Last week it was the rain. This week it's Canadian wildfire smoke and heat. We're inside again.

Fozzie thought he could sneak up on a chair before the Chicks arrived but as soon as people started coming through the door, he hightailed it outta here! 

I guess it was the enthusiastic conversation that sent him on his way. We were quite an animated group this afternoon! Dorah just returned from a Dewey Beach vacation with her kids and in spite of some cloudy days, she had a wonderful and relaxing time. Carole brought us up to date on her youngest grandson, who is adorable with all his rolls of baby love on his arms and legs. And there was the usual comparison of notes about our current projects. 

It's just like show and tell when we were little kids! I love it!!!

Barbara B brought sourdough brownies from her magic kitchen. I am embarrassed to admit I haven't had one...yet😉 I was so busy knitting I forgot to try one. But as soon as I'm done posting, I'm going to pour myself a large glass of ice cold milk and have a moment with the chocolate.

Nancy finished her hat with the Noro yarn Dorah gave her. We all loved the final result. She said in spite of a few splinters, she enjoyed the project.

Tina finished her lacy diagonal cables scarf. 

It blocked beautifully so you can see the movement of those cables.

This will be her next project from the same pattern book. Using the same yarn as the scarf...

she made an easy Italian Tubular cast on which starts with a figure 8 cast-on on a magic loop needle.

I went stashdiving and found these two yarns which I thought would make a nice subtle color changing cowl. The pattern is 100 Colors Cowl, a paid pattern on Ravelry. I thought that not everyone loves loud colors the way I do, so a quiet color combination would be nice for someone who prefers this.

Dorah admitted to not knitting even one stitch while on vacation 

so she has a little bit left to finish her Workday Scarf.

Barbara K started a Benjamin Matthews hat called Dart and Dash Beanie. He's our all time favorite pattern designer because his patterns have easy to follow directions but interesting designs to keep you entertained while you knit.

Jan has started a hat using her souvenir yarn from Ireland. She was disappointed with the uneveness of the stitches but that's the beauty of hand knit items using a rustic yarn.

Carole's Sophie Scarf has grown in length since we last saw it. This is a great pattern for social or tv knitting as long as you keep count of the rows.

Maureen's Through the Forest Hat is gorgeous with those perfectly knitted cables. The yarn has great stitch definition which enhances their depth and contours.

Barbara B is almost finished with her String of Lights Socks. Just a bit more on the toe and then on to the kitchener stitch to close it off.

Margaret's 1898 Hat is almost ready to close the ear and cuff portion. Then she will fold it in half so the I-cord edge becomes the edge of the cuff and will pick up stitches to knit the crown.

Nancy just reached the color work section on her Leaded Light Cowl. The pattern includes instructions for a matching hat and it's all free on Ravelry. This might have to go into my queue for a project soon.

Ok, now I'm going to have that brownie! Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

You could poach an egg out there!

It's 93 degrees, feels like 97! and humid! UGH! I don't know which is worse, the heat or the fact that I can't breathe underwater. But thank goodness for air conditioning! I always say if I don't have goosebumps on my arms, it's not cool enough. I guess that's what happens when you were a polar bear in another lifetime. 😉

Barbara B made sourdough pretzel bites which we dipped in Dijon Mustard while we...

chatted about grandkids, kids, vacations, and food. 

Barbara's pretzels are a big hit among the Chicks! And as Barbara said, the recipe says it makes 6 large knotted pretzels so if she makes them into little nuggets, we really aren't eating all that much. 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!😉

Barbara K has made progress on the pink hat she is making to match the scarf from a few weeks back. The bulky weight yarn makes it a quick knit!

Margaret was funny! She "confessed" that she really didn't have time to knit at home so we made her recite 3 Hail Marys! LOL! Her Helix Hat is coming along.

Dorah's baby alpaca scarf is a little longer. Sometimes the Chicks don't want me to take a picture of their projects since they think it's taking too long to complete. But that's the whole point! We aren't little elves that wave our magic wands and have a 60 inch scarf knitted overnight! 

Wouldn't it be great if we could though?!?!

Barbara B's Mill City Shawl is a pretty combination of stitch patterns.

A close up shows the diagonal pattern.

Carole's Sophie Scarf is getting longer. 

 

And so is her One Row Handspun Scarf. She frogged the progress she had made because she didn't like the way the edges were looking. On the remake she decided to slip the first stitch purlwise with yarn in front and knit the last stitch. With this method, you have to add two extra stitches to your cast on for the edge stitches.

I had these two balls of yarn left over from my Grid Gambit Cowl and decided to design something with it. I'm calling it Corrugated Cowl and when I get the pattern written up and test knitted, I'll post it for free on Ravelry. 

And here's a quick lesson on how to pick colors for a colorwork project when you want a sharp contrast. Take a photograph of the yarns you want to use and edit it to look like a black and white photo. If the grays are too close in color to see a defined delineation between the patterns, then you know they won't work in this project. You need a sharp contrast as you see here. (forgive the underlining. My computer decided this is the way things will be from now on😡)

Fozzie is bugging me, nipping my elbows as I type and trying to bite the wires to my computer so I guess I'm finished for the day! Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

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!

Deck Knitting Commences

While the sun was out, it was comfortable for the first time on the deck. But when the clouds rolled by it was a little chilly. Who cares?!?! We were getting our fresh air! It was almost a full house too. In a few weeks we will be welcoming Cinzia back from sabbatical.

Barbara B's treat today was sourdough rhubarb coffee cake. The cinnamon topping added a depth of flavor to the sweet rhubarb scattered throughout the cake.

She wore her Zomboni Scarf today which you might remember her knitting these past few weeks.

Mill City Shawl is the next shawl she's knitting. This is a freebie on Ravelry.

Another one of Barbara B's projects is May I Borrow This, Please, and another freebie on Ravelry.

She's using this gorgeous DK weight rainbow yarn from Urth Yarns called Harmony which she bought at Cece's Wool and More in Guilderland.

Dorah finished her alpaca 2x2 ribbed hat and has enough yarn left over to knit a matching scarf.

Tina completed her hat for which she used a Navajo ply technique to increase the gauge of the fine weight yarn she had on hand.

And she started another hat with what yarn is left over!

I'm working on a baby alpaca headband that has a braided cable look at the front. I've searched YouTube to find the video I used to write up the pattern but alas, some of the things I find on sleepless nights get lost, never to be found again.

Barbara K's American Beauty Rose hat has grown since last week. She has more yarn at home to make a scarf to match.

Jan started the ZickZack Scarf, a popular pattern on Ravelry (free) which resembles the Missoni designs of high end fashion.

Nancy finished her Dupont Street Hat and has started...

The Workday Scarf. The colors of her yarn are lovely!

This is another free pattern on Ravelry.

Maureen has finished the ear cuff portion of her 1898 Hat and is using up some sock yarn to jazz up the crown of the hat.

Margaret's Roxana Reversible Beanie has reached the decreasing portion of the pattern. The directions say to purl two together through the back loop but it is an awkward technique so between the two of us we figured out how to slip the stitches, one at a time, and reorient the position on the needle and then purl them together.

Carole just started a Sophie Scarf but she also brought...

a tried and true pattern from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee called the One Row Handspun Scarf. Carole calls this her car project, one which she can knit while taking the long ride to visit family out of state.

My "Supervisor" is signaling that it's time to cuddle so I'll end here and wish you...

A great week ahead and don't forget to keep those needles clicking!