23 Days to Go - Knit Relief Posting Tips

Hello! Today something very exciting happened. Something very exciting indeed. I received a package in the mail. And inside this package was my first Twit-knit scarf piece. And I was so excited that I did a little dance around the hallway. And my brother thought I was going crazy. But I wasn't. I was just EXTREMELY happy. Not only was the piece, knitting by the extremely talented @mdhilary, very beautiful but it also came with a Christmas stamp AND a little Christmas card. So it was basically like getting an early visit from Father Christmas except it was even better because it included knitting. 

The package from Hilary was so perfect that it reminded me of a few tips to give everyone for when they are posting their scarf pieces. I haven't posted yet as I'm still busy knitting (it turned out coursework was actually just the tiniest bit more important than knitting, although I'm not sure why!) but I hope lots of people have begun sending off their pieces.

Here are a few tips for sending your pieces (inspired by Hilary)

1. Tie up the ends, don't sew them in - when it comes to sewing our scarves together it's going to be so much easier if we can just use the casted on and off ends. Also this saves you the hastle of sewing them in yourself. As you can see Hilary tied hers up into lovely little bows and make sure you leave a long trailing bit of yarn as you cast off.

2. Include a sticky label with your address on - this was also Hilary's idea, and it's very clever! 

3. Don't stress about it! - If you're anything like me you will already be getting into a panic about how to send them, where the post office is, if the pieces are good enough and where on earth you left your pen! But just remember - it's Christmas, we are knitting, everything is great! 

I hope these tips have helped and remember to email or tweet me any pictures of your scarves/pieces!

Lots of Love Scarly x

Knit Tips - Blocking

Hello Twit-Knitters (and normal knitters, of course) I have another Knit Tip today and this time it's how to block your pieces. There's been a lot of talk on twitter about blocking and everyone does it a bit differently but I thought I would share how I do it for anyone that's interested. 

Blocking is an easy technique used to stretch and flatten knitting into the desired shape. It stops that annoying curling on the sides and if your piece is slightly smaller than you intended you can slightly stretch it into the desired size.

Many people steam iron their knitting but I prefer to do this way as it's so easy and also I'm slightly scared of the iron! 

You will need: A towel, your piece of knitting and some sewing pins.

How to block your knitting: 

1. Lay your towel out flat on the floor. Lightly wet your knitting, making it damp but not dripping. It will seem very weird to run your beautiful knitting under the tap but trust me, it works! 

2. Lay your knitting on top of your towel and gently stretch it into the desired dimensions. If your working towards a pattern it might helpt to have a tape measure on hand to check your measurements. 

3. Pin your knitting to the towel and leave it till it dries. 

I hope this has been helpful and leave a comment if there are any other Knit-Tips you've been needing! Also, if you are in Twit-Knit, make sure you email or tweet me any pictures of your scarf sections so far so I can arrange another post! 

There's no rush yet but I'd say everyone should be aiming to have finished their second or third pieces by now! I know some people have already finished which is very impressive but don't worry if your not that fast! It's getting colder so there will be plenty of knitting opportunities coming up!

Lots of love Scarly x 

Knit-Tips: Moss Stitch

Hello. Seeing as how everyone is getting so into their knitting for the Twit-Knit Scarf Swap and has been trying out so many amazing different stitches I thought I would do a few more knitty posts on my blog. It seems that a lot of the twit-knitters are very advanced and good at lots of complicated stitches (for the record, I'm not!), so probably already know this one, but for those who aren't so experienced I thought I would share one of my favourite knitting stitches, the moss stitch.

But before I get started I just want to say how moved I was by everyones lovely responses to the last post! I love Twit-Knit so much and I feel like we have created such a lovely little twitter-community.

Okay now, on with the stitch, this stitch really is VERY easy to remember and there are only really three steps you need to remember. I like it so much because I think the textures so awesome and you can never really get your head around it as long as you look at it.

How to do Moss stitch (sometimes called seed stitch):

CAST ON: an even amount of stitches. 
ROW ONE: Knit 1, Purl 1, repeat this until the end of the row.
ROW TWO: Purl 1, Knit 1, repeat this until the end of the row.

See! I told you it was easy, and the results are amazing and it always looks much more complicated than it actually was.

Happy knitting and tweet me if you decide to use moss stitch as well!

Love Scarlett.

Twit-Knit Scarf Swap Update

Before I start this post I just want to say how sorry I am it's so late. I know I promised to update regularly but I'm afraid I've been slightly overwhelmed with coursework and holiday (okay maybe that one wasn't so overwhelming) and this is my first Twit-Knit Scarf Swap update post.

Lateness of the post aside the scarf swap is going VERY well. As I said before I was blown. away. by how many people are taking part (it's around 70!) and was slightly scared that everyone would forget and it would all be a disaster. But (touch wood) it's going very well and everyone seems to be making friends and doing some amazing knitting.

I wasn't sure what level everyone would be at and thought we might just end up with 70 garter stitch scarves in different colours. But the opposite turns out to be true! Everyone is so amazing and is doing all kinds of crazy patterns and cables. Having said this if you are just doing garter don't worry at all! I'm definitely going to end up doing it for a few of mine! And you can always add buttons or beads at the end.

If you have any problems or worries please just email me, but for now, here is how Twit-Knit is getting on so far...

These are the lovely people who have written about the project on their blogs:

1. Emma Mitchell wrote about Twit-Knit and her amazing knitted leaf on her lovely blog Silver Pebble. 

2. Emma Pooley wrote about her five finished squares (I know, she's amazing, but don't panic if you aren't that far along) on her blog The 39 Stitches. 

3. @bakebakegirl wrote a LOVELY post about Twit-Knit on her blog The Original Bake Bake Girl

And here's how everyone else is getting along...

All these lovely squares are by Hilary Packham for Team Sleigh.

1. @haylowbabe's first amazing square. 2. A lovely red flower by @nicnicolanic for Team Cracker. 3. And some more beautiful multi-coloured flowers by @pencrug for Team Cracker.

1. @bakebakegirl's first square for Team Turkey. 2. Lovely knitting by @faithyb33.

1. @JoanneHoyles awesome rainbow square for Team Present. 2. @_Sarah232's diamond stitch for Team Sleigh. 

1. Mock cable by @sharonmacbeth for Team Sleigh. 2. Amazing fair isle by @Mhairigirl for Team Present

1. Three awesome pocketed squares by @JennyJHoward for Team Stocking 2. Some beautiful squares by @slightlyturquoise.

1. An early picture of @paulahall75's squares for Team Nativity (she's already posted 3!). 2. Another lovely piece by @slightlyturquoise. 

1. @sharonmacbeth's awesome 2 different coloured piece for Team Sleigh. 2. @louisefcampbell's beautiful purple and green square.

Love Scarlett. 

And so it begins...

As I'm sure most people who read this blog already know, the Twit-Knit Scarf Swap has begun and it is going extremely well so far! When I launched this project I thought we would get maximum 20 people to take part but to my utter surprise and delight we ended up with more than 70 people! It's extremely exciting and I will of course be blogging in much detail about it soon. For now I'm off on holiday to the Philippians (yay!) so I may not be blogging or tweeting as much for the next week. I will, of course, be knitting and we just have to hope they let me take my needles on the plane. Last holiday I knitted all week and then had to leave my needles behind on the flight home. I think it's safe to say there were many tears involved! 

Good luck with your knitting and remember to keep using the hashtag #twitknit and keep tweeting the other members of your team!

Lots of Love Scarly.

The Twit-Knit Scarf Swap

*ENTRIES FOR TWIT-KNIT SCARF PROJECT ARE UNFORTUNATELY NOW CLOSED. CHECK BACK HERE TO KEEP UP WITH THE PROGRESS FROM OUR CURRENT PROJECT AND TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT FUTURE PROJECT*

 

Okay people, it's time to get excited. After a long, long, LONG time... TWIT KNIT CLUB IS BACK! And even if I do say it myself I think it's going to be the best project ever. We've been discussing different options for our Christmas project for a while on Twitter and when the idea of a twit-knit swap came up I knew I had to grab it. For anyone who doesn't have twitter or (like me) keeps forgetting to check it, here is how the Twit-Knit Scarf Swap would work:

1. Everyone taking part adds there names onto an official list, in the past we have had people joining up throughout the project which is lovely but just won't work for this kind of project unfortunately.

2. Everyone on the list starts a scarf of roughly the same size and knits the first chunk. Once you have finished your chunk you cast off and send the beggining of your scarf to the next person on the list. 

3. That person then knits the second chunk of your scarf, sews it onto the first chunk and sends it to the next person on the list...

4. It continues on like this until everyone on the list has knitted a chunk of everyone elses scarf and then you will recieve your scarf back, having been lovingly knitted by the ENTIRE Twit-Knit Club.

It's ambitious, it's a little complicated, but I think it could work... and I'm VERY excited. 

Remember that Twit-Knit club is totally everyones club and not just mine so please tweet me or leave a comment if you are unhappy with this idea or have any ideas of your own to add in! 

There are a few other things I want to add into Twit-Knit this year which I think will make it better for everyone. The first of which is that we should really start using the hashtag! If everyone uses #twitknit on instagram and twitter whenever they post a comment or a photo it will be much easier to see how everyone is getting along and we can really start a little online community.

Also if you have a blog and want to join in with Twit-Knit it would be great to blog about it on your blog so we can get as many people as possible joining in. Remember to tweet me the link so I can do a weekly roundup of all the blogs taking part.

Okay, that's it for now, if you would like to take part in the Twit Knit Scarf Swap simply email me your name and address to - scarlettcurtis@mac.com - so I can start assembling the list. Exciting!!

Lots of Love Scarly. 

The Knitted Emma Freud (my mum)

So, as you will know if you follow my mum on twitter it was my mums 50th birthday this Wednesday. It was a very very exciting day for us because my mum is so amazing and we wanted to make it a really special day for her. I knew it was up to me to make a really great present so I decided to immortalise her forever in wool!

I've only knitted a person once before when I knitted Prince William for the royal wedding. I really loved the pattern for William which was from Fiona Gobles book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding. Sometimes I think my mum looks a bit like Kate Middleton (a teeeny bit) so I decided to adjust the Kate Middleton pattern to make it look more like my mum. 

I made the body the same, added LOADS of hair (my mum has huge hair) and tried to make the face look as similar as possible. I used blue wool for the middle of the eyes and a little red mouth.

My favourite dress my mum owns is this silver sequin one that she wore to the War Horse premier (doesn't she look lovely!) and it was my Dad's idea to sew sequins onto a white dress to make it look like this one.

I adjusted and shortened the pattern for Kate Middleton's dress and then sewed on loads of silver sequins.

Super excitingly my mum was awarded an OBE (my little brother says it means obviously best ever) and while I was wrapping the doll I found her OBE and pinned it onto the knitted Emma and wrapped it with the OBE attatched! It was really funny.

My Mum also ALWAYS wears a tiara (a look she copied from ME btw) so I made the doll a tiny tiara. 

When it was all done my mum loved it! And she's framed it in a box fram to put in her room. It's certainly not something I'm going to be doing for everyone because it took a lot of work but I'm so glad I could make it for my mum on her super special birthday. 

Happy Friday! 

Love Scarlett 

x

Get Your Knit Together..

In the spirit of new years cleaning I've decided to do a few posts on organising your crafting! Before I started knitting I was never a very organised person, in fact I was a famously unorganised person. But I think there's something about having so many balls of wool, needles, threads hanging around that makes a little organisation extremely necessary. 

I used to just bung everything in my knitting bag and call it a day but recently I've begun using plastic pockets and it's changed everything (okay maybe not everything, but it has helped my knitting bag be more organised). You can buy them from any stationary shop and there super cheap and extremely useful! Also the bag I keep them all in is a Cath Kidston knitting bag which you can find here. And the picture above is of the front pocket where I keep everything I've made recently. So this is what I keep inside my bag...

A folder of buttons.

A folder of crochet hooks, double pointed needles and small knitting needles. 

A folder of embroidery threads.

A folder of my favourite patterns printed out.

A pair of scissors

An old lipstick case with needles inside.

A Cath Kidston Little Book of Pins with pins and thimbles inside.

I appreciate that to some people this post will be mind numbingly boring but I'm pretty proud of how organised my knitting is and I wanted to share :)

Happy Weekend!

Love Scarlett

x

A Little Bit of Knitting Insperation

Well not only is today a special day because its 4 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS! But it is also my half birthday!!! (which I forcefully make everyone celebrate each year).

I'm going to do a post with lots of Christmassy things I have been making a little later on (once me and mum have finished the Christmas Cake) but for now I thought I would post these pictures to inspire everyone with the Christmas Knitting.

@louisefcampbell tweeted me the link to these photos from the Mochimochi Land Blog earlier and I really couldn't not post them!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day, I'm off to eat some Half-Birthday Cake :)

Love Scarlett.

6 DAYS TO GO - Twit-Knit Club Christmas Pattern

Gah okay so it's 1:30am which means it's technically tomorrow and there's only 5 days to go till Christmas but for the sake of stretching out this blog I'm gonna say there's still 6 days. 

This isn't really a proper pattern because it's so easy but even so here is my pattern for my very own Knitted Paper Chains! 

I made these a few days ago because I love knitting things that should be fragile but then you can knit them and make them last forever! So far I've made 2 and I'm going to try and make a lot more before Christmas. It's a really fun and easy project for even the most begginer of knitters and crocheters and if you like it please tell me.

I have written up the patterns for both knitting and crochet.

Ok so here's the pattern:

Crochet:
1. Chain 30.
2. Single Crochet 3 rows, cast off.
3. Make as many of these as you need for your paper chain.

Knitting:
1. Cast on 4 stitches.
2. Knit until your strip measures roughly 15 - 20cm, cast off.
3. Make as many of these as you need for your paper chain.

Once you have made the right amount (I made 10 for each paper chain), sew your paperchain up by sewing one into a circle and then linking them up and joining the ends together. I don't really know how to word this but it seems pretty self explanatory if you look at the picture! Just leave a comment if you have any questions.

Merry Christmas,
Love Scarlett.

Tiny Owl

I love owls, I love 'em big, I love 'em small (TBH mostly I love them small). I love Hedwig. 

I love Owl from Winnie the Pooh. 

And I love painting them on rocks. 

 

But mostly I love knitting them. I found this brilliant pattern on Mochi Mochi Land and decided to buy it and knit it for my Dad's birthday. It was really fun and easy to knit and I used much bigger wool than needles so it came out nice and squidgy. 

I hope you like my little owl, it's here to remind you that no matter how scary the world may seem, as long as it's always full of tiny knitted owls, things will be okay.

Love Scarlett

Twit-Knit Club Update

Dear Twit-Knit Club,

I have a confession, and it's a pretty bad one. I started a new school recently and the rise in 'normal' teenage activities has resulted in a decline of knitting activity which means... I haven't finished my hat yet :( I have been working on it really hard but unfortunatly it is not yet done.

Despite having slowed down myself everyone else in the club has been doing amazingly!

@bakebakegirl has finished her beautiful blue and purple hat (don't worry, thats not a picture of her).

@baileysbear is doing awesomely with her orange hat. 

@megeroberts and @kateeroberts made these cute little hats for the Innocent Smooth Campaign

@JennyJHoward knitted this lovely grey hat for a soldier in Afghanistan 

@Mhairi AMAZING multi-coloured hat. 

@faithyb33 soft and beautiful pink hat with flower

@VicksG beautiful baby in her adorable Twit-Knit Club hat! 

This is my pink hat so far :( as you can see I'm not doing anywhere near as good as these Twit-Knit Club members... but it is pink. 

Because Hats was a much harder project than usual everyone is still at different stages so while still carrying on with hats I am also going to launch our next project which is... TWIT-KNIT FOOD! 

Knitted food is incredible! And there are so many different patterns out there. I will do a proper launch blog sometime this week but until then please start thinking about what you are going to knit. Twit-Knit Food is going to be our best project yet. 

You can join in the knitting fun by using the twitter hashtag #twitknitclub  or just tweet me @scarlykfcurtis. We are growing bigger every day and there was even an article about Twit-Knit Club on Crafty Crafty you can find it here.

Good luck to everyone still finishing their hats and for everyone else... get excited for Twit-Knit Food!

Love Scarlett.