Your greatness is not what you have, it's what you give.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The afternoon crew busy with knitting

Bad weather and a migraine conspired together to cancel our evening session with the Chicks but the afternoon ladies got together to share our knitting.
Kathleen finished her Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket and found the perfect buttons for it. She used an acrylic yarn so it can be tossed into the washing machine and dryer without fear of shrinking.
 Kathleen's daughter, Pat, visited her over the weekend and left her newly knitted Brickless to show us. It's a lovely scarf/shawlette which uses 3 different stitch patterns to adorn it.
 Barbara graciously offered to be our model to show only one of the many ways Brickless can be worn.
 Elaine decided she needed an easy pattern on which to work while we talked so she's working on our future inventory to make a Mistake Stitch Scarf using Berroco Vintage yarn. This is a very easy stitch that makes a thermal fabric that is cozy and warm. The pattern is made with a multiple of 4 + 3 extra stitches (ie: 39 stitches, 36 + 3= 39), then the pattern repeat for every row is K2,P2 to last 3 stitches, then K2, P1. Bind off in pattern, weave in loose ends and wear it!
 Kathleen started another sweater, her favorite Cabin Fever Cardigan. The yarn is a nice blue and white tweed from Plymouth Yarns Encore. This yarn is a blend of acrylic and wool so it too is machine washable and dryable.
 
 My needles cried out for some scarves even though we're working on baby clothes so I started two this week. The first one is Chinook, a very easy triangular scarf on which the edging is knitted simultaneouly with the body of the scarf. This pretty bronze colored yarn has a slightly golden thread running through it.
 The second scarf is Ripples. I am using Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors II Sock Yarn in the color Stones Dancing in the Fog. These are both fun projects to knit and I'm really enjoying them.
 I showed you this sweater last week and this week it has a finished bottom edge and the sleeves are on the magic loop needle. I'm knitting them both at the same time so I can make sure the decreases and the lengths are exactly the same in both sleeves.
I found a video that someone posted on Facebook that shows hand exercises for people who knit or crochet for long periods of time. When we knit our hands are in a clenched position for so long that it can cause repetitive stress injuries but this video shows how to avoid this with a simple rubber ball. Try it and let me know what you think. It has helped me.

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