Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Scrumptious Babies!

It's always nervewracking when a book arrives back from the printers, but it's particularly nervewracking when you've been involved with much of its creation. Generally it turns out to be fine though, and just sometimes, it turns out even better than you could have hoped for...

The Scrumptious Baby Collection arrived last week, and I'm chuffed to bits with it. This time round I didn't do any of the designs, but I helped Jeni (of Fyberspates) to commssion the gorgeous designs, and worked with her and with Nic to bring the collection to life.

The collection features patterns for newborns through to 2 year old toddlers, and we commissioned designs from Kyoko Nakayoshi (it's her Temari kimono top above), Belinda Boaden, Mélanie Edgar and Judy Furlong. They all did us proud with the beautiful garments and accessories that they created for this book.

I think my nephew might need a set of Ensar dungarees (designed by Mélanie), don't you? Each of the kids that modelled these seemed to love them (or perhaps more importantly, their parents did!).

Here is the rest of the Corlyna set that goes with the legwarmers I made the other week. Belinda did a lovely job with this set - I can see myself making the cardigan at some point too.

Judy Furlong created this stunning lace shawl for the collection. It's a perfect Christening shawl, and in fact, it arrived the Friday before my nephew was to be baptised, so we were able to give it a little test run. Here are the proud parents along with ickle neph.

The garments and accessories all use Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/sport, apart from the lace shawl which uses 1 hank of Scrumptious Lace. If tyou'd like to purchase a copy of the book, then do ask at your local yarn shop. Here is a list of current Fyberspates retailers. If you are in the US, then Lantern Moon distributes the yarn and books, so do contact them to find your local reatailer. You can also purchase the book directly from Fyberspates.

In other news, the endless 1x1 rib is over and I'm wearing the cardigan. Photos need to be taken, and then I can share it with you.

FO: Corlyna Legwarmers

It might sound unlikely, but baby legwarmers are my latest go-to small-person gift. These are from one of the patterns in The Scrumptious Baby Collection, which we sent to press last week. The pattern is part of a set that also includes a hat and cardigan, and is designed by Belinda Boaden.

Legwarmers are in fact, way more practical than booties. They don't come off for a start, and with lots of little girls wearing dresses, legwarmers work really well on colder days.

These were a gift for my friend Harriet's new daughter. And were declared an instant hit! In fact, she tweeted a couple of days later that they're in regular use, along with the following adorable picture. Result!

This pair feature a sea-shell inspired stitch pattern. It's a little bit fiddly to do, but looks brilliant when it's done. I recommend using smooth, pointy needles to make the "K1, P1, K1, P1, K1 all into the 5 big loops" section MUCH easier. I started with my Brittany needles, and it was painful as they are sticky and blunt. Once I swapped to KnitPros, it was a much happier experience.

I used Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/Sport in the water colourway, and the pair only used approximately 20g of yarn. The Scrumptious Baby Collection will be available from Fyberspates retailers very shortly. You can see more details about my project in my Ravelry notebook: JenACKnitwear's Corlyna Legwarmers.

Woah Woolfest!

Wowzers, what a Woolfest. It was the most fabulous weekend, but it has taken me a few days to catch up with sleep and work that were neglected while I was away. There will be a flurry of blog activity now, but then I am expecting to be pretty quiet again while I'm away in France for the show in Lot and some R&R in Marseille afterwards. I hope to get in a lot of knitting time though.

Woolfest was completely non-stop. We set up the Fyberspates stand on Thursday afternoon, and then sold all day Friday and Saturday before packing up and driving back down to Chester. We were so overwhelmed by the reaction to the book, that it's actually quite hard to describe it in words. Check out the slightly stunned look on my face as I open yet another package of books!

Selling on the Fyberspates stand at Woolfest (thanks to Nic for the pic).

We christened the new stand set-up arrangement, and it seemed to make it really easy to keep track of all the different shades of Scrumptious. I must say that it is incredibly hard work to be surrounded by such beautiful yarn and not buy it all for myself!!

Lots of lovely Fyberspates yarn to fondle.

I just end up telling myself that none of it is for sale - it's just for looking at like some type of modern art installation. However, in the little bit of time that I had wandering the other stands with Amanda and Lily (France from the book super-team), I succumbed to a few treats for myself. It wouldn't be a trip to a show if I didn't buy anything would it?

Knit by Numbers from Fibre Harvest.

First up is this irresistible 100% merino DK yarn from John and Juliet Arbon at Fibre Harvest. It's called Knit by Numbers and starting with solid dyed tops, the yarn is spun with increasing amounts of white fibre to give this beautiful graduated effect. I think there are more than 50 shades already, with more planned. I can't wait for the greens... I had to rein myself in from sticking with my usual teal. Everyone has assured me that this yellow palette really suits me, so it's a new dawn here at the A-C household, who knows what might be next. Tea drinking? Or eating sprouts? Eughh no thanks, just knitting with yellow for now.

A little fabric and some silk.

One of the stalls that really sucked me in for a good look was Cocoon. I adore my Japanese knitting pattern books, and love Habu yarns, so it was a great stand for me. I gave in and went back for my cheque book so that I could purchase some Habu silk and these pretty fat quarters. It's probably very good for the bank balance that they didn't take cheques or I might have really fallen down a Habu rabbit hole. I must have enough fabric for a house-sized quilt by now! Better get sewing.

Dazzle sock from The Natural Dye Studio.

Lastly for the photos is some squishy Dazzle Sock from The Natural Dye Studio. Along with a group of friends we are knitting a blanket for another friend. I'm quite certain she doesn't read the blog, but just in case I'm going to leave it pretty vague. I already had 6 hanks of this lovely Bluefaced Leicester yarn in my stash, so I just wanted to top it up with another couple of hanks to ensure we had enough for a lovely big, snuggly blanket. Hmmm, the yellow reminds me of trousers.

My final purchase was some handspun faux-cashmere from Daniela Klopmann. This is all wrapped and ready for a SnB friend. She wasn't at knitting on Tuesday, so I'm hoping I might bump into her at the pub tomorrow.

Phew - a long post. Congratulations on getting to the bottom. Tomorrow's won't be quite as long, but I have got a few lovelies stored up to share with you...

Ready, steady, launch!

Saturday was the official launch day for the Scrumptious Collection.

Bubbly to toast the project.

We were lucky enough to be able to hold the launch at Nicki Trench's Dancing Hens craft studio in Radlett. Nicki has created a wonderful, light space, filled with crochet, knitting and sewing inspiration. I would love to return one day for one of her workshops - they looked fabulous.

After a few words of introduction and thanks from Jeni and I, we had a wonderful mini-afternoon tea, prepared by Jeni's fabulous Mum (the coffee meringues were absolutely delicious, I must get the recipe!).

 
Jeni Hewlett (left - Fyberspates herself), and me (right). Apparently I don't stand still for photographs! 

Then there was eating and chatting with the book team, as well as lots of planning and plotting of projects for next year. Things are looking really exciting!

Me (left), Mélanie Edgar (centre - pattern checking and translation), Nic Blackmore (right - Art and Production Editor).

To celebrate the launch of the book, I have a copy of the book, as well as a skein of Scrumptious yarn to giveaway. Leave a comment on this post before midnight (GMT+1) on Friday 3rd June 2011, and the winner will be chosen at random. One entry per person.

If you can't wait for the giveaway, then you can buy the book from Fyberspates here (£12.50 + P&P): The Scrumptious Collection volume 1

Fyberspates Open Day

We had a brilliant time at the Fyberspates Open Day on Saturday. I was quite restrained, and only came home with some fibre for spinning for myself. If you would like to snag some beautiful bargains then Jeni is opening the workshop again on bank holiday Monday (30th May 2011) starting at 10am.

The Maintenance Room, 
The Nalder Estate, 
East Challow, 
Nr Wantage,
Oxfordshire,
OX12 9SY 

There is a LOT of yarn (the sale tables are priced at £2, £5 and £10 per skein), plus some lovely pattern books (new and second-hand ones), fibre for spinning or felting, gizmos like sock blockers and spindles, and piles of needles.

For more information, email fyberspates@btinternet.com

Look at all that yarn!

What Jen did next

In March, The Knitter invited me back to do a guest blog post about what's been keeping me out of trouble since I left them in December 2010. You can read about what I've been up to in the early months of this year here: What Jen did next