Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Masterclasses

Just in case you've had an unrequited longing to learn the Channel Island cast-on method, I thought you might like to know that I've got a Masterclass article in the latest issue of The Knitter (Issue 73). It's all about different cast-on methods and there will be an article on casting off next month as well.

And while we are on the topic of casting on... I've been asked a few times why it's sometimes "cast on" and other times "cast-on", so I figured I might as well commit the answer to the blog, and save on typing it out again. :) As you might expect, it all comes down to grammar.

If you are instructing someone to cast on a certain number of stitches, cast on is being used as a verb, and as such does not require a hyphen. E.g. Cast on 65 sts.

If you are describing a part of the knitted fabric, such as a cast-on edge, then cast-on is now an adjective, and it's common to hyphenate compound adjectives such as this. E.g. Return to the cast-on stitches and unzip the crochet chain.

Confusion starts when talking about types of cast-on method. E.g. The Channel Island cast-on. In these instances I tend to consider cast-on as an adjective to method, rather than as a noun in its own right. So even if the word method is omitted I hyphenate it.

I'm no grammar specialist, and I'm indebted to Helen Spedding on The Knitter for explaining this to me when I first started on the magazine (after I had just added hyphens to the start of every pattern just before deadline - oops!), but I do love a geek fact, and this seems to fall into that category quite nicely!

WIP: Italia Socks

There are occasions when I am ridiculously easily lead. All it took was a photo of pretty yarn, and the question, "Which one shall I send you?" and I found myself embarking on a World Cup Socks KAL. Thanks Rachel!

It was too much choice, so I left Rachel to decide which to send, and a few days later, I was the proud owner of the Italian ball of yarn. It's a very relaxed KAL. Just knit some socks in a team colour for one of the countries competing in the World Cup, and the team that's in for the longest wins. The other Rachel has a blog post over here if you want in (there's still time!).

As is often the case with striping socks, these are flying off the needles. I found myself knitting on them in bed on Saturday morning. I don't normally knit in bed, but it was a lovely relaxing start to the weekend, so I could be tempted to make it "a thing".

And now look at them!!! It's only Wednesday for heaven's sakes! I have absolutely no idea at all how they have grown so quickly, but I look to be on track to finish them before the World Cup is over and done with. Go me! To keep up with the competition, check out #WorldCupSocks on Instagram or Twitter (and do follow me on either of those - I'm JenACKnitwear on both).

Sorry to disappoint anyone who is currently wondering where the lovely yarn comes from... I'm afraid it is from the last World Cup, and Regia have since discontinued it. :-(

Talking of Rachel Coopey, she has a spangly new website. Oooh shiny! And what's more, if you can't get enough of my wittering here, then you can head over to her blog, where I will be chatting to her on a regular basis. Bookmark it now!

When Knitting Attacks!

Do you listen to podcasts? I used to listen to quite a few, but these days I only manage to keep up with a couple. I religiously listen to The Archers omnibus podcast after it's released on a Sunday (yes, I am old before my time...), and I more or less manage to keep up with The Knitmore Girls podcast, which is a knitting podcast presented by the mother-daughter team of Gigi and Jasmin. The Knitmore Girls is a polished production. They have a selection of different segments in each episode, and I really enjoy listening to what they've been up to - usually a selection of knitting, spinning and sewing. So, why am I wittering on about podcasts? Well, one of the segments they regularly feature is called "When Knitting Attacks!" And that is pretty much how my knitting has been for the last week!

I think that it was the Yarn Harlot who once said that experienced knitters don't stop making mistakes, they just make bigger mistakes more quickly! That's certainly how it feels this week.

First up are my Conina Socks. A beautiful pattern from my great friend Rachel Coopey. It's been pretty near the top of my queue ever since she released it in August 2012, and I've finally wound up some Fyberspates Sheila's Sock and cast it on.

It's a fantastic design, and very clearly written. There's no issue with either the pattern or the yarn; the error was entirely mine. I have been knitting happily from charts, almost since I first picked up my needles, with no problem at all. And for some reason, last week, I managed to start working from the top line of the chart, and worked down 12 rounds before I realised that I was working the wrong way through the chart. To make matters worse, I was also questioning in every round why the pattern in the panel wasn't matching up the way I was anticipating. The knitting wasn't making any sense to me, and yet I still managed to knit 12 rounds of the chart, before I realised my error and frogged it. I feel like it's some kind of testament to my faith in Rachel that I continued to knit, assuming that she knew what she was doing, all the while knowing that it was squiffy, before I stopped and thought about what was happening. Well and truly attacked by my knitting.

The photo above is of my reknitted sock, now happily starting from row 1 at the bottom of the chart, and lo and behold, everything lines up properly! Strange that!

My next tale of woe relates to my Scatness Tam (by Kate Davies, from Colours of Shetland). This seems to grow really quickly whenever I pick it up! But because of the number of balls of yarn, it just doesn't get picked up as often as I would like. Most of my knitting time is on the hoof - in the car, a few minutes in the playground, an hour at my knitting group on Tuesdays - and so small portable projects get worked on more often.

Anyway, I'm now on to the crown part of the pattern, and I was looking through my bag of yarn, and I noticed a ball of shade 1A (a just slightly off-white). "That's funny", I thought. "I wonder when I'll be using that?" And I peered at my draft-quality printed-out chart. It turns out that the centre of the main pattern panel should have shade 1A as the background shade, rather than the more oatmealy shade 202. Whoops! It doesn't bother me enough to reknit it, but slightly irritating, since Kate's original shade combinations are stunning. That brighter background in the centre of the main motif definitely would have added a zing to the hat. Hey ho! Life's too short. :D I shall amend the settings on my printer before I next print out a colourwork chart. It is, after all, perfectly clear on the chart in the book.

What a numpty!

Happily, my Blue Tit socks made their way off my needles without any hiccups, and my sock project bag is now empty, awaiting the arrival of some World Cup themed sock yarn from Rachel. Yes, I've got arm-twisted in to joining in with #WorldCupSocks by a pincer action from Rachel Coopey and Rachel Atkinson (follow that link to read more about #WorldCupSocks).

Now, I can't go too far wrong on plain socks... can I?!

WIP: Blue tit socks

Twitter, twitter... My socks are chirruping just like the birds in the garden!

I can't remember exactly when I cast on these socks, but this picture was taken last week on 4th June. And look how quickly they are knitting up...

That sock was finished yesterday afternoon at the park, and sock two is already on my needles! There's something about stripes that keeps me just knitting a few more rounds. It's unstoppable!

This yarn (West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in Country Birds) hasn't even been sitting in my stash for very long, as a quick trawl back through the blog reveals that I bought it in April. I'm doing really well this year at knitting more yardage than I'm buying. I talked about doing the Knit the Queue challenge last year, and in the end I don't think I really knitted anything from my queue. However, this year, it just seems to be working! I finished a few projects, and finally got around to casting on a few that I had been meaning to make for ages. I should really head over to the Ravelry group and post about it... Or I could just knit a few more rounds on those socks...

Getting ready to knit a sushi roll

Well there's a weird post title, if you're not familiar with EasyKnits' beautiful sushi sock rolls...

I've had this in my stash for what feels like forever, but for some reason I've not got around to knitting from it... And yes, there's what's stopped me right there: I know that you can knit straight from the end of the knitted panel, unravelling the panel as you go, but I also know that it would drive me crackers. I hate knitting with kinked yarn. It drives me bonkers.

So last weekend (or thereabouts) I finally got around to preparing it for knitting...

Finrstly I unravelled the panel and wound it onto my swift. It would have been best to wind it onto a niddy noddy, but I don't seem to have one any more, and my swift was already set up for another job. It worked.

Then I soaked the kinky-noodle-like yarn in a bowl of warm water and Soak. I left them there for long enough for the fibres to really relax.

Once the yarn was fully soaked, I gently squeezed out as much water as I could, without wringing it, and possibly stretching the yarn.

And finally I hung the yarn up over the bath, weighted down by another clothes hanger. It's not perfect, and you can see in the picture that the yarn is still a little bit wibbly-wobbly, but it is WAY better than it was. If I was really bothered I could soak it again for a bit longer, but now that it's all wound up I am itching to cast on for some socks. I just need to decide on a pattern that will do these lovely hanks proud. Any suggestions?

FO: Rainbow Socks

As promised, normal knitting content returns today, with a pair of finished socks!

It's always useful to have some "plain vanilla" socks on the go. I need to have a project that I can pick up no matter when or where and just do some knitting. Plain socks are what I carry around in my handbag for all those otherwise lost moments - in waiting rooms, in queues, in the car and anywhere else I have a few moments to spare.

These socks started life as a beautiful skein of Skein Queen Entwist that I purchased back in February at Unravel. I fell for the lovely rainbow effect with pops of jewel colours that Debbie had dyed. A skein that I had to buy; it just jumped into my hands! However, I always worry a bit with variegated yarns - sometimes once they are knitted up they suffer from the "plasticine effect". You know how it is... you mix some gorgeous colours together, but they end up just looking like a muddy brown mess. Skeins of yarn sometimes look their best in the hank, and not knitted up. Happily, this is NOT the case here! Debbie has worked some hand-dyeing magic, and the knitted fabric has retained that beautiful rainbow effect, with little pops of deep greens, blues, yellows and pinks. Perfect for some simple socks. :)

I'm not sure that they really go with my red DMs, but who cares?!

Now the question is, what to cast on next? Or should I just focus on my Scatness Tam...?

FO: Knit Night Shawl

I've really surprised myself by enjoying adding beads to my knitting! It's something I have wanted to try for a while, but have been put off by thoughts that it would be fiddly and annoying. What a surprise, that I really didn't find it that way! I think it helped that the construction of Knit Night (by Louise Zass-Bangham) means that the beading soon gets separated by long stretches of knitting, so you're not picking up and putting down the crochet hook too often.

The other thing that was a pleasant surprise was the length of the finished scarf. I've made scarves from one skein of sock yarn before and felt that they were just a bit too short, but this is perfect. As you can see here, it's wrapped around a few times, but look how long it is if you only wrap it round once:

It's massive! And really easy to wear.

The pattern includes various options for customising your scarf. I went for beads all round the edges, and an unbeaded eyelet border. My one criticism of the pattern would be that there are so many possibilities that it becomes a little hard to navigate, and for a beginner it might be tricky to work out where the instructions start. If you've knitted a few shawls and scarves though, this probably won't bother you.

 

Scooter was pretty determined to get in on the photography too!

The Juno Fibre Arts Alice Sock is perfect for a scarf or shawl - just buttery soft and with a light halo. Some of the fibres shed a little while I was knitting, but no more than I would expect from such a soft blend of fibre. I don't think I would use this yarn for socks however, as I'm not sure how well it would hold up in shoes, and I feel that the fabulous drape and softness of the knitted fabric would be completely wasted on my feet!

For more details on my finished scarf, head over to my Ravelry page: JenACKnitwear's Knit Night Scarf. It's been a productive fortnight, so there's another post on its way about some socks...