Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Regarding phone calls and kits

Dear Knitters,
The best way to contact me is by email. I can be reached night and day by email and will happily respond either the same day or the same week.
I apologize but I will not be returning long distant phone calls.
Email is free. Phone calls cost.
Thank you for understanding,
Leanne

P.S . I do not currently sell kits over the web. I do have some kits available for sale on Salt Spring Island during ArtCraft.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Halfa

I received an email query regarding "Halfa" (my design pictured above). Halfa was yesterday's featured pattern in Accord Publishing's Knitting Calendar. The knitter asked if one size fits all really means one size fits all or if she was required to add stitches. I assured her, as I will assure you now, that no extra stitches are required. Due to Halfa's unique design one size does indeed fit all. Happy knitting.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Stand up

It's been a whole week since I posted my last blog entry. I apologize. I took the time to heal. All goes well. My black eye fades. I can bare weight on one knee - the other knee needs more healing. I have had many kind people enquire about my health. Being a generally healthy person I always answer the same way, "I'm fine." Well, the truth be told I am not fine. I continue to have pain in my stomach. I am on the tiniest, mightiest pills. Things were looking up until last night. Last night the pain kept waking me up. If this doesn't change I will go back to the doctor. I have a follow up appointment next week anyway. Your positive taughts regarding my speedy recovery are much appreciated.
Meanwhile, I have been working on...
...just have the sleeves to do. Then I have to sew the seams on all my new creations and knit the finger puppets. My deadline is the middle of February - so all goes well.

Friday, January 11, 2008

It's been a rough week

The blog title says it all.
Yesterday (Thursday) I went off island. Nothing fun. It seems that my stomach acids are bent on burning a whole through my stomach. Well, I had to get some drugs to stop their action. I can't show you a picture of that so how about this.



This blurr is a picture of a knee.
This blurred picture is of a knee that has fallen off a bike.
This blurred picture is of a knee that knows better.

I also have a black eye but my bike is still in one piece.

Thankfully Mayne Island is a caring community and all my pieces where put back together...or as much as was possible...some pieces will always be missing...goes without saying... : )

Despite all this I was still able to finish...




Ouch, my knee hurts.

All together now, "Ah poor, Leanne"

Monday, January 07, 2008

Thank you Ravelry

Have you checked out the new knitting site: Ravelry. It looks very cool. Notice I said "looks". I said this because I have yet to be invited in. I feel like a child standing in front of a candy store nose pressed up against the glass while my Mother says, "No, not today."
Oh, poor, Leanne
Time, all it will take is time.
Moving on.
So because I am not on Ravelry I was surprised on to notice that the Extreme Tracking attached to my web site was reporting hits from that web site.
"Why?" I wondered.
The hit appeared like this: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/oven-mitts-2
Huh?
So, I typed a note to some friends who checked things out for me.
It appears that some wonderful Ravelry knitters had chosen one of my patterns to knit. I was so very pleased!
Then I realized to my horror that I had posted the following blog entry a few months ago:

Oven mitts
Of course in a perfect world all my patterns would be error free. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and as they say, "to err is human"As a knitwear designer I really appreciate knitters contacting me if they encounter problems with one of my patterns. It is a win - win situation. It helps you because then you get an answer to your dilemma. It helps me because it
allows me to rectify an error or omission as well it helps me to improve my pattern writing skills.I just got off the phone with such a nice knitter. She was eager to knit my Oven Mitt pattern. A pattern she found in the Accord Knitting Pattern-a-Day Calendar (June 20, 2007). However, she thought they seemed long. The pattern asks you to work your knitting to a length is 7 feet. Well this is an error. The total length should be 3 feet. I apologize for this error. I am thankful that the knitter gave me this opportunity to make this correction.As well the type of yarn I used was cotton. (I used Paton's "Sugar n Cream" when I did a search for that yarn I found this:
http://search.ebay.com/sugarn-cream_W0QQfnuZ1QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ3QQsatitleZsugarQ27nQ20creamQQxpufuZx)I would caution against using acrylic.If you encounter a problem, dilemma with an Olavia's hand knitting pattern please email me: leanne@oknitting.com I will be pleased to help you.

There is an error in my pattern.
Great, this means that the first impression some knitters will have of me is a pattern with an error.
I feel like the new neighbour you meet when their dog digs holes in your yard. Not the best first impression.
Moreover, I can not reach these knitters to tell them about the error.
So, please, can you help me out. If you are a Ravelry knitter (or if you know one) can you please direct them to this blog entry. Thank you so much.
Also, if you have happily knit one of my patterns can you assure them that not all my dogs will pee on their leg. : ) Thank you.
Happy knitting.

Friday, January 04, 2008

What have I done all week

Ta-da
Let's bring things into focus, shall we?
It's a pocket.
Impressed?
I often start with the pocket. Especially when I am combining colours. Avoids tearing out miles of sweater.
Even though these colours are bold...bolder than I have ever knit with to date...I like them. They fight the grey winter that surrounds me. They shout sun. This I highly approve of.
Okay, I hear you, you probably are not impressed. You probably wonder what else I am currently working on. What is gobbling up my time? Well, I am currently working on a novel. Yes, that's right the short story queen is committed to finishing a novel.
Am I scared?
Yup
Am I insane?
Yup
Will I finish?
Hope so. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Plans for 2008

One of the things I want to accomplish in 2008 is to have my children's sweaters in a few more galleries. Not many because knitting sweaters, no matter how small is labour intensive, but a few. One more would be nice. We'll see...
So I am off to...