Tag Archives: patterns

Paper or…

Posted in Uncategorized by

Well, not plastic but electronic, maybe???  I keep going back and forth between trying to be paperless with my patterns and still printing them out.  This has been coming up as I’ve been (slowly) working through my WIPs.  Some of them have patterns stuck in the bag and others don’t so I have to figure out where I downloaded them.  It’s also a question that comes up for designers when they are formatting their patterns.  I thought I would together a list of the pros and cons of each.

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Paper patterns

Pros:

  • Easy to write on and take notes
  • Stick in project bag so always together
  • No worries about battery use
  • New books 🙂

Cons:

  • Risk of loss is high
  • Not environmently friendly
  • Unable to access any links included with pattern
  • Can be bulky if there are numerous pages and charts
  • Printing issues (running out of ink and/or paper, etc)

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Electronic copies

Pros:

  • Save paper/ink (and the forests)
  • Clickable links to useful tutorials

Cons:

  • Remembering which device it’s on (maybe that’s just me!)
  • Remembering where on the device it’s stored
  • Battery issues
  • Limited to screen size
  • Can only look at one page at a time

For me, I usually end up just printing the pages I need and sticking it in my project bag.  I find that works best for me.  When I lined up my 17 WIPs to finish I made sure a copy of the pattern was in each bag so I was ready to go!  So paper or electronic for you???

What’s on My Needles This Weekend (a day late)

Posted in WMNTW by

This new year is starting off as busy as last, at least this year it does not involve trying to travel in the winter weather.  So, I did not quite get to my weekend post over the weekend but here is what was on my needles over the weekend.

Shortly before Christmas my good friends asked me to be the godmother to their newest child.  I was so touched and honored.  My new goddaughter is the youngest of four so while she is already one no one has quite gotten around to having her baptized.  Date is to be determined.  I knew I wanted to knit something for her big day but she will be almost 18 months before this happens so the usual bonnet and/or booties are a little out of the question.  The funny thing about this is when their first child was born almost 10 years ago I was a relatively new knitter (had been at it for about 2 years) so my skills were still, developing, shall we say.  I had a small baby shower for her as her family lived out of town.  We arranged to have it when her parents would be in town.  I knit the baby a pair of booties.  They were all knit and done flat and sewed up the back.  They were not the best booties but it was what I could manage.  My friend opened them and loved them and showed them around and was genuinely very happy with the gift.  About two gifts later she opened the box her mother had brought.  Out of it she pulled a beautiful white fan and feather patterned baptismal blanket.  At this point, I wanted to quietly retrieve said booties and hide them in my back room.  Her mother was so nice and supportive and was sure I could handle feather and fan, and, in fact sent me the pattern when she got home.  I still have it and I still have not tackled it.  What I’m saying is knitting and this friend have a long history.

But, back to the upcoming baptism.  I searched Ravelry and was amazed at the beautiful patterns you can knit for a baptism.  Besides the gowns there were many bonnets and booties and one bib.  Well, that was a great idea.  I was not crazy about the one I saw so I just started playing.  I did a seed stitch border and knit in a cross pattern.  I want to get some gold or silver thread and outline the cross so it is a little clearer to see but otherwise I thought it was a quick, fun knit and I’m sure it will be perfect for my goddaughter’s big day!

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News and Notes!

Posted in Knitting by

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and blogging fell to the bottom of the list.  Part of my time was spent revampting my Etsy site. Part of the time was spent trying to write my own pattern for a special request hat.

Over the summer I had gone to a couple of seminars on Etsy and worked on applying what I learned when I returned from Europe.  The hat that is most popular is my Browns helmet.  This especially exciting because I designed the helmet myself.

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About six months ago I sat down to pick out a hat to knit for my friends who were expecting their first child, a boy.  I scanned through my library on Ravelry and then scanned through all baby hats on Ravelry and nothing was speaking to me.  I really like to chose the right hat for the right baby.  My friends live in the DC area but he and I grew up next door to each other here in Cleveland.  The wonders of social media brought us back together a few years back.  I did know that he still had a strong loyalty to all Cleveland teams and I saw some football hats.  For once I was thankful that the Browns have the plainest helmets in the NFL because it’s really easy to replicate!

The Browns helmet was popular on my Facebook page and with my knitting group.  I’ve already done a second hat and if they keep winning this season I might get some more orders!

Perhaps this will be the first of many patterns or perhaps I have peaked with pattern writing only time will tell!