Christmas Meal

On Thursday 1st, 23 members of the club spent a very enjoyable evening celebrating another exciting year of Woodley Machine Knitting Club. We sat down to a lovely meal at the Age Concern Centre, who did us proud. Thanks were given to Mavis, Joan and Pat, whose work behind the scenes mean our club goes from success to success.

To all members a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Next Meeting 15 Sept

The next meeting on 15th September, Sewmaster from Reading were coming to show us knitting machines, overlockers & sewing machines, but unfortunately they are not able to come due to unforeseen circumstances. However, Penny from the Black Hills Yarns knitting shop in Henley has very kindly agreed to step in & is going to talk about 'The Wonder of Wool' plus she will be bringing some of her lovely yarn to show you the sort of things she sells in her shop. She also has a workroom adjacent to her shop where courses are held so she'll be telling us about that too.

Beginners Course

Liz Holness is going to run a Beginners Course at the at the Age Concern Centre, Woodley from 7.30 - 9.30pm for 5 weeks starting Wednesday 19th October. If you are interested in joining please contact Pat, Mavis or Joan. Details on 'Contact Us' page.

Club Meeting

Joan Belcher gave an interesting talk about felting. She showed us that there are 2 ways of felting - using wool fibres which are spread out, wetted and vigorously rolled up & down, or using woollen knitting that is then washed in the washing machine to shrink and felt it. The results are amazing and the felted fabric can then be used with dressmaking patterns to make jackets, bags etc. Joan challenged us all to have a go at felting in a competition to be judged at the meeting on 6th October. Also, Mavis had brought a lot of cones of yarn to sell which raised over £30 for Feed the Children.

Colour Me Beautiful

We had a very different meeting this week. Maria Hastings, from Colour Me Beautiful, gave us a talk on the use of colour and which ones suit us best. They used to present colours by seasons, but as this is now a worldwide organisation and seasons differ depending on which hemisphere you’re in, they now use tonal colours including warm, soft, light, deep and clear.

She brought with her a large number of swatches and scarves in various different shades and demonstrated to us which colours complement our natural colourings.

If you wish to know more visit the colour me beautiful website on www.colourmebeautiful.co.uk or contact Maria via her website http://lovinglifelovingyou.com/index.php.

Club Meeting

It was a busy evening with around 20 members attending. First of all Delphine gave an instructive talk/demonstration on 'cut & sew' methods. She had brought some ready knitted pieces to sew into a jumper.

After that, Valerie gave a short demonstration of 3 needle cast-off which is a hand-knitting method of joining two pieces of knitting.

Then Joan set up her colour-changer on the club machine and demonstrated how this can speed up knitting with up to 4 different colours of yarn.

Lastly we had the judging of the scarf competition. There were 10 different entries based on leaving ladders in the knitting and weaving yarns & ribbons etc through the ladders. Everyone voted for their favourite which led to 3 scarves having equal numbers of votes. Final judging was done by Joan & Pat, which meant that Natalie was the winner with her lovely brown & amber scarf which was woven with knitted cords and she won a box of chocolates. The next competition is for a striped scarf using any method as long as it's machine-knitted and judging will be on 5th May.

Spinning, Weaving and Dying

We were visited by Mary and Janet, members of the Berkshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, who gave a fascinating talk on the subject. They started off by talking about the many and varied types of fibres used to make yarn. They then explained and demonstrated some of the different types of spinning, from the oldest ‘drop spindles’ to spinning wheels which have been modified over the years.

Dying your own yarn can be very exciting and you can experiment with a range of colours. You can even use acid dyes in a microwave oven to achieve amazing results.

There are many ways to weave, from simple cardboard template to sophisticated looms. The fabrics created can be individual and unique or, using patterns which have been handed down through the centuries, recreate early designs.

 For more information visit their website at www.bswd.org.uk

UNRAVEL 2011

Again Farnham Malting will be hosting UNRAVEL 2011, a knitting exhibition being held on the weekend of 26th and 27th February. Details can be found on their website, click on link below

http://www.farnhammaltings.com/events/9013/46/unravel.aspx

AGM

There was a good turnout of members for the AGM plus two new knitters who are going to join the club. The Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary were all voted in for another year. The 2011 programme was given out & discussed (see the Calendar section on this website).

Members were asked to show their interest in a ‘Beginners’ one-day course; an ‘Ann Brown’ weekend and a weekend ‘Knit-in’. These hopefully will be arranged if there are enough people wanting to take part.

A scarf competition was launched with judging (& prizes!) taking place on 03.03.11.

Sheila Mather gave a very interesting demonstration on mock-rib round neckbands which are easy to do & look good too.

We also admired Claudia’s lacy scarf – she’s promised to show us how it’s done at the next meeting.

Christmas Party

Demonstration from Liz Holness

Club Meeting

An interesting club evening. Christine, Pat and Joan Bosley all brought along their LK150 knitting machines. These allow you to use double knitting wool and produce a thicker garment. They are not cheap, retailing at around £300 to £400, but are light to transport and produce a nice texture. Joan Belcher brought her Zippy 90, which is similar but for chunky wool. Nicola brought along her laptop to demonstrate how to the use of the forum on the website. Hopefully a lot of you will now be chatting away.

Fleet Visit

We welcomed three members from the Fleet knitting club, Liz, Sue and Chris, who showed us some of the projects and ideas they have been working on.

Sue, who has Passap, Brother and knitmaster machines, showed us some Ann Brown garments she had made. Also some lovely cot blankets produced on the Passap. She has also been playing with sock also using the Passap. Sue also showed us a vey good book, which although for hand knitters, has useful information on measuring and creating your own patterns which could then be transferred to a knitleader or knit radar, “Knitwear Design Workshop” by Shirley Paden.

Chris, who is a hand knitter, brought along a selection of lace shawls, showing different constructions and traditional regional patterns from around the world.

Liz has been very busy trying different things. She showed us some new yarn “Flamenco” which is all the rage at the last show at Alexandra Palace, but she found it horrendous to knit with and wouldn’t work on the machine. She also had a tip for those who found holding knitting tools hard. She moulded a block of “Fimo” around a new needle or the metal part of a transfer tool to give something easier to grip hold of. These have to be baked in the oven so those with plastic handles are no good. She hopes to experiment with the air dried “Fimo” when she get the chance. Liz also brought along a crafty gadget to ease the pain of producing punch cards

Next Meeting

Unfortunately Abby Evely is unable to attend this meeting, but Louise Higgs is going to talk about & demonstrate the different uses of punchcards - tuck, slip, fair isle, weaving etc. If you have any old punchcards you no longer use then bring them along & swap with someone else. Louise will also have a roll of blank card & a punch so you can punch your own (if you have a punch at home then please bring it).

Next Meeting 20th May

Brenda from Heathercraft will be visiting, if you have any items you want to purchase from her (eg. sponge bars, ribber wires etc.) then you can phone her on 01293 851339, place your order and she'll bring it along for you on the 20th.

Forum now available

The forum is now up and running. If you have anything you wish to discuss, about absolutely anything, you can do so here. It's still in it's early stages so if you find anything wrong don't be alarmed as it will be addressed. Hopefully this will amount to a lively discussion area where ideas and tips can be shared for everyone.

Access the forum here or using the link on the left.

Forthcoming Knitting Shows

You may be interested  in two forthcoming knitting events. The first is "The Stitch and Craft Show" on at Olympia 2, 18th March 'til 21st March. http://www.stitchandcraft.co.uk.
The second is "Open Weekend/Spring Sale" at AndeeKnits, 20th and 21st March. www.andeeknits.co.uk

Next Meeting 18th March

Unfortunately Angela Hatton has had to cancel her visit with us. Instead Delphine has stepped in to talk about the knitleader and knitware programme, postponed from the 4th March.

Sherborne Vase Competition

We have decided to enter this competition as a group and would like as many people as possible to contribute an item for the 'Jewellery Box'. Please bring anything you have made to the meeting on the 1st April. Contact Mavis for details.

Next Meeting

Please come along with any spare tension squares to join up.

Unravel 2010

UNRAVEL 2010 is a knitting exhibition being held at Farnham Maltings next weekend 27th and 28th February. Details can be found on their website, click on link below

The new website is here!

It's been a little bit longer than planned but finally the new site is here. Hopefully you'll have no trouble working your way around the new layout, it's very similar to the old design.

Expect a lot more new features to come in the near future, if you have any problems using the site or encounter any errors please don't hesitate to contact Pat via patkiddie@woodleymkc.co.uk or use the contact form.

New Patterns

We are currently knitting various items for the special baby care unit (Buscot Ward) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Please bring anything you have made to the main March meeting so we can send a parcel off.