Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

FO: Hampstead Wreath & Christmas delights

I had what's known in our family as a Cave Weekend. I did practically nothing beyond sitting on the sofa in my pyjamas, and working on my deadline craft projects. The sewing is done ready for tomorrow's SnB ornament swap, so I will share that with you once the parcels are safely opened tomorrow evening. I finished off Mum's Socks - head to Ravelry if you'd like to see them, and NO PEEKING Mum! And I went pompom mad with my Hampstead Wreath...

Yes, the pompoms are rather larger than the wreath, but I don't care! It makes me smile and that's the main thing. The pattern by Belinda and Wendy raises money for CityMeals, and I reckon that there's still time to knit and dress your door with one (mine took 2 evenings among other projects).

I've also finally got the tree up and dressed (this is about 2 weeks later than normal - I LOVE Christmas trees!).

I love getting out the baubles as there are so many memories hidden among them. When I set up my first home on my own, Gran gave me a small selection of her Christmas baubles, and these are my utter favourites. Some of them were given to my Mum's family, as gifts from the trading ships that visited Barry Docks, where my Grandfather worked. I think that the lovely little black bauble with the tree on it is one of these (at the top of the photo below). It's certainly my absolute favourite.

Right, I have to be super-focussed this week, as there's still a lot of work to be done before I stop for Christmas! I hope that all of your preparations are going well, if you celebrate Christmas. Sending seasonal good wishes and happiness to all. Jen x

WIP: Hampstead Wreath

Mum's socks are coming along nicely, and I'm sure that they will be done in time for Christmas. I don't think I'll share any photos again until after I've given them to her, since I know that she reads the blog. *waves* Hi Mum!

In the meantime, I've been taken in by more pompom fever, and I cast on last night for a Hampstead Wreath. This is a lovely pattern by Belinda and Wendy at TrueBritKnits, and it's raising money for Citymeals, a charity who have been providing invaluable support to vulnerable people in New York for many years, but particularly post-Sandy there has been even more need for their services. We forget sometimes just how incredible it is to have such a reliable and thorough NHS and social services infrastructure here in the UK. This isn't the case in other parts of the world, and much of what we take for granted just isn't available unless you have the money or insurance to pay for it.

I am slightly nervous that the scale of my pompom may not work with the scale of my wreath... This is made using my EXTRA LARGE pompom maker, has a diameter of 4.5in and used a whole ball of Sirdar Big Softie! I think it will be the centre pompom, with smaller pompoms surrounding it. It's going to be a stunner, I feel sure of it!

I am also lusting after some of the other True Brit Knits designs, and I feel that it's my duty to make sure that you are properly familiar with Belinda & Wendy's work....

© TrueBritKnits

This is my current jumper obsession. It's called Pendleton, and is knitted in Artesano Aran (a lovely yarn!). Every knitter should have this somewhere in their Ravelry queue, surely?! At this time of year (and it's -6C out there today in Somerset) this kind of snuggly warm jumper is perfect! I've been yearning for some aran to magically appear in my stash overnight, but it's not happened so far. You can bet I'll be casting it straight on if I get my hands on some though! It would look fantastic with the Toast cord skirt that I bought in the sale last year...

What I do have yarn for is the Titfer Hat. And this is a great example of one of Belinda's brilliant qualities, and why EVERYONE should follow her on Twitter (she and Wendy are TrueBritKnits over there too). She's hilarious. Seriously funny, and if I'm in need of a giggle, she can be relied upon for a quick quip that just makes my side ache. The hat is lovely, and I have some John Arbon Knit by Numbers in my stash, but the blog post and pattern page talking about the design and naming of Titfer are very funny and well worth a read.

© TrueBritKnits

So, if you haven't already, add Belinda to your list of people to follow on Twitter, friend her on Ravelry (or in her own BelindaBoaden account), like her on Facebook and bookmark her blog (the Monday Mood posts by Wendy are super-inspiring!). And go and give those patterns some love on Ravelry as well. I have!

And now back to my frenzy of pre-Christmas knitting...

Disclaimer: Belinda has NOT paid me, or asked me to shower her with compliments this morning. She has gifted me the odd pattern from time to time, but I would also happily buy them. She's just a genuinely good-egg, and I love working with her too. :)

FO: At LAST my Still Light Tunic!

It's done, it's done! After ten months of being on the needles, I have finally cast off my Still Light Tunic! It wasn't without one last "when knitting attacks" bit of pain, as my first attempt at casting off meant that it was too tight to walk in... I carefully undid the cast-off edge and redid it using the K2tog method and an even larger needle. Now it is perfect!

Can you tell from the look on my face that I'm pleased with it? I really, really am!

I pretty much stuck to the pattern as written, but I changed the order of working the instructions. As soon as I had split the sleeves, I worked on the sleeves until they were done before returning to work the rest of the body - I couldn't face the thought of turning the sleeves each round with the whole weight of the dress on my needles, and this was (in my humble opinion) much easier! I did the same with the pockets... As soon as I'd separated off the pocket stitches, I put the body on hold and completed the pockets. Quite apart from the issue of knitting small rounds with more than 400g of dress hanging off the needles, I knew that I would want to cast this off and wear it immediately! I've written before about my impatience at the end of a project, and this was a good way to stave it off.

I also just move the pocket shaping a tiny bit closer together - the markers were just moved together by a few stitches on each side. Nothing too significant though.

I do need to do something about sewing the pockets into the inside of the dress, as at the moment, it looks great when my hands are in the pockets (and why would they want to be anywhere else - it's warm and snuggly in there!!!), but they shift around a bit otherwise and the pattern does suggest stitching them down. I have to admit it makes me a bit nervous that I'm going to make a mess of the whole thing, but I'm sure that's not the case! I'll wear it for a bit while I think about it...

Now the only thing to do is to work out how to make the dress super-cat-repellent as he is already looking at me as if he might want to come and snuggle up to the new dress!

The yarn is Fyberspates Ethereal 4ply (65% cashmere, 35% silk; 400m/100g hanks) - the base has changed somewhat since I got mine, but Jeni has some of the new version in the shop at the moment in a beautiful plum colour: 60% cashmere, 40% silk; 400m/100g hanks

It was a pleasure to work with, and my dress took 4.25 skeins. Pure luxury!

The pattern is by Veera Välimäki, and is available for download. I did find in some areas that the pattern was a bit minimal. As a knitter I would have appreciated many more stitch counts, as they help me to decide if I want to tweak sizing, and also help me to check whether I've done the required number of increases or decreases. For such a popular design, I'm surprised that this sort of detail wasn't included. That said, the pattern wasn't incorrect, and I'm very pleased with my finished dress.

As always, my progress notes and pictures can all be found over on my Ravelry project page: Jen's Ethereal Sweater Dress (luckily it's not actually ethereal...!)

I guess I'd better get on with Mum's Christmas socks now, hadn't I?!

FO: Mystery Hat KAL

Hurrah! It's all finished, fully blocked and with all ends woven in!

I'm so pleased with the finished Hat. It's something of a risk to cast on for a project, not knowing what it will look like. Having said that, Woolly Wormhead is such a master of Hat design, that I wasn't worried. I knew that even if the Hat didn't look great on me, it would be perfect for someone else as a present. In the event, the Hat is great on me, but I'm still going to gift it, as I have something of a surfeit of Hats at the moment! One of my friends or family is in for a treat! The final pattern has now been released and its name is Encircle.

The yarn was lovely to knit with - UK Alpaca Luxury Alpaca DK - a blend of alpaca and BFL. Lovely! I have finished the Hat off with a pretty hand-made ceramic button by Jo Lucksted.

It's that time of year when good photos are hard to get, so apologies, but I think there will be a few Instagram pics over the next few months, while the light is in short supply.

As always you can see the technical details over on my Ravelry page: Jen's Mystery Hat

I'm already counting the months to next year's Mystery Hat KAL!

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Woolly Wormhead's Mystery Hat KAL

Chattering

Wowzers! What a busy week it has been! We got Kate's book off to press last night, so now begins the nervous wait for the finished book to come back from the printers. In the meantime there are lots of other things going on...

I've just finished off my Woolly Wormhead Mystery Hat - it's soaking at the moment, and then I'm going to block it over a balloon. I'm absolutely delighted with how it has turned out, and I can't wait to share some pictures with you!

My Snawheid has come back from Kate, so I'm happily wearing it, and planning how massive a pompom it needs...

The post today was brilliant... new issues of both Simply Knitting and The Knitter - both of which look fantastic - Susan Crawford has done a lovely round-up of Shetland Wool Week, which brought back many happy memories. I'm also very tempted by Kyoko's adorable set of knitter's gifts, including a beautiful leaf-shaped scissor case.

Jim has been very busy as well. There's a new Veuf Tricot column in the latest Simply Knitting - all about going on holiday with a knitter... And he's been training hard despite his recent fall. If you didn't already know, he has a place to run the London Marathon in aid of Refuge. You can donate here: Jim's Just Giving Page. And you can read all about his progress - with some gentle-knitter-leg-pulling over on his blog: Veuf Tricot. Or follow him on Twitter: Veuf Tricot.

I'm hoping for a fairly quiet weekend to catch up with my Christmas crafting... I have plenty still to do! I hope you all have fun weekends too.

FO: Snawheid ahoy!

I know, I know! I was meant to be finishing a certain sweater dress, or at the very least, working on Mum's Christmas Socks... But how is a girl meant to restrain herself in the face of snowy-hat perfection?

© Kate Davies

As soon as the charts for this beauty landed in the DropBox folder, I knew that it would be on my needles by the end of the day. It was clearly meant to be, as I even had the perfect yarn ready and waiting in my stash - a ball each of Persian Grey and Alabaster Excelana 4ply.

The design is Snawheid by Kate Davies, and the pattern will be available on Ravelry later today. I cast on and knitted like the wind - taking daft progress pictures for Kate as I knitted:

Look! I've done some snawflakes!

Look! I've done more flakes!! Oh, and dammit, I've missed a row out of the top snawflake. Rip, rip, rip!!

Hurrah! I've corrected my mistake and caught back up again!! (Never do a KAL with me - I get a bit over-excited about sharing my progress pictures!!!)

LooK! Scooter is sitting on my lap while I knit! This almost never happens!

Hurraaaahhhhh! I've finished! It's well after my bedtime, and it's really hard to take a photo of the top of my head!!

Ooops! That photo isn't much better... Let's try again!

SUCCESS!!!

The huge number of exclamation marks in this post convey just a small amount of my excitement about my new hat. The only fly in the ointment is that I immediately sent my hat up to Kate, so it's not sitting on my head as I type. She & Tom took some fabulous photos of my hat (the one at the top is her shot). And even better... she's going to make me a MA-HOO-SIVE pompom from the leftover yarn, to make a snawball sized pompom to top this hat. I can't wait to have it back!

You can see my notes on the project over on my Ravelry page: JenACKnitwear's Snawheid

The rest of this week will probably be quiet here on the blog, as we're doing the final proofs for Kate's book. It's going to be busy, but excellent!

 

WIP: A sneaky peek at something I'm working on

One of the work projects that has been keeping me very quiet over the last few months is Kate's book. I'm the Technical Editor for Colours of Shetland, and it has been such a joy to work with her and Nic (the ever wonderful Art and Production Editor and all-round fabulous pal!) on bringing these designs and essays to print.

As soon as the pattern and snapshots of this design landed in our DropBox folder, I knew that this was going to be the first design on my needles. It's a hooded cardigan with pockets, and it's in completely perfect colours for me. It is the garment design that complements the Northmavine Hap that Kate shared on her blog last week: Northmavine Hap.

As always with Kate's designs, there are some exquisite finishing touches - not only do the hem and cuffs have folded facings, but there is also an applied i-cord to complete the design perfectly. This is the sort of detail that takes a cardigan from homemade to a work of art.

I've not worked on it too much as I'm trying to get Still Light done and dusted before I get too side-tracked by this. I'm so pleased with how it is going though. I've cast on the sleeve and and am working my way up the increases. I've chosen just one shade different from those that Kate recommends - the main teal colour that is used for the i-cord and in the stripes is just slightly brighter than the one that Kate used. It wasn't a purposeful deviation - I was madly trying to match up the shades at the Trunk Show at Jamieson & Smith and it wasn't that light in the shop. In fact, at one point all the lights went out briefly! Maybe that was when I looked at the teal! I love how these colours work together - the subtlety of the two colours in each stripe is just ace. The yarn is the ever-gorgeous-to-knit-with Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight.

I have a bit of a strategy in mind for this cardigan, as I love how finishing touches add to a project, but I don't always love doing those finishing touches. So I'm going to break them down for this cardigan. I plan on adding the i-cord at the cuff of this sleeve before I've gone too much further. I will knit the pockets into the body as soon as there is enough body to do so. I so enjoy the end of a project - casting off and then putting the garment on. I know that if I leave all of the finishing to the end, I'll be too impatient to wear the hoody and I'll risk not taking my time over the details properly. If I do them as I go along I think it will really help me. Do you do anything to help to make the finishing neater, or more enjoyable to do?

To get the stripes as neat as possible, I'm splicing the shades together each time that the colour changes. At first it was a tiny bit fiddly, but I'm totally in the zone with it now, and I love that it means I will only have 1 end to weave in when I'm finished!

I can't wait to be able to share more about this book - there are quite a few more projects that I'm planning to make from it! You can keep an eye on my progress with this lovely hoody on my project page on Ravelry: Northmavine Hoody. The book will be available to purchase from Kate's website: Kate Davies Designs. And we're expecting it to be on sale from 1st December 2012. In the meantime I had better print out some proofs to check! Happy knitting!

FO: A hat for Rosa

We've been having a lovely weekend! Firstly we stopped over with Nic on Friday evening, and had lots and lots of giggles - the perfect antidote for a really rubbish drive.

Then on Saturday it was off to meet our new niece for the first time. Now, as a knitter and general craft geek, I get a strong compulsion to make things for the little-people in our lives, and this was no exception.

Jim cast on and did the first few rounds on Wednesday evening, and then I took over and cranked the rest out - casting off just as we were reaching London on Saturday morning. The pattern is the Striped Hat from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 2. We adjusted it slightly so that it could be knitted in the round. This meant that the last sections where you work the little pointy bit on top, could be done as an i-cord, which seemed far simpler than messing around with sewing up such a teeny tiny bit of knitting.

If you are at that point in your life, when lots of people you know are having babies, then I really can't recommend this book enough. Baby Cashmerino 2 is my favourite of Debbie Bliss's pattern books by a really long way. I've now made 4 of the designs from it, and indend on making a few more. This book is brilliant for simple pieces that you can just make without having to think too much. The designs are simple and timeless. Go get it!

I used leftover ends of Baby Cashmerino from a couple of jumpers that I'd done for my nephew James, and this is just a brilliant yarn for little ones. It's machine washable, soft and has great stitch definition. It went down a treat. More details can be found on my Ravelry page: Hat for Rosa

Isn't she eeny-weeny? :) The hat has some space for her to grow into it, which will be handy. I'm sorely tempted to cast on another one almost instantly... I'm going to be strong for now, as my "to knit" list is starting to look a bit precipitous. I do after all have plans for Rosa that include some of a very special new yarn...

Getting ahead with present knitting... or trying to anyway!

I have a terrible attention span when it comes to knitting. You might have noticed...

I'm still working away on my Still Light Tunic - I'm reaching the point where I want to knit less on it as I don't actually want to stop knitting with this incredible cashmere/silk (Fyberspates Ethereal) yarn. It has been SO enjoyable. I passed the tunic round at knitting last week, and encouraged people to put their hands into the finished pocket - the looks on faces as they touched the fabric was hilarious! I think I'll have to beat people off from stroking me when I wear the finished dress! In order to prolong the knitting just a bit (there are about 8 inches still to do and they are counting down quickly...), I've been working on the Hats, and I've also started with my Christmas knitting.

I have in the past, sworn off gift knitting at least two or three times (maybe even more). It's a double-edged sword. I really do enjoy giving my hand-knitted projects away. I feel like it's a real expression of love and attention to give someone something that I've spent so long working on. But at the same time, I miss my hand-knits terribly once they are gone. I like to see them from time to time, and to know that they are being loved and enjoyed. There's no worse thought that that of a precious hand-knit languishing in a drawer somewhere; unloved. The other part of the equation is the deadline bit. Nothing turns a completely awesome-in-all-possible-ways project into a millstone more quickly than a deadline. I DETEST the feeling that I have to complete a project for a particular date. I HATE feeling that I can't flit around and knit whatever I fancy, because this one project must be done in time.

Really, having read all this, I bet you're wondering why I bother?! Well, when it all comes together and I knit the project in my own time, and the recipient loves it, and I spot it out and about when they're wearing it. There is NOTHING better. Add to that the creeping realisation that most of the people we give gifts to have no real need of more material goods - it's nice to give something that symbolises more than just "I spent £20 on this for you". Time is the most precious thing that I have to give. I really love to knit on a project filling it with good thoughts and prayers and hopes and desires for its recipient.

So this is the plan for Christmas knitting 2012.

I've offered hand-knits (or quilts but no-one took me up on that) to family members, with the clear understanding that they are only to accept if they really want something. We are more than happy to buy presents - there should be no obligation to accept a handmade present! To this end a few have put in their requests, and I think that I have a list which will be both enjoyable and manageable to work through between now and Christmas. Hopefully Christmas knitting stress-meltdown will be avoided! First up is some socks for Mum. She picked some Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn from my stash and also selected the Mermaid Sock pattern by Lucy Neatby. I love this pattern! It's one of the main reasons that I first wanted to knit socks - it's so clever the way it spirals!

This is my first time working the pattern with the wavy cuff rather than the sideways garter stitch option, and I'm really pleased with how it looks! I'm about 3/4s of the way through the first sock, and it's still early in November so this is looking good so far, don't you think?

Are you making anything as Christmas presents? Please do let me know if you have any tips for getting presents made without it sending you loopy!

A Tale of Two Hats

This post is one of contrasts. If you're taking part in Woolly Wormhead's Mystery Hat KAL, and you want to avoid spoilers, then do come back and read this post another day. There is a spoiler picture later on. You've been warned!

The first Hat that I want to tell you about is actually a bit of a sad tale... Back in October 2010 (thank you Ravelry for helping me keep track of these details!!), I knitted Community Gardens by Melissa LaBarre, using some lovely Crystal Palace Merino 5 Solid. It was part of my slightly bonkers Green Hat Phase, and I knocked the pattern out in just one day. I loved the Hat and I loved the yarn. Then my sister in law saw the Hat and she loved it too, so it became her Christmas present.

I looked forward to knitting another Hat in this yarn for me - after all, the shade is the exact match of my Namaste handbag, so it was surely meant to be? Fast-forward 2 years, and I'm bitten by the Hat bug (yes, you're to blame Woolly!!). I've finished the first installment of the Mystery Hat KAL, so I decide to cast on for a new Hat. This Merino 5 Solid will be perfect, as it's worsted weight (a heavy DK for UK types), and so it will knit up really quickly. I might even knock out another Hat in it before the next instalment of the KAL arrives on Friday... Or at least, that's what I was hoping...

I decided against knitting Community Gardens again. Not because I don't like the design - I do! But just because it's always nice to do something new. So I went over to Ravelry and did a search for Worsted weight Hats for which I already have the pattern in my library. There were quite a lot of options! But the winner was KoolHaas by Jared Flood (one of my favourite designers). I have always liked this design - the way that the cables merge into the head is SO appealling.

I cast on in front of Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday evening, and set off. I hit my first stumbling block a few rows in, when I found a section of yarn where one of the 2ply strands that the yarn is made from had broken. Since there are seven 2ply strands, I didn't worry about it too much. I carried on knitting and sewed the broken ends into the fabric. About 3 rounds later the same thing happened. And then there was a section with three strands broken. And I got a fair way into the cable section, all the time telling myself that it was OK, and I could just weave the ends in and it would be fine.

And then there were more. I got disheartened, and decided that really this wasn't going to be any good, when I came to an area with all but 2 of the strands broken. I admitted defeat and have ditched the yarn. I'm really sad, as I'm fairly sure that this must have happened while the yarn was in my care. It was fine when I knitted with it 2 years ago, but it really isn't fine now.

My first panic was that it was moth damage. But there were no areas where the yarn was entirely eaten through, and the broken areas weren't lined up in the ball in any way, so that seems unlikely. This ball had previously been knitted into a swatch, so maybe something happened at that point. Or perhaps the ball got scratched against something in my stash. Whatever it was, the yarn was too damaged to knit with. So with great regret I pulled out the half knitted Hat and have ditched the yarn. I will need to find some other worsted weight yarn to knit a KoolHaas though as I was enjoying it SO much!

In happier Hat news, I have completed the first section of my Mystery Hat KAL. Look away now if you don't want a spoiler...

The band is complete, and I've been looking in my button stash for a suitable button, but nothing quite works. I think that I will probably make a button with any leftover yarn. The book I'm working on at the moment has a lovely tutorial for Wheelhouse Buttons (or Yorkshire Buttons), so I might have to give that a test. In the interests of trying it out you understand...

I'm using UK Alpaca DK which is a BFL/alpaca blend and is a delight to use. I've not blocked the band yet, but I have a feeling that it will just be even more glorious once that's done.