Catching up

It's been a few weeks since the afternoon Chicks have knitted together so we have a bunch of warm woolies from Kathleen. That's the Baby Sophisticate Sweater top and center, a free pattern on Ravelry. 

 Kathleen used a Noro yarn for this Crocodile Stitch crocheted cowl. The Noro yarns have long, slow color changes which make it a perfect yarn for this type of stitch. There is no need to change yarn colors since the yarn does it for you.

 This seed stitch cowl was made with Baby Alpaca Grande yarn. It feels like a cloud.

 This yarn is a variegated pastel, so pretty.

And my favorite lace stitch, fern lace. It's only four rows to the pattern and easy to memorize.

 Barbara whipped up a warm hat using a 2X2 ribbing. Having that nice wide, folded brim makes it especially warm over the ears.

 Another Fern Lace project is this 100% cashmere cowl I made for a friend. It was knitted flat on a provisional cast on with I-cord edges and then kitchener stitched together to make it an infinity ring.

 Carol's Turban(d) headband is almost finished. This photo was taken early in the evening. By the time we were calling it a day she was almost finished and ready to kitchener the ends to make a seamless headband. I like this so much I just might make one too. It's a great stash buster project since it doesn't require much yarn.

 Dorah just had to weave in the loose ends on her Honeycomb Cowl. This quick knit is deceptively easy, using slipped stitches to achieve the honeycomb technique.

 Dorah's next project is a ribbed watchcap...

 in a nice heathered rose color.

 Carole showed us her next project too. Look at those great cables!

 She is making this one for her daughter in a nice navy blue.

 I found this "Socks That Rock" yarn in our stash and thought a linen stitch would help break up color pooling. 

This is going to be a long infinity scarf, started on a provisional cast on, with I-cord edging, and kitchener stitch finish to make it seamless. 

I love these colors! And since we are in the middle of yet another major snowstorm, it's a day brightener to work with such cheerful colors. 

What are you knitting to cheer up your winter blues?

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.

Warm hands, warm heads, warm hearts

Barbara was planning on making a scarf with this fingering weight yarn but it turned out to be too narrow and so "Plan B" has been initiated and it will be a headband instead. It will be lovely with those cables.

Today was a bit nippy out so she wore her hand knit cowl. I don't know about you but I love when the weather turns cold and I get the chance to wear all my shawls and scarves I've knitted over the years.

 Kathleen was absent the last three weeks so she brought many items that she finished over that time. She just kept pulling things out of her magic bag!

 First up was a warm woolen vest.

 These mittens will go into inventory for our future donations as they are probably too small for our current needs. 

 I like how the yarn makes a pattern on these matching woolies.

 These mittens will be just right for the ladies at the homeless shelter.

 Love that April Showers scarf.

 One of Kathleen's daughters gave her a set of light up knitting needles. I guess they come in handy if you have a knitting emergency when you're at the movie theater!

 We were busy bees tonight too.

 Maureen's cowl is very pretty with the two tone pattern.

 Beth showed us her Hanne Falkenberg sweater that she made from a kit. She said it took a year to make but when you take into account how many other things she knitted that year too it most surely didn't take the whole year.

 The sweater uses three colors of yarn held together for some rows and used singly for others to make this interesting texture. It's really pretty!

 Carole's scarf is growing longer while her cabled cowl awaits a quiet time so she can kitchener stitch the ends together.

 And Beth's scarf is progressing nicely too.

 I'm in the home stretch of my scarf also. There isn't much yarn left so it should be done by next week.

 I started a cabled cowl also. This has a provisional cast on so I can kitchener stitch it closed when it's long enough. Depending on how bored I get with it, that might be sooner than later! LOL!

But it has just enough going on in the pattern to hold my interest for now. And it's easy to knit when I'm a car passenger. 

Well, it's not too late so I think I'll get back to the striped scarf so I can finish it off before next week. Keep your needles clicking!

Finishing Up

Barbara finished the Baby Surprise Jacket and proclaimed it the last one she will EVER knit! I don't blame her. There is a lot of stitch counting involved which she finds disturbing. Funny thing is she is an accountant! But I know what she means. It's an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern which advertises it is knitting without tears. I beg to differ. I have to admit that even though I consider myself pretty adept at knitting, this pattern almost brought me to my knees the first time I made it. So now Barb just needs buttons and it will be added to inventory.

 Kathleen finished a BSJ also. Those bright green buttons really pull out the colors and make it pop!

 Another Kathleen project finished. This sweater is an acrylic yarn which makes it machine washable.

 Barbara offered to model a hat Kathleen made for our next project. How nicely it matches her sweater!

 We had a full house this evening. From left to right going across the bottom of the screen: me, Maureen, Carole, Beth, Karin. We haven't seen Karin in a long time. It was good to have her back in the fold!

 Carole worked on a chemo cap for our upcoming donation project.

 Karin finished up a pair of socks for her daughter.

 And Beth started a sweater. Check out those pretty stitch markers! They are like jewelry for your knitting!

  We were cracking up over that HUGE skein of yarn Maureen was knitting. It looks like an ostrich egg on her lap!

I finished a Daybreak shawl last week which will go into our next donation. I was going to make this shawl for myself using some sock weight yarn from my stash but after starting and frogging it three times I decided to try it in a worsted weight to make it easier to read. I really like the way it turned out and as you will see further down it helped tremendously with the fingering weight yarn.

 Last week I mentioned I finished the grey hoodie. Now it's ready to keep some cute little munchkin warm.

 I started another baby sweater this week. From this photo you can tell it will be colorful but it's hard to tell it's a sweater. Trust me. It will become a sweater eventually.

 Here is the Daybreak shawl I'm knitting for myself. The yarn is Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors. The darker color is "Past Midnight" and the lighter is "Cloud Dancer". I'm really happy with the results so far.

Well, I better get back to those projects. They aren't going to knit themselves!