Saturday 26th June - Photos

If anyone would like copies of the photos please ask and I'll send them on - Sara

New venue for Tuesday evenings.

After the sudden closure of Roxis yesterday, we spent rather a lovely evening at the Slug and Lettuce bar instead and so now have adopted it as our new home for a Tuesday night.  There's a rather nice seating area towards the back with comfy sofas and tables and the lighting's good. 

You can find the Slug and Lettuce on the High St, just a couple of doors along from the George Hotel.  So come and pull up a chair and join us for an evening of yarn and chat.

Saturday 26th June - Blooming Great Tea Party

What a fabulous weekend!

The sun was definately shining on Frating this weekend and we had a fantastic day again.  It was a great turnout (over 30 people!) and quite a few new faces which is always good to see.  Our flyers are obviously working!  The weekend meet is always a lovely day as we catch up with people that can't always make it to the regular knitting group meetings and it gives a chance to meet people from groups that are a little further afield too.  This time I think we had people from Ipswich, Harwich, Mersea, Clacton not to mention all the Colchester based groups.

There were lots of lovely cakes again, the trade table as always was a roaring success and yarn sales from The Bear Necessities and The Yarnsmith and beads from Sue.  Sara was official photographer for the day and will be along with snaps to embarrass us all!

The workshops were much smaller this time, mind you having had 25 people all want to learn to crochet from scratch last time around was a bit of an eye opener!  This time around, we made a couple more crochet converts who went away with their first ever granny squares.  All in all, another success and we hope to add a different workshop to the next meeting.  Watch this space or the ravelry group for more information and remember, if there's a technique you'd like to try or you have a suggestion for an alternative workshop, just let us know and we'll see what we can arrange.

Anyway, here's to another great day and to the next one too which will be:

Saturday 26th June 

We'll be back with more yarn, knitting and cake for a Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party.

Weekend Knitting Saturday 24th April 2010

It's weekend knitting time again, we'll be at the village hall in Frating on Saturday from 10.30am as usual.  The workshops proved to be so popular last time we've decided to carry them on through the next few meetings too.  We actually had far too many takers for the workshops so this time around we're going to limit the number of people in each group to make sure everyone gets our full attention.  Sign up sheets will be available on the day and if there are lots of people, I'm sure we'll be able to squeeze extra groups in.

The first workshop will be Crochet for Beginners (for those that missed out last time) followed on by Crochet Granny Squares which will build on the things you learned in the first workshop.  If you want to take part in the workshops it'd be helpful if you can bring yourself a crochet hook and a ball of wool to play with.   We suggest something like a 4mm hook and a ball of DK yarn - something smooth and not too splitty.  The size of hook isn't crucial at this stage so bring what you have, there will be spares available on the day though.

The usual cakes and goodies will be on display and also the regular trade and exchange tables for those unwanted crafty items. 

Any suggestions for future workshops always welcome.  

Directions to Frating: Frating's on the A133 between Colchester and Clacton, just along the road from  the Beth Chatto Gardens.  The village hall is on the Colchester side of the crossroads about 200yds from the pub and on the same side of the road.  The No76 bus route from Colchester and Clacton runs straight through the village and past the door of the hall.  (The bus route also goes through the University for those in Colchester.)

CO7 7DJ for those of you with sat nav's will bring you to the Kings Arms pub on the crossroads.

Hope to see you there :)

Knitting Day Saturday 6th February
It was another fantastic day, we had a huge crowd and think we managed to fill the hall!
Here's some photo's of the day, if anyone wants copies of any of the photos just let me know.

Lots of lovely cakes .....

The Crochet Class in the morning was very popular ....

But for some it was all a bit too much .....

See you at the next Saturday meeting ....

Weekend workshops Saturday 6th February

To keep things interesting, this year we're introducing workshops to our weekend meets.  By general consensus the first ones will be "Basic Crochet" and "An Introduction to Spinning" but over the coming months, we've got all sorts of other ideas lined up including beading, finishing techniques, more advanced crochet, felting.... the list goes on but we'll post more as we come up to the next meeting.  As they're being run by us for us, they'll be included in the cost of your entrance although you might need to provide some of the materials yourself.

"Basic crochet" will begin at around 11am and cover everything you need to get starting to crochet.  By the end of the morning, you should be well on the way to making your first crocheted item.  Once you've learned the basic stitches, we've devised a simple scarf pattern that'll practice some of these stitches.  There'll be plenty of help on hand to assistance you and we've got some hand outs you can take away with you too.  We suggest you bring a 4mm crochet hook and a ball of DK (double knitting) yarn although there will be hooks and yarn available on the day if you need them.

"An introduction to spinning" will start after lunch at around 1pm is aimed at getting you started spinning with a spindle.  There'll also be a couple of spinning wheels on hand for you to try out too.  If you've already got a spindle (or wheel), please bring it along.  We do have some fibre for you to practise with but if you've got some stashed away, it'd be helpful.

Remember, the workshops are in addition to the regular meeting so there'll be all the usual knitting, chatting, cake eating and general catching up.  Hope to see you there :)

Saturday 6th February 2010

Poster for our next meeting at Frating, if you would like copies of poster or flyer for distributing let us know.