Absent friends

We were very small in number last night.  A few of our friends were missing - some for happy reasons and some for sad, but we missed them one and all.

As you can see the St Mungo charity bobble hat knit-in is progressing well.

Five hats have now been completed, although one is still minus its bobble, and Partricia has started another one with double strands of DK wool to make it nice and cosy.

Niqi and Heather have said that they could be persuaded to knit another one each ....  We will definitely exceed our pledged number of 6 hats.  Watch out over the next few weeks for the photo shoot of the hookery team wearing their creations :-)

Lottie has moved onto another project having completed last week's doll's outfit of dungarees, jumper and hat - photo will appear next week.  Lottie is showing an interest in re-learning crochet and trying her hand at the rosy posy tea cosy.

Shy Sheila is progresing well with her stitches and tension but resists attempts to photograph her work!  Countdown of 20 weeks until this baby blanket is required.

Lindsay was on a crochet go-slow last night but, along with Patricia, was designing (from scratch) a paw print square for a blanket.

Lindsay also brought along a craft book from the 70s.  Lindsay herself was not the owner of the book in the 70s.

We had great fun flicking through the pages looking at the styles and the colours and boy was it dated in some respects.  However, so many of the styles are back in fashion and Niqi has her eye on a beautiful winter wrap/jacket ....

The book has also prompted Sheila to think about taking up macrame again.  Our crochet group is certainly widening its yarn boundaries but that's OK - it's all about friendship and learning new skills.

Niqi who has almost completed her bag was instructing Heather how to professionally join the squares and after lots of tangled squares and strands of wool (thanks to Patricia who lent an extra pair of hands just at the right time) here is the finished first side.

Niqi's mum bought her our official course textbook for her birthday and Niqi has now completed a marvellous 6 projects from the book.  Niqi hopes to take the book and projects to show her mum on her next holiday.  Maybe her mum will place an order for a hat or scarf?

Niqi has mastered a most unusual technique of staying warm while crocheting - wear the scarf and then you always know when you have got the length just right.

See you next week at St Pat's.