May Meeting

Our speaker this month was Glynne Jones who talked to us about combining knit weave with lace. Some of these patterns were achieved by hand tooling and others with the use of a punchcard. All were very effective, and not too time consuming. Some patterns were more distinctive from the wrong side and some from the right. We all had an enjoyable and informative evening.

Lace and knit weaving viewed from the "wrong" side.

"Right" side of knitting showing how the pattern using black yarn is more effective viewed from this side.

Chris has been busy hand knitting more shawls, the white one is a baby shawl.

May meeting

All the rain over the past month may have kept you in doors, but have you put your time to good use and been knitting? I do hope so. Maybe you've been trying out some of the things Iris showed us when she was here a few weeks ago? Bring along the things you've done, successful or otherwise. We'd like to see them.

It's almost time for our May meeting. Tuesday May 6th is the exact date and it will be easy to forget to come as it's the day after the bank holiday. I hope you can make it. Glynn Jones is coming to talk to us this month about weaving combined with lace. She will be demonstrating some of the techniques as well. It promises to be a really informative evening.

Don't forget you should also be working on the challenge I set you last September. It was to make something to wear on your head. Can be anything you like - hat, head band, scarf, - so long as it goes on your head. Obviously the more unusual the better as far as I'm concerned but please try to make something. You've still got a few weeks before we show what we've made, so you still have time to make something special. The challenge items will be shown at the July meeting. And I'll have to get my thinking cap on and decide what the challenge will be for next year!

Happy 30th Birthday April Meeting

This month we celebrated the 30th birthday of the club! There was a lot of chatter and reminiscing, looking at old club photos and the print out of this blog. Talk of people we no longer see, past speakers and all the good times!
We even had a beautiful cake for all to share, decorated with patterns, cones of yarn and knitted swatches! A ball of yarn with hand knitting needles too as we now have several hand knitting members.
Also available were various "toys" to play with, such as bobble makers, knitting looms, cord knitters, lucet.





Liz cutting the cake, watched by some club members.

Watch this box, it will be opened next month! It contains our club entry for the GMK competition!

April meeting - our 30th Birthday

Yes the Fleet Knitting Club has now been in existance for 30 years. So we are celebrating our birthday on Tuesday 1st April. No, it's not an April Fools Joke, some of you really have been coming to the club for 30 years.

We will be celebrating with a Birthday cake and a look back over the past 30 years as well as trying some modern "toys" that relate to our knitting.

Past members are invited to join us for the evening. The venue and time haven't changed. Visitors are always welcome.

March Meeting

This month our guest speaker was Iris Bishop, a very talented lady who can make wonderful fabric on a knitting machine.
Iris brought many samples with her and was very interesting to listen to. She talked us through her thoughts and experiments and freely shared all she had learnt. All was made easy to understand with the use of diagrams to show needle set ups. Some of the samples combined material with knitting and produced lovely light fabrics. Others incorporated some of the delicious hand knitting yarns now available, by weaving into an open knit fabric. There were also garments to admire!
Very good news for all knitters, Iris is venturing into the world of the internet and working on setting up a website.










A beautiful slip stitch top inspired by the necklace.

These are some of the samples which Iris brought and explained to us.
Just amazing what can be done with a knitting machine!

More of Iris's samples showing combinations of knitting and material, weaving hand knitting yarns into knitted fabric and open double bed knitting.

March meeting with Iris Bishop

I'm really looking forward to our March meeting. Iris Bishop is to be the speaker and she always has something interesting to show and tell us about. It's been a couple of years since Iris last visited so I'm sure there will be plenty to interest everyone. The date for the meeting, in case you haven't worked it out, is Tuesday 4th March. The time is 8pm so don't be late!

Also, just as a reminder, those of you that aren't busy on Saturday 1st March, might like to visit Machine Knitting Live at Bournemouth. It's a good opportunity to see what's happening in the world of machine knitting and also to buy some much needed yarn and all those other things we can't live without. More details about Machine Knitting Live can be found on the Machine Knitting Monthly website http://www.machineknittingmonthly.net/mklive.php. I'll be there of course, on the stand of the Guild of Machine Knitters.

So if I don't see you on 1st March at Bournemouth, I'll see you at Fleet Club on 4th March.

February 2008

Another meeting and we had our eagerly awaited visit from Ann Brown. Ann had brought lots of her garments with her for us to examine as she explained her techniques to us. Her incorporation of fancy hand knitting yarns into the garments adds a touch of luxury and colour.
Particularly interesting were the new drapey jackets that Ann showed us, made using a combination of holding position and straight pieces of knitting.










As always Ann was more than wiling to demonstrate how she does things! And answer all our questions. All her patterns were available too.

Some of Ann's creations. A mock twin set with a twisted join! A lovely drapey black jacket, and a

This is Fiona, very important member of the club, she controls the finances!

Show and Tell

Another beautiful shawl, hand knitted by Chris.














This shows the size and how lacy the shawl is!











A lovely hand knitted baby jacket from Marcia.

Time for our February Meeting

Ann Brown of Posh Frocks (http://www.poshfrocks.com/index.html ) is coming to talk to us this month. She will be showing us what she has been working on recently and demonstrating how she uses the luxury hand knitting yarns on her knitting machine.

Ann's talks are always very intersting and inspiring so I hope we remember to take some photographs. It won't be the first time we get so interested in what our speaker is saying that we forget.

As usual the meeting will start at 8pm and visitors are welcome. If you missed hearing Ann, or haven't seen her for a while do come and join us.

This is a picture of 30 hats completely knitted and finished at the exhibition, there are another 14 awaiting completion and they will be donated to the Sailor's Association.

Esher show January 2008

Once again members of Fleet club and the Middlesex club helped to set up and man the Guild stand at the Esher show. We were given a very large stand but had no difficulty filling the space with competition winning garments and other knitted items. We also had 3 machines set up and spent any spare time knitting hats for the Sailor's Society, these were simple stocking stitch hats which were doubled over and had a roll brim. We did have a lot of people coming to talk to us, some already knitters and some thinking of becoming knitters. We hope we have recruited a few new faces! We also managed to help a few people with their problems!
Such a shame there was so little at the show for machine knitters but all the extras were there!

Esher show January 2008

Views of the Guild stand which members of the club helped set up and man.

Esher show January 2008

Another award winning jacket!

















Display shelves with various items including Sheila's beautiful doll's clothes!

Esher show January 2008

We were knitting hats on the machines for the Sailors Society. Simple double thickness stocking stitch with roll back brim and either pompom or i cord on top.














Beautiful ribbed jacket, pattern was in the Guild magazine.



















Liz's throw cape, beautifully warm!



















Elaine Cater's winning socks.


















Janice's award winning top!

December meeting

Our meeting this month was informal, tea, coffee and mince pies. Members brought their contributions to the charity table, which goes to the Friends of the Royal Marsden hospital. They then sell items to raise money for patient amenities. We also had a substantial amount of cash to send, raised from sales of donated yarn and equipment. Above are some pictures of items donated. Liz made some "emergency" bags containing a flannel, toothbrush, toothpaste etc, which are very popular items. Other items included child and adult jumpers, baby clothes and sewn items. We would like to thank all members for their support of this charity.

We wish all members and visitors to this blog a Happy Christmas and New Year.

One last piece of news for this year, our Liz is going to be a Grandma in February! Want to see lots of knitted baby clothes!

Tables loaded with goodies for the Marsden hospital!