Deck Knitting Kind of Day

With 70 degrees and light breezes I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sit outside. Thankfully, I have drapes I made for when the sun is too overpowering for those who sit on the south side of the deck. But we weren't complaining! 

This is what was left of the delicious cinnamon sourdough coffee cake from the magic kitchen of Barbara B.

Carole made a sweet mini Soldiers Hat for a family member and is keeping her fingers crossed that it's a boy. But since the color is almost turquoise, I think it can be appropriate for a girl too.

She also completed the self-striping yarn hat from last week. I can picture the cherubic face of a newborn peeking out from under the brim.

Her current project is a simple cowl using the bulky weight yarn Dorah donated to her last week. She is keeping it simple for TV and conversational knitting so it started with a ribbed border, stockinette body, and she will finish it off with another ribbed border.

Janna's 1898 Hat is nearing completion. She adjusted the size to fit a child.

Margaret started the decreasing portion of her Easy Ombre Slouch Hat and learned a different way to make a double decrease.

Maureen started another Sunnyside with the lace option for her friend's grandbaby.

Barbara B is almost half finished with her Stair Climber Hat in a soft cocoa brown.

And Barbara K just started the Upward Bound Beanie in a nice neutral gray. You can almost see the start of the traveling cables near the needle.

This hat is the Willow Oak Toque which starts with a provisional cast on to make a folded brim. After I knit 4 inches of 2X2 ribbing, I will fold the cast on round inward and knit each stitch together with a live stitch on the needle, creating the look of the Italian tubular cast on without all the fiddly parts.

There's a hungry kitty bumping my elbow so I guess it's time to remind you to have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

There's a new Chick in the flock!

No, you are not seeing double! Janna's twin sister, Annika, joined the Chicks. Now that she has retired she has free time to do the things that make life fun...

like spend two hours every Tuesday afternoon getting 

the creative juices flowing with these great ladies.

Annika's first project with us is to finish off a scarf which will go to a fund raising program.

Janna is still cranking out hats with a bulky weight yarn. All the green is used up and now she's working on the red and speckled yarns.

Barbara K. started the Pleated Scarf with this pretty chainette yarn. Instead of spinning and plying lengths of yarn, the manufacturer prepared the yarn in a chained fashion, creating a smooth fiber which should enhance the stitch definition of the pattern. Cinzia is making the same scarf a little further on in this post.

Jan worked out the kinks for her The Simple Thing Scarf. She didn't like the results of the I-cord cast on the way the pattern directs so she did a little investigation on YouTube and found a way to improve it.

Her way produces a nicer edge than the way the directions tell you to knit it. And now she knows that you don't have to do everything the pattern tells you! Sometimes you just have to give yourself permission to think outside the box and try something new. There are no knitting police, after all!

Jan is using a slow color changing yarn so the scarf will have a gentle transition of color 

throughout the fabric.

Margaret is further along on her Helix Hat, using two colors for the single stripes. She was having a time with the transfer point but I think she has a grip on it now. The stripes no longer pull and pucker.

Here is Cinzia's Pleated Scarf. It was a very old pattern that Carole shared with us which is no longer available online. It's a great pattern for people who don't like to block their work because the scarf needs the stitches to pucker to create the pleats.

Barbara B. is quite far along on the reversible hat she is making using Periwinkle Sheep yarns. She and I both bought the pattern and yarns at the Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival a few weeks ago and she is almost done already. I haven't even cast on yet. But I've been busy with other things...

Like this Stair Climber Hat. I used Plymouth Encore and as you can see, there is another project on my needles which will become a matching cowl. I'll knit the ribbed cuff and continue to desired length with the stair pattern and then at the other end instead of decreasing stitches to close the crown, I'll knit another two inches of ribbing and call it a day. I have to admit, I really enjoyed making the hat. I would even go so far as to say it was good TV knitting.

Barbara B. brought a few FO's today. This is her Jesse's Christmas  Hat that has an easy cable detail at the beginning and then it's smooth sailing to the end. She is planning on adding a black pompom and gifting this to a family member.

She also added two more hats to our inventory.

 I need to take lessons from her on how to make such a luscious pompom!

More FO's for the inventory...Cinzia made the tweed black and red hat. 

The other four are from my needles. 

And a pair of socks were also added to the inventory, hot off the needles of Barbara B. 

They are the Mojo Sock That Fits (Better)

Now that the weather is turning colder I'll be knitting...who am I kidding? I'm always knitting!😉

 Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!

A surprise visitor

I didn't tell anyone before today, just that there was a surprise for them. If you look to the far right you might recognize a face from when the Chicks had two weekly sessions, an afternoon meeting and an evening meeting for the Chicks who were not yet retired from their day jobs.

It's Beth Mashmann! She had the nerve to move all the way to North Carolina to be near her grandchildren and children. LOL! I'm sorry Maureen and Carole couldn't be here today to enjoy the visit too. 

Beth did not arrive empty handed either. Since she lives in an area of the country where it doesn't get as cold as the northeast, she donated her beautifully knitted cardigan so someone up here can benefit from it's warmth.

Her knitting skills are beyond reproach! Look at that beautiful stitch work!

She also donated some warm wool socks. The sweater and these lovely socks will be added to an upcoming inventory after the yarn bombing in November. It was so good to see you Beth. I'm just sorry the whole gang wasn't here to greet you.

Jan so enjoyed her first hat with the Latvian Braid that she cast on another and applied two braids! 

Nice job, Jan!

She started a shawl with a tonal purple yarn which has a pretty lace insert between garter stitch bands.

It's called Galaxy Lemonade Shawl but it shows up as no longer available online. If you're interested and belong to Ravelry, maybe another member could share a copy with you.

Dorah's neighbor asked for a pair of socks so the two of them dove through her stash of yarn and picked out this self patterning sock yarn for...

a really cute pair of socks. Since they won't match each other exactly they will be fraternal twins. 😉

Janna finished one green 2X2 ribbed hat and dove right into a second. She had all this yarn left over from another project and wanted to put it to good use.

The decreasing portion of the crown has an interesting flow up to the top.

I started the Stair Climber Hat with a skein of Plymouth Encore from the stash that was begging to be knitted. It's a very easy design composed of just knits and purls in groups of 8 stitches so I marked off the round every 8 stitches to ward off any mistakes.

Margaret announced her hat would be finished before we were done for the day. And true to her word...

it was completed and all ends were woven in.

She jumped right into her next project which will be a Helix Hat.

Cinzia made the Sonoma Vine Toque which she said knitted up quickly. However, she was on such a roll, she knitted about three inches past the length according to the pattern. Instead of frogging all that work she just made the hat slightly slouchy and a scrunchy top.

She also knitted this lovely cowl which was inspired by the lace stitch from the Panopeia sweater. Not only will it be a fashion statement, it will keep the recipient nice and warm.

Now she is using up stash left overs to make another slouchy hat. Love that tweedy look!

We had a contractor start demolition on the en suite this morning and my poor kitty, Fozzie, is traumatized by all the noise and commotion. So I'm going to sit with him for a while to calm him down. It will be a good time for me to add some inches to that hat. 

Have a good week and keep those needles clicking!