Feral and Oddball Knitting Workshop

On Saturday, several members of our knitters' group met at Blaxland Community Centre
for a full-day workshop with Lynne Johnson.

Lynne's work is very colourful and highly textured.
Yet, by the end of the day, we realised that we could knit like that too!!
The basic shape for the day's workshop was a diamond and all the garments Lynne showed us were made without patterns. One of her secrets: lots of knitted samples (swatches, tension squares). And a time-saving tip: Lynne often leaves the ends of her work hanging out making a feature of them.
Lynne is writing a book so we can't publish photos of her finished works but here are some snippets to whet your appetite. The first photo shows three different projects: a vest in autumn tonings in the background, a red shawl in the foreground and an item in super garter stitch peeking in from the right. The second photo shows more of the item in super garter stitch, a technique which Lynne taught at the workshop.
Lynne has been invited back for another workshop in winter 2008 so book in early!

Thanks to Donna and her team for organising such a wonderful day.

Prize winners, glove orders, young blood, fabulous knitting and the very talented Inga Hunter!

This month's meeting had them all!

Firstly, congratulations to Janette who showed her entries to the Penrith Show - a (1st) prize winning afghan and cushion
and her adorable ladybug blanket which won an Honorable Mention at the same show.

And further congratulations - this time to Dianne Greenaway who has received orders for a large number of her fabulous fingerless gloves.

And speaking of prizes - congratulations to David who won this month's raffle prize: a $25 gift voucher from The Wool Inn, Penrith's only specialised yarn store. David also gets 10% discount because he is a member of the Guild, so it's a great prize. And, if he can wait that long, he doesn't even have to drive to Penrith - Anita from the Wool Inn will be at our meeting next month with lots of goodies with which to entice us!

Here is a picture of the lovely Vicki and her beautiful grand-daughter Saoirse, one of our youngest members.
This month Saoirse was knitting for the AIDS orphans in Africa. Saoirse's mum, Donna, is also a member of the Guild but she was too busy organising this weekend's workshop with Lynne Johnson to stop and have her photo taken! That's three generations in the same knitting group - does anyone else share this record?

Show and Tell is always interesting - and this month was no exception. From tiny baby garments to full jumpers and the most amazing lace shawl. Not to mention the lady who has sewed in 1600+ ends on her afghan made up of tiny patches of colour!

Our workshop for the day was a talk from Inga Hunter, a Blue Mountains artist who is very talented and has a wide variety art/craft skills. Inga is incredibly interesting to listen to yet down to earth and aware of what's happening in craft areas outside her own expertise. Several of our members have done workshops with Inga and quite a few more showed interest in upcoming workshops which are held at Inga's Katoomba studio. Inga will even conduct workshops for one person - what a wonderful woman.

Inga's speciality is bead embroidery but she also does workshops in drawing, collage, lino printing and journalling in altered books. Inga can be contacted on ingairvanhunter@bigpond.com