Spring Knit Along Ideas

Posted on February 3, 2017 by BetsyM

We once again invite you to join with Brookside Knits members in a spring 2017 knit-along. We hope you will join us not only in knitting now but also in sharing at next year’s Knit Out.

Our members have made three suggestions for knit-along projects this year. Each will fit the tastes, needs, or skills of some.

Changing Light

by Jennifer Weissman is “a fully reversible scarf or wrap featuring stripes, lace and elegant pointed tips.” It uses three colors of fingering yarn, and has instructions for sizes Small and Large. Check out the Projects link for color ideas and plenty of pictures. There is a small, reasonable charge for the pattern, and, if you like, a kit is available at Craftsy.

Ravelry/Changing Lights: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/changing-light
Craftsy/Changing Lights: https://www.craftsy.com/knitting/kits/changing-light-dyed-by-lorna-s-laces-scarf-knitting-kit/470545

Baa-ble Hat

by Donna Smith is “a quick knit and it makes an ideal introduction to Fair Isle colour work knitting.” It is designed for Aran/worsted weight yarns and is knit in the round. Smith also designed the Baa-ble Mittens and Cowl. There is a charge for each pattern. The designer reminds us that the gauge is quite tight so a gauge square is especially important. A clever Ravelry surfer will find an assortment of spinoffs of these patterns.

Ravelry/Baa-ble Hat: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baa-ble-hat
Ravelry/Baa-ble Mittens and Cowl: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baa-ble-mittens-and-cowl

Pivot Cowl

by Purl Soho is a free pattern available on its website. A Danish term, “hygge,” stresses the cozy and content feeling you get knitting and snuggling up during the winter months: the Pivot Cowl is “hygge.” Simple garter stitch uses short rows that create the “pivot.” Purl Soho suggests their cashmere merino yarn in DK weight, but the many Projects listed on Ravelry offer other soft yarn suggestions.

Ravelry/Pivot Cowl: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pivot-cowl
Purl Soho/Pivot Cowl: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2017/01/06/pivot-cowl/

Happy Knitting!

Wrapping Up the 2017 Knit Out: Charity Knitting

Posted on February 2, 2017 by BetsyM

Our 13^th annual Pottstown Knit Out to benefit the American Cancer Society was held at Brookside Country Club in Pottstown on Saturday, January 21, 2017. It was a lively day of camaraderie and fundraising around our common hobby of knitting and our desire to contribute to the ACS efforts to battle cancer. The day dawned grey and warmer than usual, to the great relief of everyone after winter storm Jonas shut us down last year. Doors to the event opened at 9:30 am, but women were lined up ahead of that time, eager to start the day.

Happy Knitters at the 13th Annual Knit Out

About half of the attendees won a door prize, which were picked up soon after entering the building. Seats at the tables were staked out and the ballroom hummed with activity as women milled about, talking, looking and touching. Long time knitting friends reconnected and new friendships were formed during the course of the day. This year there were 18 basket raffle prizes which all were vying for; it was hard to wait until the end of the day to find out who won! The swap table was overloaded with lots of yarns coming and going.

Alyssa’s massage schedule filled right up. She must have been exhausted by the end of the day! We thank Alyssa for donating her time. We had a couple of new vendors this year, which added to the excitement of the day as we all checked out their hand-dyed local yarns. Most of our vendors have supported us for many years, and we appreciate their contributions to the day, as well as their varied products to choose from.

Donated Chemo Caps 2017

We had fewer classes than usual this year, but everyone who wanted a class was able to take one. We are always looking for new teachers, so please spread the word! It is enjoyable to learn a new technique to add to your knitting knowledge. After the classes were finished, we headed back to the ballroom to show and share our knitted creations. How inspiring to see what others have made, hear the stories about the projects and learn what patterns & yarns were used.

Brookside Knits are able to maximize our contribution to the ACS because this event is entirely volunteer run. The teachers donate their time, the country club donates the space, and the vendors donate gift certificates for door prizes. Our only major expense is the food. Thank you to everyone who attended or otherwise supported our event!

2017 Charity Baby Hat

You were extremely generous in your charity knitting this year. Here is what you knitted or crocheted.

180 newborn baby hats
112 chemo caps
21 toddler-sized hats
4 baby blankets
1 prayer shawl
2 big bags of Knitted Knockers

The baby hats will be washed, dried, and packed up to be contributed (monthly) to the Pottstown Hospital labor and delivery unit along with others knitted by our own Brookside Knitters. The toddler-sized hats and baby blankets will be passed along to the new baby clinic. The chemo caps and Knitted Knockers will be contributed to the cancer center, as will the prayer shawl.

If you knitted pink or red hats they may be in the February bag ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The green hats are filling up the March bag already, and baby pastels will be divided among the bags.

Charity Hats 2017

Sorting Out the Hats 2017

2010 Pottstown Knit Out

Baby Hat Donations 2010

Tips For Future Attendance:

To make sure you’re on our mailing list, email info@pottstownknitout.com.
Please do NOT contact Brookside Country Club with Knit Out-related questions.
Admission is on a first-come, first-serve basis; we have limited space.
When you receive the email notice, send your completed form and check immediately.

New Charity Knitting Project for 2017 Knit Out and Beyond:

In addition to our ongoing Baby Hats project, Brookside Knits has added Knitted Breasts “Boobies” to our charity knitting. These light, comfortable, knitted prosthetics are made with soft, washable yarn and are an excellent substitute for their silicon counterparts. Consider donating your work to this worthy cause. We’ll be accepting them at the Knit Out and beyond. Patterns available:

Tit Bits at Knitty
Make a Knocker! at Knitted Knockers

Drachenfels Knit-A-Long

Posted on September 12, 2016 by BetsyM

Brookside Knits is having a group knit-a-long. We have chosen to knit the ‘Drachenfels’ shawl by Melanie Berg. We will show our shawls at the 2017 Knit Out. You are invited to join us in our knit-a-long. To do this, purchase the pattern on Ravelry, buy some yarn (or use your stash), and show us your results next year. Here are photos of some of the shawls we have completed. We will post more during the year.

Joy

Sandi

Karen King

Karen Kar

Janet

Carol

Sharon

Knitters’ Day Out 2016

Posted on June 9, 2016 by BetsyM

September 16 & 17 – Save the Date!

The Knitters’ Day Out committee is pleased to announce the following featured teachers for 2016:

Lily Chin
Judy Pascale
Candace Eisner Strick
Eleanor Swogger
Ann Weaver
Kathy Zimmerman

Class Descriptions

The 2016 Class Description are now available!

Registration Info

Registration opens Tuesday, June 15th, at noon. The registration site will be available about 1 week prior to the opening of registration. If you have registered for classes using our online registration system, your account is still active; you may access the site at that time to retrieve or reset your password. If you are new to Knitters’ Day Out — Welcome! When it’s available, you can stop by the registration site in advance of the 15th to set up your account.

There’s no need to keep hitting the refresh button, we’ll send out a notice when the registration site is available.

Questions?

Submit questions via the Contact Us page.

Good Knitting!

The Knitters’ Day Out Committee
www.knittersdayout.org

(NOTE: this event is held by the Knitters’ Day Out Committee. All inquiries related to the event should be addressed to them.)

Knit Out 2016 Cancelled

Posted on January 20, 2016 by BetsyM

We regret to announce that the Pottstown Knit Out 2016 is cancelled due to the extreme weather forecasts for Saturday.

Safety has to be our first priority. The blizzard warnings and all day snows on Saturday will make traveling dangerous.

We appreciate all your support for the past twelve years that we have held the Knit Out. This is the first time we have had to cancel. We are all very disappointed.

Your registration payments will be forwarded to the American Cancer Society as we are a Relay for Life team in Pottstown. In a future email, we will inform you of our total contribution to ACS.

We would also like to thank Brookside Country Club for their generous support and accommodations for our Knit Out and meetings every year.

We hope you all stay safe and warm at home knitting this weekend.

See you in 2017.

New York State Sheep & Wool Festival

Posted on September 2, 2015 by BetsyM

If January seems too far away, perhaps you’ll enjoy a fix of knitting, fun, workshops and more in Rhinebeck, NY.

October 17 & 18, 2015

Saturday 9am-5pm Sunday 10am-5pm

http://sheepandwool.com/

Baby Hats Donated at 2015 Knit Out

Posted on February 17, 2015 by BetsyM

2015 Knit Out participants donated over 150 hats for newborns for Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.

We would like to thank everyone who donated nearly 150 baby hats at the 2015 Knit Out. The Pottstown Memorial Medical Center’s Labor and Delivery section also appreciates all the hats. We find that the nurses especially like the hats we make for holidays.

What do we do with the hats you donate? All hats are machine washed and dried, of course. We then divide the hats up into twelve bags, one for each month. Having about 11 or 12 starter hats each month—the ones you knit– gives us a head start on the 40 or so hats we donate monthly.

How does that work? We take the blues, pinks, and multicolored pastels and divide them evenly among the bags. February hats—delivered just this week–included red and pink hats for Valentine’s Day. Then we take greens and put them toward St. Patrick’s Day or Christmas. The purples and yellows may go for Easter or springtime generally. The oranges, of course, go into the pumpkin months and darker hats are kept for the later in the fall. Stripes go out in September for back-to-school and sports seasons. The nurses are especially fond of Eagle’s or Phillies’ hats.

2015 Knit Out Participant Donated Chemo Caps

Posted on February 17, 2015 by BetsyM

2015 Knit Out participants generously donated their time and talents to help others.

Many thanks to all the 2015 Knit Out attendees who donated chemo caps at this year’s event. We collected 92 hats, just a small sampling of which is shown in the photo. These hats will be given to the Cancer Center at the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.

Free Chemo Cap Patterns

2015 Suzanna Beanie

In 2014, we donated about 50 caps to the cancer center. You may download last year’s free chemo cap pattern. In 2015, Joy has created a new pattern in PDF form to honor Suzanna Rauscher.

The hospital and patients are always grateful for your donations.

Knitting a hat is not a requirement of the Knit Out. Donate if you can. We appreciate it.

2015 Knit Out

Posted on January 31, 2015 by BetsyM

The 11th Annual Pottstown Knit Out was held at the Brookside Country Club, January 17, 2015. Thank you to all who participated in this year’s event. As always, a great time was had by all. All proceeds go to Pottstown Relay for Life, while knitting donations go to Pottstown Memorial Hospital.

Hope to see you back next year.

If you would like to attend next year, please email: info@pottstownknitout.com to be included on our mailing list. We cannot emphasize enough that our space is limited.

Tips:

Make sure you’re on our mailing list. Email info@pottstownknitout.com.
Please do not contact the club.
Admission is on a first come, first serve basis; we have limited space. When you receive the notice, send your application immediately.

2015 Knit Out—Charity Baby Hats

Posted on October 18, 2014 by BetsyM

Brookside Knits donates handmade hats to the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center. We welcome all knitters to offer a helping hand.

Baby Hats

2014 Charity Baby Hat

About forty baby hats go to Labor and Delivery each month. Last year, Knit Out attendees dropped over 100 baby hats—about one quarter of all those donated to the hospital—into the collection basket.

Free patterns for baby hats of all kinds are available on Ravelry and other sites on the Internet. Check here for links to A Few of Our Favorite Things.
The hospital, the parents, and the babies are always grateful for your donations.

Knitting a hat is not a requirement of the Knit Out. Donate if you can. We appreciate it.