We celebrated Margaret's retirement

At the far left of the picture is our new retiree, Margaret! Her first activity as a retired person was to join us at Chicks today. We are so happy for her but as she says, not as happy as she is! And beside her is our Snowbird, Liz, back from Florida just in time for fuzzy season. The poplar trees have let loose their white flying seed pods and thank goodness we were surrounded by screens because they were in great abundance around here.

Jan, Maureen, and Carole joined the rest of us in congratulating Margaret on her wise choice to retire.

I can't tell you how nice it was to have such a large group today. This was taken before Barbara B. arrived. We were all enjoying Dorah's experiences in California while she visited with her daughters. She was awed by the beauty of the varieties of flowers wherever she traveled throughout the state. Together they visited the giant Sequoias, went on a wine tasting tour, and thoroughly enjoyed their surroundings.

Now for some knitting. Dorah worked on a ZickZack scarf using these two beautiful sock weight yarns.

Just look at how beautifully those two variegated yarns play together in this lovely scarf.

Liz worked on a Mistake Stitch Scarf with fat needles and bulky yarn. This will be a quick knit and make a warm scarf.

Margaret worked on a hat, also using bulky yarn and big needles. She prefers the feel of their bulkier size in her hands. Jan and I were saying that the fatter needles are uncomfortable for us to use. Oh well, variety is the spice of life!

Barbara B. worked on her Irish Eyes Baby Blanket which is a free pattern from Caron Yarns. It has the same kind of stitches you would see in one of those beautiful Irish fishermen sweaters.

Maureen worked on her two tone cowl. At least I think that's what it was. We were all so excited to be together again that the conversations were flying all over the room!

Barbara B. was getting the lowdown on all the gorgeous flowers and fruits growing everywhere Dorah turned while on her trip. The most breathtaking were the gardenias that grew like privet hedges everywhere and left their scent to perfume the air.

And as warm and sunny as it was today, Barbara B. still wore her hand knit striped socks. They are even more beautiful in person.

Last week I showed you a shawl/scarf I'm making from a pattern my daughter designed. So this week Jan started hers using this lovely yarn from Cece's Wool in Guilderland. There wasn't enough knitted yet to show you any progress but next week I'm sure you'll see more.

This is my version of Amanda's scarf/shawl which is almost finished. Just another row or two and then I'll start the bindoff.

I can't begin to put to words how nice it was to see my Chicks together once again. Every week it seems to feel a little more normal now that we've been vaccinated. We are holding off on making any donations until early fall since everything we make is more for the cooler weather. This will give us quite the inventory to organize come September. Until then, we'll be keeping our needles clicking!