Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Chocolate Chip and Everything Cookies

I first started making these cookies as a teenager. I used to make up huge batches, trying out all sorts of different combinations of fruit, nuts and chocolate. They didn't last long in the tin then, and they still don't today! I make up a large quantity of dough and then freeze a couple of portions, so that we can have cookies on demand at a later date.

Ingredients

225g butter
225g caster sugar
225g Muscovado dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 large eggs
525g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
100g walnut pieces
100g raisins
150g dark chocolate pieces
150g white chocolate pieces

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.

I use my mixer throughout, but you can equally use a mixing bowl and wooden spoon. Mix the butter, sugars and vanilla extract until they are paler in colour and smooth. Add a couple of tablespoons of the flour and mix well. Beat in the eggs one by one. Fold in the rest of the flour, salt, nuts, fruit and chocolate pieces. Mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

Divide the cookie dough into 3 portions. Place two portions in freezer containers and freeze until required. Spoon the remaining portion onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. I use an ice cream scoop and do half-scoops for each cookie.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. I like to take ours out when they are still a bit chewy. Cool on the trays until you can move the biscuits without them falling apart. Place on a cooling rack until completely cold, then store in an air-tight tin, or just eat them all straightaway!

When you are ready to use the freezer batches, take them out of the freezer and defrost overnight in the fridge. Then spoon them out and cook as before.

Go mad with the different possible fruit, nut and chocolate combinations! I like apricot, white chocolate and macadamia nuts; dried cherries, walnuts and white chocolate; hazelnut and dark chocolate; date, raisin and milk chocolate; in fact pretty much any combination of what is sitting around in our baking cupboard and needing using!

Happy baking!

FO: A Rainbow Quilt

I've been working on this quilt for years! I started work on it after receiving an Accuquilt GO! Baby Fabric Cutter for my birthday. I chopped up a rainbow pile of fat quarters that I bought many moons ago at Millie Moon. That must have been at least 4 or 5 years ago now, and the pile of strips of fabric just sat waiting for another two years or so.

Then some time around 2 years ago I started to sew them together. I used the Step Lively pattern from the Little Bits Quilting Bee book, the pile of rainbow strips and a Jelly Roll of white Bella Solids from Moda. Then it sat again for ages, unloved in a basket. About a year ago I started to take the long strips and sew them together - I blogged about it at the time.

And a few weeks ago, I finally knuckled down to tying the quilt...

And then I found a really clever machine sewn binding method on 52quilts.com: Susie's Magic Binding, and I knew I had to try it out on this quilt.

I need to practise this technique again - the Rainbow Quilt was MASSIVE and it made it really hard to keep the seams straight as I sewed the first side of the binding down. I wandered a LOT in the "in the ditch" sewing on the front of the quilt, but I'm assured that it doesn't matter! I would definitely use this method again, especially if I were in a hurry to finish a quilt.

And here it is, in all its 2mx2m glory! It's HUGE!

Sadly I can't show you the matchingly massive grin on the face of this quilt's recipient, but it has been in constant use since I tied off the final seam. Hurrah!

WIP: Mystery Shawl KAL & other delights from Gudrun Johnston

So, having almost instantly cast on Fantoosh! following its publication, I had another completely delightful shawl pattern make its way across my editing desk. This next one was the Mystery Shawl KAL from Shetland Trader (Gudrun Johnston), and again, I just couldn't resist! I tried to hold off until Fantoosh! was finished, but the glorious camaraderie and enthusiasm in Gudrun's group on Ravelry just swept me away and I had to cast on.

I'm using 2 skeins of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply in a lovely hand-dyed mixture of greens and purple. It gives an overall impression of grey, but when you look up close, it's mostly green with really intense flashes of purple. I'm planning to make the medium size and I just have a few more repeats of the first section, before I can make a start on the second clue.

Since October last year I've been steadily picking up my editing work again, and it's been a real joy to get back to working with Gudrun. I love her designs, her aesthetic, and her eye for interesting construction, working in harmony with every detail of the design. The Mystery KAL is the latest pattern that I've worked on for Gudrun, but just in case you missed them, here are Véronique and Mireille, two absolutely stunning sweaters, that she released earlier this year.

Images © Gudrun Johnston, used with permission.

Miracle of miracles, it's not just knitting that I've been steaming ahead with... I've also been sewing, so more about that very soon...

FO: Fantoosh!

I often fall in love with the knitting patterns that I edit, but it's not that often that a pattern crosses my desk and gets cast on as soon as the pattern is released! But that's what happened with Fantoosh! A beautiful shawl designed by my great friend and awesome colleague, Kate Davies.

It's been a while since I knitted a triangular shawl, and I had forgotten how much fun they are! I absolutely flew through knitting this. Cast on to cast off in under a month (and I got slightly distracted by another shawl in the meantime...)!

When I started knitting I didn't know who this would be for. I love the yarn, but it isn't a colour that I wear much, so I had an inkling that it might be a gift for a friend. I just wasn't sure who! The yarn is some absolutely delicious Touch Yarns Possum Merino 4ply that came all the way from friends in Australia (awesome gift!). It has blocked beautifully - holding the lace pattern well, and the stocking stitch sections are so even and flat. There is a slightly darker halo of presumably possum fibre that sits over the purply-pink of the main part of the yarn. It's really pretty!

The shawl was kindly admired in the playground when I was working on it, and I instantly knew where it would be finding a new home, once it was complete. I hope you enjoy wearing it once it's cool enough, Jo!

For those of you who enjoy a more geeky photo - here is my blocking picture. I tend to use my blocking wires, and a metre ruler. I thread the wires through all of the yarnover holes along the top edge, and then down the centre spine. I sprayed it liberally with starch, and then left it to dry completely.

Next up is another shawl, from another pattern I recently edited...

For more details on my Fantoosh!, see my Ravelry project page: JenACKnitwear's Fantoosh!