Saturday 11 October 2008

Thankyou

Just a quick thank you to Karen who not only set up a fab group but also this blog well done.

Thursday 9 October 2008

Some Finishes

As mentioned in the last post there were some finishes on Tuesday. Gillian was working on hats this week. Here Gillian is modelling the first hat she was working on. She had knitted it up during the week and spent a little time on Tuesday sewing it together. The yarn is lovely and soft as well as thick and cosy. Gillian then worked on a child's hat for the rest of the evening.



I mentioned before that Ginnie is our sock enthusiast and she is passing it on to other members of the group. Here we have lovely blue socks that she had been working on last week. The yarn has silk content making it lovely and soft. Ginnie can knit up 2-3 pairs of socks a week depending on how much travelling she has to do for work. the tiny pair were knitted by Magdalena. This is her first pair and she knitted them for the baby. They are very cute and look so tiny compared to Ginnie's. Magdalena went back to working on her baby blanket while Ginnie worked on a pink pair of socks.



Laura also got a finish. This is a bookmark she stitched for her mum. Laura had finished another one of these a while back for Val. Her mum, Helen, liked it and asked her to make her one in exchange for a knitted scarf. The photo doesn't show how lovely and neat all her stitches are (Laura is also one of the fastest stitchers I know). Afterwards she worked on a kit for Ginnie (in exchange for socks). I'll save a description of it for when it's finished as the photo will describe it better than myself.

I had also finished the hat I had been working on. I describe it as the ugliest hat in the world. However, it was what the person I knitted it for wanted. It's for a snowboarder and he wanted yellow and black to go with his jacket. He also wanted ear flaps and a pom pom. This is my second attempt as the first one didn't fit. I then made my first attempt at socks. Yes, it's spreading! I made a mistake straight away so spent the evening just practising knitting on the round with double pointed needles.

Also finished was the cardigan Isabel had worked on for her grandson. Her grandson is over in the States and the cardigan was sent out with family this weekend. Isabel is now knitting doll clothes for her grandaughter to send out at Christmas. Although she is itching to have a go at the lovely scarf Helen has been knitting.

Janette brought more stitching along to work on. Not the pink panels this time but very small blue ones. Val was onto the sleeves of her baby cardigan and Margaret was working on her top and Julia was working on the second boot for Santa. Helen had been at a parents evening so came along later for coffee and a chat. We also had two new members come along. Joyce was working on a baby cardigan for her grandson. The second new member dropped by briefly for some advice from Gillian but has promised to come back next week.

Again a reminder that we will be finishing up the last week in November but new members are more than welcome to come along. We always love seeing new faces and the projects everyone has going.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Baby Shower

As Magdalena is getting closer to the day when her little one will arrive we decided to through her a little baby shower. This is her third baby and her first baby shower. Here you can see Magdalena with a lovely baby cardigan knitted by Helen.



This gorgeous dog is actually made by patchwork and was done by Janette. Some of the squares have colourful elephants on them and some of the colours even match the baby's room. Janette insisted that Magdalena had to name him. After many attempts at trying to get us all to pronounce a Polish name she decided on Gregory.


This lovely cross stitch of little bears was done by Laura. Magdalena said she had always wanted something like this for her children's room. Although she was tempted to keep it for her own. What the photo doesn't show is the lovely vibrant colours.


Here Magdalena is excited by the gift from Ginnie. As Ginnie only knits sock she put together some things that she felt the baby would need and offered to knit him socks when he is a little older. Magdalena was particularly taken with the teething ring as she had forgotten about them herself. She also received a lovely towel from Isabel, something she had also forgotten about.

This Jacket and little booties were knitted by Margaret. Also in the back were another two cardigans, one ideal for the winter and a lacey one.


Unfortunately this is the best photo I got of the lovely patchwork bag made by Val. The fabric inside is printed with teddy bears. It also has some pockets inside, perfect for holding bottles.

Magdalena also received a baby blanker which I knitted for her. No pictures of that I'm afraid so instead we have a close up of the very photogenic Gregory. Magdalena was so excited it was difficult to get pictures of her. She loved everything although I'm not sure how she managed to fit it all into the car.

Some knitting and stitching did actually take place at the knitting group. I will post pics of those later in the week.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Introduction.

This beautiful blanket was crocheted by the talented Magdalena. The blanket took about two months to complete although she did knit other things in between. The little jumper was knitted by Magdalena using chenille yarn. As well as looking lovely it is very soft to the touch. Coming from Poland Magdalena knits very differently from the rest of the group. It's fascinating to watch and her method seems quicker than ours. One or two of us have tried to imitate it but with no luck. She is now onto her second blanket, this one is going to be knitted rather than crocheted.

Our knitting group started up about five or six months ago. We started off with four regular members and we now have around 14. We all get together and have coffee whilst knitting and chatting. We are all learning something from each other and there is always something interesting to see each week.

We aren't just knitters. We have a few cross stitcher's in the group. One member, Laura, uses each get together to work on her cross stitch. She is also the resident pom pom maker.

Janette, Val and Ginnie, as well as knitters, are quilters. Occasionally Janette and Val have brought along pieces of quilting they are working on instead. All three have also brought in photo's of their work to share with the group. Ginnie's other love is knitting socks. She doesn't knit anything else as it is easy to knit whilst travelling (she has knitted larger projects before). Ginnie has passed on this love to two other members, Helen and Ann. Ann has since sworn that she will also only knit socks. One or two other members have shown an interest (including myself) and may also have a go.

Our group expert is Gillian. Whenever anyone is needing help with knitting or crochet we pass them on to Gillian. She is also the only one of us who has spun her own yarn. Currently she is working on a lovely baby jacket and a shawl.

Other projects on the go are Julia's toy Santa, Isabel's baby cardigan, Helen's lovely lacey scarf, Laura's bookmark, Val's baby cardigan and Janette's cowl. Margaret's top and my hat.

Each week we will update this blog on everything that is going on in the group alongside one or two pictures. Not all posts will be written by myself. The rest of the group are excited about this blog and creating their own posts.

We also warmly welcome new members to the group. We are in Starbucks in Borders at the Glasgow Fort. Every Tuesday from 7.00pm. We will be breaking up for Christmas at the end of November. Hopefully we will continue to post and we will definitely be back in January.