How is it Monday?

More to the point: how is it February?? 2025 is just rolling along even as the world becomes more of a dumpster fire.

Gather with your communities, fiber friends. Whether online or in-person, support each other, hold each other up with love and kindness. And when you've got the energy, however you're able to, be the change you want to see in this world.

I'm going to leave that as it is, for now. I'm still collecting my thoughts, and ordering my words on what's going on with our once-respectable southern neighbour. I will say this though, in true Newfoundland fashion, "Thank god we're surrounded by water!" while still holding as many of you as I can in my heart. 

So beyond the collapse of civility between nations, I managed some pattern work this week. Charts are nearly complete for four, yes, 4!, new designs, and basic pattern writing has begun on them. I plan for these to be a literal ebook: 4 patterns of similar items in one pdf... well 2 really because there will be a "standard" one with both charted and written instructions, and a second presented with low vision accessibility in mind (24pt sans serif font, emphasis shown with bold type instead of italics, minimal abbreviations to be clear with screen reader technology, etc). These four designs cover a number of double-knitting techniques, which I thought was a fun idea. These are quick to knit accessories too so just right to learn/try a little something while still being useful.

On the personal project front, I have 3 diamonds of length knit on Sleeve 2 of Roomie's cardigan now. And I put some rows into the birthday surprise gift too; O! I finally finished the chart for that. Whew! That was a bit of a marathon truth be told. When I reveal it that will make much more sense. I didn't get a start on Clue 2 of Common Thread's Keep It Secret Keep It Safe mkal unfortunately. My hands seemed drawn to DK weight yarns this week ;) I'm using Paton's Astra for both the cardigan and the birthday surprise (It's Roomie, they need to be able to safely go in the washer and dryer), again purchased locally. Top of the hill and around the corner in fact. Very handy.

What's on your needles and hooks, fiber friends? Any FOs (finished objects) from January? 

Yours in yarn and varying degrees of fogged brain,

Síle

What to Do During the Green Out

I can't be the only one who's thought "It's not easy being green" during the green out

If you've been anywhere near #KnittingTwitter or Instagram, you're probably aware of the green out. The grand logout from Ravelry that was originally March 31st to April 3rd, and is now going until April 6th, to silently(?) protest the continued dismissal of the accessibility issues with NuRav and show solidarity with those who've been hurt, and then gaslit, berated, etc. I logged out late on the 30th for probably the only time ever since acquiring my first smart phone.

Sadly, a lot of people were caught unawares on the 31st when Classic Rav was no-more around 9am Central time. The assumption had been that Classic Rav would go away after the 31st not on it. I sincerely hope no one was severely hurt by that completely petty move. 

I'm making do with the screenshots I took of my last few (I think there were 6 or 7) projects from 2010, and getting those put up on my project notebook blog. I've even started a couple projects lately so now I have an "in progress" tag for those.

I'm actually having fun going through my old projects and photos, and I look forward to going into Ravelry, for the brief amounts of time I can tolerate it, to retrieve more of them. I wish I'd thought of this idea to make a blog notebook sooner, but hindsight is truly 20/20 sometimes.

What are you doing during the green out? Are you finishing WIPs? Casting on new projects from patterns you've had in your library for awhile? Humming along with Kermit? Keeping on as you have been? 

Brief update on Jakey: In case you're wondering about him, my furball nephew is doing really well. Well, other than his latest stunt of trying to get in my bedroom window while still wearing The Cone. Um, yeah, furry nephew landing on me while I was asleep at 7am on a Sunday morning was not how I thought I'd be waking up today. As you can see though, he's none the worse for wear:

Silly boy. He'll be very glad to be rid of The Cone later this week.

A reminder: all of my patterns remain on sale for 25% off with the coupon code Jakey to help Jakey's Mom with his vet bill. You can shop directly from the pattern tab above.

Yours in yarn and sleepy furry nephew purrs,

Síle

Preparing to Leave

As many of you know, so-called Classic Rav ceases to exist at the end of this month. And I, like many others, am leaving as close to then as possible. It will still look like I'm there as I'll be keeping my account open in order to maintain control of my pattern listings. However that will be the only activity my account will see after March 31st.

Now that creates a whole bunch of headaches after being active on the site for so many years (I joined in September of 2009; before the site reached half a million members!) I've logged projects and stash, even projects I made before Rav existed! Some of the projects have photos that don't exist elsewhere! 

In order to keep all of my photos and notes from my older projects, plus my new ones, I've started a second blog. It will only have projects on it, no rambles off into dance or whatever else. Unless for some reason I noted it in the project notes. And believe me my notes can be quite interesting if not downright odd at times!

I've added a link in the sidebar of this blog to the new blog, which I've named Síle's Yarning Notebook🔗. I'm going oldest to newest, more or less, so there's some rarely seen projects of mine coming to light right now if you'd like to take a looksee. I have a feeling we may see a resurgence in yarn blogs (knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning) in the coming months as crafters set up new online spaces to keep their projects organized.

So far, (8 projects in) everything has been from books, leaflets, or ball bands, which I've been noting with the pattern information but when I get to online patterns I will be including Off-Rav links for everyone's interest and safety where possible. If it's a pattern only on Rav, I'll be making that clear as well without a link.

So there you have my latest project!

Oh, speaking of things I've learned to do because of needing to set up my own spot here on the interwebs due to Those People Too Bullheaded (see what I did there? TPTB hee hee), if you look at my patterns tab, you'll see that instead of a big long line on one side my pattern photos are all in a nice grouping. I learned where to paste bits of code and how to add the right links in the right spots to make them do that yesterday. :) I'm quite pleased with myself over that. If anyone else is in need of an easy to follow guide for making a clickable gallery, you can find it here: xomisse.com 🔗

Silver (the elder of my furry nieces) is squawking at me in that near bird-like tone of hers that usually means she's done something to Jakey, so I better make sure he's alright lol

Yours in yarn and old project photos,

Síle

Catching Up

 It was "Bell Let's Talk Day" here in Canada this Thursday. It's a mostly social media based initiative to get telecommunications giant Bell to part with some of their massive profits by way of donating 5 cents for every interaction (shared tweet, Instagram, or TikTok post with one of the hashtags, call or text made using Bell's network) made during that calendar day across the country to mental health initiatives. Let's Talk is about starting the conversation around mental health and erasing the stigmas associated with it.

Many people take the time to use the day to highlight their own struggles or initiatives they support that are frontline organizations that do the work 365 days a year. I do a lot of retweeting on Let's Talk day, and make sure to use the hashtag on any of my open tweets, not necessarily responses depending on whether the other person has used it or not. 

What I didn't plan to do this year was open up about how my chronic pain and the resulting brain fog has an impact on my mental health. But after receiving and responding to an email from a friend in an online group who was concerned I hadn't checked in for quite a number of days, it just tumbled out of me and into a twitter thread. You can find it here if you're interested.

That's the thing about mental health: it's inextricably linked to physical health. Depression and anxiety begin to have physical repercussions. Losing one's mobility often leads a person down a path to depressive thoughts if not outright depression. I'm a firm believer that healthcare should mean all aspects of health: mental, physical, dental, and eyes. Having a problem with any of them left untreated can lead to severe illness and/or death.

So that's where my thoughts have remained since Thursday. What ways can I be there for those around me, and not just in person but online as well, and not just on Let's Talk day but the entire 365 days a year (366 in leap years)?

I don't have any knitting progress to share today. In complete honesty, I don't think I've done more than a stitch or two this last week or so. I am feeling a bit better physically since I started on the new course of vitamins and iron; definitely a plus :) I wish my appointment with the specialist weren't all the way in May but we are in the midst of a pandemic and waits are longer to accommodate the extra precautions. "Better safe than sorry!" to be totally cliched about it. Ah, well. Hopefully my next post will have photos of yarny things again.

Yours in deep thoughts,

Síle

New Ways to Find Things

There's been a lot of discussion about how the fiber arts community that can't and/or won't use R*velry can find each other. Here are some ways to find and/or connect with this part of the community.

There are a few websites that have been set up; you'll find a link to the Fiber Indy List in the sidebar (full disclosure: I'm listed there), but also there's the Accessible Patterns Index (I'm also listed there; 11 of my 15 patterns include Low Vision Accessible pdfs) and the Yarn Database.

Websites are great for finding designers and patterns, but what about other crafters? There are healthy crafting communities on Instagram and Twitter! And the easiest way to find them is through hashtags. Through polls and discussions this last week or so, Twitter user BirdieToldMe (@kaysaraahsaraah) has helped to add some hashtags we can use to search for other crafters, as well as designers, indy dyers, and notions makers; talk about finding your community! #RavelryAccessibility, which was coined during the first throes of NuRav to enable ease in finding out what was going on when forum threads were being locked and archived almost as soon as they started has been decided to be left to information posts, and these are the decided upon hashtags to use on pertinent community posts: #OffRav , #OffRavDesigners ,  #InclusiveYarnCommunity and on Wednesdays be sure to use #WIPWednesdayOffRav on your progress pics. By following these tags on Instagram and Twitter, you'll quickly find the vibrant communities existing on both social media sites.

You may be wondering why I've capitalized each word in the above hashtags. It makes them readable to screen readers instead of being garbled, and also easier to read by individuals with sight issues and some who are neurodiverse. I find them easier to figure out as a glasses wearer since age 9 ½. Unfortunately, this means typing out the hashtags every time instead of relying on auto fill or the suggestions that pop up. But I think those extra few seconds are worth it to make the hashtags accessible and inclusive. If we want to say we have an #InclusiveYarnCommunity, we can show it by our hashtags.

Some designers have set up new places to house their forums as well. Louise Tilbrook moved her "Everyday Knitters" group off of Facebook earlier this summer to a new home on Mighty Networks. Tania Richter had been using Discord; I'm not sure if she's still using it due to her extra severe migraine and subsequent medical appointments/corrective lenses/minimizing time of any kind of online activity/medications. I've heard others are trying to incorporate fora into their existing sites, but I'm not aware of anyone who has this up and running just yet; if you're aware of anyone who does, please let me know in the comments below so I can boost it. 

I've given my R*velry group members a heads up that the group will be disappearing before the Classic Rav deadline is up. As of this writing, I haven't decided how, or if, to replace the group. It was never as much as a hub as I'd hoped. I'll be hosting test knits via either Fiberly or Yarnpond going forward, which was the main reason for my group's existence, so I don't feel I really need one right now. Something to think of in the future maybe. 

Yours in yarn and hashtags,

Síle