June 2021

Take a guess • Scroll lace hats • Changes • Third time’s the charm?

Take a guess

Can you guess what this is?

Believe it or not, it’s the start of a fingerless mitt.

Isn’t the design awesome? It’s the Hexagon Mitt from Sybil R. You can find more of her patterns on her website, on Ravelry, or on LoveCrafts.

I don’t remember how I stumbled across her work a couple weeks back, but I knew immediately that I needed to knit at least one of her designs. Such novel construction! What cool uses for short rows!

The Hexagon Mitts seemed like a good place to start... though, true to form, I’m not knitting them exactly as she lays out in the pattern:

• I’m using one gradient yarn instead of two yarns.

• I’ve added a few rounds to the top of the mitt, so the finished edge is one smooth bind-off instead of a mix of bind-off and selvedge.

• I’ve grafted the side seam instead of using 3-needle bind-off, ’cause I don’t mind grafting and I didn’t want the bulk that a 3-needle bind-off can produce.

Are these tweaks improvements? Quite possibly not. I just wanted to “get inside” the head of a talented, original designer by knitting one of her designs... but I wanted to knit them in my own way. (Yes, I’m a process knitter; why do you ask?) I’m already looking forward to trying out one or more of her other patterns – in particular, DH has requested a U-Turn Hat.

Scroll lace hats

Once finished, the mitts will get donated, just like the hats I talked about last month. (There are four of them now, by the way.) And speaking of the hats, I received a couple queries regarding their pattern.

Well, it’s kind of a long story.

Let me cut to the chase and say I don’t plan to write up what I did, because I kind of winged it based on the Scroll lace stitch pattern and on photos of the Ava Lynne hat pattern by Jenny Sorensen.

Which is to say that I didn’t follow Jenny’s pattern, because Ravelry said it wasn’t available anymore. But in nosing around a little further today, I found that the pattern is indeed available here.

So, there you have it. You wing it like I did, using the Scroll lace stitch pattern. Or you can follow Jenny’s pattern. Either way, I’m sure you’ll wind up with fun hats.

Changes at Stitch-Maps.com

Stitch-Maps.com is now up and running in its new home, with freshly updated versions of the software it depends on. You shouldn’t see much in the way of changes, except when it comes to subscriptions:

• You can now choose between monthly and annual subscription plans.

• Subscribers will get helpful email notices before a trial period ends, when a subscription payment is about to become due, and when a credit card is about to expire.

• Affiliates will earn a 10% commission on each subscription payment made when someone subscribes after following their affiliate links, not just on the first subscription payment.

Let’s take a closer look at those subscription plans:

• A basic subscription lets you keep track of your current row with a yellow “highlighter” line; maintain a list of favorite stitch patterns; specify various preferences; mark stitch patterns as public or private; and curate public and private collections. It costs $15 per year, or $2 per month.

• A premium subscription lets you do all that, plus export editable, publication-quality images; mark stitch patterns or collections as “hidden;” create custom links; and participate in the affiliate program. It costs $60 per year, or $8 per month.

You get to choose your pricing plan when you sign up, but you can always change your mind and switch to a different plan: if you do, your subscription fees will get prorated appropriately.

For the most part, everything seems to be working okay, but I’m still working out a few minor kinks under the hood. As always, if you notice anything wonky about the site’s behavior, please let me know.

Third time’s the charm?

Way back in 2019, Craft Cruises and I put together a plan for a Northern Isles Knitting cruise, to take place in July of 2020. That got rescheduled for July of 2021... and it’s just been rescheduled again for August of 2022.

Third time’s the charm, right?

While we’re at sea, I’ll be teaching a variety of classes. While we’re in port, I plan to play tourist like everyone else! Some of the cities I’ve visited before, and I’m keen to see them again. But I’m really eager to see the new-to-me destinations, especially Amsterdam and Lerwick. Squee!