Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Unravel 2014

What a brilliant day out! I'm sure that by now you will have seen a number of post-Unravel blog posts, all agreeing on what a lovely show it is. Never mind, I'm going to wade in and add my praise as well!

Before I had even got in the car to drive to Farnham, I had fallen in love with this skein of beautiful Entwist from Skein Queen! I was over the moon when I discovered that it hadn't already been snapped up, so I have given it a new home here in Somerset. It's destined to become some plain vanilla socks, just as soon as I get it wound up. When I first started knitting socks I went a bit mad on variegated and self-striping yarns. I knitted pairs and pairs of crazy socks, and then I got bitten by the cable and lace bugs and started to realised that patterned socks usually need more sensible yarn choices - solid or semi-solid at the most - if you want people to actually be able to see the pattern. Looking at my sock yarn collection before I left home, I realised that I now have very little fun yarn for a straight pair of socks! Given that these days I need to have some super-simple knitting on hand, for the evenings when my brain just can't cope with a chart or anything more complex than stocking stitch, this needed fixing!

My only other yarn purchase was a ball of Toft's new 100% British wool, Ulysses in the aran weight (also available in DK and chunky). Quite a few of my friends have mentioned how amazingly soft, and yet still woolly, this brilliant new yarn is, but I was not prepared for how soft! It is properly next-to-the-skin soft. And it's 100% British wool! I know! Isn't that fantastic? It really does need to be felt to be believed. You can find it on Toft's website here: Ulysses (dangerous and possibly pocket emptying link alert!!). My ball is destined to become a hat, just as soon as I decide how many stitches to cast on...

Like last year, I stocked up with a heap of Tilly Flop cards. I love the newest additions too - knit tattoos!!

It was brilliant to be able to catch up with so many knitty friends in one place - particularly as it has been a whole year since I've seen most people. I was treated to a few bits and bobs too. First up is Rachel Coopey's new book: Toasty

I'm casting lots for what to make first - either Eppleby or Ripon probably... All of the designs use Titus (the 4ply yarn from Baa Ram Ewe), which is a lovely woolly confection. Since I'm working on my stash, I think I'll most likely be using some Excelana 4ply that I have already. I took the book to knitting last night, and it was MUCH admired. Gorgeous designs!

  

Belinda and Wendy from True Brit Knits was there, and kindly gave me a couple of their ace knitting notebooks as well as a Knitter badge to match my Head Girl badge from all those years ago! The notebooks have knitter's graph paper and plain alternating pages, with a chart key inside the front cover and a ruler in the back. They are brilliantly handy for sketching out an idea, or keeping track of and modifications you make when you're knitting a pattern. The last few pages are even detatchable so that you can pass them to someone or pop them in your project bag. What a great product! These, and the badges will shortly be available from their website, so I'll let you know once they are in stock.

Finally, Nic was very naughty, and treated me to one of the fantastically beautiful yarn bowls from Fyberspates (might be out of stock, but that's where they will be!). Apparently the puffin was irresistible! I'm keeping a close eye on it at home though, as we are a bird crazy family, and puffins in particular are not only my favourite...

I also picked up a copy of Knit Night by Louise Zass-Bangham plus coordinating beads, which is perfect for a skein of Juno Alice Sock that I've had kicking around for a while...

What a lot of lovely things! I wish that I was able to go to Unwind in Brighton later in the year, as it looks amazing, but I'm hoping to do a quilting workshop with friends in July, so that will probably be my next dollop of me-time fun. It was brilliant to have a day out, but also fantastic to get home and see everyone. I miss them when I'm out and about!

FO but not by me: Northmavine

I'm ashamed that it has taken me so long to blog about my finished Northmavine Hoody! Anyway, here we are now.

I've been alternating between my Northmavine Hoody and my Pippin jumper for the last few months. They are both perfect winter wear - warm and very easy to wear. I finally put my PIppin in the wash yesterday as it's been worn so much!

You may remember that I sent my half-finished Northmavine sleeve along with all the yarn away to an extremely kind friend who offered to finish it off for me. The prospect of slow progress (due to a chronic lack of knitting time on my part) was killing my knitting mojo, and really I just wanted to be wearing it!

Frances worked miracles for me, and I received the finished cardigan back amazingly quickly, with just the zip needing sewing in. It was so tempting to chuck it on and not worry about the final finishing, but I took my time and basted the zip in first to check the fit, and then carefully back stitched it behind the zip teeth, and slip stitched it down along the edge as well.

I'm completely delighted with the finished cardigan! I wear it all the time - so much so that I gave up waiting for the perfect photo shoot, and asked one of the monkeys to take some pictures of me wearing it in the playground at school. The photoshoot was somewhat hampered by small people needing hugs, but you get the idea! The perfect jumper for the school run!

The pattern is from Colours of Shetland, by the ever-brilliant Kate Davies, and I used J&S 2ply Jumperweight with just one of the shades different from Kate's recommendation. It wasn't a purposeful change, just me not looking at the sample carefully enough at Wool Week 2012.

I can't begin to express my thanks to Frances for finishing this beautiful hoody for me. You are wonderful. Many, many thanks!

Winner! The Scrumptious Collection volume 3

And comments have closed...

The random number generator has spoken, and I can reveal that the winner of the book is Anna who left this comment: 

Numerous times I have knitted two right hand mittens instead of one right and one left...

A common and very irritating mistake! I've emailed you already Anna, so check your inbox. :)

If you haven't already, please do head back to the Giveaway post and read the comments - there are some completely classic knitting mistakes in there. It was also interesting from a technical editing point of view - some of the mistakes people make are so easily avoided if the instructions are more explicit...

If you missed out this time, then do head over to Fyberspates and purchase your own copy of the book, or just download the eBook from Ravelry for £12.00 by clicking here: 

WIP: Betty Mouat Cowl

This has been such a fast project to knit up, that it's almost a finished object before I've even had a chance to mention it here!!

This mess of knitting is the two halves of my Betty Mouat cowl, just waiting to be grafted together. I cast on just over a week ago, as this is a pattern that's been in my queue ever since it was first released. I bought the yarn at Jamieson & Smith in summer 2012, thinking I would knit it up before I returned to Shetland that October... Oh well!

Kate gives the option to work the garter stitch in the round with no purling, but since I really don't mind purling that much, I just worked it normally. This meant that the cockleshell lace ended with a p15tog. I have a feeling that this stitch might be why I've waited so long to cast it on, which was entirely unnecessary, as it's really very easy! Once you've slipped the stitches in order to drop the extra loops, you can purl the last of the 15 sts, and then simply lift the remaining 14 sts over the one you have purled. This will make much more sense if you're knitting the cowl at the moment! Otherwise it's probably just gobbledygook!

All I need to do now is to sit down and weave in some ends, before I get on with grafting the two halves together. I plan to spit-splice lengths of the yarn together while I'm grafting so that I don't have to pull too long a length of yarn through. Luckily the beautiful J&S Shetland wool is perfect for splicing together so it will be easy peasy. The hardest job is going to be deciding who this cowl wants to live with...

I have loads of wool left over from this project, as I've only made the small cowl. I'll be putting the leftovers on my for sale or trade page on Ravelry, so do drop me a message if you'd like to make this cowl too!

Edited to add: The yarn has now been claimed! Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in it. :)