Ribbons and things!

Another busy night in paradise! It was lovely to see so many crafters turning up on Tuesday night. The room was buzzing with chatter and laughter and original ideas. This is what you missed if you were tucked up in bed with a gin and tonic..............

Stephanie had fun with ribbon weaving and created another cushion. "There is no truth in the rumour that she is opening a store specialising in soft furnishings," said a spokesperson.

Margaret completed this lovely wee tank top for a friend's baby.

Roberta finished another cosy hat for our chosen charity.

I (Helen) had two finishes to show this time. I'm delighted to finish the mosaic socks, as it was a challenge and I may not do another pair any time soon. My second finish was a charity quilt for Yorkhill hospital. As you know Valerie Lennox is a co-ordinator for Quilts 4 Yorkhill. This charity was adopted by The Village Patchers quilting group as their chosen charity and they have created about 50 quilts for seriously ill children being treated in Yorkhill Hospital.

Kathleen F has been really busy making hats. The gorgeous pink and the green hats are for her granddaughter and the blue hat is for a friend's wee boy.

Now, as you know Caroline does not like to blow her own trumpet, soooooooooo this fabulous baby blanket is for a friend who is expecting a little girl. Her friend does not like pink, sooooooooo Caroline made this eye catching purple and white blanket. This photograph does not do it justice! What you can't see is that the yarn SPARKLES! Love it!

A lot of the excitement in the room was because Donna was starting her crochet lessons for beginners. As usual, Donna was prepared with differentiated handouts for all of her students. What a star! The class was really popular with crafters of differing abilities and they were soon busy and concentrating on mastering whatever stitch they chose to learn. I am happy to report that no one cried and everyone is looking forward to the next class. Well done, Donna!

I always learn something new each time I come along to the club. Jill proudly displayed her knitted purse which had beads incorporated in it. She had to thread all of the beads onto the yarn before she actually started to knit. I was really taken with this and must file this idea in the back of my mind for something to try in the future. Jill's second finish was a cross stitch pattern from a magazine that she had adapted and made into a wllhanging. Such a talented lady!

A lot of noise came from this end of the room. The chat and giggles did not prevent Anthea from working on her spinning wheel. Below you can see an example of a skein of spun yarn which is a mixture of merino and silk in rainbow colours which is double knitting/ aran weight.

 Anthea provided pictures of two cowls she had completed and given away as presents. The light green one is made from Stylecraft Alpaca DK. Ideal for the windy weather.

I hope I get this the right way round. The light blue hat was created by Elaine and the dark blue hat was crafted by Sally for our charity. OR..... it could be the other way round!

Finally, Stephanie was recruiting knitters to knit GERMS. Yes, GERMS. She saw an article in the Evening Times about a collaboration between Strathclyde Uni and the Science centre concerning the teaching of hand hygiene to school children in the Glasgow Area. The knitted germs will be used as a teaching aid, One thousand germs are required. How many can you do? Please pass the completed germs to Stephanie or me. I dare you!

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.

The Mystery of the Missing Sock - A Knitting Group Mysetery!

First of all I apologise for the length of this post. The truth is that everyone has been so busy that there are a lot of finishes here.

Lisa has been making and collecting blankets for Yorkhill hospital. One of the blankets which in the works is actually a group project. She took this granny square to Yarndale and had people adding stitches to it. It's only about half done and she has requested that any corchet people from the group add some stitches next Tuesday. As I won't be there Helen will be asking (harassing) you to contribute. I think it's a lovely idea.

Speaking of Helen, she's been busy herself. She finished this beautiful quilted cushion. The design is another of her beloved Sashiko and done in her favourite colours. I tried to run away with this but alas she caught me and then refused to let it out of her clutches.

She has also been making some cards. She was inspired by quilter Janette. I don't think many of you will know Janette but she is famous for taking an idea and running away with it. As soon as I saw these I guessed who inspired Helen. Janette's original idea was to make quilted postcards. Helen loved the idea and found a simple crazy quilting design that could be used to make cards. Very effective!

She's also finished the socks she has been working on. The person who requested the socks prefers dark colours. Helen compromised with this gorgeous striping yarn by Zauderball. Helen said it was lovely to knit with.

Margaret has also been busy. She finished this lovely baby blanket for her friend who is about to be a grandmother to a little boy. The lady had specifically requested the brick blanket after seeing someone else receive one.

Margaret is also responsible for bring some festive cheer to the group. She finished a third robin which is going to her youngest daughter. She also knitted a stocking and some Christmas bags. These were from one of the latest knitting magazines. The cards were actually little mini kits from Hobbycraft. I am sure most of you who visit the store will have seen them. Margaret's attaching them to cards makes those little designs really stand out. She's now finished making all her family Christmas cards.

I was lucky enough to buy some hand-dyed sock yarn from the lovely Lisa. These socks were the end result. I love the striping of the yarn. More importantly the yarn itself was gorgeous to knit with. I actually didn't want to get to the end of this project.

I also made a little skull broach for my sister. This was done with metallic thread and some plastic canvas.

Seeing me work on the skull broach Norma decided to have a go herself. Norma decided to use the colours suggested by the magazine. It's amazing how different a design can look just by changing the colours. Norma has decided to make more of these for her craft fair and she plans to play with the colours.

This beautiful baby blanket was also done by Norma in crochet. I love the fold-over at the top with the bow and button. This will also be sold on her craft stall.

Pamela knitted this beautiful preemie baby set. This is for a tiny baby born at just 26 weeks. The baby is doing well and will be the best dressed on the ward. Pamela said it felt like she was knitting for a doll it was so small. Beautifully done!

She also made more of her bootees which will decorate the baby's pram. I love these and this project seems to have become a group favourite.

Janice has been knitting baby clothes too. She knitted all of these baby jumpers. Everyone loved the stripes. Particularly in the blue cardigan. The dark blue stripe makes it all the more striking!

Janice also finished knitting a shawl. This is her first attempt at a shawl and her first project using circular needles. It's a gorgeous colour and looks impressive.

This is another baby set this time done by new member Libby. The photo can't convey just how delicate this little outfit is. The booties alone were beautifully done. Very sweet!

Baby sets aren't the only items that have been on her crochet hook. She has also done this lovely beret. Not only that but this stunning top. Libby hadn't done any crochet in years when her daughter asked if she would make this for her. It truly is beautiful work.

Jean has also been busy with the baby items. The baby cardigan is lovely. Love the detail in the sleeves. I also love these little booties. The little bows at the front really set them off.

Our Esther is fairly shy about her finishes and it's usually left to poor Noreen to snatch them from her and bring them up for a wee photo. To think, if it wasn't for Noreen we wouldn't have got the chance to see this lovely row of booties. These were all knitted by Esther for her great granddaughter. There is even a few pram decorations in there. All beautifully knitted.

Kathleen has also been knitting for her granddaughter. She is very much a girly girl and loves handbags. So thanks to Kathleen she now has a lovely new bag to play with and a gorgeous wee hat for the winter.

Kathleen is also a beeder and she made this beautiful bracelet. I love the colours. Always love a purple bracelet.

You may have seen on Magda's quilting facebook page that she has been busy with some sewing. She has also been working on a blanket for her son who picked the colours himself. This hasn't stopped her on getting some knitting in there. She finished this beautiful Hitch-hiker scarf. Purple seems to be the colour of choice just now and you can see why. Lovely purple stripes.

Helen had bought some lovely sock yarn from Lisa a few weeks ago and at the same time requested a crochet hook. This is her new crochet hook which will be Helen's pride and joy. Helen loves it because not only is it her colours but it also has some sparkle!

Tuesday was also the last day for the scarf charity. 76 raffle tickets were handed out but I know there were far more scarves than that handed in. A few people didn't come forward to get their tickets. There were a few prizes. One of which was for handing in the most scarves. This of course (in case anyone was in doubt) went to Isabel who had handed in 23 scarves in total. Isabel had the audacity to act surprised. She even made a speech as she was handed her prize. She thanked everyone and especially "Margaret for stopping". Of course Margaret was second at 21 scarves. Not to worry, Margaret won a raffle and was the lucky recipient of this beautiful crochet hook designed by Lisa specially for the event. There were also other winners in there too. Janice and Helen also received prizes.

I feel now that I should explain the title of this weeks post. This incident of course involves Isabel. She turned up on the night extremely upset. She had been working on her second pair of mosaic socks. This pair was in red and white and she had finished the first one the previous week. However, she had somehow managed to lose the completed sock. This isn't really surprising if you know Isabel (famous for losing her beloved scarves). As you can imagine she was very upset about it and refused to start the second one until she found it. Helen and I were even considering making a reward poster, 'have you seen this sock'. After everyone had arrived and no sock made an appearance Isabel finally settled down to do some sewing. Then Magdalena appears and sits on the other side of Isabel. She gets settled and then turns to Isabel, 'have you missed something?' There in her hand is Isabel's beloved sock. I have never seen someone move so fast. Isabel launched herself across the table and gripped poor Magda in a bear hug. I didn't think she was going to let her go. I would say this was one of the funnies things I have ever seen at the group but there have been a fair few funny moments and quite a few with Isabel at the centre. So there you have it. We had the mystery of the missing sock at the start of the night only to have it be solved at the end.

Just a reminder that I won't be along on Tuesday. I am working and so duty calls. However, the lovely Helen will be taking photo's in my place.