Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Happy birthday VT!

It's Veuf Tricot's birthday today. Happy Birthday Jim!

I shan't make this post too cheesy (well, I'll try not to, anyway!), but I would like to take this opportunity to share a few things you need to know about him...

First up, I'm very lucky to be married to a man who makes me laugh. Jim doesn't just make me laugh, he makes my sides ache and my eyes weep on a pretty regular basis. He has a wicked eye for the potential humour in my behaviour, and is generous in sharing it with the world. My favourite recent post of his is this one: Knitting The Queue - written before reality hit me and my aims for the year became a bit more realistic. If you don't already follow him on Twitter, or read his blog, then I recommend checking him out.

Secondly, he is generous and kind. Whether it's helping on the cake stall at Andyfest (aka the Bluefaced Open Weekender), or running the London Marathon for Refuge (a UK domestic violence charity), if Jim can help, then he does. If you haven't already, then please do consider making a small donation to the funds for this really worthwhile cause. You can find Jim's Just Giving page here: Jim Culliford Just Giving

And finally for now, Jim is talented. More talented than he'll ever admit to. You may not realise this, but Jim already has 2 knitting designs published in magazines (Simply Knitting and what was Knitting Today! in the US). You can see his designs on his Ravelry page here: James Arnall-Culliford deisgns. And there are more to come... I can't wait to share pictures of what he's come up with! To give his Refuge fund-raising a bit of a boost, Jim is collaborating with three of his favourite UK hand-dyers. (Yes, for all his protesting, he actually knows a LOT about knitting and yarn!) The wonderful Jeni at Fyberspates, awesome Debbie at Skein Queen, and fabulous Sarah at BabyLongLegs are all dyeing up a limited run of special Refuge colourways to complement his designs. Thanks also to the generosity of Andy at Bluefaced.com, who has donated the base yarns, a large proportion of the money from sales of these yarns will be going to Refuge. So what has Jim designed? Well, you'll have to wait a bit longer to see the specifics (and don't worry - I'll be shouting about it when it's all set!), but I can tell you that it will be a series of 3 designs around the theme of Ready, Steady, Go! And they will be available to buy individually, or as an eBook, with all proceeds (after Ravelry and PayPal fees) going to Refuge. We can't wait to get on the starting blocks.

Happy birthday VT!

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...

SnB: Julie's Balls Update

I think it's fair to say that Julie's balls were very popular when I first posted about them. To briefly recap the story - Julie was given a copy of the Arne & Carlos Christmas Balls book for Christmas last year, by some of her family. She took this as a request to knit her way through the whole book and made every single ball as a gift to give back to the family for Christmas this year. There were comments on the blog post, as well as lots of likes and comments on Twitter and Instagram. A few people mentioned that they would love to see the balls all on a Christmas tree...

Fast-forward a few weeks, and Julie has given the box of all 55 of Arne & Carlos's Christmas Balls to her family. They heard about how the balls had been a big hit on my blog, and came over to read about it. Being the lovely kind people that they are, the noticed that a few people had said how nice it would be to see them on a tree, and set to work...

They got home from Christmas travels and undressed their beautiful Christmas tree, and redressed it with the fabulous collection of Christmas balls, lovingly knitted by Julie. And then they took some photographs for you all to see...

What an amazing present that box of balls must have been to open. I would have loved to see the look on their faces...

Many, many thanks to Barry and family for taking the time to re-dress their tree, take photos and to send them to me so that I could share them with you. We can't wait to hear what you gave Julie for Christmas this year...

WIP: Corlyna Cardigan

I had intended to make the pretty Corlyna Cardigan (by Belinda Boaden) from the Scrumptious Baby Collection as a Christmas present for my new niece Rosa. Life rather got in the way of my plans, so instead, I cast it on over the Christmas break. We were all staying down in Dorset with Jim's parents, and my nephew Alex (aged 6) decided that he wanted to do some knitting. Funnily enough, the cardigan starts with a little garter stitch neck border, so we sat together and Alex knitted the first few rows with not too much help from me at all. He was very pleased with himself, and I can't wait to show him pictures of the finished cardigan he helped to make. It's not quite there yet though...

The yoke is complete (that cluster stitch pattern isn't too tricky with sufficiently pointy needles and a bit of patience - I made a You Tube video of it some months back), and I've done nearly all of the sleeves. I decided that I'm too lazy to sew sleeve seams, so I did them in the round using the magic loop technique. If you follow the pattern as knitted, it's all worked flat, with not too much finishing required. The second sleeve is almost done and then it should be plain sailing all the way down the body to the hem.

The stitch pattern on the yoke is really pretty - Alex thought it looked like flowers, and I'm torn between flowers and little shells. I'm not sure what sort of buttons to use, but at the moment I'm considering something really contrasting - possibly a loud orange or pink!

The yarn is an absolute delight. It's Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/Sport in the Jen's Green colourway, and this is great for children's garments as it is 45% silk and 55% superwash merino - both super soft and practical too!

You can see my project notes and all the details over on my Ravelry page here: JenACKnitwear's Corlyna Cardigan

Once this is complete, I need to crack on with a cardi for littlest nephew. This one is a new design, and was nearly complete before Christmas, before I decided that there was a better way to do it and pulled the whole thing out. This is why I don't normally do too much designing - my projects need to spend too much time on the naughty step before I am happy with them! It will hopefully be worth it though!

A Time of Reflection

It's inevitable to spent a bit of time at the New Year reflecting on the old year, and looking forward to the New. This year, more than ever, I think that the New Year marks a turning point in my life. 2012 has been a good year. There have been inevitable ups and downs (that's what life is all about, isn't it?), but overall, it has been positive.

I have done a LOT of crafting in the last year. A flick back through the blog tells me that I've completed 8 quilts this year. That's more than I had thought! If you want to look back over them, the Sewing Projects category will take you back through everything I've sewn since I started the blog.

I've done plenty of knitting too - you can see all of my 2012 projects on my Ravelry set for 2012 here: JenACKnitwear's 2012 projects. I was quite surprised when I looked back over the knitting, that there was only one completed adult garment last year. I completed six adult garments in both 2010 and 2011, so to only have managed one seems a bit paltry in comparison. That said, the one and only garment was the Still Light tunic in what was essentially a 3ply weight yarn, so I shouldn't count that as anything other than a big achievement. I might not be apparent, but I've actually also done quite a bit of work on my Golden Wheat Shawl, which is also a massive project.

It's been a great year for my business, as I've been lucky enough to work on some fantastic projects with many of my favourite designers. I couldn't ask for more on that front really!

And at home, 2012 feels like it has been the end of the beginning. Jim and I expressed our first interest in adoption at the end of January 2012, and at the end of December we have signed off on our Prospective Adopter's Report. In terms of the journeys of life, this is the start of a massive one for both of us.

So, what about 2013? Well, it's going to be a year of change. Jim and I are at the Adoption Approval Panel at the end of January, and then we'll be waiting to hear about potential matches. We've done so much preparation to reach this point (the report ended up being 28,000 words in total - who knew that there was so much to say about us!), but really no amount of preparation will make the transition any less enormous.

I've been thinking about what sort of crafting goals I want to aim for in 2013. I was very taken with Mooncalf's Knit the Queue plan, as I have so many lovely projects in my queue and gorgeous yarns all ready and waiting in my stash. But having thought more about it, I wonder whether that's actually putting too much pressure on myself. I think that aiming to complete one of the two projects that were on my needles at the start of 2012 might actually be a more realistic target. Those projects are my Golden Wheat Shawl, and the Shetland sampler that I started in May 2008. I would also like to finish up the other WIPs that I have on the go too. But thinking seriously about the changes ahead, I wonder whether even that might be too much.

For now at least, I would like 2013 to be the year that I learn to "go with the flow" just a little bit more than normal. If I feel like knitting on a massive lace shawl with no apparent purpose, then that's what I'll do; but likewise, if I want to crank out a wardrobe of clothes for the new additions to our family, then the stash and queue will just have to wait. Who knows what's around the corner, but I'm excited to find out...

FO: Summersville Quilt for Jane and Nigel

I can now share pictures of the quilt that I made for my parents-in-law for their Christmas present. They seemed really pleased with it, and once it was in place on their bed, Sid the cat wasted no time in making it his space. That's a pretty good endorsement of a new quilt in my book!

This quilt was quite a long time in the making... I started the piecing at the quilting weekend we had in Frome back in July. Goodness that seems like an age ago!

I played around a bit with the block layouts before picking the final arrangement. Here are the options that I looked at...

This is the classic Furrows arrangement of log cabin blocks.

A few people on Twitter liked this 4 diamond arrangement.

But the winner - by quite some margin - was this Barn-Raising arrangement. So I sewed the blocks together in that arrangement over the quilting weekend, and the top then languished on the side for weeks and weeks, while I steeled myself for making pieced borders for it.

Sometime in November I got some sewing mojo back and completed the borders - even managing to get half of the corners to match up perfectly in my first mitred border.

I'm not sure if that was brilliant technique (thanks for the tips Anne!) or just beginner's luck. I certainly found it more intimidating to do than my normal arrangement, but I'm sure that I'd get more confident with practise though.

Are you ready to see the finished quilt?

This is the back! I pieced together all of the leftover bits, the spare lengths of Summersville, and added them to the plain red. This was just enough fabric to make up the back.

I sewed a label in calico - I used a split stitch over lettering that I traced from a printout I made in Word. Simple, but effective. I fixed it to the quilt with bondaweb and then blanket stitched it down.

Here's a peek at the corner...

And, TA DAAAA! The whole thing.

I finished with the smallest of margins - the last stitches were complete on Christmas Day in the evening, and we exchanged presents with my in-laws on Boxing Day. My Mum helped by holding up the quilt for photographs in the morning, before we drove down to Dorset to see Jim's family.

The quilt used 0.5m each of 8 fabrics from the Summersville range by Lu Summers from Moda. I also used about 3.5m of plan red fabric for the centre squares, framing border, binding and backing. The finished quilt is about 56in square (1.4m square).

SnB: Ornament Swap and other bits and bobs

We had our annual ornament swap at the Frome SnB group last night, and it gives me a good opportunity to share some more of the work of this talented group!

This is the total haul of gifts swapped - what Christmassy delights! I was lucky enough to receive the beautiful mini-Aran jumper in cream at the bottom. This was knitted by the ever-so-talented Mary Henderson (who by the way has a fabby Fair Isle tea cosy in the subscribers' edition of The Knitter this month). What a lucky duck I am!

Among the other handmade treats were some amazing handmade chocolates (top right, made by Jackie and received and enjoyed by Jen - I believe there were more before the photo was taken!); a couple of darling Christmas trees, one sewn and one knitted with beads; and a gorgeous knitted star that's from Rosee Woodland's design in Issue 50 of The Knitter (it has a cunning construction and is well worth checking out).

I contributed the cross-stitched mitten, which is made from the same pattern download as the Red Coat I blogged about previously. It's a great pattern, and I surprised myself by enjoying the cross stitching. I don't mind doing it, as long as I'm in love with the finished item. Too much of the cross stitch I've done in the past hasn't really had a purpose, and I'm as much of a product crafter as I am a process crafter. The process of cross stitching does little for me, so I have to be inspired by the product. And who wouldn't be inspired by this?

Apologies for the shoddy focus - I didn't realise until this morning, and it's now too late as the mitten has been gifted! :) If I had enough soluble canvas left I would be making another for our tree - these are some class A ornaments in Alicia Paulson's Snow Day Ornament Set. Highly recommended. There's nothing left but for me to make the polar bear. Clearly!

The front and back are different, with a totally knitwear-inspired design. I love it! And I'm sure that Sylvie does too. I tweeted a picture of this while it was in progress and Mimi (she also has a great article in Issue 53 of The Knitter about photographing your knits) asked me to comment on the soluble canvas... Well I can report that it was great! I used this DMC product, which I ordered from Sew and So (whose service I like a lot so far - based on two affordable and quick purchases): Soluble Canvas.

You can see that I cut out the design and blanket stitched it together with the soluble canvas still intact - this was really handy for keeping my blanket stitches neat and tidy. I'll take all the help I can get with that sort of thing... Wrapping paper with grids on the back? Yes please!

Once it was at this stage, I simply popped it in some tepid water and swooshed it around a bit. The canvas went a bit sticky, then slimey and gradually dissolved away with no trouble. I did have to rinse it a couple of times, as after the first wash it dried like cardboard, but after another soak and rinse it was fine. It certainly wasn't fiddly, which I've heard that waste canvas can be. I hope that answers your question Mimi! 

Before I sign off for the Christmas break, there are a few of other bits of news to share...

First up, Belinda Boaden and Wendy Baker of True Brit knits now have a group on Ravelry, so do come over and join us there - there will be wittering about all sorts of things, including London, knitting, cooking, cake and G&T! I'm thinking of making London Cowling fairly soon, so I'll be over there chuntering about yarn choices shortly...

Secondly, if you are thinking of making a charitable donation over the Christmas period, please consider donating to Jim's fundraising for Refuge (the UK's largest domestic violence charity, providing both practical support and shelter, and raising awareness of the issue). Jim is running the London Marathon for Refuge next year, and aiming for a frankly bonkers-sounding time (less than 3h 30min?!?). We have some fun knitting-related things planned for the new year, so keep an eye out here on my blog, or over on Jim's own blog: VeufTricot.

And thirdly, Susan is taking pre-orders for the Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover pattern. This is being sold to help to raise money for the Women's Land Army Tribute which it is hoped will be created at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. You can read more about the pattern and history behind it over on Susan's blog. I helped to edit the pattern, and it's not only a lovely piece but also a great cause.

So that's all for now folks! Have a very lovely next few weeks, whether you are celebrating Christmas or not. I shall be back around the New Year. Have fun, and happy knitting!

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

Shetland Heritage Patterns - more news!

When I posted about the Shetland Heritage Fair Isle Jumper last week, eagle-eyed Felix spotted that the design was familiar to her. She pointed me towards Mary Jane Mucklestone's excellent 200 Fair Isle motifs, and sure enough, on page 35 there was a photo of a jumper that appeared to come from the same design!

How I wished I had seen that photo before I wrote the pattern for Jamieson & Smith... But all was not as simple as it at first seemed.

I was lucky enough to have worked with Mary Jane last year, when I edited her lovely hat and gloves for the Knit Real Shetland book, so I dropped her an email to ask her if she knew any more about this lovely Fair Isle jumper in the photo in her book. Despite being in the middle of deadlines and travelling, she was kind enough to email me straight back, to let me know that the photo was from the Shetland Museum Photo Archive. You can see the picture in question over on their website here: Fair Isle Allover Jumper in photo archive.

I was fascinated! On looking closely at the photo, it seemed clear that the design was the same. There are so many different Fair Isle motifs, all in exactly the same positions, that there was no chance that this was a coincidence. However, it was also clearly not a photo of the same jumper before it was worn and cut into pieces... If you look closely at the motifs on the bottom band, you can see that in the cut up jumper I worked on in the archives, the motifs are unsymmetrical and "incorrect", whereas those in the jumper in the photo are correct. I speculated all sorts of explanations for the design similarities!

I fired off an email to Carol Christiansen at the Shetland Museum and Archives, to ask her if she knew anything about the Fair Isle jumper in their photo archive. I received this information in response:

The jumper in the photo of SM01003 is a replica of the one in pieces that you looked at (TEX 8943).  We went through a period in the 1990s of having replicas made of some items in the collection, so they could be used for handling, etc. but they were never exact replicas, using modern yarns in colours that were available at the time.  The replica was hand-knit in 1993 of machine-made yarn and the knitter ‘corrected mistakes’ she felt had been made in the original.  

So the photo is of a new garment knitted from the cut-up jumper in pieces that I worked from in the summer. It is interesting to see where the new photo-archive garment, and the new pattern I've written differ - I think that most of the differences come from the fact that I was writing instructions that had to work as a printed pattern for other knitters, whereas the knitter in the 90s was just making a one-off piece. The charts would have been even more enormous if I had kept to the arrangement of different motifs on front and back!

In related-news, Jamieson & Smith have released the kit for the Fair Isle Cap that I worked on at the same time. This is also a pattern written from an item in the archives.

That's a slightly bonkers-looking picture of me modelling it, when we were at J&S in October! It's knitted with a full lining, so there are 4 layers of fabric keeping your ears warm! Perfect for the icy cold weather we've had this week.

Here's a more sensible flat photo of it, so that you can see the lovely motifs incorporated:

© Jamieson & Smith

This hat also has a bit of story behind it, as it was purchased on eBay and donated to the Museum by Masami Yokoyama (designer of the delightful tea-themed tea cosy in Knit Real Shetland). It's a 19th Century hat, that was most-likely a fisherman's hat, designed and worn for work (unlike the jumper which was more of a fashion item). You can read more about how it was discovered and donated over on the Visit Shetland website here: Fair Isle Cap donated by Wool Week eBayer

As with the jumper, I've had to make some adjustments from the original artefact. The motifs were incomplete and confused up the back of the hat, as you can see below:

And the folded-up brim was just left curling over. In fact, the brim appears to have been knitted at a different time to the rest of the cap, as the colours are not quite the same, and the yarns slightly different. Carol advised me that this was likely to have originally had a knitted lining, so that was the construction that I used in the new pattern.

You can see the Fair Isle stranding poking over the top of the curled brim. There are pattern pages on Ravelry for both the jumper and hat: Shetland Museum and Archive designs

And both can be purchased as kits from Jamieson & Smith.

Happy knitting!

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. :)