Shoe Box charity Thank You.

Linda wanted to thank everyone who donated a scarf or hat to the Shoe Box charity. She was so delighted that she said it with CHOCOLATE! The gift was well received. Well done to everyone who participated.

Stephanie has taken to sewing like a duck to water. She proudly displayed this storybook quilt which she had completed for Yorkhill Hospital. Valerie Lennox is one of the co-ordinators for this charity which supplies quilts for seriously ill kids in Yorkhill. Any little child would be delighted to own this quilt. Well done Stephanie.

Isabel was so impressed with Fiona's crochet hook holder that she was determined to make one for herself. The vibrant colour should mean that it won't get lost! We hope.

Norma has been busy in her wee crafting house in the garden. This week she has made a cosy snowball hat, two lovely hats with flower detail and an intricate pram blanket. It looks as if we all need a crafting den. Well done, Norma.

Fran was delighted to show off this great infinity scarf which she crocheted for herself. Now she is all set for winter.

Audrey is a big fan of the 1920's styles and made this stylish closh hat for those chilly days ahead.

Magda proudly displayed this stunning blanket that she crocheted for her son Adam. Its title of this is Adam's choice because he chose the colours.

Elaine has been busy creating four lovely hats for the Shoe Box charity. How does she find the time to knit and make Cakes?

Roberta amazed us with a wealth of finishes this week. She has the sewing bug and made these two wll-hangings for Christmas. The fingerless mitts, crocheted hats and the knitted cardigans were made for the Shoe Box charity. Well done, Roberta! What do you do in your spare time?

Sandra has been busy preparing for a new grandchild. These wee hats are so versatile and cute!

Libby has been getting back into crochet again after a gap of some years. This bonnie wee jacket is for a new baby.

Talented Lisa from For the Love of Yarn had been to Yarndale recently and asked customers to add a few stitches to a granny square which will eventually become a blanket that will be donated to Yorkhill. Such a lovely idea. Our group were given the opportunity to participate in this event.

June completed this amazing frilly can-can scarf  for herself on Tuesday night. Everyone seems to be gearing up for a stylish winter.

Margaret was one of our group who added some stitches to to the Yorkhill blanket.

Laura, one of our new members, has been busy knitting fabulous wee hats for the Big Knit which supports Age UK.

There Be Mermaids!

For the last few weeks we have been much admiring Lyn's work on a knitted mermaid. Even without her hair and crown we loved her. So cute! I have to confess that I wanted to take her home with me. You can see her desert island in the background. Plus if you look closely you would be write in thinking that's a bag of knitting sitting up against that tree. This mermaid clearly know how to use up her free time!

Here she is on her own.

Rhona knitted this beautiful cardigan for Freya. Sadly Freya was too shy to model it for us. However, it is lovely. I love the shades of purple and the pattern it creates. I think it accentuates the pattern of the cardigan itself.

I finished knitting these socks for my sister. I wasn't sure of the colours at first but it has since grown on me. You can't really see from the photo but the socks have a spiral pattern to it which I got from a new book.

Roberta brought along these goodies to show us. Her friend makes and sells them. A little baby broach and a hat pencil topper. I love the detail. The baby even has a dummy!

A friend of Magdalena's was having a bit of a clear out. She sent us along bags of baby and dolls clothes she had knitted as well as some balls of yarn. These photo's don't quite show how much is there. Some went out to Roberta's charity shop. Isabel also took some as her friend is having a craft sale for charity.

Oh, and I thought you might want to see this. These are all the hats all bagged up in postage bags. It took three of them. They have probably reached The Big Knit base by now so look out for our hats at the end of November!

The One With All the Colours and All the Hats!

Any pinterest fans here? I know there are a few from the knitting group who love it (me being one of them). It's easy to loose hours of time there. The reason I bring this up is because of this stunningly beautiful quilt made by Magdalena. As I mentioned before she has been making quilts for each of her children. This one belongs to the lovely Zuzanna (and I'm not at all jealous). This is the sort of thing I would see on pinterest and pin it with the knowledge that I would never be able to do something like that. It's the rainbow colours that I love plus you can't help but admire the time and effort that has gone into it. One day I will petition to be one of Magdalena's children.

I also had to show you the back too. Magda picked up the backing years ago and is an old duvet cover. It goes perfectly with the front design. Everyone admired it almost as much as the front. Magda is now making quilts on commission. Once she has a page all set up I will share it with you. Just think you could be the new owner of one of Magda's beautiful quilts.

I had mentioned before that everyone was loving the Hitchhiker scarf which Helen brought to our attention. Both Elaine and Helen finished one each. Of course I took that as an opportunity to photograph them together.

Helen's was done in shades of blue and white. Blue is one of my favourite colours so of course I loved this.

Elaine's was also in blue and white but her blues were darker with more white between it. I think it gave it a more nautical look. Very effective.

I think we have another doll knitter in the group. Janice came along with this lovely doll that she had not long finished. I didn't catch who it was for but whoever the new owner is, is very lucky. I personally love the platted hair.

Just to put as all to shame on her Christmas preparedness Margaret finished another Christmas card. I love the outdoor winter scene. It's set off by the metallic stitching round the edge. She stitched this one for her Father in Law.

 Anthea has been working on this lovely baby blanket for the last few weeks. She finished it on Tuesday. Again I love the colours. The bright blue is very much set off against the creams. Everyone also loved the edging which just brought the whole thing together. And you know us, we are all a sucker for a granny square.

So Tuesday there was our deadline for the hats for the Big Knit. Everyone was to bring along all their fancy hats and any they had finished that I had yet to collect. The week before June had given me hers in as she knew she wouldn't make it along. Sadly I never got the chance to photograph them. They were in a separate bag though and you can see them here having been photographed when I got home.

Janice managed to get a few more in and there were quite a few impressive ones in the mix. I couldn't post a photo of them without a close up of this one. It's Harry Potter!

These were all knitted by Margaret.

These hats were knitted by Ally and her friend from work, Karin.

More hats from the lovely Helen.

Last but not least we have our Isabel back and she knitted these lovely hats.

We had two wee competitions. The first was to knit the most unusual or inventive. I had everyone hang onto these hats until the last day and then we brought them all together. You can see them here on the table.

Isabel and I managed to narrow it down to our favourites (which was a task itself). We then roped in the help of Alison to choose the winner.

Finally we picked out our favourite (which was extremely difficult). Caroline won with her teapot.

You can see it here on top of an innocent drink which Helen kindly brought along. How can you not love that hat?

Margaret won for having knitted the most. She was leagues ahead of everyone else and managed to use up all of her odd balls of yarn. She knitted a whopping 260 hats. Stephanie was the closest to her with over 100. The winners received just a little prize. Chocolate, a little hook to pick up stitches and Russian Doll stitch markers.

I had thought we were only slightly behind the 1000 mark in total so a production line started and I got three more hats before the end of the night. Turns out we were more behind than I thought.

You can see all the hats collected on Tuesday alone here. Over 200 of them in that pile.

Finally, here they are all bagged up and waiting to be posted out. There are 951 in total. I think that's more than impressive. Well done ladies and thank you.

One last photo before I go. Annee, who is our friend from the management suite, has a friend who was an avid cross stitcher. No longer able to cross stitch she wanted a good home to all her supplies and Annee suggested us. As you can see it was very much appreciated. Thank you Annee and Carolyn.