Back inside!

The sun has not yet reached the deck so it was much cooler outside today therefore we are back indoors. My photographer had previous obligations today so I had to come up with a method for taking our group picture. I just happened to have a little cheap plastic easel that I propped up in the corner and was actually able to set the self timer on my phone camera to give me time to be in the shot with everyone else. My IT guy (aka my son) will be so impressed! NOT! LOL! 

I finished two projects this week for the Falcon Boutique. This first one was a VERY close victory in the game of yarn chicken!

This is the Fifi Cowl, a paid pattern on Ravelry. I used a Periwinkle Sheep yarn that I purchased at the Rhinebeck festival in 2013. Sometimes you have to wait for the yarn to tell you what it wants to be. In this case, I should also have listened to it tell me to read the pattern requirements more than once. In my defense, I might have been tired. I could have sworn the pattern said "a skein" of 100 yards of DK weight yarn. As I was rapidly running out of yarn to make a reversible cable, long cowl, I reread the pattern and saw it called for TWO SKEINS!!! Oh well, it is now a small cozy cowl. 

I did the same thing calculating yardage for this headband. At least I didn't have to rip it out. Maybe I should have my knitting license revoked. 😟

 Carole started a Sophie Scarf using a pretty lilac yarn. Her I-cord edges are so neat and tidy!

Maureen is making the Olive You Baby sweater. It has an asymmetrical front with this lovely cable. She's using a stunning Malabrigo yarn, a color that will knock your socks off!

Jan is working hard at her Simple Sideways Triangle Scarf. Sometimes a project seems like it's taking forever to complete. And sometimes, it is! 😉

Tina finally used up that huge skein of yarn and completed her Petal Showers Hat.

And she has moved on to the French Twist Scarf using a pretty variegated green fingering weight yarn. It looks just like the scarf on the pattern page on Ravelry.

Dorah is enjoying the experience of knitting Stephanie Pearl McPhee's One Row Handspun Scarf. The baby alpaca yarn makes it soft as down.

Barbara K started a scarf at home and didn't like the results so she is making up a triangle as she goes. Looking great so far!

I have yarn left over from a previous project so I am winging it too. I was thinking of knitting a mosaic design but after casting on all those stitches and realizing I did not have the correct multiples to accomplish a complete motif, I decided to knit a corrugated ribbing all the way. We'll see what these next few hours bring. There might be some frogging in my future.

My stomach is telling me it's time for a piece of fruit so I'm going to try to sneak a mandarin orange without Fozzie hearing me. Wish me luck! In the meantime, have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

FO's and WIP's abound

Topics of conversation were all over the place today. Babies, dentistry, health insurance were just a few of the discussions bouncing around the room. Eventually, we talked about what to make with the yarns from our trip to WEBS last week. They were spread across the table for inspiration.

One of the patterns we took into consideration was the Phazelia's Mitered Baby Sweater which I made 

in 2017. It looks best if knitted with a self striping yarn to highlight the angles of the rows. But we won't be making baby clothes until September. 

For now we are still knitting for The Falcon Boutique at Albany High School. Carole finished a Bias Scarf to use up the last of the James C. Brett Marble Chunky yarn. The pattern is only two rows and very easy to memorize. Choose your yarn and appropriate sized needle, cast on enough stitches to achieve your desired width, then every right side row, K1, knit into the front and back of the next stitch, knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, K1. Wrong side rows are knit only across the whole row. Nothing could be easier! Just remember you won't see the shape until you're a good 3 or 4 inches in. Make sure your needle is a little larger gauge than what the label recommends so the resulting fabric is drapey.

She also completed a Squarshy Slouchy Hat. When a friend commented on how large it was, she explained it is for people with lots of hair to tuck in. The younger crowd likes this style and someone has already requested one from Carole.

Dorah completed her Helix Hat from last week. She has chosen more yarn for another already from the new yarns recently purchased.

Carole had another FO, the Royal Icing Headband which was part of our recent KAL.

Maureen finished her Olive You Baby Sweater for a friend's baby and found the cutest buttons!

She used a Malabrigo yarn, one of her favorites for it's colors and the lovely fabric it creates.

Dorah liked Carole's bias scarf so she immediately cast on to make one using...

a beautiful gradient yarn from Noro.

Tina is still working off that huge ball of yarn which seems not to have diminished in size at all.

She's knitting the Owlie Sleep Sack for our other knitter's group. I think Tina is one of those knitters who works on one project until it's finished. Gee! I wonder what that feels like. 😁

Margaret is in love with the single row, jogless technique for a helix striped hat.

Jan has a Helix Hat started on her needles too. It's such a fun pattern to make and uses scraps of yarn not otherwise in large enough quantities for a whole project.

Maureen had just enough of the Malabrigo yarn left over from the baby sweater to knit the Bankhead Beanie. It starts out with a twisted rib stitch for the cuff which gives it a unique look.

She finished last week's hat and started a cowl to match using the basic design from the Swirl Hat pattern for the body of the cowl.

Nancy started a Helix too! That gradient yarn is going to be a stunner!

Carole was going to knit a cowl but decided to go with 

Stephanie Pearl McPhee's One Row Handspun Scarf.

The yarn, she felt, was too scratchy for a cowl which might be worn against the skin. A scarf can be worn over the coat so it wouldn't matter as much.

I had some Valley Yarns Valley Superwash Sport in a pale blue. Having watched a YouTube video tutorial originating in Turkey for the stitch pattern, I was inspired to write up the project to knit a cowl.

Well, I'm going to start dinner, a cottage cheese and egg concoction that bakes in a souffle dish. I tried it a couple of weeks ago and liked it so tonight I'm going to put different additions in it. Gotta use up a fresh tomato before it goes bad. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

I love video calls!

There was almost a full house this week. Carole was visiting her grands and Dorah was waiting for the plumber, so they were not here...but...

I made a quick video call to Dorah so we could see her WIP and FO and she could say hello to everyone. Her Helix Hat is almost finished.

                             

And her LOSY Hat is done. 

Barbara B finished the Legato Hat. It has an interesting method of construction which involves knitting the ribbing inside out with the edge curled and picking up stitches for the crown. Barbara tried explaining it to me but my head wasn't in the right place to get it.

She also completed a child size 1898 hat and...

she started another one using fingering weight yarn and a smaller needle to get a baby size hat.

I completed that hat I was making last week. I held two strands of sock yarn together, one solid and one variegated and every ten rounds I dropped one of them and added a new one. I had planned on making this in the same method as Equinox and Musselburgh which has two hats knitted end to end and tucked inside for double thickness. But after knitting six inches of stockinette, I was getting bored and decided to make a single thick beanie.

I used a size 5 needle so the fabric is dense and will be warm just the same.

Nancy liked the idea so much she searched through her stash for some sock weight yarns and started one of her own. Those colors are perfect together too!

I watched a Turkish YouTube tutorial for this zigzag stitch which was knitted flat in the demonstration. After a little brain work, I converted the pattern to be knitted in the round and now have an almost finished cowl. It's funny that when I started it I didn't like the results but I pushed on and reminded myself that sometimes it takes a good 3 inches before you can see the pattern emerge. 

I'm happy I did because now I love it!

Jan is working a tubular scarf that has ribbing on both ends. 

She had a skein of self striping yarn which she cut up and rearranged so the stripes would be in ascending and descending order throughout the scarf.

Tina finished the Hoodola from last week. This can be worn with the ribbed portion scrunched up around the neck or turned inside to become a face mask to ward off cold winds.

Her newest project is the Artemis baby hat which she started knitting flat and then decided to knit in the round on magic loop. Rather than frog the portion already knitted, I talked her into just continuing by joining in the round and sew up the inch of the cuff that was knitted flat, later.

Margaret "invented" a new stitch. She said that's what happens when you don't pay close enough attention to the pattern. She misread the instructions that said to slip a stitch purlwise with the yarn in back. After a few rounds of slipping with the yarn in front, she wondered why it looked different from the photo.

After rereading the instructions, she got her answer. I like her version too! But if you want to make the Wavelet Beanie her way, just leave the yarn in front when you slip the stitch.

Maureen's hat is coming along nicely.

She is also making the Olive You Baby cardigan for a friend's grandchild. It has an asymmetrical front adorned with a lovely cable pattern.

We talked short rows last week so Nancy wore her Papillon/Butterfly shawl that is comprised of many, many short rows. It requires a main color in a solid and a slow, long color changing yarn for the contrasting color. She did a beautiful job! 

Cinzia is just starting a sweet little bonnet using a peachy acrylic yarn. She wasn't sure of the fiber content so I put a match to it and it melted and smelled like burnt plastic so we are sure it's acrylic. She started the hat in the round and then realized the instructions have you knit it flat and sew the seam which she wouldn't have wanted to do. So knitting in the round was the way to go.

Our Barbara B treats today were sourdough oatmeal raisin cookies. I decided not to feel guilty about eating them because sourdough is supposed to be good for you. ;) They were delicious and I look forward to having another with a nice cup of hot tea later tonight.

As soon as Fozzie heard the door close after the last Chick left, he was front and center and begging for food (so what else is new?). It's close enough to his feeding schedule so before he gets into mischief, I'll say goodbye and....

Keep those needles clicking!