Competitions – Bookham Machine Knitting Club

Sherbourne Vase and Guild AGM 2017

26, June 201726, October 2017 Lyn Leventhall

Three members went to Westbury in Wiltshire for the AGM or the Guild of Machine Knitters on Saturday 18th June 2017. It was a very hot day, especially for a knitting event.
The first part of the day was a for us to look around at the various exhibitors and competition entries. There was then a talk by Marianne Henio where she showed us some of her knitwear patterns and talked about how she had started knitting.
After that, there was the AGM business and the announcement of the competition winners.
Gill, April and Anu had made a lap blanket for the Guild’s Sherbourne Vase entry which was a group project for clubs to enter. And we won!

Winning lap blanket competition entry for Sherbourne vase. — Our Winning Entry – the reverse, not shown, was fairisle.

Congratulations to these three talented ladies, it was an excellent effort incorporating many different stitches and techniques.

The afternoon had another talk, this time Jan Truman who knits wire sculptures gave a talk and showed some of her amazing sculptures and talked about her long association with this form of knitting, on her a specially adapted machine.

Here are two photos of the entire blanket:

Front of lap blanket with patchwork of many different knitting techniques in seasonal colours — Front of competition entry showing seasonal colours and many techniques

Lap Blanket reverse with seasonal flower pattern — Fair Isle pattern on reverse of competition entry showing seasonal images

Club Competition 2016/17

18, October 201618, October 2016 Lyn Leventhall

For the April 2017 meeting

For this year’s competition, we have decided to just have one category – a knitted and woven scarf.

Using the pattern provided, knit a “laddery” scarf. On removing it from the knitting machine, grab some pretty yarns from your stash and weave them in and out of the ladders leaving tassels. Full the instructions are provided here: woven-scarf

Please do let’s have lots of entries. You could even do more than one. They make lovely presents to give away after the competition.

Sherbourne Vase Entries

19, February 201528, November 2015 Lyn Leventhall

Here are some photos of Bookham Club’s entries for the Sherbourne Vase in previous years:

February 2015 Meeting

13, February 201517, February 2015 Lyn Leventhall

New Beginnings – decorative alternatives to ribbed bands

This month we had a theme – new beginnings – were we looked at a variety of edges that can be used instead of or as well as ribbing.

April, Anu and Frances both demonstrated some unusual edges. It can be a real boon to have some easy edges that can be made on the main bed if you do not use or have not got a ribber for your machine. Many current garments are tunic style and do not need a rib at the main hem so these can easily make the garment more interesting and unique without using the standard hem.

Braids — Range of trims that can be used instead of a rib or hem at the start of a garment, round sleeves, necklines or even to replace button bands.

Our three demonstrators creating examples of various trims

Annual Club Competition, Stars and Cushions

In addition to the theme, February is the club’s competition night. This year, there were two themes – the first was to make a cushion cover whilst the second was to create an item with a star theme, this could be a garment or any other item.

There are two classes: novice for anyone who has never won a competition before and standard for everyone who has won in the past or works to a high standard.

Our worthy winners were:

Beryl – who won the novice cushion cover category for a cream cushion with tassels on the corners .

There was a tie between Anu and Frances for the standard in the cushion cover category. Frances creater a small heart shape cushion whilst Anu’s used the knitweave technique to make a large multicoloured cushion.

Jenny K. won the standard class for the Star category for her jumper.

There were no entries for the Star category novice class.

Many congratulations to all the winners and as well as all those who entered, there were more entries this year than in the past and everything was of a high standard.

Competition Entries

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February 2013 Meeting

11, March 201311, March 2013 Lyn Leventhall

The Competition and Cheese and wine Evening.

There were several high quality entries in each category of the three categories:

A child’s hat
Fruit and Veg,
Hearts (this was in honour of Valentine’s day).

Thanks you to all members who took part.

After the usual notices, we had a lovely cheese and wine social evening allowing everyone a chance to look at the competition pieces and vote for their favourites.

The winners were Anu for the colourful and fun child’s hat and Kathy and Margaret tied for the Fruit and veg, Margaret won the Cream Hearts scarf. All the entries were of a high standard.

Child’s Hat Entries	Fruit and Veg entries
Hearts Cream Scarf – Category Winner	Hearts Cushion in Grey and Red
Hearts in Pink and White	Hearts in Pink and Blue

Finally, we had a raffle with some very nice prizes

Margaret wins 2012 Guild Prizes

13, July 201213, July 2012 Lyn Leventhall

The club would like to congratulate Margaret Grinter for her excellent creation which won two prizes this year in the competitions at the Guild of Machine Knitters AGM (see video here) which took place on Saturday 16th June in Cambridge.

The categories were the Creativity Cup and the Guild of Machine Knitters Award for Garment of your own Design:

January 2012 – Club competition

18, February 201218, February 2012 Lyn Leventhall

This month we braved the cold weather to gather on our first meeting of 2012. Our chairman Brenda told us about a number of upcoming knitting events and members were asked if they wanted to enter this year’s Sherbourne Vase competition that was help by the Guild of machine Knitters. The title was Going for Gold to reflect the Olympics held in London this year. On several previous occasions the club had won or been highly commended. The closing date is 5th May 2012, please contact Brenda if you are interested in helping.

As usual, instead of a speaker we had the club competition – members had been invited to submit entries in three categories all made in the last three months. Club members voted for the items they liked best.

The category with the most entries this year was the Bags ,a wide range of shapes, sizes and finishes were displayed and it was hard to decide who to vote for.
The clear winner here was Margaret’s lacy bag.

Entries in the Bag category
Winning Entry

Runner up was Jenny.
The winner and only entry into the Toys category was the lovely penguin entered by our newest member, Corinne.
Knitted Penguin
The Children’s Garment category only attracted two entries but they were of a high standard. The garment knitted by Barbara, a lacy pale mauve cardigan, was chosen as the winner here.
The children's garments

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