I have been told by some that they really enjoy my blog, as the content is worth waiting for even though it is not all that frequent. Sometimes you just need a little levity though. I loved this bit when I followed this link from Ravelry, and it is a hoot.

It is a great, fun and funky tune that any knitter or crocheter is sure to love. I I don’t know the background on it. What can I say? You’ll have to click and listen.

Here is another one I like because I am a nurse. If you are not into ditties about colo-rectal surgeons, you might want to pass this one. Pun intended.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

The topic of customer service crops up from time to time on the lists for knitting designers, with stories of different kinds of requests and designers weighing in with different opinions on how to handle things.

The topic has cropped up again, and while I don’t remember the original request, it was something along the lines of someone lost their pattern or did something to the pattern, and they want the pattern replaced.

I have to be honest, this kind of bugs me, although I can see how we as a culture might come to expect this. As Erin (Hi Sweetie!) commented in a response to one of my posts, the mentality that the customer is always right is not, well, always right.

And there are some very kind hearted souls out there who will make a copy of a design from one of their books if someone emails them that their pattern is now ruined.

I think my biggest issue with that is that the folks who you really want to help are not likely to make that request, and folks who think nothing of taking advantage of someone’s generosity would boldly ask.

Not to mention, if the book is published through a publisher, they are asking the designer to violate the copyright of the publisher. We have the rights to our original work, which means that the original files - our wording, layout, charts, etc, are what we have rights to (depending on the rights sold to the publisher in the contract). We do not have the right to make copies from the book and send it to someone to replace something the dog ate. Why? Because what is covered under the copyright is not the design, it is what you see on the printed page. The layout, wording, charts, photography. Part of copyright law is the right to distribute. We as individual designers don’t have the right to distribute copies of a publisher’s work, anymore than knitters making a pdf and sharing with the world at large on the internet. When we make a copy from a book from a publisher, whether we are the original designer or not, we are reproducing and distributing without the right to do so.

Now, if the designer sent their original file to the person who lost their pattern, they would not be violating any copyright. The only bad part about it would be if there was a no compete clause or if they had sold all rights to their pattern. Ouch. They could get in some serious doo doo with their publisher.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Designing web-friend Connie Chang Chinchino, who has had designs in Interweave Knits, has self published a pattern available on her site, Versailles Shell. I admire her talent and told her to let me know when her first self-published pattern was available and I would write about it on my blog.

Too bad I didn’t write about it yesterday, as there was definitely something up in the blogosphere yesterday (where did you all come from yesterday?). At any rate, this is a really smashing job. I wish my first self-published pattern was done at this level.

It was laid out by a graphic designer and is tech edited as well. Plus, it has a click-able index at the beginning. This is a really handy feature to have.

As usual Connie’s style is understated elegance and clean. Good job, Connie!

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

I belong to the Association of Knitwear Designers. One of our members, designer Dawn Brocco, has some really great patterns for tea cozies on her site. I love tea. I never used to be much of a tea drinker, but my sister bought a beautiful teapot and some teas for me for my birthday one year, and I have been hooked ever since. The tea came from Culinary Teas, in Syracuse. An hour drive from my house, one way. The only tea I drink now. It is some good stuff.

One of these days, I am going to design myself a tea cozy. My friend Beth Brown Reinsel is going to come spend the night before stitches, and it would be a lot of fun to have tea for her in my new sunroom/garden room, with some wonderfully artistic tea cozy for my pot.

I may have to make one of Dawn’s, as I don’t know that I will be designing one anytime soon. It might make a fun project though.

They really are worth taking a look at.

On the home front, a cup of tea might be a nice thing to enjoy tonight. Everyone is gone now - Erin, Andy and Ian (Sweetie, Waggs, and Cutie Pie) are all back in Dayton. They went home yesterday. My husband Ed was home for the weekend and went back about an hour ago.

Time to decompress, knit, and plan yarn for projects. I am having all of my sample garments redone and am in the process of choosing yarns. I am thinking either some Cream Earl Grey, or Apple Spice. Chai would be good too.

Today they got the stamped stained concrete porch done. I have no idea what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully the framing inspector will be out at some point.

My only “I want to get it done and soon” thought is it will be really nice to get yarn out of literally every room but the bathroom and kitchen, and get my studio organized.

That may be a tea drinking day too.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Thanks to the laceknitting list on Yahoo, I have become aware of an error on row 19 of the chart for Tiger Lilly.

There is an extra double decrease in row 19. The first part of the chart should read k2tog, yo, k3 (rather than k2tog, yo, k1, double dec, k1).

I will post this to my errata on my website as well.

This is an excellent opportunity to do a little teaching on how I trouble shoot things that are not working out myself.

When looking at this chart, one thing that stands out is that there are not any black squares. This means the stitch count remains the same for every row.

Since the stitch count remains the same for every row, there should be an increase (a yo) for every decreased stitch. When looking at the rows on the chart, this is true for every row but row 19.

How can you tell which part of the row is in error? First look at the decreases themselves, and the yarn overs. Over the whole chart, the yarn overs and the decreases form a pattern. So, something that doesn’t fall into that pattern would be where the error is. This is a symmetrical and geometrical pattern, so that makes it even easier to be able to see where the error is when troubleshooting something that isn’t working out right.

This lace pattern, like many others, forms a diamond like pattern. This means that there will be a row, worked just like row 19, only it will start and stop at a different point because of how a diamond pattern staggers.  If you look at the chart, and look for a row that has yo, double dec, yo, k3, the only other row of the pattern where you see that is row 9. Which makes sense, as both row 9 and 19 form the “top” of the tiger lilly buds (which are elongated diamonds).

Putting all that together, you can tell with certainty that the double dec in question is not supposed to be there, as it takes away two stitches and does not replace them, and it may line up with the double dec in row 9, but it does not fit the pattern.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Friday evening I went to Dayton Ohio, for the air show, concert, and fireworks at Wright Patterson Airforce Base. I saw Erin (Hi Sweetie!) and her husband Andy, my little grandson Ian (a cutie pie). I don’t remember exactly what day it was, Friday or Saturday, when we were talking about fiber animals. Andy as it turns out was trying to figure out what an Alpaca Rabbit looked like. Erin dutifully explained to him that an Alpaca is not a rabbit, and then playfully asked him “Would you like to pet my alpaca?” (of course I found this really too funny and was glad I wasn’t drinking anything at the time or I would have sprayed someone).

This became the joke for the weekend.

It of course can mean different things depending on how it is said, and it came to my mind today when catching up on some of the lists I belong to for designers.

I enjoy Ravelry, but I find it frustrating when groups of knitters (or anyone for that matter) just start bashing someone. In this situation, there was a knitter who lost their pattern, and expected the designer to replace the pattern. When they did not get that, they flamed the designer on Ravelry.

I don’t know about you, but if I walked into Barnes and Noble and said I lost my issue of Knitters, and that I expected them to replace it they would without a doubt be laughing, at least on the inside, while explaining that what I did with my purchase was my responsibility not theirs.

In the world of the needlearts, things are often a little warmer and fuzzier, and kind hearted independent designers, in the spirit of good customer service, often give in to unrealistic expectations for fear of angering the customer. In the scenario above, not only did this person want a new pattern, they wanted one with no receipt or record that could prove they had purchased one in the first place. When they did not get what they wanted, they smeared the designer on Ravelry. By the time the designer had a chance to respond, the damage to her name had been done in thousands of viewings.

We have a lot to be thankful for in this country. I think of this often, and not just near the fourth of July. If this is all we have to be upset about, that we in our own carelessness are expected to take responsibility for ourselves (particularly if there is nothing to prove a purchase had been made in the first place), life really isn’t all that bad.

This is where we can all make a huge difference in the world. We talk about world peace and we worry about current political events, but what are we doing in our own corner to set the bar? Do we set good examples even on the internet, or do we become mean and snarky because we feel like we can get away with it since we don’t see anyone face to face. Why is abusiveness thinly veiled in sharp wit something we let slide?

Our choices can make it a much happier place. I think we all need to pet some alpaca.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

While I will be the first to admit when it comes to art, I really hate over used phrases like pushing the boundaries and outside the box, or pushing the envelope, I think this picture really illustrates what to me is good design that is beyond the box, or what is expected.

Good design does not imply being something people cannot relate to, but good design does look at not reaching for what is most expected but rather what makes the design stand out. Not for shock value, but what the design needs.

That is a hard concept to articulate.

Here is another picture I have taken that I am going to have in my studio. Why I love this picture: It is whimsical, and is not your typical “my, what a beautiful bird” pose one might see. It therefore has more personality. I caught the bird in a moment, you might say. Yes, it is a beautiful bird, and the picture shows that well, but it is not sterile. There is lots of personality showing here.

Sure, the bird isn’t moving, but you can tell it is thinking about it. Just the position of the legs, with the diagonal lines, gives a feeling of movement. Contained energy.

I wasn’t all that close, as I have a really excellent zoom on my camera, so I don’t know if the bird was looking at me or something else. Whatever it was, I captured it and like it for the “differentness” of it. I love animals, and photographing them is fun when you can get a little of their personality in the photograph.

This is what I try to bring to my knitting designs as well. Every element is chosen because it suits the design, and every element tells a part of the story. If the design and the story behind the design need something that is as attention grabbing as a 300 member choir belting the Halleluja Chorus, then that is what it gets. If it needs something akin to a Japanese flute in the background of a water garden, that is what it gets. Thinking outside the box creatively demands looking at what you are trying to communicate and expressing that in ways that are both unexpected and fit the artwork in question.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

My knitting friend Leanne from Knitting Today posted a very well written comment regarding pdf patterns from the shop owner’s perspective. I thought I would copy and paste my response to different parts because I think it is an interesting discussion and highlights some of the issues in the current market.

With advances in technology, knitter’s have greater access than ever before to yarns, patterns, tools and other notions. Yarn stores cannot possibly carry everything, and for knitters who have “special needs” it can be a real boon. It can be a real boon to those who live in yarn deprived areas as well.

For local yarn stores, it can cut into their earnings however, as shoppers sometimes forget to continue supporting their local store.

There is increased competition on a far more reaching scale, I guess you could say.

For the independent designer such as myself, the increased competition comes by way of hobby designers competing in some of the same arenas, as well as flooding the Internet with self published patterns. On top of that, satisfying different segments of the market without undercutting your yarn stores or vendors can be a challenge. Some knitters will only purchase download pdfs, and some only want patterns.

As a designer, do you market to TNNA groups for the bulk of your marketing? There are a significant number of shops that don’t go the TNNA route. How do you, as a designer, reach these markets? Again the Internet has been a boon for some and a bane for others.

Here are the comments from the thoughtful post from Leanne, as well as my comments. I could have just put it in the comments section but as I said, I think it is a good conversation to have.

> Stocking is always a difficult decision for the LYS owner, Jolene . . . . I have
determined Knitting Today cannot carry hard copy patterns that are also available via download direct from the publisher because the majority of our customers are Internet savvy and have in fact downloaded and brought in the pattern vs. purchasing it at Knitting Today. I need to put the $ on potential sales instead. <

I can see how it would be, as you cannot carry everything. I really don’t want to compete with yarn stores or my distributor, but I look at it from a distribution stand point on my end, so it is a little different perspective.

> There are publishing designers that allow download “licenses” to the LYS owners and enables them to sell the .pdf or be an affiliate for the sale — I’m investigating that model now and figuring out how to program it through my existing shopping cart program since the funds are actually captured by the publishing designer. There might be potential with this model <

I know there are some who have licensed. The biggest issue I hear cropping up is lack of control on the digital files when they go that route, and how much you really have to trust individuals you have never met.

Let me know what you come up with on your investigation, as having a system where the funds are captured by the publishing designer would be a good model to have. A lot of designers, I think, would be interested in this as it affords some control and accountability.

On my end, if I could figure out how to set up a shopping cart with vendors listed, so that the customer could download the pdf and the revenue normally generated by the store would go to the vendor they choose, I would do that. That way I would still have control of the digital file, and the vendor would not be cut out of the loop. I could have that on my site, as well as something like your model you are looking at.

I suppose that is what you are talking about regarding an affiliate of the sale? What do you know about this yourself because that might be something that I could offer.

>Another model is to publish .pdf of discontinued patterns/magazines. A magazine publisher is doing that now, but sometimes the shop model invested in and several issues of the magazine are still available at the shop — the publisher’s impression of what is out of print and the reality is not matching — frustrating and again a magazine that Knitting Today is not able to support. <

I have thought of this actually. Although right now, I don’t have any patterns that are retired to do this with.

I suppose it is like yarn in some ways, when discontinued by the manufacturer.

> I’m thinking more and more of going to in-house design contracts for exclusivity and promotion. Is this a subject you have addressed? I’m slowly going back through your archives.
> Lea-Ann
I have thought of this, but am unable to recoup the expense of the design when doing this. I have a good two weeks of work just in the pattern drafting, writing, editing, graphics and layout. Then there is the cost of tech editing and sample knitting. A fairly significant investment. I have to sell a lot of patterns just to reach my break even point and it is very hard to do through one shop.

In the end, I think that is one reason why designers are looking at pdf downloads. They are here now, and part of technology. Reimbursement from magazines, when looked at from the perspective of what is my investment in this design, is not enough to recoup the cost of the design. Some designers think the knitting is free if they do the knitting themselves, but it really isn’t, because time is money, and time spent doing the knitting is time you could spend designing another garment. All those costs have to be figured into what you are doing so that you can then make decisions regarding your business investment. They have a lot of very tough competition to get into yarn stores.

On one hand, if they offer pdf downloads some shops won’t carry them. On the other hand, distribution of their patterns can be significantly higher if they do.

For the Independent Designer such as myself, the question of distribution is a significant one. Many yarn stores do not carry very many patterns for different reasons, so designers have turn to other markets.

I don’t know that there are any easy answers. Which is why, I suppose, that I have not made any real decisions regarding this issue. I know one designer who does sell pdf’s but charges more for them than she does the printed copy that is sold by her vendors.

I like the affiliate idea, what I have heard of it. That may be worth investigating. For now, I will keep looking and mulling it over in my head.

It was good to see you at TNNA by the way.

Cheers, JoLene

Right now things are pretty much at a standstill. We are awaiting the framing inspection, and then they can do the insulation and drywall. Soon (the end of the month, the first part of the next) they will be doing stamped stained concrete along the front of the house. Right now there is brick set in sand, of all things. The brick looks pretty cool, but it is a pain to have to pull weeds in what is supposed to be a porch.

I have not put any pictures up in a long time here on the blog, and thought I would share some that I will be having framed for my studio. With pictures like this, who wouldn’t be inspired? I love nature.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Fort Wayne used to have one yarn store. Sandy Hall closed the doors of the Cass Street Yarn Depot a year or two ago, and Fort Wayne Knitters had to go without a decent yarn store.

Now, we are lucky enough to have two. Knitting Off Broadway, and Sarah Jane’s Yarn Shoppe. I will be taking my patterns in soon to the owners of Knitting Off Broadway…in the meantime, Sarah Jane’s is having a trunk show right now of my designs in pattern leaflet. I have the designs there also that were in Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick. A great book, as hers always are. At any rate, I was somewhat bemused to find that I am a celebrity. One of course that the local knitting community doesn’t know they have, and Sarah Jane’s friendly owners are going to host a get together this Saturday, the 28th to rectify that.

I will be talking about designing and choosing colorways besides visiting with knitters, so if you are in the Fort Wayne area feel free to drop in and say hello. It will be from 1 to 3pm.

My step daughter Erin hopes to be there (Hi Sweetie!). She had a little fun telling me she would go as my “groupie”. I got a kick out of that, as a groupie of one hardly shores up the title of celebrity, but I don’t know that I will ever view myself as one. Which is a good thing. While I will be the first to admit I would take a great deal of delight in finding my designs on everyone’s needles, I don’t know that I would wear the title easily. I have no qualms about promoting my work in the industry. I just don’t expect people to know who I am or recognize my name

I think a lot of that is because I don’t travel and teach. I go to Stitches Midwest, and I go to TNNA in Columbus. At those events I do run into people who are familiar with my work, but I am fairly isolated from a lot of face to face contact with knitters.

Fort Wayne has a local group that gets together and knits. I have only been able to make it to ONE evening. I enjoyed it tremendously. Between work and keeping the house going while Ed is gone and my own design deadlines I have been beyond busy.

So come on by and see how I do in this role, you will find I am quite friendly and down to earth.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace