The boys and I got our haircuts yesterday, and they are kitted out in new pants as well. The new pants are pre-faded and pre-frayed, so there is not much difference in their overall look, but they are happy.
We also got the grocery shopping done. Since they were with me, the boys chose the stuff for their school lunches, and we therefore have in our pantry things called “gushers” and “fun-yums” and cookies with rainbow-colored chips in them. All in ecologically-unsound individual bags. They’re happy.
Having completed my jobs for the day (did I say I was going to do housework? Hmmm….), I pulled out and redid the leaf edging for the baby hat. For some reason, on my monitor this yarn always ends up looking as though it has been photographed in black and white, but it is actually green.
I needed more repeats than this pattern suggests, but it is a concept more than a pattern — start with a nice edging, then pick up stitches along the straight edge and make a hat in the usual way. Lauren Eade wrote out the pattern. If she has a blog or other home on the web, I cannot find it. I am not intending to belittle her accomplishment. It is a great idea. I am intending, since this hat is for one of twins, to make another with a different edging for the other twin, and I expect that this will be my basic baby gift from now on.
But it brings up a question for me. Can I really justify buying another pattern book? Not right now, of course. I have a bunch of WIPs. I am just indulging in that gentle speculation about the next project after I finish Erin and my possum lace shawl. And the baby hats. And the quilt. You know.
Now that I have made a couple of skirts, I am thinking that I should knit some pretty blouse to wear with them. My knitting books — although I have quite a few — do not contain any such patterns.
Elsebeth Lavold of Viking Knitting fame has some very feminine designs out there.
Like this one from her “Summer Breeze” collection.
Note that it is just a basic cardigan shape with a shawl collar (I have instructions for that in one of my technique books) and a lace edging (I have lots of those in my stitch collections).
This one is from the same book.
Note that she has simply put a lace panel into the raglan seaming.
This is from her “Sophisticated Lady” collection.
She also has a new book, called “Enchanted Garden,” which has several styles of this kind.
The trouble is, I look at these very pretty sweaters and think, “Okay, she put lace in at the raglan shaping. I can do that without spending $16 on the book.”
In general, I like to buy technique books, not pattern books. If you buy a book for the pattern, you are adding $16 to the $40 or so in yarn and ending up with an expensive sweater.
If you buy a book for the technique, you can make a lot of things over the course of years, pro-rating the cost of the book over all those Viking motifs you knit, or all those clogs and bags you felt, or all that Fair Isle you do, and justify the whole thing as part of your education as a fiber artist.
On the other hand, following someone’s well thought out pattern allows you to embark on your sweater with confidence, not with the expectation of having to redo the lace-at-the-raglan bit eight times before getting it right. It also cuts down severely on the math.
And — and this gets back to the original point — there is also the fact that Lavold thought of putting the lace into the raglan. I think of plenty of things, but I did not think of that. Doesn’t she deserve some credit, and maybe some royalties, for having thought of it? As Go Knit in your Hat sensibly points out, it is only the fastest and most prolific knitters that can reasonably claim that they have to be really frugal with their hobby. At the rate of two sweaters a year, I am spending a lot less than, say, a golfer, even if I bought a new book for every sweater I made. Should I not take responsibility enough to help support the knitting designers I admire, rather than just snitching their ideas?
If we all just used free patterns off the web, eventually the knitting designers would have to give up and get other jobs.
What do you think? How many projects do you have to make from one book before you are justified in buying the book? And is there ever a circumstance in which you ought to buy the book?
you are fairly the knitting pro already besides the patterns which many you could get online why would you buy the books? The honor for those who design is seeng their work put to good use no?…
We love books at our house, so it is never hard to justify buying them. 🙂 You can get lots of books used and at considerable discount from Amazon Marketplace…that helps some. I try to buy a book with a couple of patterns that I like to justify it. I will admit though, I just bought a quilt book in December for one awesome pattern in it. And like you said, I could have figured it out on my own…it is not so hard to see how they did it, but it seemed worth it for having the yardage all figured out as well as the clarity of instructions. That said, upon receipt of the book, I found several other unique patterns that I really like…so I think the book was justified. My own knitting book collection so far consists of a couple of books of family sized patterns…infant through adult…as I know I will get lots of mileage out of them. I have not yet bought a knitting book for just one superb pattern…but maybe I just haven’t seen the right pattern yet. Sometimes it is nice to have the pattern all worked out as then it is a pretty straightforward process. Of course, there is always the library and inter-library loan if you want to use a book for just one pattern without actually buying the book.
Buying a book so that the author will get the royalty is a very gracious and responsible thought. I tend to think that way myself, seeing the results of my actions when others don’t.
The guy that taught me to ride a motorcycle bemoaned the way motorists frequently run motorcyclists off the road, and then pointed out that I could ride between two cars in neighboring lanes.
I told him that every time he doesn’t use a full lane, he’s teaching the motorists around him that bikers don’t need a full lane, and in effect, it’s OK to run them off the road.
As someone who hopes to make a living (or at least a partial living) selling knitting instructions, I appreciate your attitude.
For other thoughts on this, see the Winter 05/06 issue of Vogue Knitting for an article that covers copyright law from the perspective of knitting directions.
I like the fact that she includes “Affix hat to nearest baby” as part of the instructions. 😀
RYN: Not ironic so much as inevitable. And it’s not three, it’s…um…six.
It’s not you or your monitor with the greens. Greens do NOT show up well in digital format. It’s just a fact of life. Yes, obvsiouly, greens do show up but depending on the shade, the digital version of the green may not match the real-life green very well. This makes me very sad as green is my absolute favorite color.
I like the Lavold designs, and if they took my fancy, I would by the book without any plans to knit any of them. My bookshelf is full of books like that. But I’m a spendthrift; I’m not someone to model.
Glad that old pattern is still getting used (even if it requires modification – I know I certainly placed a lot of reliance on the stretchiness of the wool I used for it) and I certainly don’t feel belittled at all! In fact I feel inspired to make another for the freshest crop of bairns around here.
Your work is lovely.
Regards, Lauren Eade