April meeting

Another month has rushed by and it's time for our April meeting.

Val is coming to give us a demonstration of spinning.  Almost all of the yarns we use have been spun so it's almost "back to basics".  Val will be bringing her spinning wheel and also some drop spindles so some of us will be able to have a go.

There will be time for show and tell too.  We all like to see what others have made as it inspires us and gives us ideas for things we'd like to knit.

The start time is 8 pm.  We'll be finished by 10 pm.  If you don't know where we meet then look at the top of this blog to find the address.

March 2019 - Colours

Updates

The weather was pretty miserable and the rain was very noisy on the skylight. There was a good turn-out including two new hand-knitters. Regarding the committee, Christine and Carol have kindly volunteered to share the post of treasurer.

'Knit in Public' day this year is on Saturday 8th June 2019, see the website https://www.wwkipday.com/ for general details. We're thinking of meeting up in a public area in Fleet. Suggestions gratefully received. We discussed cafes, the shopping centre, the park and the library.

The 'Machine Knitting Monthly' show at Bournemouth will be on Saturday 5th October 2019. The club is considering hosting a stand last year. Tickets can be purchased from https://machineknittingmonthly.net/shop/exhibition-tickets/bournemouth-2018-tickets/ and are currently £5 each.

We've heard that the Guild of Machine Knitters newsletter is running late, but had arrived by the time I wrote this post.

The Royal Marsden has confirmed that the sales table will be moving to Sutton. As this is going to be more difficult to get to, we're still considering local charities.

One suggestion is the Mission to Seafarers who have a freepost adddress for knitted hats. Liz made 21 hats to post to them. Here are some photos of a few of them:

The club received a question by email about flat shelf storage for 'spare' knitting machines, which  sparked an animated discussion on the different storage systems people use, and what constitutes a  'spare' knitting machine.

Events

Sewing for pleasure is at Birmingham on the 14-16 March. Check the parking cost if you are intending to go. On the day parking will be £16. £12 if purchase before.

Craft4crafters is at the Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, on Thursday 11th - Saturday 13th April 2019.

Nottingham Machine Knitting show is on Sunday 14th April.

Show and Tell

Carol hand-knit a child's cricket jumper.

 Nina machine knit a raglan jumper using a marl 100% acrylic yarn.

 Sandra hand-knit a cardigan in James Brett's chunky marbled yarn.

 Sandra hand-knit baby cardigans for Frimley Park Hospital.

 Carol crocheted a huge and beautiful blanket.

Andre hand-knits Aran jumpers and hats using his own patterns. Andre's top tips for handling the washing phase is to wash flat in the base of the shower, using bare feet to massage the yarn and gently push out the water. Then towel-squeeze dry and allow to naturally dry flat. 

This jumper is particularly special as it was designed and knit by Andre for him to wear at his wedding. See the close-up image of the bobble-stitch detailing. 

 Sylvia knit a variegated striped cardigan in stocking stitch on a mid-gauge machine, and completed the ribbing by hand. The yarn is Hayfields bonus DK.

 Marianne started the evening with a WIP scarf, which was finished before the end of the evening. Lofty yarn containing red and black threads.

Colours

Basics of colour - colour wheel

Bright Side's The Ultimate Color Combinations Cheat Sheet

Here is an example of a colour wheel:

With multi-colour yarn or working a pattern with multiple colour threads, sometimes colour pooling occurs. Here are some examples of when colours pool, and not pooling:

Liz made lots of samples showing different colour combinations and patterns, so show the different effects of combining a multi-colour yarn with a single colour yarn, or choosing which colour is the background and which is the foreground.

Our March meeting

At our March meeting we will be discussing colour and texture.  It's amazing how a colour can change when mixed with another and how pattern can disappear too.  We'll have a few samples to pass round but if you have some examples of things that have worked (and not worked) feel free to bring them along.

The March meeting takes place on Tuesday 5th March.  8pm as usual.  It's also pancake day, but unfortunately we have no facilities to serve any so we'll all have to be good or eat them before we come!

Bring along your recently completed projects for "show and tell", and if you feel like doing a bit of knitting whilst your there please bring that too.

Hope to see you there.  Visitors are welcome.