More soon!

And also? Little old ladies in Oregon are tough enough to deface notes from management with graffiti.

These are obviously good people. The Poem that caused all the ire states:

I'm not your Mom,
I'm not your maid,
Even though
I'm slightly paid.

And though it may
Not be cool,
Please flush your urine
and your stool.

The graffiti I will leave you to decipher.

There was lots of drop spinning and Fickle Knitter waxing philosophical.

And lots of collaboration between Fickle Knitter and Slipped Stitch Studios.

All in all it was a terrifically busy weekend resulting in my first sell out show. Finding a high quality printer at the last minute to replenish patterns was exhilarating, and a problem I hope to experience again in the future. The "I knit tin hats" buttons were a huge hit as was the hat. It kept me warm in the cool Oregonian rain. I missed Mike and Maya like crazy and came home to this lovely surprise:

My three year old had plenty of (supervised) practice with drum carding. Just look at the sublime layering of alpaca, cashmere, and angelina! She also treadled my spinning wheel with help from Daddy at her request. I can't think of many rewards better than coming home to my budding fiber artist and her enabling Daddy.

Oregon, I hope to see you again real soon.

It's been a hell of a few days. I've been acting like a crazy person trying to get my gear, fiber, yarn, and patterns ready for Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. The husband has been working extended hours (til 2 am when the Rooster is fast asleep) for a project at work. Maya is (of course) waking up at 5:30 in the mornings. There has been secret knitting.

So, This morning I was taking a moment to myself to breathe, drink some coffee, and flip through the Knit Picks catalog that came in the mail yesterday afternoon. And straight out of left field there was one of my patterns, plain as day! You could have knocked me over with a feather. All the exhaustion, overworked and overwrought days melted away. Thank you Knit Picks team! I may be stressed out and knitting like there's going to be a yarn shortage tomorrow but you perked up my day.

I'm packing yarn, fiber and patterns for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, Oregon this weekend, September 25th and 26th. I'll be vending with Laura of Slipped Stitch Studios.

We'll also be vending at the CogKNITive Knitting Retreat the following weekend, October 2nd in Tehachapi, CA.

I have to get back to all of the above preparations. You see my boss is a real ball busting slave driver. Someone ought to give her iced tea and chocolate cake STAT.

I wrote and knit the pattern while watching Michael and Tommy Caffee running around Boston in the Brotherhood. Looking back that must have influenced me to use cables. Or maybe it was all the iced tea. Any way the cabling looks deceptively complex to the non-knitterly eye. The hat is sized to fit tweens and teens for those of us who pour our (tiny, black) hearts into holiday knitting for our loved ones. I recommend buying one extra special skein of yarn for yourself for every holiday knitting project you knit. You deserve it.

Once again Jaala and crew brought it with a beautiful new issue! I'll be giving away some copies and maybe even a subscription in my ravelry group. You don't have to do anything extraordinary to win, joining my humble band of merry women is enough.

I'm off to look for some holiday canned pumpkin, remember those scotch soaked pumpkin muffins I made a few years ago? There's a shortage of pumpkin this year, says the canned pumpkin industry. It'd be tragic if I had to skip the pumpkin-raisin muffins and go directly to the scotch to fortify my knitting eh? Bah humbug.

Google reader is nice but I like Flock better. Flock is a slick blog aggregator that integrates social media like twitter and facebook into one browsing platform. The best part? It's free. I struggled for a few days trying to figure out how to add my feeds to Flock so I decided to make a tutorial for all those other bloggers who will be losing their web feeds when bloglines goes bust. Click each image to zoom. Enjoy and happy browsing!

Step 1: Exporting your bloglines feeds

Click on "export subscriptions" in the bottom left corner of your bloglines feeds and save file. It is an opml extension. This is also the extension Flock uses for importing.

Step 2: Download the Flock browser Go to http://www.flock.com and click the "Download new flock" button and accept the terms of service. Flock browser will prompt you to run the exe file to install your new browser. When installation is complete start flock.

Step 3: Edit Your Groups

Click "Edit Your Groups" on the drop down menu in the right hand sidebar.

Step 4: Import .opml Feed

Click "Import Feeds", then "browse" both located on the top right hand side of your browser. Then select "export.opml" in the folder where you downloaded the file from bloglines.

It will take some time for the feeds to be uploaded to your new flock browser. In the meantime why not knit a fickleknitter knitting pattern from the pattern shop to keep your hands occupied? Each pattern purchase helps keep the lights on and a steady flow of yarn in my hands so I can create new patterns and tutorials just like this one!

Next, want to add a new blog feed to your Flock Browser?

Step 1: Type (or copy) the web address into the address bar.

Step 2: Click on the green RSS box.

It's located on the far right hand side of the flock browser web address bar. There may be more than one feed available, such as ATOM, RSS1, RSS2, etc. Pick one. A new tab will open up.

Step 3: Subscribe to the blog feed.

Select the subscribe button and the feed will be added automatically to your flock browser subscriptions.

That's it! After following the instructions in this easy tutorial you will have a new home for your knitting blog feeds and a cool browser that will keep you up to date on all your social media outlets.

3 Hats: Mama, Knitter, Butt Kicker.

Just Finished

This week I (finally) finished the artyarns arrow scarf pattern, yarn courtesy of Fabulousyarn.com. It'll be tested and tech edited next. Should be ready for publishing sometime in October.

"Mama will you make me green socks?" After asking me for the hundredth time I capitulated, the cobbler's children not having socks and all that. In the ultimate act of Motherly sacrifice, I also spun and hand dyed the yarn. Maya gives her stamp of approval as you can see in the second photo where she's working a celebratory moon walk.

Up Next

New Serenity 20 yarn from Zen Yarn Garden

Finally meet the Silk Mohair who wants to be a filmy, floaty triangle shawl when it grows up.

See, other than making the sweetest kid ever she also makes these awesome draw string bags, and mi patterns, and swift bags, and pattern magnets and pithy buttons and pretty much any cool knitting related thing you can think of. Any way she has the famously discontinued Knitmare fabric and sells quite a lot of it in her shop.

So I've been spinning and dyeing and beading yarn to match.

And then spinning more yarn to match.

And a few more.

I can't seem to stop spinning on my new Lendrum folding DT. I've had to limit myself to spinning around my secret magazine knitting deadline which has been sort of like limiting ice tea, chocolate cake, or you know, oxygen.

So it's been really awesome to have Lisa help me bring my patterns to life by sample knitting. Hands off ladies, she's mine.

I wrote the pattern for the Asymmetrical Triangle Shawl as I was working my way through shawl geometry. The shawl is knit by casting on 300 stitches for the long edge and gradually decreases to the center point.

The pattern includes clearly written instructions that have been thoroughly test knit and tech edited.

For more information on shawl geometry please visit my tutorial here: http://www.fickleknitter.com/archives/2009/12/knitted_lace_tr.htm

The shawl is knit using 950 yards of fingering weight yarn. I used four full skeins and the point was made using those precious koigu leftovers from Charlotte’s Web Shawl.

Description A simple triangle shawl that is knit by casting on 300 stitches for the long edge and decreasing to the point.

Needles Size US 3/ 3.25mm Knitting Needles, or size needed to get gauge.

Yarn 300 grams of Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM) 100% Merino Wool, 14 WPI fingering weight yarn. Approximately 175 yards/160 meters. Total Yardage for shawl is 950 yards/872 meters. Seven Colors used: p827l51, p536l27, p154l52, p826l40, 136, 612, and 426.

Gauge 30 stitches and 34 rows over 4 inches in Pattern Stitch.

Finished Measurements 46 inches wide and 23 inches tall.

For more information or to buy the shawl, see: http://www.shop.fickleknitter.com/product/asymmetrical-triangle-shawl-instant-download

And now that I've been self publishing and really making a go of knitting design I answer to a higher power. I call it my Heart of Hearts strategy.

To wit:

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of a scarf made with delicious artyarns supermerino. After some deep soul searching and angst about how quickly the yarn was being absorbed by the scarf I decided it was time to weigh the remaining yarn.

The scarf was 13 inches long and I'd consumed half of the yarn by weight. That means the finished scarf would be a little over 2 feet long going at the current rate. This is where my Heart of Hearts strategy comes into play. I ask my Heart of Hearts, "will the people that love me enough to buy my designs wear a scarf that is only 2 feet long albeit lovingly designed and executed?"

Yes, perhaps my sister or close family friend would out of pity. But in her mind she'd be asking Who in the hell would wear a scarf that's 2 feet long? And by in her mind I mean aloud, to my face.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrriiiipppppppppppppppp.

I reknit trying to capture the original idea and general feel of the beta version but using much less yarn so as to avoid that uncomfortable not silence where I've put the family name to shame.

Then, on the cusp of drowning my knit-ripping sorrows in iced tea I had another run in with my Heart of Hearts this weekend past. I've been laboring over this secret magazine project trying to make it perfect. When I was 99.9% finished I spread it out over my lap to bask in my moment in the sun.

It was then I realized with a sinking feeling that half of the shawl says "I look like a lattice!" and the other half says "I look like columns!" Now my sister loves me a lot but definitely not enough to wear a shawl that reckons it's origins with the Three Faces of Eve with a dash of wow, that's really...[longest pause in the history of ever]... home made!

That little mental dialog resulted in the ripping out of (and it pains me to say it) 10,825 lovingly knit stitches. Each one a special snowflake, living forever more in my heart. But when I actually did the ripping the language was much more coarse. Stupid Special Snowflakes.

So that is my advice to those sorry sods who find themselves in my contemptible position of Rip or Not To Rip, a three and a half point checklist with a secret toy surprise at the end.

1. Ask your Heart of Hearts if anyone you know would wear the 2 foot scarf, a Three Faces of Eve shawl, or the tin hat that's just come off of your needles.

2. If the answer is "No" or "HELL NO" fortify yourself with the beverage of your choice, language that would make a sailor blush, and an excel spread sheet so you can calculate the depth of your knit ripping pain. It's a sliding scale of anguish. 1,000 tinked stitches entitles you to some reckless retail therapy. Reach 10,000 ripped stitches and holy crap! You just bought a new wheel. And by you, I mean me and my new Lendrum DT. I earned it, shut up.

2a. If you are ripping out lace weight with silk (or any sticky yarn) go slowly as to avoid snags, breaks with reality, and knots. Be ware all ye who enter here.

3. Finally, If the answer is "Yes," "HELL YEAH" or "Begrudgingly with a air of haughtiness" Congratulations! You've just won one sticky note from the sticky notepad of Michelle has too much time on her hands.

I decided it was high time to group together a best of from the most popular lace designs I've created over the years. So just in time for the holiday knitting crunch I hope you'll consider my 14 Pattern Lace Knitting Collection. Because the holidays are about Knitters too!

This amazing 45 page collection contains 14 Lace patterns for Lace knitters! There are five lace triangular shawls, three rectangular wraps, four lace scarves, and two cowls to satisfy every knitting appetite.

Each pattern has written instructions and charts where appropriate. All patterns have been tested, edited, and are presented in a clear manner.

The Lace Knitting Collection now has the following Patterns:

* Flyleaf Triangular Shawl -Charts Included
* Went Berrying Triangle Shawlette -Charts Included
* Jade One Skein Shawl -Charts Included
* Pivot Triangular Shawl -Charts Included
* Triangulum
* Tree and Arbor Wrap -Charts Included
* Wen’s Wedding Shawl -Charts Included
* Diamond Stripe Lace Shawl -Charts Included
* Easy Bamboo Lace One Skein Scarf -Charts Included
* Butterfly One Skein Scarflet -Charts Included
* Fragment One Skein Scarf
* Karma Chameleon One Skein Scarf
* Versacowl -Charts Included
* Briny Sea Cowl -Charts Included

The 14 Pattern Lace Knitting Collection is now available for sale in my pattern shop, etsy, and ravelry.

If you're wondering about my qualifications for writing this tutorial, I've just had my 7th pattern published by Knit Picks IDP and had my very first appearance in the Fall Knit Picks Catalog as an Independent Designer.

So let's start with the basics.

*The best place to brush up on the requirements are the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program FAQ.

*For Knit Picks yarn support email yarnsupport@knitpicks.com.

*For Knit Picks submissions email submissions@knitpicks.com

What do I do to get Knit Picks Yarn support?
The first thing you need to do to start your journey into the Independent Designer Program is request yarn support. When I'm requesting yarn I put together a small list of links from my shop of items I've already published to give Knit Picks an idea of my design aesthetic. The links show a few photos of the projects with detailed information on the patterns such as gauge, needle size and a brief description of the item and it's construction.

Some designers submit items that have already been self published, if that is the case you already have a design ready and simply email photos and a description of the finished object to the Knit Picks team. Your submission will be evaluated and you'll receive an email either accepting or rejecting your request for yarn support.

Since I am designing from scratch I must decide on which yarn will work for my request. For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere designing new knitting patterns for winter happens in summer, and summer in winter. For those living in the Southern Hemisphere the schedule is reversed. It's summer now so that means I want to work with winter yarns and pattern submissions. Also keep in mind that you want to pick a yarn that will work with your intended item. (Alpaca Lace weight is great for lace projects but maybe not a great fit for colorwork mittens knit at 5 stitches per inch). Finally when choosing your yarn, pick something that has consistent dye lots. If you choose something like Felici with limited edition colorways your design will have a shelf life because once the particular sample color is gone the design becomes obsolete.

So let's go with Knit Pick's Shamrock yarn. It's got some fresh new colors, and is a hearty winter yarn.

The first thing you do after deciding on a yarn is to come up with a suitable project. Since I am designing for a winter cycle I'll go with a pair of mittens. And in order to get the yarn I have to submit a sketch. While I can draw well enough with a ruler and a little patience, expressing a general idea can be enough. I used a simple sketch program (Penultimate available for iPad) to sketch out the basic idea of my yarn support submission. I won't be winning any awards for my sketch in this case but it shows the item, the cable detail, and the type of yarn I intend to use for the project.

Once you have a sketch and description ready it is time to send in the request.

I've found that Knit Picks is generous with yarn support. But they may not say yes to every request. One reason is your design may not be accepted it resembles something being made or already published by the Knit Picks Design Team. Another is you may be competing with too many other knit or crocheted items they've already published. There are a lot of hat and cowl patterns out there already so why not dream up some triangle shawls or a special sweater instead?

At any rate the best thing you can do in this situation is not get discouraged if the answer for yarn support at first is no.

So in review for a Knit Picks yarn support request you need to send
1. A brief summary of previous design work. Links to places like ravelry, etsy and pattern shops are okay so long as they show photos and give some detail on the projects.
2. Specific yarn for your request.
3. A sketch that outlines the general idea of the intended project. Make sure everything prints out on one page to make the best presentation for the review board.

If your project is accepted and the yarn sent, congratulations! You are ready to move on to the designing/knitting stage of your submission.

When the yarn arrives it is appropriate to email the Knit Picks team to thank them. It is also necessary to make sure there are no restrictions on posting public photos of the yarn. Before I received my latest batch of Knit Picks yarn I had to agree not to post photos of the new colorways online. I took that request very seriously and was careful to abide by that request.

Once your yarn has arrived you are ready to start your design process. When designing keep in mind that the sample will be photographed. That means you want to show off your knitting to its best advantage. As much as I am loathe to rip out my knitting if there is a visible mistake it's got to go. Try to limit how much you have to rip and reknit the yarn because it does eventually show wear and tear. In some cases it might be smart to practice the more difficult elements of your design in another yarn so that when it's time to knit the Knit Picks sample you are in top form.

One of the requirements for Knit Picks IDP patterns is creating a schematic. You don't have to be Da Vinci to make a schematic. I use Power Point's shape tools. The schematic for Zig Zag Mittens was created by using only straight lines in Power Point. There are a million and one ways to create a schematic, pick one and get it done. Youtube has free video tutorials on just about every digital drawing/editing program on the market today. Lynda.com has a small monthly fee and gives access to the professional products out there such as photoshop, gimp (my personal favorite), and likely even Microsoft paint.

After your sample is knit you need to prepare the written design for submission. At a minimum the design needs to be test knit and tech edited. In all of my designs I try to have both done to reduce as many errors and confusing language as possible. For test knitting I frequent the Testing Pool ravelry group. After my test knitters finish their projects and provide me with photos I give them two existing patterns as a thank you for their work. It's an important aspect of my testing process. The pattern for knitting exchange shows my testers that I appreciate the value of their work and provides motivation for finishing the project and taking photos. Not every tester will complete the project because sometimes life gets in the way. Be respectful and generous with your testers and they will stand by you and help you when you need it.

Tech Knitting is something that is actually quite accessible. I was intimidated by the process for a long time. But I've found that it is very affordable and it is so helpful to have another seasoned pair of eyes go over a pattern. You really want to eliminate every possible error because typos are so discouraging to people who knit your patterns. Be warned though that even with test knitting and tech editing mistakes can sometimes still remain in the pattern. I've had a few copy and paste errors that much like the horror show are like Night of the Living Dead Zombies. But when you find that inevitable error, fix it straight away. Send in the errata to knit picks and if you're selling on other venues like Ravelry you can notify your buyers to update their version. You can also make a special post on your blog or website for people who use Dr. Google to search for Errata. Here is an example of an errata page for one of my published patterns.

If you aren't a professional photographer Knit Picks will take care of the final photography but it's important to take one or two photos before you mail the submission. I take my photos by setting up my white background near a sunny window. Avoid direct sunlight and if the project is something like a pair of mittens enlist someone else to snap the photo for you. If you don't have any shutterbugs in residence you can set up most cameras on an inexpensive tripod and photograph using the self timing feature. If you'd like your photography to be featured by Knit Picks be sure to submit a hi res, high quality photos for their consideration.

Once your pattern is written, tech edited, test knit, photographed and put into the knit picks layout you are ready to mail your to submissions to knit picks at:

Knit Picks
Attn: Pattern Sample Manager
13118 NE 4th Street
Vancouver, WA 98687

Make sure you print out and sign the Knit Picks Terms and Conditions and include it in the package.

The Knit Picks design team will review your submission and get back to you with an answer. Sometimes the process takes a few weeks. If your submission is rejected it could be due to a few reasons:
1. The Sample doesn't fit the model. The requisite measurements for samples are
* Men's: 38-40.
* Teen/Small Men's: 30-32
* Misses: 32-34
* Women's (plus sized): 48-50
* Kids: any size appropriate to the pattern style
* Babies: 6 month size or larger

2. The sample is knit poorly and won't photograph well.

3. The item resembles an already existing Knit Picks pattern.

If the answer is no do not get discouraged. It is inevitable that people will tell you no but don’t let it stop you. During my last yarn request submission cycle I sent in 5 sketches and fleshed out ideas for potential Knit Picks projects. Three were accepted and from that batch three have been published so far.

If the answer is yes, Congratulations! You are well on your way to becoming a Knit Picks Independent Designer.

If you enjoyed my tutorial helped and it you on your way I'd love to hear back from you. You can use the contact form for comments, follow me on twitter or join my ravelry group for a more interactive experience.

If you would like to enjoy more Fickle Knitter How To articles in the future, please consider purchasing a pattern or two in my pattern or ravelry shop because your business keeps me in business and the wolf from the front door (or me in iced tea and chocolate cake.)

I have loved my Matchless bulky flyer but it is time to sell her. The flyer assembly is only a few months old and is in like new condition. I recently bought a new Lendrum and I have to make some room before my Husband makes me live in the shed with all my yarn, fiber, wheel, and wheel accessories.

I've spun an amazing amount of art yarn and even some sock yarn on the bulky flyer. I'm selling for $200 which includes the bulky flyer, the new front maiden, the jumbo bobbin, and shipping within the 48 States. I prefer paypal and will ship this baby right away. Thanks for looking!