thoughtful by name, thoughtful by nature

Our friends from Thoughtful really are very thoughtful.

It was a cold, rainy London day when I received a call from the lovely James (pictured above, in the middle). 

He wanted to know if it was ok if he organised a knitathon in aid of the Big Knit. I thought about it for about 12 seconds and replied "Well of course it is.  That indeed would be very, very thoughtful".

A few phonecalls and a delivery of all the neccessary knitathon bits and bobs later, the Sainsbury's Romiley Thoughtful Knitathon was born.

 
They knitted and chatted and knitted for a whole 16 hours and managed to knit well over 100 hats.

We just wanted to say an enormous thank you to everyone who took part.

Thank you, Thoughtful. We love you a bit.
 

swans or teas? the nation holds its breath

Swans?

 

or tea?

 

Swans?

Or tea?

What'll it be? Swans? Or Tea?

We gather in hushed awe as the voting figures filter through from the central computer.

Swans or tea? Swans or tea? It's almost too much to bare, what'll it be?

Ladies and gentlemen, this weeks winner with 71.28% of the vote.

Swans.

Congratulations Pip from London town, a deserved victory. Smoothies on their way to you

the big knit: where wonders never cease.

Every so often something so lovely happens that you just don't know what to say to do it justice.

At times such as these we turn to pictures.

Behold

 

Surely not?

It is.

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. That is one big knitted smoothie bottle wearing its very own knitted woolly hat. Having never seen the like before we weren't really sure what to do with it. So we put it on a pedestal in reception and topped it with a tiara.

Check out the detail.

Pretty amazing, no?

It gets better.

 

We know. Little hats. Lots of them. 222 to be precise, now that can't be any sort of an accident. For those of you trying to visualise such a wonder struggle no further...

Look.

 

There were little bobbles, huge bobbles and no bobbles at all. There were light ones and dark ones and patterned ones and plain ones. There were sparkly hats and character hats and best of all there was...

 

Francis the Fisherman complete with pink cheeks and catch of the day.

All this and with no note of any sort. S Chilcott whoever you are, you've made our Big Knit. We promise to send you something lovely in the post and hope you get to see this one day.

After receiving this parcel we were briefly tempted to call it a day, surely nothing can be cuter than Francis? If you know better you've nine days and counting to get your hats in.

veg pot warmers ahoy

Seeing as it's Big Knit season, as well as the little hats for our smoothies and squeezies, we're also knitting lots of little warmers for our veg pots too.

 

The lovely ladies at Age Concern have been knitting their socks off but we still need a bit of a nudge to hit our whopping 620,000 winter woollen target.

So we're hoping that our hoardes of infamous knitters (that's you) can do their best to help out.

All you need to do is follow the pattern here. 

And when you're done whipping up your warmers, just pop them in an envelope (or small lorry) with your name, the amount you've knitted and send them to:

Big Knit Warmers, Fruit Towers, 3 The Goldhawk Estate, Brackenbury Road, London, W6 0BAThe closing date to get your  warmers to us by is Friday 6th November, so plenty of time to get those needles trying something new.

Happy knit knit knit knitting.

super knitters

Kim Lathe from Sainsbury's in Bridgnorth has formed her very own knitting club or should I say, empire.

The club consists of girls from Castlefields school, ladies from hilton brooke residential home and peeking in at the back is the their mentor and Queen knitter, Kim. As you can see, they have managed to knit an astonishing 3300 little hats.

A big big thank you to you all for your amazing knitting skills and hard work.

from yeovil with love.

Hurrah for Sue and Kim, possibly two of the finest individuals to have ever crossed the threshold here at Fruit Towers.

No word of a lie, these are two very special ladies.

Their morning started at 8am when they boarded the coach that would bring them and their 1,375 hats all the way to the glamorous Goldhawk Road.

Here they are with four of their favourites including the very beautiful 'soft hat'. Sue knits at such a dizzying pace that last night she was able to go line dancing, crank out 25 hats, and get to bed in time to be fresh for today's pilgrimage to West London.

What a woman.

Ladies, we all hope you are having a lovely afternoon at the Royal Academy, and that you get back home at a reasonable hour tonight.

All power to your elbows and long may those needles click.

if you go down to the woods today...

 

You're unlikely to see a bear. They don't grow over here. Something to do with infertile soil and a lack of sunlight. However, if you go down to our blog today you will see a bear. Edward T Bear to be precise, winner of last week's hat of the week vote. We spoke to Edward to find out how he felt about the win.

"I feel good," he gruffed. "I mean, I've got to give credit to the opposition, Pretty Petunia, for putting up such a brave fight. I really was stretched, and tired near the end there. But the long hours I've put in at the gym with my trainer, Louise, really paid off, and in the end I think I deserved it."

Edward's efforts were rewarded with a belt of solid honey, whilst his trainer, Louise 'Apollo Creed' Butcher, will be receiving a bunch of innocent goodies. 

Marvellous.
 

drum roll please...

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls the announcement you've all been waiting for. In just a few short moments we'll be able to bring you, live from this very blog post, the results of this weeks 'Hat of the Week' competition.

The votes have been counted and verified by our independent adjudicator and you could cut the air with a knife such is the palpable sense of tension.

Without further ado. The winner is...

...weirdly long pause...

fumble with envelope...

Big Bee Hive by Kerri from Essex

 

Now let's all sit back and enjoy this montage of Kerri and Big Bee Hive Hat leaping about in celebration, set possibly to Westlife's 'You raise me up'.

It's a beautiful thing indeed.

Kerri, a case of our finest and our heartiest congratulations. Well done you and well done Big Bee Hive Hat.

hats, hats and marmalade the cat

Marmalade (the kitty in the photo) has a very important job. She is the "Mother of Mercy's" nursing homes' official mascot.

You can see why they chose her. Her symmetrical face, purrrrfect coat and modest glance into the camera - she is the ideal catdidate.

The talented ladies who she looks after have been click clacking away to create some of Northern Ireland's finest bobble hats -  though it's young Marmalade that seems to be stealing their thunder.

So here is a lovely picture of the real stars of the show.

Thank you to everyone that helped out and an extra special thank you to Marmalade.

Purrrrrrr.

the joy of knitting

This week we've learned that you have to go a long way to beat the buzz of that first little hat.

Here is Cait looking pleased as punch with her first ever hat, 'Ruby'. She has been bitten by the bug in a big way and is currently hard at work on hat number two (lemon with a brown band and complicated purling)

Never one to do things by half measures she plans to switch production post Big Knit to woolly Christmas tree baubles to give as presents.

 
There's even talk of a special knitted frock for the party season. Imagine.

Next up we have the spirit of knitting ecstasy, or Kate as we like to call her.

 

Another first ever hat, Kate can be seen here proudly displaying 'sunflower'

Now we're no experts, but if it does it for Cait and Kate we reckon it's got to be worth giving it a try. It seems there can only be one useful way to spend the weekend and that's cosied down with some wool and needles.

Fancy joining Cait and Kate in the zone? Everything you need to know you can find out here.

NB: innocent drinks accepts no responsibility for any pattern forming behaviour caused by an introduction to knitting. Other activities are available.