Meeting up with knitting friends...

Yesterday started with taking DD2 for a specialist appointment, where everything was good news...then it was over to Albany Creek for the January Knit and Natter. It was so nice catching up with the other ladies, having a look at what they had knitted/crocheted since we last met and checking out the huge quantity of donated yarn! There were boxes and big bags of all sorts of yarns. I arrived late and as soon as I sat down, friends alerted me to donated yarns that were 'typically Maria'! lol 

I protested about taking any, saying I had lots of yarn at home already...but I'm weak and came home with my knitting bag stuffed with interesting yarns...I think I will be starting one of my honeycomb throws sometime soon :-)  DH was very calm and philosophical when I came home with all this extra yarn!

Everyone loved the colours in this variegated yarn that Linda was using; by having a photo I can check back and put together similar combos out of my stash as they really work well

 This is Sharon in the photo below. She and I still crochet 15-round squares in indigenous colours in spare time...we worked out yesterday that I have 7 done and she has 9 so we only need another 4 to make a rug. And it's all just done whenever, and between other projects.

 The photo below shows Helen's beautiful chevron throw using my old favourite easy pattern. Quite a few ladies now have this pattern and I get such a kick out of seeing all their creations. I've promised to bring some copies to the next K&N for those who don't have access to a computer.

All those years ago in the late 1980s when I made my first chevron rug out of some oddments given to me by a friend, I could never have imagined how many I would eventually make, let alone others wanting the pattern. That first rug (in autumn tones) was donated to a school street stall and  sold to a parent at the school as a gift for her husband. He still has that rug!!

Just in case anyone is interested, a copy of the basic chevron pattern is here but it's up to each individual knitter to decide how thick to make each colour block and to experiment with light and dark colours as well as textures. I'm quite happy to give suggestions of number of stitches for certain plys etc; just email any queries.