Summer Holiday Events and Activities @knitshop.co.uk

As the term comes to an end for schools across Britain, it can be difficult to plan activities for children for the entire eight week break. The knitshop.co.uk have put together some very special courses targeted at children, and adults, of all ages.

Our courses are aimed at children with no experience in knitting, crochet or felting and we aim to teach them some basic skills and set them a project they can continue at home in their own time, in the hope the skills will keep them occupied for a few hours during the long summer holiday.

Lets Get Hooked
Wednesday August 3^rd from 2pm-4pm

The first of three creative course, lets get hooked is all about crochet. Children as young as five will be able to participate in the course therefore the younger students will be taught finger knitting before moving onto crochet.

The playful and fun environment will inspire children to learn the skills and adapt the skills into their own artwork they will be able to take home. Materials for the workshop will be provided by the knitshop. Children are encouraged to ask questions and experiment with the techniques taught to create unique pieces of artwork. We endeavour to teach skills that can be carried out at home within the students own time. Basic crochet is simple and easy for young students to understand and experiment with and this course will be very popular indeed.

Swing the Needles

Wednesday August 3^rd from 2pm-4pm

A creative workshop aims to teach children how to knit and crochet. Students as young as five years of age are welcome. The younger students will be taught how to finger knit and depending on their level of skill will furthermore be taught basic crochet skills.

Materials will be provided for the two hour workshop as well as light refreshments. No more than eight participants will be allowed to keep the course small and personal. Each student will be taught at their own skill level and at their pace of learning. Students will be encouraged to be as creative and as experimental as they desire.

Students will be able to take home any project they are working on and with a little encouragement at home, children will be able to carry on their project or start a fresh one. The skills learnt will be a fantastic creative skill to apply to holiday creative work.

Creative Hands

Friday 5^th August, from 2pm-4pm

Creative hands is all about the art of felting. Felting is a great activity for children of all ages, as well as adults. All skill levels will be accepted within this workshop and children will be taught how to be creative with wool. Materials will be provided for the workshop and each participant will be encouraged to complete their own piece of felt art to take home with them. Again, the knitshop team hope that the skills learnt here will be able to be carried on into the summer holidays to keep the children occupied.

Felting incorporates as many wool colours as desired and the artwork created through the skill of felting can be flat two dimensional work or even three dimensional work such as bead-work. We hope these skills will keep your little ones entertained.!

All three course are open to students over the age of five of all abilities. Each workshop is priced at £10 and includes all materials required to take part in the workshop as well as light refreshments.

We are currently running a summer holiday offer;

Book 1 child and the second child will be half price.

This is a fantastic opportunity if you have more than one child to entertain this summer.

All participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the duration of the workshop. Guardians and parents are welcome to participate and learn the skills themselves to keep children entertained throughout the summer, practising the skills learnt at the workshop.

Enjoy!

Links to this blog:
Workshops - more details & book online
knitshop.co.uk

Lewisham People's Day

If you didn't join us earlier in July at the Lewisham People's Day, you missed out on a spectacular treat put on by local activity groups around Lewisham and surrounding areas, including our very own knitshop.co.uk team.

We were located in a big yellow and red striped tent which came in useful with all the rain that day! The knitshop team set-up a knitting lounge within the tent. Centre stage was a huge dance-floor where in the afternoon dance sessions were held. It was wonderful to be able to watch these sessions as we knitted. The music was a great aid to keep knitters in rhythm too, as well as draw in more crowds to come and join us.

The knitting lounge was host to children and adults of any age, and they could participate in a variety of knitting and crochet activities or simply work on their own projects. knitshop.co.uk supplied some basic materials to get knitters and crocheters started. At any one time we had about 20 people knitting around the table.

It was a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together and as the day progressed we had as many knitters and non-knitters joining us. Julieta from the knitshop was on-hand to teach any new knitters how to knit or crochet. This was very much welcome by participants that were a little shy to get involved or learn a new skill. Julieta was teaching many children as well as adults and as the lounge became more popular and busier, friends were teaching one another and were also teaching people who they'd never met before.

There was a lovely community spirit in this lounge and participants were leaving with small projects either to finish at home or completed within the lounge. One child learnt to crochet with Julieta and then completed an entire project, they took home a complete crocheted ipod holder.

It was inspiring to see everyone with a project in mind, whether it was something traditional such as babies cardigans to scarves, to more contemporary design ideas such as the ipod holder. This demonstrates how knitting and crochet have developed into 21^st century crafts that are still useful skills and relaxing at the same time.

The surgery was also a welcome segment to the event. Julieta and the knitshop team were answering any problems knitters had with their projects within the lounge. Many projects were injected with new inspiration and dilemmas were solved.

The knitters were certainly not put off by the wet weather and overall it was a wonderful day, not just for the knitshop.co.uk team but for the entire Lewisham People's Day.

Julieta and the knitshop team would like to thank the organisers of Lewisham People's Day for inviting the knitshop a second year round, its a fantastic festival to take part in and we really hope we can feature there again next year, hopefully with a little bit of sunshine!

knitshop.co.uk is hosting regular community events and takes part in festivals and other social activities. If you want to take part or visit the knitshop when organising such brilliant events, go to our Events Page http://fairs.knitshop.co.uk for more information and dates.

Links to this blog: 

July Lewisham People's Day

knitshop.co.uk

Events & activities by knitshop.co.uk

Knitting A Flower Corsage

Ornate and delicate accessories can really make your everyday fashions look unique and stand-out from a crowd. The knitshop.co.uk team understand how important it is to be able to knit your own floral corsages to adorn your accessories and clothes and have therefore devised an entire workshop dedicated to teaching you how to knit flower corsages.

Not only will participants be able to knit a complete corsage for themselves during the workshop, candidates will also be taught how to choose the correct yarns for their future projects and also shown a variety of knit stitches to achieve desired effects and finished pieces.

The two hour workshop is aimed at knitting beginners, or candidates looking to revise their skills. The workshop also promises to inject a little fun into your day a sociable environment. The students will be taken through every part of the workshop slowly and at the students pace so that everyone can take away their newly learnt skills and continue knitting projects in their own time. The workshop also aims to teach students how to begin knitting, knit and pearl stitches and also increasing a stitch. And participants will be taught how to read a knitting pattern, a very useful skill for all avid knitters. Make sure to check out our free knitting pattern to download and purchase from our online shop.

As described, students will take away a huge range of new skills that can be applied to creating further corsages but also that can be applied to new projects students may wish to tackle.

The workshop is held in the knitshop.co.uk Boutique and will include a maximum of eight students so the class remains small and all questions can be answered and one-to-one help can be given to everyone. Materials will be provided for each student to complete at least one knitted corsage and students can take this away with them to adorn on their favourite accessory!

The knitted corsage workshop will be held on the 29^th of July from 11am. The workshop is charged at just £12 and refreshments will also be provided for the duration of the workshop. You can book you place through the knitshop.co.uk website, making sure you click 'pick-up in store' at the checkout. You can also book your place in-store or over the phone.

Places are limited so make sure you book in advance!

Useful Links:
knitshop.co.uk Workshops
The Boutique at 326 Lee High Road, Google maps
FREE Knitting Pattern - knitshop.co.uk Pattern

Knitting Needle Guide

Choosing the right needles and yarn for the right tension can often be the key to success when starting a new project. If you are working from a pattern, most patterns will supply all the information required from what size needles to use and what yarns they suggest as well as the tension. We have put together a guide on on knitting needles, so you can achieve a perfect project from start to knitting.

Knitting needles

Most needles will have a pointed end and at the opposite end a cap to prevent stitches from falling off. These are often referred to as single pointed or straight knitting needles, and will create flat knitting.

If you are planning to knit in the round for socks, seamless knitting or flat knitting then you will require circular knitting needles which are linked with a flexible plastic cord in the middle. These will vary in lengths and this will need to be considered for your project. The rule is generally to obtain needles a little smaller than the circumference of your project. Take into consideration any increases or decreases in the pattern and use the smallest circumference of the pattern. Double pointed needles (dpns) are pointed at both ends and come in sets of four or five needles and are also used for circular and seamless knitting and are great for socks. These are best for shaping and three dimensional knitting.

Consider any stitches and techniques you will be incorporating, for example cables. These will require a cable needle that is short and pointed at both ends.

Needle material

If you are a beginner, it's recommended to use bamboo needles which have a better glide and help you ease your stitches, but they wont fly off. Needles are available in metal, plastic, wood, bamboo and other materials. For some knitters, slippery metal and plastic needles help ease stitches off quickly.

Bamboo needles have a slight grip and are lightweight, perfect for beginners and arthritic hands. Bamboo needles can be applied to most yarns, they are flexible, however finer needles are known to break easily.

Wooden needles, come in a variety of woods including hardwoods which are by far the best. These too can be slippery and have a smooth surface. Often these are intricately decorated and make lovely gifts for a knitter. These too are likely to snap in smaller sizes.

Metal needles are heavy, but will not break when bent. As mentioned before these are a favourite with experience knitters due to the glide of the surface. The smooth surface is also great for hairy yarns such as mohair and alpaca. There are various metal needles from aluminium, steel and nickel-plated.

Plastic needles also allow stitches to move quickly, they are great for chunkier needles as they are still lightweight but strong and also not likely to break.

Needle Sizes

Needles are available in all sizes and length. Sizes available at knitshop.co.uk reach from as low as 1.6mm to 23mm giants.The thickness of a needle will determine the finished size, tension and look of your finished project. This will affect your knitting and the choice can be difficult but needs to be made at the start of the project and according to the yarn you have chosen.

The thicker the needle the larger the stitch, therefore the looser the fabric and possibly more stretchy the fabric. The finer the needle thickness, the smaller the stitch, the tighter the tension and the smaller the fabric will be. Depending on the yarn used, the fabric thickness can also be affected.

Beware though that needle sizes vary between the UK, the US and Japan. Usually Canadian knitting needles are the same size as UK needles. UK sizes, a little confusingly, start at 14 which represents the smallest needle around 2mm. UK sizes decrease as the size in mm increases. A 10mm needle will be referred to as 000.

We suggest that all beginners experiment with varying size needles. Create fabric swatches by using the same yarn, the same number of stitches and rows. Compare the difference between your swatches and this will be a great guide for your to refer to for all projects.

Even more confusingly, needles are available in varying lengths. Although this will not affect your project as much as circumference, it is still worthwhile considering. For wider projects, a longer needle should be used and narrower projects a shorter needle used. You will also need to consider yarn thickness in the equation, the thicker the yarn the more space it will take on a needle.

We hope the information about knitting needles, materials and sizes has proven to be useful to you. Watch out for another blog, we will explore yarn and needle recommendations for you. 

Useful Links: 

Knitting needles and accessories

knitshop.co.uk blog

Needle conversion chart

Giant needles

Knitting at Lewisham People's Day

Julieta and the knitshop.co.uk team would like to invite you for a great knitting session at Lewisham People's Day. For the second year running we will be hosting a knitting lounge located in the big Top in the Yellow Area, bring your knitting and join us for an afternoon of knitting fun!

Lewisham People's Day is the largest and longest running festival in Lewisham. Enjoy music, magic, art, dance, sport, cabaret and so much more, eight themed stages will entertain you throughout with a line up of over one thousand local and internatonal performers.

Event details:
Lewisham People's Day
Mountsfield Park, SE6 1AN
Saturday 9 July, 12noon - 8pm
view map - click here
You can find Lewisham People's Day on Facebook - click here

Knitting needles, pattern and yarn is sponsored knitshop.co.uk.
knitshop.co.uk has been invited to participate at Lewisham People's Day for the second time, we would like to thank the organisiers for having us.

Useful Links:
Lewisham People's Day
LPD on Facebook
knitshop.co.uk
Event Map