The start of the meeting was dedicated to a discussion of the 2017 entry for the Sherbourne Vase which we won. Only recently did we get back the entry after it had been exhibited by the Guild at shows it attended.
We also discussed the 2018 entry which got a Highly Commended. It was a set of 3 cushion covers on the theme of the nursery story of the Three Bears. A larger group worked on it than the three who worked on the 2017 lap blanket.
This part of the meeting was followed by a demonstration on Intarsia by April, who explained in an easy to follow way how to achieve a good result, she used an Intarsia carriage on the club punch card brother machine and explained the alternatives for newer electronic machines which have Intarsia build into the main carriage.
Yarn break setup
She also demonstrated the weights that came with the Intarsia carriage that attached through the yarn which puts the yarn under tension.
Each section of colour on the work needs a separately wound ball of yarn this can then be weighted.
Next month we will be having a Hints and Tips evening, members were asked to think of a useful hint or tip and we will be listening to all of these hoping to learn something new or useful. In addition, we are collecting scarves made by members for the Knit for Peace charity.
Six members attended the Guild AGM on the 8th June 2018. We were given a display space in the foyer with two other Southern Clubs and set up the display of member’s work. This looked great and we had many compliments.
In addition, six members had worked on the Sherbourne Vase entry this year which had to be three or more cushion covers linked by a theme.
Our’s depicted scenes from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and we were the only club who had a highly commended entry. The winners cushions were a set of four seasonal pictures with a sheep and a tree – a nice design, the backs had some garter stitch lettering.
Bookham’s Entry for the Sherbourne Vase. Highly Commended
Overall we had a jolly time and chatted to members of other clubs and looked at the displays.
After lunch and the formal AGM section, there was a talk by Nick Traylen from Uppingham Yarns who talked about the large range of fibres now available.
We had a wonderful talk from Jools Elphick who brought along a large range of her knitted hats. She entertained us with a history of her work intertwined with anecdotes about her life. Having started making garments she moved by degrees into hats and her designs are widely sought after by high-end retailers both in the US and the USA. She is now looking to explore some new areas of knitting.[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”18″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_imagebrowser” ajax_pagination=”0″ order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]
Some of the hats were modelled by one of our members and the came to life once on the head, the intricate structure that made them look so great was explained. And we had the opportunity to examine them in detail after the talk.
After the usual formalities of the AGM where the current committee was re-elected and Clare was co-opted onto the committee there was a show and tell where we showed off the small items we had made using various cone ends.
The evenings subject was making a scarf with non-roll edges, Margaret and Frances demonstrated the technique for those who had forgotten, and this was a starting point for us all to do 20 rows on this scarf. It is hoped that everyone will make a scarf using their cone ends for the Knit for Peace charity. We will be collecting the scarves later in the year.
There were two themes to the club meeting this month:
A continuation of last months meeting on cone ends.
A look at other crafts our members indulge in.
First, we had a round-up of the other craft work some of the members brought it, it varied from beading, hand knitting and crochet to bag making with painting and sketching, quilting and card making with variations on these as well. Members showed us which crafts in the display were theirs and talks briefly about them.
Many members hand knit which complements their machine knitting. Others have taken up a variety of other crafts.
(ed: the slide shows takes ages to load, please be patient. Also click the image to move to the next one)
After this, we returned to the cone ends topic and looked around at all the items brought in, most people had created items from their stash and also a range of patterns were available for using up the left-overs that inevitably occur when using coned yarn. There were pretty gloves and scarves, as well as tiny items, stuffed animals and toys. Some were machine knitted, others hand knitted or crocheted.
Finally, Margaret repeated last month’s demonstration but this time with smooth yarn which showed clearly the difference between using yarn simply run together onto the machine, yarn wound using a standard winder and 2 methods of twisting – using a hand or machine operated yarn twister and using a cone stack which is not as effective as the yarn twister and much more of a fiddle to use. The cone stack can be mimicked by placing cones on an old-fashioned tiered saucepan stand, there are manual and electric yarn twisters available.
(ed: Apologies to those whose work does not appear – not all the photos were clear enough to display)
Gill started the evening with notices – Kingston Hospital (Surrey) has asked us to knit some breasts to aid midwives who are demonstrating breastfeeding. Those who watch the Call the Midwife series on the BBC may have noticed them in their clinic using similar aids. The pattern is for hand knit only, email Gill or Lyn for a copy of the pattern. Margaret, who has already made several ready to send off, said that they were quite tricky to knit unless you used small circular needles as the increasing and decreasing was hard on the hands. Please note these are not the same as the prosthetics created for breast cancer patients, there are a number of patterns for both hand and machine available elsewhere for those.
There was also a list of events:
the Bournemouth Machine knitting show on Saturday 3rd March
The Olympia Knit and Stitch show 1-3 March
Unravel 16-18 February at Farnham Maltings
We continued the meeting with a show and tell. Several members showed off their creations, see photos below and then we got into groups to look at the samples, patterns and ideas everyone had for using up the cone ends at the end of this we came together to share ideas.
The other theme this evening was to use several yarns together to create a new yarn, often suitable for use on a chunky machine. Various techniques were demonstrated:
Running yarns directly through a multi-way yarn mast
Winding several yarns together on a standard cone winder
Use of a yarn stack where the bottom yarns are run up the centre of the ones above.
Using yarn twisted to create a brand new yarn from several thinner ones.
The club has its own electric yarn twister and one of the members brought a manual one and a yarn stack.
Margaret demonstrated how these were different when knitted up – the first two showed “rivers of colour”, an uneven distribution of the yarn colours. The twisted yarn was clearly better but the yarn stack although a little awkward to use with smaller cones, also distributed the colours well.
One member mentioned she had simulated a yarn stack using a tiered vegetable rack and magazines from the 1980’s showed people who used old style saucepan stands for the same purpose.
Finally, Frances demonstrated how to plate both plain and patterned using tuck stitch, she also showed us samples of ribber plating. You can use either a thick and a thin yarn or two yarns of similar weight. Together the yarns should add up to no more than the maximum your machine will handle – e.g. 4-ply / light double knitting.
The next meeting will be about other crafts that the members are interested in and also the theme from this meeting will continue, looking at some of the patterns people brought in as there was not enough time for everything.
Preparing for the talks on the City and Guild course
This month we had all the members who had done the City and Guilds Machine Knitting courses in the past talk about their experiences. In addition, several members who had attended other courses showed us their work.
Interestingly many of the speakers had started these course when they had young children. Clearly, they had worked hard in the early mornings and late into the night when their little ones were sleeping. For this alone they deserve our admiration.
April’s City and Guilds projects
April started and told us about the process of designing and how they were taught to draw. She showed us images of where the ideas started and how they progressed through sampling colours and patterns to the garment construction.
Angie followed this – they had attended the same course – showing how her ideas were created from a fish. Similarly creating the patterns and choosing the colours, eventually putting it together to create a lovely bedspread/throw.
Margaret was next and she had gone on to City and Guild’s machine knitting from a broader art and design course, developing her ideas and designs.
Then Ann brought along the work created by our late member Marion, who had also been on the course with Angie and April. Ann also showed us some of the items she had made after having been on courses in the past.
Anu told us of her experience having done this course straight from college. She had spent time developing a business on the back of this.
Finally, Anthea showed us all the samples and colours she had used to create one of her Evolution Jackets from the famous Iris Bishop pattern. We look forward to seeing the finished garment.
There was a very good turnout this month for the talk on Felting for Christmas. We welcomed our speaker Raya Brown of Magic Wool Studio who came all the way from Kidderminster to show us how to make a lovely felted and appliquéd table centre for Christmas.
Raya Brown
This was quite a long process involving laying various threads as an initial structure then adding wool “tops” to a depth of 4-5 mm. As the felting process shrinks the item by at least 30% it has, of course, to be made bigger than the finished item.
The felting process involved lots of soapy water and various surprising tools including an electric orbital sander with bubble wrap replacing the sandpaper. Underneath a waterproof layer of hard plastic, textured drawer lining was used (available from Lakeland Plastics and Amazon). All this helped with the agitation needed to give a good felting.
Various members of the club helped out and tried their hand at the process.
It took time to dry, blotting it with towels and then a variety of pre-felted pieces were added, including holly leaves and a red poinsettia to make a holder for a Christmas candle in a small glass container.
We would like to thank Raya for a wonderful inspiring evening.
At the end of the evening, we also had a collection of the hats members made for charity with the gingery coloured yarn won at the Guild annual meeting. And also, for the show and tell, Barbara brought along an adorable pink baby cardigan with little prams on the pocket.
At the start of the meeting, we were given the sad news of the death of one of the members, Marian. The club sends their condolences to the family. Ann kindly brought along Marian’s City and Guild’s folder to show us. She was clearly talented at drawing as well as being an excellent knitter. April talked about how she had met her many years ago on the C&G course in Croydon. She will be sadly missed by club members.
The programme for this meeting was a demonstration by April of short rowing techniques and she showed us how to create a colourful Christmas stocking with a fairisle band. She used the technique to create a toe and heel although the stocking was fairly quickly made as it was seamed at the back and not created in the round as nobody would be wearing it. A mini version of the stocking was created by April as part of the demonstration.
April demonstrating the Christmas Stocking
Xmas Stocking before sewing showing heel and toe on right)
Mini Xmas Stocking
Anyone who wishes to have a copy of the pattern should contact April by email.
There was a short discussion about whether we would enter the Guild’s Sherbourne Vase competition this year. A group of interested people will meet up and discuss ideas to see if anyone comes up with an inspired idea.
Having won a large pack of ginger coloured Alpaca yarn for our 2017 entry, it was decided that it should be made into warm hats for the homeless this winter and balls of yarn were taken home by some members to create these for next month meeting.
Show and tell:
April demonstrating the Christmas Stocking
Clare brought long a beautiful babies cardigan she had made, incorporating the flat edging technique demonstrated by Margaret in the July meeting on edgings.
Clares Baby’s Cardigan
Margaret brought a fun Father Christmas ornament with an interesting fringe for the coat and beard made by wrapping the yarn around a pencil during the knitting.
Margaret’s Father Christmas Ornament
Next month we are having a speaker on felting – see box on front page of website.
