July meeting - the end of the challenge

Our July meeting has become the traditional meeting to end our annual challenge. Back in September last year, I challenged the club members to knit something to wear on their hands or lower arm and I will be interested to see just what they come up with. Nina will be running the meeting as I will be away unfortunately. I have completed my item to wear on my hands or lower arm and passed it to Nina for her to show you all so it isn't a way of me getting out of making something.

Nina will also be bringing our club entry into the Sherborne Vase Competition run by the Guild of Machine Knitters. We haven't won unfortunately, but it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. And it has meant that 5 of us have been working together and getting to know each other better whilst we did so. We will be posting a picture of the entry here once the club members have seen it as there wasn't time to show them before the closing date for the competition.

(There will be no meeting in August, but we will be back again in September for our AGM.)

The date for the July meeting is Tuesday 7th July. I do hope as many of you as possible can make it. 8pm as usual and visitors are welcome to join us.

June show and tell

Two beauiful hand knitted shawls from Chris this month. The first is in a fine random dyed yarn.

The second is in a slightly thicker yarn. Both are beautifully soft and use traditional patterns.

This little garment was knitted by Sandra.

Nina has had a go at knitting a top based on the techniques explained to us last month by Bill King.

Hands-on evening - Crochet an edge

At our June meeting we learnt how to work a crochet crab stitch edging that is suitable to go round the edge of something we have knitted, either by hand or machine. Crab stitch gives a very neat edge with a little bump in it. It's worked in the opposite direction to most crochet stitches. If you have never tried it, there are some good sites on the web showing you how to do the stitch. Some of us found it easier than others to start with. Clover make a set of crochet hooks that have an enlarged handle which some members found more comfortable to use than others, especially those that had problems holding the finer crochet hooks due to arthritis. Everyone joined in and had a go and once they got the hang of it were surprised how easy it was.