September 2013

August was our summer break, we did not hold a club meeting. All had enjoyed the exceptional summer weather and shared holiday stories and talked about exhibitions visited and those still to come.

The speaker was Ann Brown, showing hems and edges on her garments, talking through techniques involved and considerations for the weight and hang of them. The main points besides the look and feel of the edging was of course the finishing. A well finished jacket with crisp lines along hem and bands, takes a jacket from the basically crafted, to the professional designer league. Just a few hints and tips from an experienced knitter is enough to make it feel achievable and inspire to try something a bit different than usual ribs.

Ann demonstrated the construction of a scalloped hem by knitting one side of a hem on all sts, then using needles at intervals in holding position knitted tucked rows. Fine ribbon was wrapped then knitted before the second side of tuck rows followed by more straight rows.

 The garter bar was also demonstrated for super fast turning for attaching edges and hems.

 

            

The competion

Beginners Class: 

Stephanie was the only entry with a tuck lace scarf that was a long time in the making. Much was learned along the way in understanding placing of needles out of work in order for the punchard and tucking to work in the correct places.

Advanced Class:

1st Phyllis crafted a very interesting textured look with a rib and thread lace top

Joint 2nd

Sue knitted short row shaping in varying strands of Hobby and Silky, a Little Posh Frocks pleated skirt

Valerie created a very differnt looking textured knitted lamp shade

July 2013

This month Sandra talked about skirts and brought in patterns, books and skirts she had made. Marcia also brought in skirts she had made so the group had plenty of different methods techniques and styles to see and handle.

Skirts were sideways knitted, ribbed, straight and with godets for shaping.  The textures and yarns used added to the variations and really gave everyone a lot of ideas to try for themselves. Here a some photos of the skirts that were brought in.

Competion
2nd place : Valerie knitted a scarf in tuck lace using glittery yarn with a crochet edging.

1st place: Phyllis knitted a jacket in thread lace. The photo was terrible and will be taken again so just a small sample of the texture is shown. 

June 2013

Barbara from the Yateley day club demonstrated Intarsia and brought in many pictures of her use of intarsia in garments for mny of her friends and family. She aslo brought in some of her garments. These are just a few photos some more will be added later.

This is a support for patterns that fits into the handles of the knitting machine case behind the yarn tension arm. It is hand crafted from a hardboard and can also be made from foam card. You can easily follow your pattern while knitting.

May 2013

Well things have slipped as bit since the last blog due to job changes and not being at the club meeting. So to get back on track...

Sandra gave a talk on making pockets.  There were 3 types of pockets covered.

It is possible to knit your garment and add pockets later. Just knit a sample square in the same colour or even a different colour, even try using lace. Start with waste yarn and end on waste yarn. To sew it on use a back stitch and sew through the whole of the open stitch. It can be attached to a length of ladders from leaving a stitch out of work or a lace pattern or from a seam sewn in at the open end.

Another option is to put the needles into hold and just work on the pocket. Knit double the depth of the pocket and then return the needles to working postion and complete your item. Sew up the edges of the pocket, and all done.

The last pocket is also a knitted in pocket, knitted at a 45' angle and fixed into the button band and bottom rib for stability.

This Talk has inspired Sandra to work on adding Pockets;-)

An Ann Brown weekend of knitting is planned for the 9th and 10th of November 2013. Call the club contacts if you would like to attend.

Included in the photo's are 2 tension swatches and these actually were knitted by Sandra - just to prove that she can do a swatch (she normally knits from experience, and she has been very successful thus far;-) 

Competition Items

Beginners

 

 

1st: Stephanie - Pink Scarf in pure cotton

Advanced

 

1st - Marcia - Grey waterfall Jacket(Ann Brown design) in Grigna yarn

 


 

2nd: Sandra - Cream top (Ann Brown) in 3 strands of Metro crepe

3rd: Valerie - coloured knitted ball with a bell inside

A bit of crafting by one of the members

Ann Brown Workshop