Maidstone Knitters' Inaugural Meeting

Yesterday was our knitting group's inaugural meeting and it took place here.

The Muggleton Inn, (Wetherspoons), 8 High Street, Maidstone
(just opposite the Town Hall).

We'll be meeting on the second Saturday of each month from 1-3pm in the upstairs lounge where there's a non-smoking, spacious area with a pleasant ambience. If anyone joins us who can't manage the stairs, of course, we'll move downstairs which, I believe, also has a non-smoking area.

There were three of us at our first meeting which isn't that bad for a first meeting and we're hoping that it will grow as time goes on and more knitters get to know about us. We've already had a couple of new enquiries so hope that more will be joining us next time. That's Jan on the left, in the middle is Mary-Lou and I'm on the right. On this occasion, we didn't get an awful lot of knitting done because we were too busy celebrating our first meeting with a bottle of pink champagne.


We decided to name our group Maidstone Knitters and have our own blog which will be administrated by all three of us. A site for our group will be a good way of letting others know what we're up to especially knitters who might be interested in joining us. Anyone else who joins will have the option of being a team member so that we can all keep one another updated.

Mary-Lou was wearing her boa (details on her blog) and Jan wore her clapotis. The lovely sparkly thing (no, not the champagne) that you can see on the table is a scarf that Mary-Lou is knitting in Sirdar Zanzibar.

I gave Jan two balls of Debbie Bliss Merino DK as a swap for the apple green Debbie Bliss Chunky Merino she let me have so that I can finish the scarf I started. Here she is with part of the swap in one hand and a glass of bubbly in the other.


I really like this photo of a close up of the champagne. (Thanks, Mary-Lou for holding the bottle while I took the photo!)


The thought crossed my mind that, perhaps, we could call our club the Rose Sauvage Knitting Club and adopt this photo as our logo (just joking).

Anyway, if any Kent knitters are reading this and would like to join us, you will all be very welcome. Also, if any knitters find themselves in the area and would like to meet up, let us know when you will be in the locality as it would be lovely to meet you!

When I got home I had a dessert to make in preparation for a lunch with friends the following day (i.e. today). I decided to continue the decadence in my creation of a recipe using these ingredients.


1 Panettone cut into slices
15 fluid ounces and a splash of Asti Spumante
5 eggs (separated)
5 tblespnfuls sugar
2 x 9oz cartons mascarpone cheese
5 fl oz double cream
flaked almonds for sprinkling on top

First separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolks and a splash of Asti Spumante with the sugar until thick. Add mascarpone and whisk until smooth. Add cream and whisk until smooth. Whisk egg whites until stiff (as if for meringue) and fold egg whites into creamy mixture. Put Asti Spumante into a shallow bowl and dip slices of panettone into it to moisten them. Layer a large bowl with the Asti soaked panettone slices. Follow with a layer of the creamy mixture.


Repeat with another layer of Asti soaked panettone slices.


Then another layer of the creamy mixture. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and refrigerate overnight to make sure that the flavours are fully incorporated.


I decided to call it Dionysian Decadence and it was rich but delicious . . . . . mmmmmmmmm!

Bob giving it the thumbs up!