I have a new sweater pattern available, in the gorgeous new fall issue of Knitty! I named it for my wonderful friend Bel.
Some thanks are in order: Thank you to my excellent friend Travis, for taking hundreds of beautiful photos on two occasions, to produce the few we ended up using.
And thank you to our friend and stellar roommate Casi for modeling, even though the shots of her weren’t the ones we ended up using for Knitty.
I’ll write more about the design in another post.
(I should really get better at writing about the events and interviews Leanne and I do to promote the book, shouldn’t I?)
Recently, Leanne and I were interviewed for the cover story for last week’s Vancouver Courier. It’s the most in-depth article written about our book and yarn graffiti that I’ve seen yet! Janaya Fuller-Evans, who interviewed us and wrote the story, did a terrific job.
Last month Leanne and I did a fun and silly interview with Bob Nixon from CBC TV. It was a blast! Check us out:
Yarn Bombing on CBC TV
Check it out! The pattern I thought I would not release, is now available in my Etsy shop. My lovely friend Susie modeled it for me this weekend.
But wait! Before you buy it, check out Wendy’s pattern; she and I have coordinated the release of our strikingly similar hat patterns. There are a few differences between her design and mine:
- My hat is a beanie with a slight peak, topped with a button. Wendy’s is a beret, with a smoothly rounded top.
- My hat is worked entirely in stockinette stitch, with the tiniest of rolled brims. Wendy’s hat has garter stitch bands between the ruched sections, and a garter stitch brim.
- Wendy’s pattern is written for both sock yarn and worsted weight yarn while mine is written only for sock yarn.
Heck, maybe you’ll want to buy them both.
So after I wrote my last post, I left Wendy a comment to let her know about it. We had an email conversation about the coincidence, and came up with the idea of a coordinated pattern release: we’ll release our patterns on the same day, and link to each other’s patterns. I love this solution!
I have seen posts on blogs and forums which accuse designers of ripping each other off, sometimes when designs are very similar, but sometimes just when a design bears a vague resemblance to another design. While it’s undeniable that plagiarism does happen, I think that much more often designers just have similar ideas. When you consider that we’re often responding to trends, it is not surprising that more than one person would be inspired to design something in a particular new shape, with a characteristic detail, or in a stitch pattern that seems relevant and interesting.
When I wrote my last blog post, I had intended not to publish my pattern, because I hated the idea of knitters accusing me of ripping off Wendy. I was so happy when Wendy wrote with a friendly and cooperative solution. And really, this has been pretty representative of my experiences with many designers: they have been helpful and generous, willing to share experience, knowledge and opportunities.
I knit this hat in June, for submission to a magazine. It wasn’t accepted, but I thought it was a strong design and decided to self-publish the pattern. I planned to publish it at the end of this month, closer to fall, when people would be thinking about hats. I wrote the pattern up and filed it away, feeling all pleased with myself for having a plan and being prepared.
Then on Sunday night I stopped by Knit and Tonic, and saw this.
Well, shit.
My hat is different from Wendy’s in a few ways – mine is a beanie instead of a beret, it is all worked in stockinette stitch instead of alternating stockinette with garter stitch – but I figure the few differences can’t be enough to make mine not look like a rip-off of hers. We even used the same weight of yarn. I hate it when this happens… and I know it happens fairly frequently. When Amy Swenson and I both lived in Calgary and used to exhaustively review the new knitting magazines together, I can’t tell you how many times one of us would exclaim “What!! I’ve been working on exactly that idea!”
Oh well. If you like my hat, go buy’s Wendy’s pattern (when she releases it). I must say her top shaping is more graceful than mine.
One of the lessons I’ve been learning this year has been about how much control I have over my life. In the past few months I have been making my choices differently, more consciously making them to help me have the life I want. I feel that I have been thinking more clearly about my motivation, and about the consequences of my actions, large and small.
For example, if our kitchen (at the center of the house, next to my office) is relatively clean and the counters are clear, I feel calmer and have more energy, and I eat better. My quality of life is significantly increased if I clean the kitchen every day, instead of leaving it for several days at a time (I know, my housekeeping habits are not exemplary) or waiting for my husband or roommate to do it (though sometimes one of them will still get to it before I do). That’s a fairly mundane example.
Another thing that’s happened this year is that a close friendship, one which has been very important to me, has gone awry. I don’t know if it’s ended or is just on hiatus. My friend stopped seeing me or talking to me (unless we see each other socially) a few months ago.
I still don’t know why this happened. It took me a while to realize that something was going on beyond the normal ebb and flow of friendship resulting from schedule disparity, emotional cycles and life events.
I realized today (while cleaning the kitchen, in fact) that I went through the stages of grief mourning this relationship, spending a lot of time at the ‘anger’ and ‘depression’ stages. I’m happy to feel like I am finally at the point where I will be okay no matter what happens, whether our friendship resumes or not. It took a lot of work to get there.
And this brings me back to control. One thing I realized while I was grieving was that I had been relying too much on a few friends to meet my friendship needs. I have always been the sort of person to have a few close friends and a number of casual ones… but this is something I have control over, too. I know a lot of really excellent and interesting people, and I keep meeting more all the time. I don’t spend nearly enough energy on many of those relationships, and most of them would benefit greatly from even just a little more time and thought.
So I’ve been putting more effort into seeing people I don’t see very often. Some are new friends I want to know better, some are closer friends I just don’t see often enough, others are people I barely know but with whom I sense an affinity. This doesn’t really come naturally to me; I’m doing it gradually, so that it will be a life change I can sustain, instead of just an atypical spasm of energy.
But I have learned that if I change my actions I can change my habits, and from there I can change the way I think and the way I live. I just have to remember that I have the power to do this.
The book is here! It arrived from the printer much sooner than expected, and it’s b e a u t i f u l …
Read more about our publisher surprising us with it here.
The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop!
Here’s the original version of the sweater, which I knit over 2 years ago.
The new version is a bit more refined than the original: the raglan, neckline and waist shaping are more well-integrated into the stitch pattern, the lower edge treatment flows from the body pattern more naturally, and I think the proportions are more well-balanced.
I’m pretty excited about it. I hope you like it!
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Yarn Bombing Book Launch
Last week Leanne and I did a live interview on a TV talk show, then a brief radio interview on CBC radio. Thursday evening, we had our book launch party (YouTube link) at Three Bags Full, which was terrific!! I don’t even know how many people showed up, but the shop was packed; it was pretty overwhelming. Everyone was really enthusiastic and nice, and we sold (and signed) many, many books. My folks visited over the weekend so they could be there for the launch, and a lot of our friends showed up, too.
I am really grateful for the terrific response the book is getting, and for all the media coverage! After the launch party, though, I was completely burned out. I’m not a natural extrovert, and I find talking to a lot of people to be really draining; I was kind of a mess by the end of last week. Thankfully, I was able to rest a lot over the weekend, and I’m finally starting to feel human again.