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I just got back from Austin, TX where my husband  attended the SXSW interactive confrence. I had a really great time down there. It was so nice to get a taste of some springtime weather and bask in the sun a bit. When I say "bask" I really mean sit outside under an umbrella with 70 spf sunscreen, a dos equis, and of course my knitting. By the way, I only managed to get a sunburn on the tops of my hands and on the part of my hair (very proud of that).

While I was there, I was able to sneak in to the conference to see one of the very last speakers, Blake Mycoskie, who is the founder of Toms shoes. He told us all about the story of how he started Toms in a very moving and inspiring speech. His message was powerful and he challenged everyone in the audience to incorporate giving into whatever they do. He suggested that companies could donate more than just money by having a volunteer day for their employees.

My first thought was, "This is an amazing idea and I wish my employer could hear this speech." It seems highly unlikely that this would ever happen in the place I work. My next thought, which now seems surprisingly out of order, was, "Hey, I've got my own tiny business! How can I use my little pattern shop to impact the world? What can I do to help the people in Japan?"

BRAIN FLASH! (as my adorable mother would say) I've been sitting on a new knitting pattern for a cowl / snood thing for a bit. I've been unsure as to whether I should put it up for free, or if I should try to sell it. It's a very simple pattern, but I think it has a great look to it which is worth something. It's the perfect pattern to sell as a fundraiser! So today, even though it may be a bit late, I am posting my pattern for the "Caring Cowl" for sale for $3.00 US here on KnitDarling and on Ravelry.com. In two weeks I will donate all the profits to the Red Cross. Depending on how well this goes over, I'd like to extend the time or switch to a different charity on a rotating basis. I'm open to suggestion on that subject.

I encourage everyone who reads this to please buy a pattern for themselves or as a gift for a friend. The cowl is super hip (all the cool kids are wearing them in Brooklyn), and simple enough for a beginner. Thanks to everyone for their support!

Working from home yesterday was particularly fabulous. I got to trim a bedskirt with miles of super girly pink feather boa. My tiny apartment was absolutely covered in little pink feathers. My poor husband was a great sport about it, bless his heart, and got this pic of me hamming it up. It reminds me of working at Hancock Fabrics in college. When there weren't any customers in the store boredom would make us clerks kind of silly. I used to love putting on a couple of boas, donning a tiara from the bridal section and prancing around. That was a fun job. I got to work with so many interesting, neat people.

Also this fabulous box jammed full of Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn arrived in the mail! I can't tell you what it's going to be, but isn't this yarn just so yummy!

I was surprised and honored to be chosen as the University of Oklahoma School of Art's "featured alumni" for the spring semester. Check it out here. It was fun to take a stroll down memory lane and think about my college experience at OU.

Answering questions about my past and my plans for the future was harder than I thought it would be. I'm really more of a "right now" kind of person, if that makes sense. It was good to focus on my path though and in the end it was a positive and motivating exercise.

Almost exactly two years ago, I decided to self-publish my first knitting pattern. It's hard to believe that I've come so far in the last couple of  years. I was looking back over all the patterns I've made (about 25 published and as yet unpublished) and thought it was time to polish my first patterns up a bit. Last month I fixed up  Op Top, which is still one of my most popular patterns with more than 25,000 page views to date.

I found myself sort of between things in the last couple of weeks, so I decided to work on my Woven Diamond Socks pattern. This pattern was my very first toe-in-the-water into the swirling hot-tub of knitting pattern design (it didn't take long for me to see that this was the place for me, plop right in and order a pina colada). Upon second inspection, this pattern was pretty rough. It only had one terrible photo, the layout was just an embarrassing blob, and the pattern itself was a little too hard to understand. I don't want to degrade my own work, but honestly I was horrified to think that people might still be downloading this pattern and potentially judge my graphic design abilities lacking (as they would and rightfully should).

[caption id="attachment_409" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="New Woven Diamond Sock Pattern Screen Shot"][/caption]

There, that's better! I had to knit a new pair for the photos, as the original sample is so worn (loved!) at this point that they are almost unrecognizable. The new pattern features 4 brand new gloriously sunny pictures and it's much easier to read. The best part? It's FREE!

I've got just a little something for you today. For the past couple of years I've made a one-page calendar for my sweet darling Mother to put on her desk. This year, I made one with a repeating pattern in the background that I created from a photograph of the Capital Scarflette. Since this makes it (even vaguely) knitting related, I thought I'd make it available for free download here.

Click HERE to download the pdf for free.

I hope 2011 is a great year for everyone. Enjoy!

Last week at work we had a baby shower for one of my favorite co-workers. I wanted to make something special for her because she is a fellow knitter and also a very nice person. Baby Audrey Hat is what I came up with. I had some leftover yarn that would be just perfect for a sweet little baby hat. I whipped up this cute little hat in just a few hours and thought I would share the pattern here on my site for free.

I used Karabella Aurora 8 yarn for this hat. It's so soft and perfect for a baby, or if you're a baby about itchy wool. I got it at School Products Yarn in Midtown. They have over a hundred colors of this particular yarn, which is very exciting for someone such as myself.

How cool are these bracelets?!! They're knitting needles that have been bent into a circular shape.

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I was given a set of these "upcycled knitting needles" for Christmas from my Brother and his lovely wife. Thanks guys, I love them! It was such a thoughtful gift.

Lynda Slade who makes these super cool bracelets lives in Sydney, Australia. You can get your own set on her etsy page, Sewnewthings.

Thumbs up for Jewelry!

I was delighted to find out that my design, Gowanus, was mentioned in the latest podcast of Stash and Burn (episode 99). I want to make sure everyone checks it out because it's a really fun knitting podcast.

They talk about the Gowanus scarf being a one skein project, which is something that I also love about the design. I've got a corner of my stash that's just odd balls of whatever is left over and I'm always trying to think of what to do with them. I should warn, that I used all but about 5g of the 50g skien for the sample. It was seriously cutting it close. If you select a heavier fingering weight yarn, you may come up a tad short.

[caption id="attachment_338" align="alignright" width="319" caption="Original Sketch of the Miss Myrtle fingerless gloves"][/caption]

My Miss Myrtle fingerless gloves, another one-skein project, were originally supposed to coordinate with the Gowanus scarf. I still think they do, but they kind of became their own animal. You can see some similarities with the picot edging and eyelet motif. Also they use the same kind of yarn. Miss Myrtle became much more frilly though in the end.

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I recently released my Miss Myrtle Fingerless Gloves pattern here on my own website, on Ravelry, and on Knitpicks. I've had a huge response, so thanks to everyone for your wonderful comments and messages. I've had more people buy the pattern in the first month than I ever expected. I'm hoping to start seeing some pictures of FO's on Ravelry soon too!

The gloves were a project for me to work on while traveling around in Ireland. As I boarded the plane, all I had was a lace chart for the leaves (the result of at least half a dozen swatch experiments), and some yarn. As my design process seems to dictate, I had to frog the first glove several times and completely rethink the design. By the time I returned from my trip, I didn't have anything to show for the hours and HOURS of knitting, but I did have a pattern. I got back to work on the samples and was so surprised at how fast the projects went.

I'm not usually into such girly stuff. There's something slightly edgy about this design that somehow balances the prissy frills. I think fingerless gloves have kind of an 80's punk connotation. Miss Myrtle is  sort of like Laura Ashley meets Billy Idol. There's something kind of Madonna circa "Like a Virgin" about them too. That's fun.

I love my gloves and I can hardly wait to get the first pair back from Knitpicks. My friends want their own pairs. My mom wants a pair. Every time I wear them on the subway, a stranger asks where I got them. Convinced yet? Okay! Go here to buy the pattern!

All of the patterns for sale on THIS website are sold through Ravelry.com. I have recently agreed to let Knitpicks.com sell some of my patterns on their site in their independent designer program. Today I got a message from someone with a question about Knitpick's pricing on my patterns. I think maybe other people wonder how this works too, so I'm going to post my response here on my blog.

Her question regarding my Red Bud Gloves pattern was: I love your pattern, but I wasn’t happy to have paid $4.00 here on Ravelry when I could have purchased them for $1.99 on Knitpicks. Can you tell me why you have two different prices?

The simple answer is: I am an independent designer and Knitpicks sets their own prices for which I am not responsible.

When I first self-published this pattern I set the price at $4 because that's what I felt the pattern was worth. Later, I submitted my pattern to Knitpicks, and $1.99 is the price they set for it. Knitpicks does not have a contract to sell my pattern exclusively. Because of this, I can sell my pattern anywhere I want, including Ravelry and at my local yarn shop, for any price that I think is fair. Knitpicks uses their low prices on IDP's to attract customers to their site so they will buy more yarn, which is fine by me.

You may ask, why bother with knitpicks if they undervalue my pattern? I've got to look at it with a business point of view. For one, they are able to sell many more patterns than I can all by myself. Also, when I sell my pattern through Knitpicks, I get 100% of the profit. When I sell my pattern through Ravelry I only get around 50% of the profit because all the middlemen (like paypal etc) want their cut. I get the same amount of money per pattern one way or another. I have no incentive to lower the price that I personally set. And Knitpicks is selling lots of yarn, so they're happy to not take a cut.

One incentive to buying through Ravelry which might justify the higher price for you is that they've got fabulous pattern support.  For instance, if I notice an error in a pattern and I make a new version, anyone who purchased the pattern through Ravelry will get the new version automatically.  Additionally, you can always have access to your pattern in your Ravelry library from any computer with an internet connection, which is something my friends and I use often. Knitpicks doesn't do anything like that.

I hope this answers all the questions regarding this topic. I don't want anyone to be confused or upset about my prices because I really do think they are reasonable and fair. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

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