Once Upon a Time...

 Once upon a time I heard about this crazy thing people were doing called blogging. I found some about knitters and read them. I got caught up in the excitement and remembered the good ole days when I had a web site for my machine knitting business. I missed the Internet so took the plunge. Writing about the Boys, knitting and my folks I found a very small group of readers. For a few years I averaged 2-15 people a day. Not many but then, I wasn't the Yarn Harlot so what could I expect.

Then I started to think about the good ole days (that tends to get me in trouble) when I wrote patterns and wrote for a few machine knitting magazines and decided to give writing some of my basic patterns for people a try. One pattern that was put up on the blog was "Rust Goes Green". A simple rectangular crocheted market bag that caught on. People started downloading it - a lot. I decided to put it on Ravelry so I could keep track of how many downloads and to date there's been over 2,000 downloads.

I've put a few other patterns on Ravelry as free downloads and each one has had their own success. Somewhere along the way I was playing with reversible cables and came up with a fairly simple scarf that was totally reversible cables. I like the scarf but never got around to finishing it so for fun I posted it with basic how to's instead of a full pattern. Well, that's when things got weird.

You've probably seen the websites that list patterns by category. My Which Way is Up Cable scarf has been listed by several of these sites. One even listed it as one of the top 5 scarves. This has amused me because, really, it's not even a real pattern. It's kind of a - this is what I did, here's what I'd do next time, go try your own thing - kind of pattern. People like it. Maybe I should really write it up but then I think - why bother. People are doing just fine the way it is.

Statcounter is something you can put on your blog to see how many people stop by, where they're from, what page they land on, etc. That's how I know I used to get 2-15 people. Here's a shot of the last couple weeks. Do you see that tall column? That's saying almost 1,000 people came to visit the blog that day. The other days are 100-over 300. This has been going on for a few months and they are almost all landing on the scarf post.

If this type of community was around 15-20 years ago when I had my knitting/sewing shop maybe I would have been able to stay in business.


Whatever is going on right now, I'm happy people seem to like the patterns I've been putting out there. I have several other designs in process and hope to have them available soon. I've been working on several accessories using different techniques. There a lace scarf and fingerless gloves in Malabrigo; garter stitch hat and mittens, and some other accessory sets. I've also come up with a technique for cable mittens that I haven't seen anywhere before. The testers say it works for them so I'll be writing that up as so as I come up with a hat to go with it.



Speaking of knitting - a while back I bought a ball of Flying Saucer yarn is fun bold colors. I finished the socks but never got around to posting a picture. So - a little late but here's the socks from this yarn.




 
The yarn is dyed with 2 strands together so the socks will come out fairly close to matching. The socks in the picture look different only because you're seeing the 2 different sides. If I had them both facing the same direction they'd look similar. The pattern is just a basic one I did to give a bit of texture without losing the color. It's 10 rows of k-p texture and 10 rows plain. Next time I'd probably just do plain.

Reversible Cable Scarf Pattern

A few years ago I saw a scarf in a yarn shop that was reversible cable. I took a quick glance and continued shopping. The theory of that scarf stuck with me and when I was home I decided to come up with a design. I grabbed some Woolease, cause it was hanging around the house and, well, if the scarf didn’t work out I didn’t lose much money in the process. One thing I decided in the process was I should have used a larger needle to make the scarf softer. Every once in a while I pull it out and add a few more rows on it. I’ve never finished the scarf but decided to post the pattern, as is, and let you play with it and decide if I’m crazy or it’s a good design.


The pattern isn’t my normal "completely written out" pattern. You will need to fill in a few blanks on your own. Read through – make a few decisions and make your own version of this scarf. I think you’ll like it if you try it. I made mine in grey planning on giving it to a guy as a present when finished – maybe someday….

Which Way is Up Cable Scarf

Jill Chatelain

2009

Yarn: worsted weight. I used 2 skeins Woolease so far. I think that will be enough to make one long enough
Needles: size 7. Next time I would use a size 9 to make a softer (less stiff) fabric.

Basic design- moss stitch border at ends, garter stitch border with 1 added knit st at edges, background to set off cables in moss stitch, 2 cables worked with k1-p1 base.

Cast on 36 sts. Work moss st 10 rows.
Row 1: k4; p1; moss st 3; cable (k1-p1)x4; moss st 4; cable (k1-p1)x4; moss st 3; k1; p1; k3
Repeat row 1 every row except – every 10th row work a cable row.
Cable Row (10th row): k4; p1; moss st 3; work cable (place next 4 st on holder in front, k1-p1-k1-p1 next sts, work sts on holder k1-p1-k1-p1); moss st 4; work cable; moss st 3; k1; p1; k3

Repeat the 10 rows to desired length ending with 10 rows of moss st. Bind off.

Update 3/8/10: I've had a few questions about the pattern main row. So I'll try to answer them here. Row 1 is correct. There are 3 garter sts at each end and next to those are a k/p (1 rib)combination to divide the border from the body. The cables are 8 stitches - k-p 4 times. Between the cables are moss stitches - 3 sts on the outsides and 4 sts in between. So a very carefully written out row 1 is:

k-k-k-k-p-3moss-k-p-k-p-k-p-k-p-4moss-k-p-k-p-k-p-k-p-3moss-k-p-k-k-k

Update 11/21/10: There was a recent comment about moss stitch. For those who do not know what the moss stitch is - it is a very basic and easy stitch to create a reversible texture. It is also called seed stitch.

row 1 - k1-p1 across

row 2 - do the opposite stitch as the row below so instead of a k1-p1 rib you get little "seed" stitches.

Looking at a moss (seed) stitch panel would would see:

k p k p k p

p k p k p k

k p k p k p

p k p k p k

Hope this helps!

And to the thousands of people who have been stopping by to check out this pattern - Welcome!

The scarf was eventually finished and I posted it on Ravelry as Which Way is Up Cable Scarf.

Update 2/16/2013: This page has had just short of 63,000 hits. I find that totally amazing beyond belief! I've ignored this post other than to come here occasionally to see how many people have looked at it but now - I see the pattern just isn't going away. You really like it so, I will be working on writing this up as a more traditional pattern in the coming days and post a note at the top of this post when it is available. The new pattern will continue to be free.