The Keyboard Biologist Gets a Makeover

How do you like my new look? I'm ecstatic about it! The fabulous Becky, put some of her design skills to work for me and came up with something very wonderful. It's so crisp and clean and fun! Be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom so that you don't miss the fun in the footer. Nothing like getting something done by someone who knows what they're doing. There's dancing Chez Keyboard Biologist tonight!

It wasn't exactly timed this way, but the arrival of my brand new look (at least on this page, the rest of the site will migrate gradually as I find time to convert my old pages) is happening exactly as I put my very first pattern up for sale. Chicago is now available through me and my website. Just scroll down a bit on this page until you see the "patterns" section on the side bar. The "Buy Now" button will let you use PayPal to purchase the pattern for the "Blue Line" edition of Chicago. Click on the picture to find out more information about the pattern.

As soon as I see a message in my inbox from PayPal with your email, I'll send you the PDF version of the pattern. Please be patient with me if the turn around isn't instantaneous. I just can't monitor my email 24/7. But I will try to get your pattern to you in 24 hours or less. I don't want to collect too much personal information, but please make sure that I get your full name and email address. Hopefully in the future I'll get a little more hi-tech.

If I was talking about a pattern of someone else's that I finished, I would be writing a "what did I learn" segment here to close it out. I've still got a lot of ideas for Chicago variations, but it feels like I've cleared the first hurdle here.

So what did I learn about the pattern design process?

• Take notes. Even if something seems easy, and like something I should remember, chances are that three weeks later, I won't. As in science, reproduceability is important in a pattern for a knitted item. Keeping a "lab notebook" of the process is critical when you're trying to put everything together at the end.
• It's hard to take good pictures. And I think it's fair to say that the ones I've got are serviceable, but not top notch. It's time to learn a little more about my camera and about photo composition.
• Get people to help proof the pattern. There's nothing like having a second set of eyes to look at what I've written after I've looked at it umpteen times. I learned a lot from the people who pre-screened it for me. Thanks again to Julie, Bonne Marie and Steph for taking the time to look it through and give me their feedback. Steph also gets extra special thanks for test knitting the bag. It was such an incredible thing to see my little pattern work in someone else's hands.
• Make at least one following the instructions as written in the pattern. For the Kureyon version of Chicago, I forced myself to read every line.
• Good formatting is harder than you think. I hate MS Word even under the best of circumstances. Using it to make a pattern fit into a reasonable number of pages can be painful.

Bottom Line: It's almost as much work to put the pattern together as it is to create the design in the first place.

And even when it's over, it's not over. I want everyone who spends their hard earned money on my pattern to have the best possible experience. Felting is a somewhat mystical process involving wool and water. If you do the bag in something different than Cascade 220 or Kureyon, I'd love to know about the results. Then I can share them with others and we all benefit. And I love pictures. I'd like to create a Chicago gallery. If you make this bag, send me a picture and tell me what yarn you used to make the bag and I'll put all the info on display for everyone who comes to visit me here.

So what next?

Well, I'm going to put the felted bags down for a while and finish up a few things for some of the wonderful people in my life. The Shadow Boxes Cardigan for my mom, a winter headband for John. When I was visiting ThreadBear I puchased a skein of Cascade Indulgence -- it's 70% alpaca and 30% angora and soft as an angel's wing. Just perfect for my sweetie who likes everything soft. Even better, the yarn was on sale. Apparently Cascade is closing it out so it can be had for ~$9/246 yards from my favorite online LYS. Not a bad deal. Here's the swatch:

Headband Swatch in Indulgence

This pattern is "Diamond Brocade" from the 365 Knitting Stitches a Year calendar (December 11). I've put 4 rows of seed stitch on either side. The hubster informed me that the fabric was a little too thin so I am going to create a tube with the patten on one side and plain stockinette on the back so that he can get a little more warmth from it. The yarn is surprisingly elastic when knit up. Hopefully it won't take me too long to figure out the right mechanics.

And one last thing... it's KIP night at Letizia's. We're doing something special, so if you can, please bring a couple of Christmas ornaments with you. One to trade and one for someone special.