Opendeurdag bij Bart en Francis!

Vrij, Zat en Zondag 25, 26, 27 januari. Meer info op: http://www.bart-francis.be/OD/OD/Home.html

Happy New Year!

Snow on the beach and the most beautiful light

Marianne's lemon  baby suit - it's the buttons that make it...

aren't the strawberry buttons wonderful?

Full house

Ines' new fair isle tank top in Rowan Fine Tweed

Close up

How many people does it take to work out how to do short row shaping?

Barbara's brilliant gift for a new born - I won't mention who in case their mum sees this post!

But we ALL fell in love with him!

On a Sunday in which Oostende was blanketed in snow, a huge number turned out for the first knitting session of 2013! It's good to be back! There were new projects galore and new members too - welcome! Marianne, Ines and Barbara's latest creations are featured above but there was another dimension to the afternoon - well done to everyone who learned something new. And thanks to everyone (Ines, Barbara, Chris, Rozemie especially) who shared their skills and expertise with such warmth and generosity of spirit. Don't forget there's a sale on at Rebecca's (Stoffenhuis Paulette - see resources page for address). See you all next month and, with snow still on the ground, it's the perfect excuse to stay in, keep warm and keep knitting!

Breien x Boterham x Charities

Matching the theme at Villa Elise "Bring your own cake or cookies", we were visited by the reporters of "De Boterham". This is a newspaper created for and by students learning Dutch as a second language here in Ostend. In order to launch some mutually beneficial activities, Julia (a knitter!), Mariella (soon to be a knitter!) and Petra (still has to finish a scarf started 20 years ago) interviewed us and took pictures.

The resulting article can be admired at De Boterham and here's an extract:

Houd je alles voor jezelf of geef je jouw breiwerk cadeau aan anderen?

Het hangt ervan af. Sommige mensen breien alleen voor zichzelf en anderen maken graag een cadeautje. Er zijn ook veel mensen in Vlaanderen die voor het goede doel breien. Ze breien dekens, en truien voor arme mensen of ze sturen breiwerk naar landen waar natuurrampen gebeuren. Na de aardbeving in Pakistan waren er allerlei zulke acties. 

Which leads me to a little shout-out for charity knitting:

• There's Jan from Hasselt who also knits in Ostend, he creates so called chemo caps for cancer patients and is always happy to receive gifts of soft cotton yarn. As patients tend to have very sensitive skin, this is really the best material to donate.
• Then there are De Breimadammen, a group of knitters from all over Flanders who knit for various causes and have their own site: Breimadammen. One of them lives close to Ostend and will certainly join us again in 2013.
• Just yesterday I came across Zonnedekens, knitting, crocheting and patchworking for children in the hospitals of Ghent.

So, if you have yarn or time (or both!) to spare, you know where to turn to.

Last meeting of the year...

Believe it or not, but last Sunday was the last meeting of the year. It's hard to believe that another year is almost over... time flies! It's been a year of great fun, heartfelt friendship, delicious cakes, superlative beers and wonderful projects. We've loved going to Stoffenhuis Paulette, our KIP day in the park was amazing (thanks Rebecca and Rozemie!) so all that remains to be said is here's to an even more colourful, fun and glorious 2013!

I promise to blog more too (with apologies for the decline in the number of posts these past few months). Dates for the first quarter of 2013 are on the dates/hours page and on our Facebook page. Plus there are lots of new opportunities to knit in the Droge Coo - hope to see you there soon.

Kaffee+ November Rain

October and the first three days of November  were rather filled with our extra knitting dates, as Ines put it, "You can knit til you drop!".

Today we had three hours to get together, and we somehow managed to have two entirely different groups.
First Helen, Ines, Rebecca, Emily and Marianne:

Followed by Rozemie & friend, An & friend.

The only constant being yours truly, paparazza for a day.

For Barbara ...

This post is for Barbara, whom we missed on Sunday because she was in England. Pascale brought a fabulous book to the knitting club - 'Knit Your Own Cat'. Her son had just come back from America and given her this book as a present. But these aren't your average, cutesy knitted cats - they are life like, elegant, beautiful and even exotic (don't you just love the white Bengal tiger?). Barbara, is this a book to add to your Christmas wish-list?

Don't forget that it's Kaffee+ in the Droge Coo and we are all very welcome to come and knit. This is an 'extra', a plus (+), and an addition to our regular dates on the first Sunday of each month. So, let's be spontaneous and get together for coffee and knitting (and tart!). Use our Facebook group page to keep in touch and gather friends together for a cosy afternoon in the Coo. See the 'data and uren' page for a Kaffee+ schedule.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Knitting Against Aids

Hallo Knitters! Please find a message below from the Knitting Against Aids team. If you can help, don't hesitate to make contact...

Beste,

Vorig jaar hebben we onder andere met asielcentra, scholen, beschutte werkplaatsen, rusthuizen, enz… het project Knitting  Against Aids georganiseerd. Dit project bestaat eruit om groepen samen te brengen om sjaals te breien die daarna worden verkocht ten voordele van de strijd tegen Aids/HIV. Deze sjaals werden tevens tentoon gesteld op verschillende Brusselse standbeelden op Wereld Aids dag. Dankzij de deelname van de groepen en de verkoop van de sjaals hebben we verschillende duizenden euro’s kunnen bijeenbrengen om zo binnenlandse en buitenlandse projecten te steunen die strijden tegen Aids/HIV en serofobie. Een van deze projecten was het opzetten van een HIV Café. Meer info hierover vindt u via www.rainbowhouse.be

In 2012 komt er een nieuwe editie van dit project met nog meer partners en de mogelijkheid om de workshops samen te organiseren met scholen, jeugdbewegingen en andere groepen. We bieden eveneens getuigenissen aan met seropositieve personen om zo een beter beeld te krijgen van de realiteit wat betreft leven met HIV/Aids.

We hopen dat u dit jaar zal deelnemen aan dit project. U vindt alle info in het document in attachment  of op onze website www.rainbowhouse.be

Het inschrijvingsformulier bevindt zich eveneens in attachment of op onze site. U kan ons ook contacteren via 0496/05.05.73
Gelieve dit zo snel mogelijk terug te sturen.

Alvast van Harte Bedankt.

Met vriendelijke groeten,
Emanuel Debruyne