Busy bee March 13, 2008
I’ve been tinkering a bit today. This morning I added a small sidebar to all of my pattern pages that has text links to all the other pattern pages. In addition, I changed the Diamonds in His Shoes and Forget-Me-Not pattern pages. I removed the patterns from those pages, forcing people to download the free .pdf files instead of just printing the pages, which didn’t print very well anyway. I also linked to the .pdf files that are on Ravelry for both those patterns. This way, if there are any additional changes to be made, I only have to change the file in one place. Yahoozie.
While I was playing on Ravelry I happened across a post about Ravelry stores that Casey had just updated. Seems he’s looking for the next batch of guinea pigs to upload for-sale patterns onto the Ravelry site. So I volunteered. If you’re on Ravelry already, you can visit my Ravelry store here. Sales will still work through my links here on my blog. At some point Casey will implement a shopping cart feature that works on non-Ravelry pages (like my blog). At that point I’ll switch to their service, so that all my sales go through them. Payment will still be made through PayPal. No worries there. It’ll just make tracking everything a lot easier. All in one place. And with quite reasonable pricing, and some good reporting features, I might add.
While I’m going on about Ravelry… The Posh Knitters group is doing a Garden Party KAL. You are welcome to join the KAL, whether or not you are knitting the shawl with a Posh yarn.
Though I’ve been working diligently on the sweater and the stole, I don’t have much to show for it photo-wise. Instead, I’ll show you a couple patterns I like from Berroco. I know. It’s been a long time since I’ve shared any of their patterns with you. Everything’s been so blah—neither striking me as really good, nor as really horrid. Just boring. I don’t need to intentionally fill my posts with boring pictures of boring patterns, so I haven’t.
The first thing I saw when I opened up their latest newsletter was this adorable knitted bluebird. The following bit is from their newsletter, which talks about the craze to knit cute little animals.
We have fallen in love with amigurumi, the popular Japanese art of crocheting or knitting tiny stuffed animals. This new craze also includes making inanimate objects such as food and geometric shapes that seem to be endowed with human personality. The animals, and even the food, are typically extremely cute. Technically, the crocheted pieces are usually made by working around and around in spirals. A small sized hook or needle is used, making a very tight fabric, so that stuffing won’t escape. With the proliferation of amigurumi on the internet, our design team has been inspired do some of our own knit and crocheted creatures for you to download and make in our Berroco yarns.
The other pattern I liked from this newsletter is called Celestine Sox. They’ve used their self-striping sock yarn to knit a dodecahedron. It’s not a little animal. It’s not cute. But I think it’s very cool. Wouldn’t it be a marvelous toy for a little one? There are a number of patterns for crocheted critters in the newsletter, a crocheted dodecahedron, and one knit bunny, but none of them did anything for me.
Angela March 13
Oh would the knitting fairy please bring me a dodecahedron? That is the coolest looking - even more impressive than the hackysacks (sp) which I think are great too.
~Kristie March 13
Yeah for Ravelry. That Casey is doing some wonderful things and I’m glad to see you get to guinea pig for his current project. Sounds like the perfect thing.
I love the bluebird, it’s so cute, but alas … too many projects going right now for me to add that. I’m only reading your blog today because Sock Madness has sucked up every spare moment. Why did I sign up for it? EEK!!
Cheryl March 14
That littel bird in your last post is so cute! I don’t know how I missed that. Congrats on the Ravelry store, I think that will be great!