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How to pack Hand-Knits and Hand-Crochet projects for a Trip

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This Christmas and New Years was spent at Michael’s family property, called “The Farm.”  It’s a property about 45 minutes out of Charlottesville, VA, in the middle of practically nowhere.  We were going to be there for ten days, so I knew I needed to pack strategically.  You see, when at the Farm, there is no internet access, and no cell service.  Reading material is limited to whatever someone else has left there.  It’s a lovely place to spend holidays, because while there, it’s necessary to unplug and relax.  The drawback?  There isn’t really much to do, besides split wood and eat fruitcake.  I knew I needed to strategize.

I needed to pack in a serious way – foresight and planning was needed.  The last thing I wanted to do was finish working on a project and have nothing to start.  The farm’s also rather drafty, so in addition to works in progress, I also needed some serious socks, hats and blankets.  I packed nearly all of my hand-knitted socks, two of my favorite hats, a lap afghan (which also needed repairing) and a suitcase full of yarn.  I also packed about a half-dozen knitting and crochet books and a couple of magazines, in case my hands got tired.  Then, as a precaution, I also went on Webs and ordered some yarn I’d been meaning to pick up, to arrive at the farm.  Just in case, by some mysterious event, I managed to finish everything else I had to work on.

This was a great plan.  Over the next few days, I’m planning to share how my packing played out.  So for the first story, the importance of staying warm while jeep cruising:

There are certain rituals that are observed at the farm.  In the evening, one must pile into the antique jeep and take a tour of the property, surveying the field, stream and woods that make up the acreage. Even Michael’s 94 year old grandmother (with 2 hip replacements) manages to partake of the jeep ride.

Mr. Turtle and his grandmother, known as Oma.
Michael and his grandmother, known as Oma.
I learned how to drive a manual on the jeep, a couple of years ago.  While I normally sit back and enjoy the ride from the back, on one of the days when Michael wasn’t feeling well, I decided it was my turn to drive.
The jeep needs force and concentration, when you are getting her started.
Since it was more than a little brisk (though nothing like this week), I decided to augment my long underwear and 2 pairs of socks and hand-knitted hat with my lap blanket (which, incidentally, being more square than a traditional blanket, was the perfect length to keep me warm while still being able to drive).
Thus, the importance of hand-knits when packing.

Swirl Socks are Out!

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If you didn’t see by the last post, my Swirl Socks are out.  This is pretty exciting, as it marks the beginning of this year’s effort to self-publish between 1 & 2 designs a month.  It marks several months of back-end prep-work, as I’ve established relationships with Technical Editors, Sample Makers, and a Layout Designer.

All on top of planning my wedding, which is in 2 1/2 weeks.  Ack!

Swirl Socks are a great pattern for someone who needs just a little something to keep them busy.  After the first few rows, the pattern hits a rhythm, and next thing you know you are turning the heel.  It’s also a great pattern for saying… “just one more row…!”

I love how the cable passes right by the short row heel, and the differences in texture as it moves around the foot.  I love how it’s a surprisingly good pattern for very variegated yarns, because I’m prone to buying hand dyed yarns and then going, what now?

Go check out the socks here, or check out the Ravelry page here.  Let me know what you think!

The Design Process, Part 2, The Sample

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The other week, I realized that many people who knit or crochet never give much thought to how they get their patterns.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about the different phases of the design process, and why a pattern might not be as perfect as you wanted it to be.  Last week I talked about the concept.  Today I’ll be talking about the sample, and in the next few weeks you’ll read about the pattern, photography, and layout.

A designer has pitched an idea to a publisher, and signed a contract to create a pattern and sample.  What happens next?

If a designer is lucky, they have a fair amount of time to turn around and create a design, but this isn’t always true.  It takes time for a publisher to choose a yarn to send the designer and for the mail to get it to them.  A designer might also be working on several different designs at once, and have to juggle multiple competing deadlines.  Turnaround time can be anything from 2-8 weeks.

Sample for my Teaching Socks


Wait, you say.  A designer doesn’t always get to choose the yarn?  Normally, a designer gets some say in what yarn they want to use: the weight and fiber content.  However, they don’t always get to choose what color or even necessarily the yarn line they want to use.  While a designer might pitch to a company for a project to be made in a wool worsted weight yarn, the company might change it to a cotton wool blend, if that is the yarn that needs to be highlighted in the issue.  If a designer is working for a magazine, the magazine might have agreements with specific yarn companies to feature their yarn in the magazine.  


Alternatively, if a designer is working for a company, the specific yarn style or color they might want may be in the process of being discontinued or not longer available.  There’s the expectation of a certain amount of flexibility on the part of the designer.

When the designer receives the agreed upon yarn, it then becomes time for them to craft a sample.  The sample is the garment that will be used to publicize the design.  It’s a way for a designer to work the pattern, and figure out if there are any problem areas.  The sample will be used for the photography for the design (like the pictures at Tangled of my Sunburst Shawl), and afterwards, it might be shipped out to yarn stores in a trunk show or displayed at booths at trade shows.  Sometimes, after all this is done, the designer might get back their sample.  Most times however, it remains the property of the publisher.

A variety of methods and processes exist in how a sample gets made.  Some designers write the pattern first, and then use the sample to test out the pattern they have written. 


Sometimes the designer writes the pattern, and then hires someone else to make the sample for him or her.  Some designers aren’t able to write a pattern without making the sample, so make the garment and take careful notes as they go, so they can write the instructions afterwards.

Hopefully, the pattern goes as expected.  It might not.  The designer might find that the yarn they swatched with works out differently than the yarn they were sent.  Perhaps they find that the yarn is too heavy for the construction of their sample, or the stitches don’t like they way the designer expected.  Occasionally the way the garment is made has to be totally re-imagined.

The last part of working the sample is the finishing.  This might involve blocking the individual pieces before putting them together.  It might mean adding buttons, blocking out lace, weaving in ends, adding zippers, lining, or fixing imperfections.

It’s then time to move toward writing the pattern.

The Design Process, Part 1, the Concept

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The other day, I was talking to a customer about a pattern from a magazine.  She had come across a line that was particularly confusing in one part of the pattern, and had come into The Yarn Spot seeking help.  We puzzled over it for a couple of minutes and managed to get the pattern sorted out.

“I wish she had explained it better.  You would think that a designer would have more pride in their work,” I remember her saying.


At the time I let the comment stand, because I could understand her frustration. But as a designer, I felt it would be interesting to talk about patterns and their relationship with designers. The design process encompasses much more than just the pattern in the magazine.  It is entirely possible that the designer explained the pattern better in their original draft, but because of space constraints a magazine editor revised it to be shorter, sacrificing clarity.


Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about the different aspects of what happens during the design process, and why a pattern might not be as perfect as a designer wanted it to be.  I’ll be discussing the design process by further breaking it down into 5 key phases (though they don’t always come in this order):  the concept, the sample, the pattern, photography, and layout.


Let’s start with The concept.


Approximately 4-9 months before a magazine, booklet, book, or single pattern is scheduled to be published, the publisher sends out a design call.


Depending on the company and the medium, a design call can be many different things.  For a magazine, the editors might have a specific  theme in mind for that issue of the magazine.  For example, Interweave Knits might be doing a spring issue, and they want transitional pieces, pieces that move from winter to spring.  A yarn company might publish booklets to go with their yarn.  Classic Elite Yarn might want something that highlights their Classic Silk yarn.  Someone might want to publish a book all on designs inspired by Sherlock Holmes.  Once a publisher decides on the details of their theme, they put out a press release (most commonly via e-mail or on their website {like here, here or here) talking about the types of designs they want.  

Drawing of Idea

Designers are constantly keeping track of these different design calls.  Not all design calls fit all designers, so most pick and choose which ones they want to work on, and which ones they have the most likely-hood of getting into.


Swatch

Then, designers dream.  They draw pictures, create swatches, do math and layout schematics.  Finally they come up with an idea that they think it will work.  They put together everything they have done – the drawing, swatches, schematics and submit it to the company.


Designers then wait, work on other projects they have under contract and plan other ideas for design calls.  If their proposal is what the editors are looking for, they are notified with an offer to publish their design.  A contract with the publisher is signed, and the publisher (most often) sends them the yarn to create the sample.


But that’s another post.

Breezy Spinning

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About three weeks ago, many people will remember that a rather crazy Derecho swept through the middle of the East Coast, and Michael and I were not excepted.  We lost power from Friday night until the next Tuesday Night, and consider ourselves lucky that it was only that long – many people in our area lost power for longer.

Our picnic 

If you remember, it has also been hot, and let me say, the Metro DC is humid hot.  The first day Michael and I surveyed the damage, and hung out at a friend’s basement.  They didn’t have power, but at least it was cool.  The second day, tired of being cooped up indoors, we walked down the street to Sligo Creek, which runs nearby us.  Armed with books, knitting and and all the foodstuffs that we were worried would spoil, we headed down to the creek.  There, in the shade in the creek-bed (which, might I remind you, creeks are the lowest points in the area and thus are oftentimes much cooler) with our feet in the water went spent the afternoon and evening on a rock.  It was lovely, and while not what we had planned to do with our weekend, an nice treat.

The creek also did a good job keeping our lemonade cool, which we submerged in the running water.

By that time we were lucky enough to have a friend call us who had power, and offered to let us use her freezer for anything that would spoil.  We went and did that.

And then we went back to our 8th floor apartment.  Which was not as nearly pleasant as the creekbed.  I remarked to Michael that it wouldn’t be nearly so bad if I had a fan.  Instead, I was sitting and sweating and spinning.  I couldn’t knit or crochet because well – my gauge changes when my hands sweat.

So what did Michael, the most wonderful man in the world do?

I with modded spinning wheel/fan

He disassembled a fan, melted a hole in it, hooked it up to my orifice, and rigged it so that as I treadled, I spun.

Not a bad weekend, all things considered.

Really? USOC has stepped in it.

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I try for the most part to not get involved in much of the internet flare-ups that happen.  There are many things on the internet to get mad about, and most of them I don’t feel are worth my time.

But the USOC’s antics got me really angry yesterday.  For those of you who have been living under a log (or perhaps are just not paying attention to Gawker, About.com, NPR or dozzens of other news sites of various sizes – #Ravelympics was even trending on Twitter), the USOC sent a cease and desist letter to Ravelry, a knitting and crochet online community.  They were defending their copyright and intellectual rights, which while I don’t necessarily agree with how they approached it, I understand is important.  As a designer and writer myself, copyright issues are near and dear to my heart.  I have no problem with them doing that.  What I do have a problem with is the tone they have taken in the letter, which comes across as condecending and RUDE.

Then, today, when they realized that they may have gotten oh, about 2 million plus people very angry (seriously, go check out the USOC’s Facebook page) they issued an apology, which wasn’t really a good apology.  They say “The letter sent to the organizers of the Ravelympics was a standard-form cease and desist letter that explained why we need to protect our trademarks in legal terms. Rest assured, as an organization that has many passionate knitters, we never intended to make this a personal attack on the knitting community or to suggest that knitters are not supportive of Team USA.”

WAIT.

IF you didn’t mean to make a personal attack on us, why they heck did you say that “We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.”

FIRST OF ALL, anything I do doesn’t lessen the amount of work someone else does to accomplish anything.  SECOND, the tone of that statement implies that you value sports and athletics more than fiberworks and the arts, which is really asinine of you.  I think sports are pretty stupid sometimes, but I don’t go around publicly dissing someone else’s passion.  That is unkind.

FINALLY, you could have worded your apology better.  I get that the cease and desist letter was written as one business to another, and you probably didn’t expect it to be posted online, and for people to get angry.  But the apology was public and more directed to the upset knitters/crocheters.  Next time, try to talk to a few knitters/crocheters before you write the apology… asking someone to craft for you is normally thought of as an extremely personal thing in much of the crafting world, and a lot of people aren’t thinking your worthy right now.

The Yarn Harlot is calling for knitters to stay classy, and dare I say it?  Forgive the USOC. Or at least stay classy.  She brings up some good points about why people shouldn’t be as upset as they are… and they are very good points.  I understand the sentiment – as I said, I feel like there are few things that are worth getting angry over.

BUT.  I can’t help but returning to the tone of the original letter, and I think that Laurie at the Crochet Liberation Front articulates what is bothering me.  There’s an implied assumption that the fiberarts, which are traditionally a female craft (at least in the US in the last couple of decades) (even though there are a lot of very talented males out there) are not valued as much as people who are athletes (who can be male or female, but sports have also in the last couple of decades, been much more associated with men than women – look at the popularity of men’s vs. women’s college basketball – where is the women’s march maddness?).  And it just makes me tired and deeply frustrated because so many of my hobbies are devalued just because they are considered “crafty” or “womanly.” (I face the same problem with Romance Novels, and don’t get me started on that).

I don’t really know how to fix this, except to say that being “classy” doesn’t seem to work.  Being classy – or at least not engaging when someone says something stupid out of ignorance or arrogance or sheer stupidity doesn’t get things changed.  I’ve been talking to a lot of people over the last 24 hours, explaining why I’m angry and why I think these people acted in ignorance, and how to fix it.

I’m going to be writing a real paper letter to you – in fact, it’s half finished.  I’m going to be writing on your facebook page and talking on twitter.  I’m going to talk to people in person.  I’m not going to be disrespectful, but I am going to be assertive.

Maybe next time you might think a bit more before you write a letter.

The Mannings

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A couple of my friend and I headed up on Saturday to The Mannings, a hand-weaving, knit, crochet, spinning supply and teaching center.  When I told people around here I’d never been before, most people were pretty shocked, seeing as it’s apparently kinda like Webs is in MA, NY, and the surrounding area.  A place that a certain level of knitter/crocheter/spinner/weaver simply has to go.  And apparently I was overdue.

The only picture I took that turned out nice.
You think I would have taken more, but
I was distracted by all the things going on.

Well, on Saturday the Mannings was having a bit of an event, with free demos and presentations.  So L and T and I headed off, making a promise along the way that if we saw any roadside stands, we would stop, no questions asked.

(A good thing, too, as we bought collectively, at different times, fresh eggs, ice cream, cherries, more cherries, black raspberries – 2 bags worth, chocolate covered cherries and fresh sweet strawberries.  None of the fresh berries made it home, though a limited number of cherries did… mostly because we stuffed ourselves.)

The Mannings was more than I imagined. I’m not sure what I imagined, but it is located on a beautiful property near a river/creek, and on the edge of some lovely fields.  It has shade trees, a porch with rocking chairs (though Michael would only rate it a 5 out of 10, I think) and rooms upon rooms of spinning and weaving and knitting and crochet supplies.  The range and selection they have of weaving cones is more than I could bear.  I think I simply must go back and buy a whole bunch and make crochet doilies and garments and love it to death.  Seriously.  This place was great.  They had a whole room of spinning wheels and another room and a half of looms.  Huge looms.

And green colored cotton, which is hard to find.

I got to watch a sheep being sheared.  L in previous years has been a judge for the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival judging fleeces, so just walking by her and listening to what she looks for in a fleece was simply invaluable.

I saw some gorgeous fleeces, ones that made me rethink my vow not to get another fleece until I’m done with this one.  For now I’m sticking to that vow, mostly because I can’t afford to get another fleece.  But that day will come.

I picked a woman’s brains about German Angora Rabbits (which I began to seriously reconsider, now that we’re looking at getting a pet).  I got to see adorable baby rabbits.

But the best thing of all?  Seeing SO MANY PEOPLE just sitting and spinning and talking.  It was amazing. The last time I saw so many spinning-wheels was when I was in NY about three years ago, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.  (I kept my eye out for a Columbine Spinning Wheel, but no luck.  The Columbine wheel is one of my favorites, simply because it’s so durable, and so different from everything else you normally see).

Ever been to the Mannings?  When was the last time you went to a conference/gathering/con of like minded people?  What was it for?  Tell me about it.

Why I don’t Recomend Adults to take Knit/Crochet Lessons with their Children

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Children behave better when their parents aren’t there.  I’m sorry, but in my experience, it’s true.  Children listen to me better when the parents aren’t there dividing their attention.

Adults are dividing their attention between their children and learning themselves.  It’s just gotta be said.  Knitting and Crochet aren’t easy.  You gotta concentrate on what you are doing.

And the final reason?

Adults get frustrated when their children learn faster than them.  And typically?  Children learn much faster than adults.  Children are hardwired to learn, and they do it well.  It’s hard for adults, who are used to teaching their children, to be the ones that are struggling beside their younger classmates.

And I know, there are exceptions to this rule, but… it happens often enough it bears saying.

7 Tips to Teach Adults to Knit

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Continuing with my series on teaching various age people to knit and crochet, I bring you a new edition of Tips to Teach.  This one is about adults.

Give perspective.  First, remind your students what it was like to learn a new skill.  Have them think back to the weeks as a child they spent learning to ride a bike, whistle, or learn an instrument.  Adults often forget how long it can take to master a new skill, especially one that involves fine motor skills.  They might get frustrated or discouraged when their first project doesn’t end up like they expected.  By re-framing expectations you set them up for success instead of failure.

Start small.  On the same vein of managing expectations, try to start your students on a smaller project, that has a defined ending.  I have a list of projects that are small.  Adults, just like children, get a nice bump of satisfaction every time they finish something.  Make sure as the instructor, you’re giving your students manageable goals.

Keep it under an hour.  Learning to knit is hard work.  Most people will be using fine muscles in their hands in ways they don’t normally do, and these muscles get tired.  People’s brains are also working hard, trying to grasp concepts and process them.  After an hour, people begin to get tired and their attention starts drifting.  Finish a class before your students get tired.

Have a worksheet or a diagram.  Knitting is not a skill that is going to be learned in an hour.  Most times when I teach people to knit, I’ll teach them the knit stitch and have them go home and practice, then have them come back to learn purl, increases and decreases.  People are more likely to go home and practice if they have something to look at and jog their memory.

Have students write it down.  Jumping off of the worksheets, having students write something down will make them more likely to remember it.  Have them put in their own words each step of doing the knit stitch.  Research has shown that students normally remember about 40% of what is said in a lecture.  However, students that wrote things down remembered more relevant information.  You can have them do it right next to the pictures you have on your worksheets.

Tell them to bring in their work next class.  When I first started teaching, I would tell my students to practice the skills they had learned and come back next week.  What I’d find is that they would come in the next week, saying they had practiced, but that they had ripped out their work because there were too many mistakes.  Now, I tell my students to come in with their samples and their mistakes.  This is because you can look at their work and see what they are having problems on.  If they don’t have anything to show you, you can’t give them any feedback.  Stitches uneven?  Work with them on tensioning their yarn.  Holes in their work?  Check to see if they are dropping stitches or creating new ones.  Use mistakes as a way to improve.

Keep them accountable.  In classes that are multiple weeks long, I will try and get students e-mails and will check in with them during the week.  I will check to see if they have any problems and if they are practicing.  This helps because if a student gets stalled, they don’t just give up until next week.  I try to problem solve so they can keep on practicing.

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