On Needles

I just packed up most of my yarn and knitting supplies for my upcoming move. While doing so, I found some unfinished--and in some cases almost forgotten--projects. I decided to keep a few of them out to work on over the next month or so. No new projects until these are done! Or I get sick of them!

cable cozy

I knit one of these before. Takes forever. Super fucking boring.



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ugly slippers
Saartje-Inspired Bigger Slippers, by me
free pattern on Ravelry

You can tell by looking at the garish color scheme of the finished slipper why I haven't finished this project. Sometimes using up the odds and ends isn't such a great idea after all. It'll only take me a couple hours. Guest slippers... I guess.



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making it up as I go along
no pattern
Ravelry link

According to Ravely, I started this project in July, 2009. Not quite two years ago. It was supposed to be my first sweater design. The pattern notes are in a shambles. They're all crossed out and scribbled, on multiple pieces of paper, post-it notes, napkins, and sketchbook pages. Still, I think this project has potential. I picked it up again a couple weeks ago and I've got the back mostly done, as well as the start of both sleeves. It might end up being a one-off, though. I'm not sure I will have the energy to try to pull the pattern notes into a real pattern, let alone try knitting the damn thing again to check the pattern.

This is knit on US #2 (2.75mm) needles with sock-weight yarn. I love small needles and fine yarn, but it takes a long time to finish.



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the first sweater I ever started to knit
Short Sleeve Pullover by Mari Lynn Patrick
Published in Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2006
Ravelry link

April 2006. Five years ago. That's when I started knitting this complicated sweater from a Vogue Knitting pattern. I've worked on it a bit this year. Some day I'll finish it. I'm not sure I will want to wear it when it's done, but I will finish it...

Sloucher

I had my first real experience with selling patterns on Ravelry last November, when I put out a hat pattern called Sloucher. So far, I've sold 184 copies of the pattern. I still sell one or two a week. It's not much, but it's more than I would have thought.

Here are some of the things I learned:

Get a pretty girl and a great camera for your pattern photo
I asked Phan Phan, who owns the Vietnamese restaurant on the ground floor of our building, to model the hat for my pattern photo. She was a great model, and I am pretty sure that her pretty face helped sell a lot of patterns. We also borrowed a really good digital slr and took the photos outside in natural, but not direct, sunlight.



Ravelry advertising works
In December, I did not buy ads on Ravelry. I sold 20 copies of the pattern.
In January, I bought ads on Ravelry forums. I sold 45 copies of the pattern.

Nobody checks gauge
My hat came out too small for almost everyone. I test knit this sucker about a dozen times. I knew the gauge was right. But it doesn't really matter what the gauge in the pattern says. 90 per cent of knitters will not go to the trouble of knitting a gauge swatch for a quick hat pattern. I know I wouldn't!

Some people knit it with worsted weight instead of aran. My aran wool was on the bulky side, so even some people who used an aran-weight wool ended up with small hats. Finally, I changed the pattern to call for a bulky aran-weight yarn.

One solution to this problem is to specify exactly which yarn to use in the pattern and to use popular yarns. Another advantage to that approach is that you can promote your pattern to fans of particularly popular yarns via the Ravelry forums. I might try this with a future pattern.

Ravelers are helpful
I got to have interactions with people who were having trouble of one kind or another with this pattern, via personal message. I edited the pattern three or four times to make changes inspired by these conversations. The interaction I got with my fellow knitters has definitely made me a better pattern-writer. Thanks, guys.

I Just Set up a Ravelry Store

I just spent the past half an hour setting up a store on Ravelry, to experiment with selling patterns there. Most of my patterns are free, but I thought it would be interesting to see how it would go putting my latest hat design out there for two clams.

The new design is called the Walker. It's a felted, peaked cap. The peak doesn't require any cardboard or plastic inside, and the shaping is pretty simple. I felted mine by tossing it in the towel load and washing it hot, then wearing it until it was dry.

Here are a couple pictures. There are more on Ravelry.







The store setting-up process on Ravelry was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. They have some weird user interface things on there, especially that the save button for adding a pattern to your store is hidden toward the top left of the page instead of down at the bottom, under the pdf upload section, as you'd expect it to be. Generally, though, it's not too hairy.

Can't wait to see if anyone will shell out for the pattern now!

Peaked Cap Version Two: City Slicker

I knit up this new version of the hat I made this weekend. It's using the same formula, but the brim is a lot wider and the crown is pointy with a nubbin on top instead of so roundy. I also used seed stitch for the brim and edging instead of a rib. Coming next will be a top-down version with maybe some more complicated shaping in the bill.

I don't know the difference between a bill, a brim, and a peak.

Here's the pdf of this particular hat pattern, if you want to knit it up yourself.