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NaSpiMoMo

Margene and Carole (as per the usual), came up with a fabulous idea, to have a National Spin More Month (NaSpiMoMo) in January, and even though the idea of joining things makes a little bile rise up in my rebellious gut, I joined. The chief reason being that I could choose my own goals, there was no one chastising me if I didn’t meet them, and I didn’t even have to post in the ravelry forum, although I could if I wanted. So I set the goal to spin at least once every week, and so far so good. In the first week’s spinning, I finished one set of singles, then on Saturday I finished the other set of singles, and plied the yarn.

It’s 50/50 angora silk, and it’s the final offering from the Wooly Wonka Exotic Fiber Club. I spun it to a laceweight and then I’ll be knitting a scarf out of it to be the free pattern that goes along with the offering.

Spinning something with that much silk in it was tricky and took some getting used to. It’s light as air, but also sticks to every damn thing in sight. I would get up from the wheel, having tried to protect myself with a pillowcase, and find that my pants were no longer black, but a soft, fuzzy, pale gray from the thin sheet of angora/silk that had adhered to them. I haven’t finished the yarn yet, but with that much angora content, I expect it to halo a ton and fluff up quite nicely. I’ll also be giving it extra room in the knitting by working on a larger needle than normal so it can halo some more when the finished piece is washed.

M

Posted 17 January 2008 † Mim § Spinning ‡ Comments (11) °

Random FO's, mostly cotton

I find it rather funny that the knitting FO’s I’m showing you in this post were all HELL to knit. It’s like I’ve shown you all the lovely wool ones and now all that’s left are the ones that make me cringe with their inelastic, hard-on-my-hands cotton-ness.

The first, is the socks for Patrick Rothfuss. They’re done, we just have to mail them with our book and he will sign it. I hope he likes them and that I won’t end up feeling stupid for knitting socks for a complete stranger. Please disregard the cat hair, they will get a good wash and dry before they go. Ekho just couldn’t help trying to send his own little “contribution” along.

Pattern: Made up k3p2 ribbed sock, toe up with Charlene Schurch’s easy toe and a short row heel with fake heel flap. EZ’s sewn bind off for the top, so they’re nice and stretchy.
Yarn: Panda Cotton, 3 skeins in black.
Needles: 2.5 mm (US 1.5) Crystal Palace 6″ Bamboo dpns
Verdict: The fabric that Panda Cotton makes is a bit crepey, which is cool, but knitting with it is an absolute pain in the ass! It splits like CRAZY and even with the elastic content, my hands hurt after a few hours of work. That’s why they have taken so long and spent so long locked in the WIP box. But they’re done and good, and I hope the recipient will like them.

Next up, good old dishcloths.

Pattern: Corner-to-corner dishcloth pattern that everyone knits, but no one remembers where they got the pattern, so I’m putting the pattern here (see below)
Yarn: Big Ass Cone of Elmore Pisgah (Sugar and Cream or Peaches and Cream) worsted weight cotton in Natural.
Needles: 5 mm (US Size 8) 24″ circular
Modifications: I did do a lovely little hanger using ysolda’s tutorial for sewn button loops. I think it gives a nice finish.
Verdict: These are the total utilitarian knitting. They’re not fun or pleasant to knit, but you can knit one in a sitting while watching a movie, you increase until you feel like decreasing, then decrease it down until it ends. When you’re done you’ve got a simple, but oh so useful item. But the cotton hurts your hands…. I guess I’ve got a sort of love/hate relationship with them.

Pattern for Dishcloths:

Cast on 3 sts.
Row 1: Knit 1, kf&b, k1.
Row 2: k2, yo, k to end.
Repeat Row 2 until desired width from corner to corner.
Row 3: k2, yo, k2tog, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
Repeat Row 3 until 6 sts remain.
Row 4: k2, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k1.
Row 5: k2, k2tog, k1.
Row 6: k1, k2tog, k1.
Bind off, and cut a long tail to work a loop.

Tomorrow… SPINNING!

M

Posted 16 January 2008 † Mim § Knitting § My FO's ‡ Comments (5) °

Flying Cables

Pattern: Flying Cables Sweater by Amy King (Kit here)
Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Big Ball Chunky in Cranberry
Needles: 5 mm (US 8) 24″ circular
Modifications: I added width to get a bust size closer to my ACTUAL bust size by adding an extra cable on each side of both front and back. I fudged the bottom ribbing to work with the new width. I added a lot of length to the sleeves as well, and when working the collar, the placement of increases wasn’t making the pattern come out as shown, so I faked that too. The key to getting those lovely vertical lines that Amy has where the increases meet them, is to place your stitch marker in between two purl stitches.
Verdict: Had I read the pattern more thoroughly I might have changed a few more things, like the drop sleeves. As a general rule, I don’t really like drop sleeves, they don’t do any favors for me. And the collar doesn’t sit the way it does on the mannequin for me, but I still love it. The color is great and I’ve got a lot of compliments every time I wear it. I also would have worked a couple of rows from one ball and then a couple from another if I were paying attention. There is a slight color shift in the front of the sweater (although not so dramatic as it looks in the photo) that could have been avoided if I were thinking straight, but I just wanted something quick to knit through the holidays.

M

Posted 15 January 2008 † Mim § Knitting § My FO's ‡ Comments (23) °

PIs 'R' Us

4 balls of yarn, a Soak, and 192 large T-pins later.

Pattern: Pi shawl by Elizabeth Zimmerman from Knitter’s Almanac (July)
Yarn: 4 skeins of Reynold’s Soft Sea Wool in color 569 (Dark Blue)
Needles: 4.5 mm (US 7) double points, 16″ circular and 24″ circular
Modifications: I used the basic recipe for the shawl including the Emily Ocker crocheted cast on, with no patterning in any of the sections until the 48 row section, at which point I began a diamond motif that you can find a chart for here. I worked the next increase row, then worked 6 rows even, then did an eyelet row, then 2 rows, then the crochet chain bind off (*chain 5, slip stitch 3 live knitted stitches together, repeat from *)
Verdict: This shawl is GENIUS! It uses the basic exponential growth (every increase row you double the stitches, and to match that the number of rows between increase rows doubles, so you start with 3 rows, then 6, then 12, then 24, etc…), but it takes full advantage of the fact that knitting stitches are so malleable. If you were to try recreate this pattern of increase in something less flexible, like say… woven fabric, it would gather and bunch at the beginning of the non increasing section and stretch and pucker at the end of it right before the new increase row. It is because of this that my regular old diamond motif looks like a lotus blossom instead. Frankly, I love it! This one is going to Black Sheep Wool Company for shop display, but I get to knit another one when I teach the class on it.

Blocking was proving just a bit tricky, until I realized that I could pin the end of my tape measure to the very middle of the shawl and then every time I placed a pin, I’d just use the tape measure to make it exactly 24″ from the center, that way the whole shawl ended up being evenly 48″ in diameter.

More FO pics tomorrow, but I wanted to mention my progress toward more organization and fewer piles. You can see my new living room shelves, full of DVDs and all the shit that used to sit all along the floor at that wall.

M

Posted 14 January 2008 † Mim § Knitting § Teaching ‡ Comments (29) ° Tagged: , ,

Three is not too many, or New Years Ramblings

I began the year as I mean to go on. I woke up early (I always wake up early) and made a list of things I was going to do, starting with the laundry and I managed to do it all BEFORE we ran out of underwear or socks, which, I think, is a first for me. Doing all that laundry made me realize that we have way more clothing than we actually wear, and it’s time to go through the closet and purge.

I cleaned off my desk, getting rid of junk I don’t need but was keeping for sentimental reasons.

I cleaned the kitchen and organized drawers and shelves to give myself clean counter tops. I have a tendency to cover every flat surface with “stuff” even though I LOVE cleared flat surfaces.

I struggle with finding a balance between owning useful things, being organized, and keeping a Japanese minimalist aesthetic. I want to do all of these things, but generally fall short since they seem to be sort of contradictory. I am trying to find the balance between all of them. Compromise a bit of each to find something that works for me.

Come to think of it, that’s what my overarching goals for 2008 are. Balance. I had some wild extremes in 2007. I swung MUCH too far into the care-what-is-going-on-and-what-people-think-of-me side of the spectrum, and then as backlash I swung to the don’t-even-care-to-pay-the-bills end. I let myself get too obsessed with my new job and lost all the joy of “home” and then I swung the other way and for a week or two didn’t remember from day to day what I had done at work (which with my job is a very bad thing). This new year is dedicated to finding the balance, trying to keep myself on an even keel and finding places and times for all of the things I want to do. Prioritizing and strategizing to make the most out of every 24 hour day. Which includes exercising because I don’t want to be ready to pass out at 9:30 and to still be tired after 8 hours of sleep.

In the almost week since New Years I’ve been trying to keep the cleanliness I created, and de-junk wherever possible. And be completely honest with myself. Like how I keep telling myself that I’ll blog when I have good pictures, but then I don’t take good pictures because the only camera with a working flash is one that turns everything fluorescent and I’d rather have no pictures than fluorescent ones with a crappy flash. Which brings me round to things I’ve been avoiding. I need to have the flash repaired on the camera that I love and yet, I never get around to it. It’s been broken for a good 6 months, but I’ve just ignored it in hopes that if I did, it would repair itself I could just stay inside my house and watch movies and not have to venture out. It’s not like the camera place is even that far, I’ve just been ignoring anything resembling work that I’m not getting paid for.

But no longer. Today I will take the camera to the shop, I will put together some IKEA shelves to store our VERY LARGE DVD collection on, and I will organize and de-junk the living room. So to put this rambly post into some semblance of order…. (and this is more for me than for you)

Things for Miriam to remember for the new year:

1. Balance in all things. Strive not to let yourself go too far toward any end of the spectrum.
2. Get rid of all the shit. Emotional and physical. Cull what you do not need and use what you have to fullest advantage.
3. Exercise. For your health, for your sanity, for your body. Even though you think of this “resolution” every year, just make it a goal to be healthier in general. You can do that. Make choices every day to be healthier.

3 is good. I can do 3 things for the next year. That’s not overwhelming.

M

Posted 05 January 2008 † Mim § Knitting § Navel Gazing ‡ Comments (18) °

On Digital Publishing, Contracts, and Headaches.

Now that my technical difficulties are solved and my blog is running as it should, I thought I’d finally address something that’s been weighing heavily on my mind of late. So heavily, that it’s been responsible for my sluggish creativity and a bit of depression. The post is long, but please take the time to read it, I feel it’s an important issue.

Even though designing handknitting patterns isn’t my primary source of income, I take it seriously. I have a business plan, a business license, long-term projections, investments, etc…. I guess that’s what comes of a 4 year business degree. I have set break even points for my patterns and I track the income I make from them so I have an idea of where I am and I reinvest profits back into the business.

Some patterns exceed my expectations and make a profit after the first month or two, and some fall short for reasons I may never quite understand. Whether I am self-publishing, or doing a piece for a yarn company, I will not sell my copyright. I will only license publication rights or give a term of exclusivity with any other company, but I retain rights to my work. This gives me the option of teaching from those patterns, republishing online, selling wholesale… etc…. (for a good, basic breakdown on publishing and contracts, I highly recommend Jenna’s post on the subject. Even if you’re not a designer, if you want to be a conscientious consumer, you should read it.)

As Jenna cautions in her post, the publishers are out to make money. They’re not in the business of benevolently offering up-and-coming designers the chance to achieve their dreams. They are out to make money, and it’s important for the designers to know that and to not sign away more than they’re willing to give. Every contract is negotiable before it is signed, but once you sign, you’re legally obligated to abide by that contract, so it would be prudent for designers to push to get a contract in place BEFORE receiving yarn and BEFORE the deadlines are set. It’s much better in the long run than if the designer finds herself backed up against a deadline, with the knitted piece nearly finished, staring at a new contract that makes her feel less than comfortable with the arrangement and not getting e-mail responses from the people in charge. Ask me how I know.

With my business model, when I have published a pattern in a magazine, I expect that after whatever period of exclusivity, I will regain rights to publish the pattern and then I can continue making a profit from that design. For instance, what Interweave paid for first North American serial rights for Icarus just barely covers my break even point, but leaves me making no profit from the design. When you break down all the time spent for a design from initial concept through to making charts, sizing, and knitting the model, the average magazine pattern fee ends up being less than minimum wage for all the time put into it. And that doesn’t even cover all the time spent giving help and technical support through e-mail to the people knitting the magazine pattern. So after a while, I republished the pattern (which was within my contracted rights to do), and now I can make a profit from it.

To cover all their bases and to cover older contracts that didn’t have a provision for digital distribution, Interweave sent out a Digital Revenue Sharing Contract to every designer who had contributed to their publications. Interweave insists that the DRSC only licenses rights to publication and that the contract is not meant to interfere with the ability of a designer to self-publish after the original publication, but to become an additional source of income (10% of whatever price Interweave decides to set for the pattern, which could be nothing. As we all know, 10% of nothing is still nothing). But the very intelligent IP lawyer I hired says otherwise. The contract is written as an assignation of rights. Which means that had I signed the DRSC, I would loose rights to publish my patterns (Icarus and Logan River Wrap) in any medium; digitally, print or wholesale. When I told Interweave of my problems with the contract, they didn’t respond for 3 weeks and then told me they would not negotiate. So I didn’t sign the agreement. Annie Modesitt covers a bit of the history and why she didn’t sign it in this post.

But here’s where it gets sticky. Interweave’s lack of my signature on their DRSC doesn’t preclude them from selling my patterns digitally. Even leaving aside the DRSC, with Interweave’s new online store, which sells pdfs, if I were to sell the the Logan River Wrap after the 1 year exclusivity period that was in the contract for that piece, it could be considered direct competition. Selling the same pattern in the same format, via the same medium. (Although there is a questionable point whether I adapt the pattern, or rework it, if that is considered a whole new pattern and therefore not governed by the same agreement). But because of the contract I signed for the Logan River Wrap, I have to expect that it’s basically lost to me for all future digital profits, because if I sell it through my normal channels, it could be in competition with Interweave’s new online store.

Icarus, having been under a different contract, is governed differently. There was no exclusivity period for Icarus, nor was there any provision against competing with Interweave in selling the pattern in future. But Interweave also has the right under contract to offer Icarus in digital format. So they could, theoretically, give the Icarus pattern away for free, and effectively prevent me from selling it. Who would want to PAY for a pattern they could get for free, right?

So at some point, Icarus and Logan River Wrap might show up in their online store, either for free or for a price, but I will not be receiving any revenue from those purchases. I think it’s important to be an informed consumer, no matter what venue you are purchasing in and I understand, from a consumer perspective, how easy and convenient it is to buy patterns from Interweave’s online store instead of spending time tracking down an out of print issue on ebay or trying to be a good knitter and not photocopy the pattern from a friend’s copy of the mag. I’m not calling for a boycott of Interweave, by any means, but if you like what independent designers offer you and you are wanting to support them, I would highly advocate buying directly from the designer’s website or store when possible. If you value the work indie designers put into their patterns, then support them.

Thanks for sticking with me through this post. Let me know your thoughts, even if you disagree with me. I’ve struggled long and hard with how to phrase this and whether to say anything, but I can’t stay silent any longer on the subject.

Mim

Posted 26 December 2007 † Mim § Designing ‡ Comments (66) °

You may notice that my normal sidebar stuff is gone. That’s because WordPress decided to eat it. For some reason, which I can’t figure out, the sidebar widgets, which I used to drag and drop with ease, now appear only as text boxes, and I cannot interact with them at all. I’ve been checking WordPress’s forums to see if any of the solutions talked about there will work, but none have so far.

*ETA* WOO! I figured it out! I just had to reinstall the whole javascript file. Something got weird in there and so I downloaded the folder from wordpress.org and deleted my file and uploaded that one and voila!

Posted 26 December 2007 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (2) °

Of Sweaters which won't be finished for Christmas.

My parents are out of town visiting my Nana (who’s husband of 60 plus years passed away the Christmas before last) and so our holiday is proving very laid back. There is nowhere we HAVE to be, since my family is not getting together. My elder sisters who have families and children of their own are celebrating at home, and I am knitting.

One good thing about the writer’s guild strike is that the networks have put up all the episodes from the current season online. As some of you may recall, I don’t have TV (I have A TV, but we don’t watch broadcast or cable television, just movies), nor have I had a TV for some years. Since 1997. But I got one of those services that send you movies in the mail and started watching some TV series that I had heard good things about. So I’ve been catching up on Season 4 of The Office, the first episodes of Chuck and I’ll start in on Gray’s Anatomy as soon as ABC gets with the program and put the other episodes up. Also, with some Christmas money from my parents, I bought the entire series of Angel on DVD. Oh yes, I’m quite pleased with it 🙂 Joss Wheadon, I am your minion.

The sweater is almost done, just the last bits of ribbing on the cuffs of the sleeves (I did the collar earlier than the patterns says to), and I’ll be done but for the seaming. Amy included a lovely little skein of dyed-to-match thinner yarn specifically for the seaming, but I left it at home while I’m visiting friends for the holiday. Damn. So while I was hoping for a Christmas day photo shoot for this sweater, it’s not going to happen. But I guess that’s a good thing since I wouldn’t have been able to give it a really good blocking and still get the photo shoot done. And it’s not like I was giving it as a present. It’s for me, so I suppose it can just be my New Years Eve Party Sweater 😀

Happy Christmas to those celebrating, and to those not, happy Tuesday that you probably got off work anyway 😀

M

Posted 25 December 2007 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (6) °

Happy Solstice!

Solstice dawned cold, snowy and like a good day to ignore the world and stay inside. I did a little bit of that, but when the sun came out, I just HAD to be out in it! Every year, the last week or two before solstice is hard for me. The darkness drags on and its hard for me to stay motivated. I make stupid mistakes because I just can’t focus and then I feel dumb because of it… it’s just bad all around, so solstice is important to me, because it’s a return of hope and feeling like myself. I really should consider living in a place with more warmth and sunlight.

I took myself to the post office amid a lot of slush and slippery spots on the sidewalks, and mailed off some newly finished felted clogs to my great aunts in New England (didn’t get pictures before I sent them, sorry!), and then walked back across downtown to Black Sheep, my favorite LYS, where Charlotte sat on the floor with me, swapping out balls of yarn and making piles on the carpet to find just the right combination of Reynolds Whiskey for my Elizabeth (Zimmerman’s) Percentage Sweater, which I’ll be starting with Margene in January.

The thing that I love about this yarn is that each of the colors is heathered and has so much depth, so if the colors were solid, they might not go so well together, but because they’re each made up of other colors with different values, it was very entertaining to see how the color shifted when you put it next to something new. I decided to go with a beautiful burgundy color for the main (it’s the one in the back) and I have 4 accent colors to work with; a dusty raspberry color, a light blue-grey, a teal, which really added some zing to the mix, and this color which is innocuously called “Charcoal”, but which is really a greeny browny gray which makes me think of the soil underneath the leaf litter on a forest floor. This combination just SCREAMED out to me that I should knit it, I took heed, and the yarn came home with me 🙂

Having satisfied a bit of creative urge for the day, I walked over to the Avenues Bakery, where I sat by the window with the sun warming my back, and ate a leisurely lunch of fresh salad and tomato basil soup. I ate mindfully and slowly (a rarity for me), and focused on the warmth coming into me through the window. I thought about the hard days I’ve been through in the last few months and let them go. I thought about the future days and what I wanted to do with them, who I wanted to shape myself into, what I wanted to create. It was a nourishing and cleansing experience, and the perfect way to spend the solstice. I did some shopping (for myself, thank you very much), and went home and took a nap, then spent the evening with friends trying to see a movie. Frankly, it was wonderful.

Oh, I also knit quite a bit on my Flying Cables sweater (which it turns out is nearly impossible to photograph with proper color). This is a finished back and the beginnings of the front. Still not through the first ball, even with my modifications to make it sized right for me. With all the holiday down-time, I expect that I could be wearing this sweater for Christmas. We shall see.

Posted 22 December 2007 † Mim § Knitting § My FO's ‡ Comments (10) °

Just a bit salty…

Warning: I may just be irritable because we are nearing the very longest day of the entire year and the lack of sunshine is clogging up my brain.

So on the train today I was standing up, leaning against a wall, working on my Flying Cables sweater (which I have knit 13″ on the back of, then ripped and restarted with some modifications), and he was eyeing the knitting with that look. The one that means he’s just on the cusp of saying something about it and is trying to come up with a casual, flirty, and yet still intelligent thing to say. There are many impressed glances as he realizes that I am simultaneously balancing while standing on a moving train and knitting without looking at my work. Then there’s the long pause. Then…

He: Are you making me a Christmas present?

I: Uh…. No

He got the casual. He got the flirty. He just missed intelligent by a mile. Why on God’s green earth would I be knitting a present for a strange person I’ve never even SEEN before. Seriously. Not a good way to start a conversation.


M

Posted 19 December 2007 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (14) °