Zillmere Knit and Natter...

The last Tuesday of the month K4BN has a Knit and Natter at the Zillmere Community Centre. Today I took my camera to capture some of the action. As well as the group of women who sit around the long tables, knitting, crocheting and chatting, there is also a constant stream of people who just drop off big bags of donations. I never ceased to be amazed by the amount that is collected from this K&N. Today a large number of donated toiletry bags (filled with toiletry items) were handed in as well as all the knitted and crocheted items.

Here's the entrance to this busy community centre...

Jenny holds up one of the crocheted blankets that came in today...

Some of the many bags of donated items, waiting to be sorted...

Elaine holds up the tartan crocheted blanket that she made....

This is Karen who is the organiser of K4BN. Karen was taken to hospital a few weeks ago after suffering chest pains.  She had a number of tests while an inpatient but is still undergoing a series of tests. She has been warned to 'slow down' and group members are endeavouring to find ways that Karen can delegate!

This member showed us the children's beanies she has made; ranging from premmie size up

This is another one of Elaine's blankets; this one is made up of 9  squares with 24 rounds. Clever Elaine,  less sewing up required with BIG squares!

This is Elizabeth holding up her knitted blanket. Knitted with scraps and odd balls , about 300 stitches on circular needles :-)

These gorgeous crocheted toys were dropped off by a donor this morning

Starting to sort donations; Jenny and Elaine did this today instead of Karen having to do it at home.

A view of the busy room....

Blankets packed into the bags ready for recipients/organisations etc that help the needy

There are a lot of activities for the indigenous community in this centre and today  this didgeridoo player dropped in to our room to give a short recital. he was great and he was so thrilled by our enthusiastic clapping when he'd finished. 

And this is another blanket that I've made from the donated squares.

Today's donations of knitted/crocheted items numbered over 140 with 30 of those being blankets.

'Maria, always knitting...'

So commented a friend on my Facebook wall today. This friend has known me since the early 70s when I moved in next door to her mother's place...and I guess she knows me pretty well!
Today, I collected a knitting friend who does not drive and together we went to a Knit and Natter at Albany Creek library.

This is a fairly new K4BN group and the numbers are growing. Everyone busied themselves working on projects and every now and then we would take turns looking through the big bag of yarn that Karen, the organiser had brought along. A large amount of knitting yarn has been donated to our group by a gentleman whose wife has recently passed away. This lady, Sue, was a busy knitter who knitted samples for 'Jo Sharp' and she had left the most amazing (and expensive) yarns. The only drawback is the strong smell of mothballs/naphthalene on this yarn. If anyone knows an effective way to get rid of the smell, I would love to hear about it, because I brought home some of these beautiful yarns.

The blanket that I made out of donated squares. I had started sewing it together  at FNSI

Pam, the friend I gave a lift to, brought several bags of finished items to hand in, mostly rugs and blankets which are always needed. Two other ladies dropped by just to hand in bags of donations so Karen and Peter's truck would have been 'full up' for the trip home to Glasshouse. I handed in a blanket that I made out of some of the donated squares that I picked up last week as well as 3 of the 15 inch indigenous squares. I've slowed down a bit on that latter project but Sharon (the sew-up person for this project) was happy to add my contribution to the pile she has. Sharon almost has enough squares to sew up another blanket; she uses 20 per blanket.

We have a 'trade table' at some of the K&Ns to help raise funds for the group (like the old 'Bring and Buy')

Just a small part of today's donations

Last week at this library, Joy, Helen and I ran a 2 hour workshop  on beginning knitting, and the Librarian came to thank us for our efforts; feedback had been good. One of those ladies who attended the workshop joined us today.

The workshop at the library last week. Betty in the right foreground, joined us today.

Sisters of Stitch...

I've written a post before about this group that I joined after I retired. The group meets at a large council library which is serviced well by public transport. This means that those who don't drive are catered for. The ages of the ladies varies from young mothers up to ladies in their eighties. The one things that binds us together is that we all love craft and there are so many different items being worked on. Today at my table there were ladies doing tapestries and counted cross stitch, embroidery, tunisian crocheting, tatting and knitting. One of the ladies who is in the group makes china dolls and then dresses them in the most exquisite period costumes. I took some photos today so the rest of this post will be in pictures.

Morag ran 'Show and tell' today and she is holding up a pair of lovely knitted slippers

The lady who made the slippers has come out to talk about the items she has made

She also made a crocheted rug with the softest yarn

Morag is helping show more of this lady's items

Isabel, the lady on the right is a retired veterinarian; she's enjoying retirement and all the time she has for crafts

Across the table from me today is Melissa (left) and Cheryl. Cheryl  writes a lovely blog  here

The ladies at the tables on the other side of the room enjoying 'Show and tell' time

Isabel with her stitchery which she started a number of years ago but it's now finished and framed :-)

The busy ladies on my right

Some ladies are too busy stitching to stop for afternoon tea

The 'Show and Tell' table

Cheryl at the sharing table. Today there were lots of craft mags, some chokos ( a vegie which grows on a vine ) and some bags of yarn.

As Isabel the retired vet said today, 'SOS is such a lovely afternoon out'....and it certainly is.