ALL the Christmas festivities are behind members with lots of invitations to parties.

The Severn Group carol service was held this year at Hanley Swan church and many members were able to attend and this year the weather was agreeable.

Now the New Year starts and welcome a new member into the fold, unfortunately many members are poorly and are wished a speedy recovery.

The speaker for January was Jackie Sadler who owns The Knitting Parlour in Malvern and she is an ex-nurse from Rhodesia. Jackie was also a care home manager and decided it was getting too stressful so decided to take early retirement and work with her hobby of working with wools.

She showed members different kinds of knitting materials, the natural ones being mohair, silk , wool, cotton and angora. Later the acrylic wools came into popularity because they were softer and were used for baby wools. They are particularly good for allergy sufferers and some are made from bamboo and milk protein. It is also possible to knit with raffia, wire ribbon and angora.

Jackie passed around samples of different stitches, medias and colours to make an impact. Afterwards members were all supplied with wool, needles and a pattern to make a floret and she organises a knitting group at the shop on Wednesday evenings. This encourages the art of knitting which is increasing in popularity.

Members have been able to send £30 to Acorns with the money collected for Christmas cards at the Christmas party and have been asked to make a decision for this year’s resolutions. This needs to be sent off imminently to be discussed at the AGM.

Members have registered for the Moon Mission organised by Worcester University and from March they are asked to be active and compute the mileage from the Earth to the Moon.

The lunch out this month will be at the Three Nuns on Wednesday, January 28, please meet there at 12.30pm.

The next meeting on February 11 will be about Telecare.