I think Rumplestiltskin is real!

Margaret started off the evening with her completed cowl, The Cool Side of Warm. It has a little slit at the neck opening so it can fit over your shoulder. The Cascade 220 yarn makes it a warm fabric just right to keep out the cold winter air.

 Then Margaret had to wind two new colors to start a stranded hat pattern.

 Her choice of cream and chartreuse will look very nice.

 This is what it will look like when it's finished.

 Barbara is almost finished with her Cushy Cowl. That tonal red yarn is beautiful!

 Carole added some length to her Birthday Cowl. It will be completed soon too.

 Dorah had an oops evening. The Wolkig cowl she was making had an accident and needed to be frogged so I got a picture of the darling stitch markers she is using to keep her place.

 And lastly is my Wolkig cowl which seems to be taking me forever to knit. I think there are yarn gremlins who sneak out at night to add to my ball of yarn so it never runs out.

Hey Gremlins! Go back to Rumplestiltskin where you belong!

Cowls, cowls, and more cowls

             We had an audience with "The Queen" this week while her home is undergoing some renovation changes. You'll be seeing Joules in the coming weeks, I'm sure.

                          

Carole started off the evening of show and tell with her Childhood Memories scarf she made for herself using Periwinkle Sheep yarn. She couldn't remember the name of the color but let me tell you, it was stunning! The photo doesn't do justice to the deep, luscious, teal blue and her beautiful work. Great job Carole!

She was away but it didn't stop her from catching up on her knitting. She brought a hat and three cowls. Barbara brought us her pretty teal and sky blue striped Present Cowl on the bottom right.

Margaret made good progress on her cowl, The Cooler Side of Warm. 

Barbara started the Cushy Cowl using Periwinkle Sheep worsted weight superwash merino in Shields of Garnet. For some reason the free pattern is no longer available but I had a copy so here goes...

Pattern as follows:

104 yds Chunky yarn 

Size 10.5 circular needle, 16” long 

Cast on 68 sts (76). Place marker for beginning of round and join without twisting. 

Rnds 1-2: K1,P1repeat between * to end of round 

Rnds 3-4: P1, K3 rpt between * to end of round 

Rnds 5-6: K1,P1 rpt between * to end of round 

Rnds 7-8: K2, P1, K1 rpt between * to end of round

Work pattern 5X (40 rounds)

Bind off loosely.

Carole started another cowl tonight too.

Dorah started her Wolkig cowl tonight with more Periwinkle Sheep yarn called Wink. It has a bit of sparkle to it.

I had knitted a scarf many moons ago which curled into a tiny roll and looked like a waste of yarn so I frogged it and decided to make a bandana style cowl. I'm binding off the ruffle edge and holding my breath that I'll have enough yarn to finish.

My version of the Wolkig is half done. When it's finished it will look like it's smocked.

And the Lindan cowl was added to our inventory tonight.

The Ella Rae superwash merino will make it an easy to care for item.

I just heard Joules doing something she probably shouldn't be doing so I'm off! See you next week!

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!

Knitting til the Cowls come home

Remember those buttons that took me 8 hours to felt? Well, here they are in place on the cowl. I'm happy that they turned out the way I pictured them. I would hate for all that time to be wasted, not to mention the amount of yarn it took to make them.

 And Margaret shared the pattern for the hat she deconstructed and wrote up so we could all make it. It took two days from start to finish for me to knit and I do love the stitch definition I got with this Debbie Bliss Rialto yarn. It's a superwashed merino and about as soft as a cloud.

 Barbara finished her Spiral Hat using Berroco Vintage, a great washable blend with some wool in it.

 Carole found an interesting slow color changing yarn in the stash and started the Totally Biased Cowl. It starts with a provisional cast on and is grafted together at the finish so you won't even see a seam. The pastels colors are really pretty too.

 She also started a project for herself using some Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors II sock yarn in the color Elderberry. It's the Hitchhiker scarf which for some reason I want to call Windbreaker. 

 Margaret and I started a cowl called The Cooler Side of Warm. She was making the Birthday Cowl but her yarn wasn't cooperating so she switched to this pattern and it's much happier.

I had a bit of a head start so I'm further along. I'm using more of the Debbie Bliss Rialto. I like the warm chocolate color.

                            

Barbara started the Present Cowl with a pretty teal yarn. And you can see part of her cowl which was inspired by Copenhagen Calling Cowl. She did a lovely job with her constrasting colors.

We're expecting anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow tomorrow so I'll have lots of time to knit. And heaven knows, I have plenty of projects to work on!

A quiet evening of knitting by the fire

Margaret finished a hat this week. She said she saw this hat knitted up but didn't have a pattern so she figured it out on her own and made it. It's lovely and she did a terrific job!

Now she is trying her hand at the Birthday Cowl which Carole and I just finished. She is using a cheerful green yarn from Cascade 220 which will give nice stitch definition.

Margaret needed some more yarn for a chemo hat project for a friend so she wanted to hurry up and wind it. Oops! Never hurry when trying to wind a ball of yarn. But with teamwork, we managed to untangle the mess and finish winding it.

Remember the cowl I showed you last week? The one that reminded me of a loaf of challah bread? Well, this weekend I spent a total of 8 hours (not consecutively but my hand looked more like a claw than fingers when I finished) needle felting buttons for it. I stuck my finger once and learned pretty quickly how not to hold the yarn while felting! Boy! Those barbed needles hurt!!! I'm almost finished knitting the cowl so maybe by next week you'll be able to see the finished cowl.

Carole finished binding off the last row of stitches to her Birthday Cowl tonight. She is going to give it a steam blocking to even out the edges and then it goes into the inventory next week.

I must get back to my knitting. Have a good week and keep those needles clicking!

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.