Arcus and the NYT

It's new release day here, which means I'm battling with out internet to upload a 1.4mb pattern file and 300kb images and swearing at Tiscali! This is our new and improved service, at that.

Now that I've got that moan out of my system, let me talk about my news!

This is Arcus, which has just been published on Etsy, Payhip, Ravelry etc! I'll be sending the newsletter out shortly.

There's an interesting story to this design.

I cast this on, as a whim, when I was at iKnit London one evening with my dear friend who died this past spring, Liz. I'd got a skein of yarn, no doubt purchased it in the shop, and needed something to knit as I'd no doubt forgotten to take any knitting with me (I've mentioned my ADHD before, right?). The yarn I knit the Hat in wasn't ideal but carried on knitting it anyway as it kept my fingers busy.

I eventually found a new yarn for it and chatted to the folks at Simply Knitting to see if it was something they'd be interested in publishing it. And they were!

So at some point in 2012 they published it as a 'Cabled Gathering' (sorry, I don't when exactly... I'm wasn't too sure at the time)

I wasn't 100% sure about the design - I mean, it worked and I'd had it tech edited but I suspect it was a combination of yarn and photos that I wasn't sure about, so I didn't republish when the rights reverted to me. No-one from the Simply Knitting team added the pattern to the Ravelry database and as I wasn't too sure when it was published and wasn't so keen on the photos, I didn't either.

Fast forward a few years to around 2017 when I was working with Craftsy developing patterns for kits and I remembered that I had this design, and proposed it to them. I reknit the sample in one of their worsted weight yarns and tried to get shots on a very young Ivy-Mae (of PWT4Kids and Aerial fame) but they weren't great shots at all. It went on to be 'Arcus' at Craftsy, and it didn't do too badly as a kit. But not great enough to warrant me knitting a new sample to try and get better photos that I'd be willing to self-publish (Craftsy used their own sample). No-one from the Craftsy team added it to the Ravelry database and neither did I.

Then at some point early last year, I remembered that I'd still not published this design (STILL) and grabbed some Malabrigio Rios from my work stash to see if I could finally find a good yarn match for this pattern. And it worked! But I didn't have any decent buttons and the pandemic had just hit so going to the local haberdashery shop wasn't going to happen any time soon.

So it sat, finished and tech edited, for another 6 months or so until I finally decided to order some buttons from The Textile Garden. And then we happened to be doing a photoshoot with one of our regular models, Lucia the fire performer, and after further 6 months or so I finally sewed on the buttons to give photos for this Hat one more try.

And now, roughly 10 years after I sat with Liz at knit group that night talking about poor yarn choices for cables, it's finally being published. It's a shame Liz isn't here to see it and I've been thinking of her as I press the 'publish now' button on all the platforms.

Thanks to it's construction and how I've written the instructions, this Hat can be knit in many more yarn weights to many more sizes than the pattern dictates. There are repeat points for both width and depth noted on the chart - it has both fully charted as well as written instructions - so you can adjust it as needed. 

The original pattern hasn't been changed much, except fresh tech editing to double check my maths and drop it into the new layout with my new standards, and given just how adjustable it is I didn't see much point in adding to the 4 sizes it originally included - which is a long way of saying don't be put off by the seemingly largest size of 21in!

And that NYT thing? Yeah.... I did an interview for the New York Times a few weeks back. Not so much about knitting but more about moving my business to Estonia and trying to Brexit-proof ourselves. Woolly Wormhead gets a mention though! In the NY friggin' Times!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/world/europe/uk-brexit-estonia-business.html

As I say, the name mentioned is not my real name nor is it a name I use - I kindly ask that this doesn't get used anywhere or by anyone, that everyone still calls me Woolly - thank you! I wasn't aware they'd want a real-sounding name before the phone call and kinda panicked! Heyho. (if I had a workshop still of me face-palming I'd be sharing that right now).

I wasn't actually sure my interview would get published because I’d refused to give them my real name, but they publish it and I've been mentioned in the NYT. (I only learnt today that it did get published, after another journalist contacted me, and since I started sharing the link all of the anxiety I felt before, during and after that 30 minute phone-call has come flooding back! :s)

And now I'm off to finish the newsletter and prepare myself for another journalist interview (yikes).