Colchester Stitch and Bitch

New Year, New Venue

2012-01-19T21:48:00.000Z

Happy New Year, it's time to put all those knitty Christmas presents to good use and come out for an evening (or two) of knitting, crocheting and good company. After lots of discussion and an exhausting search to replace the Slug and Lettuce (which wasn't ideal), we've found a new venue for the Tuesday evening group. So from now on you'll find us in The Red Lion Hotel from 7.30pm.

The entrance is off the High Street just inside Red Lion Walk, if you come up the steps to reception, you'll find the seating areas and the group. Hope to see you there :)

Thanks go to Nadia and everyone else who've spent the time finding and testing alternive venues, this one definate seems to be a winner!

Weekend Knitting is back

2011-11-04T17:34:00.000Z

It's time for our next weekend knitting meet up already so grab your current project and head over to Frating for our regular get together. Bring your pennies as this will be the last meeting before Christmas so there'll be yarn sales and knitty goodies to buy in addition to raising funds for a local Ovarian Cancer charity.

Saturday 26th November 2011

From 10.30am at Frating Village Hall.

£1 entry

Refreshments, yarn sales, patterns.

Knit, crochet, spin, chat.

Macmillan Big Coffee Morning 26 September

2011-09-11T15:34:00.001+01:00

Monday the 26th September the regular morning meeting at the Half Butt Inn will be part of the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning. Whether you want to knit or just chat, please come along and join us.

From 10 am at the Half Butt Inn, Gt Horkesley.

Dates for your diary - it's weekend knitting time

2011-09-11T15:29:00.000+01:00

After the success of our Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party (we raised a fantastic £130!) , it's almost time again for our regular weekend knitting meet. So, without further ado the next meeting will be Saturday 24th September

There'll be all the usual knitting, crochet, spinning and chatting and of course tea and cake. Doors open from 10.30 am at Frating Village Hall. £1 entry, all refreshments included, donations of cake always welcome.

All welcome, hope to see you there.

Sat 2nd July Big Coffee Morning for Marie Curie

2011-06-29T11:31:00.001+01:00

Come along to our Blooming Great Tea party in aid of Marie Curie, lots of tea and cake and of course a raffle. All proceeds from the day will be donated.

10.30am in Frating village hall, £1 entry, refreshments provided for a small donation to Marie Curie.

Come along for a day of knitting, crocheting, spinning or whatever you’re into at the moment. Stay an hour or all day, doors close at around 3pm.

As usual, sell or trade your unwanted yarn or magazines. Yarn sales tbc.

Directions: Frating Village Hall is on the A133, the main road between Colchester & Clacton just along from the crossroads and on the same side as the Kings Arms pub. The No 76 bus goes from Colchester Bus station, through the University and right past the door of the hall, all the way to Jackson Rd, Clacton.

Saturday 26th June - Photos

2010-07-14T13:16:00.008+01:00

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

New venue for Tuesday evenings.

2010-06-09T09:58:00.000+01:00

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

2010-06-06T19:12:00.001+01:00

What a fabulous weekend!

2010-04-28T11:48:00.000+01:00

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

2010-04-19T20:58:00.000+01:00

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 :)

2010-02-25T11:38:00.006Z

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

2010-02-01T23:10:00.000Z

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

2010-01-13T12:14:00.003Z

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

2009-11-10T14:23:00.002Z

Our macmillan blanket

2009-10-16T18:59:00.000+01:00

The story of our blanket. Here's the 31 squares finished on the day of the coffee morning all laid out and awaiting the ends darning in.
Nadia and I collected the rest of the squares together, picked the best sized (!) and coloured squares and laid them out to make the blanket. Once we'd fortified ourselves with coffee and biscuits we started on the job of crocheting it all together.
Here it is in progress. We started at opposite ends and worked our way across it from end to end and then side to side. In the end, it took us most of the day. Mind you, we'd also drunk plenty of coffee and set the world to rights at the same time. I had to leave before we'd done so Nadia finished off the last couple of rows and all the edging. If I say it myself, I think we did a rather nice job of it. The black sets the colour of the squares off really nicely it's a bit like a stained glass window. All done and dusted and delivered to The Knitter's stand at Alexandra Palace last Sunday. Thanks for everyone who made the squares and a big thanks to Nadia for helping me put it all together.

Our Macmillan blanket

2009-10-16T12:11:00.003+01:00

Here's our lovely blanket for the Macmillan campaign. We handed it in at the Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace on Sunday. There were a few extra squares that couldnt be used but we gave them to the Knitter, who will still use them in blankets.

Our finished blanket looked great, and was kindly stitched together by Lucy & Nadia. They used black yarn and it made the colourful squares look like stained glass.

To everyone who contributed to the blanket & the coffee morning - a big thanks and hope you all enjoyed it.

7th December - Christmas Lunch

2009-10-15T20:48:00.001+01:00

We've booked Fillpots for Christmas Lunch on the 7th December, it's £15 per person for a full 3 course meal and there is a vegetarian option. The regular morning knitting meeting will be from 10am and then lunch itself at 1pm. We do have a copy of the menu and if you would like to see it or have any questions, just ask. Everyone's welcome but if you want to go, you will need to let Nadia know asap as a deposit of £5 per person will need to be paid 2 weeks beforehand.

Saturday knitting

2009-10-15T15:44:00.000+01:00

A bit of a post match report on the weekend meet and a couple of snapshots. I wish I'd taken more pictures on the day so if anyone else has any, it'd be great to put them up. We had a lovely day again with plenty of cake to go round including a delicious Chocolate torte from Frances and a courgette cake from Irene which went so quickly, I didn't get to try any! Along with a raffle, the Macmillan squares game and donations on the yarn trade table we raised a fantastic £105.29 which I thought was a superb amount. By the end of the day we had 31 finished squares, almost enough for a complete blanket and the promise of a lot more to come. The blanket did get finished in the end and in time for delivery to Ally Pally but I'll save that for the next post.All quiet as we get the hall set up for visitors (above) and knitting and chatting (below).

and squares.....

26th Sept - Colchester Knits for Macmillan

2009-09-21T14:02:00.001+01:00

Welcome to our blog.

2009-09-21T13:54:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the all new Colchester Knits blog and our inaugural post. I should probably post something really profound but hey, I can't think of something right this instant so I'll just say hi instead. Our new home is a place to say hi, Colchester does knit you know, we have pictures! Follow our progress, keep up to date with local and group events and keep on knitting.