Saturday 21 July 2012

Heritage Open Days bunting

Heritage Open Days come around again in September, and like last year, St Edmund's Church will be taking part :-)  I follow the HOD twitter account, and about 2 weeks ago they tweeted with a photo of the their new bunting which had been put up in their office.


I responded with....

.....which they retweeted and added....

So the gauntlet was down! This is the design I finally came up with. Not quite the same proportions as theirs, but I'm reasonably happy with it. I will crochet a string across the top of them all when I've finished to help them to hang a bit better.

3 finished

The back of the triangles look like this:


Well, having knitted 5 of them, I've now written down the pattern. Here goes:

You need white wool and the nearest you can get to rhodamine red wool (mine is magenta)
4mm needles
a darning needle

 K=knit,  K2tog=knit 2 together, w=white, m=magenta
                                                                        

The triangle is knitted in garter stitch (all plain) but there is a right side(RS) and a wrong side (WS) as you can see from the photos. When you are working on the wrong side, ensure you take the working colour to the other side. I also twisted the wools where the colour changed to prevent  'holes' down the sides of the H. All even rows are WS, all odd rows are RS.

CO 30 stitches in white
Row I    K30w
Row 2   K30w
Row 3   K9w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K9w
Row 4   K1w, K2togw, K6w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K6w, K2togw, K1w
Row 5   K8w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K8w
Row 6   ditto
Row 7   ditto
Row 8   K1w, K2togw, K5w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K5w, K2togw, K1w
Row 9   K7w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K7w
Row 10 ditto
Row 11 ditto
Row 12 K1w, K2togw, K4w, K4m, K4w, K4m,  K4w, K2togw, K1w
Row 13 K6w, K12m, K6w
Row 14 ditto
Row 15 ditto
Row 16 K1, K2togw, K3, K12m, K3w, K2togw, K1w
Row 17 K5w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K5w
Row 18 ditto
Row 19 ditto
Row 20 K1w, K2togw, K2w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K2w, K2togw, K1w
Row 21 K4w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K4w
Row 22 ditto
Row 23 ditto
Row 24 K1w, K2togw, K1w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K1w, K2togw, K1w

continue in white to end

Row 25 K18
Row 26 ditto
Row 27 ditto
Row 28 K1, K2tog, K12, K2tog, K1
Row 29 K16
Row 30 K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1,
Row 31 K14
Row 32 K1, K2tog, K8, K2tog, K1
Row 33 K12
Row 34 K1, K2tog, K6, K2tog, K1
Row 35 K10
Row 36 K1, K2tog, K4, K2tog, K1
Row 37 K8
Row 38 K1, K2tog, K2, K1
Row 39 K6
Row 40 K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K1
Row 41 K4
Row 42 K1, K2tog, K1
Row 43 K3
Row 44 K1, K2tog, slip stitch over.

Pull loop, thread wool through, pull tight and cut. Weave in ends.

I decided to decrease every 2 rows once having completed the magenta H, but maybe it might be better to continue with decreasing very 4 rows instead like the top half. In which case repeat rows 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, and 43 twice more each time. Hope that makes sense!

Our knitted bunting is to go across the front of our St Edmund's Knit and Crochet Group stand at the Open Day on Sat 8th Sep. We are planning a heritage theme, but you'll have to wait and see! There will be a three day flower festival inside church with the theme of "Music, music, music" over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, for Open day, the field will be full of community and local history stands, craft stalls, traditional games, a book stall, plant stall, a beer tent and refreshments inside the church hall. On Sunday evening there will be a special church service at 6pm to round off the weekend. Arrangements are not yet finalised, and if last year is anything to go by, we will still be organising events right up to the weekend itself!

Friday 13 July 2012

St Mungo's Woolly Hat Day


The weird thing about this is that one of the photos St Mungo have used to advertise this event is OUR photo!!!  That's me and Mary making hats in 2010, in my front room lol. (above left) So shall we do it?

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Tuesday 10th July group

More new ladies today,  Marian, also Julie and her mum Betty. Julie has her own Etsy shop selling her hand dyed wool. Might have been raining when we left, but we all still had a great natter while we were crafty with our knits. Continuing to plan our day out to the Ally Pally on 11th October. Most people think the Hunstanton knitting group starting at Cafe Blah Blahh tomorrow is just too far, which is a shame.


Julie shows the group her hand dyed wool

Betty (Julie's mum) and Pat

Marian, one of our new ladies this morning

Sheila and Pat
Sheila knits with Teddy Aztec wool
Cherry and Pat did the washing up. We have a lovely kitchen at the Church hall
new group starting tomorrow

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Maid of Fibre boat trip with yarn - Downham Market



Maid of Fibre is a 60ft narrow boat, custom fitted to be a sanctuary for knitters!  Brothers, Richard & Stewart Ellis invite knitters on board to sit, relax and view next season's yarns whilst wending your way along the river.  We first met them 3 weeks ago at our Knit in Public Day and now we were taking advantage of them being moored here in Downham Market overnight, before heading off to the south of England. Although the guys are often in East Anglia with their van, it has been 4 years since they last brought the boat here, and it will probably be another 4 years before it returns.  Six members of the group were free to visit the boat today, plus we invited local talented craftswoman  and author Sue Welfare, and local reporter for the Lynn News, Jo Garner, who were both delighted to join us for our jaunt.


First group excitedly about to embark. Weather grey, windy and impending rain.


 Sheila, Sue, Pat and Donna snugly seated onboard, with coffee. Bring on the yarn!


next season's scarf yarn


Wonderful Peruvian alpaca loveliness.


Will  Donna choose the purple?

 Sue and Pat watch Donna's choice.


yarn storage on the boat

Stewart, the perfect host and salesman
           Cap'n Richard, who drew the short straw today!





2nd group about to embark (Nik, Sheila, Tricia and Pat-Jo has yet to arrive)

Nik and Jo in the bow of the boat

Sheila finishes Stewart's scarf !

fab hand-dyed Chilean cotton yarn






Pat and Tricia are renowned for having similar tastes. They often go out wearing the same colour (like today). So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that they both fell in love with the same pattern and the same yarn!!  We all had a fabulous day and feel very blessed that we were able to make contact with the guys and visit their wonderful workplace!! Looking forward to seeing them again at the Ally Pally in October.