CanCan Yarn!

Apologies to Caroline who thought I had given her homework (ie get the doll done so we can see it, lol). She did finish her though and she is lovely! I love the colours she picked out. I have to admit that I prefer the purples to the bold primary colours the pattern suggested. I especially like the use of the self striping yarn. Makes her more original. Having finished her Caroline is now back to her latch hook cushion.

Isobel finished this lovely cardigan on Tuesday night. I have a soft spot for cables and love it on this cardigan. Again, also love the self striping yarn. I could be wrong but I think Isobel mentioned moving on to a cardigan for herself next.

Dawn finished her lovely mittens. All done in crochet. She is now working on the hat and scarf to match. Love the colours and the yarn is unbelievably soft.

Dawn's mum, Moira, but some of that yarn I was talking about last week. With the help of Magdalena she worked out how to actually knit with it and says it's easier than you think. I took some photo's in the hopes that it would help others. As you can see it knits up quite nicely. I have a feeling a few others in the group will be picking up this yarn.

I can now reveal our challenge which will take place on the 12th April. The challenge theme is "All About Me". I took inspiration from another member. Everyone mainly knits or crafts for other people. I thought this would be a good opportunity for you to do something for yourself. The challenge is to make something that says something about you. It can be something you have been meaning to do but gifting to others have always got in the way. Or maybe to learn to do something you have always wanted to do. There are two categories as always original design or adapted design and one from each will receive £25 vouchers from Hobbycraft. Helen has also give some other vouchers as an extra prize so there will be a third runner up.

I can also give more information about our Gartmore weekend. It's the last weekend in May. Deposits have to be in by the 1st Feb. If you haven't received an info sheet just asked. We are hoping to have some classes again. Donna has offered another crochet class. Isobel has offered to do a sewing clinic. Bring any sewing project along you are having difficulty with and she is happy to help. Dawn has requested a sock class. If anyone has anything they would like to teach or learn just let me know and we will see what we can do.

June is back with us and feeling lots better which means next week I get to interview her for member of the month.

Exciting Times!

Linda has more finishes. She finished crocheting these lovely sparkly scarves for the shoe box charity. On the night she was finishing another scarf which she had forgotten about. This time for herself and using pom pom yarn.

That was our only finish but I did photograph someones newly acquired stash. We all admired and gazed in wonder at Roberta's new yarn. It's called Ondas and is by Katia (the same people who do the amazing pom pom yarn. You knit with the edging and it creates a ruffle effect. One ball is enough for a scarf. Roberta picked it up in Hobbycraft but you can also by it from Modern Knitting along with instructions on how to use it. I have ordered from Modern knitting before and highly recommend them. Can't wait to see Roberta's finished scarf.

We also have some good news. I am in the process of booking our weekend away to Gartmore for the last weekend in May. We all had good fun last time and so look forward to it again. Hopefully a few more members will be able to go along.

On Tuesday I will announce the next challenge. I can tell you just now that it will take place on the 12th April. I also have the autumn theme picked out but I will annoy everyone with that nearer the time ;).

Lastly I was interviewed about our group for Knit Today. The interview will appear in issue 61. Issue 56 is out on the 25th January so I am guessing 61 will be around June. It's something to look out for.

We're Back!

It was good to be back on Tuesday and although it was a quiet night it was still good to catch up and see what everyone was working on. Helen proudly showed us her finished table runner. She cashed in one of the vouchers we made her for her retirement and Val taught her quilting. She is very proud of it and quite right too. Unfortunately she now has the quilting bug and is already planning her next one. Glutton for punishment she also has plans to cash in her next voucher which involves crocheting a baby blanket with Donna.

This lovely baby blanket was crocheted by Linda. She set it off by sewing satin ribbon to the seems. It would have been pretty on it's own but the satin edging really sets it off. This is going into her show box charity. It just so happens that this is our next charity. Watch out for details on what the charity involves and what Linda needs. The good thin is that it doesn't have to be knitting so if you are a stitcher there will be something you can do.

Caroline has started a tradition in work. She knits Christmas tree decorations and places a chocolate inside. This year it was Christmas tree's. She was then asked by her colleagues what they were getting next year. Stumped for all of five minutes she came up with Christmas baubles. This one is the first and even has it's chocolate inside already. She is also currently working on a doll for a friends baby. Not liking the traditional primary colours she has decided to adapt it. I can't wait to see it finished.

Dawn has been back at her card making. She made this lovely Christmas card for Donna. We are all trying to convince her to sell her cards but so far no joy. Who wouldn't want one of these lovely cards? She has decided that this year is the year of me (or rather herself). All her crafting skills are usually used to make something for someone else. This year she is (and quite right too) going to make things for herself. She is starting with a lovely red hat and scarf set.

Anyone else got any crafting New Years resolutions?

As well as the charity I also have plans for our next challenge. We didn't do the autumn one but there will be a spring challenge. Watch out for that one.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

After two weeks of horrible weather we were beginning to think our Christmas break would be longer than usual. Thankfully it cleared up enough for us to have our planned Christmas party. First of all though I have a lot of finishes to show you as the cold weather has encouraged us to stay in doors and keep busy. Back in May we had our first swap night. Sheena picked up a lovely cross stitch kit and has not only finished it but has also framed it. You can see how fitting it is as the cats look out at the lovely snow scene. Silver thread has added a touch of glitter to it.

Donna has used her crochet skills to make this lovely Christmas stocking (as modelled by Moira). I wonder how many of us would have wanted that as their stocking. Not only is it very pretty but it would also hold a lot of presents!

As you can see the snow has kept Val very busy. She has finished two beautiful quilts and a table runner. The first is a daisy quilt. You can see the daisy pattern in the close up. This is going to be a wall hanging (I think it may also be my favourite as I love daisies). The second is her beautiful Christmas table runner. Helen and I both admired her fabric choices. All of which were festive and went well together. We couldn't decide which of the fabrics was our favourite. Lastly she finished a stunning musical quilt. This is going to a charity raffle. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't want to buy a ticket in order to win it.

Janette has also been busy. She finished two quilted dogs. The first one is in bold red, black and white musical fabric. This is going to be for charity. The second is a little different from her usual. It's done in tweed fabric. Very different to the other quilted dogs but no less lovely. The last is again done in tweed but this time quilted ducks. These ducks are actually filled with sand are to be door stops.

Roberta finished knitting this lovely baby cardigan for her granddaughter. She used a striping yarn which had a lovely effect on the jumper. Roberta herself is unsure of it's turn out but the rest of us admired it.

Last but certainly not least of our finishes are the dolls. Yes the dolls are back. Stephanie had ordered some more of these little dolls and has already knitted up their little outfits. Everyone is completely enamoured by them and I can see us coming back to more after Christmas.

Our party came later. We had Christmas music playing in the back ground. We had Christmas cracker and of course we all put on our Christmas hats. And as you can see from Adam we also had mince pies. This is the first year we have had the space to do something like this and so we were all very excited about it.





We also had a secret santa style game which Helen suggested months ago. The idea was that everyone gets an unwanted gift or unused item from their home, wrap it up and bring it in. I then put names in a bag and with the help of my glamorous assistant (Suzanna) called them out. Each person came down one at a time, picked a gift and opened it. You could choose to keep the gift or swap with anyone who has went before you. Poor Val got to go first which meant she had no one to swap with. Luckily she liked her gift and got to keep it too. I was actually surprised that more people chose not to swap. We did have a couple though. Helen who had threatened to swap with someone got a beautiful bag which she decided to keep. Stephanie was next and got some lovely leather gloves. She decided thought that the bag would go better with her jacket and so swapped. The only other swap was Moira and Isabel. Moira received designer toilet paper. Isabel was a little jealous and so Moira swapped with her. Now Isabel is chuffed to bits as she can tell everyone she has designer loo roll.

It was a great night and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Our bakers even brought along some treats for us. Aileen had made some chocolate covered dates with a nut centre. It proved to be a favourite amongst the non-mince pie people. Magdalena also treated us to some traditional Polish Christmas cake. As you can see it was quickly devoured by the group.

Hopefully we can do this again next year. Maybe have to think up a different game. Any ideas?

In the meant time I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We will be back on 4th January. Hope to see you there.

Almost forgot, there were several more photo's but obviously I didn't want to completely over run the blog post. You can see the rest of our Christmas photo's on our facebook page.

Multi-talented!

Like her mum, our youngest knitter is very talented. Zuzanna also does Irish dancing and has won lots of awards. Magdalena decided that she would make her next Irish dancing dress. You can see from the photo's just how much detail went into it, front and back. The white detail on the purple top was hand embroidered. Magdalena's next sewing project is to make herself a coat.

Margaret has also been busy stitching away. A very different kind of stitching mind you. She has just finished a Christmas cross stitch for herself and some Christmas cards.

Still on the Christmas theme Helen made these lovely personalised cards for Stephanie. Very unusual in the way they stand up and definitely a keepsake as they have each of Stephanie's grandchildren's names on them.

Dawn also had a finish. She knitted these fingerless gloves for her friends Christmas. These ones were don't without DPNs and match the hat she knitted not so long ago.

Dawn was asked to make a blanket for a friend. As she didn't have time her mum, Moira, offered to do it instead. Here it is all finished. I love the edging which was admired by others too.

Another Christmas related finish. I managed to finish a shawl for my gran. Was quickly back onto knitting socks that night.

Last but not least we have a finish from Josephine. She crocheted this lovely cardigan for her niece. The buttons were attached that very night.

This is Helen trading in another one of her vouchers. Val had offered to teach her to quilt. She has had a few lessons but both decided to take advantage of the space to add the other layers. She is quilting a lovely Christmas table runner. Can't wait to see it finished!

Our last day is on the 14th December and we will be having our first small Christmas party to celebrate. Also next wee (7th) Carol has offered to give her Japanese quilting demo (demo rather than a class due to time constraints). Knitting group contributions will be going to her hospice charity as a thank you.

Dawn - November 2010 MOTM

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

I just turned 40 this year and I live with my partner Alex (note - her first answer to this could not be printed here ;))

2. How did you learn to knit?

My granny taught me to knit a long time ago. I have always wanted to improve though as I was always knitting scarves. I wanted to move beyond it.

3. What is your biggest success?

The bear cross stitch. It was massive and I thought I was never going to finish it. Also my baby sock which I was taught to do a few weeks ago.

4. What is your biggest disaster?

I started a pair of gloves last week. I am new to using DPNs and it didn't go well. I will not be beaten though. I will triumph over DPNs eventually.

5. What other crafts do you do?

I do cross stitch, card making, crochet and a bit of beading.

6. Your list of favourites.

Favourite yarn - noro (for the colour). I love good quality such as cotton, Rowan and Cashmere.

Favourite tool/product- my knitpro circular needles. Anything Cath Kidston

Favourite designers - Louisa Harding and Debbie Bliss

Favourite shop - hobbycraft

Favourite online - Sir stampalot, Great British yarns and Black Sheep.

Favourite colours - red, purple

Favourite craft book - dummies guide to knitting

7. What is your ideal goal?

I would like to knit a pair of socks. I know it would be expensive but I would love to do a warp all in a cashmere/silk mix yarn.

8. What do you like to listen to or watch whilst crafting?

I listen to the radio, especially radio 2. I like Amy Winehouse, Biffy Clyro, Pearl Jam and Led Zepplin. I like my rock music.

9. What tip do you have for other knitters/crafters?

Read blogs because they give better advice on tools. These are crafters who have actually used the products so you get an unbiased point of view. They also share their mistakes so that others can learn from them. Not only that they are also inspiring.

10. What is your favourite non-craft book?

I like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, biographies, Anne Rice, Terry Pratchett and many, many, many, many, many, many more.

For those of you who don't know Dawn has her own blog. You can see it here on 3 Sneezes and a Magpie.