eBooks Survey

Thanks to everyone who responded to this survey (315).  View the results.

The results are interesting and definitely show a trend toward pdf downloads and ebooks.  In the comments, which are not visible in the link above, many knitters indicate they own LOTS OF BOOKS (no doubt to go with LOTS OF YARN) and many own digital readers.  This bears out one of my observations of spending time with knitters:  many knitters are also readers.

I'm getting ready to travel tomorrow.  I'll take two books and lots of knitting. Lots of paper for other work I need to do.  I won't carry an electronic device as I don't yet have a portable one.  If only everything I need could all be in one device, but that doesn't seem to exist yet, though we're getting closer. 

Here's a pick of Coral Seas.  Buy the Creative Knitting issue and you get this pattern and many more.  We're selling the yarn with free shipping for a limited time. 

Coral Seas

Coral Seas here's a link to this new design from me in Creative Knitting. It is done in Kiwi from Zealana which is a yarn I just love--cotton, merino and possum.

This is a pretty simple piece to knit--bottom trim, body (no shaping) to armholes, armhole shaping, shoulder and front neckline shaping. Shoulder pieces are done separately and I think really make the piece. The neck trim is put on after doing everything else. You can't tell fro the picture, but the front neckline cowls (in fact, I think the photo is the back of the piece). There are little coral knots scattered over the body to create some interest in the fabric.

Think how great this piece would look under a jacket, or worn with slacks or jeans. I can attest to the fact that this piece can be knit fairly quickly--it was done on a very quick turnaround!

To Mothers . . .

Last Saturday at our Y2Knit photo shoot at my home I had the pleasure of working with wonderful people and I wanted to use this Mother's Day post as an opportunity to thank the mothers of each of those lovely women and men who made it possible. Why thank the mothers? Because all of the participants had lovely manners which were exercised by people who clearly used them frequently. What could have been a long and trying day was actually a fun and wonderful one because everyone was gracious and polite.

I am often frustrated by how difficult it is to navigate our daily world where everyone is so focused on themselves that they seem to have forgotten how far good manners can go to making things easier. So the pleasure of experiencing a day with people who are going out of their way to be pleasant and exercise those good manners was truly a pleasure.

This photo is of our mother Jane Lewis helping Irma Bindi in Montisi. Jane is handicapped by neuropathy and arthritis and Irma perhaps the beginnings of senility. But Irma knew what she wanted (I think it was a snap sewn on her purse) and Jane complied. The snazzy pink walker is Jane's. Irma is held in the embrace of a small village and under the watchful eye of caregivers and they each know how to knit. Just as a note, Irma was a bit irascible. The boys (young and old) like to provoke her to get her to unleash a string of curses, but they spend time with her and Jane's favorite moment was when Dario (about 12) cast off Irma's knitting for her.

Pattern Display

The new pattern format is awesome, and I've enjoyed reading about the process from Jill's point of view as I am not as involved as she is in this undertaking.  I print the patterns and create the pdfs for the website.

Jill and I do an occasional retail show and TNNA, a trade show.  We need to have a way to display the patterns that will reveal as much as possible to the person walking by.  We've done the pattern racks and quite frankly, we're tired of shipping or lugging all those pieces with us.  Our recent search found these lightweight mesh displays that arrived today.  I set it up in 15 seconds.  Had the patterns inserted in another 15.  Light. Easy.  Cool looking.  Space saving.

See that black bag next to the display?  It all collapses and fits in there! 4 lbs. 

Look for this display in the Llamajama booth (E15) at the Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend.

Copywriting

My mother has always envied my ability to write at the keyboard. I learned to do this at my first job as a legal secretary in a busy office in a small-ish county prosecutor's office (criminal division). I could compose draft letters and legal documents for my bosses based on previous similar document and, over time, from scratch. I'm a good writer, but I think I am probably a better editor.

But for the last several years I've been trying to describe my patterns (in 75 words or less--and if you read this blog you are probably aware that I don't get to the point that quickly). Frankly, I am not good at it. I have other language to describe my actual facility, but I'm not going to use it here because at some future date I might be embarrassed by my bad language.

A couple of weeks ago we recruited a copywriter to write copy for us. It is amazing what a real wordsmith can do! At least I know that I was correct that I'm not good at doing it and that it can in fact be done in an interesting and compelling way if you know what you're doing. Sarah is a knitter too. She actually reads my patterns!

So we're all good at various things. When you are a small business person you often do things you aren't really meant to do because it is cheaper than paying someone who is qualified to do it. Long story short: not always the right choice!

Look forward to fabulous text on the reformatted patterns, on the web and wherever else we can put it.

We Aim to Please

We don't always get it right. We try, but we don't. But we do try to be responsive whenever someone has a problem with one of our patterns. I got an email on Wednesday when I was out of the office about an error in a recently released pattern. I looked at the pattern on Thursday and sure enough, we'd missed something--both the tech editor and I had missed it. So I fixed the pattern and emailed new pages to the shop owner. I changed the version number on the pattern so we could let anyone who had purchased the pattern know about the problem and make sure no more of the original version go out. Because we self-publish and print on demand, we can pull any hard copies and update our pdf downloads very quickly.

The shop owner is making multiple samples to sell at a local event (she got our permission to use the pattern for this purpose) and didn't like the way a certain piece looked when not on the body. I arranged to call her Friday morning and we talked about her issue and I gave her a new way to do it over the phone and sent her written instructions (more new pages) for the change. Heard back later that the change was just what she wanted. Everyone is happy. I assume everyone else will like the new version, so that is now in the pattern.

My sample of the project was knitted in two colors because I was using up leftover yarn. I assumed that people would want to do it in solid colors, so didn't specify how I had used my two colors. You got it. I put that into the pattern too.

We're happy to try to make you happy, so if something isn't right, let us know. Please be nice; we didn't mean to be anything less than perfect.

Band is called Aim to Please.