Fall is Here!!

Our Group is forging ahead into fall now, and lots of the people who were just beginners a few months ago are also forging ahead with their first scarf/shawl.   I find it so interesting to see all these yarns knitted up and what they look like compared to just in a ball on the shelf.  They really take on a new life.  The shop has offered Blossom Street for the Multnomah project and some are using this with a contrasting color and some are using a complete different yarn, as the weeks go on I will get some photos to share, but for now I have about talked Multnomah to death, but I gotta say its a fun, easy knit and I am making another one too!

The shop also has some yarn that sorta seems to be just sleeping right now, and it knits up so soft and pretty.  Its Berroco Vintage (oh I hope I have the right name!), and comes in lots of colors and soft heathers.  Its a worsted yarn coming in about $7 a skein.  Vicki has knitted up a red swatch in two different needle sizes so people can see how nice an soft and squishy it is, but I thought I would see what I could find through the internet of things that this yarn would knit up like that would give you OB's some easy holiday projects...So here you go - get inspired, check out Ravelry for some free patterns and get out of your comfort zone!


 

A New Group Project Started Today

 Vicki has worked out your next group project.  Its a shawl from Ravelry called Multnomah.  You see here a finished one and Vicki doing hers in a nice tomato soup color.  This yarn is being offered to our group at a special price for this project. Be sure to mention this when you get your pattern and yarn at the shop.  Of course you don't need to use this yarn but it is luxurious and squishy.  You will need size #4 cable needles and at least a 32 inch cable. The Yarn is Blossom Street which is a sock yarn, and you will only need one skein.  If you want to jump ahead feel free to do so as already 4 are in the progress as of today!

 Candy has chosen to do a couple in different colors with these yarns here.  I can't wait to see how the colors blend out.  One of the new knitters is using some of the very classy linen yarn in two color ways - this should be really exciting to watch grow.

Speaking of yarn, if you want to work on another  Downton Abby Hat, the shelf has been stocked with more of the Thaki yarn - yummmmmm, gotta love those tweeds.  

 Here is a very poor quality of a photo of the colors in the Blossom Street yarn's for the KAL ~ KnitALong for the group.  

One of our knitters today played fashion with the one I finished and I must say it looked amazing on her.

You can make these larger also, this just happens to be how big I made mine according to the written pattern.

Vicki has the pattern at the shop and also you can get it on Ravelry and we will try and post it here later if you want to copy and paste and print it out.   Its called - Multnomah Shawl - easy pattern for beginners.

FO's and UFO's

 The OddBalls are a tangled yarn with new balls showing up and projects in various stages. 

 The group project/Downton Hat update ; 3  finished and 3 or 4 about to be finished making a total of 6 completed hats! I saw them last night and all are on the last leg and looking SO good!   Keep working gals.  I sure hope we can all get together for a toast and photo op of us all in our very cool hats!

 This shawl I finished  in the pinks and magenta's  is from Ravelry - a pattern called Peruvian Central - yes it was easy.  Garter stitch and purl - can't get much easier than that!  This yarn is Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Oxyblood and Vintage Sari.    So luxurious to knit with and even better when blocked out. 

I hope eventually to get everyones Ravelry name so we can be friends on Ravelry.  If you look for me there I am Timelessdog! This is where its happening with advice, free patterns and so many yarn ideas - maybe we need a class or a short 10 minutes on how to use the site to your benefit!  I use it constantly to see what others have made with a particular yarn and how it looks knitted up!

 Your overworked leader Vicki aka: Ripley has this pattern waiting for the group to begin.   Its called Multnomah.  Super simple shawl, again a free pattern download on Ravelry - hint its http://www.ravelry.com
search  Multnomah - The shops yarns that would work nice for this might include Pagewood Farm's Denali sock yarn.   I happened to use KnitPicks Chroma (color impressionist) fingering yarn for mine, but Poems Sock yarn from the shop would yeild a similar look in a amazing colorways too.

Several Multnomah shawls are in progress, you can use scraps on this too for stripes or whatever your heart desires.  Take a  look at how the hundreds of others have knit this up to get ideas over on Ravelry!

 Part of the fun of finished a project is taking a photo of it to share.  WE NEED PHOTOS ladies!   Even if its just the start of something, we are here to encourage you to get from UFO which of course is Unfinished Object to a FO a Finished Object.   Phew, I am exhausted with all this encouragement.

Don't feel bad  if you frog something to the curb either, because its just what happens sometimes, and a good yarn to tell.  I just  frogged some very cool siberian slippers I started. I fell in love with the patten and they looked so incredibly amazing at first, only to hate them at the last.  They have left in the trash!   Seriously, not every project is a winner!   Don't expect it, just enjoy the journey.

Do you remember the Summer Waves Cardi!   I knit two of these this year, love it and Oh hey  - the pattern is on Ravelry!
Three cardi's  have been finished by OddBalls and 3 more are on the needles by others in our group.  Lets plan a photo op!

Besides my push to get you on Ravelry I want to mention Craftsy.com.   The workshops they offer are really amazing.  I am currently taking the toe up sock workshop and next post I will share with you some of the fun.

Last but not least ~ The Odd Balls split  into a Friday Morning group 10AM to Noon and has kept our original Tues evening gathering from 5PM to 7PM.  The OddBalls have grown!  The tables are overflowing with projects and yarn, new people and foundering people, seasoned knitters and new knitters, young and old - My format for sharing our knitting experience will probably be changing to more general news, yarn and pattern updates and education of your craft.   Till next time ~

A Yarn and A Skein

 Several finished objects showed up Tues evening, and gotta say this great shawl of blues is pretty amazing.  You really have to see it to catch all the subtle little pattern effects that Wasie has knitted.

 A little cool tool called a Fleegle Beader was also in use last night which allows you to put a bead into your knitting as you go along rather than try and string beads onto your yarn before you knit.  This is another wondrous shawl in the works.

 Jennifer is letting Ripley aka: Vicki take her scarf for a test spin, we fear she might not let loose of it!   This is a scarf she knitted with some of the lovely aplaca yarn the shop has using a simple pattern repeated over and over to give this detailed look of cables.

 Again here is that wonderful scarf and you can see Margaret now might run away with it!

 I am almost done with my Multnomeh
Shawl.   A few more rows till I bind off, super easy, with just garter stitch and a few yarn overs.  This should be a class project!   It would be pretty in solid yarns as well as tweeds or various looks.  This pattern on Ravelry for free download, and if you want a copy you can also email me!

I was gifted a few skeins of yarn over the weekend, and coming from a friend in MN came two balls of this NORO yarn called Silk Garden Sock Yarn.  328 yards to the skein and calls for a size 3 needle, but I could tell it was gong to be to fat for a size 3 and socks, so I tried a size 2 needle and the cuff would fit an elephant!   Frogged the idea of knitting socks with it.  Now what,,,Here they sit and not enough to do a project without one more skein of each color!   WHAAAAAAAAA.....Know your yarn and don't take the word of the label, try a swatch and guage.    This yarn  is made in Japan and has many different types of yarns in the most magnificent colors, but this one for socks - that dog aint' gonna hunt.

Frustration ~ End of the Month!

 I just can't say enough about what August has done to our self esteem!  Our needles are breaking, our yarn tangling and our brains melting.   OK not that bad but at least Margret's lovely knitting is coming along splendid!

 Candice who has been away on Holiday returns only to have Ripley rip out rows to get her lost stitch reclaimed.  Woe is her.  Ripley has tossed out her Zoe Cardi to the curve and frogged it for now, whats up with knitting projects lately!

EmegencyYarnPeggy has been fighting with her Downton hat and I fear its met up with Ripleys Zoe Cardi over on some street corner or frog pond.  Maybe it was to much sugar at snack night last week!

 Woe is Me continues as I run out of yarn toward the end of my Multnomah Shawl, so I ordered another skein - but not all was lost as Wasie ordered a couple too, and then I ordered another color.  This went on for at least 40 minutes choosing colors and product to get free shipping!

 Wasie also treated us to this show and tell of an amazing collaboration of work from ladies at her church, she picked up some border fabric to finish this up.  It has big WOW factor!

 Ms Ripley showed us the Russian Knot - very interesting and at times it worked, guess being Russian has nothing to do with that but very clever and should be really helpful when we run into the need to join yarn without a knot...here is a link on YouTube  RussianKnot   hope this link works, if not or knot, then just google it and you will see how easy it is.   Jennifer also demonstrated a knot but as August would have it, her knots broke and she has joined the land of Woe Is Me.

 This is just a photo of a lovely hat to entice.   The work is called Enterlac In The Round - Wasie can help us to learn this, I think its amazing and I want to learn it, course it could be flat and not round, a scarf or a dish cloth...just saying......  Again google for more on Enterlac.

 Not Knitting - What I have been working on while my brain melts with Woe Is Me and yarn issues.   Not finished, just fused, waiting my machine to return from service.

Here is the latest fox I am working on.  I usually work from photos and  the fox part is finished and now I am auditioning fabric for leaves in the woods.

Since I have run out of yarn, I must keep my hands busy or start another knitting project!!!!!

Hats?

 Tuesday night there were two more Downton hats finished.  This one is mine with the detachable hair clip for decoration, and the other we didn't capture on camera as it escaped into the land of the large.  Not sure if it will get a redo or not.  The other hats are coming along nicely.  



It was also snack night - good grief, so much food, and cake and ice cream, cookies, and crunchie things - All of a sudden the evening was over!  Anyway, some new sock were started, a new shawl, and various other WIP's. 

Ms Vicki got her yarn for her Zoe Cardi pattern - I love this, its so pretty and similar to the Summer Waves Cardi I did this summer.  Her colors are a soft cream toffee tweed with a touch of silk in it, the Yarn is a Berroco brand at HNT.  This is how the pattern looks, and I think Vicki's version will have some added length to the sleeve. 

Keep working on those projects!

The Fun Of It All

 We are getting down on Downton Abby hats!  These are just wonderful and thank you so much Ms Vicki for all your hard work and hours of knitting guages.  I think it paid off because there is no doubt we all love this hat!  I love how it fits, can you tell by my big smile, I am about to steal it from you!

 Jennifer also seems very tickled with your hat!  BUT will she be knitting one for herself - the burning question, what colors will she use.

 Rebecca offered us a great deal on this fantastic Thaki yarn in tweeds.  The hat only takes 2 50 gm balls (one color for each ball) and you can see that some of the color combinations are going to be truly handsome.  We are knitting size Toddler using this larger yarn and bigger needles.

 I started this tam last week and got it finished - just had to show it off.  I LOVE it, its so electric and amazing.  It really went quick which was a surprise to me.   Mini Mochi yarn, one ball in black and one ball in Neptune.

 This is the rim side - pattern is on ravelry and my handle is timelessdog if you want to check out my stash and projects.

 Peggy is sampling the tam, I love how the pattern shows up on the edge.

 Wasie - Happy, happy, happy!

Just so you know, I am still working on socks!

OK this must be my blue period because last month I finished a blue summer cardi and now I have a pair of 56 row socks done in the Pagewood farms yarn at the shop - it changed colors on me!!!!!Not happy.  Nothing on this skein said it was graduating and now they look like they came from two different skeins!   Oh the joys of knitting.  Anyway just finished these up 2 weeks ago...fit like a dream. size one needles.

The shop has self patterning sock yarn by Berroco and this is really pretty for socks and also if you want to work on a hat like a little slouchy.  I have not blocked these yet, they are just as is.







Mini Mochi yarn again, been sitting on this yarn for a few months and finally got Silk Roads Journey pattern knitted - it has a little ruffly thing going on for the cuff. 
I will never wear winter socks that are not hand knit again!