May 2019 Meeting

Lyn Leventhall Meetings

An evening with Mariangela Bruna

What a fabulous evening we had with our speaker Mariangela Bruna, who gave us a talk about her new collection of mainly machine knitted garments with hand finishing in crochet and hand knitting. The finishing was not simply an edging but much more original and an integral part such as a crocheted stand-up collar and matching long cuffs or even the whole yoke.

Originally from Italy, Mariangela has made the UK her home for some years now. Discovering that her hobby could be turned into a business she took various courses in London to enhance her existing skills taking them from a hobby to a business.

The ideas for her work come from a strong ethical approach and inspiration from the natural world. All garments are made in organic natural undyed yarn sourced from the Shetlands.

Although this was the first club talk that Mariangela had given, it will certainly not be her last. She had the full attention of members who were impressed with all the originality in the designs and followed her journey from initial inspiration through various samples to her finished garments. There were also photos of what had inspired her and she showed us many samples from her college work and how that had become her final piece. The ideas were truly original and I guess some club members may be trying to emulate the effects on their next garments. However, these are quite time-consuming to achieve.

The first Maribru collection is mainly tops and scarfs in various shades of browns, creams and greys skillfully blended together with inspired features. Website – https://maribru.co.uk/

She also had a stalls at the recent craft fairs at the Landmark Centre in Teddington. Others in the pipeline so watch out for her in the future.

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  • Cardigan made from Rectangles of Machine Knitting
  • Crocheted Neck line
  • Crocheted Yoke on Machine Knitted Garment
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  • Degree final piece – sideways knitted yoke
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  • Crocheted end of a Scarf
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  • Hand Knitted jumper with rushed effect at hem
  • Detail of Machine Knitted Scarf with Loops
  • Detail of ruched sleeve

Club business

June meeting the topic will be the work of designer Susan
Guagliumi.

July meeting – baby blankets and shawls for adults and babies.

Show and Tell

Toddler’s dress

Anthea – baby dresses for the twins.

Teddy has a new felted cardigan

Gill made a jacket for her teddy bear who first made an appearance at the last meeting

Detail of Swedish inspired circular yoke jumper


Sheila – hand knitted Swedish yolked sweater following a trip to Sweden


Frances – crocheted fingerless gloves – no photo, sorry.

Margaret’s scarf

Margaret – scarf with yarn sources on holiday in Chile

Lyn Leventhall

Currently - webmaster for Bookham Machine Knitting Club. Previous roles - webmaster and technical support for INCE Europes "Wind Turbine Noise" conferences and "Low Frequency" Noise conferences. Formerly; e-learning researcher and lecturer at Kingston University in Maths and Computing. e-learning support at Imperial College IT support at University College of the Arts Lecturer in mathematics at Kingston University Computer officer at Chelsea College of Science an Technology, University of London. Dynamics Engineer at British Aerospace. Qualifications: BSc Mathematics (London) MSc Computer Graphics