Its Beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Margaret saw a very plain Christmas wreath during a Christmas shopping expedition. It was just what she wanted! She worked her knitting magic and added some seasonal adornments. Now she has an original door decoration with handmade charm. Love it.

Norma made this fabulous Star Bunting as part of a Secret Santa organised by For The Love Of Yarn. The stars were crocheted and then stiffened. They look great. Lovely idea. I must add this to my list of things to try.........that is turning into a really long list!

Spot the Grandma-to-be! Janice is totally motivated to create a stash of useful things for her future bundle of joy which will appear in June 2015. The Baby Ball is made from old jeans donated by the Mum-to-be. A lesson in recycling. The wee hats were knitted from a pattern that Janice got at the group last week. and below are a selection of bibs ready to be used.

Recycling comes in all shapes and forms. Anthea's daughter was doing The Rainforest Project at school and was encouraged to produce something that had been recycled. Anthea remembered an old project that had been lying in a bag waiting to be completed. Craftily, Anthea, recycled the yarn and made Sam the Sloth. Sam has become a bit of a hit at school and even the classroom assistant wants one.

Esther made these cute mini Christmas decorations!!!!!! I love these. Esther you are a star.

This traditional aran jacket was knitted by Catriona for a friend's grandson. I'm very fond of aran style jackets and I adore this one.

This dog hat would put a smile on anyone's face! Jill completed the baby hat for a friend. It will be loved and cherished.

Roberta knitted these Christmas mitts for her Granddaughter. The photograph does not show the sparkle in the yarn. These mitts will be worn with pride. Lovely.

Tuesday 2nd December is the Christmas party night. Just bring yourselves and a small gift for the pass the parcel game. Please do not spend a great deal of money on this. It is just a bit of fun. You could even recycle a gift you received last year and didn't use.

Congratulations to Karen who graduated as a nurse last week. Those three years flew in. Well done from all of us.

The group starts back again in the new year on Tuesday 6th January 2015 at 7pm. Have a safe and happy Christmas season.

Winter is Coming!

This beautiful shawl deserves to be admired by everyone. It's stunning work. This is the first shawl that Anthea has made. It was supposed to be a shawlette but Anthea added extra repeats to make it bigger. Glad she did as it looks truly stunning.

Anthea also knitted this chunky scarf for her hubby. When visiting her mother in law she was recently taught how to do cables. Looks like the lessons paid off.

Margaret knitted the angel which was a kit that came free with a recent magazine. Looks fab. She also looks a little squinty but that's because she is meant to be hanging up. She also used some of the yarn to knit this pretty star.

Still on the winter projects Margaret finished two pairs of mitts. One pair for myself and one pair for her younger daughter. With the cold weather I did consider wearing them before she had a chance to bring them along to the knitting group. They are knitted in chunky yarn to make them extra cosy.

She also stitched this card at the request of a friend. It's her friends granddaughters first Christmas and she wanted something special for her.

Norma continues to be busy. Her craft fair was this weekend and she was still working away on finishing projects in preparation. This beatiful blanket was one such project. Some baby is going to be very lucky. Hopefully we will here how it went on Tuesday and in the meantime perhaps Norma will actually make something for herself.

Jill is usually a cross stitcher. However, the stitching was put down to crochet this gorgeous scarf. It actually looks like noro yarn but it isn't and has a softer feel as a result. Jill claims that it was fairly easy to do however the effect is fantastic. Love the colour changes too.

Laura is one of our newer members. She came along a few weeks ago and last week she brought her first finish. Look how detailed this is? I do love fair isle and this hat is very impressive. Beautifully done.

Janice had been busy too. She has been taking a leaf out of Stephanies books and been knitting baby things with no one in mind. I love the cabling in this cardigan which goes all the way round the back.

Lyn had been busy with these pretty little hats. She took the flower pattern I taught at Gartmore and added buttons then used them to decorate a couple of the hats. The buttons just make those flower.s

Audrey has been doing some Christmas knitting too. She also knitted the angel that came free with a recent magazine. However she adapted the hair and this little angel even has a pony tail.

Kathleen knitted another of her hats for her granddaughter. I love her crochet hats. Love the feel of them too. This is a fab effect created by doubling up the yarn. Her granddaughter can definitely claim to be best dressed.

I feel so rotten because I don't remember who knitted this fabulous hat! We had a queue of people at that point. I do remember the person felt that it was a little big. It looked fab to me though. So cosy.

Libby has been busy with the crochet hook again. She made this beautiful cardigan and hat set. I love the little flowers stitched on both. It was supposed to be for a 3 year old but turned out a little bigger. So it's now being sent to family abroad.

More winter crochet and this time from Carol. She made this lovely hat for her son. It's for him to wear in the car during the cold weather. I love those colours!

This is a group photo of a group project that some of us are taking part in. I didn't explain it very well on the night. So hopefully I can make up for that here. There is a facebook group page called For the Love of Yarnigans which both Carol and Lisa are administrators of. Lisa came up with the idea for the members to do a crochet along. The idea is that it can help with some stash busting. So the challenge is to creat a mood blanket of scarf. Each day we contribute two rows to our project. The colour we chose on each given day is supposed to reflect the mood we are in at the time. Fran, Lisa, Magdalena and myself are all taking part. Magdalena is the only one among us who is doing a scarf. She is also using a lovely ripple pattern with variegated yarn. I thought it would be a great idea to get a group photo to see how everyone has interpreted the project. Can't wait to see them all when they are finished.

The 9th of November is our Christmas craft day. We have three classes on and one of them is making these beautiful lavender bags and sachets. I guess I don't need to tell you that this project is from the lovely Izzi. I have a list of names for each class. So if you want to join in please let me know as it will determine the supplies brought along. I have emailed out details of each class and posted it on our facebook group page. However, you don't have to join the class to come along. The important thing is to spend the day doing something that you enjoy and to have fun.

Celebrating Finishes!

First of all an apology to Margaret. She knitted these beautiful baby cardigans. A few weeks ago she gave them to Helen so that they would go to the Hospice charity shop in Baillieston (who were delighted with them). However, I forgot to post the photo on the blog. This time it was my fault and the photo hadn't done a disappearing trick.

We are also celebrating finished projects again. Helen came up with a fantastic idea. Every time someone has a finish they are handed a raffle ticket. At the end of the month a ticket is drawn and they can pick out something from a lucky dip. So Tuesday night everyone was handed out raffle tickets. The prizes aren't big but some of them might be pretty and some might be useful. It's just nice to show appreciation for everyones talent now and then.

Margaret had a couple of finishes again on Tuesday. She is clearly preparing for winter. The cross stitch was actually a kit that Roberta was giving away. Margaret likes Santa's and immediately pounced on it. It looks good in the boxed frame. She also knitted these gorgeous mitts for her youngest. The yarn is chunky and super soft. She then spent Tuesday working on another Christmas cross stitch. This time a snowman.

Stephanie had a few finishes herself. She knitted up these beautiful baby items. All of which are off to the Hospice charity shop in Baillieston. The shop has actually asked to pass on their thanks for everyones generosity. They have loved all the baby clothes and the customers having been ooing over them too. Stephanie (along with June) was knitting scarves in an unusual yarn. Hopefully it won't be long before I can get a photo to show it off.

A friend of Helen's is expecting. She doesn't know the sex of the baby yet. So Helen is being prepared and is planning on knitting for both. This lovely baby boy cardigan is the first of many. Helen spent the evening working on some socks which will be a Christmas gift for another friend.

Fran finished this gorgeous baby blanket. Done in crochet and set off with a ribbon edging. It's more stunning in person and the yarn is lovely and soft. Helen decided that since Tuesday was the first night of giving out raffles it should also be the first night of selecting something from the lucky dip. Fran had the winning ticket and won herself a cross stitch pin cushion.

I had a couple of finishes too. I stitched this frog prince which was a kit that came with a book. I glued it into a hoop and attached some ribbon so that it could be hung from a hook. The socks I finished the week before. It's from the large spools of yarn from Roberta. These socks are for my sisters Christmas. I spent Tuesday interviewing Anthea and knitting up socks using yarn hand dyed by the lovely Lisa.

Look out for Anthea's member of the month interview in the next few days. I have added a new question. Magdalena suggested that we start listing what people are working on. This is something that was done back in the early days. However, with over 30 members I could be there all do. What I will do though is take some 'works in progress' photo's during evenings where there are few finishes. Not all, but a few.

Christmas Prep!

Before I start talking about this collection of images from our talented group I have a mention for another talented group (of which a few of our members just happen to also be a member of). If you enjoyed Helen's report on the quilting show then there is an opportunity for you to go and see some quilts yourself. The Glasgow Gathering of quilters are staging an exhibition of their "Suitcase collection" of quilts in the Willow Tea Room in Sauchiehall St, Glasgow, on the 2nd floor. Opening hours are 10am - 4pm Mon-Sat. It ends this Friday.

Without further ado it's about time that this photograph was taken. You may remember that one of the winners of our challenge was absent. Isabel came back from her holidays a few weeks ago and it took me about three weeks to remember to bring along her prize and the prize winning scarf. Sorry Isabel! So now you can see Isabel finally receiving her prize as well as showing off her fabulous scarf.

A few weeks ago you may remember a photograph of a beautiful granny square baby blanket which was created by Anthea. This is a present for a friend who has just become a mum. Well, she has also made her friend a lovely bag to go with it and this baby toy (the toy jingles). Once again I love the colours. Anthea got the pattern from a blog that is much loved by many members of the group called Attic24. I used one of her patterns before myself. If you like bright colours and crochet it's worth checking out.

This lovely hat and mitts were knitted by Stephanie. I did try to get a photo of Stephanie modelling them but she was far too fast for me. The hat is very unusual though as it is knitted in panels. Stephanie says it was actually very easy to do. I think these are going to her granddaughter.

Roberta has been equally busy on the crochet front. The first is a baby blanket done mainly in double crochet. The little bear was cross stitched onto the blanket afterwards. Roberta says it was a bit footery at first but this was her first go at it. Looks amazing to me. Sadly it has no recipient yet. The second blanket I'm afraid the camera doesn't do justice. For some strange reason my camera hates sparkles. I think you can just make them out in the blue but trust me the red is also sparkly. This beautiful blanket is for her granddaughter. I love the fact that she has done a blue edging. It just sets the whole thing off.

It's getting to that time of year where the bulk of the images are of Christmas themes of presents. Once again Roberta has been busy as has Alison. These beautiful advent calendars were stitched by them both. Again I don't think the camera does them justice but it's safe to say they were very much admired. Hard to believe that it's only been about a year since the pair had some quilting lessons.

Margaret has also been busy once again with her Christmas cross stitch. She has just about finished all her cards for family members. The first three cards featuring elves are for her grand nieces. The last one with the monkey is for her youngest daughter.

Good news! We just found out that Sheena is expecting. She is also moving back to Glasgow so will once again be a regular at the group (we've missed her). We will be holding a baby shower for her the first Tuesday we are back after Christmas.

Lastly, wish us luck! This week myself and Elaine are taking part in a readathon to raise money for SAMH (any excuse to read).