Getting ready for St Mungo's Woolly Hat Day!!!

St Edmund's Heritage Fair, Downham Market, Norfolk

On Saturday 8th September St Edmund's Church in Downham Market held it's annual Heritage event for Heritage Open Days. and this year we had a stall there! Coral set up and ran it all day, with just an odd break here and there. Here's Donna joining her from her Lubi-loo craft stall which she ran with her mum.
We sold wool, patterns and knitting magazines. Coral was also an excellent spokeswoman for our group. We will see tomorrow morning if she managed to recruit any new members!!

We set up a craft activity in case any children attended. Last year there were hardly any young children, but this year, the advertising must have paid off, because there were lots of mums with pushchairs and youngsters.  Below Coral is demonstrating how to make a Mexican God's eye.

Here is my niece Laura with her two boys, my gt nephews, Rick and Sam:

Sam

Laura and Rick

Sam & Rick with finished Gods' eyes

It was a wonderful day with loads to do and see. There was a 3 day Flower Festival inside the church which had started on Friday. (The photo below was taking during setting up on Thursday).

The one day Heritage Fair had lots of community and craft stalls. There was food inside the Church Hall, also coffee, tea, juice and wine; and the beer was especially gratefully received as it was a boiling hot day! 

Just before midday the rector, Fr James Mather arrived in the middle of the church field and proceeded to place himself in the stocks! He was wearing his cassock, but that didn't prevent him from being pelted with wet sponges for the next 20 minutes! Here's Florence about to launch her wet sponge at him!

We had a real treat at 2pm when Cy Payne and the Downham Market Swing Orchestra started up. They played almost solidly for the next 2 hours, concluding a wonderful inaugural day out with our stall.

Simply Knitting Goody Bag

Our goody bag arrived this week from Simply Knitting Magazine, for being their "Club of the Month".

There were 4 balls of Sirdar Dune, 5 balls of Sirdar Fizz, 2 balls of Sirdar Fresco, 3 balls of Sirdar Frenzy, 2 balls of pom pom wool (no label) and a ball of rust acrylic (no label). We have decided to sell the wool on our stall at the St Edmund's Heritage Fair next Saturday.

Tuesday am after the August rain

Just eight today, what a nice size group! l to r: Cherry, Marian, Julie, Betty, Sheila, group pic is Mary, Florence and Coral with their St Mungo orange woolly hats, then Donna at the end with another purple shawl ;-)

Simply Knitting mag

Well we've made it!  Live in Simply Knitting a national, sorry, THE national knitting mag!! We sent them in an interview back in March, and look what they have done with it!! Feeling very special today :-)

Lively July evening!

Three new faces, 15 altogether. Lively, noisy....Wow!!

Barbara

Hillcrest collage complete

Sandra and Coral

Pat, Jean, Kerry and Cherry

Mary's blanket is finished

mother and daughter

Rosamund and Yve

Sandra

Yve

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!