Finishing up some projects

We jokingly call Cinzia "Mrs. Finish-it". She offered to finish a sweater for one of the Chicks last year and now the reputation has stuck and everyone goes to her for her finishing skills. When one of the residents at the local assisted living needed help finishing a baby sweater I asked Cinzia if she wouldn't mind. It needed to have the bottom part of the body finished and the sleeves and she graciously offered to do it. So here it is all ready to go back to it's orginal knitter.

And while Liz spends the winter in Florida, Cinzia finished the button band on a little cardigan for her which will go into our inventory after it gets its buttons.

Drum roll please! Dorah finished her scarf this week! She gave me permission to show a photo of the final finished project.

                                       

And I finished the sock blanket I started on June 11, 2014 to give to my son for his birthday. It has sailed through numerous gifting holidays until I finally finished it last week. When he puts it on his bed I'll get a better photo but I couldn't wait to show you. Here are the particulars on it:

578 blocks

511 stitches per block

30 minutes to knit one block

2,265 stitches in the I-cord

31.5 hours to knit I-cord

289 hours to knit all the blocks

total number of stitches knitted 297,623

total hours knitting and blocking 321

I jokingly said if I got paid $15 an hour, this would come to $4,815! And that's not counting yarn!

I'm tired just thinking about it!

During the week I finished a few more things. My Hitchhiker for donation was knitted using a Jojoland yarn but I lost the label so I can't tell you which one.

I snuck in a personal project called Chinook. This yarn is lovely with a little gold sparkle thread through it.

Barbara started a kid's cardi, our favorite pattern.

Depending on the buttons, this nice blue yarn could be for a boy or girl.

Elaine arrived with a bag filled with finished objects, a nice burgundy hat, two pairs of slippers, and a warm cowl called Present.

Now she is working on a pink hat using a worsted weight Cascade 220.

Geri, our "Crochet Queen" has a baby blanket on the hook. The variegated yarn gives her lots of color with little trouble.

I started a Mistake Stitch Scarf a few days ago and I am almost ready to start the second ball of yarn. I think it is Berroco Comfort, a soft acrylic and nylon blend.

Carole's hat has lovely cables. She is knitting it using the Magic Loop method. I think some of the Chicks are interested in learning this method so I might be conducting a lesson soon.

And Maureen is using Cascade 220 also to make a ribbed man's hat.

She has only a couple of more weeks to finish it before her accounting duties take over and we'll miss her until April 15 comes around.

That's all for now. Next week there'll be more finished items to show you. Tune in and check it out.

Sitting outside on a beautiful day

Hallelujah! We sat on the deck yesterday! The Chicks and I were trying to recall when the last time was that we sat outside to knit and I think it was the day the TV news reporter came to interview us for a spot on her show. That was in either June or July. We have had so much heat and humidity that it was more comfortable to sit inside with the AC.

 Even though Kathleen couldn't be with us, she sent in some finished sets with Liz. They are related through marriage. Kathleen's son is married to Liz's daughter so they get to see each other often. Thank you Kathleen for sending in your knitting. We love you and miss you!

 The Wham Bam Thank You Lamb cowl was a quickie Liz knitted up using a bulky weight wool. It's a free pattern on Ravelry.

 She liked it so much she decided to cast on for another one right away with the second skein of that pretty blue wool from Crystal Palace.

 It took me about two and a half weeks to knit my Mistake Stitch Scarf but I finally finished it. I used Paton's Classic Wool so it will be nice and warm. The skein has 200 yards and I used 2 skeins until there was no yarn left. It made a nice looooong scarf.

 Elaine is almost finished with her cowl for which she used a boucle tweed. Pretty yarn with a bit of sparkle.

 

 Even though my hat looks like it has a way to go, I finished it this morning and added it to the inventory. I used Paton's Classic Wool for this too.

 The evening group was so happy to be outside too! I don't think that we sat outdoors at all this year. Last night was a lovely, cool evening with no humidity. But we could feel a touch of fall in the air.

 Carole showed us her finished hat and...

 Lovely cowl. This is a free pattern from the great Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and it goes like this:

Cast on a multiple of 4 plus 2. 

Row 1: K2, Ktbl, P1

Repeat for every row for as long as you desire.

(Ktbl= knit through the back loop)

 Beth finished the thumbs on her mittens to add to the inventory. Shhhh...don't tell anyone but she accidentally used two different sized needles. You can't even tell, but we all had a good laugh over it and our own mistakes that we've all made.

 Now she has cast on for a cowl that is knit in the round on 95 stitches, K3, P3 for as deep as you like and then bind off. There is no need to put a marker at the beginning of the round as it changes with each round. When finished it has a lovely spiral design.

 Maureen was asking how much longer does her Mistake Stitch Scarf need to be. Our collective answer was "For as long as you have the patience to knit!" I have a feeling she's binding off as we speak. 

 I started a ZickZack Scarf with two colors that really don't look like they should go together but all the others I've seen knitted up have crazy combos too so we'll see how it goes.

And to show you the progress I've made on the Sock Blanket for my son, my husband is a bit over 6 feet tall and there are 484 squares so far and I still have at least a third more to knit. At 30 minutes per square, I've been knitting on this for 242 hours so far. When the blocks are finished I still have to knit an I-cord all around the edge.

I better stop talking and get back to knitting!

Meeting that Christmas knitting deadline

This week due to inclement weather my nighttime ladies (oh, that doesn't sound very good! LOL!) were forced to stay home where it was warm and dry. We've had a crazy mix of snow, then rain, then sleet, then back to snow. Mother Nature just can't make up her mind! Even now, as I look out the window, it has gone from teeny tiny flakes mixed with drizzle to a steady stream of big flakes, right out of a big Hollywood production! It's so pretty, even if it is a big pain.

So yesterday Cinzia, Elaine, and I worked by the glow of the fire. We all worked on some personal knitting since some of us have a Christmas deadline to meet. Elaine did, however, leave me a sweet pair of slippers for our donation inventory...

And this lovely rosy cowl.

 Then she set straight to work on a hat for her nephew. She made him one a few years ago which accidentally went through the wash and shrunk right up to Barbie doll size! He's a hunter so she found a wool color called "Camo" but as she knitted, the colors lined up perfectly into stripes. We all agreed that we kind of liked that effect!

 Cinzia is working on designing a pattern for a cowl which she made in the past. When she saw this yarn, which is heavenly soft by the way, she decided to make that cowl. However, just a few inches into it the tweedyness of the yarn seemed to overtake the pretty laciness of the pattern. So guess what's getting frogged today? We talked about the importance of choosing a color and texture of yarn that is appropriate for the details of the pattern. Sometimes you just have to use a solid or at the very least a soft tonal that won't interfere with the pattern.

 Cinzia worked on a lovely shell for her sister using a Marianne Isager pattern that actually starts with that little garter stitch block on the top of each shoulder. The whole garment grows in zig zags from that one little square. She's using a cotton/wool blend yarn and it's going to be gorgeous!

 In between all my other knitting projects I try to knit at least a block every few days to my son's sock blanket. He asked that I make it to fit his double bed so I made it a few blocks wider, just for good measure. I love how colorful it is!

 Well, back to holiday knitting. There aren't too many days left until Christmas so I hope you all aren't under a lot of stress. I'd love to hear all about your holiday knitting. Leave a comment and tell me what you're knitting this season.