WWKiPday 2008

We all headed over to Treefest at Inverleith Park for Worldwide Knitting in Public Day 2008. There was some sun, there were some light touches of rain and there was a downpour after we had all packed up. I don't think we did too badly on the weather front. We also had a good group of knitters and interested passers by.














We snagged a table with a gazebo covering it in the seating area near the food stalls. There was an ever changing cast of knitters from young to old and everywhere inbetween as people came and went to wander round the festival. There were baby projects with oh-so-soft yarn and charity hats, technical knitting and simple relaxing projects, and a whole rainbow of colours from bright to gentle to sparkly.


As promised there were also crafts including felting workshops and spinning. For more photos head over to the city knitty flickr group

Facebook group

City Knitty has finally become web 2.0 and added a facebook group to our networking and communications empire! It's open to anyone and you can invite friends to join as well. Just search for City Knitty under groups and there we will be. Please do invite other Edinburgh knitters, crocheters and crafty types.

Don't forget. Tomorrow (June 14th) is Worldwide Knit in Public Day 2008 and we'll be meeting at Treefest. Treefest starts at 11am at Inverleith Park, Arboretum Place, Edinburgh (opposite the Botanic Gardens). We'll be gathering 2-4pm at the seating area by the catering section. It's a very family friendly event, but there's plenty of stalls, crafts and demos for everyone. Plus, axe throwing!

Knitting with rocks in

Hey people!
Rather overdue blogging this time- this entry is for the meeting two weeks ago(28/11?), so let's see how good my memory is!
In preparation for the cold weather we had a number of scarves being knit, including a blue scarf in blue Wendy Fusion yarn, and green and white scarves being knit is garter stitch by keen new knitters. We also had a shawl being knit up in merino wool, which hopefully will be good and cozy!
Carrying on the cold weather theme, we had a pair of Sanquhar gloves being knit to a SWRI pattern. These are a black and white stranded design, and apparently are quite traditional.
We had some christmas-y knitting too, with some cute snowball toys being knit to go up on a christmas tree. These were made to a pattern by Jean Greenhowe, and looking through her books I think we were all suprised how many of them we all remembered from our childhoods.

There were a couple of other projects I particularly wanted to mention too:
We had a cute baby-beanie and scarf being crocheted in autumnal brown and green colours for 1-day-old Ben- so congratulations to Ben's family!
There was also an extremely educational scarf, which had been used to teach lots of different people to knit, using different yarns, colours and stitches, and even random pieces of other materials. So not only is the scarf educational, but it has nice stories behind it's pieces too.
And finally, actually from a slightly earlier meeting(but well worth a mention) we have knitted rock-cosies, being made as part of an art project investigating how different materials affect how people react to everyday objects. I'm told these may be appearing around town at some point, so keep an eye out!

Hugh.

Tea, knitting and cake

Hey people!

We haven't seen much blog-action for a while, so here we go!
Last week saw a good deal of experimental and unconventional knitting. We had a sock being knit in pink and green Maizy yarn, made from corn fibre- vegan-tastic! We also had a pair of purple and green socks being knit(simultaneously) in special hand-dyed only-one-of-it's-kind 'Prom queen' yarn. We also saw Sirdar's town and country sock yarn being used to make a sideways-knit self-patterning waistcoat, following a pattern from the Not just socks book, which is full of funky non-sock-based things to do with sock yarn.

We also saw the finishing touches being put to a Mobius scarf with a delicate crocheted edging being added using a modified fan stitch. Continuing the scarf theme, there were also some experiments with a motif for a shadow knit scarf.

Finally(and perhaps most unconventionally of all), we saw a cupcake hat taking shape, with purple icing being added to a brown cake base, and plans for sprinkles and a cherry on top as it progresses.

Thanks people, and hope to see you next week!
Hugh.

Sunny lunchtime knitting

What a beautiful day! The KB knitters spent a lovely lunchtime in the sun around a picnic table at SAC. We had a good range of projects - a purple snail toy, socks made with a pretty opal yarn, a bright pink feather and fan lace scarf, an intricate sweater and the never-ending black cardigan (yep, it's still in progress folks!).

One particularly interested observer (who wondered if we all had a "knitting virus" and wanted to know who started it!) suggested a novel use for the knitted snail's shell... ask us if you want to know what it is!

If you work at King's buildings, or if you just fancy popping along to join us, we meet on Mondays from 12.30-1.30 in the Glass Arcade at the Scottish Agricultural College.

On the road

Hey people!
There was some excitement this week, it turns out Chai is closed for renovations this week and next, so City Knitty took an impromptu road trip to the Oz bar on the other side of the street.
Knitting-wise, I'm afraid I didn't take proper notes so I'm going to miss a lot of people's projects: We saw Stitch'n'B*tch's Beehive hat and Knitty's Shedir cap both nearing completion, as well as admiring a finished hat with an interesting folding design, which looked extremely warm. We also had a pair of socks with a diagonal cabled pattern and a lacey crochet cardigan to patterns being improvised by intrepid crafters. There was also the start of a baby jacket just beginning to take shape.

We also said goodbye to a couple of our regular knitters, who are off to a better place - more precisely, to sea, and to a beach in Philadelphia. Thanks for knitting with us, and best wishes on your travels!

Thanks too to everyone who came along for a happy and fun evening :).
Hugh.

Festival knitting

Hi folks!
The blog is back after a short absence, but we've been knitting away all through the festival! We've gotten to see Chai busier, and we've had the chance to see some live music while we knit, although with somewhat mixed reviews.

We seemed to have a rather sock-tastic week this week, including socks knit from bamboo yarn, socks knit from 'Artesano hummingbird' alpaca yarn(with a nifty "bull's eye" heel), socks knit from with yarn from the Yarn Yard in (colours which I'm told are) sky blue, lilac and purple, and there was an attempt to modify a sock heel pattern for toy-making purposes.

We had a goodly number of scarves under way too, with a lacey scarf in Kidsilk spray yarn, a continuing Moebius strip scarf, and a big warm scarf with interesting ribbed patterns.

We also had Knitty's Shedir hat being knitted for breast cancer patients, Ysolda's Posie being modified into children's size, and we saw the completion of an oatmeal-coloured shrug, which despite what it's maker might say, I thought was really quite exciting :o).

Thanks to people for a fun and friendly evening, and I hope I'll see you again this week!
Hugh.