Knitty Gritty Went Large!

Today was the Knitty Gritty event in Rochdale. We were all a bit nervous as we didn't know how the event would go, but it was fab!

Around 40 visitors came along to my little hands-on dyeing sessions

and made a mini-skein of hand-dyed yarn to take home and knit into a pair of wristwarmers. If the skeins are anything to go by there'll be lots of colourful wrists in Rochdale this winter!

Alison was busy teaching felting,


Karl-Christian had the most amazing large-scale knitting,




and Donna was creating lots of interest with her spinning.



Rachel and Sarah of Artyarn had decked various parts of the building and exterior in lovely colourful knitting (see top) and the Bolton Knitty Noras were out in force with their knitted garden.












There were beautiful crocheted forms by Julianand of course, the Knitty Gritty Group were kept busy too.

The Knitty Gritty Group and the Bolton Knitty Noras can also be found on Ravelry so look them up if you're in the area and would like to meet up with other knitters/crocheters. The Touchstones Gallery houses some beautiful art, local art exhibitions and a museum and is well worth a visit. Cafe Life does yummy coffee and cakes of epic proportions too!

A big thank you to Yvonne and Alison and Link4Life who organised and funded the event.

Yoga!

So, I've been watching the health and vitality channel and enjoying a bit of yoga. (You'll note I said watching here, not doing). Anyways, I thought I'd give a couple of postures a try to see if I could still do any without keeling over. Despite nearly toppling over into the telly during downward facing dog (I'll let you google that one, but it is a real exercise, honest), I realised how much I used to enjoy it. As luck would have it the leisure centre runs a class Thursday evenings so a quick call to Julia and we headed off in our tracky bottoms for a bit of bending and stretching.

Sneaking past the mega-blaster-uber-hyper aerobics class (glitter ball and disco lights, full-on, full volume disco music and teachers who wouldn't look out of place in special ops), we settled down on our mats for some rather more peaceful exercise.

It was great! We might not have been as hot and sweaty as our aerobic counterparts (no bad thing) but yoga still counts and is harder than it looks - and it’s even harder when your friend is next to you sniggering and making you laugh so the rest of the class stare at you and you know they’re just thinking what peasants you are because you’re not taking it seriously : )

Roll on next week!

New kits coming soon!

This week we did a photo shoot for two new mini-kits. There will be Kool Aid kits for the dyers and hand-dyed ones for those who like to get straight into the knitting. They should be on sale at Harrogate, but if you can't make it, they'll be online too : ) Watch this space for piccies as soon as they are ready!

Wrapping up the wrap

Finished knitting the wrap for Simply Knitting today. I can't show any pics but it is made from our softest baby alpaca and I want to keep it! I'll have new hand-dyeds, a semi-solid and a hand-painted range, as well as the undyed yarn, so I'm looking forward to putting these together in the next week or so. The feature will be on texture so if you're fancying a bit of twisty, turny, cably knitting, be sure to check out the next issue.

Knitty Gritty Goes Large!

Today I'm busy preparing for the Knitty Gritty Goes Large event on Saturday. I'll be doing free hands-on dyeing sessions so anyone who fancies a go at dyeing but hasn't taken the plunge yet is welcome to come along and dye a mini-skein to make a pair of wristlets.

It's a free event, so if you can make it to Rochdale between 11am and 3pm, bring your sticks and string and celebrate National Knitting Week with us!

Knit 'n' Natter - beer and knitting - a great combo!

Monday was the first meeting of the Sale Knit 'n' Natter group at the King's Ransom pub in Sale. We got ourselves a nice spot next to the roaring fire, curled up in the Chesterfield sofas and knitted away until half ten. The nice thing about the pub is that it has lots of little areas so it's lovely and cosy even when the pub is quiet. They also do food until 9pm which is handy for anyone coming straight from work. Our next meeting will be Monday 3rd Nov, so if you fancy joining us, just turn up and look for the ones with knitting needles!