20 February 2012

Pattern: An Aran for Frederick (download)

An Aran for Frederick is now available for download from Interweave for $6. [link] For those of you not interested in purchasing Jane Austen Knits in its entirety, now you have the option to download individual patterns.

14 February 2012

Errata: An Aran for Frederick

So, there is a minor glitch in the Double Wave chart. You could knit it in the round and not *really* notice, but a couple of savvy knitters have noticed, when swatching flat, that the cable crossings switch from even to odd in the second half of the chart. You can find a link to the revised chart here.

07 February 2012

When your hobby becomes your "thing"

I can't really say that knitting is my profession now, but I'm working towards that. Certainly, time-wise it's as close to a job as being a wife/mother, and I spend a lot of time thinking about it when I'm not actually knitting.

So, last month when I visited the Vogue Knitting Live marketplace (I received a ticket for being a last-minute volunteer during set-up), I made sure to be there for the panel discussion on When Knitting Becomes a Career. Melanie Falick moderated, and the panel included Trisha Malcolm (Vogue Knitting EIC, Deb Stoller (Bust founder, Stitch 'n' Bitch creator, you know who she is), Norah Gaughan (! If you don't know who she is, get thee to google), Erin Slonaker (EIC of Yarn Market News and, more importantly, Mintyfresh on Ravelry, who sent me some stashed Manos when I ran out on Nick's blanket), Kristy McGowan (Modern Top-Down Knitting), Kirsten Kapur (Ms. Through the Loops), Betsy Perry (owner of Classic Elite), and Laura Zander (owner of Jimmy Beans Wool). This was a seriously cool panel, and it was really great to be in a room with this bunch of women. I really appreciated the breadth and depth of experience these women have in the industry.

My big takeaway from this talk was that when your passion/hobby turns into your career, you need to find a new hobby. And lately I'm finding that is so true. I love knitting. I get such a thrill out of turning a little idea (often of the semi-crazy, "what if?" variety, like "what if you used ribbing to shape a piece?" or "what would that yoke style look like with cables?") into not just a knitted thing but a pattern for other people to turn into their own knitted things. I love yarn. My stash is barely under control, and visiting places like the VKL marketplace don't help :) But now that I'm trying to make it my business, I have to find something else to become my "down time".

To that end, I've gotten into a few things of late.

  1. Trashy, soapy TV: Gossip Girl (it's gotten terrible, but I can't quit it), The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (obsessed! I think it's partly the codependency between Kyle and Kim, and the rest of it is just voyeurism; plus, I love the recaps on Gawker), Downton Abbey (the classiest of the trashy, but still very soapy and fabulous, don't you think? I'm unsure of whether TV has gotten so bad, or it's so good), and Upstairs Downstairs on Amazon Prime (it's pretty funny to watch this and compare the production values with Downton Abbey - both are such products of their times; it's the same with the original Star Wars trilogy - so 70s - and the second set - epitome of the late 90s/early 00s - just look at the space ships, all sleek and organic in the second, very sharp-edged in the original).
  2. Candy making: I've been making marshmallows as Christmas gifts for the kids' teachers for the past few years, and then I saw a copy of Sugar Baby at the library. I tried my hand at the caramel spirals because they reminded me of the Snirkle candy we'd get as kids when up in Wisconsin. I've gotten a little addicted to the caramels - it's probably really bad for me even to eat a few, especially since knitting requires me to spend a lot of time on my derriere. Anyway, my next project is probably macarons because I'm crazy like that.
  3. OCM (Oil Cleansing Method): Washing my face with oil. Crazy, no? Pretty great, actually. Crunchy Betty's website has a lot of great information. I use jojoba and castor oils, which work really well for me. I tried switching out the jojoba for sweet almond oil when my face seemed a little dry, but that was a mistake, which I'm now patiently, gently washing away. After discovering that I'm allergic to propylene glycol (in an astounding number of things from sanitizer to all kinds of lip things to mouth wash), I've been trying to simplify my skin care routine. Two ingredients is pretty awesome for a cleanser/moisturizer. Seeing as I sometimes put my face on this blog, I prefer it to be spot-free and not in need of major retouching. I'm vain like that, I guess.
And, I guess this blog is more like semi-weekly at the moment. And sadly devoid of pictures. I will take some pics of the goodies I brought home from VKL for a future blog post. They are pretty!