A Triumph of the Web Knitting and Crochet Community

Ok knit and crochet wear designers and pattern publishers fess up.  You, with rare exception, don't adequately test the patterns you publish.

Do you disagree?  Read the following description of what adequate testing is and then let me know.  I'd love to promote your work, I'd love to purchase your work, I'd love to make your designs.  (Well, the making part would depend on if I liked the design.)

Adequate testing, I believe, is the testing by more than one or two testers of the completed pattern.  Specifically, each size that the pattern is offered in must be produced.  If the pattern has no size (for example a shawl or hat only offered in one size) then it must be tested at least by two testers and any comment about "one size fits all" should be modified to at least "one size fits many".  i.e. a shawl designed for the average size 14 women might overwhelm a petite size 1, or look silly on a size 50.

I repeat, a pattern for a garment must be tested at least once for every size it is published for.

We, the knitting and crochet community deserve nothing less.

And, now, its possible.

Oh I know what you as a designer, or you as a publisher are thinking.  That's completely impossible, silly, cost prohibitive and time consuming.  Why there would have to be multiple test knitters or crocheters. We'd have to provide them with yarn... too expensive.  It would be too hard to manage and exhausting to complete.  We'd never get any patterns published.

And so you, the traditional designers and publishers continue in your old ways and so your days I believe are numbered.

I foresee a time in the very near future when publications and designs will tout their testing of all their designs in all the sizes and they will be more successful than those that can not.

I foresee a day when patterns that are not tested in every size will be the minority.

I foresee a day when we can't imagine a time when they were not.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.  You may not even realize that today, most patterns are not adequately tested>

What, you the knitter or crocheter ask, the designs are not tested?

Oh, they are, but not enough.  In the traditional scheme of things a designer designs a garment in a smallish size, one that will fit those typical models. a sample is made of the design in the yarn specified in the design.  The designer may produce it, or it may be sent to a tester along with the yarn.  The sample is returned to the designer (or the publication) to be modeled and photographed.  The design is written in the current standard for writing for knitwear or crochet wear and modifications are incorporated in the design that should morph it into a a multiple of sizes according to standards published for each size.  The pattern is edited for conformance to standards and the math is checked (i.e. with the number of stitches in each row produce a garment that is wide enough bust and hips long enough for arms etc.)

The problem, as many of you who knit or crochet will readily confirm, is that when you go to knit or crochet the pattern, since it hasn't been tested in your size there may be mistakes not caught by the editor, or the pattern may not have been scaled well.  For example, a pair of pants I once knit were scaled for multiple sizes but the difference between the front and back rise (the amount of inches from the crotch to the waist) was just one inch no matter what the size.  Look at a pair of your jeans and measure the front and back rise.  Is it only one inch?  Well, my experience is that it may be in smaller sizes, but in larger sizes no.  i.e. is your butt bigger than your lower belly?  Its like producing a tight fitting sweater with the front and back the same length and no accommodation for breasts.

Still, you may be thinking, to get every size tested does seem like an enormous expense and a very tortuous production.


Poppycock.

With the bounty of the web, and the eagerness of knitters and crocheters to have new patterns and to talk with the designer and others working on the same pattern.  With the need of some of them to get help or to express their own ideas, to be of help,  to be a part of a community, the impossible becomes the possible.  The web has already changed the way the pattern business works and is changing it even further.

All the aspiring designer has to do is find her community. She does not need to offer expensive gifts of yarn, nor need to collect the sample knits so she can publish the results. She does have to be willing to help her community in making her garment, and be willing to listen to innumerable voices.  Some of these voices will be whiny, or overly critical but they may also be cheery, enthusiastic and appreciative.  When the projects are done, pictures, not garments are available to the designer as well as a rich history of information about her design and a solidly constructed pattern ready for the public.

Ah, the community, where can it be found?

You have no further to look than ravelry.com.  Ravelry is a free web site designed for knitters and crocheters to post pictures of their projects, find their own community of like minded crafts persons and artists and explore new areas of their craft.  Designers can also publish their patterns with a link to where they can be purchased, or even sell them as downloads direct from the site.  There are groups, i.e. communities on ravelry that exist purely to test a specific designers work.  Even more importantly there are groups where multiple designers can offer a new pattern for testing and testers can apply to participate in the test.  The tester receives a copy of the pattern but uses their own yarn and keeps the finished product.  Each design has a thread in the groups discussion pages and testers can ask questions, note where they are in completing the test, comment or suggest ideas for the designer to incorporate.  Designers follow the thread helping and responding to comments.  At the end of the test (a deadline is set at the beginning) a tester adds their completed test as a project on their own personal page and incorporates a link to the designer.  The designer provides the tester with a final copy of the pattern.  Because projects in ravelry can be searched, potential purchasers for the design can see multiple examples of it and the designer has multiple pictures to refer potential purchasers to.

Its a win win, but of most importance, is that the individual purchasing the design can have confidence that the design has actually be produced in the size that they wish to make.  This is an advantage that is light years ahead of the current knit and crochet wear industry.

And yes, there are many people quite willing to participate in such testing.  I've been a part of one test and am currently participating in another.  In the first I made a shawl and in the second I am making a pair of felted slippers.  Next I'm going to select a sweater or dress.  The group I am working with is Free Pattern Testers. I'm enjoying the process immensely.

I hope that the designers will capitalize on the wonderful advantage they have, that their patterns have been tested in all the sizes that they offer.

Go. Join the group.  Join a test.  Be a part of this emerging community and look for and support designers who have had their designs tested in this way.

Fun with Doillies

I remember grandmothers house in the 1950's.  There were, doillies everywhere.

I love these little bits of lace.  They lay under vases, over the backs of chairs, centered on a round table.  Most of them were white, but ocassionally a right red or green or maybe a natural colored big of complex stitchery laid formally, drapying a table, or deocrating a tray. 

Tiny, intricate stitches;  designs confusingly charted.  Who makes these things anyways?

I've tried to make them before, but the tiny stitches and complex designs defeated me.

Then there's the space thing.  As in lack of it.  I have a very tiny living space and though I have a very big studio in which I pursue my art, it's, well, a studio.  No real places for doilies amidst the projects in the works, the art supplies, the stuff that may or may never be art someday.  So, I do admire the wonderful delicate and fancy stitching on the doilies, I just don't have anything or anyplace where they could be, or where they'd look ok.

So today, at this grandmother's home, there are none.

I guess I could make some as gifts, but there are doilies available, mass produced somewhere, that look pretty good.  Why go to all that trouble of making you're own?  Why bother gifting someone who just bought 10 at hobby lobby for a couple of bucks a piece?

I'm sure those of you who do a craft or an art struggle with this too.  Where to put it all, who to gift and will they appreciate it?  Well why do anything?

So, for whatever reason, I seem to be seeing doilies in my dreams and in my mind as I do other things.  I'm hesitant, at first, to be frustrated by the tiny.  Why, I'm thinking, do I have to use size 10 crochet thread and a size 7 steel crochet hook and make something that takes weeks and is 7" in circumference?  What kind of crazy person would do that?

Perhaps, what I should do, is morph these doilies into something else.

So I grabbed some worsted weight yarn, and an H hook and I'm off.  There is something very relaxing about crocheting around and around in ever changing stitch pattern as something grows bigger and bigger.   Maybe that's why they do it, the doily makers.

The traditional yarn is made with cotton crochet thread.  Maybe you've seen it?  Aunt Lydias, or the like, size 10, 400 yards in a ball no bigger than a mug of coffe. You use a small, steel crochet hook and at my age, you can hardly see the stitches.  You can make several doilies from one ball.

Use a bigger yarn, and you get, well, a bigger thing. 

My first attempt, in grey, I left some holes and I got sort of a vest. But, I don't actually like it, that is, I don't think, I'd like to wear it anywhere. Besides, I didn't have enough of one shade of gray worsted yarn to complete it.  Luckily I had enough of several grays and I was able to complete it.  Still, I like the idea of a doily as vest.  So maybe I'll try again.

And hey, maybe it was just too small for me.  On a child it looks great!

Too bad she moved.  Redo...

And, make one about 2x this and try it out again.

Then I found this group on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com, group search on rugs) , that is for rug makers and suddenly, it all makes sense.  That great big lacy thing I made would look great as a rug, if only it had a little more thickness. The ladies on the rug group say, a multitude of things might be good for making a rug out of a doily patternm.  Rope, upholstery piping, macrame cord, yarn.  But they say use 3 strands of yarn held together. 

Since yarn is what I have, well here goes. 

By the end of the weekend I almost have a rug, and I used only yarns from my stash, that is, yarns I've bought over the years, or had gifted to me, or picked up cheap or no cost from thrift shops or hobby swaps.  No, I didn't have enough of any one color to make the rug but I had multiple skeins or partial skeins of wine, dark purple, red varrigated and several shades of beige.  Here's where the real skill, and just maybe the art comes in.  I am using someone's doily pattern but I have to understand both the pattern and how to blend and present color in multiple crochet stitches in order to get an end result that transforms a stack of miscellaneous fiber into WOW!

One week later:   The result?  A beautiful rug.  Grandmother, I think, would be proud.  Is it art?  Who cares?  It looks good and will make a great rug , or even a lap rug on these cold winter days.

Learned a great lesson here.  I didn't have even enough to complete some rows of one color , but since I was holding 3 strands together I was able to blend 3 of this then 3 of that and get pretty close for the row.

And, I've made the doily also in size 10 thread.  I've found a new way to display doilies.  (Thanks to the Doily Heads group on Ravelry).  I've crocheted around a metal macrame hoop and stitched the doily to the hoop.  Now I can hang it in the window or on the wall.

So maybe that's who makes the intricate tiny stitches thingies, crazy people like me.

Hats for People with Big Heads

Some people have bigger heads than others.  No, I don't mean swelled heads as in filled with one's own importance.  I mean physically bigger.  As in hats are generally, and especially for women, created in a 'one size fits all' design.

Somehow the producers of hats think that even if our bodies may be created in many different sizes, our heads are all one size.  Oh, hats for men may be created in different sizes, that is is you want to purchase an expensive cowboy hat, or a fedora, or other hat, but what if you can't afford those hats, or what if you are female?

Oh, I know that most of us don't wear hats anymore unless its winter and we want a ski hat or something warm and they are stretchy right?  One size truly can fit all, right?  Wrong.  The knit hats you find in Walmart and even those you may pay a lot for at the mall or in the boutique or on-line are generally made, with few exceptions, in one size an for a head that ranges from 21 to 22 inches in size. If I, or other members in my family of larger than average heads (23, 24 and larger in size) attempt to wear them they do stretch out to pull down over our outsized domes but then, a couple of minutes later, pop up to sit like little comedy hats or pop off our heads entirely.

This is frustrating, as is the problem when we find adorable hats of other structure that we might want to purchase and wear but that are only available in one size fits all.

So we attempt to knit them ourselves, or get someone to knit them for us.  Ahah!  Most knitting and crochet patters are also sized for the "normal" head.  Purchase the yarn, knit the hat and lo, off it pops.

As an experienced knitter and crocheter I can often modify the pattern to fit.  But what about the rest of the world?  Knitting hats is one of the simple projects, often suggested for new knitters.  New knitters do not usually have the skill to modify a pattern  Nor do many experienced knitters.

Relax, big heads of the world and those who wish to provide warm coverings for same.  I'm going to attempt to provide a few simple patterns designed with the larger headed person in mind.  Those of you who create wearable art (and those of you who might like to ) can use this information and create wearable art for big heads. Yes!

Here's the first one.

 Here's the first attempt at a pattern.  Experienced knitters go ahead, and please send me comments on how I can make the pattern better for all knitters.  (I'm not a pattern writer, but I am going to have to learn by doing.) A crochet version will follow (in an latter post) as will a downloadable pdf pattern to my Ravelry site (I'm whizard on Ravelry.) www.ravelry.com.

Hat # 1 for Big Heads

Yarn:  Brown Sheep worsted.  1 skein and a little bit of another if you choose to make a stripe.

Needles:  Size 8 double pointed.  5 needles recommended.

Guage:  20 Stitches and 6 rows to 4 inches

Additional materials:  at least 1/16 yard of flannel fabric in a color to match the main color yarn.

Begin:
Using main color, cast on 84 stitches to  4 needles.  (if you only have 4 needles, CO to 3 needles)
Join, making sure not to twist work.
Work in stockinette stitch for 6 rows.
Work in reverse stockinette stitch for 2 inches.  Changing from stockinette stitch (knit all rows in the round) to reverse stockinette stitch (purl all rows in the round) forms a turning edge, and a small hem.  You will stitch the hem to the inside of the hat at the end.
If you wish a stripe, cut yarn leaving a 3 inch tail and join stripe color. (see note on jogless knitting)
(If you do not wish a stripe continue in main color,)
Work in reverse stockinette stitch for 1 inch.
Cut yarn and rejoin main color.
Work in reverse stockinette stitch until total height of work (whether worked with stripe or without stripe) is 6 inches.
  *Purl 12, purl 2 tog* repeat from * to * around.
A:  Purl around.
B: *purl one less stitch than previous row, purl 2 tog* repeat from * to * around
repeat A and B until the total stitches on all needles is 24 then repeat row B 2 times (total stitches remaining 12)
Cut yarn leaving a 6 inch tail and weave tail through each stitch, pull gently to close hole at top of hat.
To finish, fold the hem created at the beginning of the hat to the inside and stitch to the inside.
Weave in any ends.

Note:  Jog less knitting.  When you add a stripe to a pattern worked in the round the spot where the color changes will produce a jog, a really obvious point at which you changed color and it won't look particularly pretty.  To prevent this, join the new color and knit the first round normally.  When you reach the beginning of the second round, slip the first stitch, then knit the rest of the round.  Knit any following rounds normally.  When blocking, pull slightly at the jog area to even the lines.

Be the Always in the Midst of Never

There is a lot of despair out there. War. Famine. Terrorism.  Sickness. Foreclosure. Failure. Fired. Laid off.  Death. To read the newspaper or listen to the news today is to risk your mental health. Haven't we all wondered what in the world can save the world?

Or maybe you are just having a bad day.

I'm not enough of a pollyanna to believe that good works, kind gestures, great art or a large influx of money can solve any of these problems.  But I do know that every good thing you do, every time you speak and act authentically, every time you create something beautiful and much that you create that may not be beautiful but is real uplifts a soul, if only you're own.  And, when a soul is uplifted it can deal at least with its own troubles and perhaps with the troubles of another.

That is how it starts. One soul reaching out to another.  And that is one of the reasons that I work at creating art, and one of the reasons that I try to do something everyday that might be good for another.

• knit a warm hat, crochet a blanket, create a warm wool vest and give it to a homeless person, or a charity
• work on a piece of art that reflects an inner feeling I am having, or have had.  If working on it I become it, the art and the feeling, perhaps someday it can do the same for others, make the connection, show them they are not alone
• express more positive remarks than negative.  even if it is my job to guide, correct or help I can do it in a positive way or at least offset the negative with multiple positive statements
• smile
• greet people I pass while walking.  how many people do I see each day?  how wonderful it is when they greet me.  even a 'good morning' or 'good evening' or 'cold isn't it' makes that connection.  oh there may be places where this may not be a good idea, but really, aren't there a lot of places all of us are where a simple greeting costs us nothing and lightens someone's else's day?
• answer that question 'how are you?' with a big smile and a positive message when I can and a simple neutral answer when I can't.  Look right at that person and ask them how they are and respond authentically to it.  (how often is this greeting just so expected that we don't listen to the person's answer?  )
• wear that wearable art, especially when its bright colors.  A lot of people have told me that seeing someone in wearable art, especially in bright colors gives them joy.  there is so much blandness out there.
• complement people.  see a great hat, coat, sweater, outfit.  maybe they made it.  okay, so maybe its not art.  what does it matter?  the art may be in the wearing, the assembly with other clothing, the 'where' they are wearing it, the viewing, the people they are with.  art really is all around us and maybe part of our job is to help other people to see it.
• research, and the contribute to a charity that does good things for people.  put some money in the Salvation Army bucket.  Purchase a water buffalo for a family. 
• support local businesses, especially the small, individually owned.  drink coffee at the independent coffee shop.  buy a craft, a painting, a vegetable from your neighbors.

Some of these things may seem simple to you, like common sense or just the way you should respond to people.  But they are not, for an introvert like me. Those simple person to person things are hard. Hard to remember, hard to do.

But everyone can make art, and everyone can be a little nicely social.  Who knows, your simple gesture may be the thing that lifts another soul, everyone can be the always in the midst of never,