Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

FO: Charlie's socks

It has been more than a month since my last blogged, and what a month it has been! There isn't any way to describe it, so I'm going to bustle straight on to the main reason for stopping by here...

I finished a knitting project!! Go me!!

The socks I knitted as a very late birthday present for my sister-in-law are now complete. I didn't remember to photograph them before popping them in the post. I was too busy being amazed that I had actually completed something! So I was more than delighted when she emailed her thanks with this lovely snap of them! Thanks Charlie!

I used Natural Dye Studio Dazzle 4ply in an blue colourway. This is a wonderful yarn to knit with - really bouncy and forgiving in ribbing. I usually struggle with ladders in rib, but these look really neat with no messing around. The pattern is the Oak Ribbed Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. Really straight forward no-brain knitting, which was just what was required.

I even found 10 minutes to cast on my next project, which is the Budleigh Socks from Coop Knits Socks. I'm using some green Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply and they are looking fab already. I got 2 more skeins of this yarn for my birthday, so I'm hoping to make a couple of other pairs from the book too.

Apologies for the lack of links - not much energy left this evening! If you love the sound of something mentioned here and can't find it with a google search, leave a comment and I'll try to help.

These aren't the socks you're looking for...

Forgive the cheesy Star Wars inspired title for today's post. The news this morning must have infiltrated my brain!

I was expecting to be sharing with you some pictures of my first Willowherb sock from Coop Knits Socks (have you bought your copy yet?). But instead, I've had a fit of guilt about some socks that were promised earlier in the year. My brother-in-law has long been a connoisseur of hand-knitted socks, and in January, his lovely partner, Charlie, asked if she could go on the list for a pair of her own. I think that she borrows Ed's socks from time to time...

We searched through my sock yarn stash, and looked at the sock patterns in my queue, and she picked out this lovely skein of Natural Dye Studio Dazzle, and the Oak Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

I cast on a few days ago, and I've been really good at just working on it. I've missed Charlie's birthday by a few weeks, but I'm determined to get these socks done without too much delay now!

The yarn is beautiful to knit with - it's really bouncy and the colour variation is very pretty too. I'm well on the way with sock number one, so hopefully I'll get these cranked out quickly, and then on to Willowherb...

This is as far as I've got - yarn is wound and the book is at hand!

In other news, I did a small photo shoot on Tuesday, so there are some new patterns to be released at some point soon. However, I'm not sure how quickly it will happen as next week is The Big Week - we meet our little ones and then they move in. Between that and the London Marathon this weekend, it's all a bit non-stop. Phew!

FO: Thorn Shawl

As promised... Here is the other project I cast off recently. Can you spot a green-theme?

This is Bristol Ivy's Thorn shawl, designed as part of Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People 4. I would have loved to use the Brooklyn Tweed Loft called for in the pattern, but I'm trying to work the stash, so I pulled out some skeins of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply in Jen's Green and set to it.

I may have mentioned before, but it bears repeating: this design has awesome rhythm. It's broken down into steps and they are each totally manageable. So if you're someone like me, who likes to tick things off a list, and complete sections of a project, you'll love this design! I asked Bristol how she came up with the idea of it, and she said that she was "just seeing what would happen"... I can't think of a better way to come up with new ideas.

The shawl is quite an unusual shape - just like the thorn on a rose - so it took me a couple of tries to work out the best way of wearing it, but I've cracked it now! I'm using a lovely NovaSteel shawl pin from Skein Queen. If you've not looked at Ro's shawl pins before, then I'd like to send you to look now! I'll wait here until you're ready to come back... She uses strong magnets, so there's much less chance of the pin snagging your knitting. And her designs are stunning. This one is based on Skein Queen's signature humming bird, which is a favourite of mine, but there are many more to choose from.

The drape of the shawl down one arm is particularly pleasing. It would be a different sort of drape in a more woolly yarn, but no less enjoyable: I'm a big fan of woolliness.

I've been knitting on my Thorn since the end of January, and as such it has accompanied me through the most stressfull couple of months of my life to date. It's been good stress. Definitely good stress. But nonetheless tiring and I've not had a lot of spare brain capacity for much of the last couple of months. It's done me proud though, as I wore it to our matching panel meeting this week, and we are now approved. I'm anticipating a flurry of blogging over the next couple of weeks as I try to cram in as much craft as possible into the remaining time before we meet our children. Once the London Marathon is done, things will go silent for a while as we establish our new family and all learn the ropes. I'll be back at some point after that, but I don't know when!

In the meantime, hold on to your hats - I'm on a mission!

FO: Go! Scarf

Don't faint, but I've cast off a project. In fact, I've cast off two projects, so I'm going to blog tomorrow as well. Wowzers!

First up is my finished Go! Scarf. This is the final pattern in Jim's Ready, Steady, Go! eBook, which he is selling in aid of Refuge, the UK Domestic Violence charity. You can find out more about it, over on his blog here: Go! Scarf

I knitted the sample scarf for Jim, from his pattern. He's more than capable of knitting this himself, but it would have taken longer than we had available in time at the moment, so I whipped it up for him.

It's a straightforward pattern, and he's given both written and charted instructions in the pattern, which you can buy individually from Ravelry for £2.50 here: 

I found myself knitting just one more repeat before going to bed rather more often than I expected. It definitely had a potato chip quality to it. I shall be wearing my Go! Scarf with pride in 3 1/2 weeks time when Jim runs the London Marathon in aid of Refuge. I couldn't be more proud of him just now.

If you want to buy the whole eBook of 3 patterns (Ready Fingerless Mitts, Steady Hat and Go! Scarf), it's available for £5.00 here: 

All proceeds after Ravelry and Paypal fees goes straight to Refuge, and you can keep an eye on Jim's fundraising progress on his Just Giving page here: Jim's running the London Marathon for Refuge.

This was my favourite scarf photo... it's just a pity that I'm looking totally gormless! The yarn is beautiful - it's Babylonglegs Semi~Precious in a special Go! Green for Refuge colourway, which you will be able to purchase on Wednesday next week in a limited edition with all profit going to Refuge too. Keep an eye on her website for more information (sadly, I am not for sale myself, despite my picture being over there!! :D). I will definitely be keen to knit with this lovely yarn again. Happy knitting!

Silence is Golden...

...or something like that!

You may perhaps have noticed that it's been a little bit quiet round here of late. I'm trying to keep to at least one post a week, so that you don't forget who I am, but it's hard just now. The thing is, that there's really only one thing I want to write about. And I can't.

I want to stand on the rooftops and tell the world about the amazing changes that are going to happen to our lives over the next couple of months. But although I can tell you some general things, I can't share any details at all. And it's actually quite hard to write without sharing those details. I know that if I were reading this blog, I would want to know, and it would be strange not to know. And I suppose that I feel a little bit awkward about that.

So in amongst the cryptic bits and bobs that you may read between the lines, there are a few snippets that I can tell. Firstly, our adoption panel approval was ratified. Hurrah! We then immediately had a call with information, and since then we've been on the most unbelievably emotional, world-view-changing, tiring, and most of all EXCITING journey. We now have a date booked for another panel - this time to approve the match between us and the children. If all goes to plan, once that recommendation is ratified, we will meet them and get to know them over a period of a couple of weeks (known as introductions), and then they will move in with us. It really won't be long now.

I can't tell you how much I would love to share more, but the nature of this is that it's just not possible. We won't be able to talk about our children in any identifiable way online. And for us, that includes even the more controlled online settings, where you have some say over who can see your information. It's going to take some getting used to, as it seems strange to talk about anything else at the moment! I hope that you'll bear with me as I find a new way to talk here.

So, what have I been knitting in amongst all this?

I've worked almost entirely monogamously on my Thorn shawl. I really can't thank Bristol Ivy enough for this pattern at the moment! It has been the PERFECT foil to life. The pattern is broken down into sections, and each section is broken down into sub-sections. There is something ever so satisfying about just working another row or two, in order to finish a section. The knitting itself isn't complex, but it has a great rhythm. I've finished main sections A & B, so now there's just C plus the edging to go. Maybe I need to apply the Thorn approach to preparations over the next couple of months - breaking each task down into sections and sub-sections would probably make it seem less overwhelming. Knitting always has something to teach us, doesn't it?

If you're in Farnham on Saturday (23rd February 2013), both Veuf Tricot and I will be at Unravel, and would love to say hello! Jim may even be sporting his Ready Mitts and the Steady Hat, which is just off the needles. It's our last chance for a big catch-up with the wonderful knitting world, and I can't wait!

Knit, knit, knit...

That's all I seem able to do at the moment. Simple knitting, and plenty of it!

I finished off Chapeau! with some lovely pompoms, and I've been meaning to get some pictures of me wearing it. Life has been hectic though, and I decided you'd rather see something than nothing at all! The pattern was lovely to follow (as I knew it would be coming from Belinda!), and the Donegal Aran was a treat to knit with as well. I've made the 3 colour version and there aren't too many leftovers, having made the pompoms - I'm actually wondering whether to make a third pompom with the leftover beige - what do you think?

Having cast the hat off sometime last week, I set to the next thing I fancied... I am liberated to knit whatever the heck I like. The less sensible the better at the moment! Well, that isn't entirely true. I do need my knitting projects to be simple enough that I don't have to engage much brain power. My brain is rather full just now, and simple is how everything has to be.

So I went to the next thing I was thinking about - Thorn by Bristol Ivy. Bristol is part of the staff at the wonderful Brooklyn Tweed, and this shawl entirely fulfills my need to simple, satisfying, knitting. I'm going to ask her how she came up with the design as it is really speaking to me, and yet I wonder how you conceive of something like this...

I'm using Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply in Jen's Green (obviously!), and so far it's looking ace. I've been eyeballing the design for a while, and it was Ann's version over on Mason-Dixon knitting that really sent me over the edge. The increases are slow and steady, but the pattern is emerging bit by bit and it's just the thing I need at the moment.

Many thanks for the continued support for Jim's Ready, Steady, Go! eBook for Refuge. The Fyberspates MCN Sport in Ready Red for Refuge is selling well, so snap a skein up quickly if you would like one. £10.80 from each skein goes to help the work of Refuge - what more of an excuse do you need to treat yourself?

Changes

Last week was a corker! It was a week full of fun and giggles and work, and by the end of it I wasn't sure which way was up anymore...

I've made some progress on my Chapeau! But not a great deal. This week it was down to being too busy to knit, more than to having and arm pain - result! I am now onto my third colour though, and there will be massive pompoms when I'm done, so that will sustain me through the last few rounds...

I had a visit from lovely friend and colleague, Kate Davies. We worked "like dogs" in the immortal words of my PhD supervisor. And you can read more about it over on her blog: Fun in Frome.

We cooked this completely delicious "Braised eggs, lamb and sumac" from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem cookbook and chatted nineteen to the dozen for more than 24 hours. I can't wait to properly share the projects we have been plotting, but for now, you'll have to be patient.

I'm much less good at remembering to take photos than she is!

Then when Kate headed back to Scotland, I started on some major changes. The spare bedroom is no longer to be a spare bedroom, so it went from this...

Via this...

To this...

A blank canvas, waiting for the arrival of some single beds. Eeep! We were successful at our adoption approval panel, so now we're waiting on a rubber-stamp, before our brilliant social worker can start looking for children to match us with. One of the questions we were asked at panel was about how we have found the assessment process, and I honestly couldn't feel more positive about it. Each step has been purposeful, and has prepared us to feel as ready as possible for this next exciting stage in our lives. Onwards and upwards!

Little bites

So I tried to resist. But it didn't work. So I cast on Chapeau! by True Brit Knits (Belinda Boaden and Wendy Baker).

I probably shouldn't have, but I thought that perhaps a change of gauge might be enough of a difference to avoid arm-ache. I've been taking it easy, and just squeezing in little bites of knitting here and there.

I'm doing the three-colour version and there will be MASSIVE POMPOMZ when it's done. Hopefully I'll get a little bit more knitting done this week, in between other things. My arms seem fine as long as I don't work for too long in one stretch (a lot less time than I would normally knit for...).

I've also been doing some sewing, and I'm not far from finishing Rosa's quilt.

It just needs quilting and binding and then it too will be done. Hurrah! I'm delighted with how it's looking so far. It makes me smile as Rosa's Grandad flew helicopters...

Keep the entries for the Colours of Shetland giveaway coming - I'm loving reading all the comments. They make me smile. There are two copies so the odds of winning are much better than the lottery!! The contest closes on 31st January 2013 - see the blog post for full details.

FO: Stripey Hat but not much else

Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read my blog and buy patterns over the last week - the response to the sale has been fantastic! I really appreciate your enthusiasm and support.

Sadly, there's not been much knitting around here over the last week or so. I've been suffering a bit with RSI (boo! hiss!). I've had pain in my arms, hands and fingers while knitting, so I've been trying to restrain myself, and not cast on a million projects or really do any knitting at all. I'm finding this something of a challenge! I need to get out my sewing maching and work on some quilts so that I am making something...

In the meantime, I did finish this little baby hat. I'm not sure who it's for at the moment, but I have a few friends expecting, so I'm sure the recipient will reveal themselves soon.

It's the same Debbie Bliss striped hat pattern that I've used before, but this time I worked the stripes using the helical method. I'm planning to do some how-to videos for this technique as soon as my arms are better. It's very nifty and great for a baby hat, where you want to avoid anything lumpy.

I used remains of 3 colours in the body of the hat and went down to 2 colours for the crown shaping. In total it used just 32g of yarn, so was great for finishing up leftovers from a couple of other projects. You can see more on my Ravelry project page here: JenACKnitwear's Stripey Hat

I've also been lucky enough to be sent a few photos of niece Rosa in her cardigan, so for your enjoyment...

Adorable, right??

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with an exciting giveaway. In the meantime, I'm trying not to cast on any of the following:

Thorn by Bristol Ivy

Chapeau! by Wendy Baker and Belinda Boaden

Darkus by Rachel Coopey (or to be honest, any of her sock designs!)

or the Scatness Tam by Kate Davies

I have tantalising yarn and patterns lined up for them all. Must. Be. Good. (or I'll do myself more serious damage. Boo!)

FO: Corlyna Cardigan

So this is why people like knitting for babies so much... Whole garments take a matter of days!

On Saturday I finished off the sweet little Corlyna Cardigan (designed by Belinda Boaden, and published in the Scrumptious Baby Collection from Fyberspates) that nephew Alex helped me to start at Christmas. It was a lovely knit from start to finish.

My only modification was to knit the sleeves in the round rather than flat. I then just picked up at the underarms and worked the body down to the hem. This had the pleasing effect that there were only the buttons to sew on when the cardi was complete. Minimal finishing for the win!

The buttons are some simple bright red mother of pearl style buttons that I had in my stash. I think this might be the first time ever that I've had buttons in my box that actually work with my finished garment. Usually they are too big/too small/not enough of them/the wrong colour and so on. So I normally end up back down at Millie Moon picking out buttons as the last part of the project. It was a real pleasure to get the box out and find that not only did I love these (buttons that contrast - who'd have thought it!) but there was also the perfect number. I've sewn 5 onto the cardi and stuck the 6th into the card along with a bit of spare yarn, in case of emergencies!

All I wish for now is that we could have the Jen's Green shade in the Aran weight Scrumptious so that I could knit a matching adult Corlyna. Yes... a fantastic adult pattern is in the soon-to-be-published Scrumptious Collection volume 2. It's a fabulous design, and I can't wait for it to be released. Belinda has made an already cute baby cardigan into a grown-up wardrobe staple. I predict a winner!

The baby cardigan is all parcelled up, and going into the post box shortly, so keep an eye out for it! If we ask nicely, Rosa's M&D might share some cute baby pics of her wearing it...