Friday, November 27, 2015

December Charity Evening

Is it really almost the end of the year?  It has gone so quickly.

December, once again, brings our charity evening.  This is the occasion when we bring along new items that are donated to the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton Branch to sell on their regular sales tables.  The new items can be made by us, and also things that we have bought or been given but for some reason can't use, or don't like.  The items are collected together and delivered to the Hospital one day soon after our meeting.

During the course of the evening we will also have a go at knitting some Christmas decorations.  If you don't have a pattern put "Knitted Christmas decorations" into Google or another search engine and you'll find loads to choose from.  Print off the pattern and bring it along with needles and yarn and knit whilst you enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and a mince pie.

Just to remind you - the meeting is on Tuesday 1st December, 8 pm.

Hope to see some of you there.

Fleet Club Knit-In

This is something we haven't done before, but thought it worth a try.  So we found a date when the hall was free and booked it for the day (a Saturday so that members who worked could also come).  The idea was to come along for as long as you wanted and work on your own project, or finish something you had already started.  There would be a continuous supply of tea and coffee, plus biscuits to help things along.

Of course the date didn't suit everyone, but over the course of the day seven members came along.  A couple brought their machines, and the others were working on finishing things they'd started.  It was a good excuse to knit all day, without interruption or the need to attend to chores.  We almost forgot to take a photo to record the event.  The one below was taken late in the day, after some people had departed.
Liz took the opportunity to knit the covers for the pillars at Farnham Maltings. Three pieces, 130 stitches by almost 900 rows each with some colour changes along the way.  She remembered to put in markers too, as this will make it easier for installation. They will now be decorated for display at Unravel in February.

Nina was all set to knit a jumper for herself, but her machine started playing up.  The carriage really didn't like knitting in one direction.  It screeched and put up resistance.  All our efforts made on difference and the machine behaved beautifully when she changed to a different yarn.  The only thing we can put the problem down to was static.  Hopefully Nina will be able to update us at the next meeting.

Carole, Julia, Phyllis, Rita and Vee were all working on handknit projects, or completing/assembling garments knitted on their machines. 

It was a good day and nice to be able to chat informally.  We don't always get time to do that at a club meeting.

All in all, it was a successful day and one that will be repeated.

Friday, November 06, 2015

November meeting

The November meeting was a hands-on meeting looking at different ways of joining two pieces of knitting. The evening started by welcoming two new visitors to the club followed by news updates and the show-and-tell.

Reminder that the knit-in is on Saturday 14th November. Numbers are needed to ensure that there will be enough tea, milk and biscuits. Please bring along a packed lunch if you are staying for the whole day. If you would like to join in, then please let Liz know.

There have been a few changes with the local and national knitting and crafting shows. Trident Exhibitions Ltd has ceased trading. Trident ran The Creative Craft Show at various places including Sandown Park. ICHF Events has been taken over by another company, but they say that it won't affect their stitching, sewing and hobby crafts events.

The next local knitting show will be Unravel at Farnham Maltings on the 19-21 February, 2016.

We were reminded about the knitting challenge for this year, which is to knit a cardigan using the provided pattern. You can use any yarn or pattern you like, and please be creative and add your own borders, edging, pockets and embellishments. A PDF copy of the pattern was emailed out to all the club members. Some printed copies are also available.

This month's show and tell again demonstrated the variety of skills and interests within the club. Sally brought along a pair of hand-knitted baby bootees from a Victorian knitting pattern.



Tannis hand-knit a 1949 cardigan pattern, that has taken over 2 years to complete. Finished with contrasting red buttons. Note the subtle shaping details.



Carol has hand-knit a beautiful 'Ghost Orchid' shawl from the book 'New Vintage Lace: Knits Inspired By The Past' by Andrea Jurgrau (link to pattern details on Ravelry). The shawl is made from a cashmere, silk and merino mix yarn.



Liz machine knit a red shawl from a pattern shared on a Facebook machine knitting group.



and a red child's top that will be featured in the next Guild of Machine Knitters newsletter.



Next month is our Christmas meeting. Please bring along any donations, such as knitted items that you don't have a home for, to go to The Royal Marsden. We will also be knitting Christmas decorations, so bring along a small amount of yarn in Christmas colours, and some knitting needles or a crochet hook.

Reminder for February to get hold of some plastic eggs (such as the ones from inside a Kinder Egg), and scraps of wool, to use to create felted balls.

The hand-on session was joining two pieces of knitting. Liz has written a new talk on the subject, and had created 16 samples of different ways of joining knitting, from a simple mattress stitch, through to more complicated on-machine eyelet joins. The sample were passed around, and a knitting machine was set up for people to have a go.

Here is a photo of the 16 samples:



and here is Phyllis learning the eyelet join on the knitting machine.



The next meeting is on Tuesday  1st December.