Let's Stop Doom Scrolling for a Moment

I get it, I can't get away from it either.  

My usual "happy, yarn filled" social media accounts, because I paused too long on a political or "bad news" posts is now filled with all kinds of doom and gloom, when all I want is five minutes away from the real world.

There is nothing wrong with staying informed and knowing what is going on in the world around you, but...let's take a breath, and pause for a few minutes and talk about yarn, knitting, (I would talk about crochet, too, but I know nothing about it other than how to use it to provisionally cast on, pick up run away knit stitches, and get myself out of a shawl using a fancy chain bind off), gardening, maybe even cooking and pets!

 Ready?

 

Over the past 5 weeks, I have spent some time every Saturday and Sunday trying to get all the yarn I own to fit into a single room.

 

 

A reasonable person would de-stash/sell/give away the yarn that didn't fit (in an entire room!), but I opted to instead remove the air from the yarn to create more space.  

Today I started in on taking the air out of the yarn that didn't even make it as far as "in boxes on the floor" of the yarn room.

Do I think that even with removing all of the air, the yarn will all fit in the space I have allocated for it?  No, but if I wasn't saving an entire wall of drawers for The Drama Queen's Fabric stash, maybe. (More about that later)

That probably didn't take you five minutes to read, so do me, and yourself a favor, think about three good things that happened, or you made happen this week, and tell me what they were.

Until next time...

Try and knit happy!

~M

A WiP Wednesday and Symmetry

 A little while ago I posted on Instagram and Bluesky a photo of a pair of socks, asking people if, when working a directional stitch pattern, it was important to them that the pattern is mirrored in each sock.

A pair of striped socks, on sock blockers

The difference, in this particular stitch pattern is very subtle, maybe a closer look?

Detail of the stitch pattern

Overwhelmingly, people commenting on the Bluesky post felt that a non-knitter wouldn't notice and that it probably didn't matter.  But, people on Instagram said things like "If the pattern doesn't mirror the stitch pattern I would do it for myself."

 

I believe that, while the knitter is definitely the person in control of  their own knitting, that including the instructions for mirroring, even when as subtle as this, is the right thing for me to do.  It would bother me if the socks weren't mirror images of each other. (I am also a stickler for the stripes matching, as you can see!)

 I will be putting these socks up for test knitting soon in my group on Ravelry, but first, the reason those finished socks count as a WiP post, I want to write up a tutorial for a "new to me" way of picking up stitches for the heel gusset. 

Which brings me to a question for you.  If you are a sock knitter, how do you do your pick ups along a heel flap?

Do you :

Slip the working needle under both legs of a slipped stitch edge?

Slip the working needle under one of the legs of a slipped stitch edge?

Work it some other way?

Leave me a comment with  your answer, all comments are moderated, so if you don't want to make your answer public just say so!

Until Next Time...hopefully soon...Knit Happy!

~Mary

Do People Still Read Blogs?

 Wow, talk about long time no see!  How have you been?  And where have I been?

While I was very active on Ravelry this year, my other social media outlets all fell by the wayside.  Hardly any Instagram posts, nothing here and just the very occasional newsletter was sent to my subscribers announcing new pattern releases and sales.

Should I get back into blogging?  Will you read it, if I do?  What would you like to hear about?

In general 2024 was a horrible, no good, definitely bad, year for me and mine, but a little ray of sunshine joined us in late November.

Meet Toast, Toasty, Toaster Strudel, our little Cheetah!

She isn't quite sure yet if she wants to be a lap cat or not,  and would like you to know that interactive cat toys that make noise and flap their little wings are one of the best things ever!

Would you like to hear more about her in the future?

Or perhaps just knitting content?  Like putting words in lace?

Gardening adventures, cooking, tutorials?  (No pics for those, yet.)

Let me know by leaving a comment

~M

The Big Sale means

 Knit Picks Big Sale will mean that lots of yarn is headed my way as I have been designing lots more doilies to go on hula hoops! (That's an affiliate link, that won't cost you anything to use, but will help keep the lights on at Chez YarnDiet.)

Speaking of which, Love Is and a Home for James are both available in my Ravelry Store.

I have slightly less than 108 hula hoops, waiting to be covered in knitted fabric, beads and possibly lights.

I'll show you all the yarn I ordered for them, when it gets here!

Until then,

Knit Happy!

~M

Here we are...a Month Later

 A while back, some knit and crochet designers and I were having a conversation about the "state of the pattern creating industry".  While the pandemic and "stay at home" orders that we all lived through in 2020 created a huge influx of beginner knitters/crocheters, and a significant increase (in some designers cases) of pattern sales, through the first half of 2023 many, if not most, are seeing a decline in those sales.

We asked each other for opinions of why? Why were pattern sales numbers for many of us declining the way they were?

We had guesses, but of course, no reliable data to base our assumptions on.

What we came up with was the pandemic meant that many people were simply bored and needed something to do with all the hours that had previously been devoted to commuting to and from a day job (for those lucky enough to be able to work remotely) and the hours that had been devoted to that day job for those who could not work remotely but still had to "stay home".

2023 has the world acting like we are back to normal, people no longer have those extra few (or many) hours in their day to learn a new hobby.

The conversation from there went on to how to attract more, new knitters and create more easy to make beginner patterns, with my lone dissent of "Who takes care of the intermediate knitter?".

 My point, which was quite soundly put aside was designers already have people who can knit, purl, cast on, bind off and who are ready for something a little more challenging but don't have those same few (or many) additional hours in each day to devote to a hobby they came to enjoy when they did.  Surely what they need, if they know it or not, is a way to build skills from making a one size doesn't quite fit but is good enough hat, to a perfectly fitting sweater, but in smaller bite size projects that won't take years to finish. 

In the meantime I went on to design some rather complicated shawls and "easy" socks that still assume that the knitter knows how to do things like pick up stitches evenly, or pick their favorite cast on, but the thought was niggling in the back of my mind and my inner muse (I call her Minnie Mouse) kept asking "What about this, what about that?"

So I've decided to put my money, and time, where my mouth is and create that series of skill builder patterns.  Each will include two or more projects devoted to a specific skill, a small practice project (some would call it a swatch but I know how much people, in general, would prefer not to swatch) and then a larger "level up" project, that is still smaller than a sweater. Possibly some could be used by Yarn Stores for a teaching opportunity like the My First Lace, My First Cable classes the yarn store I worked at during my teens would occasionally offer.

As someone who has been knitting for cough50pluscough years, I don't remember what the techniques were that tripped me up the first time I knit a sweater, but I do know that in the past 15 or 20 years I have learned new and better ways of doing things than I did for the longest time and there is always something new to learn about knitting. For everyone one way of doing something there seems to be 3 or more other ways of achieving the same ends and each one is either best suited to a particular type of project or an individual knitter.

 Which is the very long way around of my asking you, if there is still anyone checking in on this sadly neglected blog, what techniques would you like to "Level Up" ?

I am already working on I-cord (which will include 3 different I-cord cast on options, an I-cord bind off, integrated and applied I-cord edges) with three patterns, Picking Up Stitches on Garter Edges, Cast On's and Bind Off's with two patterns, and Shadow/Illusion knitting with two patterns.

You'll never swatch, just jump right into a pattern for a useful object, because a slightly wonky coaster or dish cloth can still be used.

Please leave a comment with what you would like to learn/level up.

Until next time, whenever that may be...Knit Happy!

~M

PS, I am loving my Induction Range!  The Power Boost function to boil a large pot of water in next to no time will never cease to amuse me!

Where does the time go?

 Is anybody even still looking at this blog?  

As you can tell, for months I haven't!  I don't have any excuses, other than, when you have all the time in the world to get things done, nothing gets done!

I'm sure the past few month have been filled with something, let's see if I can remember what?

 Knitting patterns were written, knit and released, although on a rather lackadaisical schedule. 

I finally gave up waiting for my "builders special" range/stove to die and bought a fancy new induction one!

 

And 108 hula hoops!

 

Of course, yarn was obtained.  (Much more than this, but the photo was handy)

And there is a new face, well actually old, face in my stair well.

The Annual Around the World Stitch Along is just past the half way point.  So far, I think the participants are having fun.  We have over 100 Finished Objects from knitters in 11 countries!

That's all I can think of for now, maybe I will get back into the old habit of at least blogging weekly.

If anyone is here to see it.

But, I wouldn't hold your breath, my follow through on the blog has been severely lacking this year!

Until next time

Keep Knitting Happy,

~M

And another month bites the dust

 So far, I am not that impressed with 2023!

RIP Tippy

As near as we know...20 plus years is a pretty good life of adventuring, being a pampered house cat and taking naps in the sun. When he started feeling the cold he would agree to wear a sweater but needed a coat to go adventuring in the snow as far as the mail box.

Adopted in 2004, estimated age 1 to 4 years old at that time.

We will miss you!