Many FO's this week

Debbie started off the afternoon by adding a lace cowl to our inventory. This was her first attempt at knitting lace and it's lovely.

 Janna finished her Chevron cowl last week and made a matching headband to go with it. The Berroco Jasper yarn was perfect for showing off the pattern.

 I improvised a hat using the tubular cast on which makes the edge very stretchy.

 And Carole finished her brioche cowl with the Latvian braid edging. She did a great job.

 And a helix hat was added to the inventory too. These hats are addictive!

 Margaret's hat is very colorful and worked up quickly with the bulky weight yarn...

 As did this other hat she made with a super bulky yarn.

 Barbara B. finished a pair of mittens pretty quickly.

 And Dorah put the finishing touches on her toddler hat. The yarn is adorable for a young child.

 Now on to the WIPs. Janna's next project is a helix hat. When she runs out of one color she can just add another.

 Elaine is pretty close to finishing her hat.

 And Barbara K. is almost done with her scarf. The ball of yarn is so big she is going to start a hat from the opposite end and then use up whatever is left on the scarf.

 Debbie is still working her way through the 1898 hat.

 I was playing around with tubular cast ons and decided to do some double knitting for a scarf. It will be stockinette stitch on both sides but it won't curl because I'm knitting a flat tube. 

 Barbara B. is now making a hat to match those green mittens.

 And Carole is making a cowl with "that nice stitch" and a provisional cast on.

 Maureen had a few inches left to go on her Throwback Pixie hood.

 And Margaret improvised a toddler hat. She mentioned she likes basic knitting which is great with all the chatting we do!

 Dorah likes helix knitting too and it shows in her hat.

 I said they were addictive! Carole has one on needles too!

I have a bag filled with ends of skeins. I guess I'll be casting on for a helix hat soon too.

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

It's snowing....again!

As I look out my window I'm thinking it's a good thing I cancelled knitting for tonight because it started snowing while the afternoon knitters were still here. Reports say driving will be dicey for commuters heading home so I don't want my Chicks to drive in dangerous weather.

My afternoon Chicks were productive this week. Elaine brought a collection of finished hats for the inventory, starting off with a child's striped hat...

a lovely mint green slouchy hat...

a nice warm cocoa colored man's hat...or woman's...

and two more children's hats.

Debbie brought us the first sweater she tried knitting for a baby who is now three years old. So some lucky recipient of our donations will now benefit from her hard work.

And it's actually a complete ensemble! There are pants, booties, and a hat to go with the cardigan. Good work Debbie!

Elaine is on a roll with her hats. She immediately cast on for another in a pretty heather green worsted weight wool.

Cinzia worked at redesigning a pattern which called for fingering weight yarn by converting the measurements for bulky weight yarn. The Flying Triangles Cowl was supposed to be 60 inches in circumference but in bulky weight yarn it would have been huge and weighed a ton! It looks great with her adaptations.

Janna's Chevron cowl is growing, slowly but surely. The pattern perfectly highlights the color changes in her yarn.

Debbie picked up where she left off on her 1898 hat.

My third Treppenviertel cowl required so much purling that I learned how to use the Portuguese knitting technique for purl stitch.

I don't like putting the yarn around my neck so the next accessory to accomplish the technique is using a pin attached to your shirt, up near your shoulder. I didn't want to invest in one of these for just a small project so when I couldn't sleep last night I began to think about magnets and clips and VOILA!

I remembered seeing a knitting hack somewhere for holding yarn in a bowl and thought I could just adapt that clip to holding it to my shoulder! It worked!

I wish I had thought of this before I finished my second Treppenviertel!

Now I need to get back to my cowl and finish it!

Have a great week and be careful in that snow!

Hats and cowls galore!

Starting our show and tell this week will be a Brioche cowl with Latvian braid edges made by Cinzia. She used an Aran weight yarn with size 7 or 8 needles, I can't remember for sure. The yarn is Cascade Eco Wool which knitted up nicely for this project.

She also finished a beanie hat with a 100% Baby Alpaca yarn from Blue Sky Fibers called Melange. It is so soft and warm, like an angel spun it.

 

Dorah's Railroad Tracks hat is beautifully finished. That twisted rib shows the stitch definition so nicely.

I completed a Throwback Pixie hat with yarn from Filatura di Crosa Zara. Last winter I made a whole bunch of these because they were like Lay's Potato Chips, you can't have just one! I might have to cast on for a few more after I finish my current WIP's.

Barbara B. did a test knit for these mittens and had enough yarn left to make a matching hat. Such a pretty pink!

Her only wool project this week was this bulky knit cap. Her husband is violently allergic to wool so she has to knit with synthetic yarns. I don't know how she managed to sneak this one into the mix but I'm sure glad she did!

Her next two projects were kits which included these cute little heads. The ball of yarn includes all the different yarns in one continuous ball.

I love the comical little faces!

Barbara B. finished her Brioche cowl too. She had a few blips in the learning curve but we like to call them "Design Elements" and Look! A whole new design! Like it was meant to be!

I used Cascade Yarns Elysian to make the Treppenviertel Cowl. It was an easy pattern with just enough going on every fourth row to keep my interest peaked.

I had so much fun making it, I immediately cast on for another with Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine on a size 2.5 needle. And then, because my hand cramps when I knit for too long with such a skinny needle...

I cast on for another Treppenviertel with a DK weight yarn and size 7 needles with the same Zara yarn that Cinzia used in her hat.

Janna is at the beginning rows of her Chevron cowl. I didn't get the name of the yarn.

Barbara K. is flying through her Mistake Stitch Scarf. This easy pattern makes a nice warm thermal barrier against the cold.

Dorah tried her hand at Helix knitting and is doing a great job with a great color combination. And look at her beautiful twisted ribbing. It's just like 1X1 ribbing but you knit the knit stitches through the back loop which lifts it up proud and defined.

Barbara B. cast on with yarn that was left from the bulky hat and made a warm ear band for those who don't want to wear a whole hat.

And Maureen just started the flat knitting portion of her Throwback Pixie hat. When she first read the pattern she had the same reaction I did...something sounds wrong here. But I was told by the designer to trust the instructions and just do what they say.

Sometimes I have a hard time picturing what the pattern should look like and my brain gets ahead of my hands. When I just took the leap it all worked out fine. In this case, it was the right thing to do!

Keep those needles clicking and I'll see you next week!

Two bags and a hat

I had to be out of town yesterday but I didn't want to leave you hanging with nothing to see so....

For my personal use, to contain my knitting projects, I made a couple of walking project bags. This sheep fabric was so cute that I didn't think about the direction of the flow of the pattern and purchased the amount called for in the pattern. It wasn't until I began to think about cutting the pieces that I realized the sheep would be right side up on the front but up side down on the back. So with a bit of fiddling and puzzle piecing, I rearranged the fabric, made a few extra seams, and now the sheep are not getting seasick as they run around the bag.

 This is how the bag hangs from your arm so you can walk and knit or crochet while exercising. I say "you can walk and knit" because if I tried it, I would end up in the ED getting stitches in my face!LOL! But it could hang from the handlebars of my exercise bike while I watch Netflix and ride to nowhere.

 I finished my Zoe hat a few days ago and I like how the pompom came out, a nice finishing touch.

I like the method this woman uses to trim the finished pompom between two cardboard rounds. The tutorial for trimming starts at about minute 12:25.

The Chicks will be back next week.