Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Growing

The garden is coming along by leaps and bounds. The recent rain has been particularly gratefully received. There are raspberries and strawberries that are ready to eat already.

Ripe Raspberries, begging to be eaten straight from the canes.

The broad beans are coming along nicely too - there's one plant that is twice as tall as the others. How does that happen? The pods are fattening and it won't be long before they are stirred into a risotto primavera.

Broad beads snuggling in their pods.

But we will have to wait a few more months before we can enjoy the Bramley's Seedling cooking apples that are developing slowly but surely on the tree outside my office window.

Downy skin on the cooking apples outside my window.

Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post if you would like to win a copy of The Scrumptious Collection volume 1, plus a skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious Yarn!

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

A quiet evening

Had a great day today - I came to London to meet my new nephew. Major cute factor. Then it was over to a restaurant near Mum's (The Copper Cow in Chiswick) for one of my favourite evening combinations:

Heaven in a glass...

Frozen Margaritas ccompanied by the irresistible Deluxe Nachos.

Scrummy Nachos

And this was all topped off with some very easy knitting in front of the telly. This lump will soon be a blanket for the nephew.

Garter stitch heaven.

I may not get time to blog tomorrow, as it's party day. But I'll be back on Sunday with the photos and inside story. Have a lovely bank holiday weekend!

Dress drama

I wept with frustration last night. It's silly, I know, but I was over-tired and very, very cross with myself. It all started innocently enough with needing something to wear for the press launch of the Scrumptious Collection (as well as a summer wedding and possible christening). I had a voucher for a good discount on an order from Boden, and having not ordered from them before, I thought it was worth a try for a pretty but comfortable dress. I placed an order for this lovely jersey dress in two size options.

The lovely parcel arrived yesterday and once work was done for the day, I set to trying on. After a bit of conferring with Jim, I decided on the smaller, print version of the dress.

Easygoing dress in Silver thrift flower print.

I skipped around in glee with my new dress, and decided not to change back out of it, as it was only an hour to bedtime. I should have known better.

Disaster struck!

I walked past a sleeping cat, whose paw was dangling out of the side of her basket. And she caught a claw in the fabric at the back hem, and it pulled...

Thread pulled in jersey fabric.

I roared with annoyance and disappointment. I had literally had the dress on for 30 minutes, and not even left the house, and its perfection was gone. I was so fed up.

So I sat down to try to gently stretch the fabric out, and hopefully ease the thread back in somewhat. It had really bunched the material up quite badly, so I wanted to try to get it lying flat again. I tried easing it with a fine needle - it is after all a knitted fabric, so I understand how the threads should lie.

And then it got worse...

A hole appeared.

The thread snapped a little further along the pull, and now I have a hole in my dress, with stitches hanging in mid-air just waiting to ladder, as well as a long pulled thread. I'm not proud of it, but I cried with annoyance. I felt like a child with a new toy, and some important plastic part snapped off as I wasn't being careful enough.

So, lovely clever people of the internet, how do I best fix this? I need to wear the dress on Saturday, and between then I have a ton of work to do and a new nephew to meet, so there's not really time to buy any clever stuff, or go to a seamstress with mad-fixing-skillz...

I do have, a wide range of cotton threads in different colours, some bondaweb, some of that stabilising stuff you can rip off after sewing, a sewing maching, poor hand-sewing skills, quilting fabric, and other such general crafting supplies.

The fabric is a very light jersey material (the dress is lined), so I'm worried that my fixing will make a heavy lump at the back that will be really obvious. I'm also worried that if I try to slip a needle through the hanging stitches to secure them, I will just make them ladder more, as the stitches are so small.

My best plan so far is to use some pale grey-lavender-ish thread, and some of that rip off afterwards stabilising fabric, and then to sew back and forth over the hole and pull, to create a sort of darned area. It won't be pretty, but at least I won't be worried about developing an even bigger hole.

With many thanks in advance for your assistance - is there another way?

More new designs!

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more new designs from me, three turn up in the same magazine!

Simply Knitting Issue 81 - on sale now!

Issue 81 is a cracking issue of Simply Knitting (even without my own contributions)! The free gift is a gorgeous little tin with a set of padlock-style stitch markers. My stitch markers went straight into use, and the tin is really adorable.

Kirstie (Technical Editor) has designed a gorgeous lacy tunic in Rico Creative Sport DK. It features a lovely lace pattern and is perfect to wear over leggings. If I had any knitting time for myself, this would be flying off my needles.

The Alan Dart toy is a brilliant doctor and nurse set - the level of detail on it is quite terrifying.

And then there are three quick knits from me. A beanie hat with lace around the brim, knitted in Louisa Harding Ianthe (DK). This is tucked away in the Quick and Easy section. Plus a fingerless mitten and cowl set knitted using just 1 skein of The Natural Dye Studio Queenie's Love (DK). The yarn is available for pre-order at the moment, so here are two great alternatives from different hand-dyers: Posh Yarns Francesca (available at the weekly update on Sunday evenings) and Juno Fibre Arts Pearl (also available from Loop in London). 

Aqua Ripples mitts and cowl set.

Just one skein of hand-dyed yarn is enough to knit both the mitts and the cowl. I really fancy knitting up a couple of sets to make for Birthday and Christmas presents. They are both knitted in the round, and not too complicated, so ideal for my tired brain.

Edit: I've updated the natural Dye Studio link as the yarn is now available for pre-order, click through here too: Queenie's Love.

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!

Weekend satisfaction

Things are busy at the moment. So here's a pretty picture of the weekend anticipation orchid now in full bloom. It took longer than expected, but good things are worth waiting for.

Phalaenopsis orchid.

Not all men are worthy of cashmere

But Jim certainly is.

Baseball jersey from Knits Men Want, designed by Bruce Weinstein.

I purchased the Lotus Yarns Cashmere DK from Skein Queen well before Christmas, with the idle thought that I would knit this sweater for Jim to have either for Christmas or for his birthday in early January... Then I got involved with the book, and things went crazy, and all personal knitting was put to one side in favour of swatching and making samples.

Saddle shoulder construction.

The sweater was very straightforward to knit, and perfect for tired evenings in front of the TV. I can't begin to describe what a pleasure the cashmere was to knit with. It's softer than anything else I've ever knitted with, and the blue in particular has a gorgeous halo.

I used 4 skeins of the blue and 3 skeins of the grey, so it's a light but warm jumper, and Jim seems really pleased with it. I've recorded the project on Ravelry here: Snuggly for Jim

The pattern was easy to follow, and it is written for a wide range of sizes and yarn gauges, so there are plenty of options if you want to use a particular yarn. The book from which the pattern is taken gives advice to people wanting to knit for men, and although at first glance the rules may seem a little patronising - I can't actually argue with any of them! And at the same time, Jim is without any shadow of a doubt, worthy of a great deal of cashmere (even if he doesn't look that comfortable as a model!).

Jim with his cashmere jumper.

Tirrold

Last, but hopefully not least, is Tirrold (Ravelry link).

 
Tirrold modelled by Lily France and photographed by Amanda France.

 Tirrold is a fitted sleeveless top, designed to be layered over a blouse or long-sleeved T-shirt. The pattern is written for two lengths - the short version shown here and a longer version. It's knitted using Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace in the slate shade, and uses 1 x 100g skein in all sizes apart from sizes 20 & 22 in the long version, which require 2 skeins. Kim expertly knitted the sample (what would I do without her?!).

Lace detailing.

The lace pattern on Tirrold starts at the armhole and the motifs get smaller as you go up to the top.

If you have enjoyed looking at the patterns for the Scrumptious Collection, then do stop by at Fyberspates and pick up your copy of the book. You will find the purchase page here.

Sonning

The penultimate design that I contributed to The Scrumptious Collection volume 1 is called Sonning. Having noticed that you don't often end up seeing the patterning on the wings of triangular shawls, I had in mind to design a shawl with a central lace panel and plain wings. Browsing through my collection of stitch dictionaries, I came across a lovely design that combined lace, twisted stitches and a wrapped, smocking-like technique. The pattern appealed to me instantly, and I knew that I had to incorporate it into a shawl.

Sonning shawl, photographed by Amanda France, sample knitted by Kim Hobley.

The stitch pattern creates a scalloped effect at the top and bottom, and the shawl quickly developed the affectionate nickname of Stingray for its shape. Kim did an amazing job of knitting the sample for me. The yarn used is Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace in the purple shade.

Lily France models Sonning with a little help from Nic.

You can find all of the technical details about this design on its Ravelry page here: Sonning

My last Scrumptious Collection design will be revealed tomorrow!