As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I have decided to take up theLove Your Blog challenge from A Playful Day, and the first theme for this week is Interaction and Community.

The notion of a knitting community is something I still find intriguing, as well as somewhat counter-intuitive, despite having been a more and more active part of one for a few years now. Let me explain.

I have been able to knit for as long as I can remember. My mother and paternal grandmother were both knitters; neither of them can remember actually having taught me and each assumed the other must have done so, but either way, I have been knitting since I was about five years old. The house was always filled with knitting needles, patterns, balls and cones of wool, Mum's knitting machine (or bits thereof!), sleeves of cardigans in progress, the usual trappings of the knitter. I can remember my mother teaching my younger sister to knit. I can remember making clothes for my dolls, and then the rite of passage of being taken to the village wool shop to choose wool and pattern for the first sweater I would knit for myself, when I was 11.

Despite all this constant knitting in my life, though, it was never something I thought of as a group activity, as a way of meeting people or of feeling part of something. Knitting was something you did quietly at home, much like reading or watching television (and sometimes while reading AND watching television!). 
And outside of my immediate family, I didn't know any other knitters. Or at least I didn't think I did, because it just wasn't something that ever came up in conversation. I doubt my school friends knew I knitted, or my fellow students once I got to university. It was never a "cool" activity anyway so it wasn't something I was going to seek out a group for.
I've had plenty of hobbies; choir, Girl Guides, community youth orchestra (there's that word community, just there), aerobics classes, swimming club, choral societies, amateur dramatic societies, but the knitting just never featured in any of them.

I first became aware of a "knitting community" when I was introduced to Ravelry in its early days back in 2007. Another attendee at a Bookcrossing convention was using a drop spindle, something I had never seen before, and my curiosity overcame me and I went over and asked her about it. We got chatting and she told me about Ravelry. As soon as I got home, I applied to sign up (back in the days when you had to put your name on a waiting list and wait for an invitation to join!). After a few weeks my e-mail invitation came through, and the rabbit-hole opened up and down I fell! 
Here was a world I had no idea existed. Other people knitted out there. Other young people like me wanted to talk about their woolly creations (despite the more common usage of the term "yarn" I will always think of it as "wool" even when it's made of cotton or acrylic or bamboo rayon or any of the other materials available to knit with, old habits die hard!), to share ideas, and actually just chat about their day-to-day lives, their other interests. One major bonus of Ravelry for an introvert like me is the ability to participate just as much or as little as I want to. It seems to me a lot of knitters are natural introverts, and I wonder whether that might be why there aren't crowds of raucous knitters rampaging all over the place. So much easier and more comfortable for something with an introverted personality to get their knitting socialising in a virtual place where one isn't overwhelmed by physical crowds. Despite its growing popularity, knitting still has an image of being fuddy-duddy, or something for the poor, and it can be daunting for someone with a personality that dislikes attracting the attention of strangers to openly take part in an activity which has such negative connotations in the eyes of others.

The final jigsaw piece fell into place in June last year when I started designing my own patterns. Message boards and chat rooms which I had had no clue even existed less than a year ago are now some of the ones I spend most time on. I recognise names of people who started out around the time I did, who are learning along with me, as well as those more experienced (some with many years of designing under their belts) who generously give the benefit of their experience and advice to those of us who are still more wet behind the ears without conditions or agenda. Pattern design wasn't something I had ever intended to do but, for something which I have fallen into completely by chance, I finally feel like I have found the place in the knitting world where I belong.

As a new blogger, sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to myself! You type, you post photos, you link to things, but until people find you and respond to you, it can sometimes be hard to keep up the momentum.
That's why I'm going to take part in the Love Your Blog Challenge from A Playful Day. It will be a weekly challenge to post something new and original according to a specified topic, and then link it back to the Playful Day website so that other bloggers can read it too. There will also be links there to other bloggers' posts on the same subject. Sounds like a fun idea!

What do you do when you have an idea for a design that you believe to be perfect for a third-party submission call, a deadline to submit by, and no yarn in the right colour to knit your sample? Well, to my mind there are two options; buy what you need or dye your own.

Since I'm actively trying to reduce my stash, I went with the second option. I've dabbled in Kool-Aid dyeing in the past, mainly as a rainy-day activity with my children, so I have some Kool-Aid packets and some undyed yarn in the house.
The design requires pale blue yarn and either navy or black. I have navy sock yarn but no pale blue, and really I didn't want solid colour. What I was envisioning was something semi-solid blue and white, like high clouds in a blue summer sky.

I'm not going to write a detailed tutorial on Kool-Aid dyeing. There are plenty of those online already. Instead this is going to be more of a photo record and notes of what I did, in case I want to do it again. It can act as a good aide-memoir if you've done this and just need a bit of a reminder.

I'm using the microwave method, because it's quicker than using a slow-cooker or a pan on the hob, and also because I want a kettle-dyed look so I don't want the yarn to move about too much in the container or the dye bath moving around too much either.

Here we go....


Step One: Soak the yarn in water. The yarn I had was already securely tied in a skein, but if using loose yarn, tie it in several places before you start, to avoid ending up with a tangled mess before you finish. I soaked it in hot water from the tap with just a dot of washing-up liquid to break the surface tension and let the water penetrate the fibres, leaving it for about half an hour.

Step Two: While I was waiting for the yarn to get thoroughly wet, I mixed up the Kool Aid. It's not the amount of water that affects the intensity of your colour, it's the amount of dye. Checking a couple of websites, I found that the recommended amount for a really saturated colour is 2-4 sachets of Kool Aid per ounce of yarn. I'm dyeing 50g of yarn, which is about 2 oz, but I don't want a really saturated colour. I'm after something quite pale, and the only blue Kool Aid I have is Mixed Berry which is quite a bright blue. I decided to just use one sachet, and add it a little at a time in case I decided not to use the whole sachet. I used one sachet of powder in a full large glass (400ml/ 3/4 of a pint) of hot tap water.

Once I was ready to start colouring the yarn, I drained the water out of the dish and rinsed the yarn in hot tap water to get rid of the detergent. Then I lifted the yarn up and poured a little of the Kool Aid solution into the bottom of the dish, to make sure the underside of the yarn definitely came into contact with some of it. After laying the yarn back in the dish in a spiral (to ensure I was colouring all of it), I poured in the Kool Aid solution a little at a time, concentrating on two areas. You can see in the photo below that there's a darker spot on the bottom left and another smaller one in the middle of the top of the bowl. Of course the liquid spreads out around the dish, and I sprinkled some on top with a spoon too to make sure all the yarn was covered. I did end up using the entire glass of Kool Aid solution. (An advantage of using a glass dish is that you can see if the underneath of your yarn is coloured by just looking through the bottom of the dish!)

To get it as dry as possible first, I wrapped the yarn in a towel and squeezed as much water out of it as I could. After that, I put the yarn into a cloth bag and tied the top securely (one of those mesh bags for laundering your smalls would be better but I don't have one!) and put it through a spin cycle in the washing machine. It didn't take long drying on the washing line after that. Goodness knows what my neighbours think, though!

And this was what I ended up with. Excuse the photo-fest but I'm so so pleased with this beautiful little skein of yarn. I keep looking at it, and it almost seems too pretty to knit with. I'll need to, though, if I'm going to get this pattern submission in on time! (I've done a sort of before-and-after shot as well, using the dyed skein next to another undyed one from the same supplier.)

...the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is? The bird is on the wing, why that's absurd, I always thought the wing was on the bird

Or so the rhyme goes. But Spring is most certainly on its way. According to the Met Office Spring officially begins this Friday. Astrological Spring that is. Meteorological Spring is already here, having started on March 1st. You can learn more about the difference between them here.
But there are other traditions that also define the beginning of Spring. In the USA, Spring begins on Groundhog Day (February 2nd) but only if the groundhog doesn't see his shadow. A sunny Groundhog Day means the groundhog will retreat back into his burrow and Winter will last another 6 weeks. 
In Ireland, Spring traditionally starts even earlier, on February 1st, St Brigid's Day.
Of course, all this only applies in the Northern Hemisphere. On the other side of the world, Summer is turning into Autumn. Spring there begins in September!

I'm celebrating Spring with a sale on my patterns. The Scarlett17 Knits Spring Fling runs from now until the end of March 25th with a 20% discount on all my knitting patterns. The discount will be applied automatically when you click through from my pattern shop pages. Happy knitting!!

Well, the good news is the Wandering Ball of Cotton turned up. After having trying all the obvious places, and then all the unlikely places, it finally appeared once I'd given it up for lost and stopped looking (of course!) tangled up in a shawl on top of a chest of drawers in the bedroom. Not somewhere I was likely to expect to find it, but at least I have it now so the sweater is now a back, a front and the cuff of the first sleeve.

Today's main task, however, is to start writing up the pattern for my largest shawl so far. Inspired by Shetland lace stitches, this monster stole is longer than I am tall (although, to be fair, that's not that difficult, being as I'm 5'3" on a good day!) and uses over 1300 yards of laceweight yarn. I'm hoping to get it into the testing stage by the end of the week, so I need to get cracking on charting the lace and writing out the instructions needed to blend all those lace stitches together. 
In the meantime, here's a peek at one part of the finished item.

Missing in action? Kidnapped by aliens? Have you seen this yarn?!
Let me elaborate.

Earlier in the week I started a Little Star sweater for my younger son. I bought the yarn four years ago to knit the same sweater for his big brother and never got around to it. Since it's a toddler pattern and I only bought enough yarn to make it and no more, I thought I really ought to crack on and make it while the little one is still small enough to wear it.

It's a cute pattern. The hems have a rolled edge, then a contrast colour ribbing, then the main body of the sweater is a star motif on a plain background on the front, and a plain back. I started the back, knitting the edging in blue, then the ribbing in green, then the rest of the back in blue. 

Last night I cast off the back. Hooray, on to the front. Cast on the required number of stitches in blue, worked the 5 rows prescribed, went to switch to the green and... I can't find it. It's not on the sofa where I had left the rest of my work. It's not in my knitting bag. There are three partial balls of sock yarn in there, including one I need to make the second sock of a pair, so I'm glad I found that, but no sign of my green cotton.


I've tried under the sofa, under the sofa cushions, in my two other knitting bags. I've looked in the bag where the rest of the yarn is waiting, just in case I was overcome with an uncharacteristic wave of tidiness and had actually put it back, but no. I've tried under the bed (what can I say, I take my knitting to bed with me sometimes. It's OK, my husband works late and doesn't mind!). I cannot find this green yarn anywhere. I have no more. The pattern only calls for one ball so I only have one ball. There isn't a second one I can break into until the first one shows up.

So for now, the sweater is stalled at a back and a half-inch of front.
If anyone knows where my green part-ball of Rowan Cotton Glace is hiding, please draw it to my attention. Its presence is required!

It's Monday, the start of a new week. One of the groups I belong to on Ravelry has a chat thread for members to set themselves weekly challenges or goals, knitting-related or otherwise. Usually I set myself a challenge each week. Sometimes I meet them, sometimes I don't.

Last week, I decided to opt out, and I didn't like it. Without that publicly-declared intention, I found I wasn't as focussed as I like to be, so this week I have gone back in with a vengeance and have set myself four goals for the week. I might not meet them all but I have something concrete to work towards.

The first is to buy NO yarn!! I've been actively trying to reduce my stash since the beginning of last year, and will write a post later in the week with more details of that.

The second is to finish my current design-in-progress and get the pattern written up. I'd post more but I've just decided today to submit this one to a third-party publisher as well, so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.

The third is to make the back and front of Zoe Mellor's Little Star Sweater for my younger son. He's only small (he's 26 months but he's very small for his age) so that's not as ambitious as it sounds in a week!

And finally, I want to either write up the second half of a sock pattern that I've started, or knit the second sock of the pair (one or other of those tasks will do me, not both. I'm not that loopy!)

And to be fair, I think that's enough for anyone for one week!

What are your plans for this week?

I think all designers' favourite pattern is their newest release, but this one really is my favourite one to date. I was inspired to create it after following Miriam Felton's class on Craftsy, Lace Shawl Design, which I can really recommend if you want to learn how to start creating your own lace shawls. It's not for the beginner knitter, but if you have some experience of knitting shawls, it shows you how to design different shapes, add borders, chart lace stitch patterns and transition from one stitch pattern to another smoothly.
Despite being an experienced knitter generally, and having a number of shawls under my belt (figuratively speaking!) in all kinds of shapes, I wasn't sure where to start when it came to planning my own. I was especially clueless about how to get one lace stitch to flow into the next without it looking like I'd bolted component parts together. I'm a lot more confident doing that now.
This pattern, like all my others, is available through Ravelry.com directly or through the Pattern shop link on the left of this page.

Today will get noted in my Designer Milestone Diary (no, I don't really have one, it's a figure of speech!) as the day I submitted my first pattern design to a third-party publisher! I'm excited, and just a bit scared as well. 

I haven't even considered answering a call for submissions before for two reasons. 
Firstly, I find it difficult to come up with pattern ideas "on-demand". I'm not short of ideas, but it seems like the ideas come to me instead of me thinking something up. I get my inspiration from all kinds of things but mostly it seems to come at random times. I don't sit down and think "OK, today I'm going to come up with a scarf idea". 
Secondly, I will admit it, I'm scared of being told "What were you thinking?! That pattern idea is appalling! Call yourself a designer? If that idea sucked any more, the vacuum cleaner would be redundant, now get out of my magazine email inbox!" Or words to that effect.

For some reason, this particular submission call, well, called to me. I just happened to already have a half-baked idea for a design that I was considering putting next on my to-write list anyway, that seems (to me, at least!) to be exactly what the publisher is looking for.
So after a weekend of giving myself some stern pep-talks (and getting some good advice on Ravelry), I have written and sent off my first pattern proposal. Replies are due at the end of March, so I'll let you know. I can't give any more details, but I will put up a photo of the yummy yarn I'm using to knit my first sample with. It's Wollmeise Twin in Raku Regenbogen, and even if my design isn't chosen, I'll still end up with the finished object for myself. So I guess I win either way.