An update on pattern sales

I've always been a proud supporter of Ravelry. I've exclusively sold my patterns there ever since day one. I've been proud to call Ravelry and the community there my knitting home.

But the recent site changed has caused problems for a significant number of people. Visual disturbances, migraines and reports of seizures.

All very worrying.

But much more worrying has been the complete lack of meaningful response from the team. People have been left unable to run their businesses effectively and without a social support structure they have grown to rely on.

We are now a week into the change and all we have is a weak opt-out back to the classic version (hidden behind several screens of triggering imagery)

I'm aghast at lack of response, the gaslighting and the dismissal of very serious concerns. I've been watching with increasing incredulity as the days tick past, with no action. I keep hoping that there will be something put in place to fix this. A solution, a timescale, a plan - heck - even an acknowledgement at this point would help

All I can do is to add my voice to those calling for action and look to my own business and my own website. I can’t possibly go back through years of blog posts and remove Ravelry links but I will not be adding new ones here until a solution is found.

In addition I have cancelled my monthly donation to the site (I don't pay for advertising there) and as of today I will have another, alternative platform for pattern sales, for those who aren’t able to access Ravelry.

I don’t know what the long term plan is - a lot depends on what happens with Ravelry over the next few weeks and months - and for that, the ball is firmly in their court. I truly hope there is a resolution that works for everyone. But in the interests of my business and my customers I have to come up with an alternative means of selling patterns.

You can find information on the alternative platform HERE

In love with shortie socks

I’ve no idea how I have managed to be over 10 years into my sock knitting career and never knit a pair of shortie socks before. I’ve seen the cute patterns over the years - notably the Rose City Rollers- that at one time everyone seemed to be knitting. I saw them, but somehow thought they weren’t for me.

This weekend though it dawned on me that I actually wear that style quite a lot in the summer. And as I hunted for a pair that hadn’t been claimed by my sock-magnet sons I realised that I could in fact knit myself some - revelation.

One of the beauties of these types of socks is that they use small amounts - just over half the amount of yarn needed for conventional socks. So I grabbed some suitable yarn from my stash (this is from Travelknitter - although I fear I have long since lost the ballband) - and cast on.

What can I say? Instant gratification is the order of the day. I cast on over my morning coffee and my mid afternoon I had a wearable first sock.

I don’t want to jinx things but it looks as though my sock mojo is back.

Inner Zen

Inner Zen

Sometimes we all need one of those projects - one which is soothing without being too plain. A bit of detail without needing too much concentration.

Say hello to your Inner Zen - a sideways shawl designed to restore your peace and harmony.

Knit during the Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting turbulence I needed something calming to knit that wasn’t just acres of garter stitch.

This side to side shawl proved to be unexpectedly therapeutic. Starting from just a few stitches it is worked in sections - weigh your yarn first - with an increase section, a long straight section and then a final short decrease section.

The end result is a reversible, elongated crescent-ish shawl. Easy to wear and with negligible leftovers - always a bonus.

If you subscribe to my newsletter please check your inbox for a discount code.

If not, there is an early bird discount code for the next 7 days - with 25% off when you use the code InnerZenEB

Going with gut instinct

As I’m sure you’ll know about me I’m a girl who loves to plan. Give me a notebook and a pen (or even the back of an envelope) and my first response to pretty much anything is to write a list.

But if this year is teaching me anything, it is that the best laid plans don’t always work out. My lovely 2020 weekly planner sits taunting me from the bookcase, with a lovingly laid out list of goals, deadlines and ‘Things to Do’ - not much of which has actually been done, for all of the current ongoing reasons.

At the beginning of the year I sat down and planned out my Temperature Blanket in detail - the colours I would use and the temperature ranges I would work to. The blog post is here if you want to read it.

And so far it’s been going really well. But this weekend I hit a stumbling block. Hitting a new temperature high of 23c I excitedly reached into my stash bag for the new colour and realised that the allocated yarn was a drab olive green which didn’t exactly thrill the senses.

But, never one to listen to my inner voice I ploughed on regardless, dutifully adding in most of the days stitches (about 2000 - if we are counting). It was at that point that I realised that I really (really) didn’t like the colour. It was way too dark and too jarring in the overall colour scheme. With hindsight it would have worked far better down with the cooler colours but hey ho. We live and learn.

So I spent a fun evening ripping it out and then decided to move the warmer colours up a bit. So the lovely sunny yellow (Butterscotch) is now covering ranges 22-24c . The next range up will be the warmer Tumeric (orange/brown) and so now I just need to look for another shade to fill in the top temperature range.

And I’m so much happier with the yellow - it sings perfectly and does exactly what these warmer sunny days should be doing. Lifting our spirits and giving us a good old dose of colour therapy.

And lesson learned (probably) - trust the gut instinct - it knows what it’s talking about.

Three good reasons to knit a sideways shawl

The KISS Shawl - pattern available on Payhip

Just my personal opinion but sideways shawls are vastly underrated, and I’m always surprised that there aren’t more of them available .

This is my KISS shawl (short for Keep It Simple Shawl) and I think this is the only true side to side shawl I've ever knit. I’m not quite sure why this is as there so many advantages to this way of knitting a shawl. If you’ve never knitted one before allow me to offer a few advantages to the calm, zen-like experience that is a sideways shawl.

1. There is absolutely no risk of running out of yarn making it perfect for one-off special skeins. As long as you have a reasonably accurate set of scales (ideally ones that measure to within 1g) you can weigh your yarn at the start, increase to the halfway point and then start the decreases secure in the knowledge that you won’t end up playing a fraught game of yarn chicken.

2. You can flirt with a little bit of lace patterning at the edges but there's plenty of plain garter stitch for relaxation purposes. Nothing too stressful and only a minimal bit of chart reading required.

3. It makes a perfect elongated, wrappable shape which is definitely my favourite shape to wear.

In fact, they are so much fun I think I've convinced myself that it's time to knit another one.

This one is in Turbillium from @theuncommonthread and I've worn it a lot, but I'm thinking I'd like one in a lighter colour for spring/summer.

Life after lockdown

My Temperature Blanket - Ravelry project page

I feel as though I need to preface this by saying that I thoroughly hate the term ‘lockdown’ and plan never to use it again after this whole crisis has passed. Especially since in the UK the term is relatively meaningless compared to the much more stringent conditions which have been in place across other countries. But, as a word, it neatly sums up this whole situation in a way that I don’t think any other word can. So it stays - for now.

I read an article the other day which was aimed at parents of school children in Denmark heading back to school. The premise was how to prepare kids for ‘re-entry’, the increased noise, traffic and general stimuli that they would face as they moved from so many weeks in a quiet home environment to one of much heightened activity.

It struck me that, although this was a laudable aim wouldn’t it be nice if society recognised that for many of us (raises hand here) the enforced quiet of this period of isolation hasn’t been at all bad. Obviously I spend much of the day either paralysed by anxiety or veering towards wild optimism but I do appreciate the increased time with my family, the longer walks, the absence of awkward, everyday social encounters. There are certainly elements of ‘back to normal’ that I am in no hurry to embrace again.

And, in our return to whatever normal looks like, wouldn’t it be nice for the needs of less extroverted members of society to be considered. Not everyone thrives in the atmosphere of a loud, bustling coffee shop for example. Not everyone is able to cope with the sensory overload that is a brightly lit, piped-music playing supermarket, but those are the types of environments that we seem to have ended up with.

Whenever I talk about this on social media I invariably get some ‘helpful’ comments about coping techniques, or therapy but that really isn’t the point. Society should be designed for the benefit of everyone, not just those who fit a narrow window of how normality is defined. I don’t know how many people would define themselves as introverted or hypersensitive, but I’m not so sure that we form the minority that the more extroverted amongst us think we do.

I love that some knitting shows have adapted to take into account the neurodiversity of their audience - with quiet spaces, chill-out zones, special pre-shopping times etc. As ever, the knitters are ahead of the curve. Wouldn’t it be nice to see these principles taken up my mainstream retail outlets and other community spaces.

Going to a knitting show seems like another world away right now, but I know that someday I will get the chance to go to another one and meet my knitting pals. And I’ll be safe in the knowledge, that among the knitting community at least, I can be assured that my need for quiet has already been taken care of.