A very Merry Christmas Party with the Stoke Newington WI

The Stokey Wi party was held upstairs at the prince pub on Dec 14th, and it was a crackingly good night! There was mulled wine and delicious nibbles, lots of laughs, chats and amazing raffle prizes along with a treat filled game of pass the parcel...

 Mid way through the wrapping of the parcel, created by our Arty wonder Lucy

 Pass the parcel in action..

 Prize winners celebrating!

 A raffle prize winner

 Mary winning the wonderful metal crumble jewellry prize

 Sue with the delightful rabbit tea-light prize donated by Picture this on Church street

 And Mary is a double winner with a free meal!

 Maggie was so excited to win the Stokey picture donated by Local Artist Beyond Thrilled

Roll up Roll Up For the Great Stokey WI Christmas raffle

Wow,

We are so excited that so many Stokey businesses have donated some great prizes for both the pass the parcel and the raffle on monday! It really has been overwhelming how generous our business neighbours have been.

So the raffle......

There are 6 fabulous prizes, tickets are 50 p each and you can buy up to ten! These items are in no particular value order, so we've given them names

The Kent Prize-

Donated by a local artist Beyond Thrilled this very covetable local themed print is brilliant. We may not get this colour, but all the prints are a similar theme. If you don't win this great print, then you can always buy one here
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77852657/vintage-style-screenprint-poster-visit

The Sussex Prize
Local Hotel Avo have donated a ticket for a Coca club Cocktail launch party on Dec 15th. How can the delicious combination of chocolate, cocktails and deserts be anything but sublime!

The Hertfordshire prize
Pictures and light who don't have their own website, are a fabulous secondhand shop selling mostly Pictures and lights!

 

They are located on 41 Stoke Newington Church Street, and they've Donated a lovely vintage rabbit night light. If you fancy sourcing some pre-loved Christmas Gifts then why not pop in?
Give them a buzz on 020 7923 7923


The Bedfordshire prize
Metal crumble make delicious and unusual jewellry. We're really excited that they are making something especially for this raffle! You'll have to come along on monday to see it though...
This is one of their lovely designs

The Gloucester Prize

Local Turkish Cafe Dervish have donated us one of their generous sized free breakfasts - 

Read their great reviews here

The Essex Prize

A signed copy of Scandilicious by Signe Johansen. This is a delightful book on cooking in scandinavian style, and has been the top cook book of the year in the guardian

However if you don't win a raffle prize then don't be dissapointed! We have a pass the parcel prize for everyone, some are fabulous, some are fun and some are well booby prizes. So wether or not it's  a sprout or a painting, we'll all be winners on monday! 

The Booby prize?

To attend our night of Christmas sparkle and 40's cheer, please register using the button below

Christmas Sparkle and some 1940's cheer

On Dec 12th The Stoke Newington Women's institute is hosting it's December Meeting as a 1940's night of Christmas Cheer upstairs at the Prince Pub, 59 Kynaston road, N16 OEB

The Theme is "Sparkle" so wear anything, even eyeshadow or a teeny earring that has some sparkle....

There will be some delightful 40's music

A glass of mulled wine on arrival( non alcoholic version too) with a home baked mince pie

Bring your own handmade newspaper Christmas decorations

A raffle of some amazing prizes including many donated from local Stokey Businesses

Pass the parcel where everyone's a winner of something.....

Please RSVP through this ticket booking system so we can get an idea of numbers

Event Registration Online for Stokey WI - Christmas sparkles, wine, laughter and 1940's cheer! powered by Eventbrite

A fabulous Knitters paradise in the heart of Stokey

Knit With Attitude a knitting paradise in a teeny corner of Stoke Newington

We just had to find out about the amazing little shop. Not only do many of our members love knitting, but the shop oozes individuality and we were curious to find out who was the brainchild behind it all.

Maya Linn Bang, the person behind Knit with attitude, kindly took some time out to tell us about the shop, and is the first of the local businesses we plan to feature on our local news and reviews page

SNWI When did you start knitting?
Maya When asked this question I normally answer that I've been knitting my whole life, but to be accurate I think I must have been about 4 years old when I started.

SNWI How long has knit with attitude been running?
Maya Well, Knit with attitude has been an online shop for a few years proceeding to a market stall at Spitalfields Market two years ago, and finally opening as a bricks and mortar shop in October 2010.

SNWI What inspired you to set up knit with attitude?
Maya My professional and academic background is within filmmaking and back in Norway I used to make films about social and environmental issues. I spent a year in London as part of doing my MA in Mediaproduction and was amazed by the lack of good knitting shops in this huge city. When moving to London for good I was convinced that I could communicate about environmental issues through knitting, which for me is an activity that represents ideals concerning consumption and are very innovative coming to organic and ethical productions compared to fashion and clothes production generally.

SNWI What drew you to Stoke Newington?
Maya As I mentioned I'd already stayed a year in London earlier and did at that time also live in Stoke Newington. A huge reason for my family and me to decide to come back for good was that we fell in love with the area and the sense of community that can be found here.

SNWI What first fired up your passion for knitting?
Maya I guess the logic of knitting, the mathematical aspect of it. Knitting is like cracking codes and it stimulates your brain. Did you know that knitting is one of few activities where you actually are using both sides of the brain simultaniously? Yes, I'm a knitting geek, I know.

SNWI What's unique about knit with arttitude?
Maya Knit with attitude is a specialist shop focusing on ethical and/or environmentally friendly yarns, I also like to believe that the level of service and help you will get by visiting my shop adds to it's uniqueness.

SNWIWool like fabric seems much more expensive these days, what tips have you got for knitters on a budget?
Maya Well to be honest, I believe that this has to do with peoples frame of mind really, the way you consume, and when it comes to yarn and fabrics you definitely get what you pay for. When people assume that handknits should be cheaper than mass produced and much likely not very earth friendly clothing as in "I can get a much cheaper sweater from the High Street" I get quite frustrated. Unfortunately ethical and environmentally friendly productions can not be cheap, to get cheap you would have to exploit either or both of those aspects. When this is said, compare what you would spend for two hours of entertainment at the cinema and how much constructive time you would get out of one hank of wool, it suddenly isn't that expensive is it? Also I think it is important to remember the quality of handknits, a hand knitted garment will last "for ever" and can be handed on for generations. Now where can you find that on the High Street? Being on a budget, I would consider the fibers I use, you can get the most gorgeous organic cotton or pure sheep wool which are far less expensive than the mixed fibers like silk/alpaca blends.

SNWI Do you run workshops for people that have never knitted before? And what would you reccomend as a starting project for an absolute beginner?
Maya Yes I do run workshops for beginners and people that would like to improve too.
I know what I definitely wouldn't recommend for a beginner, and that is the (dreaded) scarf. What a way to kill your motivation. A scarf has to be long and takes ages for a beginner to complete, having learned the basic stitches it also eventually becomes utterly boring. No, start with something small, like fingerless gloves, a mobile phone cover, pot holders, and so on. Something small that teaches you the basic and goes quickly so you'll soon be able to progress and move into more exciting adventures.

SNWI What's your own personal knitting project at the moment.
Maya Actually I'm not knitting but crocheting like a maniac to have my Christmas window decorations done, the question is if i'll be able to have them up before New Years!

The shop is so pretty, and we're really happy that we know a little more about Maya, great to see new businesses that are focused on the environment and the ethical side of fashion too!

The shop is located at

228b Stoke Newington High Street

(entry from Northwold Road)

London N16 7HU

http://www.knitwithattitude.com/shop/default/

You can also follow Maya on twitter here

New Committee, new times ahead!

Monday night saw a very very successful Annual Meeting. With a new committee in place of ladies bursting with ideas and enthusiasm, it's going to be a good year ahead. I will continue as president, joined by CL as Vice President/Secretary, Anna Kidd as Treasurer. Things are looking good for Stoke Newington WI.....

We had a lot of new faces turn up to say hello, have a glass of wine and chat which is really what it's all about.

2012 Membership is now open and if you join now you get Decembers meeting rolled in for free! You can find the form on this blogspot or click here to make it really easy!
http://stokenewingtonwi.blogspot.com/p/membership-application-form.html

Our next meeting is on Monday 12th December at The Prince, where we'll have festive fun - more details to follow.

I'd just like to say a big thank you to the committee who have stepped down and did such a great job in providing the foundation for what I know will be a very successful WI.

Keeping checking the blogspot for more details on our Christmas get together.

Kate
x

Next Meeting Monday 14th Nov- some literary exchanges and getting to know one another

Just a quick catch up!

We are hoping to see lots of lovely new members and visitors next week, how many times have you been to an event as a stranger and felt a little left out because everyone else seems to know one another? I know that personally i can feel a little anxious about turning up without knowing anyone, and i hate breaking up conversations to introduce myself.

One of the key reasons to attend a WI meeting, is to make friends. So on November 14th, we will get the meeting started with a little "speed Networking" to meet everyone. On arrival you'll all be given a name badge with a colour. We'll get two groups together in pairs, an you'll have 2 mins to introduce yourselves to one another, then we'll switch pairs and meet someone else. This is just a bit of fun, and hopefully we'll all get to meet someone we've never before had a chance to chat to, even if we've been members for ages.

As another way of getting conversation going next monday, we're running a book swap, please bring along a book you've loved, so someone else can love it too. Any books that don't find a new owner will be donated to the library, so everyone wins!

Looking forward to seeing you all next week.

Stokey WI AGM- Monday Nov 14th

Our annual general meeting is on Monday Nov 14th, which means re-electing a committee. We will be in the upstairs room from 7.30 at The prince on 59 Kynaston Road, Stoke Newington, London, N16 0EB. There will be a small charge of £4 per head for members, and £5 for non members to cover a couple of drinks.

Some of our current fabulous committee members who have done such an incredible job over the last year, will be standing down, what with babies, toddlers and moving they can no longer devote the time they'd like anymore.

If we are to keep the Stokey WI alive, we need some more dynamic ladies like the out-going committee,to assist with the running of the group.
So, it's time for us to put our thinking caps on ladies, and start saving Stokey WI!

We need a minimum of 3 members on the committee for the group to survive,If we cannot fill these roles, then the group will sadly fold.

We would love to get some new members too, so if you know any local Stokey ladies that would love to join us, then send them along in November or get them to e mail stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

The minimum number of roles for the committee is 3, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a President. This structure does however put a lot of work on each committee member, so we are hoping to split the roles up a little.
In addition to the 3 roles above, We'd love to have an events co-ordinator who will liase with venues and speakers
We'd also like a couple of designated Photographers who will take pics at each event and get them to the website co-ordinator
We'd like someone to take responsibility for the blog and social media stuff.
We'd like a couple of deputies- this are committee members that will stand in for various roles on days when the members need to be absent.

If you're interested in any committee roles, or just in helping out a bit, then please do drop us an email stating how you'd like to help
stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

Before the AGM, we'll be sending out a survey asking about speakers you'd like to hear, events you'd like us to run. We need to find out what direction our group needs to go in, and even if Stoke Newington wants a WI group.

If you've got any suggestions e mail us on
stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

Save Stoke Newington WI group!

We need your help!

The Stoke Newington WI group is at crisis point!
We are about to head into our annual general meeting on Nov 14th, which means re-electing the committee. Sadly the fabulous committee members who have done such an incredible job over the last year, will nearly all be standing down, what with babies, toddlers and moving they can no longer devote the time they'd like anymore. In order to keep the group running, we need some more dynamic ladies like the out-going committee, who will donate some time to the running of the group.
It is a time commitment, and whilst our existing committee will still be members, they'd like to enjoy the benefits of just attending the meetings for a while. It is a testament to the current committee, that we are all reading this blog and debating the future of the group for another year.
We need a minimum of 3 members on the committee for the group to survive, and we are hoping to get more members to share the workload as we know everyone has lots of demands on our free time these days!
We would love to get some new members too, so if you know any local Stokey ladies that would love to join us, then send them along in November or get them to e mail stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

The minimum number of roles for the committee is 3, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a President. This structure does however put a lot of work on each committee member, so we are hoping to split the roles up a little.
In addition to the 3 roles above, We'd love to have an events co-ordinator who will liase with venues and speakers
We'd also like a couple of designated Photographers who will take pics at each event and get them to the website co-ordinator
We'd like someone to take responsibility for the blog and social media stuff.
We'd like a couple of deputies- this are committee members that will stand in for various roles on days when the members need to be absent.
If you're interested in any committee roles do drop us an email stating how you'd like to help
stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

In the next week, we'll be sending out a survey asking about speakers you'd like to hear, events you'd like us to run. We need to find out what direction our group needs to go in, and even if Stoke Newington wants a WI group.

So, it's time for us to put our thinking caps on ladies, and start saving Stokey WI!

If you've got any suggestions e mail us on
stokenewingtonwi@gmail.com

Fund-raising donation

Stokey WI is looking to boost the pennies in it's coffers...

It's a long way to Denman college to learn to sew but The Thrifty Stitcher is right here in Stoke Newington and is run by one of our members Claire -louise Hardie. She is offering 2 £20 places on a Learn to Sew class next Friday Oct 21st, and again on Friday Nov 18th. The £20 fee will be donated to the Stoke Newington WI.

If you'd like to learn to sew, and help our WI group's fund-raising efforts then book online here with the discount code WI

Wine, women and Mary Wollstonecraft

Wow,

Last night's talk and quiz by Roberta Wedge was really very inspiring. Many thanks to Roberta for giving up her evening and sharing her passion for the wonderful Mary Wollstonecraft. If you'd like to know more about Mary, then check out Roberta's blog A Vindication of the Rights of Mary

The Mary on the green campaign is looking to get funding, and need to be voted for in order to qualify for a £6000 award. If you'd like to help, please hop over to this site and vote
http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/2478

We really enjoyed working in teams on the pub quiz, and thanks to the members who brought along cheese and pineapple hedgehogs. They really are a delicious forgotten snack, and they went down a treat with a spot of wine.

Net month's meeting will be our AGM and we will be posting about that later.
Please do keep Monday Nov 14th free, as this meeting will be the make or break time for our group's survival

Back to 70's with an "old school" cheese and wine evening

An Old school evening of delicious wine and cheese, chats and a talk on local figure Mary Wollstonecraft by Roberta Wedge from the Newington green action group

Monday October 10th is the next Stoke Newington WI meeting, and what better way to spend an autumn evening than getting to know fellow stokey members with a classic wi social gathering, the cheese and wine evening! The venue is the Londesborough pub on barbauld road and we will be starting at 7.30. There will be a small fee of £4 to cover the cost of wine, cheese.

We are delighted to announce that we will have a guest from the Newington Green action group, who will be giving a talk on local historical figure Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Wollstonecraft was an unknown and unpublished school teacher when she moved to Newington Green in the 1780s. The people she met here radicalised and encouraged her, and she went on to write the world-changing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The Newington Green Action Group, responsible for revitalising the green itself within the last decade, has set up a campaign, called Mary on the Green, to create a fitting memorial to one of England's first feminists.

Roberta Wedge, who blogs her own Wollstonecraft interests at A vindication of the rights of Mary, will be telling us about the campaign. There will then be a short pub quiz on related areas.

Love your libraries campaign day sept 16th

Last friday September 16th was the WI birthday campaign " Love your Libraries"
To mark the occasion, a small crack team of stokey wi ladies landed at the Stoke Newington Library armed with our library cards and some unique "Love Your Libraries" Bunting...

Here are 3 of the Stoke Newington WI ladies checking out books today as part of The "Love Your Libraries" campaign

Our Lovely "Love Your Libraries" bunting made as a group on monday at a local pub. This bunting will soon be displayed inside the Stoke Newington Library

The Love Your Libraries Bunting was created in a bar with a selection of fabrics and threads brought along by our members

Our Lovely secretary Georgie outside the library with our group's bunting

Thankfully for all Hackney Wi members, hackney council are not cutting any library services and are committed to provide an excellent service to all hackney residents. They have provided us with the most up to date news about the hackney library service below


Hackney Libraries

10 key facts and figures for Hackney residents


1. Hackney Council is keeping all eight of its libraries open and has a budget of around £8.1m in 2011/12 for its library and archives service.

2. As part of this budget, there will be no front line cuts to the services the Council provides to residents.

3. Hackney Council has been investing in libraries to provide a first class service for the people of Hackney.

4. Councillor Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Community Services said: “I’m delighted to be able to announce that Hackney Council is keeping all its eight libraries open. We will also continue to offer some of the longest library opening hours in the country. We are committed to investing and improving the service which is why we have agreed a budget of around £8.1 million this year.

5. The Council is committed to improving the service and soon every library will have Wifi and more reference materials available online. The Council is also looking into the provision of out of hours book drops at libraries.

6. In the last year, for the first time ever, there have been more than 1.5 million visits to Hackney's libraries, and membership is increasing too.

7. Dalston C.L.R. James Library and Archives will be one of the largest in the UK to open in 2011, and the first to be built in Hackney for over 20 years.

8. Clapton Library has been refurbished offering customers a modern comfortable environment within a superb listed building.

9. Woodberry Down library is an excellent example of a community run library. Already twenty eight volunteers have found work, several of them with the council’s library service.

10. Not only can you borrow books, DVDs and CDs from your local Hackney library, you can use a PC or study, search for jobs, develop your skills and find information about a myriad of subjects – and all free.

Love Your Library!

What a cosy and productive evening we had in The Londesborough last night! All the ladies were exercising their sewing prowess with slip stitches and chain stitches a go go! Thanks to CL and all her amazing yarns, fabrics, templates and top tips! We created a wonderful string of bunting with the words 'Love Your Library' to adorn Stoke Newington Library on Stoke Newington Church Street this Friday. We signed a petition and all filled in postcards to send to the government in a bid to save our local libraries. If you would like to sign the petition please follow this link. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1269

Here is more information from the NFWI.

Carry your library card with pride!
At the heart of the campaign is the belief that libraries are essential resources that are too important to risk losing. That's why we're calling on every member that cares about public libraries to take the simple first step of joining your local library and getting to know your local librarians.

Sign the petition!
Before the last election, the Prime minister, David Cameron MP said he planned to introduce a scheme whereby any petition that raised 100,000 signatures would trigger a debate in the House of Commons. The NFWI wants to call on the PM to honour this commitment and we'd like to see every member sign our petition with their family and friends to demonstrate just how much the WI really values our libraries.

Write to your councillors Individuals and WI groups can make an impact. Please use the information in the campaign briefing,  to write to your local councillor highlighting the Love Your Library campaign, and expressing the importance of libraries to your local community.

Do remember to localise your letter - if you know that libraries are under threat then please do incorporate this information, and any feedback from members about the impact service reductions would have on them

The Londesborough!

Just to let you know that we will all be meeting at the Londesborough Pub at 36 Barbauld Road, N16 and NOT the Tea Rooms for the next session on the 12th of September. Details of the session to follow, see you all there!

A tip of the hat!

Wow, another great WI evening at the Tea Rooms on Church Street! Thank you so much to Claire Strickland who talked us through her education and career thus far and her pivotal decision to become a bespoke milliner. she told us some great stories, showed us some really inspirational work and gave us many hot tips about craft materials, techniques and suppliers.

Claire says:'Milliner. Hatter. Bonnet beautician. Fedora Fancier,I go by many names. Mostly, though, people call me Claire Strickland, and ask me to make bespoke hats and headpieces for them. My hats and headpieces have starred in theatres, films, operas and pantomimes, at public events and corporate promotions. I’ve even created personal, private commissions.My speciality hat? I love any kind of challenge, but my eyes get especially bright when clients say things like ‘sculptural’, ‘outlandish’ and ‘historical’ to me.

A stitch in time...

It was great to see you all last Monday at the tea rooms, and what a fantastic evening it was! A massive thank you to Claire-Louise, aka 'The Thrifty Stitcher'who hosted a wonderful evening of dress making and sewing tips!

It was a really informative and interesting evening. She was a fountain of knowledge with plenty of information on how to cut fabric to fit your figure and shape perfectly and where to start with vintage patterns. There was a helpful handout giving loads of websites and shops where you could source different materials and equipment which could help you on your way. Loads of really interesting stuff too- I didn’t know your sewing machine needle needs replacing, on average, after 8 hours of sewing. Mine will definitely need replacing after 8 years then!

Claire- Louise also does private and group lessons see www.thethriftystitcher.co.uk which I will be sure to check out. It would be great for a birthday or a special occasion with a group of friends.

Thanks again Claire-Louise and I will definitely be getting my hands on one of those vintage inspired Collete patterns.

Mission Accomplished!

Thank you to all the WI members who joined us on Monday at Albion Parade to do some Guerilla Gardening! The place looked pretty much transformed by the time we left. It was great to see everyone donning their aprons and wellies and getting stuck in.

First we cleared all the litter and then planted many plants and seeds, from roses, daffodils and pansies to heathers and ivy. The main flower bed in the middle is now peppered with pansies and other pretty little flowers. If you drive past or get off the 73 bus at Albion crescent wander in and have a look at all our hard work..!

Thank you to Cynthia for providing a weelie bin of water. It was extremely hard work pushing that down Clissold crescent at 9pm and I’m sure that the plants wouldn’t have survived without it.

A massive thank you to Errol and Oya from N16 Flowers on Church street for donating lots of beautiful flowers and plants – it really made a difference- and is very much appreciated!

Our tree has blossomed!

The tree we decorated in celebration of International Women's Day is awash with the most glorious pink blossom, and nestling between the blossom are our celebratory pom poms! It looks so positive and beautiful!

Fitness fun for Stokey Ladies

The sun is shining, the trees are almost in bloom, ladies, that can only mean one thing: The dreaded bikini season is almost upon us!! Thank goodness for the WI! Last Monday we all enjoyed a session with the lovely Holly Davidson. Holly is a personal trainer who has worked professionally as a PT for the past 8 years working with clients to tone up and lose weight.

The session was a balance between fitness and diet advice. She started off by showing us a game that anyone could play at home or in the park to tone up those ‘problem areas’. All you need is a bit of space, and a pack of cards. If you pull out a diamond that would mean squats, clubs mean arm dips, hearts means lunges and spades means press ups. So if you pull out a 4 of hearts you would do 4 lunges on each leg, 5 of clubs, 5 arm dips on the back of a chair or bench etc. The queens, jacks and kings would be either running on the spot for 30 seconds, sits ups or jumping jacks. You could pretty much make up your own versions and mix and match. Simple,
yet effective.

Holly then gave us some dietary advice on what to eat and what not…! It was really informative. Holly gave us tips on what to cut out, and what to replace it with. Was actually shocked to find out all the foods that I assumed were ‘healthy’ and how much sugar they all contained. She gave us a really good tip; look on the back of packets, the ingredients are listed in order of content, and if sugar is in the top 5, then there will be loads of it in there. Natural sugars found in fruit are alright as the body can process it easier.

Anyway, enough about science… she also gave us some treats! Chocolate nonetheless! It was a dark chocolate called Plamil, which was dairy free and gluten free- but despite first impressions, was really nice. The second one, which was even tastier, was called ‘Ombar’ which was raw chocolate and tasted like Green and Blacks.

Another alternative healthy snack was called Yokon root (which in fact I am nibbling now!) and it is like dried fruit- which you can get from a website called ‘Tree Harvest’.

If anyone is over London Fields way, there is also a shop called ‘The Happy Kitchen’ which sells delicious, healthy cakes and biscuits and also lots of the things I have mentioned.

Holly’s wesite is: www.hollyactive.com – she’s lovely and I recommend her to anyone who
needs a little help to get healthy and fit. Dust off your trainers and go for it!