The Rare Stitch Project

Third Vault Yarns self stripe with a duplicate ‘rare stitch’ added

Have you heard of The Rare Stitch project? No, neither had I until I experienced one of those remarkable serendipitous events that our online knitty world seems to excel in.

I had just finished reading an article on the Ravelry home page under their regular Humans of Ravelry slot - you can read it here (you may need to scroll down a little to find it). The article talks about Raveller tentenkits - aka Margot - whose son was diagnosed with a very rare condition. She uses her knitting to raise awareness of rare diseases by incorporating a deliberately wrong (rare) stitch into each project as a visual representation of one ‘rare or unusual’ stitch in a sea of ‘normal’ stitches. Margot has a lovely Instagram account as @1010_studio and she is well worth a follow.

With cup of coffee in hand I literally popped over to Instagram to connect with Margot and the first post I see is a post from the lovely Deb - @tinckhickman sharing her ‘rare stitch’ project. She talked very movingly about a recent diagnosis within the family of a rare and unusual disorder and also linked back to Margot’s work.

How weird is that? I love how interconnected our knitting world is and I love that this project is doing such great work to highlight awareness of such rare and often overlooked diseases.

Today - 28th February - is Rare Disease Day so it seemed like the perfect time to share this little anecdote with you and to also help to raise awareness this group of disorders. For many patients and their families the diagnosis of rare disease (literally something that affects 1 in a million or fewer) can seem incredibly isolating. Support groups and help can be far away, or non existent and it can be baffling to navigate the healthcare system with healthcare professionals who also know very little about your condition.

Rare Disease Day is organised and supported by EuroDis - Rare Diseases Europe - who bring together research and support for those affected under one umbrella organisation and try to amplify the work ongoing.

So if you do one thing today, why not add a ‘rare stitch’ to your WIP and share it online with the hashtag #therarestitch and show a little support for this worthwhile project

Mickelby Cowl

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mickelby

This was originally part of a collaboration with Eden Cottage Yarns and now this cowl pattern - my Mickelby Cowl - is on general sale on Ravelry with a little early bird discount - although if you are a newsletter subscriber please check your inbox first for a little extra discount*.

This is a quick and really straightforward knit which looks way more complicated than it really is.

If you have always shied away from colourwork or filed it away in the box marked “too scary” I promise that it’s a lot simpler than it looks. The slip stitch pattern means that you only work with 1 colour per round and it’s really addictive - a real “just one more round” kind of project.

And, as an added bonus it is a snug fitting cowl - it uses only 50g of sockweight yarn with 2 x 10g mini skeins - ideal for stashbusting purposes.

So there you go, quick, easy and thrifty - what more could you want.

*The discount codes apply until March 2nd

You can buy the pattern here, and if you’d like to sign up to receive notifications on future pattern releases as well as the forthcoming sock KAL you can sign up here.

Zero waste socks

Yarn is a self stripe from Third Vault Yarns - Ides of March

As knitters we tend to be a fairly thrifty bunch anyway, and I know that I am certainly loath to part with any scraps after I’ve finished a project.

But, as I was knitting on these socks it dawned on me that these will be my first pair of official “Zero Waste” socks.

The 100g skein gave a lovely pair of toe-up socks for me (64sts on 2.25mm needles) with a fish lips kiss heel and left 40g remaining. My eldest son liked them so much that he also wanted a pair - and although he now has feet that are as long as mine they are also a lot narrower (think canoe’s and you’re on the right track).

So I divided the remaining yarn into 2 x 20g balls and paired it with a toning brown (of long forgotten provenance) from my stash for toes, heels and cuffs. His socks are 56sts on 2.25mm needles and so I got about 5 inches up the leg before the self-stripe ran out.

I just did a Clasped weft join to the brown yarn and carried on to add another inch and then the cuff. So by the time I have finished his second sock there’s won’t be a single scrap of the self-stripe left, which I have to say is all very pleasing,

As I am determinedly ploughing on with my mahoosive (three strands held together) Garter Ripple Squish, the idea of not adding anything further to my dwindling yarn scrap supply is really quite attractive.

I’m not sure if this will be a “thing” for future socks too but it’s certainly been a fun project.

Staying small

Precious Metals Socks KAL starting soon

I saw a really interesting statistic yesterday which really gave me cause to think, and also crystallised a few thoughts which I’ve been mulling over for a while. The ever-fabulous Casey from Ravelry ran and published a report into the income made by designers through Ravelry pattern sales. January was the best month for pattern sales and his figures showed that only 300 people made more than $1000 in sales. It goes without saying that sales for the summer months are a whole lot lower.

With figures like that it’s pretty obvious that pattern sales alone are not a viable way to make a living - and that’s the reason that most designers either have more diverse income streams or who work other jobs in addition to their designing.

For the purposes of comparison I checked my figures and in January I made just short of £660 in pattern sales (approx $860) - not bad - and probably about in line with my monthly average.

It goes without saying though, that this is not my sole source of income. I work a full time job and I’m married with a husband who also has a full time job. And of course there are the overheads to be deducted for tech editing, website hosting, software and the dreaded tax return.

My designing and pattern sales are a useful source of secondary income but more importantly for me, it’s fun and that’s why I do it. If I were to give up work to focus on this full time I’m not sure I would inherently be any more productive, or that realistically I would be able to convert that free time into actual income. There are only so many patterns people are willing to buy and hours in the day in which to knit them.

So much business advice is gearing towards growing your business, to “slaying it” and to building your income. Sometimes it feels as though it’s wrong to say “I’m fine where I am actually, thanks”. I’m never going to be a crusading business woman, and I’m fine with that.

I’m just happy, doing what I do. And I’m eternally grateful that I’m able to do it.

My favourite apps for knitting pattern storage

Photo by Radu Marcusu on Unsplash

As much as I would love to say this is my library/craft room, in reality, due to lack of space (and an excess of kids and Lego) I’ve had to embrace digital storage of patterns and knitting paraphenalia. I access and store patterns almost exclusively in digital rather than paper format these days. The exception to this is the beautiful (print only) Laine Magazine and also a few treasured stitch dictionaries - the complete Barbara Walker series as well as my absolute favourite Japanese stitch bible.

In my quest for the perfect digital solution I’ve tried out a few different apps (I’m an Android user) and I thought it might be helpful to share them here:

KnitCompanion: I know this is really popular and I have bought (and used) the paid for version. There is also a basic, free version if you wanted to try it out. I really love the way it seamlessly integrates into Ravelry and if I were a really prolific knitter of other people’s patterns I think this would probably be my app of choice. As it is, I’m usually juggling knitting my own designs with knitting those of others, so I tend not to use this very much at the minute. It’s really great for saving your progress though and avoids that “where the heck am I?” feeling when you pick up a long-term WIP that you have mysteriously abandoned half way through the lace chart from hell.

Goodreader: This available for i-Phone/Apple users. I’ve no experience of this but I know that many people do use it and speak very highly of it.

Evernote: I’ve had an Evernote account for years now and I use it for all sorts of things, from household bills and storage of documents, to knitting patterns and clips for design inspiration. The platform is free to use, or you can pay a small amount (as I do) to access a greater range of premium features. I keep the vast majority of my bought knitting patterns in here, stored in folders along with useful articles, research articles and those all important size charts that I always need to reference. Whenever I buy a pattern - usually from Ravelry - I download it straight away to whatever device I’m on and then save a copy in Evernote. It synchs across all of my devices and it means that I can always access that crucial bit of pattern information no matter where I am. I love it so much that I am an Evernote affiliate. You can sign up by clicking this link for a free trial of their Premium service. This is an affiliate link which gives me points towards my own Premium membership.

Google Drive. I’m a real fan of Google docs and spreadsheets, and most of my design work and content creation happens here. I love being able to create specific folders for everything and the fact that it integrates so seamlessly into Trello (see below) is a real bonus.

Trello. This is where I do my day to day (and month to month) business planning. I love the calender function here and so this is where I manage my everyday tasks, set my editorial calendar and keep track of various projects.

Where do you stand on the issue of pattern storage? I asked this question in my Instagram Stories earlier today and so far it’s about 35% Team Paper and 65% Team Digital.

If you know of any apps or storage solutions that I haven’t mentioned, do please let me know. Like the search for the elusive perfect notebook, the search for perfect storage is always ongoing.

A new sock KAL

Precious Metals Socks KAL

Who doesn’t love a good knit-along?

It’s been ages since I did a good old-fashioned sock KAL and so I thought with the coming spring, lighter days and a general burst of creative enthusiasm what better way to celebrate than with a shiny, new cast on.

This KAL is offered, free to those who subscribe to my email newsletter, with four weekly installments starting on 4th March.

Just in case you are heading to Unravel this weekend I’ve put together a pre-KAL information sheet - with a few suggestions on yarn choices etc. You can find this in your email inbox if you are already an email subscriber, or if not - just click this link to subscribe and you can download it from your Welcome email.

I’ve also created a pattern page on Ravelry for those among you who like to be super organised.

I’ll be back in a few days with some more information but for now, do feel free to have a rootle in your stash and see what you can come up with. I’m using the beautiful BFL Supersock from TravelKnitter but any solid or semi solid sock yarn would work well.