April pattern round-up

This last month has been (nearly) all about haps. As I write, we're waiting eagerly to see the first proofs for The Book of Haps so we can iron out creases. I'd love to show off all of the amazing photos, but can't........yet. 

This is not a hap

We haven't been exclusively working on big book projects this month though. I've been working little by little on a couple of projects that won't be released until later in the year. Both of us have also had techniques articles published in magazines. Jen's most recent was in The Knitter issue 96 on pleats and tucks, her latest favourite things in the whole world and I've written about different methods for decreasing in Simply Knitting issue 146.

Gudrun Johnston has refreshed her Tirrick shawl pattern, with re-edited instructions, new charts and new photographs. It is worked in wedge sections, followed by the edging. You may recognise Ella Gordon, this year's patron of Shetland Wool Week modelling.

© Gudrun Johnston

Gudrun also has a brand new cardigan, Islay. It is sized to fit anyone from baby to adult and features the diagonal lace patterning and an i-cord bind-off at the neck. 

© Gudrun Johnston

Bristol Ivy is incredibly clever with her designs. This is Occam, no ordinary garter stitch scarf.

© Bristol Ivy

It is simply stripes, but by careful use of increases and decreases, the stripes become more and more pointed into chevrons as you work along the scarf. Basically, it's a study in gradient pointyness.

In a month of cleverly designed neckwear, Ella Austin's second instalment from her Colour and Line collection really catches the eye. Her Rachel Castle inspired Venn scarf is essentially a tube that lies flat to give the impression of overlapping circles. Because all of the ends are within the tube, it looks the same on both sides.

© Emma Solley

Don't forget to join our Ravelry group to keep up to date with what we're up to.

Jim 

March Pattern Round Up - 2

March was a busy month for publishing patterns, so here's the second half of a post that should probably have been called, "What We've Been Up To."

Anyone familiar with Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People, Interweave Knits, or Pom Pom Quarterly will know the name Bristol Ivy. Her designs are innovative in their construction and she thinks about space in a way that would stop my brain dead for days. Jen worked on her Selkie Hat and Mitts for Taproot magazine. Taproot is not a knitting magazine, but a quarterly magazine for "makers, doers and dreamers." Looking at the website immediately put me in mind of Oh Comely, or Selvedge.

The cables in the hat and mitts are inspired by the myth of the selkie and movement of water on the shoreline, the ripple of seaweed just under the surface and the gentle patterning of a seal's skin.     

Selkie Hat and Mitts (Photo ©Carrie Bostick Hoge for Taproot)

Ella Austin publishes as Bombella and you may have seen her recent collection of colourwork animals, Dovestone Smallholding, with Baa Ram Ewe knits. Her Delta Hat and Mitts are the first patterns to be published from her graphic inspired Colour and Line collection. She is releasing a pattern a month and patterns can be bought singly, or altogether. I've misplaced my mitts that I wear in the office when it's chilly, so may have to whip up a pair of Deltas to stay warm until summer comes (if ever it does). 

 Sue Stratford runs The Knitting Hut and has a large back catalogue of knitted toys. That's not her only skill, as her Swanpool Cardigan shows. It is worked top down and features mock cable details on the yoke to give it an interesting look.

April has started busy and there should be plenty to share in a month's time. Hopefully I'll be able to share some sneaky peeks from the Book of Haps too!

Jim 

March Pattern Round Up - 1

Hi, I'm Jim. I've been half of Arnall-Culliford Knitwear Ltd. since last September. One of the most common questions I was asked when I changed jobs was, "What exactly will you be doing?" So, for those who've asked that question, here's what I've been up to.

Each month I'll be putting together a digest of published projects and patterns that we've worked on. March has been particularly busy, so I'll split things in half.

We pattern write and check for both Stylecraft and Yarn Stories and it's deeply satisfying to see the designer's intentions translated into a garment, particularly when you've really had to work hard to produce a pattern that works for a range of sizes. The Botanics collection from Yarn Stories has a range of spring/summer garments and we're both really pleased with how they all look, but particularly those we worked on.  

Sequoia (Photograph ©Charlotte Johnson)

 After turning out extra sizes for Mary-Jane Mucklestone's Stopover sweater, featured in the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog's Bang Out a Sweater KAL, the next pattern we looked at for her was the Nash Island Sweater. Designed to be a throw on/throw off affair, it is knit in flat pieces and features a modified drop shoulder and a lace-up placket.  

Nash Island (Photo ©Kathy Cadigan)

  We're deep in edits for The Book of Haps that we're working on with Kate Davies. As someone who is never not thinking about design, she's published three new patterns in the last month.

Funyin is exactly what is sounds like - a fun hat. Inspired by a Hornsea Pottery cruet set, designed by John Clappison, it really is eyecatching.  

Photo ©Kate Davies Designs

 Miss Rachel's Yoke and Gauntlets are named after Rachel Kay Shuttleworth, founder of the textile collection at Gawthorpe Hall, near Burnley. The colourwork on the yoke of the sweater and the gauntlets was inspired by a Kashmir shawl from the collection. 

Miss Rachel's Yoke and Gauntlets (Photo ©Kate Davies designs)

While all of these have a different feel and style, we pride ourselves in making sure that the patterns are concise but comprehensive to ensure that anyone can have a go at making anything that crosses our desks.

There's loads more to share with you and that will be in the next round-up post.

Jim

Toasty Volume 2

I have the enormous privilege of editing for Rachel Coopey. I may have mentioned my love for her a few times before on the blog... But it never gets old. 

Rachel's latest book is the second in her Toasty series, showcasing the beautiful Titus 4ply from Baa Ram Ewe. This is a truly beautiful yarn. The colour palette is stunning, and it works brilliantly in both colourwork and in textured knits.

If you're thinking about knitting accessories over the next few months, then definitely check out the patterns in this collection. As well as the 7 hats there are also a pair of mittens and a lovely cowl - guaranteed to keep you snug as the temperature drops!

Jim and I worked on this collection over the summer and it's such a thrill to see our names together in a pattern book - more on this to come...

You can order a print copy of Toasty volume 2 from Rachel's online shop (and each print copy comes with a code to give you a copy of the eBook as well): Print Toasty 2 £12.00

Alternatively, if you're having the urge to CAST ON NOW, then you can download it instantly from Ravelry for £12.00. You will be Toasty!

Yokes

With all of the children now at school, I have returned to a bit of editing work. It has been lovely to pick up the threads of life before I became this new "Mummy person". I've missed my regular Skype chats with clients, and I didn't realise quite how important it is for me to use my brain for more than the juggle of family scheduling, food and clothing stock control, and washing. I love those things too, but alone they aren't quite enough.

I've been doing a small amount of regular editing and writing work for Rachel Coopey since earlier in the year, and it's kept my toes in the water a bit. However, I really just dived in at the deep end in October, and worked on the secondary checking of Yokes for Kate Davies. What an amazing project to be a part of!

For the first time, I worked closely with another technical editor, Rachel Atkinson. Not only was it brilliant fun to be back working with Kate and Nic, but having someone to bounce technical questions off was also a joy. Boy did it feel good to be back!

If you've not yet seen a copy of Yokes, and you have any interest in knitting, fashion or textile history, then go and buy a copy! It's a great read over and above having eleven beautiful garments (all with a yoked construction, but not all recognisably classic yoked sweaters). Jim idly picked it up off the sofa, and later commented what an interesting read it was! Kate's research has taken her to Sweden, Iceland and Shetland, and the stories she's uncovered are fascinating.

I'm torn as to which garment to knit first - there are so many that leapt out at me...

         

These are my top 3... Ásta Sóllilja, Epistrophy and Fintry (the photos above will all enlarge if clicked on). Of the three, Fintry is the only one that I have suitable yarn for, so naturally that should be first. However, it's also the finest gauge at 4ply compared to DK for Epistrophy and Aran for Ásta Sóllilja. So I might have to make a strategic plan...

What a treat to work with such inspiring material! I spend a lot of time at my desk wishing I could edit and knit simultaneously!

I can't wait to share the next book project I've been involved in, which is about to go to press. Yay!

All images © Kate Davies Designs and used with permission

Shetland Heritage Patterns - more news!

When I posted about the Shetland Heritage Fair Isle Jumper last week, eagle-eyed Felix spotted that the design was familiar to her. She pointed me towards Mary Jane Mucklestone's excellent 200 Fair Isle motifs, and sure enough, on page 35 there was a photo of a jumper that appeared to come from the same design!

How I wished I had seen that photo before I wrote the pattern for Jamieson & Smith... But all was not as simple as it at first seemed.

I was lucky enough to have worked with Mary Jane last year, when I edited her lovely hat and gloves for the Knit Real Shetland book, so I dropped her an email to ask her if she knew any more about this lovely Fair Isle jumper in the photo in her book. Despite being in the middle of deadlines and travelling, she was kind enough to email me straight back, to let me know that the photo was from the Shetland Museum Photo Archive. You can see the picture in question over on their website here: Fair Isle Allover Jumper in photo archive.

I was fascinated! On looking closely at the photo, it seemed clear that the design was the same. There are so many different Fair Isle motifs, all in exactly the same positions, that there was no chance that this was a coincidence. However, it was also clearly not a photo of the same jumper before it was worn and cut into pieces... If you look closely at the motifs on the bottom band, you can see that in the cut up jumper I worked on in the archives, the motifs are unsymmetrical and "incorrect", whereas those in the jumper in the photo are correct. I speculated all sorts of explanations for the design similarities!

I fired off an email to Carol Christiansen at the Shetland Museum and Archives, to ask her if she knew anything about the Fair Isle jumper in their photo archive. I received this information in response:

The jumper in the photo of SM01003 is a replica of the one in pieces that you looked at (TEX 8943).  We went through a period in the 1990s of having replicas made of some items in the collection, so they could be used for handling, etc. but they were never exact replicas, using modern yarns in colours that were available at the time.  The replica was hand-knit in 1993 of machine-made yarn and the knitter ‘corrected mistakes’ she felt had been made in the original.  

So the photo is of a new garment knitted from the cut-up jumper in pieces that I worked from in the summer. It is interesting to see where the new photo-archive garment, and the new pattern I've written differ - I think that most of the differences come from the fact that I was writing instructions that had to work as a printed pattern for other knitters, whereas the knitter in the 90s was just making a one-off piece. The charts would have been even more enormous if I had kept to the arrangement of different motifs on front and back!

In related-news, Jamieson & Smith have released the kit for the Fair Isle Cap that I worked on at the same time. This is also a pattern written from an item in the archives.

That's a slightly bonkers-looking picture of me modelling it, when we were at J&S in October! It's knitted with a full lining, so there are 4 layers of fabric keeping your ears warm! Perfect for the icy cold weather we've had this week.

Here's a more sensible flat photo of it, so that you can see the lovely motifs incorporated:

© Jamieson & Smith

This hat also has a bit of story behind it, as it was purchased on eBay and donated to the Museum by Masami Yokoyama (designer of the delightful tea-themed tea cosy in Knit Real Shetland). It's a 19th Century hat, that was most-likely a fisherman's hat, designed and worn for work (unlike the jumper which was more of a fashion item). You can read more about how it was discovered and donated over on the Visit Shetland website here: Fair Isle Cap donated by Wool Week eBayer

As with the jumper, I've had to make some adjustments from the original artefact. The motifs were incomplete and confused up the back of the hat, as you can see below:

And the folded-up brim was just left curling over. In fact, the brim appears to have been knitted at a different time to the rest of the cap, as the colours are not quite the same, and the yarns slightly different. Carol advised me that this was likely to have originally had a knitted lining, so that was the construction that I used in the new pattern.

You can see the Fair Isle stranding poking over the top of the curled brim. There are pattern pages on Ravelry for both the jumper and hat: Shetland Museum and Archive designs

And both can be purchased as kits from Jamieson & Smith.

Happy knitting!