Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

It's MY colour

A couple of my birthday presents really captured what I see as "my" colour palette. My knitting friends really did hit the colour theme nail on the head. First up was a skein of Posh Yarn Elinor in the Fair Wind and a Following Sea colourway.

Never before has a skein of yarn so perfectly emboidied my favourite shade of teal green. Kim, you hit the nail bang on with this lovely yarn.

Hot on the heels of the perfect yarn, was the perfect pair of socks! Jen knitted a beautiful pair of green socks for me. I have spoken before about what a treasure it is to be knitted for, and I really do apreciate every single stitch of this wonderful pair of socks.

I couldn't help but whip my feet out and display the glory of this fantastic creation! And on my return home, I noticed that the socks are exactly the same shade as my lovely Namaste handbag (the colour is actually much closer than it appears in the picture below).

If you take a look at either my stash or my projects pages on Ravelry, you won't be able to avoid noticing how much I love greens and blues, and particularly TEAL! If I could only have one colour for the rest of my life it would definitely be teal.

What would your colour be?

Running a close second in my favourite colour stakes would have to be red. You may have noticed that my blog has had a bit of a facelift... and I now have a brilliant colour theme (there's some teal in it, don't worry, it's just not obvious on the blog) and it's all organised! Nic has done all the hard work, and there are a few more exciting things in hand which will be revealed in due course...

Every Which Way

When you craft it is rare for other people to give you something they have made themselves. Yet when you do receive a handmade gift it is all the more special. As a knitter, I understand every stitch that makes up a beautiful finished piece and I appreciate the care and attention that goes into each one.

I was hoping to have time to take some pretty, carefully-photographed pictures of this lovely gift, but the last few weeks have flown by, so this post will be illustrated by the pictures that just happened to be taken (they do give a good idea of just how much I've worn this lovely gift!).

 
The first night in France, eating Moules Marinières, pulling silly faces and wearing my Every Which Way.

To receive a hand-knitted gift from one of the designers I most admire leaves me pretty much without words. My first knitted garment was Heath by Sarah Hatton, and it totally hooked me into knitting. When I had the opportunity to work with her on The Knitter, it took me ages to pull myself together and stop acting like a dizzy fan-girl (I haven't totally lost the fan-girl, it's just better controlled these days!). Happily, since going freelance I've been able to continue to work with her. Over the last year or so we have shared our love of gardening, making food with home-grown ingredients, knitting, and most significantly perhaps, the colour teal. Given the choice, I would probably only wear teal and never knit in any other shade!

The gift is a garment that can be worn in oh so many ways. Here's my friend Jen trying it on at La Strada on a Saturday morning. She's wearing it cardi-style.

I'm a terrible enabler - Jen has now cast on for her own in Navy...

The shawl/waistcoat/shrug/poncho that Sarah has knitted for me is made from Rowan Cashsoft 4ply in teal (what other colour!?), but the design is also perfect for Scrumptious 4ply, which is what Sarah has used for her own shawl/waistcoat/shrug/poncho. If you fancy a bit of snuggle of your own, then Sarah's design is available to purchase through Ravelry. Here are the two of us having a good giggle at the Refuge Bingo Night at Knit Nation - thanks Lily for taking the pic!

   
Sarah's wearing hers shrug-style, while I am still clearly loving the poncho look! 

Thank you Sarah! I will treasure it.

The view from over here

As predicted, the return to work has been super busy. I'm ploughing through patterns for A Stitch in Time 2 for Susan Crawford, and it's not leaving much spare time for catching you all up with stuff! So given that this is where I am, I thought you might like a few views from my desk...

Both cats (Scooter on the left and Rhubarb on the right) like to keep me company while I work.

I'm picking multiple bunches of Sweet Peas every day still (how long can it last?).

And of course some yummy yarn...

I shall be back to tell you what I'm making with the Rowan Denim on the right.

Saturdays in Frome

There's nothing more pleasing to me than a relaxing Saturday pottering around Frome. Last weekend Nora joined me for a visit, and we hooked up with Jen and Cathy for some knitting at La Strada...

We swung by the Black Swan Arts and were taken with some lovely knitted items including this amazing dress (Inferno knitted dress made in lambswool by Elisabeth Hamlyn).

And after lunch (with yummy bits from the Farmer's Market), we headed off for a walk round Stourhead - truly one of my favourite places. We were lucky enough to avoid the rain and the hoards of visitors as we didn't arrive until late in the afternoon. It was blissful.

I love the look of the uncut grass on this side of the house. It's just pretty. Today it's pouring with rain, so I think that the sewing machine is calling me for an afternoon of finishing the wedding present quilt.

Sarah's got a blog!

Sarah Hatton has a new blog, and you can find it here: Sarah Hatton Knits

I'm so excited about it, I'm even bouncing up and down a little. Working with Sarah is always a complete pleasure - her emails make me giggle, so I am sure she will write giggle-some blog posts too. Her post today is about the socks I knitted for her. And doesn't she have great taste in shoes? What are they Sarah? Love them (1,000,000). Many of you will know what it's like having a new blog (you feel like you are talking to the ether!), so please do go and leave her some comments to encourage her onwards.

Sarah also has a website where she's publishing her own designs, and some are available through Ravelry as well. In fact Ravelry is a great place to see her designs all together: Sarah's designs.

Delicious Cable Cardigan pattern 
© Sarah Hatton

I recently tech-edited the scrummy cable cardigan pattern (oh for more knitting hours in a day!). And if that's not enough for you...
There's her Ravelry fan group: Sarah Hatton 
And she tweets as well: HattonKnits

P.S. I'm finally feeling as if I'm making some progress with the crochet (I just needed a bit of a kick with it, I think!). Pictures will follow in the next day or so...

Follow Friday

I know, I know, Follow Friday is a Twitter thing. You tweet the names of people that you think your followers should consider following, and add the hashtag #ff. This is a blog and not Twitter, but today, I'd like to recommend a blog, and suggest that it is a blog to follow.

And that blog is needled, written by Kate Davies.

I'm not even sure where to begin with reasons why I think you should head over there and read every post. Kate blogs the most wonderful mixture of awe-inspiring outdoor photography, fascinating textile history and delicious knitwear. Most of my knitting readers will no doubt already be more than familiar with her many talents, but even if you don't knit, this is a beautiful and interesting blog.

The most recent post includes a stop-motion animation that will make me smile all day long.

Thank you Kate for the work you put in to needled.

Classifying

My beautiful Ikea shelving finally arrived, and we spent time over the weekend putting it all together. I can't think of a nicer way to spend a morning, than organising my books, yarn and fabric. I had music to accompany me, and now I am the proud owner of colour themed stash.

See how the yarn is touching distance from my computer?

All of my pattern books are classified by subject, and the magazines are divided by publication (and yes, they are in date order too). With both parents having library/archives training, there was no alternative really!

It's nice to be looking out over the garden now, and even better to have some space around my computer. My old desk is still here, and I plan to use it from time to time, but it was very slim, and there just wasn't enough space on it to spread out charts and patterns. It was my Dad's desk when he was growing up, so it's not going anywhere, but I shall enjoy looking at it more than I enjoyed working at it.

Dad's desk.

And there's still room for my armchair, which is perfect for a bit of swatching, or more likely, for one of the cats to sleep on while I work.

I love my new work area, and I'm looking forward to having a balance of time spent here and time spent having fun.

Look what came in the post...

Beautifully parcelled, complete with an invitation to Fibre-East...

And a lovely card for me...

This amazing needle roll from Picperfic...

Big enough to hold all of my interchangeable needles - Knit Pro and Addi Clicks...

It was made by hand - with a close eye to all the details...

The needle sizes are embroidered on to the pockets...

And I love it!

Thank you Marianne for doing such a fantastic job.

Jen x

A flock of birthday birds

I'm not sure how it happened... but I seem to be in the midst of a flock of birds. There were bird cards, and many bird related presents. I wasn't particularly aware of talking about birds and how much I like them, but it must have seeped out somewhere along the line.

There was this beautiful wire owl (my favourite type of bird). Jim gave this to me, and it came from Mel Day's new shop on Catherine Hill in Frome. He has such a charmingly crooked face. It was love at first sight.

Then there was a gorgeous Moda Layer Cake (It's a Hoot range), from my parents in law, as well as a very pretty hanging bird from Jude, and a stunning hummingbird shawl pin from my Mum.

I tried the shawl pin out on my Bridgewater shawl today, and I can't wait to wear it out and about. Skein Queen stocks them, as well as some other fantastic designs.

I had an amazing day yesterday, it was fun from start to finish. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I hope that you will continue to enjoy the blog.

I'm off to chirp, chirp whilst doing a bit of knitting, I think.