Frogged

30 minutes before I took this picture, this yarn was a shawl.

Kinky

I’m not telling you this story for sympathy or pity. Sometimes a yarn is just not meant to be the first project that you try. It isn’t the fault of the yarn or the pattern, there are just too many things working against the combination for it to stay the way it is.

The yarn is a lovely alpaca that I purchased from an yarn co-op at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet festival a few years ago. The name of the alpaca that donated the yarn is Jasmine. The yarn has a lovely luster and halo, and there is a lot of depth to its oatmeal color. There was less than 400 yards in the skein.

I was making this shawl before crescent shaped shawls had become so popular, and I didn’t want a stole. So I chose the Brandywine Shawl pattern because you start at the tip of the triangle and knit up. Meaning that I could use up every last bit of the yarn. And I did.

In fact, I cut it so close that the bind off had to be rather tight to get across the top before I ran out of yarn. And despite trying to convince myself that the tight bind-off wasn’t that bad and that the triangle wasn’t too small…I realize now that I was just in denial. When you are in the midst of the project or just at the end, it can be hard to see it clearly. Especially if seeing it clearly means that you aren’t happy with the results.

Fast forward a year and a half. I barely ever wore the shawl – it was just too small and didn’t wrap around my neck when needed. And then I find two very small and totally fixable moth holes near the point of the shawl.

Of course, they would be totally fixable if I had more yarn. But since I had used every single yard of yarn I had in the shawl, the only way to fix it would have been to take out the last two rows, use some yarn to mend the holes and then bind off again. If I loved this project that would have been totally reasonable and doable. So it became clear to me that I didn’t love the shawl.

 

Alpaca bath

After the shawl had a bath, made a trip to the freezer and then had another bath…I realized that I didn’t want the end product enough to fix the shawl. It was going to get even smaller and that was a lot of effort for something I wasn’t going to wear.

In my future, I see a crescent shaped shawlette or maybe a stole made from Jasmine’s lovely yarn. And I also see a Brandywine shawl for myself made out of a different yarn with much more generous yardage.

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Just to prove that sometimes projects work out REALLY well, here is my daughter in a sweater I made that she’s been wearing for 3 years. The sleeves are just starting to get short…Of course, 3 years ago they had to be rolled up!

Sweater at age 2

 

Long lasting sweater

In the Works (almost)

Purchased today for a baby blanket. I’m thinking crocheted squares, crocheted together. Not sure yet if each square will be one color or multiple colors. Must consult my stitch dictionaries for possibilities and inspiration.

The yarn is Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn. I love using sock yarn for baby items: Superwash wool, nice colors, and a thin but warm fabric that I think works nicely for little people.

I’m hoping this will be a good travel project for our next family vacation.

Yarn for Blanket

Design Originality

These days, much of my time spent on the ravelry forums is spent in the various forums for designers. A lot of the time I am using it as a resource to get a sense of the business and understand the way other people approach the work. I do come at the process a little differently since I have designed for other pursuits as well (architecture, theater, graphic design, etc), so I find the posts about design originality especially interesting. I have stopped responding to every such post that I see, but below is my general feeling on the topic and the way I respond.

Usually the flavor of the post is something like this:

“I’ve just spent X weeks/months oan what I thought was an original design butRavelry logged into Ravelry/looked at a magazine/browsed the loose patterns at my local yarn store/etc, I saw a pattern that looked a lot like the one I’ve been working on. Should I still publish it?”

Publish it. You have put the work in and deserve to be paid for the pattern.

Even if two designers come up with the same pattern independently (assuming the best of the other designer here), both deserve to be paid. Both developed the idea, drew the schematic, worked out the math, wrote the pattern, made the sample, had it tested and prepared the pattern for publication. Writing patterns is work and designers who write patterns deserve to be paid for them.

When architects design a house or a building, they don’t drive around trying to make sure they their building is unique from all of the other buildings out there. Yes, they are designing for one client instead of designing a “house pattern” to sell…but it really is similar. Architects all use similar building blocks and drawing tools, and yet every building has unique characteristics. Knitting design is very similar in this way. The yarn, the gauge, the stitch pattern, the method of construction are all so variable that there are really endless possibilities. Many similar possibilities…but still almost an infinite number of results can be achieved with the “building blocks” we have.

I’m sure if you spent enough time in ravelry, you could find hundreds of pairs (or groups) of patterns that are similar but from different designers. Just because they are similar doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be compensated for putting the pattern together or that one stole from the other. And with different methods of pattern delivery – personal website, ravelry, patternfish, retail, books, magazines – it is very likely that lots of knitters out there would only see one version of the pair. There are 2 million knitters and crocheters on ravelry…but that is still only a fraction of the knitters and crocheters in the world.

Those who have made your designs before may choose your “version” (for lack of a better word) over the other because they know the quality of your work. Or they may choose it because it costs less. Or they may choose it because they see it at their LYS and not online. Or they may choose the other one because they see it on the other designer’s website, etc, etc.

In short, it is annoying, but don’t sweat it. It wouldn’t hurt to consider ways that you could market your pattern differently or reach a different audience, but there is no reason to pull the plug on a project just because someone else has done something similar. Don’t get me wrong, originality is wonderful and most designers would like to come up with things that are distinctive, but overlapping ideas with others is nearly unavoidable.

Book project #3

I have posted about book projects #1 and #2 several times each. They’ve gotten noticeable blog time and yet all I’ve ever done for the third project is tell you that it existed, but nothing else.

Partially this is because this was a hard won project. I swatched more for this little dress than any other project I’ve ever made. I got *almost* good results fairly early, but the scale wasn’t quite right…and it took a number of tries to both get the scale and the finishing just the way I wanted.

The project was made with Knit Picks Stroll yarn. Not only did the yarn deal fantastically with my constant need to crochet with it and pull it out again, but I was also thrilled that Knit Picks sent me one more skein than I had requested in each color…which was a lifesaver and gave me great peace of mind as the deadline loomed.

There was also a decision or two that I made near the end that I think improved the design even though my major reason for making them was more about speed than appearance. So I think this project was blessed with a few happy accidents.

All three book projects are going to be in a volume of the Fresh Designs Crochet series that will be published by Cooperative Press. I know that the goal is for them to be published in 2012…but I will be sure to post information about publishing dates and where to buy the books when I know more!

Babette

Babette.

Oh Babette

You are so delightfully inspiring, so delightfully colorful and so delightfully big.

(The color above isn’t quite right. I haven’t had the chance to do a sunlit photoshoot.)
I don’t know if it is just my lack of experience with granny square blankets or if it was my desire to move onto other crochet projects once your repetitive nature got me in a good groove…but you have been often neglected over the past four years. It is not for a lack of respect and not because I didn’t want the final product, but I think it was the babies. Lots and lots of babies being had by many of my friends. So many babies, and I haven’t even finished projects for all of them because there have been so many. I would get some squares done and then put you down to make just one more baby gift. I also had a sweater binge in there, too, so I guess I can’t totally blame the babies.

Lovely Babette.

(Babette in the tub, having a soak)
I am pretty sure that you are my longest work in progress ever. In knitting or crochet. Even when you consider the sweater that has been complete except for a zipper for two years. Or the crocheted baby blanket for the “baby” who will be 18 months old next month. Many knitters and crocheters I know have a long term project or two. I don’t think this drawn out blanket makes me especially unique.

But I’m ready to stop making jokes about how long it has taken and ready for it to stop taunting me on my Ravelry projects page.

When I finished up some deadlines in February I pulled it out and promised myself that it isn’t going back in long term storage. After a week of focusing on it whenever I had evening time, all of the squares were assembled. Since it was an assembly that included some of my very early crochet stitches along with much more practiced squares, there were some wonky places, so next up was a bath. Babette had a nice soak in the tub with Eucalan and then I spread her out to relax and dry on the guest bed.

My current evening task while watching TV is to weave in all of the ends of the yarn used to crochet the squares together. My hope is that I can finish this task in the next few weeks and crochet the edging on Babette during my weekend away with my friends in April.

For those curious, the blanket is made with Cascade 220. My local yarn store where I teachcarriers every color that Cascade 220 comes in, so I had a fabulous time putting these 10 colors together. Amazingly, only one color that I started with has been discontinued since. If you need help putting together a group of colors like this, my color selection class would be a great place to get some help and advice on the process.

I expect to have a wonderfully warm and beautiful blanket by May…

In the works (still): Cabled Hoodie

Just before things got really crazy before the holidays, I started a hooded sweater for my son.

http://structuredstitches.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/in-the-works-cabled-hoodie/

With deadlines behind me, I have picked the hoodie up again. Sadly, the arrival of an early spring, or um summer, means that he’s unlikely to get much wear out of it before fall…but it’s roomy so I’m sure he’ll get to wear it eventually.

As of this writing, I’m 6 rows from finishing the body and expect to be working on the first sleeve tomorrow. The thing I don’t like about raglan sweaters is how long the yoke rows are, but now that I’m ready to work on the sleeves I am glad that about a quarter of them is already knit.

The yarn is Dream in Color Classy worsted in the November Muse color way. I forgot how much yarn a hood eats up, so the kids and I had to return to the yarn shop one night this week to get more yarn.

Have I mentioned how nice it is that the kids like coming to the yarn shop with me? They generally behave well, respect the yarn and play with the shop toys long enough for me to work a few rows of my project. Plus, I get to show them off to my friends. Todd even modeled the hoodie in progress for a few seconds – just long enough for me to get a few oohs and aahs.

Maybe I’ll be able to get a picture of him in it when it is finished. As long as it isn’t 90 degrees when it is done…

Blocking

::Whooooosh::

That is the sound of the last two months.

Ahem.

Sample one is in Astrid DK from Space Cadet Creations. This yarn is so beautifully dyed and so lovely to work with. I suggest bugging Space Cadet to restock the DK in her etsy store. It is just as lovely as her fingering weight options, but works up faster. The blanket is both squooshy and dense, and it kept my lap nice and warm while working the edging.

Sample two is in Berroco Vintage DK. (Vintage DK Shade Card) I’ve worked with the worsted weight before and the DK is just as nice. This is currently one of my favorite commercial yarns – my go to for baby and blanket projects because of the great colors it comes in and the washability. I’ve worked in the past with acrylics that had a little wool in them. Vintage is more like working with a wool blend than an acrylic.

Full disclosure: I have heard that Vintage doesn’t survive the trip through the dryer as well as other acrylics. I am hoping in the next week (before I email the pattern to my editor) to crochet and knit up some swatches with my leftovers and toss them in the dryer with a load of clothes, since this is how I wash my kid’s blankets. I’ll report back and include my recommendations for care in the pattern.

These blankets are for book project #2. They took a bath this weekend with some Eucalan and they are currently blocking in our guest/storage room. I really, really hope that by the time I get home from work tonight they are both completely dry because each one has about 24 ends that need to be woven in. I need to take a few glamour shots and I would really like to get them in the mail tomorrow. I still have a buffer and they don’t *have* to go tomorrow…but I would like for them to get there before the very last minute. The written pattern needs a few last touches and maybe a chart or two…but thanks to my dedicated work on these in November this is one project that hasn’t been making my left eye twitch any worse.

(I am aware that I didn’t post about book project #3. I haven’t forgotten. Deadlines moved around and it was submitted in January. And it is part of the reason that January felt like it was only 10 days long.)

Quick List

1 – All 8 pieces of the two book blankets are made. Yay!

Once our holiday card is designed and the enlargements are ordered (we give all of our family members professional pictures of the kids each year), I can go back to my hook during my evening TV time and hopefully get the squares crocheted together quickly. *fingers crossed*

2 – I have a secret project in the works. We have a secret santa exchange at the local yarn store where I teach, and of course I couldn’t resist designing the gift using a stitch pattern I recently fell in love with in one of the Barbra Walker treasuries. The pattern reminds me of gothic architecture. I’m taking notes, so hopefully after the exchange (in January) I can publish the pattern.

3 – Baby shower gift complete, gifted and properly “awwwww”ed over at the shower. I’ll admit that I didn’t finish sewing on the buttons until the night before, but I consider the fact that the sweater wasn’t remotely damp to be a big win. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash in a Paints color and a nice medium grey. There are leftovers, so I hope to whack out a hat or two with those by the time the baby arrives.

The pattern is the one that I wrote for my Baby Crochet Cardigan class, with an added lace stitch pattern from “Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia” used in the body.

4 – I’m in denial about Book Project #3. I just don’t have the brain space for it right now. It will have to be a sprint once we are ready for Christmas.

5 – Now that more of my time spent with yarn is about teaching and designing, I find that I have been neglecting my Ravelry projects page. I’m looking for new balance in my online life, especially since starting my new full time job, and I hope to move Ravelry back up the priority list in 2012. At least for my unpublished work like the baby shower sweater.

Camera Phone Photos

There was a time when I was a fairly serious photographer. At least I was for a high school student. I “inherited” my parents SLR camera, I took photography classes, I developed my own film and printed my own pictures, and I had a portfolio of my best work. Even after I was done taking classes, I spent a lot of time with my camera and was often the “official” photographer for my theater group or among my friends or on vacation.

I still have my Canon AE-1 film camera and probably a little film in the case, but I can’t remember the last time I used it. I’m fairly certain I have never used it to take pictures of the kids. I know I have used it since I got my first digital camera, but it has been a long time. I found the first digital cameras I worked with to be more like a fun toy (think Polaroid Instant) that a “real” camera. We still haven’t taken the plunge for a digital SLR, and so I still feel like our digital camera is more about convenience than great photography. I’ve taken some decent shots with it, but as someone who used to fiddle with focus and shutter speed and aperture, a point and shoot is not fun for me at all. (Of course, with kids there isn’t a lot of time to fiddle anyway, but if you’re taking 100 shots of them bouncing on the trampoline you can fiddle a little bit…)

The point of this post is that I feel like my camera phone is becoming a replacement for our digital camera. Even with my “old” iPhone, it seems to me that the picture quality is almost as good if not better in some cases. Add in the fact that I always have it with me, it is smaller and I can immediately adjust the pictures in one of my apps…and for everyday use the phone camera has become my stand-by. The only thing that I really prefer about the point and shoot is that it fits better in my hand and I can shoot one-handed.

(I’ll also point out that the kids have a well-padded digital camera with no adjustable controls, and it takes comparably good pictures, too. As long as the photographer doesn’t move mid-shot.)

As an example, here are some photos I took at Phipps this weekend and edited in my phone. Part of the reason that convenience is so important (in addition to capturing great moments with the kids) is the ability to document the things that inspire me. There are some great color combinations in the flowers and leaves and decorations. And not only does my camera phone allow me to document them quickly, it means that I have the photo with me all the time…because you never know when I might be able to sneak in a few minutes to work on a design.

I took this one because Heather said the sculpture looked like snakes.

The rest were taken because I loved the color combinations and textures.

Weekend Productivity

The downside of traveling for Thanksgiving from Thursday morning to Sunday evening is that no grocery shopping or laundry occurred over the weekend. As well as the fact that we got home Sunday night, dumped our stuff, ate dinner, put the kids to bed and collapsed. Add in the fact that we have had a string of busy evenings this week, and things are a bit out of sorts at home. I’ve just barely managed to pull together dinner each night (I’ve been too tired to go to the store after the kids are in bed) and the clutter is kind of getting to me. On the plus side, I have managed to stay caught up on dishes, a load of laundry got processed last night and a couple of our travel bags have been unpacked. We will make it to the weekend.

But that brings me to the upside of traveling, the knit and crochet productivity for the weekend is making me feel pretty good. Thanks to the following, I got a lot done:
1) A 4 ½ and a 5 ½ hour car ride
2) The time spent hanging out with family and friends when the kids didn’t require my constant attention because they are surrounded by family and friends (and dogs) who want to play with them
3) The time after the kids are in bed that I can knit or crochet because I’m not at home where I have chores to do

Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t knitting and crocheting 24/7. There were times that it wasn’t compatible with what we were doing or what the kids needed as well as time spent with my mom and aunt going through the items and furniture in my grandfather’s house.

Accomplishments:
1) By the time I went to bed on Thursday night, I had finished Todd’s mittens. This included ripping out and re-knitting the whole mitten top of the first mitten because the decreases were off by one stitch. I wove in the ends and everything. The next time we have a mild evening, these need to be washed and blocked.

2) I spent all of my car time and some of my evening TV time working on the blankets that are Book Project #2. Each of the two blankets is made up of 4 large squares that will be crocheted together – so 8 squares total. When we left I had 2 squares done and the 3rd was just started. When we got home I had 6 squares completed! I’m now 4 rows from being done with #7 and feeling much better about the deadline for this project.

3) I made a brief post about a baby shower gift I started despite the fact that my plate is too full. Over the weekend I finished all of the crocheting on this project, including the attachment of the sleeves to the body, the button bands and the collar. On Monday I bought buttons for this project, so this weekend the cardigan will get a good wash & block, have it’s ends woven in and get buttons. At which point I’ll have a shower gift ready for giving nearly a week early instead of wrapping up a gift that is still slightly damp from blocking.

4) I bought Book Project #3 with me, but it didn’t leave the bag. Since my brain is so “full” right now, I’m hoping to finish up project #2 by Christmas and then have all of my brain power available to dig into #3 on the 26th. Unfortunately, that leaves me with less than a month to finish, but if I can finish all of the motifs and get them blocked by Christmas, doing the math and finishing the project should be a breeze. Should be…