May Meeting

Brenda Bristol from Heathercraft was our Guest Speaker this month. She came along with a selection of yarns and machine accessories as well as some patterns.

Brenda talked about plating and also weaving and lace combination patterns. She had plenty of samples to show us, and gave excellent explanations of how they were knitted. It gave us all something to think about.

Show and Tell

More beautiful hand knits from Chris!




A shaped shawl.













A square shawl.

A lacey scarf!

Exchange visit to Bookham Knitting Club

Members of the Fleet Knitting Club were invited to attend an evening organised by the Bookham Knitting Club. Bookham is about an hours drive from Fleet.

We were warmly greeted and spend an interesting evening hearing about how a knitwear designer works and how their club is run. We were also treated to two demonstrations on a knitting machine. Thanks Margaret, Frances, April and Brenda. They also showed us some garments that club members had made.

We enjoyed the home made cakes and tea and coffee. It also gave us opportunity to chat with their club members.

Naturally we took photographs during the visit, and have promised to show them to the Bookham club when they make a return visit to us.

May meeting

At our May meeting Heathercraft will be coming with yarn and spares and also giving us a talk which I hope you will all find interesting. The subject of the talk is plating and weaving on our knitting machines. I am sure the hand knitters amongst us will hear something of interest as well.

If there is anything specific you plan to purchase from Heathercraft, please give them a ring on 01293 851 339 and they will be sure to bring it with them.

There will be time for a show and tell, so do bring anything you have made.

I look forward to seeing you at at 8pm on Tuesday 4th May.

April Meeting

Another month and another meeting! We didn't have a speaker this month, Liz and Nina were planning to talk about different yarns and what could be knitted with them, but somehow they never got around to it. Members had questions they wanted to ask each other about some techniques, and how they did certain things, like how does Chris block out her beautiful shawls. Seems for this task a large empty space on the carpet is needed, pin out the shawl to the right size, cover with damp towels and leave overnight to dry............simple!
There was also discussion about the club's entry for the Guild competition, questions about what to knit with some yarn brought back from Australia, and inspection of a wrap jacket brought back from New Zealand which was knitted in possum yarn!
I think this just goes to show when knitters get together there is never a lull in conversation!
We were also pleased to welcome a new member and hope she enjoyed her evening!

Show and Tell

Here is another selection of knits, both hand and machine, from our members.


A lovely hand knitted top and hat by Ann.










A lovely chunky knit cardigan from Marcia.
















A machine knit jumper(blue) and a hand knit cardigan from Sandra.










Two lovely hand knits from Liz.














And just to showcase another talent, here's a crochet short sleeve jacket from Carole.

Our lovely members are still busy knitting items for our charity, SANDS.

April meeting so summer must be on its way

The April meeting will be on Tuesday 6th April, just after Easter. We haven't got a speaker this month, however I will bring a selection of yarns suitable for hand and machine knitting and we will be talking about them and yarns in general. We will be discussing how these yarns should be processed, e.g. washed, pressed, no heat etc. and what tension to knit them at.

If you have some yarn and you don't know what to knit it up into, bring it along and we will give you some suggestions. Or you may find someone else has brought some yarn that you would like to knit up and they like what you have brought along so you could agree to do a swap.

I look forward to seeing you, and if you haven't been before, you are welcome to come and meet us on the 1st Tuesday of the month 8 pm - 10 pm.

March Meeting

Tonight we had a visit from Beryl Jarvis, who talked to us about making up our knitting. This was appropriate for both hand and machine knitters.
Beryl covered all aspects of making up, from hand stitching to using the linker, and gave us many handy hints too! A very good one was about shaping the back neckline as you make up rather than while you are knitting! Anything to make life easier, and the resulting garment neater!
We all enjoyed Beryl's talk, and many questions were asked, and answered, and Beryl also demonstrated a lot of her techniques. She had also brought along some of her garments for us to see, and all her publications for those who hadn't already bought them.
Altogether a very informative and enjoyable evening!

Show and Tell

Here is a beautiful machine knitted and woven jacket from Sue.

















A lovely bright hand knitted childs cardigan from Sandra.

A collection of hats and scarves Liz and her helpers managed at the last show they attended.

Here is our latest collection of blankets, hats and teddies for SANDS, knitted by our members, some by hand and some by machine.

Unravel at Farnham Maltings 27 & 28 Feb

This is a knitting event, primarily for hand knitters, but machine knitters are creeping in! There are talks and workshops as well as exciting yarns to buy. There are displays of knitting throughout the whole of the Maltings. The pillars that support the floors in this beautiful old building have been decorated in knitting and outside there is knitted bunting, as well as knitting decorating the lamp posts and bridge leading to the Maltings. Thre is a knitting surgery as well for those of you that are having problems with your knitting. Bring your knitting along anyway and sit and knit and knatter.

If there are any hand knitters out there who want to have a look at a knitting machine, the Guild of Machine Knitters will be there. They will be displaying machine knitted items and will answer your questions about machine knitting. If you've never used a machine before you can try one out, and if you have a machine knitting problem they will help you solve it.

Full details of the event are on the Farnham Maltings website. I did try putting a link in, but not sure if it will work. Use your search engine to find Farnham Maltings, then go to Festivals and you will find Unravel. It is a two day event (Saturday and Sunday 27 and 28 February).

I hope that this local event will be sell supported. Advance tickets are selling well.

March Meeting with Beryl Jarvis

Beryl Jarvis is coming to talk to us this month (Tuesday 2nd March). It's not often we get chance to hear one of Beryls talks as she lives a fair distance away, but she has agreed to talk to us and a couple of other clubs in the area before going on to Bournemouth for Machine Knitting Live at the weekend.


Beryl will be talking about making up. Garments of course, not making friends again after a row! I feel this is a really important part of our knitting and one we do not always pay enough attention to. We may be able to knit beautifully, but if we can't assemble and finish our knitting properly it will not look good.

Visitors are always welcome. The meeting will start at 8 pm prompt so that we have plenty of time to have notices and show and tell, as well as hear what Beryl has to tell us.

February Meeting

Jean brought along her table top loom which had been set up so that we could try it. She explained how it worked and how you could get a pattern. Jean also showed us some of the work she had done as part of her textiles degree course. She had graduated this summer from Farnham College. She also showed us the fabric she had produced much of which was woven silk. She had dyed a lot of the yarn herself as well. Lots of questions were asked and we were able to have a go at the weaving as
well. She also explained that we could weave using yarns that we probably had in our stash at home and produce really nice fabrics with them as well.

More hand knit goodies, this one from Sandra.












Another fine shawl by Chris!











A yoke necked jumper (also from Chris) using the Elizabeth Zimmerman method to calculate the yoke.

A crochet top from Carol.













Close up of the crochet pattern.

A chunky knit jumper from Chris.

A couple of children's jumpers from Nina.

More blankets and hats for SANDS.

February 2010 meeting

It’s coming up time for the February meeting. It will be on Tuesday 2nd February, 8 pm.

Jean is going to bring some of the work she did for the course she finished recently and tell us about the course. We will also have time for some show and tell about recently knitting items and a chat about some of the recent exhibitions. I’ll also be telling you about a few exhibitions that you might like to visit soon.

Do hope you can make it. Visitors are welcome.

Happy New Year

We would like to wish everyone who reads our blog a very Happy New Year. May 2010 be a good year for you.

There is no meeting in January so no update for you. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd February when Jean will be showing us her weaving and her design/workbooks. It promises to be a very informative evening. She will be bringing her tabletop loom so if you have ever wanted to have a go, put the date in your diary.

We're hoping all the snow and ice will have gone by the time we next meet, but just in case it is still around, do check back here as I will put a message up if the meeting is cancelled.

Take care.

December Meeting

Our December meeting was a social occassion, with plenty of chat, show and tell, and of course, mince pies!


Our members were, as usual, very supportive of our charity and the table groaned with their contributions to be sent up to the Royal Marsden Hospital! Lots of handmade goodies mixed in with a variety of other things. Hopefully these will all raise a lot of money for the patient amenities at the hospital.


This past year has been very succesful for our club, and we have attracted a few new members, both for hand and machine knitting.













































We would like to wish all who read this blog a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


There will be no meeting in January, but we'll be raring to go by February!