Happy New Year!

Some Syringe Driver Bags for the Beatson made by Joy at the Village Patchers.

 Roberta has been busy working on little cardigans and blankets for her neice who is expecting a happy event. She will be delighted with these gifts.

I have been working on some baby things for a friend who is looking forward to being a mum again this month.

This was an idea I saw on the internet and was keen to have a go. Would you believe these started out as circles!

Janice has had fun sewing up some more Bunnies to raise funds for the creche where she acts as a volunteer.
The two quilts were made as a donation to Quilts 4 Yorkhill which is sponsored by the Village Patchers. The baby quilt was made for a friend who is about to become a Gran. The quilt is for the new grandchild, not the Gran. I just wanted to clear that up in case any of you were still hung over from the holidays.

 Janet loved the two little hats she made. I loved the flowers! As you can see, Janet is never shy and really wanted to model the two scarves she had completed with King Cole Tinsel. She was planning ahead for next Christmas!

Apologies to Norma who had completed a circular shawl using yarn from Aldi. I swear to God the picture was on my ipad when I started this blog and the aliens must have stolen it! Sorry, Norma.

On January 5th some of our members were desperate for a knit and natter and met in M & S cafe for a catch up. Janice kindly took the photos of the finishes from that night. Above is a kilt pin which was hand made by Anthea. There was another finish but that too seems to have gone AWOL.

Anthea also managed to complete this hand knitted scarf during the Christmas break.

Stephanie likes to keep her box full and had just completed this little hat and jacket. She is still searching for nice buttons to finish the jacket off.

Donna had been working on more Star Wars characters and they are just so adorable. She also exercised the sensible side of her creative brain with this warm red beanie. I bet she knew it would snow!

It would really help me if you could bring your finishes over to be photographed. My knees are acting up....

Elaine is now our Charity Coordinator! That means.......if you have a charity you think the group should support then make your case to Elaine. Last year the group supported FOUR charities at the same time. Some members attempted to do something for  each charity and then suffered a meltdown because they were unable to continue with makes for themselves. Each charity has its merits but I would like to avoid creating such a burden for our members.

As luck would have it, Elaine and some of our members had seen a request for makes for a charity that makes gowns from donated wedding dresses for still born babies. I know this is a rather sad thought but so many of us have been blessed with children and don't realise the grief that some people endure with the loss of a baby. The charity also request knitted hats and bootees. More information to follow.

Obsessions!

Phylllis has a new obsession.........socks! You have been warned, they are addictive! Phyllis also likes to adapt patterns and experiment with yarns and stitches to add texture. At the moment she is working on a pair that using a variety of stitches. I can't wait to see them completed. The set of three pairs of socks has been worked with DROPS FABLE and the other pair are DK ICE YARN from Norma.

AND......Phyllis even had time to make a cosy hat a set of ear warmers!

Elaine has been working with the popcorn stitch and created this beautiful baby hat for Yorkhill and the hat with the pompom for her box. in both cases , Elaine used two strands of DK together. Just in time for the winter!

Donna crocheted this wee brooch for her best friend, Caroline.

Morag only had a photograph on her phone to remind herself of the cushion she crocheted as a gift.

Roberta is full of surprises! She is craft mad and usually has a finish to show, holidays permitting. This week, Roberta, had another Twiddle Muff ready for decoration and a giant granny square blanket for Yorkhill.

I think Ally has a production line going in her work! This is a selection of Twiddlemuffs  that she had been decorating.

The final total raised by the Happy Hookers now stands at £3285 after a donation from Yvonne. Well done, everyone! What an achievement!

Our Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday !st of December in the Management suite. Bring a present if you wish to participate in the Christmas Pass the Parcel. Something up to the value of £5 or you could recycle an unwanted gift. Christmas jumpers are optional.

Linda says that this is her last year doing the Shoe Box Charity. She will be happy to accept filled boxes or cash to pay for their postage which works out at between £2.50 and £3 per box.

I got a lovely thank you email from the Beatson about the syringe driver bags. This will be forwarded to you.

Thanks again to M & S cafe for their hospitality. It is always a joy to visit there.

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday!

Not our birthday this time. It was the birthday of lovely Noreen. Jean had brought along a cake which we brought out and sang to her. Much to poor Noreen's mortification! We hope she had a lovely evening though.

Margaret is knitting some baby items for a friend and finished this lovely baby hat and cardigan set.

I finished a sock. No, not socks, a sock. Magdalena asked me if I would mind knitting up the partner to a sock she had done herself. It had been so long she couldn't remember how. I was rather pleased that I managed to get them to match.

Lisa crocheted these beautiful baby blankets. The white, pink and orange is done in her own yarn so needless to say it's my favourite. She did this whilst waiting in the car doing the school run.

A number of you may remember this. It is in fact the logo to Magdalena's Stitching A Rainbow. For those of you who might not know, Magdalena makes children's quilts to order. This quilted logo is perfect for those gorgeous quilts.

She also finished her mood scarf. I am more than a little bit in love with this. The idea behind it was that each day she had to crochet a row. The colour she picked out had to match her mood. Hence, a mood scarf. It was doing this that Magdalena learned how to do crochet without the foundation row. The reason being that she didn't want the foundation to be classed as one row since she was only to do one each day. She also used variegated yarn as she said that her mood would change through out the day. The end result is gorgeous. Although Jill did say it would possible be interesting for a psychologist to analyse.

Esther had another finish and it only took some wheedling for myself to get her to show it. Her granddaughter is going to be the best dressed with all these cardigans and sets she is knitting up. This latest is gorgeous. Love the fan pattern and it is certainly beautifully knitted.

This beautiful hat belongs to Kathleen. I love the style of these hats and Kathleen always adds a little something to the front to make it extra special. Kathleen is thinking of having a go at craft fairs eventually. In the meantime though she is going to start up her own facebook page. So look out for that.

Jean has also been busy. This time for Christmas. She knitted this angel which came free with one of the knitting magazines. I love the detail. These angels definitely have character.

Stephanie has been back at the sewing again. She stitched up this lovely patchwork bag. The colours go so well together and it looks fab. Definitely something to be proud of.

You might think you have seen these socks before and in a way you are right. These are slightly smaller than the pair I showed a few weeks ago knitted by the lovely Isabel. This pair is going to her smaller grandson for Christmas. Her grandsons loved the fact that she had knitted herself Christmas socks and asked for some of their own. Hence Isabel's knitting frenzy.

This gorgeous blanket was done by Elaine. I love how a simple granny square can look so different just by switching to variegated yarn. Each of these squares look so different as a result and the effect is fab.

Despite being unwell last week Audrey has been busy. She finished stitching the gorgeous Santa cross stitch. Just in time for the Christmas season.

In getting ready for winter Audrey has also finished knitting up this scarf and hat. The scarf is beautifully done in lace knitting. Whereas the had is a lovely, chunkier knit.

If you were lucky enough to make the Christmas craft day you would have been able to take part in Izzi's lavender sachet lesson. She brought along a shoe box full of lavender sachets she had made up with the leftovers. These are so lovely and they smell amazing. Izzi was selling these ones to contribute to Lyn's charity. Alas they all sold out to the group within seconds.

You might remember Laura's hat from a few weeks ago. She has knitted up another one in reverse colours. I just love the design. I also discovered that Laura is charting her own fair isle design. I look forward to seeing that.

She also knitted herself a scarf. I love the colours and love that it starts with and ends with the same colour pattern. It's also extremely soft and cosy.

I have also been asking people what their bucket list for next year is. That basically means, what do they want to achieve next year. So each week I am going to post a wee list of what people say.

Isabel - love to learn to do traditional embroider and finish my advent calendar.

Elaine - Finish a cross stitch I started when Amy was 4. I also want to do something with Sashiko

Margaret - Finish the fairy cross stitch I started at Gartmore and the Christmas cushions from a few years back. I also want to try Japanese folded quilting.

Karen - I want to learn how to make a mug rug and learn to do tunisian crochet

Audrey - I plan to learn to do cables and to crochet better

Dawn - I want to make a granny square blanket for myself and socks for myself. Next year I plan to make things for myself for a change.

There will be more of that next week. I also did our member of the month interview. So look out for what Janice has to say as well as some photo's of her fabulous work.