Hook Rugs, Flip Flops and good Food

I met Dolores during the first May meeting. She had a good time and talked her friend Ann into coming with her. Dolores who started knitting as a child is teaching Ann to knit. It's always nice to see new faces join in and share their stitching knowledge and projects. Dolores knits beautiful children's sweaters and she shared pictures of some she has made.






Two new faces working on very unique hook rugs attended this meeting, Bonnie and Cass. Cass showed me the machine she uses to cut the wool strips that she uses on her rugs. They both designed their own rugs. The picture shows Bonnie working on hers.




Nancy who usually knits for babies worked on the shawl that stays in place. She made a few modifications on the edge and used what she calls vintage yarn from her stash. Nancy also shared a scarf pattern for veterans. You can find the link here.

I fell in love with Nancy's knitting bag which she got last summer on clearance at Harris Teeter.

Shelia's daughter Ashley modeled one her completed flip flops. She used a crochet hook to attach
eyelash yarn.

The refreshment table done in red, white and blue offered a delicious selection of food.

Busy Crafters Celebrate National Craft Month

March has been declared National Craft Month. Our terrific ladies came to celebrate and learn from one another. One of the questions that people ask me every now and then is: "Do you have to know how to crochet or knit to come to Stitch In?" My answer is always the same: "No, not at all." Books are a big help, but there is nothing like getting one on one training. I see this happen quite often during our meetings.


Phyllis, one of our regulars brought her own projects to work on and she also took time to teach Pam how to crochet. Pam learned about Mint Hill Stitch In while shopping at Michaels for the book Vanna's Choice, Color it Beautiful Afghans. Deidre, another new face will bring something to work on next meeting.

I spotted Chris working on a garter stitch scarf . Garter stitch is created by knitting all rows. Chris used a large knitting needle to create a lacy effect.




Jill B. continued to work on her Paint the Town Red scarf which she will donate to children in the community. Speaking of red scarves, several more were turned in. Mine has been completed but requires blocking due to the zig zag pattern I chose.











Julie shared the system she uses to organize the DMC floss by project. She purchased this system at Hobby Lobby at a great price.


The refreshments served were delicious and included a grasshopper cake, pistachios, green cupcakes made with Shelia's Amish Friendship starter.

Everyone made progress in their current projects as you can see by the pictures that follow:

Shelia worked on a baby blanket for charity.

Here's a sample of crochet scarfs for our Service men and women.

A basket weave scarf pattern in progress.

More red scarves.

A wool scarf for a service man or woman.

The Popularity of Knitting

I get really excited when I find out a new knitting books has been added to our Library's collection. With the popularity of knitting there is a demand out there for new knitting books. I did a search and found that the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg lists 300 knitting books. New ones are being added every few months and the newest books have the most requests. Our collection has great non-fiction and fiction books. It's interesting that both knitters and non-knitters are reading the Fiction books. It would be interesting to find out how many readers who read the fiction books make the decision to learn to knit.

One of our new books "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs currently has 126 requests. Wow that is pretty neat!; if I had written this book I'd be thrilled. It's interesting that we only own two titles by this author. Her other book is a children's picture book "A Sister's Wish". The knitting genre is popular, there is no doubt about that.

Flickr Tags:knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch

Technorati Tags:knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch

Holiday Meeting

December's first Stitch In meeting featured an ornament exchange. Some of the ladies handcrafted beautiful one of a kind creations. We played the game "Tricky Santa". The game goes like this: Each participant draws a number. The person who gets #1 opens the first wrapped gift. Everyone gets a good look; the person holding #2 can steal gift #1 if she really likes it or proceed to open another gift. The game continues with everyone taking turns stealing or just picking another gift from the table.

Shelia, one of our facilitators gave all those in attendance goody bags filled with small gifts (snowman soup, rice crispy snowman, a mini snowman scene ornament, a clementine orange, candy etc...) She sure made everyone feel special. She's been a perfect elf, everyone will agree with me.

To view the next pictures click on the words.

This is the ornament that I opened.

Mini sweater and Stocking

Aura holding the handcrafted ornament which was stolen from her.

Julie was the lucky one to keep this quilted ornament crafted by Sandy.

Frances holding the beautiful painted ornament crafted by Shelia.

Sandy looking happy after stealing jingle bells ornament.