They can take our name, but they can't take our Ravelympics

I woke up this morning to not just a flurry, but a raging storm of activity on my Twitter stream. The hashtag #Ravelympics was trending!



Was everybody just filled with the Olympic spirit and eager to cast on their Ravelympic projects? Unfortunately, no. Something far darker had happened.

The US Olympic Committee sent Casey a cease and desist letter regarding the Ravelympics.

The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them. For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career
[...]
We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.

That's right - an event where thousands of people from all nations come together in the spirit of friendly competition, self-challenge, and cooperation to enjoy the Olympic Games... denigrates the true nature of the Olmypic Games.

Read more »

Knitted Planters for Eco-Yarnbombing

There's been some yarnbombing going on in my area lately - or the 'Phantom Knitter', as the press have dubbed her/him. Knitting cozies for lamp posts and trees is great, but you know what I think is even better?

Knitted plant pockets!
Yes, you can knit your own little home for succulents or other plants, then hang them up somewhere that could use a little bit of greenery. Click on over to the links above for a pattern and instructions for the pockets, or try plant pillows where the plants are literally growing out of the knitting. I think those would make great gifts.

This, combined with some moss graffiti, would make an awesome living art project.

~Joyuna

Yarn and Polish. Yes PLEASE!

Over at my nail blog I've got a quick post up about Soak's newest project, the Soakbox: a box of awesome coordinating goodies including matching nail polish and yarn!

I just think this is the coolest idea in the world. It's going on my Xmas list, or next time I've got some extra cash I may just have to treat myself.
Read my full opinion and all the details here.

~Joyuna

Knitting for Victory: Kickstart it!

I've found a fascinating knitting Kickstarter - Knitting for Victory, America's Knitting History 1916-1945.

This looks to be a great, informative book about the Production Corps - knitters for victory in the first and second world wars. Not only will this be a history book, but it will also feature 25 updated patterns from the time period. Sweet!

I love knitting history, vintage patterns (er, sometimes) and knitting Kickstarter projects - when I donated to the Cooperative Press Kickstarter campaign, not only did I get a great informative book, I got warm fuzzies in helping out an awesome publishing company - and every time I see what Cooperative Press has been up to, I know I made the right decision!

There's just under two weeks left to fund it, so get in there are knit your bit!

~Joyuna

Welcome to Joyuna.com!

You may have noticed, if you look up in your address bar, that my address has changed - I'm no longer being hosted on Blogspot, but rather on my own Joyuna.com domain. This is a change that I've been meaning to make for a long time now and it feels good to finally make it.

This is my first step towards an official Joy Gerhardt Designs website showcasing my design portfolio. That won't be ready for some time yet, though - first things first, the blog has been moved over.

There's no need to update your bookmarks - all joyarna.blogspot.com links should redirect automatically to the new address. However, if you do notice anything that isn't quite working right, don't hesitate to contact me - leave a comment, shoot me a Rav message, or email me (joyuna at gmail).

~Joyuna

Designer Shop Talk: Pattern Formats

I just came across a post by Carol Feller of Stolen Stitches: Survey results. Any designers out there might be interested in taking a look - she surveyed her readers about what kinds of pattern formats (single, ebook, hard copy) they prefer.

The PDFs won by a landslide in Carol's survey: Do you agree? I definitely do. I've always been a bit wary of ebooks as a replacement for dead tree books (real books are easier to page through and never run out of batteries) but I really think that PDFs are the ideal format for single patterns.

I was cemented in this belief when I fell in love with and ordered EZ's Green Sweater. I fell in love with the story of this sweater in Twist Collective and its details captivated me. In other words, I needed to knit it, and there could be no substitute.

Schoolhouse Press sold the pattern, but only in hard copy format. So I already had my yarn and was itching to cast on, but I had to wait for the pattern to arrive. To be fair, when the pattern arrived it was beautiful - skillfully formatted into an 8.5x11" booklet, in a plastic sleeve, full color and glossy. But the paper pattern can get creased, or torn, or lost, and unless I scan it, once it's gone, it's gone. And having gone through 6 moves in the past 3 years, I worry about important patterns getting lost for good.

Digital patterns can get lost too - hard drives fail, CDs deteriorate, email accounts get hacked. But the options for backups are plentiful - the majority of my pattern files are stored not only on my laptop, but also in my Ravelry library, my Dropbox account, my thumb drive, and my iPod.

I love PDFs for knitting because they're infinitely portable, I can access them on any of my devices, I can add bookmarks and notes to them just like I could a paper pattern, and heck, I could even print them out if I wanted to. They're instantly delivered and, on Ravelry or Patternfish, automatically updated. It's not as easy to leisurely flip through a book on a screen, so I often prefer paper books for actual reading, but for knitting patterns, PDFs are my format of choice.

-- I digress a little bit. Carol's survey is not just about digital versus tangible. It also contains some valuable information about distribution preferences. How many patterns should be in a collection? What kinds of patterns? How should they be released? Very worthwhile reading for any indie designer.

~Joyuna

Knitmeter

I've pledged to work on UFOs and knit down my stash this year, and sometimes it can be disheartening to do all that work without seeing progress. I'm a very visual person so seeing things in front of me can give me a real sense of accomplishment.

You've probably seen Knitmeter widgets before, on people's blogs or Ravelry profiles. I finally decided to get one, to track my progress this year. How many miles will I knit in 2012? How much will I spin?





The Knitmeters were very easy to set up - the only thing that could make it better if it were integrated with Ravelry for automatic yardage-updating. But it only takes a minute to update the site with my recent projects, and then I get a much better big-picture view of my knitting and spinning progress so far.

~Joyuna

A Timeline of Events - KAL/All Craft Media

I've been following this situation for some time now, as a member of the sock club and a former designer with KNIT Magazine. There's a lot of information about it out there, but it's all scattered around the web in fragments. It's very difficult to get the full picture from just one source. So here is my attempt at collecting all the relevant information together.
If you're a non-knitter - note that many of the links below are from Ravelry, and will not be visible to non-members.

First, some acknowledgements. Alex Tinsley's post on Dull Roar was an ideal starting point for piecing together the big picture. I couldn't have put this together without the tireless efforts of the Ravelry Rubberneckers, either, nor Ruth Garcia-Alcatund (Rock and Purl) for being the first one to come forward in the blog community. Very little of this information is originally mine; I am just compiling it so others can read it all in one place.
If you think something should be added to this timeline or anything needs to be corrected, please let me know in the comments.

In researching this I found it went farther back than I ever expected. There is a long history...

August 2005 -
Kerrie Allman buys Hipknits yarns. It was originally founded by Dee of Posh Yarn, sold on to Kerrie, and is now run by Kerrie's father. (Added Mar 5 2012 - Dee weighs in)

2007 -
Kerrie works on a book, Handpainted, commissioning designs and collecting samples from designers. The book was never published. Samples were not returned.

June 2007 -
Hipknits project club starts. Parcels go missing, poor communication.

April 2008 -
Reports spring up of Hipknits orders going missing. Prior to this mega-thread, Hipknits had been having post problems as early as 2006. Hipknits eBay feedback.

Around the same time, Magknits is closed, all the archived patterns being wiped. Kerrie's explanation. A new issue of the magazine had gone live only a week before.
(Magknits, for those who don't know, was a quite popular free online mag, akin to Knitty. Popular patterns that originate on Magknits include the Jaywalker Socks, Evangeline gloves, Hannah ponytail hat, and Odessa hat.)

Read more »

Regarding a Certain UK mag company

You may have heard about some drama blowing up in the knitting world recently - specifically, dealing with KNIT Magazine / Yarn Forward / All Craft Media / KAL Media.
Rock and Purl recently came out with a post here and her followup here. Then, Anniken Allis shared her story. And, outside the blogosphere, you can find a lot of information via Ravelry and Twitter. (just search for @KnitMagazine, #allcraftmedia, Knit Sock Club, or KAL Media)

The company and its owners seem to have a long history of less-than-excellent business practices and disappointing customer service. As both a designer who has worked with KNIT and a member of the ill-fated sock club, I've been finding out firsthand just how poor this company's service and communication is.

I wouldn't create a stink unless I really, truly felt that word needed to get out about this company. As a designer my experience wasn't as bad as most, but there are still plenty of designers who are waiting on payment and samples - or who finally received them, many many months overdue, only after a long struggle.
In the sock club, things went smoothly - if not perfectly - for the first few shipments, and then things started to get delayed with no word, shipments changed around, and finally, adding insult to injury, our final yarn shipment won't even be hand-dyed - it's a commercial yarn that can be had at about half the price of any of the other yarns sent in the club. When the club members cried out against this last blow, we were basically told, 'Tough.'

There have been whispers about this company for a while, and now's the time for word to finally get out so others don't get disappointed or swindled. The company has decided that the business of a hundred sock club members and the contributions of dozens of designers are worthless to them -- so this is my plea to not support this company when there are so many other worthy magazines out there. Designers, don't submit to KNIT (keeping in mind that they will be changing their name yet again in a few months' time), and knitters, please don't buy it.

It is tough when people are locked in to design contracts or subscriptions months ahead of time, as Anni mentioned in her blog post, and when people are reluctant to speak out. Yarn Forward and Magknits were once great publications, and those in charge at All Craft Media need a wake up call to either shape up or get out.

ETA: Alex Tinsley at Dull Roar has a great round-up of the history of the company and its predecessors here: All Craft Media, and Why You Should Run the Other Way.

~Joyuna

RIP, Knitcircus mag

I heard the news recently that Knitcircus Magazine will be terminating, the last issues being the previous winter issue and the special gifts issue. The Knitcircus brand will be living on, however, through a weekly e-newsletter.

I am very sad for this news - Knitcircus has in my experience been a fabulous publication, from a designer perspective and a knitter perspective. Their patterns have been consistently high quality, and their articles as well. My Interwoven hat pattern was in the last fall issue - it was my first time working with a publication and it was a wonderful experience.

You can read the official blog announcement here, and you can discuss the changes at Knitcircus' Ravelry group.

Photo courtesy of Knitcircus

~Joyuna

Dead Easy DIY: Clementine Candles

I found this great idea over on Apartment Therapy via Pinterest. You can make your own candles (or oil lamps, really) from clementines.

If you don't care to click through their 30-photo slideshow (I don't blame you), here are the instructions in a nutshell.

Take one clementine, a sharp knife, and some olive oil. Slice the clementine skin in half, remove the fruit inside. Try to keep the fleshy bit in the middle intact - this will serve as your 'wick'. Choose the half of the clementine with the most 'wick' and pour some olive oil into it. Let that soak in for a minute or two. Meanwhile, cut a vent in the other half. Light the wick, place the top half over it, and enjoy your clementine lantern. That's all there is to it!

The 'wick' is a bit hard to light, but keep trying and you'll get it eventually. Try to be a little delicate when you're removing the skin off the fruit, so you can keep the fleshy center bit long enough for the wick.

I feel like these would make awesome mood lighting at a party. You could even float them in a bowl or tub. Best of all, they release a subtle citrusy scent into the air (not very strong, but it's definitely there).

~Joyuna

Dead Easy DIY: Lip Balm

Recently, I tried my hand at making lip balm. I wanted to get everyone in my extended family something small but thoughtful for Christmas. I'm a total lip balm junkie myself, and when I found a recipe for DIY lip balm online, I couldn't resist giving it a try. It turned out great!

I used this recipe from Instructables, which I found via Pinterest. It's really simple and once you get all the ingredients, it's a snap to make.

Read more »

Fit to Flatter: You must read this!

Amy Herzog has an absolutely fabulous series on her blog called Fit to Flatter. I've been reading through it in dribs and drabs over the past week or so, and I have learned so much. Heck, even if you're not a knitter, the first few chapters are worth a read - it takes the basic 'apple / pear / hourglass' formula and adds extra nuance to it.

The series helps you to a) identify your body type, b) figure out what kind of clothes flatter that type, and c) choose patterns or adjust patterns to suit your body. The beginning lessons are more general, and toward the end she gets in to specifics on how to alter a pattern to suit your figure.

Maybe it's old news to some people, since the series is a couple years old, but the advice is timeless and well worth a look. For instance, I learned as a bottom-heavy shape, colorwork yoke sweaters would flatter me because it draws the eye upward, balancing out my wide hips and my narrow shoulders. And I already knew that it was more flattering to wear a dark bottom and a light top than vice versa, but now I know why - for the same reason, attracting the eye up to my top half.

The series is available free as a series of blog posts, or you can buy it in a nicely formatted, go-anywhere PDF set.

~Joyuna

New Header by Tofupanda

If you look up at the top of the page, you'll notice something different - a banner image! Yes, that's me up there, knitting away on a sock. This piece of art was drawn for me by the very talented young artist Tofunmi Yosola, also known as Tofupanda.

Tofupanda is a very busy artist as well as a student and it seems she's currently not taking commissions, but she takes her requests on Fiverr when she can - and I believe her pictures are a steal at merely 5 bucks! The next time I need an adorable picture drawn, I'll definitely be commissioning her again.

I find Tofunmi's style absolutely charming and the likeness is really quite good, don't you think? :)

~Joyuna

Now addicted to Pinterest

Have you heard about Pinterest? It's this super-neat site that has been a huge source of inspiration and fun for me since I joined.

It's like an online corkboard where you can 'pin' things you like onto your boards. When it works, it works beautifully (though it has its share of downtime and bugs). I've been using it to pin things I admire, craft tutorials I want to try, and inspiration for new designs. It's like creating your own design mood board - absolutely a fantastic creative resource. Plus, you can follow people whose style you like and see everything they're pinning.

If you want to follow me on Pinterest, I'm Joyuna over there like most places :) If you're not signed up for Pinterest yet, you'll need an invite - if you shoot me a message on Ravelry or Twitter with your email address, I can hook you up. :)

~Joyuna

Glasgow Mystery Solved

Earlier I posted about some mystery knitted goodies at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Well, I learned who the culprits were! The crafters behind it are the Glasgow PicKnitters, a mischievous yarnbombing knitting group.

Oddly enough, I found out that the knitted pumpkin I found was the work of one of the woman I had met in Glasgow - Rita, AuntyRita on Ravelry. In fact, it is partially thanks to her that I made it to the School of Yarn at all - we met on the bus en route, and navigated to the church together.

The Picknitters apparently plant pumpkins around Glasgow every year - here's a report on last year's go with more photos. And you can meet some of the knitters in this BBC profile video.

~Joyuna

Puffing for a Good Cause

I just worked up a couple hexipuffs that I'm quite proud of - they're going to be part of something much larger, and I don't just mean a quilt!

In their winter issue, UK Handmade announced the Beekeeper's Quilt Charity Prize Competition. 192 knitters are contributing 2 puffs each to make a fantastic patchwork puff quilt. The hexipuffs are getting sent to our very own Jelly right here in Reading, who will hold a day-long stitch-athon to join the quilt together.

To contribute hexipuffs, sign up here. Or, to enter to win the quilt and a Tinyowlknits pattern, enter here. Entries are £1 each, you can enter as many times as you like, and proceeds benefit the crime-reduction charity NACRO. The contest is open to UK residents only, sorry everyone else!

~Joyuna

Joyarna on Twitter

If you don't already keep up with the blog via RSS or email, did you know you can follow on Twitter as well?

@Joyarna automatically updates every time the blog does, so the posts appear in your Twitter stream.

~Joyuna

Read the Knitblog on your Kindle!

Joyarna Knitblog is now available on Kindle! You can get this blog delivered wirelessly to your Kindle device. It's free to try out for the first 14 days, so why not take the knitblog with you wherever you go?

Look, a recursive website!

~Joyuna

Final Grateful Crane donation to MSF

July is over, and I've tallied up the sales for The Grateful Crane shawl -- since adding the shawl to Patternfish, there has been an uptick of sales. So, the last donation totals to $33 or about £20.11.


Together, we raised over $90 for Doctors Without Borders - a big thank you to everyone who purchased the pattern. I'm pleased we've made a little bit of a difference with this pattern - and I'm sure it will mean a lot to whomever the aid ends up helping.

~Joyuna