MEETING TEN, NOVEMBER 2009

Our November meeting had the theme of Spring... because it is the current season and we were desperate to put our recent winter weather behind us. The weather gods decided to smile on us and we were able to have our meeting outside in the garden... if anything it was a little too sunny, but no-one was complaining! Our tea of the month was a refreshing Jasmine Green Tea by Twinings. Win also brought along a lovely and sweet Turkish orange tea which went down a treat with everyone.



Sharee started off the meeting by giving James this groovy and gruesome gift... a sock shaped coin purse, ideal for those moments when you're rummaging around the car fossicking for coins for the dreaded parking meters. An excellent and well received gift.

Helga came along with her newfound appreciation for mushrooms. Here she is chuckling away as she was knitting in the shade... a little later in the afternoon she wasn't chuckling as she started to feel the sunburn on the back of her neck... but being a true knitter she just kept on knitting!

This is what was meant by a new appreciation of mushrooms... Helga had answered the call for knitted mushrooms as part of a yarn bombing feature for the J.O.Y. Anniversary Weekend Garden Party. You can take the Girl out of the Netherlands but you can't take the Netherlands out of the girl... Helga knitted her first mushroom in orange... and quite spectacular it is too!

Lorraine was busy trying to keep in the shade and continued to knit in this awkward angle to avoid the sun... OK, what she was really trying to do was avoid James and that bloody camera of his... but she failed.Win was just back from a holiday to Tasmania, catching up with family and spoiling her grandchildren. While she was there she was there she found the time to knit herself a pair of socks out of the yarn James bought for her while he was in Seattle. The yarn is by Socks that Rock and is in a beautiful summery citrus mix of lemon and lime. As you can see Win is never shy in coming forward when it comes to showing off her socks... and sexy legs.


In keeping with the Spring theme Margaret wore her sheep shaped name badge along with her very cute sheep earrings.
Jazz the cat decided that the warm afternoon coupled with the excitement of so many people wanting to pet and cuddle him was just too much so he decided to have a 'cat nap' in the garden... but still in ear shot of all the action just in case there was any risk of missing out on any food treats.

Susan wore her best cowboy hat adorned with spring flowers... rumour has it that the hat was purchased on a recent trip to Thailand... obviously that's why Susan wasn't bothered by the heat of the afternoon.

Eleanor also chose to wear a hat festooned with Spring flowers and as you can see she co-ordinated her knitting project with the flowers on the hat... very stylish... and very clever!

That look of determination and concentration is the secret to Eleanor's ability to continually churn out pair after pair of socks. This is her latest completed pair... fresh off the needles.

Nanette's contribution to the Spring theme was this beautiful green sock project she was working on.

During the afternoon James handed out some Spring themed prizes.... Sharee won this colourful spring 'slinky' which she said her children would claim ownership of as soon as she got home.

Eleanor won a spring bulb to plant in her garden... a beautiful purple Iris.

Win won a skein of sock yarn in a deep violet colourway similar to the colour of the Iris Eleanor won.

And Susan won a light bulb... well actually it was a set of coloured xmas tree lights and she giggled with glee when she opened the parcel they were in.

Speaking of giggling... here is Nanette adding her giggle to the mix. You'll have to come along to our next meeting and join in all the fun... we even manage to get a little knitting done too.

MEETING NINE, OCTOBER 2009

This month's meeting had the theme of "Something beginning with O"... and to start things off our tea for the month was a very spicy O for Orange and Cinnamon blend James purchased at Pike Place Market on his recent trip to Seattle. Our new place setting was this beautiful pink pattern from spode... only we didn't get to use it, Ian was worried that it might get damaged.

Our serviettes had pictures of O for Olives on them and James had hoped to use O for Origami to fold them into shapes but ran out of time. We had O for Orange slice biscuits, O for Oddfellows pink smokers candy, O for Orange muffins and O for Orange juice.

James also explained an O for Opps moment when he handed out Earl Grey Tea flavoured candy which he had forgotten to hand out to us the month before. He was also happy to be the O for Organiser for the meeting.

Margaret brought with her a set of O for Orange knitting needles, wrapped in O for Orange wrapping paper and her kitty cat project bag complete with O for Orange cats on it.

Gwen also kept her offering knitting related... she was knitting with O for Opal sock yarn.

Fresh from her sock design workshop the day before Nanette whipped up a pair of O for Orangutans... very cute and way better than a pair of sock monkeys.

Sharee let her knitting do all the talking too... her fast growing sock blankie featured a couple of O for Orange squares.

Nichola was quite creative with her O for pukekO's, she was wearing O for Orange socks, was knitting a pair of O for Orange socks for her son and then described a few other items as O for Objects. I guess it showed that Nichola is a bit of an O for Over-achiever.

Judy wore her amazing O for Orange jersey and her necklace had some matching O for Orange beads.

Lisa showed she was clever and wise by bringing along one of her favourite O for Ornaments... an O for Owl.

Not to be outdone Morag also presented an O for Owl... in her case it was a beautiful owl pendant necklace.

Verena wasn't aware of the theme and claimed to have nothing but sometimes the most O for Obvious thing is staring you in the face... she had brought with her an O for Orange project bag emblazoned with the word 'freude' meaning JOY.

and here we have Miss Scarlet O for Oak Cottage 2009... O for Otherwise known as Eleanor. Her sash described her as an O for October O for Original and she had O for Orchid brooches attached to the sash.

In the immortal words of David Tua it was an O for Awesome effort by everyone... and we even got some knitting done!

MEETING EIGHT, SEPTEMBER 2009

This month's meeting was a week later than usual due to James being away in the United States of America and the Wairarapa Spinners and weavers holding their annual Spin In over the first weekend of the month. The weather was so good we ended up having the meeting outside in the garden... thank goodness Winter is finally behind us.

Nichola contributed this fantastic Pukeko tea cosy for the meeting. It was a birthday present from Sharee, clever Sharee designed and knitted it herself. The Pukeko helped keep this months tea nice and warm... the tea was Huckleberry tea which James brought back from Seattle. For those of you who don't know what Huckleberry is... it's from the same family as the blueberry and is very tasty.

As the date was the 13th our theme for the meeting was 'Lucky Charms' and Zoe brought along a four leaf clover she had found in Romania. Here she is working on a sock project.

Sally came over from Lower Hutt for the day and brought her beautiful daughter Kate with her. Showing her great parenting skills she has taught Kate to use circulars already. Here we have Sally working on a Vintage Purls sock club project. Her lucky charm(s) were on display in her gold charm bracelet.

Wendy showed us the progress she had been making on a lace shawl she was knitting using Anna Grattons 2ply sock yarn in a colourway called paua.

Betty-Ann was busy working away on a colourful hat, one of a number she is contributing to a craft market to be held at Pataka in Porirua.

Nichola was showing her serious side as she was working on yet another pair of socks for her husband. Lucky guy!

And here she is showing her not so serious side as she demonstrates another way of using the Pukeko tea cosy.

Nanette was taking a break from her sock blankie and spent the afternoon working on a very cute hat using up scraps from her stash... obviously a high quality stash. In the background you can see the pink lady tea setting.

Gwen and Margaret had fun sunbathing as they were knitting!

Verena was working with a super chunky hand dyed yarn to create an intriguing hooded top.

Helga was a picture of concentration as she was powering through a Cat Bordhi sock design using Noro Silk Garden yarn. Her lucky charms were cleverly being used as stitch markers.

Vicky was showing even more concentration than Helga as she was starting off on another sock project... possibly a Cat Bordhi design too!

MEETING SEVEN, AUGUST 2009

As we're still in the midst of this terrible winter our theme for this meeting was "Winter Wonderland". Our tea cosy was white as snow with four pompoms to represent snow balls and the tea to warm us up was Red Seals Alpine tea... the label said it is also used as a mild laxative! Our new place setting for this meeting was a bright and colourful floral number donated by James' boss Karen.

Our food also followed the theme quite well... funny how there's never a shortage of food at these meetings! As you can see the table was groaning with everyone's contributions.

The novelty factor came in with the eskimo candy and icecreams!

During the meeting we started collecting squares together for the baby blanket we are knitting up for the soon to arrive first grandchild for our member Angie. Here are some of the squares. The idea was to use as many homespun yarns as possible within the brown pallette. James spent some of the afternoon sewing all the ends in before Win takes over and crochet's them all together. It's looking great so far!

Here we have Carolyn braving the winter and wearing her sexy boots but still insisting on showing off her fantastic legs.

Nanette's sock yarn blankie is growing larger by the meeting and is looking more and more impressive everytime we see it... at the rate she's going I think this might be able to fit a queen size bed in no time.

Sharee was able to prove that learning to knit socks toe up was as easy as could be...

Lorraine tried to prove how easy it was to hide from the camera but instead proved that it's really easy to color co-ordinate your outfit with your knitting if you try...

Gwen proved that she was psychic as her project matched Lorraine's outfit...

To keep with the theme of the meeting James asked everyone to recount what their favourite winter memory was. Unfortunately some people found very little memorable about winter but Lady Penelope told us about her experiences of winter growing up in the UK and everyone voted her favourite winter memory the best... and she won a pair of winter slippers for her trouble... the style is called JOY (what a co-incidence) and what other colour could they be than pink!

MEETING SIX, JULY 2009

Can you tell by this photo of delicious faux Christmas puddings that something festive was happening at this meeting? It may only be July but Christmas came early as this weekend saw a series of events at Scarlet Oak Cottage themed around a mid-winter Christmas celebration... and it made perfect sense for our meeting to follow suit and enjoy the festivities. These tasty treats are a mallowpuff biscuit with white chocolated drizzled over the top, with a jaffa and sloced spearmint leaves on top. They taste as good as they look!

Our tea this meeting was a unique blend of flavours called 'Berry Surprise'. The surprise being that James threw all manner of berry flavoured teas in the teapot to make a special bold Christmasey red tea. Luckily for us it actually looked, smelt and tasted fantastic.

Win decided to distance herself from the group for part of the meeting... don't worry it wasn't due to swine 'flu... she was trying to concentrate on mastering a new knitting stitch she had just learned in a workshop that morning. She was also wearing a scarf she 'appropriated' from James and told everybody that James had knitted it especially for her and presented it as an early Christmas gift. It all sounded rather plausible until James was asked to confirm the details... and couldn't.

Justin and Jaimie made the trip over from Wellington to join in all the fun. They too had been on a couple of the workshops during the weekend and were focused on finishing off some of the knitting projects they had started... such organised boys they were already working on knitted Christmas presents. True dedication to fitting in with the theme of the weekend!

Nanette was back again after her travels around Europe and it was lovely to hear about her triumphant yarn crawls and see some of her purchases. It was also lovely to see the continuing progress she is making on her sock blankie and rumour has it that she may well be teaching a class on how to make a sock blankie of your own very soon. Exciting stuff!

If this isn't the ultimate project bag to bring along to a Sunday KNIT-Tea meeting I don't know what is. This gorgeous creation belongs to Win and what is even more wonderful about it is that Win made it herself. The cross-stitched creation has a wonderful balance of colours including her all time favourite of lime green. I'm sure Win was in need of a good strong cup of tea after all that stitching.

MEETING FIVE, JUNE 2009

As you can see, our collection of tea cups is slowly starting to grow and it won't be long until the plain white place settings are banished to the back of the pantry.

As we were able to enjoy a day off work during the week due to the Queen's Birthday holiday it was only fitting that our theme for this meeting was "All things Royal".

Our new place-setting for this month is this blue Chinese number bought from Briscoes... Somehow I don't think it's representative of Ming Dynasty but it's royal enough for us. Our tea of the month is... Twinings Lady Grey... because of it's regal name and because Twinings is by Royal appointment of course.

To make the tea taste just that little bit more "Royal" James knitted up this snazzy crown tea cosy complete with jewels and gold buttons. I'm not sure if the tea tasted anymore regal but we all certainly felt a little royal during the afternoon.

Speaking of growing... our waistlines were in serious danger of growing with all the "Royal" food we had. There were a variety of Queen Cakes (including Ian's with silver Elizabethan collars), Mint Imperial and Frog Prince candies, cucumber sandwiches, after eight mint chocolates and gingernuts (because they were voted New Zealand's favourite biscuit during the week).

We were very privileged to be graced with the presence of Queen Eleanor and Princess Carolyn of Masterton who graciously took time out from their hectic schedule of Royal engagements to join us for the afternoon. Queen Eleanor was very demure while interacting with us commoners but Princess Carolyn was more interested in proving that an essential part of being a Princess is knowing how to wear a short skirt to show off one's legs to best advantage while still retaining their modesty.

James was making good progress on a scarf he designed himself featuring a honeycomb pattern using Vintage Purls merino sock yarn in the 'Joy' colourway. That was until he got sidetracked by looking at all the wonderful knitting magazines Sue had brought for us to look at from her extensive personal collection. Thank you Sue it was quite a treat to see so many titles... the Englist mags are great but there really needs to be a New Zealand knitting magazine. Being a journalist Sue is clearly very fond of magazines!

Sheena has recently become obsessed with socks and during the meeting managed to make some very good progress on her latest pair... for those who haven't knitted socks yet... be careful as it really does become addictive!

During the meeting we also had a royal quiz with James firing off various questions all relating to royalty in some way... perhaps one of the most controversial or funniest questions, depending on how you looked at it, was "Who is Harry's Daddy?..." when James added "I'll take two answers". Penny proved herself the biggest royalist in the group by answering the most questions correctly and won herself a suitably royal prize... described by James as more likely a 'booby prize'... a copy of the film "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert".

Robyn was also working on a scarf at the meeting. This colourful garter stitch number is using Red Supreme Possum Merino and Hot Pink Shepherd baby wool for a striking combination.

MEETING FOUR, MAY 2009

Our May meeting brought with it some very cool Autumn weather and with it the realisation that Summer was now behind us. It was time to leave the garden behind and continue our meetings in the comfort of Scarlet Oak Cottage next to the warmth of the fire. We were also a little light on photo's for this meeting as James forgot to recharge the batteries in his camera...

Our new place setting of the month was this beauty with a slight Scandinavian feel to it. James inadvertantly got people worried when later in the meeting asked who had been using this particular place setting. There was an assuption that it must have been damaged in some way and no-one initially owned up to using it. Finally Susan, with a very worried face, said she thought it had been her that had used it and asked if there was a problem. James replied that there was a mystery prize to give away and it was going to the person who had used that place setting. Susan's worry turned to delight when she received the two yummy balls of sock yarn.

Our theme of the month was "All things Scottish" and we had a great selection of shortbreads and cake to nibble on while we knit. Our tea of the month was a spicy variety supplied by Eleanor - Red Bush Tea's Lemon and Ginger. James also dragged out a knitting project he started several years ago... a scarf for his Mother in the Henderson Family Tartan... progress has been slow to date and the future outlook is not at all bonny! We also had special guests in attendance, namely our favourite yarn dye mistress Morag of Vintage Purls and her husband Murray, who came all the way from Dunedin... the most Scottish city in New Zealand. Well to be honest they were visiting Wellington and James managed to bribe them with copious amounts of shortbread to come over the hill and join in the fun.

Nola arrived in this very special tartan skirt... the Princess Diana Tartan... looking quite a Princess herself.

But the scene really was stolen by our Birthday Girl, winsome Win, wearing these fantastic tartan stockings. Win even brought us all a lovely chocolate birthday cake to share which had been baked by one of her sons... she even chose to spend her birthday afternoon with us and knitting instead of in Wellington with her extended family. It was lovely to know that Win considered us all to be family of another sort to share her special day with.