About that stash diet ...

I really wasn't planning on buying new yarn. Especially after that skein of lace weight that I picked up when my mother was visiting last weekend - when you hear your grandmother would like a lace shawl (and you don't have anything in the stash in the appropriate color family) that's a special dispensation from any yarn diet in my book.

And then this happened later in the week:

That's right - I ran out of yarn on the last round of the fifth color from the end of the garter striped edging on my Rams and Yowes blanket. And not just on the last round, a third of the way from the end-of-round marker (the dark green clip below):

I knew it was going to be close. After all, I had finished the previous color with about two yards to spare. So at around 10:30 on Wednesday night (always a time for clear-headed thinking), I started frantically searching for more yarn to finish the last set of stripes. I'm low on the remaining colors, too, and didn't want to chance it now that I'd run out of one color.

Luckily, I found two options: order more from Jamieson & Smith on Shetland and know that I probably won't be able to pick up this project until after we get back from our vacation, which starts next week, or cross my fingers and see if the Chicago shop listed on ravelry as a potential supplier has the colors I need in stock. (Normally I'd be a dye lot purist but this is for the underside of the blanket border and slight color variances really won't bother me there.)

Success! Windy Knitty responded to my email shortly after they opened the next morning with the terrific news that they did in fact have exactly what I needed, and would be kind enough to set the skeins aside until the weekend so that I could come pick them up.

In the meantime, I've had fun working on Mr. Tinks and Frogs' birthday sweater, which now looks much less like a shrug than when he tried it on a week or two ago.

We took a family excursion up to Andersonville this morning (Tadpole LOVES the train) and I am now the happy owner of enough yarn to finish my blanket.

But I couldn't come away from such a lovely shop (and it is lovely, perhaps my favorite shop in the city now) with just the J&S shetland, not when they had a fantastic selection of indie dyers in gorgeous semi-solids - my favorites.

This Fleur de Fiber (a Chicago dyer I'd never seen before) in a fingering weight merino/seacell blend will be a something for me.

And Tadpole suggested that she should have a green sweater. We decided on this worsted weight from Neighborhood Fiber Company:

A girl after her mama's heart, don't you think? Now I've just got to come up with a sweater pattern that will work with only 400 yards. This one is definitely going to be top-down!

Distractions

You know that point in a project where you feel like you're never going to finish? That's how I feel about Catkin right now. It's gorgeous, really gorgeous. The yarn just glows - something that Madelinetosh seems to manage better than any other yarn provider out there right now.

But I finished chart B the other night and now I'm stuck. It's not that chart C looks particularly difficult, it's just that there are a few new stitches I'm going to have to memorize and I'll need to pay attention during the set-up row. So I probably should do the first row of the chart all at once and I just don't have the energy (or time) for that right now.

The textures in this little shawl are just so interesting (and really perfect in the Tosh merino light) that I'm pretty motivated to find some time this week when I can sit down with an audiobook and get through the first row or two. Mr. Tinks and Frogs is doing NaNoWriMo again this year so I should sell this to him as "writing time."

My seat-of-the-pants hap blanket project has been a good companion these past few weeks. I'm still working on the garter stitch center square, which means I have plenty of mindless knitting. I'm working the square on the bias - increasing one stitch at the beginning of each row until the triangle looks big enough. In this case, "big enough" will be whatever size I have when I run out of yarn in the first skein. Then I'll decrease one stitch at the beginning of each row until I'm back to a single stitch. The next step is to pick up stitches around the edges and work a border in the round. I'm using the guidelines for proportions set out in the book "Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls" but otherwise making this one up as I go.

I bet I'd make more progress on these two projects if I didn't keep getting distracted by other "quick" projects for Tadpole. Like this one.

It's getting cold here and Tadpole needed a pair of mitts. I figured it would be easy enough to whip up a quick pair and secure them with a crochet chain. It only took me four tries to get a size that I thought looked appropriate. They'll fit this week but she'll definitely need bigger ones soon. And I'm having fantasies of whipping up a little pair in stranded colorwork. That'll be quick, right? No more than 2 hours tops?

I finished up another aviatrix hat for her three weeks ago and finally put buttons on it last week. Maybe by the time I get pictures of it she'll have grown into it a bit more. It's enormous on her right now but perhaps that means it'll make it through the winter.

I was going to tell you about all of the really nifty yarns and patterns that I keep drooling over instead of working on my current WIPs (Loft, anyone?). But I've got work stuff I need to do this weekend so that will have to wait until later. Instead, I'll just leave you with my latest exception to the stash diet:

Stripe Study just got bumped up in the queue.

A rant, a question, and a yarn giveaway

Quick Note: My efforts to work through my yarn stash haven't been nearly as successful as I'd hoped (it's amazing how much less knitting one can do when parenting a small person all day long). So it's time for a change of plan. This will be the first of several posts where if you leave a comment, you get entered into a drawing to receive some yarn from my stash. I'll be opening up comments to everyone, not just those with google/livejournal/etc. accounts. I hope we can get a great discussion going (and work down my stash!).

Today I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about a lot lately: pattern support.

Back in November I published my first pattern and since then I've been really flattered by the support, praise, and encouragement I've received both here on the blog but also on ravelry. I truly enjoyed coming up with the design. Knitting it a couple of times and having friends jump on the scarflet bandwagon was a blast. And then I got to have the fun of turning my thoughts and ideas into a printable document that anyone could use.

I put this pattern out for free. I didn't (and still don't) think that what I had done was different enough from what was already available to warrant charging someone money for it. I also didn't want to deal with the hassle of setting up a system of payment, figuring out about taxes, and dealing with the other business aspects of knitwear design. This is something I do for fun; it's not my job. And I wanted to contribute something to the knitting community that has been very good to me and has helped me grow.

However, publishing that pattern came with something that I really haven't enjoyed and didn't expect. I have received a number of requests from knitters asking for help with the pattern. For the most part, these requests have pinpointed a specific section of the pattern causing difficulty. But some of them were general cries for help where I couldn't even tell what the problem was, never mind begin to think of how to fix it.

I like to think that I am a nice person. I genuinely like to help people when I can. And I really like to encourage people in a craft that I enjoy quite a bit. For all of these reasons, I answer each and every request for pattern support that I receive.

But here's the problem: all of these request for pattern support could have been answered succinctly in one of two ways.

1. Read the pattern (again).
2. Count your stitches (again).

While I've been tempted to say this, I haven't. And instead I prepared a thoughtful response that usually involved just repeating what I had written in the pattern. I might rephrase something slightly but that's it.

All of this involves time, quite a bit of time. And time is not something that I have a lot of these days. I am the mother of a three-and-a-half month old daughter. This is a 24/7 job. In a few months, I go back to my "real" job where I will be working 60-hour weeks if not more. And I will still be the mother of an infant daughter. All of this means that I want to spend as much time with her (and my husband) as I can while also recognizing that I am an adult who uses real words in full sentences and has interests other than all things baby.

If someone genuinely thinks that there is a mistake in the pattern, I want to know about it so that I can fix the problem and issue a correction that everyone can use. But I don't want to spend what little bit of free time that I have gently urging someone to reread the pattern because I have already answered her question halfway down page three.

I accept that the knitting community has come to expect, and paid designers have come to provide, a fair amount of pattern support. But I can't do this. 

There are plenty of resources out there if you have difficulty understanding a pattern. You could call a knitter friend for help. You could look on ravelry forums to see if someone else had encountered a similar problem or could help you better understand the directions. And if that didn't work, you could go to a help session at a LYS, pay the money for an hour with the on-site expert, and seek advice there. 

I am working on a baby sweater design at the moment and I would love to share it with you. I think it's going to be a really great solution to the problem of figuring out how to make a sweater to fit a baby you haven't met yet (and to make that sweater last longer than two weeks). But for all of the reasons I've laid out above I can't keep answering questions asking for help with the pattern.

So here's my question: How can I contribute patterns to the knitting community while making clear that I can't and won't provide the sort of pattern support that many knitters have come to expect?

How would you feel if a free pattern came with a disclaimer telling you that the designer would not answer questions asking for help understanding the pattern?

Would you still want to use the pattern or would this put you off? More importantly, would you think to yourself "if I ask really nicely, perhaps she'll make an exception just for me"?

Would it help if I had an FAQ page on the blog where I answered common questions or provided clarification if people had questions?

Would it be better if I skipped the disclaimer on the pattern and instead went with a generic response to requests for help, saying that I don't provide pattern support?

Thanks for reading. I know this is quite a bit longer than my usual posts and not the rosy picture of knitting motherhood that you normally get here. But this issue is very important to me and I wanted to take a break from the usual content and talk about it. And I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts and responses. 

As an extra thank you to everyone who participates in the discussion, I'm giving away three skeins of Woolen Rabbit Essence in the oakmoss colorway.

How does this work? Just leave a comment letting me know what you think and I'll enter you into a drawing (random number generator) to receive one of the three skeins. Any comment whenever? No. Leave the comment by noon central time on Monday, June 27. I'll post the three winners on Tuesday, June 28, and ask them to tell me their mailing addresses so I can send off the skeins.

Next time: the best skein I have ever spun. Seriously.

A previously undiagnosed case of second sock syndrome

I thought I was pretty good about finishing up sock projects within a reasonable amount of time. But today, when I decided to clean out my knitting baskets, I found this:

Oh my. What do we have here? Starting at the top you can see what will probably be Father's Day Sock #1. The yarn is Trekking Pro Natura (a wool/bamboo blend that wears very nicely). I tried something a bit different on this one, putting the gusset shaping at the bottom of the foot. I'm a little worried about the length of the leg. You can't see it in the picture, but the leg is really long. What can I say? I was knitting on it while watching the latest Harry Potter movie when it came out in the theater and got a bit distracted. Working our way down the middle, we've got a Lindsay out of Fleece Artist Merino Sock yarn and a Leyburn out of a Socks That Rock lightweight rare gems colorway. I know I made some mods to Leyburn after the heel, so I'll have to pay attention when I knit the second one. Rounding out the pack, we have two husband socks. On the left is the first of a pair of toe socks requested by the DH. Thankfully, he only wanted a single separate toe and not all five! On the right is a sport weight version of Nancy Bush's great pattern, Gentleman's Fancy Sock. Now I remember why I don't usually put sock projects into Ravelry: I don't like seeing them sitting there, reminding me that I should knit the second sock.

I also came across these, my most recently finished socks:

Another husband sock (this one with a basket weave pattern from one of the Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries and knit out of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine) and Marlene.

Unfortunately, I have no motivation to knit the mate to any of these socks right now. Here's hoping the DH doesn't read this blog post since three of the socks are for him.

Of course, he's not helping either since he got me two new skeins of sock yarn this weekend.

Some more Ultra Alpaca Fine for birthday socks for Z. I'm not quite sure what pattern to use but it will most likely be something from Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks. That is my go-to book for mens' sock patterns.

Now this is what I've been waiting for. It's Shalimar Yarns Zoe Sock in colorway Sprout, newly available at my LYS, and now destined to become a pair of Kai-Mei socks for my grandmother.

Technically, I've been on a yarn diet (I've been calling it a moratorium on new purchasing) for the past month or two since I realized how much nice stuff I have in the stash that I kept putting off as I acquired new fiber goodies. I'm actually still on that diet, believe it or not. Between learning about a fantastic new work opportunity that I'll start in a few months and realizing that the stash was not sufficient for upcoming gifts, the DH thought I could use a little treat. Lovely husband, no? That makes these yarns (especially the Sprout) extra lovely since I thought I wouldn't get to play with them for a while longer.

Don't worry that all I did this weekend was add to the stash. I finished up the second bobbin of the pink merino/silk. I'll never be a pink person but this is growing on me.

My Lilac Leaf scarf continues to grow, too. Right now, it's just a lot of leaves but the pattern hasn't gotten old yet.

Eye Candy Friday

A couple of weeks ago, I had the sort of visit to my LYS that most knitters dream of: I went in, picked out a rather large selection of lovely yarns, and was able to take them home without making much of a dent in my bank account. How did I do this? With the generosity of some wonderful friends.

Shortly after the holidays, my husband and I cat-sit for some friends of ours who were out of town. When they got back, they offered yarn as a thank-you gift. I gave the only possible response: a gracious acceptance (and a quick apology to the DH that I got yarn out of this while he got litter box duty - he was really very nice about all of it).

Malabrigo sock yarn in colorway Tiziano Red

I just cast on with this last night for Gudrun Johnston's Aestlight Shawl. This was a bit of an emergency cast-on since the scarflet is almost done and I needed another reading project to knit while I work on an ongoing research project today.

Malabrigo laceweight in colorway Paris Night

I think this one will look lovely in the Haruni shawl pattern that has been making the rounds of ravelry lately.

The next yarns have an even better story (certainly more glamorous than cleaning litter boxes). A while ago I joined a fantastic group on ravelry called "Finish It or Frog It." Jennifer has done a great job organizing everything and keeping me motivated to re-evaluate the state of me knitting basket on a regular basis. On her suggestion, I added my Bear Claw Blanket to the "Epic FO" thread, which showcased truly epic projects that took eons to finish (or at least seemed to). Fast forward several months and I was delighted to learn that my little blanket had won the Epic FO Grand Prize: a generous gift certificate to my LYS.  The next yarns, plus a nice long Addi Lace needle that I needed for the ribbing on Forecast's sleeves, are the result. Thanks to everyone who said that they like the blanket! I was really touched.

Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway Gothic Rose

This yarn has already been wound into balls (yes, there was a knot - very frustrating) and is transforming into a pair of Marlene socks by Cookie A. I tried this pattern a couple of months ago with some Mountain Colors Barefoot but wasn't thrilled with how the mohair halo was obscuring the pattern. I've stolen the needle away from that project but haven't ripped yet. I rationalize this by telling myself that I'm waiting to find another pattern for the yarn but the truth is that I really don't like ripping unless I absolutely have to.  

Dream in Color Classy in colorway Grey Tabby

There's something really wonderful about this color. It's hard to see in the picture but the subtle color shits are absolutely beautiful. Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that I've been daydreaming about getting a grey tabby companion for Nayyir. What will the yarn become? A hat for the husband of the recipient of the Aestlight shawl. I'm thinking Koolhaas but haven't quite decided yet. Any other suggestions?

Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in colorway Spruce

Last but certainly not least, these lovely skeins are waiting to become Audrey in Unst. I am so looking forward to knitting this but unfortunately it's three sweaters away in the queue. First I have to finish Forecast and Buttercup and then Coraline, which I haven't even started.

I think that means I need to spend some quality time with the wheel this weekend to finish up the yarn in time to cast on for the Knitting Olympics. Wish me luck!

Stash Enhancement

The darling husband and I had a lovely weekend with his parents at the Midwest Fiber & Folk Festival. My previous fiber festival experience consists of two trips to Maryland Sheep & Wool and while this festival was no where near the size of Maryland, it was delightful just the same.

I am going to be completely shameless with this post and try to distract you from the lack of new knitting or spinning content with pictures of what I bought this weekend.

The first purchase of the day went to Frontier Fiber Mill, husband and wife alpaca venture in Indiana where they not only raise the alpacas but run their own mill. The quality of the fiber was superb and I cannot wait to start spinning. (The yarn looked lovely also but I was too captivated by the roving to venture much to that side of the booth). I liked their wares so much that I got about 6oz destined to be a scarf for the darling husband:



And another 3+oz for me!



Then I made my way over to the Briar Rose booth, which I have been looking forward to for months ever since seeing the beautiful dye jobs featured on Knitspot. After displaying an impressive showing of self restraint, since the entire booth was to die for, I came away with this skein of alpaca laceweight, destined to be a Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl (Ravelry link).



Next comes just over a pound of 80/20 Coopworth/Silk roving from a lovely farm whose name I cannot remember, destined to be a February Lady Sweater.



Last, but certainly not least, I stopped by the Knitting Notions booth. Actually, this was the first booth that I looked at on Saturday but every color and yarn was just too beautiful to take in all at once and I knew that for the sake of my bank account I would have to look a couple of times to prevent purchasing the entire inventory on impulse. After my second trip back to the booth, I came away with three skeins of laceweight for a Wing o' the Moth shawl (Ravelry link) and some sock yarn for the next pair of husband socks.





That's all I've got for tonight. I'm almost done with a Tangled Yoke Cardigan (Ravelry link) - I just need to graft the underarms, weave in some ends, and find buttons. Hopefully I'll have a finished object post later this week.