It’s a Raverly World: Knitting on the Internet

As a designer I received information about Ravelry at the start. At the time, I was too strapped to look into it. As the months went on, more and more designers joined up and there was more and more buzz amongst designers regarding the community there.

There will always be knitters who are not online, or who avoid computers, or only go online to read their email. There will also be those intrepid souls who boldly go where others fear to tread. Fear of the unknown can stymie many a good knitter.

At any rate, I joined up and have been there for a while now. I post now and then, where I can, and enjoy the time I spend there. I have met some very fun and unique people too, too. One thing I need to do yet is get all of my designs on Ravelry. I havn’t managed to do that yet.

For those interested in designing, or becoming a professional designer, there are many good topics at hand. Self-Marketing is a good thing when you are in a personality driven business, and make no mistake this business has that component. However, the savvy business person understands that Self-Promotion is more an end product, rather than the product.

In today’s market consumers are looking at information, what they need when they need it. Consumers don’t want a sales pitch. They want truly useful information. What this means for designers and local yarn stores and others in the business, is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Instead of having a bland web site with your special of the day, have information they can use. For example, online references of techniques, or how to do different cast ons. You get the idea.

One thing I try and do on my blog when I have a new design is talk about the process behind it. I try and keep it brief because I don’t want to bore anyone, but I also want to inform. There is little information on how to design, and many who are interested in learning how are not interested in the art principles involved. I have talked about this before, and I think it is because the art principles involved are not presented in meaningful ways to them.

There are a myriad of wonderful knitting sites out there, and truth be told you all are probably more aware of them than I am. A little Google search (or your favorite search engine) can yield a gold mine of knitting content.

Which brings me back to Ravelry. It is a wonderful community, and has managed to bring together many diverse elements. I know there is some concern at times by designers that you can have a knitter who for whatever reason has problems bash a pattern, when it is not error in the pattern that is the source of the trouble. This can happen when the pattern is beyond the skill of the knitter, or perhaps they are not familiar with the language of patterns.  As always, you have to read and make your own decisions.

In the end, I think it is how we are in the community around us which will have the biggest impact, not only in how the quality of our designs are viewed, but in the information we share as well. I have heard throughout my life comments regarding my creativity. “You are so creative!!!” and so on. While I enjoy the compliments, in the end it is not that creativity that I want to be admired for, but by the kind of person that I am…creativity being a gift I was born with. The kind of person that I am requires far more choice and diligence.

Who we are in the community is what it is all about, and it is what makes us feel connected. Within the world of knitting, online communities such as Raverly provide another way we can connect with each other.

Maybe I will see you over there. If you see my picture, by the way, I will fess up that it is about 20 years old. I don’t have very many pictures of myself because I am usually behind the camera, and I like that one.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

When Good Monkeys Go Bad: New Uses for Stitch Markers

This is a completely frivolous post. Those are sometimes the most fun. I suppose there is some hand knitting content, although if you are looking for new knitting patterns or techniques or cool local yarn stores you won’t find it in this post.

My husband had a 4 day leave for the holiday (Happy Birthday to Martin Luther King, Jr., God rest his soul). We spent two of those days in Dayton, visiting my Stepdaughter Erin (Hi Sweetie!) and her husband Andy…and little Ian of course.

We went to the Dayton Knitting Guild, a very good knitting guild if you can get to it, and generally visited. When Andy was little his mom made him a sock monkey, so she made one for her Grandson as well.

Ian’s monkey developed a run in the crotch, and Erin and I were laughing about it while she was commenting that she was glad she knew how to fix it.

I mused that she could always make it anatomically correct, in not so many words. By the time we were done snickering, she had the run fixed and had a stitch marker that looks like a little safety pin at the bottom of the run. One thing led to another and we now have a bad monkey. Enjoy.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Errata: Three Flowers, and Crashed Hard Drives

If you have a Three Flowers pattern and the pattern instructions and chart is on ivory colored paper this does not pertain to you as your pattern is correct and nothing is missing.

I had a crashed hard drive this past summer, and basically had a data recovery for much of my patterns that yielded old versions and in some cases things like missing bold lines between sections of a few charts, or a few missing decreases. I did not catch the missing things on Three Flowers until I was looking at it to check it before printing today.

Here is how to tell if this affects your pattern: if there are no bold lines between the sections of the chart, that means your chart is a bit wonky. Send it back to me, folded up in an envelope with regular postage, and I will send you a new one.

There are a some double decreases that are missing as well, and they occur on lines 9 & 19 of Tiger Lilly, between the paired yarn overs (instead of yo, k1, yo, it would be yo, sk2p, yo - slip 1, k2together, pass slipped stitch over the k2together). On Sweet Violet there are also some double decreases missing (but not all). They are on lines 7 & 15. On line 7 the double decrease is missing out of section “b”.  The sk2p goes between the first and second yo to the left of the bold line between section “a” and section”b”. On row 15, the sk2p goes between the first and second yo to the right of each bold line.

The repeats are marked by bold lines as follows: For Magnolia, the bold lines go to the left of the double decrease in line 23 all the way through the chart from top to bottom. For Tiger Lilly, the fits bold line is in 3 boxes from the left and in 4 boxes from the right. Sweet Violet has bold lines that extend from the bottom to the top of the chart just after the decrease that follows the two yo’s.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Pattern Correction: Bramble Berry

For many knitters there is nothing more frustrating than finding an error in their knitting pattern. It has just come to my attention that there is an error in the neck shaping of my pattern Bramble Berry.

For the front neck shaping, dec 2 sts as directed 3 (4, 4, 4, 4) times, not 6 (8, 8, 8, 8 ) times (this is the number of sts that are decreased at each neck edge in this step). All other numbers, including the 1 st decreases, are correct.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Pockets of Time for Knitting

I was a little surprised to realize it has been almost a month since I last posted. My husband has been gone since last Wednesday, and I have done very little knitting in the meantime. Not because I don’t want to, but because there has been so much to do.

It has been exciting around here, too. With all the rain, they have not broken ground yet although everything is marked and staked.  I went to an Amish woodworking business today and picked out my bathroom cabinet. River Woodworking, in Wolcottville. Paul Yoder and his craftsmen have about the finest wood finish I have seen.

My other excitement for the day was when I drove to first Syracuse and then Wolcottville on a donut. Yesterday afternoon a stick mysteriously impaled itself into the sidewall of my left rear tire. In my drive. When I was turning to pull into the garage. I had 5 inches of stick bigger around than my pinkie on the inside of my tire. The offending stub jutted out about 2 inches on the outside or my tire and was as big around as my thumb. I called my insurance and they sent a roadside service over to put the spare on. The dealer was so busy today that they could not get to it. Tomorrow I get to go get a new tire put on.

Tomorrow I will get to knit, as I sit in the auto lounge with my lace knitting on my delicate and tiny needles.  Tomorrow, when I get home, I will knit some more. Tomorrow I am not doing dishes, I am not grocery shopping or doing the laundry, and I am not doing housework or going in to the hospital to work. Tomorrow I am taking time for my mind to unwind.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene

Interweave Knits & Books: Simple Style

Interweave Press has a long history of quality publications. They publish my favorite knitting magazine, Interweave Knits. I have many of their books for hand knitting. One of the things I love about their publications is that they do so much teaching. There is a lot in the art and craft of knitting that can take your knitting to such a different level of satisfaction.

My Wine and Roses Mitts, that were in the Winter 2007 issue, had originally been slated for their Lace Style book. Pam Allen had called me and asked if it would be okay to put it in the magazine instead, and I was delighted to have it in Knits.

I just heard from Ann Budd within the last week or two, and I have a design (Kazumi) that will be going into their new book they are working on, Simple Style. I am honored to be included in the book. While I cannot tell you right now when the book will be out (I frankly don’t remember and I don’t have the information in front of me), I can say that I will keep you updated.

Designing things that are meant to be simple was a challenge for me. I think because I associate so much of “simple” with “quick and easy”. To be honest, when I see “quick and easy” in the title of anything, it turns me off. I am not saying that I am never in the mood for something less challenging, I just don’t have that as my primary criteria for choosing anything. The quick and easy route is not what I want. I want what is best suited. I want  what is most satisfying. I want to savor what I enjoy. I don’t want to rush through my knitting so that I can get on to the next project to rush through, so that I can get on to the next project to rush through.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene

Knitwear Designer Connie Chang: Henley Perfected Interweave Knits

I am happy to announce knitting designer Connie Chang has joined the Independent Knitwear Designers web ring. Connie is a talented knitting designer, and her designs have been in some very top notch publications. I am delighted to add her to the web ring.

I really loved her design, Henley Perfected, in the Winter 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. I may have to knit one for myself.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene