Post yarn bombing, take a breath

Do you remember this from last week's yarn bombing? The Chicks and I wrapped various locations throughout downtown Albany with warm clothing for anyone who needed them to take something. This was how Lewis Swyer looked at 1PM on Tuesday afternoon last week.

 This was how he looked at 11:30 the next morning. Ten minutes after I arrived home after our distribution, my phone rang. It was a reporter from our local Time Warner television station who had heard about our project and she wanted to interview me about our work. You can see her wonderful report here: http://www.twcnews.com/nys/capital-region/news/2015/11/24/chicks-with-sticks--yarn-bomb--albany-to-help-the-homeless-for-winter.html

Wednesday morning my email was filled with notes from three more stations and a radio station out of Utica who also wanted to do stories on the Chicks. 

Here: http://news10.com/2015/11/25/local-group-yarn-bombs-albany-to-help-the-needy/

And here: http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s3973320.shtml

And here too: http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/top-story/stories/local-knitting-group-helps-those-cold-30883.shtml

I was honored to have so much attention showered on my Chicks and hope the press coverage will inspire others to give of their time and talents.

 

 Now I can slow down and get back to my normal routine. Cinzia and Elaine joined me this afternoon. Cinzia saw a demonstration of this stitch on the Create Channel show 

Knit and Crochet Now. She was inspired to make this lovely scarf.

 Next week she is going to hunt through the stash to find more yarn to start another. The stitch is called The Indian Cross Stitch or Cross 6.

 Elaine started the decreasing portion of her hat and then...

 worked on a slipper sock for her granddaughter. She is using two strands of yarn, a great stash busting project when you need bulky weight yarn but don't have any.

 Yes, I'm still working on this scarf. It's getting longer but there is still yarn in the skein to use up.

 Dorah has a sweater she's making for her daughter but reached a point where the instructions didn't make any sense. So together we figured it out and now...

 It's a sweater body with sleeves! This pattern is knitted in the round from the bottom up (as opposed to top down) so the construction is a little different. The sleeves have to be knitted up to the beginning of the armhole and then the live stitches from the sleeves are added to the needle with the live stitches of the body. Top down sweaters incorporate the sleeves along with the body. Both techniques are fascinating.

 Last week Beth told us about an audiobook she was listening to and so this week she read an excerpt from it. We all had a good laugh! 

 Carole's Honeycomb cowl is larger than last week. Maybe it will be done by next week. I love the colors!

 And this week Beth's hat does look like the photo on the pattern. Some patterns need a few inches knitted before they look like something. A thorough blocking will enhance the stitches.

 Maureen's hat is almost done too. Everyone is nearing the end of their projects.

Time to pick out new patterns!

Read the label carefully!

Last week Dorah and I went through hundreds of patterns looking for just the right thing to knit. We began to notice a pattern forming that the items we chose to knit were being modeled by the cutest babies with the chubbiest cheeks. HA! She decided on a cute hoodie with I-cord ties instead of buttons. Then we hunted through the stash to find just the right yarn and chose a Knit Picks yarn in the prettiest teal blue. Tonight, after she had knitted a good portion of the hood, Dorah noticed the ball of yarn was shrinking very quickly and there was still a whole sweater to knit. All too soon we discovered that we had chosen two skeins of yarn totaling 200 yards and the pattern called for 400 yards of yarn. Ooops! Neither one of us had noticed the faux pas! So back to the stash and luckily we had a nice Encore in a tweedy white and blue. Back to the needles to start over.

 Dorah did make progress during the week on a gift she's knitting for a friend's baby. Those top-down patterns are great for a quick knit, no finishing after the last stitch is knitted except to sew on buttons.

 Carole started the Sunnyside cardigan last week and has already put the sleeve stitches on holders and is flying through the stockinette body portion. This week she will be on the hunt for the perfect buttons. This lovely yarn will give her lots of options.

 These little socks worked up quickly as I knitted them both at the same time on one needle with the Magic Loop method. I think I have enough yarn left to make another pair.

 I started a Sunnyside cardigan too. Carole chose to knit the cable version while I am knitting the lacy version. All those stitch markers are my landmarks to notify me when to knit the lace pattern and when to increase stitches for the raglan sleeves.

I can't wait to finish so I can show you the cute buttons I bought for it.

More Yarn! And wrapping up the inventory

It looks like our "Fairy Yarn Mother" visited the Chicks again! Many thanks to her for the most generous gifts of yarn! I can't wait to see the expressions on the faces of my Chicks when they see this.

 Ok, Kathleen, is that a look of "Oh boy! Look at all the yarn!" or "Oh boy! I have a ton of knitting I have to do!"?

 The ladies dove right in. It was like Christmas morning for big people!

 Kathleen and Liz set out multiple possibilities for projects. The creative juices were really flowing.

 Once everyone settled on what yarns they wanted we sat down for show and tell. Barbara finished a sweet little cardigan from the 60 Quick Baby Knits book. I think she used Plymouth Encore for this machine washable cardi.

 These sweet little mittens were also Encore yarn from the needles of Barbara. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

 Liz added another sweet sleeveless sweaters to the inventory.

And Kathleen added one too.

 Kathleen added this ensemble for our next projects inventory. Looks like she has the jump on the rest of us.

 Carole used up almost all the pink yarn on a preemie hat.

 The evening Chicks worked on labeling all our baby clothes this time. The afternoon Chicks usually do this but the evening ladies wanted the opportunity to reminisce about our past projects before they went out to comfort the little ones for whom we knitted.

 Look at all those cute little baby clothes! Our final tally was 88 items! Way to go Chicks!!!

 We had a surprise visit from my DD Amanda too. Well, it was a surprise to the Chicks, not me. She helped me sort through all those bags of yarn and organize them according to weight. Thank you Amanda, I couldn't have done it without you!

 Carole is knitting a lovely cowl for our adult projects.

 Her cowl reminds me of a peppermint candy.

 Beth is working on a cowl too. This is The Last Minute Cowl, a very easy, free pattern on Ravelry. If you can purl and knit, you can make this cowl.

 Maureen cast on stitches for this pretty hat...

 And Dorah cast on for this pretty hat. That's a beautiful shade of red!

And before I go here is one more finished project we added to the baby donations. I hunted through my button box for those three little autumn leaf buttons and had just enough yarn left for a quick ribbed hat to match. 

Now I'll have to change my mindset to knitting for adults again. My head is swimming with ideas!

Button, button, who's got the button?

We start today's show and tell with some finished items from Kathleen. Her favorite child's sweater pattern is from Cabin Fever. She used extra yarn to make a matching hat. Now all she needs are buttons to complete the ensemble. We looked through my three button boxes but couldn't find what she needs. They were either the right size, wrong color or there weren't enough. Back to the store. Or maybe Kathleen could raid her daughter's button collection....hmmm...

 Kathleen's Chinook Scarf was a quick and easy knit. She enjoyed it so much that...

She has already cast on for a second one!

 Kathleen's lady's vest sweater was another quick knit. If I remember correctly, you knit a flat front and a flat back, and then you sew the pieces together. Very little shaping involved and you have a smart looking vest. If knitted in a spring or summer weight yarn, it would make a cute summer T-shirt.

 While searching through our donated stash of yarn, Beth found a Berroco yarn called "Jaspar". We had quite a few skeins of it. Do you remember her never-ending scarf from a few months ago? Well, there was so much yarn left over that Beth was able to knit this Calorimetry headband/earwarmer.

 It contours as it rounds the back of the head. She also made...

 a nice warm hat and....

 a pair of fingerless mitts. I have had to take an oath that if I find any more Jaspar yarn I am to burn it on site immediately! LOL! While she says it's a lovely yarn, I think maybe Beth is a bit tired of knitting with Jaspar. 

Ya think?

 Remember I told you Carole would have her Olivia Cowl finished this week?

 Here it is all blocked and lovely.

 And one final treat to show you. Beth is knitting a pillow cover from our friend's book,

 Knits of a Feather, by Celeste Young. The pattern is different on the back but I didn't think to get a photo of it. It's going to be gorgeous!

Well, it's back to the knitting needles for me. I need to finish something to post for next week.

Finishing Up

Barbara finished the Baby Surprise Jacket and proclaimed it the last one she will EVER knit! I don't blame her. There is a lot of stitch counting involved which she finds disturbing. Funny thing is she is an accountant! But I know what she means. It's an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern which advertises it is knitting without tears. I beg to differ. I have to admit that even though I consider myself pretty adept at knitting, this pattern almost brought me to my knees the first time I made it. So now Barb just needs buttons and it will be added to inventory.

 Kathleen finished a BSJ also. Those bright green buttons really pull out the colors and make it pop!

 Another Kathleen project finished. This sweater is an acrylic yarn which makes it machine washable.

 Barbara offered to model a hat Kathleen made for our next project. How nicely it matches her sweater!

 We had a full house this evening. From left to right going across the bottom of the screen: me, Maureen, Carole, Beth, Karin. We haven't seen Karin in a long time. It was good to have her back in the fold!

 Carole worked on a chemo cap for our upcoming donation project.

 Karin finished up a pair of socks for her daughter.

 And Beth started a sweater. Check out those pretty stitch markers! They are like jewelry for your knitting!

  We were cracking up over that HUGE skein of yarn Maureen was knitting. It looks like an ostrich egg on her lap!

I finished a Daybreak shawl last week which will go into our next donation. I was going to make this shawl for myself using some sock weight yarn from my stash but after starting and frogging it three times I decided to try it in a worsted weight to make it easier to read. I really like the way it turned out and as you will see further down it helped tremendously with the fingering weight yarn.

 Last week I mentioned I finished the grey hoodie. Now it's ready to keep some cute little munchkin warm.

 I started another baby sweater this week. From this photo you can tell it will be colorful but it's hard to tell it's a sweater. Trust me. It will become a sweater eventually.

 Here is the Daybreak shawl I'm knitting for myself. The yarn is Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors. The darker color is "Past Midnight" and the lighter is "Cloud Dancer". I'm really happy with the results so far.

Well, I better get back to those projects. They aren't going to knit themselves!