Mother Nature, could you make the whole summer like today?

 It is 71 degrees and sunny, perfect for deck knitting today. The curtains went up to make sure it stayed pleasant all afternoon. We caught up with family news and heard about Jan's recent trip to Ireland where she brought back some goodies...

She bought this gorgeous sweater which we all agreed none of us has the fortitude to knit for ourselves. It is just a glorious collection of cables to boggle the mind.

She also found, after much hunting, some yarn to make a hat. I had heard that Ireland has many shops with ready made knits but not so much of a collection of yarns to knit your own projects. Rumor has it, the fiber produced by local sheep gets shipped out to be processed and knitted into garments which are then sold in the shops to tourists.

Jan will get to the hat knitting after she finishes her Zick Zack Scarf which is coming along beautifully!

Barbara B made sourdough white chocolate chip cookies and as always, there were enough for take home boxes for those of us who want a midnight snack. 😉

I had a worsted merino superwash and a silk mohair left over from a scarf I made for myself so I cast on to make a bandana cowl. Dorah asked me if I made up the pattern and the answer was complicated. I knew I wanted to make the pointed bandana style and I kinda-sorta knew how to make it but a few inches into it I looked up the Tubularity Cowl by Martina Behm and found out I was basically knitting that pattern with a few tweaks of my own. I'm on the bind off row now so it will soon be finished.

Barbara B started the free pattern Very Close Talking Hat.

She is almost finished with the folded cuff. Love that RED!!!

Speaking of red, Maureen finished her Bankhead. And she said she's determined to finish the reversible stripes scarf. Why do scarves seem to take forever to knit?!?! 

Last week I showed you the beginnings of Tina's project and said I couldn't remember what it was. Well, this week I found out! She completed a mobius cowl based on a Cat Bordhi pattern. It's long enough to wear doubled around the neck or long and drapey.

This week she started a bias cable scarf from a book in her personal library.

You can't tell by the picture that the cables are knitted on the bias and there's a dropped stitch on either side of the cables to create a lace panel. The yarn chosen for the sample is a perfect example of why you don't use a busy yarn with a heavily detailed pattern. (my computer is being weird again😡)

I noticed that before we were finished for the day, Tina frogged what she had knitted so far because she had a feeling something wasn't right. She'll have it all figured out by next week. No, wait, by tonight probably. 😉

Dorah is working on a cowl also using a nice neat 2X2 ribbing. It will be large enough in circumference to wear when it's not too cold but can be strategically pinned for those colder days.

Carole knitted a sweet baby hat for a friend who is celebrating her first grandchild.

And she finished her "Car Scarf" as she calls it. She takes long rides to visit her children and grandchildren and always brings along a project that she can knit as a passenger on those long trips.

Her current project is the Barrel Rib Reversible Hat, a freebie on Ravelry.

Well, I need to finish that bind off on the cowl. So 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!

A small gathering

It was a small gathering today but no less productive. We knitted to the accompaniment of Strauss waltzes playing in the background. 

 Even Fozzie decided to join in for a few minutes. He sniffed a couple of tote bags to check out the yarn and moved along when he discovered there were no treats for him.

Tina tried her hand at the new-to-us tubular cast on and made a couple of Melt the Ice Hats for Saturday's No Kings Rally. The little hat will be worn as a lapel pin.

She used the same cast on technique for a hat she's knitting for a friend. The Call of the Wild Hat might be listed under "Rated R" but it still requires good knitting skills. Her friend said he wanted a hat with deer on it, he just didn't specify what they would be doing.😉😂

Margaret started the 1898 Hat which begins with a sideways knitted cuff. The part that goes over the ears is double thickness so it's nice and warm.

Jan is working on the Simple Sideways Triangle Scarf which luckily we saved and printed because it is no longer available on Ravelry. You might be able to find it elsewhere online.

I'm working the French Twist which I first admired when Jan was knitting it. I had some Bamboo Pop cotton and bamboo blend yarn which is working perfectly. I decided to throw in a couple of extra repeats to make it just a tad longer.

Carole was further along on her Squarshy Hat last week but she had a nagging feeling it was too small so she frogged it and added more stitches to the cast on to start over.

My Pennsylvania friend, Connie, was admiring my Grid Gambit Cowl last weekend when we were visiting for my grandson's 19th birthday. So I had a private shopping day at Whole Knit n' Caboodle to choose some combination colors and she picked a lovely light gray and a variegated called Bourbon Street in a superwash merino DK weight.

And darn it all if four more skeins of yarn didn't just jump into my purse!!! These lovelies are going to be the Murano Squares Boomerang Shawl. If you like slipped stitch knitting patterns then this and the next will be entertaining for you to knit. The Grid Gambit is also slipped stitch/mosaic knitting.

I couldn't resist the warmth of these two colors together so they will become 

the Murano Squares Bandana cowl. 

I keep saying I'm not going to buy more yarn but I think I need an intervention! I certainly need more hours in a day! And maybe people shouldn't be tempting me with such beautiful colors! LOL!

Well, all this yarn isn't going to knit itself so I better get a move on and get those needles clicking! Won't you join me?

We had food talk Tuesday

Most of our conversation centered on food today.

Maybe it was because Barbara B's treat for St. Patrick's Day was 

a tray of sourdough chocolate chip scones.

Which were delicious by the way. There's a new Trader Joe's about a mile away from here so some of our favorites were recommended. Barbara K likes the salted pretzel/dark chocolate bark and I like the dark chocolate bar with whole hazelnuts. 

 Dorah finished her Sophie Scarf. She used a DK weight yarn and size 6 needles for a perfect drape.

The 2x2 ribbed hat I started last week got finished today.

 It will be paired with the mittens I finished last week.

Barbara B is on the decreasing half of her Sophie Scarf. It's a great stash busting project.

Jan started the French Twist scarf with a sweet cabled edge. 

We are so proud of her progress with her very first sock knitting project using magic loop technique! She borrowed a book from the library and dove in head first. 

Nancy's Flight Formation Hat from Benjamin Matthews is showing great stitch definition.

Carole wore her Nurmilintu Scarf knitted in her favorite color. It's a sweet little triangle with just enough bits of lace to keep it interesting.

She dipped into her stash to find the last bits of hand dyed yarn left after she knitted a vest many years ago. The colors are so pretty.

Barbara K gathered some remnants of leftovers to make a striped hat.

Dorah found alpaca yarns in her stash to make a striped beanie.

These will make a nicely soft and warm hat for The Falcon Boutique.

Now that I've finished the neon orange hat and mittens, I think I'll choose a quieter color to start my next project. If you need me, I'll be head first in the yarn bins looking for inspiration. Have a great week and keep those needles clicking!