5th Anniversary: Part 1

I was going to hold off posting about our challenge night as I had forgotten to photograph a couple of the challenge entries. I will get the last one photographed on Tuesday. However, I had planned on splitting the post about Tuesday night into two because I wanted the challenge itself to have a post all on it's own. It has only just occurred to me that I could post one of those parts just now. So here is the first part of our celebrations.

Elaine is famous for her cake decorating and has in fact entered cakes into previous challenges. One of which won. Knowing that she wouldn't be doing one for this years challenge I asked her if she would mind designing a cake for us. She here we have our very own knitting bag cake. It even has fondant balls of yarn.

The cake design is based on the bag Izzi has been teaching everyone to make over the last few weeks. You can see Izzi's prototype in the background.

Not sure if you can see it in the photo but Elaine made sure that 5 was represented int here with the needle size and the row counter.

As well as being challenge night it was also a swap night. Everyone brought lots of goodies that they were no longer wanting. What we didn't take went to the charity shop Roberta volunteers in.

I also brought along some edible goodies as promised. It was a celebration after all. I even managed to bake some cookies and a banana loaf.

It was quite a busy night and I think everyone had a good time.

There were even some finishes in there. Margaret finished this baby blanket for friends about to become grandparents.

It turns out Jean has been hiding talents from us. Not only does she make wine bottle cosies. She also does beading. She was at Gartmore a few weeks back and made this gorgeous bracelet while she was there.

Caroline has found yet another talent. She got some instructions from the Internet and made this lovely draw-string bag. Since she didn't have ribbon she made the ties herself. Love the fabric and you wouldn't know this was her first sewing project.

Lyn was preparing for superhero day at work and knitted Superman. I have to admit I have a soft spot for Superman. He looks fantastic.

At the end of the night we of course had to try some of Elaine's cake. It was such a shame to cut it so I had Elaine do it for us. I can safely say that it tasted as good as it looked.

Oh, and we also had another new member along. Definitely a great night and I look forward to seeing what crops up with this group. Our challenge post will be next so look out for that!

7 Deadly Obsessions!

We interrupt this programme for a wee announcement. Lyn asked me to pass this on. On Sunday Stephanie Weightman will be along to Hobbycraft at the fort. Our Lyn is having a small meltdown over it (or geeking out). Stephanie is a celebrity crafter. She is famous for her craft TV shows and her cardmaking. If you want to learn more about her you can see her website here. I had another announcement to make but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

This is our last nostalgia post and this time I get to showcase some of our finished projects. There have been a few things that one member of our group has brought in and it's then ran it's course through the group. Not talking infections here but obsessions. Here are just a few examples of projects that everyone has wanted to try.

For our first obsession I give you - The Scarf.

Let's all blame Helen for this one as Helen is a self confessed scarf addict. Not so much in collecting them but in trying out unusual scarf patters. This has been the case since the group first started and many of us tried some of the patterns that Helen knitted up. Isabel and Margaret were her main followers. Isabel became famous for knitting them and losing them but she still likes a scarf pattern too. Over the years others have added a new touch to the scarf in bringing in some fancy yarns which has then revived the scarf obsession. Caroline in particular loved these yarns.

For our second obsession I give you - The Sock.

I know exactly who to blame for this one. Ginnie the sock lady. I hadn't seen sock knitting before Ginnie came to the group and few of us thought of trying it. Then Ginnie appeared and all she did was knit socks (although she had knitted many other things in the past). It was easy as she travelled so much for work. This of course led to a rather large number of us trying it. Even though Ginnie can't make it along her legacy remains and is still spreading.

For our third obsession I give you - The Granny Square.

Donna is getting the blame for this one. She taught us all how to do this one year and we haven't looked back since. Every so often some one new picks up the crochet hook and has ago. I think this is an obsession that will remain with the group simply because it is so addictive and versatile.

For our fourth obsession I give you - Quilting

Val and Janette were the first quilters to join our group and we were all fascinated by it as they brought their pieces along. Then Carol gave us a demonstration on Japanese folded patchwork and it showed many that they could maybe do this craft after all. Quite a few haven't looked back since. Although Val and Janette can no longer make it to the group our Izzi is a veteran quilter and has been happy to give advice to those knew to it.

For our fifth obsession I give you - The Easter Chick.

I can blame Caroline for this one. She always has these fun projects. The Queen of gift crafting. Everyone loved these Easter Chicks and it wasn't long until a large number of us were making them. Isabel continued with them this year and raised money for the Beatson.

For our sixth obsession I thought I would got to our juniors - Decoupage.

Our juniors are probably the most versatile members of the group. They have absolutely no fear or anxiety about trying new crafts. Instead they just throw themselves in there. It's something to admire. Freya loves her decoupage and has brought along many of her beautifully decorated animals and boxes. She even taught Zuzanna how to do it.

For our seventh obsession I give you one of our most recent - The Dishcloth Baby Blanket

I call it a dishcloth baby blanket because the pattern was originally for a dishcloth. I saw the pattern knitted up as a baby blanket a few years ago and fell in love with it. When Magdalena was having her second baby shower I decided to try it and make one for her. A few years down the line and I brought the pattern out for Sheena and added an extra colour in there. It has only now begun to do the rounds. Margaret is on to her third of these blankets. Roberta has done one in 4 ply using beautifully delicate shades. Isabel is working on one and a few people have asked for the pattern. The interesting thing about it is that colour alone can completely change it. I should say that this is not my pattern and the original dish cloth pattern can be found in the Mason- Dixie knitting book.

These seven haven't been our only obsessions over the years and I am sure they won't be the last. I can't wait to see what projects the group will latch onto in the future.

As I said, this was the last of the nostalgia posts and I hope you enjoyed them. To some it will be memories and others it will be an insight into how our group developed over the years.

The next post up will be about Tuesday night so look out for that.