Meeting Notes Jan 24th

Well. Wow. Hmmm. GOD IS GOOD! We had a record number of attendees tonight - 16! Further evidence that knitting is cool: Jeanette's daughter Braiden brought three of her friends who wanted to learn how to knit. Are you sitting down? Two of them were guys. High school guys. What a hoot! They all did very well I might add. I even took their picture....;-)

We had another new face join us tonight (Kate). She found us through the SVCC website and we're happy to have her join us! And would you believe it? Another person (Nicole) actually came back after I taught her to knit last time. I didn't scare her off - praise God!

A comment about COMMENTS. You were all having trouble posting comments to the blog (including me) because ~ahem~ I had the comments settings wrong. *egg on face* You should be able to comment now. At tonight's meeting I decided just to turn them off so it wouldn't frustrate people and when I was attempting to figure out how to do that just now I noticed my original error. I am still planning to create a Yahoo Group for us, so we can email freely within the group and no one will miss any emails.

I am putting together a Contact List for the group and since tonight's attendance was so powerful (yes we are powerful!) I pretty much have everyone's info. I will email the missing persons and then send out the list. I'm feeling so much more organized, aren't you?

CURRENT PROJECT: Adult hats and lap blankets to be given to shelters/nursing homes. It warms my heart that a few of you used the hat pattern I posted and we have a few hats done already - great job! If you're making a hat and want to be able to fold it over to make a double layer over the ears, just knit 4" of ribbing instead of 2", the rest is the same. If you want the pattern "translated" for knitting in the round let me know and I'll post it.

Lap blankets: please make them 34" x 40", or as close to that as possible. Use worsted weight yarn (or double yarn of a lighter weight) that is washable.

We have not made the final decision about where these hats and blankets will be donated. Please email your suggestions - I certainly am not familiar with every shelter and nursing home in the area by any means. Let's start a list.

PIGGY BANK: We asked for $1 from each person. There were 16 people tonight. We have $40. This is God's Math. Thank you to those who over-gave...:-) Please note in the sidebar that I started a tally of what's in our coffers. Keep me accountable folks!

If I've left anything out give me a holler! Blessings all around, and lots of knitting time to all!

Attendees: Debbie, Linda, Jeanette, Pam, Joan, Sandy, Connie, Debie, Nicole, Kate, Bobbie, Janet, Braiden, Heather, Trevor and Taylor

Quick Hat

In case you're hunting for an easy hat pattern, here's a really easy one I made up tonight. I was surprised how fast it knit up. It would be even faster if it was just striped - the rows with the broken color took twice as long as a regular row. This is just a basic hat recipe, and it's knit flat and seamed. This size (CO of 64 st) fits me, so it should be made bigger for an adult male. We should make an assortment of sizes anyway.

The pattern:

Size 10 1/2 needles

Gauge = 4 st per inch

CO on 64(72, 80, 88) st

Knit 2" of K2, P2 ribbing (7-8 rows)

Knit 4" of stockinette - change colors for stripes if you want (always change color on RS and use that color for an even number of rows)

Decrease for crown:

K6, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K5, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K4, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K3, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K2, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K1, K2tog, repeat to end of row

Purl across

K2tog across

Purl across

K2tog across

Cut yarn, leaving enough length to use for seaming

Thread darning needle through remaining stitches, pull off needle and cinch tight

Weave in any ends

Meeting Notes Jan 10th

I made an executive decision to make a concerted effort to use more of the donated yarn we've received in the last year. Specifically a major amount of forest green, grey and rose chunky yarn - we have a large tub of it! At our last meeting we decided it would be good for lap blankets and teen/adult hats. So yarn was handed out and assignments taken. If you weren't there and want to help with this, I'll have the bin of yarn at the next meeting. If you want to start before the 24th let me know and I'll get yarn to you. For the blankets, any pattern will do, but it should be approx. 36" x 36". For the hats, any pattern you want to do is fine - just make it teen or adult size per the pattern instructions.

Good news! The church office is printing our new brochure which will available to hand out at the table on Sundays. But since we do have other expenses from time to time (paper and shipping mostly) we decided to collect $1.00 from each attendee at every meeting, starting January 24th.

Caps To The Capital

Connie brought this project to our attention. Save The Children is coordinating a national program to collect hand-knit and crochet baby hats, which they will distribute to countries around the world with high infant mortality rates. We shipped 137 hats to the program in mid-December, most of which were crocheted by Connie!

For the Boys

Last month our group made Christmas a little warmer with some hand-knit scarves for a unit of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The request came from a soldier's wife who was coordinating Christmas packages for her husbands' Navy Seabee unit. We were more than happy to help and made 18 scarves for them.

Each scarf had a card attached with our ministry information and a bible verse on the back.

Meeting Times

Winter/Spring 2007

All meeting times are 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

January
10th – at Sandy's
18th - at Orchard
24th – at Sandy's

February
7th – at Sandy's (in lieu of meeting on Valentine’s Day)
15th – at Orchard
28th – at Sandy's

March
14th – at Sandy's
15th – at Orchard
28th – at Sandy's

April
11th – at Sandy's
19th – at Orchard
25th – at Sandy's

May
9th – at Sandy's
17th – at Orchard
23rd – at Sandy's

June
13th – at Sandy's
21st – at Orchard (tentative)
27th – at Sandy's

Welcome!

I've finally gotten it together and created a blog for our knitting ministry. This is not a public blog - it's viewable by invitation only. Even so, I will never post addresses or phone numbers here. Anyone needing to find out that information may send an email (see Contact Information in the sidebar).

My intent for this blog is to have a place to post pictures, news, (free) patterns, or anything else of interest to the group. All invitees are welcome to post comments at any time.

Thanks and God Bless!