This is a Test!

This may be pretty small, but if you click here you can get a pdf download of the Fake Pattern I created so you can get a sense of what the new pattern format looks like. Patterns for the Natural Baby Collection and the Rib Boot Toppers are in the new format.

Page 1: The green button will let you know the pattern level. We're going to put a key on the website that you can reference what each level covers, but think of this as the key to how much attention you have to pay to the details of the knitting, not whether it is "easy" or "difficult" because I don't know what it will be like for you.

Originally when we discussed having a pattern level we decided to think of it more in terms of how much attention you have to pay--and how often that attention is required. Actually, we wanted to put the number of alcoholic beverages that could be consumed while working the pattern, but we weren't sure that would work for everyone and there was the problem of is it wine, beer or hard liquor, so we didn't use that system. Sometimes it is just the finishing might be a little tricky but the actual knitting isn't at all, or you have to pay attention to the knitting until you get the hang of it, then it is mostly smooth sailing until armhole and neck shaping. Other times, yeah, you really have to pay attention. My experience is that most knitters can do whatever they want to do and the only real difficulty is whether the method of presenting the instructions make sense to them. A whole 'nother post!

I remember snapping at my mother as I struggled through sewing my first real garment, "I'm not sure why they are called Simplicity patterns when they aren't simple at all!" But I was about 11 and it was a shirt-style dress, with collar, cuffs, front band and buttonholes and it was red with white collar and cuffs and red topstitching, which I was making for my first day of probably the 6th grade. I had chosen the pattern, and we struggled on and I ended up wearing it quite proudly, but the making of it certainly vexed my patience. That has happened once or twice since then too. Ha ha!

Then we like to give you a heads up on style/type of knitting. ITR is in-the-round. Again, we'll have a key.

The front cover photo will be a "lifestyle" photo on a model, not a static photo (which will be inside). The patterns are also getting new names (mostly). You'll notice over time that they are mostly geographic to reflect our interest in travel! Again, another post.

More on the inside pages later.