How to... keep track of your knitting or getting the most out of Ravelry

Over the last few years I have written a number of Masterclass articles for The Knitter (the UK knitting magazine where I worked as Technical Editor for 2 years). Once we are six months post-publication, I'm able to share the content wherever I like, so I thought it might be good to publish the articles over here on my blog. I really enjoyed my time on The Knitter, and its focus on more experienced and adventurous knitters has always made it the magazine I would buy. If you've not browsed a copy, then I would definitely recommend having a look!

As a confirmed Ravelry evangelist, it was a delight to write a pair of articles, back in early 2014, on getting the most out of my favourite website! Many readers will already be more than aware of the joys of Ravelry - but I hope there might be a few tricks even for you among the coming Masterclass articles...

Keeping Track of Your Knitting

As with many things in life, the more you put in with Ravelry, the more you can get out. Loading up some basic information about your projects, yarn and patterns enables you to start to access some of Ravelry’s plethora of amazing features. Ravelry is so much more than a place to find patterns.

One of the first ways that people use Ravelry is to track their projects. Use the My Notebook tab at the top of most pages to navigate to your Projects section (mine can be found at http://www.ravelry.com/projects/JenACKnitwear – to find your page, swap your username for mine in this link). Each project is a record of something you have knitted or crocheted, with space to record useful information like the size you are making, needle sizes, yarn used, the gauge you obtained and then a notes section where you can keep track of any changes you make to the pattern, or how you’re getting on. You would be amazed at how handy it is to be able to look back at what size you’re making, or what needle size you used for the first sock or mitten!

As overwhelming as the task may be for some of us, it is fantastically helpful to have your stash catalogued on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/people/JenACKnitwear/stash). You can link yarn in your stash to patterns that you hope to make in the future (organised in your queue), keep track of where a particular skein is stored (if you have more than a box or two of yarn), and even mark your yarn for sale or trade – giving you an audience of 6 million* fellow Ravellers. Your stash can be organised into yarn, fibre, all used up, for sale or trade, handspun and traded/sold/gifted sections.

The other section that is well worth populating is your Library, which is also found in the My Notebook section (http://www.ravelry.com/people/JenACKnitwear/new_library). Working through to add each item may seem taxing, but the time you can save afterwards is incredible. Once you’ve added your books, magazines and even kept track of single paper patterns and pdf downloads, you can then search just the patterns you have in your library. If you want to make a 4ply cardigan, a few mouse clicks can take you to a list of all of the 4ply cardigan patterns that you already own. No more flicking through hundreds of pages to find the colourwork mittens that you vaguely remember from a couple of seasons ago! There is an excellent guided tour of how to use your Library that you can find by clicking on the main Ravelry logo at the top left of most pages. Guided tips are then listed on the right hand side, underneath the Quick Search and Help, Help boxes (4 http://www.ravelry.com).

Searching for Patterns

Ravelry not only lets you catalogue your patterns, but it also helps you to buy patterns directly from designers. If you go to the main Patterns page, using the green Patterns tab at the top of most Ravelry pages, you will see a number of helpful ways to sift through the many, many patterns listed on Ravelry. Not every pattern in the database is available from Ravelry, but many are. If you are only interested in patterns that you can download from Ravelry immediately, then use the “all patterns” link under Designers on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/knitting).

There is also an option to search only the free patterns available to download via Ravelry. Alternatively you can search using the main pattern browser link at the top left of this main Patterns page. Once you are into the search pages, the world is really your oyster. You can narrow down your options using yarn weight, yardage, techniques used, type of item, language of the pattern and the list is huge. All of the filtering options are listed in categories down the left hand side of the page, and you can then organise your results using the Sort drop-down menu at the top of your results. I usually set this to “Most popular” or “Most projects”, unless it is a search that I perform regularly, where I might want to look at the newest designs only. Searching for a pattern available on Ravelry, for a DK weight, knitted garment, where I have at least some of the yarn in my stash, gives me 51 possible patterns!

If you then want to tweak your search a bit, you can click on the yellow pencil icon to edit that part of the search. If I change my search to patterns I have in my library (rather than to download from Ravelry), and using any weight of yarn in my stash, I now have 185 options. Possibly I don’t need to buy any new patterns…

You don’t need a Ravelry account to purchase a pattern from a designer on Ravelry, but it is really worth setting one up. It doesn’t cost anything to open a Ravelry account, you just need an email address. If you buy a pattern once you are logged in to your account, then the pattern will automatically be stored in your Ravelry Library, which means that you can download a copy of your pattern from anywhere with internet access. You simply have to log in to your account and then look up the pattern in your Library – there it is ready to download and print out or to read directly from a tablet or smartphone. This is ideal if you have a mishap with your pattern while you are away from home. One of the many other benefits of purchasing a pattern via Ravelry download (whether as a guest or user) is that designers can issue pattern updates in the unfortunate situation of an error being found in a pattern, thus ensuring that you have the most up to date set of directions.

Patterns are listed for sale in many currencies, but an estimate is also given for the price in your own local currency. Payment is taken through PayPal which makes it easy to pay even small amounts in any currency, so don’t be put off by prices in dollars, euros or anything else. You don’t need a PayPal account either, you can simply pay with a credit or debit card without logging in to PayPal. Ravelry will also remind you if you try to buy a pattern that you already own in your Library – the buy now link won’t be visible, but instead a link to your Library appears (another good reason for logging in prior to your purchase).

Searching for Yarn

Ravelry’s yarn database contains a similar wealth of information to the pattern database. Yarn weights, yardage, fibre content and colourways are all listed for you to search by. This is invaluable when you are looking for a substitute yarn for something discontinued or not available nearby. You can easily find a long list of yarns with similar qualities. Although Ravelry doesn’t enable yarnies to sell to users in the same way as designers can sell patterns, there are local and online yarn buying options listed, where they are available (http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/rowan-kidsilk-haze-stripe).

Yarn shops pay to be listed in these spots, so your closest yarn shop may not appear. Ravelry will also pick up if you already have that yarn in your stash, and list the colourways that you currently own (http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/fyberspates-scrumptious-4ply).

You can also search for yarns that Ravellers have listed as available for sale or trade. To do this, you click on the “search stashes” link under the search box on the main Yarns page (http://www.ravelry.com/yarns).

You can then filter your search to find what you are looking for. I ran a search for blue-green 4ply yarns (not handspun, and having a photo so that I could see what was on offer) available for sale or trade in the UK (be aware you will need to list England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as United Kingdom to see all possible options since users have the choice of how to identify their country). This gave me 125 matches, and it took all of my willpower not to start clicking through and looking at prices!

Users should list the price they are asking for in the notes section of their stashed yarn, but if nothing is obvious, there is a “send message” link on each for sale or trade stash page, enabling you to ask for more information. Ravellers usually ask you to use the “send money” option on PayPal, and will give you an email address to pay. It is up to you to agree payment and terms with the user offering the yarn, and Ravelry takes no responsibility for these transactions. If you are unsure about a user, then a quick look at their posts, projects and general Ravelry presence may give you some useful information. People that sell yarn regularly through the destash groups and the stash pages will likely have replies saying that yarn was safely received and so on.

The best way to learn more about using Ravelry is to get online and have a go. Ravellers are a helpful bunch and there is usually someone to lend a hand if you get stuck. The next article will take you through the social side of Ravelry.

You can join our Ravelry group over here: Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Do you have a favourite Ravelry top tip? Do leave a comment and share it with other readers.

*When the article was originally written, there were nearly 4 million Ravellers, but this is now up to more than 6 million! A growing audience!

All screenshots were correct when taken (December 2013 or April 2016), but yarns available and patterns may change, so be sure to look carefully at what you are selecting if you decide to purchase yarn or patterns online.

Celebrate with 40% off my designs

Eeek, I've turned 40! 🎉 Actually I love birthdays, and the number doesn't really bother me. I fully plan to still get as excited as a 6 year old when I'm 94 - perhaps with just a bit less jumping up and down. As part of celebrations I'm offering 40% off all the patterns in my Ravelry pattern store for just 40 hours. No coupon code required, just add the patterns to your cart and you should see the discount automatically applied.

THIS PROMOTION HAS NOW FINISHED. MANY THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!

Whether you fancy a hat...

(Top to bottom: Lullington, Arncott, Puffin Apple)

Or something a little larger...

(Top to bottom: Redlynch Shawl, Porlock Socks, Sonning)

My patterns are normally £3.50 for accessories and £4.95 for garments, so with the discount they become £2.10 and £2.97 respectively. The promotion will run from midnight on April 26th (start of day - timezone London) for just 40 hours. No coupon code is required, the prices on Ravelry will show automatically with the discount when you add them to your cart. Promotion applies only to patterns sold from my own Ravelry store: Jen Arnall-Culliford Designs.

Please do spread the word if you'd like to. 

THIS PROMOTION HAS NOW FINISHED. MANY THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!

Happy knitting!

P.S. 40 sounds so grown up. I don't need to actually BE grown up do I?

Knitlandia

If you're of the knitterly persuasion and you haven't yet read Clara Parkes' Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World, then you've missed something. While it lives up to its billing and follows Clara on her adventures across the globe, meeting, teaching and learning from knitters and yarn producers, this book has far more depth. 

The style of writing is warm and full of fun, even when things are far from ideal. I did wonder what I'd have to do to get Clara to paint me in a bad light, but I rather think the effort would be completely wasted. Her generosity of spirit flows throughout the book, whether dealing with people who are hard work, or comparing the shopping habits of knitters at shows in different places.

What makes Knitlandia more than a travelogue above all is that it is also a first-hand account of how the knitting world has been transformed over the last 15-20 years from someone at the centre of that world. The impact of the internet, social media and Ravelry in particular is an undercurrent through the book as changing attitudes and habits of knitters are marked. I was especially interested in the way that knitters consume has changed. When once print patterns were a means for spinners or dyers to showcase their products, the rise of independent designers and digital downloads have transformed the landscape, to the point that the jobs Jen and I do actually exist. As for how to learn a new technique, there's a fascinating insight into the working model of Craftsy. 

As someone who has in the past felt like a mere tourist in Knitlandia - the world of the knitters, this book really spoke to me as it viewed exactly the same human interactions through completely different eyes. I hope that Clara continues to travel widely, recording her observations of the world so that in the future she can publish a sequel that I will be eager to read.

Tomorrow, Jen reaches a milestone. Be sure to come back for a special treat!

Jim

FO: Summer Dress

I've made a summer dress! And bought fabric to make another one... I feel a sewing binge coming on!

The sewing pattern was Lisette for Butterick B6168, and I was booked to do a dressmaking workshop at Millie Moon on Monday evenings through January and February (a great Christmas present! Thanks family!). One of the lovely owners, Becky helped me to choose both the fabric and the pattern - she knows me too well!

I knew that I was planning to make this more than once if it was successful, so I carefully traced the pattern out before starting the first evening session. It was fiddly and time-consuming, but totally worthwhile as the tracing paper was much thicker than pattern paper, so it stood up to being thrown into and out of my bag over the 6 weeks of the course. And if I ever want to make it again in another size, I shall be all set!

The great thing about doing evening workshops rather than just deciding to make this at home, was that I was committed. I needed to go out each Monday no matter what, and I found that really helpful. I have too many plans and not enough time generally, so it was brilliant to have dedicated time for sewing each week. Anna Vickery who taught the class was full of helpful tips and tricks. I've not sewn a dress since I was 18, so I was very rusty on techniques, but this dress felt well within my abilities.

At Anna's suggestion, I've used bias binding to finish as many of the seams as was practical. I want to be able to wear the dress without worrying about seams fraying, and it needs to go through the was without too much bother either. Fingers crossed the extra effort will be well worth it.

As I worked through the pattern instructions, I did find a couple of things that were missing (ever the editor I'm afraid!)... There wasn't anything to trip me up as I had Anna on hand to ask for help, but if you were new to sewing and working at home the following bit might come in handy:

In step 10, you're instructed to baste the centre front where the bodice pieces cross. There's no later instruction to remove that basting, so don't forget to do that at the end!
Step 28 shows the side seams of the front and back bodices to be sewn, but there's no instruction to do so. I sewed those side seams between steps 27 and 28.
There wasn't much suggestion of which raw edges on the inside of the dress needed finishing. Perhaps this is considered general knowledge one should have before starting a project at this level, but it wouldn't have been much extra information to add, and very helpful for less-experienced sewers.

It's not yet quite warm enough to wear my lovely finished dress, but fingers crossed the sun will be out before too long, and I can potter in the garden in style!

I'm thrilled with how it's turned out. And I'm looking forward to making time to sew up the fabric I've bought to make the shorter version, which I hope will look great over leggings.

I particularly like the bodice detail, and the fit in the upper body is great for my curves! I'm definitely inspired to sew more.

March Pattern Round Up - 2

March was a busy month for publishing patterns, so here's the second half of a post that should probably have been called, "What We've Been Up To."

Anyone familiar with Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People, Interweave Knits, or Pom Pom Quarterly will know the name Bristol Ivy. Her designs are innovative in their construction and she thinks about space in a way that would stop my brain dead for days. Jen worked on her Selkie Hat and Mitts for Taproot magazine. Taproot is not a knitting magazine, but a quarterly magazine for "makers, doers and dreamers." Looking at the website immediately put me in mind of Oh Comely, or Selvedge.

The cables in the hat and mitts are inspired by the myth of the selkie and movement of water on the shoreline, the ripple of seaweed just under the surface and the gentle patterning of a seal's skin.     

Selkie Hat and Mitts (Photo ©Carrie Bostick Hoge for Taproot)

Ella Austin publishes as Bombella and you may have seen her recent collection of colourwork animals, Dovestone Smallholding, with Baa Ram Ewe knits. Her Delta Hat and Mitts are the first patterns to be published from her graphic inspired Colour and Line collection. She is releasing a pattern a month and patterns can be bought singly, or altogether. I've misplaced my mitts that I wear in the office when it's chilly, so may have to whip up a pair of Deltas to stay warm until summer comes (if ever it does). 

 Sue Stratford runs The Knitting Hut and has a large back catalogue of knitted toys. That's not her only skill, as her Swanpool Cardigan shows. It is worked top down and features mock cable details on the yoke to give it an interesting look.

April has started busy and there should be plenty to share in a month's time. Hopefully I'll be able to share some sneaky peeks from the Book of Haps too!

Jim 

FO: Crofthoose Hat

I came back from Edinburgh Yarn Festival with a pile of goodies and lots of enthusiasm for new projects. I was so enthusiastic that I immediately went diving into my stash, hunting for yarn to knit up a Crofthoose Hat. This is Ella Gordon's new Shetland Wool Week design, and is available for free if you register on the Shetland Wool Week website.

I was faced with a yarn choice dilemma... Although I had a good range of suitable colours in my stash, I didn't have a full set of 5 suitable shades in the same yarn. Instead I needed to mix and match a bit. My choices included Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight, Excelana Luxury 4ply, Lang Yarns Jawoll and Kate Davies Designs Buachaille. An interesting mix of yarns, each with their own properties and qualities to bring to this lovely hat pattern.

I eventually ruled out using Buachaille, since I wasn't sure I had enough Yaffle (green), and it's a thicker yarn than the others at a sport weight. I notice that another Raveller has made a lovely version entirely in Buachaille, so perhaps there's another Crofthoose in my future. Instead I went for two natural shades of J&S jumperweight, Saharan Sand and Cornflower Blue in Excelana and perhaps controversially (more on that in a bit) some green Lang Jawoll.

The knitting of this hat was a heap of fun. As ever with small motifs, there's a real drive to finish the next couple of rows, so that the line of houses appears. It's really hard to stop knitting designs like this! So much so, that I finished the hat after only 4 days of work. In my busy life that felt like some kind of small miracle!

I'm so happy with how it has turned out! The little rows of houses are really appealing! Luckily (or not so luckily) it's still chilly and wet enough here that I can get some wear out of it before spring/summer fully kicks in.

I love how the colours and patterning work together in the crown. Although if you're really eagle-eyed you will notice that I didn't do the final couple of shade changes as the rounds were so short I could face it. I don't think it damages the integrity of Ella's design too much! (Sorry Ella! I'll be less lazy next time... or maybe not...) The other small modification that I made was to move the start of the round for the second set of houses, so that the jog for the end of the round would happen between, rather than in the middle of a croft. Just a minor tweak.

So how did my unconventional choice of sock yarn for the green work out?

Not too badly over all I think. It would definitely work better if the green were either J&S or Excelana, but in the absence of something more suitable and given I wanted to cast on immediately, I'm perfectly happy with it.

To explain the difference I've taken a close up shot of the 5 shades. My apologies that the palest J&S is out of focus, but this was my first play with a tripod and macro lens on my iPhone. It didn't turn out too badly really. :)

From left to right the yarns are:
Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme 2ply Jumperweight in Black - 100% wool, yarn's construction is 2ply and it's woollen spun.
Excelana Luxury 4ply in Cornflower Blue - 100% wool, yarn's construction is 3ply and it's worsted spun.
Lang Jawoll in Grass Green - 75% wool, 25% nylon, yarn's construction is 4ply and it's worsted spun.
Excelana Luxury 4ply in Saharan Sand - 100% wool, yarn's construction is 3ply and it's worsted spun.
Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme 2ply Jumperweight in Gaulmogot - 100% wool, yarn's construction is 2ply and it's woollen spun.

There are 3 main factors at play in the suitability of these yarns for stranded colourwork.

• Firstly the fibre content - wool is really well suited to colourwork as it has bounce and the stretchiness allows the yarns to work to a nice even tension. This is particularly evident after blocking, where the woollen stitches settle and lie beautifully flat and even. The nylon content of the Lang Jawoll is brilliant for making socks hardwearing, but it does remove some of the natural stretch of the wool. So you can perhaps see that the green stitches in the crofthoose above haven't evened out as much as their more woolly neighbours.
• Secondly the yarn's construction - with increasing numbers of plies, the profile of the strand of yarn becomes more rounded and can be denser. This means that light reflects differently, and the general appearance of the stitches differs. For a more consistent look to the finished fabric, I should definitely have stuck with a single style of construction!
• And thirdly, the spinning process used to create the yarn - a worsted spun yarn has all the fibres combed to lie parallel prior to spinning, which makes for a softer feel to the finished wool. It also means that fewer fibre ends poke out from the strand of yarn, and the yarn is denser. Woollen spun yarns are carded so that the fibres lie in a web, all pointing in different directions. This creates a more rustic but very light and airy yarn. The benefit of this to colourwork is that when a woollen spun yarn is blocked it will bloom and the fibres relax out further, almost hazing into each other. You can see fairly clearly in my photo above that the black J&S on the far left is hairier than its worsted spun Excelana neighbour.

I would definitely happily combine Excelana 4ply and J&S jumperweight in a project in future. Despite the difference in construction and spinning process, I found that they worked sympathetically together. In an ideal world I wouldn't mix in a sock yarn. Though who knows, if I'm bitten by that much of a knitting desire again, I may need to!

Many thanks again to Ella for the beautiful design. There are lots of lovely colourways appearing over on Ravelry so do be sure to check them out, and register with Shetland Wool Week to download your own copy of this lovely pattern. You can see all the technical details of my project over on my Ravelry page: JenACKnitwear's Crofthoose Hat.

Have you ever had a yarn combination disaster? Or have you winged it like me and gotten lucky? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

March Pattern Round Up - 1

Hi, I'm Jim. I've been half of Arnall-Culliford Knitwear Ltd. since last September. One of the most common questions I was asked when I changed jobs was, "What exactly will you be doing?" So, for those who've asked that question, here's what I've been up to.

Each month I'll be putting together a digest of published projects and patterns that we've worked on. March has been particularly busy, so I'll split things in half.

We pattern write and check for both Stylecraft and Yarn Stories and it's deeply satisfying to see the designer's intentions translated into a garment, particularly when you've really had to work hard to produce a pattern that works for a range of sizes. The Botanics collection from Yarn Stories has a range of spring/summer garments and we're both really pleased with how they all look, but particularly those we worked on.  

Sequoia (Photograph ©Charlotte Johnson)

 After turning out extra sizes for Mary-Jane Mucklestone's Stopover sweater, featured in the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog's Bang Out a Sweater KAL, the next pattern we looked at for her was the Nash Island Sweater. Designed to be a throw on/throw off affair, it is knit in flat pieces and features a modified drop shoulder and a lace-up placket.  

Nash Island (Photo ©Kathy Cadigan)

  We're deep in edits for The Book of Haps that we're working on with Kate Davies. As someone who is never not thinking about design, she's published three new patterns in the last month.

Funyin is exactly what is sounds like - a fun hat. Inspired by a Hornsea Pottery cruet set, designed by John Clappison, it really is eyecatching.  

Photo ©Kate Davies Designs

 Miss Rachel's Yoke and Gauntlets are named after Rachel Kay Shuttleworth, founder of the textile collection at Gawthorpe Hall, near Burnley. The colourwork on the yoke of the sweater and the gauntlets was inspired by a Kashmir shawl from the collection. 

Miss Rachel's Yoke and Gauntlets (Photo ©Kate Davies designs)

While all of these have a different feel and style, we pride ourselves in making sure that the patterns are concise but comprehensive to ensure that anyone can have a go at making anything that crosses our desks.

There's loads more to share with you and that will be in the next round-up post.

Jim