This week's culinary delight is...

Barbara B. made sourdough chocolate chip muffins for our snack this week. And yes! They were finger lickin' good! It's has reached the point where she is now taking requests. I think I heard someone throw out a suggestion for carrot cake for next week. LOL!

But we are here to knit after all so we had to wait until later in the session to get our fingers all chocolatey. 

Nancy mentioned to Janna that she had a pair of earrings that were designed after RBG's lace collar so she wore them today. They do look just like the Dissent Cowl!

Barbara B finished her Breathe and Hope Shawl in time to wear it today. She looks lovely with it.

Nancy collected some left over sock yarn to make a LOSY hat. The purple is beautifully highlighted by the Malabrigo earth colors.

Barbara's baby project is the sideways knitted Short Row Baby Hat.

She is using yarn which my daughter dyed using Kool Aid.

The fiber blend of wool and alpaca makes it nice and soft.

Annika was happy to start a scarf after all the Icelandic wool hats she had been knitting. The pattern is very similar to a feather and fan pattern.

Janna was coming down the home stretch on her Easy Scarf by Martina Behm. There were six more rows to be knitted before the bind off row.

She was worried that she would run out of yarn before finishing off the last stitch.

But the "Knitting Goddesses" had her back. She finished with almost 4 yards left over. If you ever find yourself with not enough yarn to finish the bind off row you can always use the yarnless bind off but it makes for a less elastic edge.

I am knitting the same Easy Scarf but with a lighter fingering weight yarn and smaller needle so it's taking me much longer to complete. Janna used a DK weight yarn and size 7 needle and I'm using a size 4 needle and twice as much yarn for a much longer scarf. At this rate I'm hoping to have it finished by next winter. ;)

If you are local to the Albany Capital District there is a brewery called Nine Pin Cider Works which holds a yarn swap on the third Thursday of the month. It is advertised as bring yarn you would like to give away and pick up new yarn to refresh your stash as long as you buy a cider. They even invite you to stay and work on your project if you want. This month only it is being held on the last Thursday so I'll be bringing my designated driver and some yarn. Maybe I'll see you there. In the meantime, keep those needles clicking.

 

You know that rule?

We knitters have an unwritten rule...we knit so we won't eat. Well, when Barbara B. aka the Queen of Sourdough, comes to our Tuesday get-togethers armed with her homemade goodies, we can't refuse! Look at those happy faces. 

This is why everyone is smiling! Barbara used some of the discard of the sourdough starter to make brownies. And boy! They were good! So we all had some nibbles and then got down to work.

Janna used Knit Picks Chroma fingering weight yarn to make this lacy scarf and brought it in to see if any of us remembered the name of the pattern. After some searching, she was able to find it to share with Annika so she could make one too.

Janna is smiling here because she has finally used up ALL of the pink, green, and blue yarns on the last Helix Hat in a long line of pink/green/blue hats.

She also completed her Dissent Cowl, a design to honor RBG.

Her newest project is the Easy Scarf from Martina Behm. Janna reminded me that this is the yarn she bought when we visited WEBS in 2018 and she's finally getting around to using it. Sometimes you have to wait for the yarn to speak to you so you know what it wants to become.

Barbara K. is loving this pleated scarf with the soft pastel yarn's lovely colors. The slow changing colors make a nice transition throughout the length of the fabric.

Carole's newest granddaughter, Ruby, has outgrown the first hat she knitted for her. So this will be the next size up for her.

Carole chose a Sirdar Baby Yarn in DK weight and a size 5 needle to make the self patterning cap with a rolled edge.

She finished it up before we were done for the day. The Simple Baby Hat is a freebie on Ravelry.

Earlier in the post you saw the Easy Scarf that Janna is starting and here is mine which I started over the weekend. My hubby and I had a lunch date on Saturday in Red Hook, NY and made our way home through Chatham where there just so happens to be a yarn shop called The Warm Ewe. I found this Lang Mille Fiori superwash merino in fingering weight and it called my name. By the way, lunch was fantastic at a Greek restaurant called Mazi. They just opened last year and I hope they are successful because I would love to go back and try many more of their menu options.

Annika finished the hat from last week and started what will be the last of the Icelandic Wool hats as she has reached the end of the stash.

Barbara B. is working on the Moose Balaclava, another free pattern on Ravelry. The original pattern calls for two weights of yarn held together to make the equivalent of a bulky weight but you are the master of your knitting so you can do whatever your little heart desires as long as it fits. ;)

Nancy's Dot Shawl by Casapinka is coming along beautifully. It uses fingering weight yarns and each dot looks like a bobble but is actually made by purling 2 stitches together so there's no annoying turning back and forth with each one.

You might remember Carole's Helix Hat from last week when she was worried she might run out of the green yarn before reaching the finish line. Well, I'm happy to report that because the rounds get smaller with each decreasing round, she was able to complete the hat with 10 inches of yarn to spare! 

Whew! That's cutting it close!

And you have seen Nancy's gossamer cowl in progress in the last few weeks. Today she wore it and it's gorgeous! The colors compliment her blouse perfectly!

We're going to spend a few more weeks knitting for ourselves and then it's back to knitting for a cause. The upcoming recipient will be the Alpha Pregnancy Center. We will be knitting for babies and their mommas so you'll be seeing wee little items in the coming months.

 Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Snow day, no snow day

As of Sunday night, the weather forecast was so grim that I thought we would have to cancel today's meeting due to the huge snowstorm that was predicted. Fast forward to this morning when I look out my window and see green grass, I immediately emailed everyone to tell them we're back on! It's a good thing too because I need my Tuesday visits with my Chicks! Today's topics were about my weekend visit to accompany my firstborn grandson on his first college visit. For those of you who remember when he was born, it's as much a shock to me as it is to you that he's a junior in high school and thinking about college! We also talked about home renovations and were able to avoid talking about politics until it was almost time to go home. LOL! Barbara B. wasn't here to keep us on our toes. ;)

Carole finished her Zuzu's Petals Cowl for which she used Poems worsted weight yarn.                           

She modeled it for us to show how lovely it looks. Those purples and blues look great with her shirt.

Annika is beginning to see the bottom of the yarn stash bag after completing two more hats for our inventory. She was running low on the blue yarn and had to figure out how to finish the top of the hat before it was too late. Her creativity led her to a successful finish!

Margaret added two more hats to the inventory as well. Try as I might, I couldn't get the photo to face the right direction but you get the idea.

Annika started another Icelandic wool hat. 

And Carole added to her Helix Hat. She is running low on the light green yarn so she'll be adding the darker green when needed.

She showed us her reversible hat in progress. She is nearing the end of the second hat which will be tucked into the striped portion to make a fully reversible hat with a folded cuff of the opposite color. It can also be worn with all one color as a slouchy hat. The Musselburgh Hat inspired me to write up a pattern for this hat using a different cast on and bind off.

Nancy repurposed the purple yarn from Zuzu's Petals Cowl to make the Dot Shawl by Casapinka. She shopped for the gray yarn at Cece's Wool and after browsing through several skeins of gray yarns, she picked the perfect one to compliment the purple yarn.

This gossamer mohair was another yarn she found at Cece's which was strategically placed near the checkout. How could she pass it up? It's gorgeous! And it will make a lovely cowl using stockinette and reverse stockinette stitch pattern.

Barbara K.'s pleated scarf is a lovely blend of pastels! The written pattern is no longer available but luckily one of the Chicks had a hard copy to share.

Margaret started another hat using a thick, warm wool. She's using a stitch that is reversible. When there is more progress, I'll take another picture to show what it looks like.

Cinzia is using a worsted weight wool from Paton's to make her version of the Zuzu's Petals Cowl. It starts out knitted flat and then is joined to complete the lace section in the round.

This is the yarn I dyed using Wilton Cake Icing Dyes. I didn't want the colors to pool so I'm knitting the linen stitch which has alternating slipped stitches with the yarn carried to the front side to break up the colors. It was started with an I-cord cast on and increases on both ends of every right side row. I haven't decided yet if it will be a cowl or small-ish scarf. We'll just have to wait and see.

As soon as the last Chick left and the door closed, this is who greeted me as I came up the back stairs. Guess what he wants. LOL!

If I don't give him a spoonful of food he'll start chewing things he knows will get my attention. He has trained me well! But I don't care. Fozzie is part of the family and as I tell him often, he's such a good boy. So I'm off to serve the King and get some cuddles in return. 

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

 

We knit so we won't eat

Today's hot topic was our family food traditions and ethnic flavors. Some of us remember The Feast of the Seven Fishes in our Italian families, the German butcher in Albany where you can still buy wursts, or the traditional foods we brought to school in our lunch box that drew curious stares from fellow students.

And then Barbara B. presented Dorah with her homemade sourdough Jewish Deli Rye that she made from scratch. Dorah cut into it immediately so we could all have a taste. Mmmm! And of course we all admired Barbara's skill at scoring the crust! It was a beautiful boule! And Dorah is stopping at the deli on her way home to get the makings for a Reuben sandwich for dinner.

As soon as Fozzie heard us talking about food he had to check it out in case a crumb might fall. Don't worry, Dorah made sure he got one of  his "cookies" too.

I picked up my long abandoned Northeasterly Blanket and added about 5" of the new color last night. Unfortunately, when I picked it up this morning, I saw a huge error where I knitted stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch on only one side of the chevron. I thought, "Oh, I'll just ignore it. After all, you can't see it from a galloping horse". But then my husband said something like, "Did the stitch change on that row?" Now, if he noticed it then I HAVE to change it. So I frogged back 4 of the 5" of progress in preparation to repair it, forgetting that...

                                          

the last stitch of every wrong side row connects to the side of the previously knitted band with a slipped stitch. I started knitting the next right side row only to discover that I released all the previous connecting rows and they had begun to unravel down the edge for about 3"!!! After saying a few choice words and grabbing my crochet hook, I was able to reattach the side edge, the part in the red box. Then before the Chicks left for the day, I noticed another mistake. And this one throws off the whole chain down the middle so I can't ignore it. I think I need a nap.

This is why Barbara K. decided to put her Zuzu's Petals cowl aside in favor of a more sociable Mistake Stitch Scarf. Some patterns are meant to be knitted while talking and some are definitely not!

Annika used to fly to visit family in Europe via Iceland where she bought wool for those beautiful Icelandic knit sweaters. She had bunches of yarn left over after the larger projects and decided to put it to good use by making hats. They are super warm and she's cranking them out like a machine!

Dorah decided not to make the Zuzu's Petals Cowl and instead is repurposing the assigned yarn for a Light and Up Shawl. It's a great sociable knitting pattern and will be a good use for her gradient yarn.

Carole had to spit splice more of the Poems yarn to get a gradual gradient for her Zuzu's Petals Cowl. Since she is using a worsted weight yarn

 it will be large enough to cover the whole chest of its recipient.

Carole put her cowl away because like most of us, she needs to change up her knitting often and so continued knitting on a Helix Hat. The color combo is very pleasing to the eye. You almost can't go wrong with these hats. Even colors that you don't think blend well, look great in a helix.

   Barbara B.'s Breathe and Hope Shawl is growing by leaps and bounds. 

The striped section looks so neat up close. It's important to make sure to use highly contrasting yarns to achieve a good design. If you're not sure if the colors contrast enough, take a black and white photo of the two yarns beside each other. If they look gray and too close to each other, they won't show up the design in the finished garment.

I blocked my Zuzu's Petals Cowl and wore it today. You might be able to see it in our group picture.

The day I dropped off our Knit the Rainbow donation to the Spinning Room Yarn Store in Altamont, two skeins of 100% baby alpaca in my favorite color just jumped into my purse! I played around with a pattern in my head and after five starts and stops, I finally knitted the gauge that made me happy and here is the result. It's not a huge triangle because there were only two skeins left in this color but I managed to get a comfortable kerchief out of the 220 yards of DK weight yarn.

I think I'll go take that nap before I tackle the blanket again. 

So even if I'm not, you can still keep those needles clicking!