Twisted Roots MAL: Week Three News and WIP’s!

Hi everyone! Well, here we are already in Week Three of the Twisted Roots MAL and I have been enjoying watching everyone’s progress so much. We have reached that stage where most have been helped through any difficult bits getting started and are now off knitting away while I wait eagerly for updates!  🤣

Before I dig in to share some news from this week, a little info for the first time visitors…

News From the Groups

Reunited!

I wanted to share these photos with you because I just think they are so pretty! You may recognise this Canadutch colourway Twisted Roots Scarf from some of the MAL promo photos shared by myself and Scheepjes on our social media. It was knitted by my dear friend and tester, Niamh Holcroft. Her scarf spent the last year or so hanging out with the folks at Scheepjes HQ, posing pretty for photos and such, and she just got it back. Now I have that tune “Reunited and it feels so good…” stuck in my head! You know I do love to share an earworm when I catch one. Thank you for this lovely sample and for testing, Niamh!

Some Newbie Love! ❤️

One thing I’ve been truly enjoying in the last few weeks is how many new knitters have jumped in and decided to give this project a try. They are all doing amazingly well! This is what makes me happy with knitting, sharing it with others and seeing that little spark when they start to really get it and enjoy it. It makes me a little sad when I hear someone say “I can’t knit” because I know they can, or rather, just don’t know how to yet. It’s just a matter of figuring out what is most comfortable and what works best for them and this is my mission in life, people!  🤓

There have been a lot I’ve spoken to and again, I wish I could share them all, but here are a few of the new knitters who have dug in and shown some incredible determination in learning to knit to make this project. Let’s give them some serious applause, or snaps, or props, or whatever it is you’re into.

I recognised Lisa Marlow as a tester for some of the Scheepjes crochet designers, so when I saw her knitting I did a little Dr. Evil style laugh. She has never knitted before casting on her Twisted Roots Scarf and has been flying through it so far! I definitely think she has a natural talent for knitting and if she keeps it up at this rate, I think someday I may be trying to poach a tester out from my crochet friends’ noses and bringing her to ‘the dark side‘. I won’t even be the tiniest bit sorry either. 🤣

Jane Webber (left) and Rachel Herron (right) have also taken this on as their very first (ever!) knitting projects. Considering that even some of the more experienced knitters stumbled a bit with the set-up portion of the pattern (nested brackets for repeats can be a real son of a gun if you aren’t used to them), I think it’s pretty amazing that they persevered and pushed past that point. Despite having to frog a bit or start over, they forged on and are now off to a great start! This is the sign of a great future in knitting, that determination to understand and overcome. I think that all they need is a little practice, which they’ll get while working on their scarf, and then there will be no stopping them!

Those Pesky Twisted Stitches!

Diana Kloosterboer kindly agreed to let me show her project to demonstrate what I was discussing in my Tips & Tricks post about twisted stitches. This is always a tricky part for myself and the other group mods and admins. What do we do when we see someone with an error in their work? We want to tell them because we want to know ourselves if something wasn’t right, but we never want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

When we saw Diana’s first attempt (top) I noticed that her stitches were twisted. This is noticeable by the more textured look of both the stockinette and the seed stitch, which you can see when compared with her second attempt shown below. It can be a somewhat subtle difference, but when you compare, you can see how much smoother the stockinette stitch is without the twisted stitches, and how much more contrast there is between that and the seed stitch portions. With the twisted stitches, they tend to blend together a little more.

Ruth, one of the Dutch moderators, contacted her to explain as it was easier for her to do so in Dutch than it is for me, and Diana was such a champ! She had a look at my Tips & Tricks and with a little help from Ruth, she was on the right track in no time. Moments like this, where this type of situation turns out so well, makes us incredibly happy. It’s worth that knuckle-biting moment where we contact them to let them know something is wrong because in the end they learn something and are happy for it. Well, most of the time, at least!  Well done, Diana! 👍

The Colour Crafter Contender!

When I spotted Anna Dusseljee‘s project, I thought it looked really lovely, then I learned as I read on that this was actually a practice piece she was making with Scheepjes Colour Crafter! Her clever plan was to practice with some yarn she had on hand to get the hang of the project before moving on to the real thing and working on her Our Tribe version. She has definitely conquered the pattern and is ready to move on to the real deal, but this has really left me thinking that Colour Crafter is also a great yarn option for this scarf, especially if someone is allergic to wool, for example. Perhaps Anna will return to this one at some point and can let us know how it turns out. Otherwise, if anyone else out there sees this and decides to give it a try, make sure to show me as I’m really curious and eager to see how it works out. 😊

There’s No Unseeing This Now!

Marga Doornbosch-de Graaf shared her gorgeous scarf project yesterday, and I’m still loving this Heart colourway, by the way. However, something else also caught my eye… she figured she found the true inspiration for the Twisted Roots Scarf! I mean, who knows, I have done quite a bit of gardening in the last few years, so maybe that was in the back of my mind somewhere? Either way, there is just no unseeing it now, is there? 😄

Well, that’s all I have to report at the moment. Everyone is busy knitting away but once more have finished their scarves I will definitely be back to share some of their finished photos!