The Hook and I » crochet

My crocheting hits the wires…

Amy — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:43:20 +0000

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Charly Hengen.

James has been in Nome for a bit over a week helping to coordinate the delivery of a Russian fuel barge that was led by a Coast Guard ice breaker. You may have heard about this story because it’s been in the news almost as much as the snow in Cordova, the town we left this summer. James’s project in Nome is exciting and cold work–he had a near injury when he absentmindedly stuck his keys in his mouth in 30-below temperatures! Yesterday, this picture of James smashing ice with a sledge was run by the Associated Press and his picture ended up in a little under 500 newspapers! In what to most of the world is a side note, he’s wearing a hat I made him!

Here’s the hat close-up on a warmer day:

I’m glad to be present and helping to keep him warm in some small way while he’s up there in the frozen north. Speaking of frozen, it’s quite cold here in Juneau this week, 5-10 degrees, so I’m glad to be making a pair of fingerless mitts for the class I’m teaching this Thursday night. When I’m sitting still at home, despite the heater and my cup of tea, my hands get cold. The mitts are a big help.

Darkness Falls (Or, Plus ça change…)

Amy — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:06:28 +0000

Do you ever get the feeling, you’d like things to stay just as they are, thank you very much? I had to chuckle when I got this recent New Yorker in the mail, because that’s kind of how I was feeling that day. And of course, when you’re feeling that way, watch out. Change is coming.

Oh Daylight Savings, I am not your fan. Here in Alaska, the phenomenon seems to make little sense. Our summer days are so long anyway, and then in winter, we fall back an hour all at once when we’re already losing many minutes of light a day. It just seems cruel. It’s 4 p.m. right now and looking rather dim and dreary.

The other morning, I realized I’d probably have to change my daily schedule. I can’t keep going for walks right after I drop off the kids because it will be dark. I wasn’t even considering the time change. (I should have–because for the next few weeks it will actually be lighter in the morning).

Just last week, I got to see the sunrise as I approached the beach.

Then, a couple days later, I was the only one out walking in the morning. Who knows why?

The beach had transformed, and for once, my tracks were the first ones to appear.

When I catch myself mourning the loss of light, I quickly remember that we only have two months now until the solstice, and then the days will start to get longer again. I might as well enjoy the darkness as a time to bring my focus to things close to home. I got up this morning and started to address the bounty of vegetables from our produce box that were beginning to look a little sad. Now we have soup bubbling, and I have an evening of knitting ahead of me. Let the darkness come!

Originality and Fair Use (From the what was she thinking? file)

Amy — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:29:45 +0000

A few things have been happening around the Internets that got me thinking again about fair use. It’s one of my favorite perennial topics. I am passionate about the idea that artists, crafters, makers, writers and other creators can take inspiration and even content from other works of art. It’s a concept that can be misunderstood. Some people perceive it too liberally, others don’t believe that aspects of fair use are possible even if they are ethical and legal. Here are a couple of real-life examples.

The other day I was looking through projects on Ravelry. It’s such a treat to see when people make one of my patterns. I love seeing all the yarn choices and variations.

One of my most popular patterns is the Alpine Frost Scarf. (The beautiful photos in this post are all pictures of the design that I found on Flickr, they are not from the crocheter I discuss below.) There are a lot of ways people can get this pattern. It was originally published in Interweave Crochet, in Winter 2008. So if you have that issue in print or digital versions, you have it. You can buy the pattern individually from the Interweave Store. It’s even included in the new book, The Best of Interweave Crochet.

So, I was surprised when I was trolling the hundreds of Ravelry projects for this pattern the other day and I stumbled upon one where the crocheter said something like, “I didn’t have the pattern for this design, so this is my version.” Then, she proceeded to show the instructions for her version in the pattern notes on her project page.

Guess what? I’m not bothered that she reverse-engineered my pattern. More power to her! I applaud the ingenuity it takes to figure something out on your own. I’m not even bothered that she wrote down her notes. I am concerned that she thinks it’s ok to essentially publish those notes for anyone on Ravelry to use, and associate her publication with my pattern.

In my opinion, it’s totally ok to reverse-engineer, and even design and publish patterns inspired by the work of others. I’m a big believer in supporting derivative work. It should be derivative though, not just a copy. Publishing a simple copy seems uninspired and not respectful of the original designer’s intellectual property. What didn’t make sense was the fact that this crocheter used my pattern page to post her own version of the pattern.

So, I e-mailed her. Good news! She answered quickly, and removed the instructions from her notes. A happy ending. I wonder what she thought of my e-mail, she didn’t say. The long and short of it? I hope when people exercise fair use and publish the results that they’ll be polite, they won’t violate copyright, and they’ll use appropriate attribution–giving credit where credit is due. Also, I want people to experiment, be creative, have fun.

Today, I was trolling again and found a beautiful scarf that people have been making lots of, apparently. Since this pattern isn’t published in English, people have been sharing scanned versions of the (Japanese?) (Chinese?) chart on Ravelry. What’s the ethical crafter to do if she wants to make something like this scarf? Well, I would like to see her try and reverse engineer the scarf herself, and then come up with her own pattern–hopefully adding her own originality and spin to the design.

Finally, I wanted to mention one other great conversation about fair use happening right now (not surprisingly) on Kim Werker’s blog. (Kim and I worked together to try and launch Fair Use in Art and Craft Day back in 2009–maybe I’ll nudge her and see if we can get it going again for 2012.) Kim’s discussion is about Pintrest — a site where people keep track of things they think are cool on the internet. At issue is the idea that crafters are copying ideas from pictures instead of buying what’s being offered for sale. I’m with Kim on this one–I think that people selling crafts that are simple enough to copy from a photo shouldn’t be surprised when people do so.

Before I started working as a publishing designer, I sold fancy crocheted scarves at craft fairs for around $100 each (this barely covered my costs, so I didn’t do it for long). There were two types of people visiting the craft fairs–customers and crafters. Customers were happy to pay for my hand-work. Crafters were sometimes polite and engaging, but sometimes they’d just say things like, “Oh, I could just make this myself.” It can be annoying when you’re trying to pay the bills, but that doesn’t make it less true. Now that I’m a designer and teacher I don’t want control of my designs after I publish them–I want to see how people get creative with them. I’m happy to be in the position of saying, “Yes! Go make it yourself!”

A New Stitch Dictionary! An author interview and giveaway

Amy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:39:10 +0000

Lately I’ve been more careful about purchasing craft books. We’ve moved into a smaller house and there just isn’t room. But I never pass up the opportunity to use a new stitch dictionary. So I was thrilled to hear that one of my favorite designers (and best designer buddies) Robyn Chachula was publishing a new one: Crochet Stitches VISUAL Encyclopedia). I wanted to hear all about the making of a stitch dictionary first-hand, so I asked Robyn if she’d consent to an interview. You can read the result:

1) Tell me a little about how the project came about. Have you always wanted to write a stitch dictionary?

ROBYN: Wiley approached me about writing an encyclopedia to fit into their new line of “Visual Encyclopedia” books. They were not sure what to include, but wanted a large book filled with pictures and diagrams. For me, I always wanted a chance to compile all my favorite stitch patterns, motifs, tips, and tricks into one book.

2) How did your narrow your field–what criteria did you use for choosing stitches? Did you get to play a lot and invent new ones? If so, what did you like more? Making up stitch patterns, or cataloging existing ones?

ROBYN: To be honest, I wanted to include every type of crochet I know. So I started at the beginning with simple stitches and worked my way out. I wanted cables, pineapples, grannies, edgings, filet, color, on and on. What I ended up doing is trying to have at least 3-4 of every type of crochet I know. I say that because I know there is a ton more versions and types of crochet that I have not even discovered yet. Once I brainstormed, I came up with 9 chapters; simple, cables, lace, weird lace, Tunisian, color, grannies, flowers, and edgings. We originally were working with 350 stitch patterns, so I tried to shove into each chapter a few of every technique I could think of. Like in the lace chapter, I divided it in to chain space stitch patterns, cluster sp, shell, pineapple, and waves. Then I looked at designs of mine to see if I could pull from those first, then I headed to my antique pattern books from the turn of the century, I then headed to 60s and 70s pattern books, then to foreign (mainly Japan, Ukraine, and Belgium); and finally swatched. I pulled from so many sources since I really wanted a well rounded stitch dictionary. In each chapter, there are some classic, some foreign, some antique, and some new stitch patterns. I have to say the hardest part was not getting sucked into the fun of crocheting everything in any pattern book I was looking at, or coming up with 10 times the amount of patterns I needed. There are many chapters that I cut a ton of patterns because I was coming up with 100 flowers, when I only needed 25.

3) What yarns did you use for making swatches and how did you choose it? Did you have help crocheting all the swatches? (Not counting toddler and canine help!)

ROBYN: I got a mix of yarn from acrylic (Red Heart Soft Yarn and Eco Ways) to wool (Cascade 220 Sport and Naturally Caron Country) to Cotton (Cascade Pima Tencel and Lion Brand Cottonese) to luxury (Blue Sky Alpaca Silk). I wanted to have a number of fibers on hand, because as you know different fibers show off different stitch patterns. I knew I needed a lightweight animal yarn for the cables, and a shiny plant yarn for the lace. I wanted a large palette of colors for the color stitch patterns but also to make the book look more interesting.

I did have help crocheting. A lot of help. I only had 9 months from when I start to when it was published. As soon as I finished a diagram I would send it off to a crocheter. In the end, I probably crocheted about a third of the book. It was really hard since I had to be really tough on what I could use in the book; since these little swatches would be what others used to make sure they did the patterns correctly. It was amazing what 350 stitch patterns really look like. The boxes where huge. I sent them in in 100 batches and it took me all day to catalogue and photo them.

4) I was fascinated by the names of the stitch patterns. I know some of them are traditional, but you clearly got to make some up. Did you have a method, or did you just pick names that sounded cool?

ROBYN: That was one of the hardest parts of the book. I pulled from every resource I could think ok. I used Victorian names in with antique snowflakes, I used eastern European names in the Brussels lace, I used African towns in the color work patterns. Basically if the pattern reminded me of a time period or place, I would either use Proper Names or Places associated with it. And when all that failed I named them after my family or names we had on our baby list of names. Man, I thought coming up with Elianna was hard. That was nothing compared to this.

5) There are many great uses for a stitch dictionary. How would you especially like crocheters to use the book?

I would love crocheters to use the book anyway they want. Use it to learn a new form of crochet, use it as inspiration in their next project (by crocheting a bunch of the grannies and joining them into an afghan, or taking an edging and adding it on a fleece blanket, or using a Tunisian color pattern to make a woven shawl), use the tips to make their current projects even more wonderful. I just hope they grab the book and hook (and yarn) all in one swoop. These patterns are meant to be tested out and crocheted, so I hope they enjoy it enough to get stitching.

Thanks so much Robyn for taking the time to chat!

Which brings us to the final exciting part of this post. Robyn’s publisher, Wiley, has agreed to give away a copy of the book to one reader of this blog. Leave me a comment sharing how you like to use stitch dictionaries, and I’ll pick a winner on 10/20/2011.

Pulling My Digital Hair Out: A rant about e-books

Amy — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:55:11 +0000

(Or how I lost most of my afternoon to my digital library).

I have to admit, I love e-books. I read a lot. I love paper books–the feel of them, the smell. One of my first jobs ever was in a used bookstore. When Selma was a baby, I re-invented that job for myself filling my basement with books I found at garage sales and selling them on Amazon. But I don’t have space for all the books I love, so I love being able to have as many e-books as I want without using up any physical space in my library. I also love being able to highlight and annotate in e-books. I use this feature a lot in the reading and research I have to do for my graduate work. So far, I like the way the Kindle app does this best, but I’m trying out Kobo right now too, and it seems pretty good. I like e-books so much that I get frustrated when a book I want isn’t available digitally.

But there is something about e-books that bothers me: You don’t really own the books you buy digitally. You can’t use them any way you want. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to move a book I bought on Google Books (because amazingly, the Google Books app does not have any feature for annotating books). After going through the machinations of getting this file into another reader, I thought… there’s got to be a way I could just centrally store all my e-books and read them where ever I want!

Of course, other people have wished for this too. Very clever people have developed programs to store and catalog books, like Calibre. You can sync your Calibre library with Dropbox and have access too it anywhere. You can use one of the readers that lets you open external (i.e. dropbox files) like Stanza and access those files on your ipad. Supposedly, you can spend lots of time setting this up and maintaining it, but really, you can’t because most of your book files are locked with DRM. You can illegally strip the DRM with tools available on the Internet. (Why is this illegal if you are using files that YOU purchased on devices YOU own?)

You CAN do all of this, but after wasting a day on it, I’ve decided it’s too. much. trouble. For now, I’ll buy the books that I can get DRM-free, and those that I can’t, I’ll prioritize Kobo and resort to Amazon (the worst culprit for open formats) when necessary. I know it took a while for MP3s to loose the DRM, I’m just frustrated that we have to have the fight all over again with e-books. Look publishers–the music industry is finally surviving BECAUSE OF, not in spite of easy access to digital media.

I know many of you are more tech-savvy than I am–am I missing a great solution out there for e-book management? How do you maintain your digital library?

Sara’s Hat — A New Pattern @Craft

Amy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:00:46 +0000

Craft Magazine has just published my latest pattern, Sara’s Hat, on their blog. It’s a perfect fall hat–a soft beanie worked in squishy wool (Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand-Dyes). Back loop single crochet is finished with Crab Stitch (reverse single crochet) for a nice, braided edge.

I crocheted this hat for my sister-in-law Sara, and when I gave it to her, I subjected her to a photo shoot, thinking I would certainly want to publish the pattern eventually. (Yay for forethought!) I was excited when Craft approached me about creating a crochet colorwork pattern for them since I already had this nearly ready to go.

With the move, and graduate school, I haven’t been doing tons of knitting and crochet lately, but I’m finishing up one hat design right now and starting another. Sense a theme? I’m determined, as I’ve had to fit my yarn “collection” into our new house, to knit up the slew of unfinished projects I discovered in unpacking. We’ll see how long that determination lasts.

A New Morning Walk

Amy — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:53:40 +0000

Morning Walk, a set on Flickr.

Now that we’re getting settled in here in Juneau, I’m starting to develop a daily routine. In the mornings, after making breakfast and packing lunches, I make my tea and fill my mug, then walk the kids to the bus stop. Buses come at about 8 a.m. Then I head south on a walk.

I vary my path slightly each morning, but most often I hit many of the same favorite spots. My route includes a jaunt across Sandy Beach and a stroll through parts of the Treadwell Mine trail, including my favorite spot–the cave-in–where the trail meets the beach. (I’ll talk more about the Treadwell Mine in a future post, I’m sure–it’s a fascinating part of my neighborhood’s history).

I find myself wanting to photograph the same spots day after day as the light and the surroundings slowly change with the tide and the seasons. My little camera phone isn’t great, but it’s with me all the time, so it gets the most use. I’ll probably keep adding to this particular flickr set as I notice more tiny details of my walk.

Moon on Kachemak Bay

Amy — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:11:04 +0000

Homer Knitting – 002, originally uploaded by plainsight.

I picked up this lovely little skein of hand spun when I was in Homer last week. The shop is in a YURT with about the best view I’ve ever seen from a yarn store.

It’s “souvenir” yarn. You know what I mean–the skein you buy without a project in mind just because it reminds you of a place. This skein is perfect because it’s hand spun, and in colors that remind me of the landscape around Homer.

Christopher Robin Went Down With Alice

Amy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:16:45 +0000

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terribly hard,”
Says Alice.
From “Buckingham Palace,” by A.A. Milne

That verse from When We Were Very Young kept floating through my head last week as James got ready for his Change of Command ceremony. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance, but when it came down to it, all it took was a couple of salutes and a few sentences. “I relieve you,” and “I stand relieved,” I think.

It was rainy and windy, but that didn’t keep a full house of well-wishers from joining us on the buoy deck of the ship.

At the ceremony to mark his relief, James received a meritorious service medal from Admiral Ostebo and gave a wonderful speech recognizing the crew and all that they have done during his three years as captain. He entertained us with sea stories and surprised even me by recognizing how many days of the last three years the ship was underway (it was more than 60% of the time).

I loved the ceremony–seeing James and his crew in their dress uniforms and watching him inspect and greet each member as he said goodbye. It was hard not to get a bit teary and feel very proud.

After the official party with cake, of course, we moved the festivities back to our house and celebrated in typical Cordova fashion:

You might be able to guess what this all means… That’s right, we’re moving. But not too far. We’re thrilled to be staying in Alaska. James has been transferred to Juneau. Our countdown has started, and I’ve got my moving cap on, simultaneously researching to get us set up in Juneau, while trying hard to squeeze every moment out of our time in Cordova. We’ll be in our new house by August 1st.

Spring Abundance

Amy — Tue, 31 May 2011 06:25:35 +0000

Typically, I think of fall as the time to find wild edibles in our little corner of Alaska. The berries and the mushrooms appear in August and September just in time to put up for winter. This is the first spring that I’ve been aware of all the fun things around to forage.

I’ve already missed fiddlehead season… the ferns are now unfurled. But if they’re still around in your neck of the woods try and taste some!

Our friends Rion and Chrissy went out the road to hunt for Devil’s club buds today.

Apparently this prickly plant produces some tasty buds early in the season that are also quite nutritious. They’re also gathering nettles for tea and other plants for salves and balms.

We had another gorgeous sunny day today. We worried as we hiked up Mt. Eyak that this might bode the end of our “summer” instead of the beginning as it sometimes does. Summers can be quite rainy and cool here, but so far we’ve been really lucky.

Alaskan kids know how to celebrate a warm day.

While we were hiking we chewed on salmonberry blossoms. They were tender and tasted mildly of salmonberries. Very nice. But I reminded myself that any blossom I ate would not be a berry later, so I held back.

At the Midway, where we stopped for a snack, we ran into a friend who was telling us about fireweed shoots. It turns out the tender stalk of the fireweed plant is delicious. You can sauté it like asparagus, and Toni told us it’s amazing pickled. I found this image on flickr of a fireweed shoot omlette:

There’s a wonderful Alaskan food blogger, Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, who has a great post about harvesting and using fireweed shoots. (She blogged about the Devil’s Club too.) The fireweed shoots are best before the leaves start to poke out, when the stalk is mostly red and about 6-8 inches tall.

When we got home from the hike it was so warm we (well the crazy among us) jumped in the lake. The air was about 63 degrees. A warm Alaskan day. The water was probably a bit chillier than that.

I stayed dry and made cocktails using another foraged edible: Spruce Tips. This is possibly my favorite new drink. It’s a shame the tips are only available for a few days each year. Spruce tips are out right now, and I’ve been harvesting them for a few days with my friends Alyssa and Erica. The tips can be eaten fresh in salads, they have a tart herb-y flavor, and are a little resiny, but I like them. They’re very high in vitamin C, and they were used in pioneer times to ward off scurvy.

We’ve been cruising the web for recipes and found some great ones at the Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska blog–she has recipes for Syrup, Mayonnaise, Shortbread and even flavored salt. Rainsoaked, a Juneau Alaska blogger has a great recipe for jelly, and another blog has one for Sorbet which I really want to try. I made the syrup last night, and found it came out a bit on the thin side, but it tasted so lovely. Citrus-y with a light herbal flavor. The first thing that popped into my head was Cocktails! So today, I devised one based on the syrup:

Spruce Tip Cocktail

1 oz. Gin
2 T. Spruce Tip Syrup (I used this recipe)
Club Soda
Ice
A few fresh Spruce Tips
Salmonberry Blossoms for Garnish

(By the way–I’ve heard that fir and other pine tips can be substituted for spruce tips in any of these recipes).

Fill an 8 oz glass half-full with ice. Add gin and spruce tip syrup. Crush a fresh spruce tip between your fingers and add to glass. Fill the glass with club soda, stir, and garnish with a salmonberry blossom.

Cheers!