Knitting Needs to Take Place

Michelle hosted Stitch and Chat today. Our usual place was going to be crowded with people seeking electricity and a place to go as a result of Hurricane Irene. I was grateful on two counts. Not only was it a lovely change of venue, I got to do a load of laundry since I don't have power back yet.

Lois was feeling very stressed by the aftermath of the Hurricane. I got her permission to quote her because I really liked what she said and paraphrasing her wouldn't do it justice:

"And a very big thank you to all four of you for taking my mind off of Hurricane Irene. I sorely needed to get back to everyday routines and to be reminded that life goes on..... Little boys need their blankie and leave food on the floor for dogs to eat. Bathrooms get remodeled, and contractors take an eternity to finish once they've started, and laundry needs to get done! And most importantly, knitting needs to take place!! Although I did very little of that.

And oh ya.... Lexus dealerships will delivery cars to people with folders. That was THE important take away from today."

Lois is working on the front of her sweater. All that is left after that is a little knitting around the neck and sleeves. She will be happy to finish this with time left in the season to wear it. She had given herself the deadline of August 31st. However the storm cost her 4 days of no knitting. Elizabeth explained to her the principles of knitting math and that Lois still has those 4 days and is not past her deadline. It's fine. It works for us.
TaDa! Robin's first sock completed! She's cast on for the second sock so as to avoid second sock syndrome. Well Done. And this from a woman who swore she would never knit a sock.
Having finished her baby hat in a week, complete with braided fringe on the top, she decided to start a pair of baby booties.
Emboldened by her finished adult sock, she started the booties without any assistance. Rock on!
Elizabeth is ready to cast on for the Brioche Rib Cardigan from Interweave Knits Weekend 2010. She got the yarn last year at Rhinebeck from Creatively Dyed Yarn. Elizabeth and I must be on the same wavelength. I've been thinking about knitting with some of my Rhinebeck yarns before it rolls around again.
She finished grafting one of the mittens, Forest Mushroom by Elinor Brown. She started on the thumb. We ran into some technical difficulties with recapturing the live stitches. She needs good lighting to figure it out.
Elizabeth and Michelle were debating whether Michelle can block her Abrazo shawl to measurements or whether she should reknit the stockinette part on a larger needle. We voted on leaving it alone and blocking it as is. Michelle is a week ahead of me on this shawl. I've got to keep up better.
Michelle's next project is a cardigan from The Mirasol Collection Book Ten: The Little Book of Nuna Cardigans. The pattern is called Violeta and calls for stripes along the fronts and the bottom border. It calls for using 12 colors. However, you're only knitting a one row stripe of each color in each section, so there is a lot of yarn waste. We decided on 6 colors instead. We played with so many different color combinations, I'm not even sure if this is the one we settled on!
Here's her swatch for the body of the sweater. The Nuna yarn knits up beautifully!
Here is her finished Gypsy Shell turned sweater. Lois was getting a little perturbed by our adding sleeves. She's knitting hers as a shell to wear under a jacket. We had extra yarn to use up!
When Michelle was in the shop last week, she fell in love with the Freia Handpaint fibers and the Kari Cowl. It should knit up quickly.