time between her tax season duties to finish the Yarmouth Fair Isle Watch Cap. If you remember, I started this hat in November 2015 and slogged through the charts only to put it in hibernation for many months. Then at the end of last year I read a post from a yarn store owner and knitter who said she reviews her UFO's at the end of the year and frogs the projects which no longer interest her. So I frogged my hat and Maureen decided she would like to try it. She has more stamina than I! Now we have a beautiful Fair Isle hat to donate to the women veterans, our next recipents.

I hope those skeins of yarn dry soon. I'm itching to get at them with my patterns. Maybe I'll point a fan at them. Maybe I should finish one of the other 9 projects I currently have in progress. LOL!

Hats, hats, hats!

Since our afternoon ladies have conflicts for the next few weeks, Barbara joined the evening group of knitters for the rest of the winter. She started a spiral hat tonight with a pretty teal yarn.

 Maureen added a few inches to her Yarmouth Fair Isle Hat brim. After tonight she'll be working long hours for tax season so we won't be seeing her until after April 15.

 Carole worked some more inches on her Birthday Cowl and is almost finished.

 Margaret's hat is showing progress. It has really nice stitch definition to show off the pattern too.

 Last week I showed you this Birthday Cowl I had started (just like Carole's) but after I saw how nice the stitches looked on Carole's cowl I realized that this yarn was just a little too lightweight for the project. So I frogged it to make something else and...

 found this lovely forest green Berroco Vintage to make the same pattern. The yarn is just a little heftier and made much better stitch definition for the cowl. Now I'm happy!

 I also finished the Reversible Rivulets scarf. I'm going to keep this one in my repertoire. I really like the way it turned out.

 Can you tell I had startitis? I just had to cast on for different projects! This cute headband earwarmer has a button in back so you don't have to mess your hair to wear it. It was a suggested video tutorial on Youtube and I knitted it in a day.

 Then I saw another suggested Youtube video which was in German so I had to pay close attention to the tutorial since I had no idea what the knitter was saying. I did finally figure out the numbers she was reciting as she counted. Anyway, this was the Rapunzel Schal and after some hunting through Ravelry...

 I found the written pattern in English! The ladders are knitted and then intertwined to become the braids.

I think it looks sort of like a loaf of challah bread. No? It's a fun project to knit and when it's long enough I will sew the cast on edge to the bind off edge to make a cowl. Maybe I'll have it finished in time to show you next week. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking!

Wrapping up our donations

The afternoon ladies and I worked on labeling our current items to donate to Community Maternity Services in Albany, New York. Actually, Cinzia knitted on a communal project started by our night time Chick Maureen. Her friend's daughter recently received a cancer diagnosis so we are all knitting some inches on a lovely, warm, cuddly prayer shawl to send to her so she knows we're all praying for her recovery.

Our inventory contained toys, sweaters, booties, vests, a bib, and some mittens....

blankets, hats, scarves, and cowls for a grand total of 80 items. We decided to include some gifts for the moms too to let them know we think about them too.

Our evening meeting started with Carole knitting her share on the shawl while Maureen thought about the Yarmouth Fair Isle Watch Cap which she started.

Her knitted ribbing for the beginning of her hat is so nice and uniform.

Margaret started a beanie hat with a provisional cast on which she will rip out later to reveal live stitches for knitting the edge. I like the colors together.

Carole started a Birthday Cowl not knowing that...

I did too! I like the way her stitches are nice and firm and uniform. My stitches are kind of wonky. I think it's because she used Cascade 220 which is a heavier worsted weight than what I'm using. I think I'll frog it and start over with a smaller needle.

I'm still working on my Reversible Rivulets scarf too. I have knitted more than half of the second ball of yarn so I can't be too far from finishing. Maybe by next week I'll be able to show you a finished scarf.

Cinzia's daughter, Sofia, finished her sweet Cabin Fever jacket and asked Cinzia to bring it to include in our inventory. She did such a beautiful job for the first sweater she ever made that I convinced Cinzia to keep it because it is so special. I still have the first sweater I ever made and it's not nearly as professional looking as this! I think she should keep it as a remembrance of our lessons together.

She can always knit another to donate later.