There's a new Chick in town

I know Nancy from my other knitting group, The Delaware Avenue Stitch Angels and know what great knitting skills she possesses. Since some of my flock flies south for the winter, I thought she would be a wonderful addition to the hen house. Nancy is at the far right in the picture and she made the beautiful Pappillon Shawl I'm wearing and gifted it to me. I will forever be in her debt!

Nancy brought along a WIP she is knitting for a baby gift for her daughter's friend from preschool. This adorable blanket is being knitted with Berroco Vintage Baby in soft pastels. 

For our current project for KtR she went stash diving and found this colorful yarn, perfect for the hat project called...

The River Rush Slouch Hat. The pattern is free on Ravelry and has sizing instructions from toddler size to large adult size.

Barbara K. added a couple of FO's to the inventory. The first one is the Ex's and O's Hat. This pattern also includes multiple sizes.

She also added a thick, warm Mistake Stitch Scarf. 

Those deep channels trap in warmth and keep the wearer cozy.

She just cast on stitches for her next project, a Helix Hat. The odds and ends of yarn she has collected will make a great colorful combination.

Jan jumped into the deep end of the pool (she still thinks of herself as a beginner knitter) to make the All Wound Up Beanie. It's coming along beautifully but at one point we heard a loud, long sigh and all thought, "Uh-oh". She thought she had two extra stitches but I think she worked it out.

 And if there is a disaster looming, she has a lifeline through the stitches so she can frog it to that point and begin again.

Barbara B. is working on a Christmas gift, The Panini Beanie.

She is approaching the decreasing of the crown portion of the hat and the instructions were about as clear as mud. If it wasn't for the photograph of the hat, she might have had a problem but she figured it out. We all laughed in agreement when she exclaimed, "I didn't know there was so much math in knitting!"

This will be my last Sophie Scarf for a while (we'll see how long this lasts). Don't get me wrong! I love the pattern but I chose tiny needles for fine yarn and I know the end result will be gorgeous but it's taking freakin' forever! At least I'm on the decreasing end so every eight rows go a little faster.

 

Maureen finished her Bankhead hat and didn't realize until she was almost finished that there was supposed to be a round of plain knitting between the K4, P1 rounds 

so she knitted the whole thing 4 to 1. This is what I called a design element, not a mistake! The hat still looks great and will fit a human head. What more can you ask for?

Jan added four hats and two cowls to our inventory too. I neglected to get the names of the patterns but I know the deep purple hat is called Jesse's Christmas Hat.

We are taking off the next week for Christmas celebrations. I will have three days of overnight company with family coming in from Pennsylvania and Connecticut so by Tuesday afternoon, even if they're on their way, I will be too pooped to pop! But never too tired to knit so keep those needles clicking and have a very Merry Christmas!

 

Janna is back!!!

There she is! Janna is the first on the left and we're so glad to have her back in the flock! She had knee replacement surgery in July and has been faithfully performing her physical therapy rehab. She said she had a little setback but is on track again and in less pain as every day goes by. And she can drive now, even though she has to use the new knee to operate the pedals. Keep up the good work Janna!

Barbara K. finished the Ex's and O's Hat for her granddaughter and has enough yarn to make another in the opposite color selection. You can tell she loves that little girl...she knitted with black yarn! LOL! 

A strong sign of true love!

I finished a basic slouchy beanie with some variegated-self striping yarn. It's good TV knitting with simple 2X2 ribbing and stockinette all the way to the top.

Margaret finished her Helix Hat using only two colors of yarn. There's a 2/1 striping sequence and thanks to the helix method of knitting, there is no jog at the end of each round knitted.

Jan finished a lovely gradient beanie which she said was a very easy pattern but not an easy yarn to use. It has a halo, that fuzzy stuff like mohair has, which made it difficult if she had to rip out stitches and work her way back in case of a mistake. The pattern was two rows of knit and a row of knit 2, purl 2, which were offset every repeat so the little blips in the fabric alternated position. It turned out to be a beautiful hat in spite of the fussy yarn.

Barbara K. is just approaching the decrease section on her Helix Hat so it should be finished soon.

And Janna is almost finished with her baby hat called...

First Winter. The free pattern is on Ravelry and includes 

a pattern to make matching mittens for a wee one.

Carole has markers set along the round of knitting to separate the pattern repeats 

of the hat she's making.

It's called Hot Springs Willow Hat which can be purchased through Ravelry.

Margaret just started another striped hat using these two yarns. When I asked her what pattern she was using she said she's making it up as she goes along. You know Margaret? That makes you a designer!

Speaking of making it up as you go along, here is a hat to go along with the In Threes Cowl I designed a few weeks ago. I wrote the pattern up with all good intentions to offer it for free on Ravelry but it took me two hours to navigate the computer nonsense to try to upload the pattern so I finally gave up. I posted the pattern on my Ravelry projects notes if you'd like to make one of your own.

Jan is using these two lovely yarns to make her Sleeping with the Zucchini Shawl.

It's going to be a beauty! She has discovered that she is enjoying knitting with the finer weight yarns, much to her surprise. 

They do make a lovely fabric when made with a slightly larger than suggested needle size.

My buddy is keeping me company while I write and as soon as he hears me move from the chair he'll be begging for food. 

So until next week, keep those needles clicking!

 

It's a deck day

Maureen and Carole survived their family vacations to Cape Cod and Bethany Beach. The families brought along the grandchildren so Maureen had a set of twins under one year old and three toddlers and Carole had three year old twins and her very pregnant daughter to juggle among the other adults who accompanied them. Carole said the undertow and waves at Bethany Beach were a challenge when the boys wanted to go swimming. Maureen had a pool at their Cape getaway, but it's still challenging when the parents of all these kids want to take a break too. Thankfully, everyone survived unscathed. But I'll bet Carole and Maureen would like another vacation to recover from the last one. LOL!

Barbara K. has come a long way on the hat she's making for her granddaughter. It's the Ex's and O's Hat on Ravelry and is a paid pattern. She needs bright lighting to knit that black yarn. You know the saying? If someone knits something for you with black yarn it means they REALLY love you!

Her project for donation is another Helix Hat. We told her they are addictive and she has fallen into the trap. It's a great stash busting project for left over scraps of yarn.

Maureen is making a Helix too. She just added the third color round.

And Margaret is making a Helix too! See! They are addictive! 

I'm starting the stockinette border on my In Threes Cowl which should be finished soon. I have 13 more rounds of stockinette to knit and then it has to be sewn into place.

Jan finished a lovely hat and cowl ensemble with a self patterning yarn.

And Barbara B. finished the Elis Cowl and blocked it to open up the Indian Cross Stitch lace. This is a freebie on Ravelry.

Carole took the design from the In Threes Cowl and turned it into a hat. Very nice!!!

And she completed her test knit of the same pattern which turned out beautifully. Now I need to find the fortitude to write it up so I can post it to Ravelry. Computers and I are not on speaking terms so it will be a challenge.

Carole also finished her Eyelet version of the Hitchhiker Shawl. She found the variation in the notes of another Ravelry knitter who decided to take the original Hitchhiker pattern and make it her own.

I finished the Waldkind and had some yarn left which I thought would be enough for a headband to match.

Not so much! It might fit a baby's head. Next time I'll use a larger quantity of yarn to be sure there is enough for a headband too. I used the Bouquet of Headbands as a guide but modified the pattern for I-cord edging.

I'm so hungry I could eat a horse so I'm going to finish and grab a snack.

Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

Inside knitting today (cough,cough)

There are wildfires 4+ hours north of us in Quebec so when you step outside you can smell smoke and the sky is very hazy and yellow. I hope our neighbors to the north will be alright. As a safety precaution, I thought it would be a good idea to stay indoors today. It wouldn't be nice to donate items that smelled like a bonfire. Not to mention what the smokey air would do to us!

Carole finished her Close to You Shawl in what seems like record time. Her yarn is more of a rich emerald green but the camera turned it into a teal blue. Either way it's gorgeous.

Barbara B. completed the Ex's and O's Hat. How I wish you could see the rich red color in person. 

It is stunningly red!

I worked on the Lexis Hat over the weekend because it's too fiddly for social knitting. After I tried this pattern multiple times with a deeper teal yarn and decided the yarn didn't want to be a hat, I decided to try it in the light teal yarn and NOW the yarn is happy! And so am I! To neaten up the stitchwork I knitted all my knit stitches through the back loop. I wasn't happy with the loopy-droopy look of the stitches when knitted the traditional way.

Barbara B. is making a lovely shrug for herself called the Wrap Me Up Sweater Scarf and here you can see all her stitch markers to help her shape the sleeve. The yarn is a soft Suri alpaca and merino blend that is as soft as a cloud.

Barbara K. wanted to know how much longer she should knit her striped Mistake Stitch Scarf. A good rule of them is to make it as long as outstretched arms from fingertip to fingertip, unless you want it to wrap multiple times around the neck. Then you can knit as long as you desire.

Margaret made up this hat pattern as she went along and actually finished it as she was leaving so I didn't get the end product picture. But it's ready for the inventory.

Janna worked the last border stitches of the Arona Cowl and won a close game of yarn chicken!

That's the game where you hope to finish the project before you run out of yarn (and naturally can't get any more of it because it's discontinued or the company closed or some such dilemma). As you can see on the upper right corner of the picture, there isn't much white yarn left, just enough to weave in the end. That was a real WHEW! moment!

Cinzia is finishing up the back of the lacy T-shirt shell called Panopeia in that buttery soft yellow yarn that we received as a gift from a generous soul who was sifting through her stash. This was the perfect pattern for it too!

And Maureen worked with an equally buttery yellow yarn for her Bewind Hat.

Janna brought her personal project she's making for herself to show us her progress.

 It's the Yara Shawl that requires four colors of yarn and follows the mosaic technique for the pattern.

It's going to be stunning!

Carole cast on stitches to start the Changing Staircases Shawl using a yarn she found in her stash that's been hiding for a few years.

   By the time she was ready to go home she had already knitting a few inches. 

I'm working on the Sophie Scarf using a pretty celadon green yarn just like the one Barbara B. is using, the Suri alpaca and merino blend. The pattern is pretty adaptable to any weight yarn as long as you use the corresponding needle size for the weight yarn you choose. It has a built in I-cord edging from start to finish.

                                           

Well, if you live in the Northeast, stay inside if you can. The air is pretty thick and there is a yellowish haze. Stay safe and keep those needles clicking.