Socktober

October really seems to have crept up on me this year and I can't quite believe we are in to Socktober already. Particularly bad planning on my part as I have 2 shawl patterns on the needles and an alpaca cardigan to finish.

I can't leave the day unmarked though so I'll be raiding my stash and casting on a new pair before the day is out. Even if they don't get finished for a while at least they will be on the needles.

Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group our monthly challenge is of course related to socks. There are a few sock novices who will be taking the plunge with their very first pair, as well as more experienced sock knitters who are setting themselves all manner of fun challenges. A tiny bit of my brain (the bit that is wildly over enthusiastic and fuelled by coffee) thought about trying to knit as many pairs as I could this month. Then, thankfully the more rational bit of my brain pointed to the aftermentioned knitting pile in progress and suggested that this might not be one of my better ideas.

Anyway, whatever your level of sock expertise I do hope you'll pop over to the group to join in. Even if you just lurk I hope you will pick up lots of ideas for inspiration and share our love for the way of the handknit sock.

Be all there

I don't remember where it was that I first came across this quote from the missionary Jim Elliot but I've found myself coming back to it more and more in recent weeks. It serves a reminder that sometimes we just need to focus on one thing and really enjoy it, rather than trying to do too many things at once.

I write every day, I love writing and I love writing about knitting so that naturally translates into writing here about my daily life, my knitting and my passions. As a card carrying introvert though, when things start to get a little sticky my natural inclination is to withdraw from the outside world. I still write every day but the words never see the light of day. I chose to keep them to myself rather than share something which is a little bit more downbeat and a little bit more personal than the stuff I usually choose to share.

I know that we can't always be relentlessly cheerful and indeed there is no expectation to be so - other than the expectations we place on ourselves.

But recent weeks found me increasingly unable to do everything I wanted to do and I was guilty of the eternal problem of trying to do everything, to please everyone and to be everywhere - all at the same time.

Fortunately, my ever loving husband is getting pretty good at intervening now and he saw the signs of a bit of a melt down before I did. As a result we changed our plans and decided not to go to Yarndale. Instead we still headed north but just to visit family and to spend time offline.

It never fails to amaze me what a difference a change of scenery makes. A chance for some fresh air, country walks and the sight of hills and stone walls. I live in the south of England but I was born and raised in the North and there is something really welcoming and about coming home and reconnecting to a landscape and a scenery that makes you feel at peace again.

So, this week it's back to normal. Lots on the needles and lots to write about but this time with a few self imposed rules to help me stay on track. No phone after 9pm and a proper bedtime routine being the key things. It's funny but they are things I'm so insistent that our kids do - but yet I don't apply the same rules to myself. And then I wonder why they are bright eyed and bushy tailed whilst I'm steaming my eyelids open over a cup of coffee.

So, if you "see" me on Twitter after 9pm you have my full permission to give me a gentle telling off.

Why pattern sharing is wrong!

Fuss Free Festival Shawl

Pattern sharing is theft!

There we go. A simple statement but one which I absolutely stand behind. In some circles I am aware that this might be greeted with a sharp intake of breath and sideways looks but as a designer who makes a sizeable chunk of her monthly income from direct pattern sales I feel compelled to point it out in no uncertain terms.

I was somewhat taken aback the other day to receive a private Facebook message asking me to copy a pattern I was using and post it to the messenger. They assured me they were more than happy to pay for postage to cover my expenses. In fact, now that I think about it, the request wasn't even couched in terribly polite, or apologetic tones. There was no "would you mind terribly..." or "I'm so sorry to bother you but..." Just a simple request that I copy the pattern and post it to them please.

I don't recall exactly what I said in response but I think I was polite (just) and firm in my assertion that I support the copyright of the original designer - whose published works are freely available for purchase.

It got me thinking though about the way that designers work these days and that maybe there might be a gap in perception between what indie designers do and how they earn their keep as compared to the big commercial yarn companies.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that there is a significant difference between a large commercial yarn company who produces patterns almost as a loss leader to support the yarn the pattern was created for. Indeed, not too many years ago there was a yarn shop near my parents house who would refuse to sell you a pattern unless you bought the accompanying yarn with which to make said pattern. The large companies almost certainly treat the patterns they produce this way, if not as disposable assets, but at least of secondary importance to their main aim - which is the sale of the yarn.

In the world of indie designers things are very different. The majority of us sell our patterns direct to the public, often via a 3rd party such as Ravelry or Love Knitting. Once Paypal, Ravelry fees and VAT are deducted that money is ours to do with as we will, whether that's to invest in new charting software, pay website fees or get the cat wormed!

For every £5 pattern sale we lose through someone 'sharing' a pattern with a friend that's money taken directly from our monthly income.

The issue which really got my goat from the original request was that the person concerned was more than willing, anxious even, to reimburse me for my time and expense is sending the pattern, but didn't give a second thought that the person who put all the hard work into designing and writing the pattern didn't deserve any recompense at all.

Like all things, it comes down to education. The more we educate people about how independent designers work and the more they come to appreciate the help and support they can get from the independent community then hopefully, they will be more prepared to support us in future.

 

Knitting and the gender wars

Pattern is Autumn Leaves by Nikky Van De Car

Unless you've been living under a rock in the UK this week you can't but help have heard the social media rumpus that followed an announcement by major retailer John Lewis. It was nothing earth shattering, nothing ground breaking. Just a simple statement that they were relabelling their children's clothing ranges and would from now on have a gender-neutral range.

To those parents who would dearly like to buy little dresses for their girls with dinosaur prints on, or trains this was welcome and long overdue news. I am parent to two boys but as someone who feels strongly about this issue I'm not averse to reorganizing the clothing racks in department stores and relocating the Space/Science themed T shorts into the "girls" section.

To others though, this move signals the end of the world and that time honoured catchphrase "Political correctness gone mad". Twitter feeds full of rabid, ranting objections and ill-informed opinion abounds. Those who are so quick to label others for taking offence seem to have gone off the deep end and are claiming to be morally outraged that the "left wing PC brigade" are trying to force little Tommy into a dress and won't be happy until the mandatory wearing of fairies and glitter is enforced across the genders.

As a child of the 70s this is all quite amusing. The vast majority of my clothing was bright primary colours (well the bit that wasn't brown corduroy, anyway) and much of it was unisex - often handed down from family and friends. Quite when we started to segregate Mothercare into pink and blue I'm not entirely sure, but surely it can't hurt to give people - and their children - choices.

As knitters ( and also as crafters, sewists etc) this debate can rage on but we are safe in the knowledge that we can create whatever we want. If we want to make a tunic dress for a little girl with a dinosaur motif or a rocket we can. If we want to make a rainbow coloured sweater for a little boy, we can. Our only constraints are our imagination and our budgets.

As an aside, I'll share an anecdote from a few weeks ago. I made a little purple cardigan ages ago and finally a baby girl arrived in the family who I could gift it to. I shared a photo on social media and some of the comments were pretty funny to me. Lots of comments along the lines of "oh, what an unusual colour for a girl". I truely hadn't given it a moments thought that it was in any way a controversial colour. I love purple and it goes with a ton of other colours. It's also dark enough to hide a multitude of baby-related stains and it was superwash yarn that I had in my stash - win, win.

After consulting with a few knitting friends it seemed that they had also experienced similar reactions. Some family members seemed to be of the firm opinion that it was one step away from pink and thus wholly unsuitable for boys. Equally others felt that it strayed dangerously close to blue territory and could not therefore be countenanced by baby girls.

How strange. That a colour can provoke such interesting reactions. So if a purple cardigan can cause ructions I guess it's no surprise that a dinosaur dress has people talking. The John Lewis PR department must be jubilant.

For me though, this whole debate is clearly missing the wider issue. Never mind about pink for boys or purple for girls. There is an urgent and pressing need to readdress the Great Pockets Divide. Now I know there is no rational reason why a baby boy need pockets - what after all is a 3 month old going to stuff in there? But why should baby girls trousers not have them? And for busy pre-schoolers who lets face it, have a wealth of interesting uses for pockets, why should little girls be denied them.

And don't even get me started on women's clothing. For me one of the chief selling points of a dress or skirt (beyond the fact that it's machine washable and non crease) is that it has pockets.

So bugger the colour or the print, let's start a campaign for Pockets For All. Or failing that we can just make them outselves.

Indie Love

While I was away my brain was fizzing with ideas for the next few months and first up is my plans to devote the month of September to promoting the work of our fabulous indie dyers, yarnies and designers. Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group we have been watching with dismay as various local yarn shops have closed down and the big high street stores seem ever more visible with their huge advertising budgets and near domination of our Facebook feeds. Just one search for baby acrylic and it seems that adverts for the likes of Deramores will crop up on your feed from now to eternity.

With that in mind I'd like to do something within the group to promote the many and varied alternatives to the high street behemoths. I'll be running a weekly thread within the group and inviting you to post anything that you've done to help an independent business. Whether you have visited your LYS, bought from an online indie store, bought some hand-dyed yarn or knitted a pattern from an indie designer., even just recommended an indie person to a friend. It all counts.

The intention is to give us all a bit of inspiration and to perhaps find some wonderful new indie suppliers. 

Word of mouth and personal support are so important to our indie suppliers and can make all the difference. It really is a case of "use them or lose them".

 

Scrap yarn challenge

Now don't tell me you don't have any scrap yarn about your person.

We all have those little bits squirreled away somewhere don't we. Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group we have set ourselves a challenge this month to learn the Russian Join technique and make a "magic ball" from all our scraps. I'm using sock weight yarn but some others are using DK. 

If you've never used the Russian Join method before I'd highly recommend that you give it a go. All you need is a nice sharp tapestry needle and it's a way of giving you a smooth join between 2 ends of yarn without any additional bulk. 

Once you've made your magic ball you can then knit (or crochet) until the cows come home, making a wonderful multi-coloured project without any worry about sewing in the dreaded ends.

I used this tutorial here which explains it all very clearly. If you find yourself with a spare 5 minutes this weekend why not give it a go. Be warned though, it's highly addictive.


Have a great weekend