Festive Activities

At the December meeting we collected a huge selection of items for the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton Branch. Thank you to all who made and donated in support of this very worthwhile cause.

   

 

 

 

 

 
After news updates and show and tell, Liz moved the meeting onto the crochet and beading workshop. Out came the crochet, fine twines plain and glittered, packets of beads and the 0.6 mm crochet hooks for the beading. Liz explained how to make necklaces by hand crochet and demonstrated the techniques. Liz also demonstrated the method using the knitting machine. The Long Buckby Machine Knitting Club were acknowledged for the patterns, they do have a very good website and is well worth a visit.

 

 

 In between the busy beading we all enjoyed some festive mince pies with our teas and coffees.

Happy New Year!

December meeting next week

It's come round very quickly again!

Our December meeting is as usual an opportunity to show your support for the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton Branch.  We will be collecting together new and unused items for them to sell to raise money for use around the Hospital.  It can be things you've made specially for the Hospital, things you've made and don't fit you or you now don't like, or things you have around the house and have never used and don't think you ever will.

We're also planning to do a bit of crochet and machine knit beading to make a pretty necklace.  It doesn't take long to do and is a great way of using up odd beads from broken necklaces and bracelets.  We will have some fine yarn and beads available so that you can give it a try.

Coffee & tea plus seasonal mince pies tonight as well.  I wonder if Father Christmas will pay us a visit like he did a couple of years ago!

Visitors are welcome.  8pm is the time it starts.

Questions & Answers

The evening was well attended and we welcomed some new guests. Liz provided the latest round of updates, helpful knitting and crafting information plus a reminder of the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show.

Liz provided a few reviews of the Knitware software so that everyone interested could have a look at some functions of the program and see how they could use it for designing and producing their knitted products 

Sally created a beautiful double bed jacquard blanket of her own design. She also posed a question during the Q and A session as to why a couple of stitches dropped during the machine knitting. Solutions offered ranged from differing stitch size coming from each bed despite same tensions settings, gap between the two beds for consistency and tightness and flattening of the yarn on the cone causing bounce off needles.

 

 Nina talked about the cowl top and jacket machine knitted during an Ann Brown workshop

 Shirley showed the jacket she had machine knitted for a Raglan competition entry

Liz finally finished her handknit kit bag with the removable insides with the idea that contents could move to various outers

Jean made some handy little machine knit bags

 

A major achievement for Stephanie in completing this raglan sweater for a recent competition entry that was donated to a local charity. Stephanie also brought in her machine to get help to remove the sponge bar that was stuck fast

Another Q&A was about techniques for picking up along rounded edges of a handknit jacket to get a neat finish. One of the suggestions was to pick up with stitches all facing same way as some can get twisted

 A couple of neck warmers hand knitted by Sue in alpaca in the round and not requiring sewing up

Passap machine knitted scarf created by Sue whilst in Australia using Barbara Fletcher's (President of New South Wales Machine Knitting Association) machine.  

November meeting soon

So the previous two posts bring you up to date.  And I can now tell you what we are doing in November.

We are having a question and answer evening.  We know that some of you have a problem or two you need answering, and a few have asked to see the Knitware programme in action so that will be the starting point.

Bring any yarn and needles/hooks necessary to sort out your query and advanced warning of it would be good as well so that we can do our homework and make sure we have a suitable answer for you.  If you have a favourite technique you are willing to demonstrate please bring that with you as well, and if we don't have time to do everything on the night, then we can have another session later in the year.

And of coures the one thing that I haven't said yet is the date of the next meeting - Tuesday 6th November 8pm

Look forward to seeing you and visitors and new members are most welcome.

Catching up - October

Diane came in October to tell us about how knitting had been part of her working life almost by accident and how her life and interests had changed over the years.  It is interesting to hear how others get so involved in knitting and we can often relate it to things in our own lives.  Diane had plenty of yarn left which she brought along for us to buy.  We can always add to our stash and as you can see plenty of people were taking a very lose look!

Some of us evey actually knit with yarn we've picked up at club - or in this case weave with it.  this beautiful piece of fabric was woven by Jean with yarn she had taken home from the September meeting.  She now plans to make a skirt and waistcoat or jacket from it.  There's enough yarn left to make a jumper to match.  We are all looking forward to seeing a very smart Jean soon.

 Others have been knitting and there are pictues of the items show this month below.  Memory and time has meant that I can't remember who knitted some of the things, so apologies to them and for this reason I haen't put names on any of the photos. 

So that just about brings us up to date, and it's almost time for the November meeting, but more about that in the next post.

Catching up - September

I've been very busy and haven't had time to update the blog - apologies to those that read regularly.  I've now found someone to help me keep it up to date so we will try and do better in future.

So to catch up on what's been happening - way back at the beginning of September we had our AGM.  We discussed club business and then showed things we'd made during the summer months.  Unfortunately I didn't get to take photos of the things that were brought along, but I did take a picture of a couple of the club members and you can see the lovely shawl that Christine made on her lap.

 Nina was in the kitchen making everyone a cup of tea or coffee.  Thank you Nina.

We also had a swap.  If we had things in our stash that we knew we were never, ever going to use, (the sort of thing that you buy on impulse and wonder later why you ever bought it) we could bring it along and put it on the table.  If someone else like it and wanted it, they could take it if they had brought something along themselves.  If they hadn't brought something they could put something in the charity money box for it.  As you can see from the picture, we all had a good look, and one or more people took something home with them.

What have I been doing - well helping on stands at exhibitions promoting machine knitting of course.  I've been to the Creative Crafts Show at Esher, Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts at Exeter, and the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.  At all three shows we had a wall hanging on display.  Part of it was knitted originally for Unravel at Farnham Maltings in February, and we didn't want to just throw it away after.  So this is what it looks like now.

It is nearly 7 ft tall and about 4 1/2 ft wide!  If you would like to see it, it should be on display at the National Needlework Archive, The Old Chapel, Main Street, Greenham Business Park, Newbury, Berkshire, RG19 6HW as part of their "Knit! Knit! Knit!" exhibition from Tuesday 6th November to Friday 7th December. 
See their website for more information: www.nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk

Pressing Matters in July

Erica Thomson gave an interesting and informative talk on all things related to pressing. She covered  tools and techniques using steam irons, boards, mats and yarns. Everyone had a chance to handle the samples and learn the correct way of threading a binding wire to get a straight edge. Erica demonstated how to press ribs for a professional finish and another surprising bit of information was that even the most unlikley badly pressed fabric was most often redeemable and she demonstrated the technique.  

A baby cardigan knitted by Sandra

Ann Brown design standard gauge machine knitted by Sue in 3 strands Metropolitan crepe

A treat for July

We have a guest speaker this month.  Erica Thomson is travelling down from the Nottingham area to speak to us.

We all know how important finishing is.  It can make all the difference to the look of a garment.  Erica will be passing on some valueable tips and demonstrating some techniques that will help us.

Visitors are welcome to come along.  We welcome machine and hand knitters.  The meeting will start at 8 pm as usual.

What did we do in June?

We had fun making Yorkshire Buttons. 

Ever made a garment but couldn't find a button to suit?  This is one of many ways to make your own.  Most of us had a go, but I think we were talking too much to get them finished!

There are other buttons we can try making when we have another hands-on meeting.

End of the 2012 Challenge

This year our challenge to knit a bag finished in June as we will be having a speaker in July (more of that soon!).  Here are photos of just a selection of the bags that were knitted and brought in.  No prizes as we don't judge them.  We use it an an opportinity to try something new or different, something we may not otherwise try.  Sally knitted the oven bags, a new technique for her ad one she will definitely be doing again.  The one with the flower has been knitted and felted, a first for the knitter.

I think everyone who did a bag enjoyed making it, and learn't something. 

And which one was mine?  Actually none of these.  I ran out of time and didn't get mine finished!  Maybe it will be finished this year and when it is I'll take it along for a show and tell.

just two of the show and tell items from June

These two jackets were knitted by Phyllis using the same pattern.  Both were woven, but using a different punchcard/built in pattern on her Brother machine.  The one on the right has had the floats cut.

Another beautiful shawl.  We just couldn't photograph it fully spread out as the wasn't room.