We had food talk Tuesday

Most of our conversation centered on food today.

Maybe it was because Barbara B's treat for St. Patrick's Day was 

a tray of sourdough chocolate chip scones.

Which were delicious by the way. There's a new Trader Joe's about a mile away from here so some of our favorites were recommended. Barbara K likes the salted pretzel/dark chocolate bark and I like the dark chocolate bar with whole hazelnuts. 

 Dorah finished her Sophie Scarf. She used a DK weight yarn and size 6 needles for a perfect drape.

The 2x2 ribbed hat I started last week got finished today.

 It will be paired with the mittens I finished last week.

Barbara B is on the decreasing half of her Sophie Scarf. It's a great stash busting project.

Jan started the French Twist scarf with a sweet cabled edge. 

We are so proud of her progress with her very first sock knitting project using magic loop technique! She borrowed a book from the library and dove in head first. 

Nancy's Flight Formation Hat from Benjamin Matthews is showing great stitch definition.

Carole wore her Nurmilintu Scarf knitted in her favorite color. It's a sweet little triangle with just enough bits of lace to keep it interesting.

She dipped into her stash to find the last bits of hand dyed yarn left after she knitted a vest many years ago. The colors are so pretty.

Barbara K gathered some remnants of leftovers to make a striped hat.

Dorah found alpaca yarns in her stash to make a striped beanie.

These will make a nicely soft and warm hat for The Falcon Boutique.

Now that I've finished the neon orange hat and mittens, I think I'll choose a quieter color to start my next project. If you need me, I'll be head first in the yarn bins looking for inspiration. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Is this spring?

Everyone arrived in shirtsleeves and lightweight sweaters today as the temperature reached 74 degrees. We were taking bets as to when the next temperature drop would happen and how much snow we'd get. It is "false spring" after all. 😉 But we will enjoy it for now.

Dorah finished her LOSY Hat and it is a beauty! If you have small bits of left overs from socks, you can combine two to make an endless array of variations of this hat.

 Carole used her neck lamp/magnifier to help make her knitting experience an easier, more pleasant one.

She's working on her Squarshy Slouch Hat that has a distinct line of stitches swirling through the sea of stockinette stitch.

Nancy is almost finished with her Grid Gambit Cowl.

The colors she chose are stunning together!

I modified the top of Claudia Krisniski's Easy Mittens to have a squared off top with a grafted seam closure. These will be added to the inventory along with Dorah's hat for the Falcon Boutique at Albany High School next fall.

I have enough yarn left over for a 2x2 ribbed hat to match. We joked that whoever gets this set could work at Albany International Airport directing incoming flights.😂

Barbara K started a scrappy hat into which she will incorporate odds and ends of stripes using a basic beanie style hat pattern.

Barbara B found a WIP that was hiding at the bottom of a pile and decided to finish it. Unfortunately, the pattern was discontinued on Ravelry and she can't find her printed copy so she will knit the rest of the sock plain with just a bit of ribbing on the instep. She was so close to being done that she didn't want to frog it. Besides, then she would have to unkink the used yarn and that's a hassle. 

Dorah is very near the end of her Sophie Scarf and she still has a good amount of this yarn left over so she might make another.

Barbara B's sourdough treat this week was a delicious cinnamon apple coffee cake. Everyone had a piece and brought home a doggie bag too!

I think I'll take a quick walk while it's still nice out since tomorrow looks like we might have some rain. Enjoy the false spring while you can and keep those needles clicking!

A snowy afternoon with my Chicks

 The snow stopped long enough for the Chicks to walk down the driveway on the path that my husband rushed out to clear for "The Girls". Once everyone was settled in, the snow started again. So now there is a clean coat everywhere, looking so pretty and pristine.

Our treat today was a sourdough chocolate chip banana bread, two of my favorites combined! And I have a doggie bag for later 😉

Barbara B finished her Alter Eco Welt Beanie which was a WIP last week. Her knitting skills really highlight the stitch definition of the pattern beautifully! 

I forgot to show you my FO last week of the scrappy hat that was in progress two weeks ago. I hate to see yarn ends go to waste so it's easy to incorporate them into a small project like a hat. There is no pattern as I made it up as I knitted along.

Right after last week's session I completed the Celtic Feather Cap. This pattern gave me plenty of opportunity to master cabling without a cable needle.

I had just a tiny bit of red yarn left and couldn't bring myself to toss it so I made a teeny weeny Melt the Ice Hat. Carole said it would fit a Lego figure so I gave it to her for her grandchildren to use during playtime.

I found some worsted weight red yarn in the stash and decided Fozzie needed a Resistance Hat too. I followed this pattern to knit it in one evening.

I'm not sure Fozzie agrees with me though. He was very tolerant and humored me just long enough to take a picture. I wonder if I can do this again with Ron and me wearing our hats too. I better wait until Fozzie recovers from this trauma before I try taking pics for our annual Christmas card. Can't you just hear him saying, "What I tolerate for food!"

Jan spent last week learning how to knit magic loop technique so she can knit a pair of socks. So far she's doing an excellent job! It definitely is a learning curve but it's doable.

After a few rows she needed a project that required less attention so she went back to her pretty shawl.

Barbara B is knitting the February Socks for herself. The original pattern is for shortie socks but she has extended the cuff to fit above the ankle.

I started a pair of mittens using Claudia Krisniski's pattern for Mittens for Children and Adults. It's very easy to follow and easily adapts to multiple sizes.

Nancy is making a Benjamin Matthews hat called Flight Formation Beanie. She said the pattern reminded her of fir trees so she picked out a nice evergreen colored yarn.

Margaret started a Mosaic Stitch Beanie using her favorite weight yarn, bulky!

 I think this is the pattern for it.

By the time we were ready to call it a day, she was on to the second color.

This is the hat she worked on last week but she said it required a bit more attention than she could give it while still being sociable. It's the Dupont Street hat.

Carole searched her stash and found some discontinued, one of a kind Periwinkle Sheep yarn to knit the Squarshy Hat.

She is also working on rainbow hats for her grandsons. They told her they didn't like ribbed cuffs or rolled cuffs because they are for "babies". So she is going to fold the edge and sew it to make a stockinette cuff.

The snow is still falling but I understand the temps are supposed to be in the mid 40s tomorrow so it won't last long. I'm not a summer type person so I will miss the cold temps and the opportunity to wear my hand knits. But it will be nice to see flowers and green grass soon. 

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Learning a new cast on

Jan is back from her winter break. She spent some time in the Caribbean, some time in the Southwest, and finished up visiting her grands in California. She said all her knitting while away was a disaster so she didn't get much done. That's the trouble when your yarn doesn't want to be what you picked out and you're not near your stash to pick out something different. But she had a lovely time in spite of uncooperative yarn and some rainy days. It's good to have her back in the flock! 

Barbara B made sourdough "Blondies" for our treat today. I'm running out of adjectives to describe how tasty her treats are. These rank way up on the scale of tastiness!

She brought some FOs that she's been working on since last week. This is the Equinox hat she knitted for herself that was a WIP last Tuesday. The colors are stunning! She better be careful it doesn't suddenly go "missing" one day. 😁

This is the prototype of the Minecraft hat she made for donation. Then she made...

two more for her grandsons.

She picked higher contrasting colors and was pleased with the final results. If you ever question if the yarn colors will be a good pairing for a pattern, take a black and white photo of them side by side and if they both look gray then you know it won't be enough of a contrast in the knitted garment. Look for a definite dark and light contrast.

Today we learned a new to us cast on technique for a tubular cast on. A short reel popped up on my Facebook page and I just had to try it! It took me a week to figure it out but now I will probably use it for all my hat cast ons. If you want to watch the long version of Carrie Craftgeek's technique, be forewarned, she talks a lot before she actually gets to the demonstration.

Tina picked it up pretty quickly so she was helping Margaret get the hang of it. It does take repetition to learn it. Ask me how I know! I gave up counting after 20 something tries! And I still get confused just orienting the yarn over my fingers on the first try.

Margaret wants to use the tubular cast on for this pattern, the Dupont Street Hat. It's a freebie on Ravelry. She wanted to try her hand at mosaic knitting and this pattern has those slipped stitches which make a design without all the floats and bobbins of Fair Isle knitting.

It took her a few tries and she will have to practice at home when her attention isn't drawn into conversations around her.

 

I used the tubular cast on in 1x1 ribbing for the Celtic Feather Cap. I'm also cabling without a cable needle which I'm finding to be easy over 3 stitches. I am working on a project for my other knitting group which called for a 2x2 ribbing and figured out I could use the same tubular cast on method by picking up 2 knit stitches and 2 purl stitches in the set up row.

Nancy is working on her third Melt the Ice Hat and says she will take a break after this one. She followed my modifications to the original pattern to get a pointy top.

Barbara B used the 2x2 tubular cast on for the Alter Eco Welt Beanie.

It's coming along beautifully! Her stitch definition is perfect to highlight the basket weave motif.

Tina is working on the Throwback Pixie Hood. This pattern was discontinued on Ravelry but there are a couple of other versions that are very similar.

Jan picked up her Be Simple Variations Shawl again. It's a perfect canvas for this lovely yarn.

This wraps up another week with the Chicks. We will all be practicing our new tubular cast on so by next time we'll be able to knit them in our sleep! LOL! 

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!