The 2011 Challenge

Back in September 2010 at our AGM I told members about the challenge for the year. This time I had chosen custion covers. Usual rules applied i.e. that you could not buy anything for it, everything used had to come from your stash or be given to you by someone else from their stash.


The cushion with leaves has been knitted by Sylvia. on her knitting machine, including all the leaves.


Chris knitted this blue and white cushion. Handknitted of course, knitted from the centre out. The button in the middle is a great idea. Chris hadn't had time to finish the back, so this piece is pinned to a cushion pad. I bet she finishes it soon.







Liz knitted this cushion and entered it into the Guild of Machine Knitters competition this year. It wasn't a winner, but we all thought it looked really good. She knitted it on one ofher chunky machines.


Shirley knitted this aran style cushion cover. It is another one that is a front only, but hopefully a back will get knitted as it looks really good, and would complement any decor.

This cushion has been knitted by Marcia using very very large needles and a number of strands of yarn. It is quite hard to knit like this so you can only do a few rows at a time. But it gives a lovely effect. By using larger still needles and more yarn you can even knit your own floor covering.

This round cushion is good too. It's all garter stitch and is great fun.

An unexpected treat!

The day before our July meeting I received a phone call from a lady (whose name I didn't get, so apologies to her) asking if she could bring some yarn and magazines to the club as she wanted to get rid of them. She was giving it all away, not trying to sell it. As we were having a sales table at the July meeting I agreed that she would bring it all along to the club meeting and we would find a good home for it. Silly me didn't ask how much yarn or how many magazines!

Well, she came along to the meeting, with her husband to help unload her car (a large 4x4 SUV type), and proceeded to give us numerous black bags full of yarn for hand and machine knitting and a few magazines. There was so much yarn that it would never have fitted into my estate car which is not small. We didn't have time to sort what was there as she arrived at the same time as the members and she didn't stop for the meeting.

So we opened the bags and left them on the floor for people to rummage. Now remember that we had also had someone bring yarn along the month before so I wasn't expecting much yarn to go home with others, rather than me. Experience tells me that if I gave the yarn away not much would go as people are too polite to take much, so I told everyone that a full cone of yarn, or enough handknitting yarn to knit a garment was £1, and if it was a part cone or similar of the hand knitting yarn then it was less. The money collected would go to our charity of the year, the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton Branch.

And this is what we looked like as we rummaged in those bags! These photos were taken after the first inspection and the frenzy had died down. I almost forgot to take the photos.

By the end of the evening the bags of yarn fitted into the back of my car, with seats still up. And I had £85 in my pocket to pass on to the charity. So thank you to everyone who took some home with them. I shall be interested to see what you all knit with it.

There is still some yarn left which will eventually get used. The easy to knit 4 ply yarn will probably come with me to exhibitions and be knitted into scarves, hats etc for the homeless. The machine washable yarns may well get used for pet blankets for the animal rescue charities and anything left will be used as appropriate. None of it will go to waste.

I hope that the lady who donated the yarn will check with the blogspot to see what happened on the evening she gave us the yarn. A big, big thank you to her. None of the yarn will be wasted.