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!