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Things I Have Learnt About Making Craft VideosPosted by on Saturday 13 June, 2009 01:35 PM 1: don't press the bit on the camera that says "don't press here" 2: it's really hard to have the camera in the right spot for filming and still be able to tell if your hands are in shot 3: its incredibly annoying to have to rely on your chronically disorganised husband to find things because the camera used to be his and then your daughter borrowed it and didn't give it back 4: it's impossible to film anything with other people in the house 5: i need a manicure 6: i don't have the necessary connection on my computer to get the video off the camera 7: the second that you clear an area to film in, people will fill it up with random stuff that they couldn't be bothered putting away luckily i'm intelligent enough to have not done #1 an i'm hoping that dh (disorganised husband) will be fixing #6 tomorrow after a trip to the computer swapmeet Even More New Embroidery Designs!Posted by on Sunday 5 April, 2009 07:38 AM I have added more vintage nursery designs to the embroidery section today and they all include bunnies, just in time for Easter! I've added the missing bunny to the Semco transfer booklet #1, some bunny and dancing pig designs from around 1930-40 and a set of Weldon's nursery designs from the 20's-30's, including the darling pony below plus bunnies, a mouse with a toadstool house and lots more!
Check out the "Vintage Transfers and Booklets" section on the embroidery page to see what's new and watch out for more tomorrow when I hope to add more nursery designs and a couple of grownup ones too :) New Free Embroidery DesignsPosted by on Saturday 4 April, 2009 10:39 AM I have added 2 new embroidery designs to the Embroidery and Sewing section. The new designs are a floral spray inspired by my bathroom tiles and a set of patriotic US kitten designs from WW2. Including this gem ;-)
I've been spending time scanning my entire collection of public domain embroidery transfers so look for a lot more new designs as I clean the scanned images and add them to the website Replies and ThingsPosted by on Tuesday 27 January, 2009 07:31 PM I thought I'd better let people who are leaving questions for me in the blog comments know that I do try and reply to everyone who is asking about a pattern or project from this website, or about my book etc. I reply privately so that I know the person who asks the question sees the answer which is why you don't see my replies in the blog comments. I have about a zillion things I wish I had time to post about and hope to get to the interesting ones once Charlie and I have some sort of established routine. I've never breast-fed a baby before so I don't know when that will be (Sorry if that was too much information, lol) :P Topics include: Sewing for baby boys - things I have made and learning to draft a pair of simple baby pants The year of the toy - I have many vintage sewing and knitting patterns to share! I'm pretty sure they date from the 1930's to the 1950's so I can put the patterns online. Oya and Armenian needle lace - I have some amazing book-finds to tell you about And I want to see if I can find at least an hour a day to update the website with all the things that have been pending for far too long. That will take longer to work out, I'm sure. I also might redesign the home page into a smaller number of topics, for example: Sewing - with a list of the sewing related topics underneath, rather than each topic having a separate thumbnail. We'll see how I go anyway...
Catching UpPosted by on Thursday 22 January, 2009 02:54 PM I'm just catching up replying to emails and ravelry messages that I have missed over the last 6 or so weeks. My apologies to anyone who has waited half of forever for a reply but baby comes first. And sleep. Precious sleep :) Contacting MePosted by on Thursday 3 July, 2008 08:11 PM The contact form has been temporarily disabled due to spamming. If you need to contact me please leave a comment on this blog post. Web Host Costs - A Little Help Still RequiredPosted by on Friday 6 June, 2008 03:37 PM I'm still $100 or so short to pay for my web host costs for the next year because they skyrocketed after I added the KnitWiki to the website, followed by a minor car accident, a banking stuff up and other fun stuff that ate up all of my savings. They come due in just 10 days and I'm freaking out just a bit! If you have enjoyed using any aspect of Knitting-and.com and would like to lend a hand I'd really appreciate it. I hate asking for help and will probably go and have a good cry about it after I post this but if you would like to help I have posted some destash yarns and a pair of hand carders for sale on my Ravelry Stash for Trade or Sale page*, or can accept Paypal donations made out to sarah@knitting-and.com I will also be posting my beloved but unused Ettrick spinning wheel for sale tomorrow**. * Please be assured that these are items I was going to sell regardless. I was having a major destash before I realised that my bank had stuffed up my pay cheque this morning. ** If you're interested in the wheel before I post pics drop me a line. It's an Ettrick Original with 5 bobbins and I'm asking $500. You will need to pick up near Wollongong. New cost is over $1,700 Almost That Time of Year AgainPosted by on Friday 2 May, 2008 01:29 PM It's almost time for me to pay the webhost for the following year. Since we moved to a virtual private server it costs a lot more than it used to, about AUD$700 a year and due to unforseen circumstances eating up all of our family savings, I need your help! So, how can you help and get something great as well?
If you buy a copy of my "Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book" in pdf form from Ravelry you'll help me pay for the web host, you'll help Ravelry earn a few $ and you'll get a great book (well I think so!) with 45 hat styles and variations. You can knit the hats with any yarn from your stash, in a range of 17 different sizes from teeny tiny preemie, all the way up to "my goodness you have a big head"! I need to sell 40 or more copies to cover the webhost and give Ravelry and Paypal their commissions. Please spread the word! Click here to find out more or If you don't wish to buy a copy of the book but still want to contribute, I can also accept donations straight to my Paypal account. Please note: Your purchase will show as "Pork Pie Hat" in Paypal but you will receive the whole book of patterns. The Links Page is Back!Posted by on Thursday 24 April, 2008 11:21 AM I finally got around to replacing the links page. Rather than just a big mishmash of shared links, I've listed only my favourite websites, services, and places to buy things. I hope that this is a lot more useful than a huge list of people who I have never heard of before just asking me to put their link on my website to improve their google ranking :P GobsmackedPosted by on Saturday 15 March, 2008 06:04 PM This never fails to set off my inner "squee"
People on Ravelry have made 922 projects from Knitting-and.com. Gobsmacked. Totally :) Everything's Working NowPosted by on Monday 1 October, 2007 07:50 AM Everything that you guys see on the website is working now. Tech help are still trying to get my owner's interface working again, but that won't affect you guys. Technical DifficultiesPosted by on Sunday 30 September, 2007 09:49 AM The website is experiencing technical difficulties at the moment. Please excuse me if anything malfunctions while I try and get technical support to help. Done!Posted by on Sunday 24 June, 2007 12:22 PM The contact form still isn't working but everything else is now functioning properly! I have also installed recaptcha in my blog and have turned off comment moderating. This means we can finally have proper discussions in the comments of posts without the threat of spamming or everyone having to wait for me to allow comments through. Nearly There & What's Coming UpPosted by on Sunday 24 June, 2007 10:20 AM The server move is nearly complete. I successfully reinstalled the photo gallery, only to realise that most of the photos were missing so I'm uploading them now and will need to reinitialise the software to get them to show up. My comments form is also not working so if you need to contact me you can email me at sarah at knitting-and dot com in the meantime. I have lots of new and exciting things to add to the website once everything is working again, more than enough for at least a year or two! I will be adding a whole section on using these (including the contents of this booklet):
These are vintage Singercraft tools which are used to make all sorts of things. You can use them to make shag pile rugs, toys, patterned tufted fabrics, fancy trimmings for sewing, afghans, monograms among other things. I have loads of public domain instructions that I'm going to put online, plus I'm going to have a play with using them and see what projects I can come up with. Carol from the Butterfly Loom has issued me with a challenge to see how many different techniques I can come up with for using her butterfly looms.
We had a great conversation about the looms and she gave me lots of ideas to play with. I plan to wind, weave, felt and fringe my way into oblivion with those. And I'll share all the instructions with you :-) I succumbed to temptation (and the fact that I really love my Clover suffolk puff yo-yo makers) and purchased these from ebay to complete my Clover yo-yo maker collection. The flower and heart come in two sizes, big and small. I bought both.
So expect some sewing projects using those :-) Come to think of it, I've almost finished making the 1,600 suffolk puffs for the coverlet I'm making so I could document how I sew it together and make that a sewing project for the website. I will also be adding a section to the website about Teneriffe lace and the Polka Spider Web tools. I have several booklets from 1939 that I want to make available for download, plus a huge collection of different shaped pin templates that I have drawn up. Here's a photo of the cover of one of the vintage booklets for a teaser:
This booklet has instructions and templates for 6 square designs and 6 round designs. I'm not sure whether they were originally all in one booklet but the full set of instructions is there for all 12 designs. I will also be investigating texture and multicolour weaves on the weavette looms, inspired by this photo by abmatic that I found on flickr.
Add those to all the things I was already doing (knitting wiki, home work book, vintage embroidery patterns, original and vintage sewing patterns etc) and I think that will be enough new stuff for a couple of years at least! Getting TherePosted by on Saturday 23 June, 2007 12:33 PM The faqs, wiki and blogs are now working correctly. I'm now going to (fingers crossed) reconfigure the gallery and will hopefully have it functioning within the next few hours. I REALLY hope I'm not asked to upgrade servers again within the next millennium or so :-P We May Experience Technical DifficultiesPosted by on Friday 22 June, 2007 08:55 AM Right after I write this I'm going to set the knitting-and.com domain name to point to the new server. This means that, after it switches over, the wiki, photo albums and faqs won't work until I reconfigure the software that runs them. So don't panic if something looks broken. If the fates are willing it shouldn't stay that way for long! This, That and the Other ThingPosted by on Wednesday 20 June, 2007 10:17 AM Techy Website Stuff The move to the new server is going well, despite my broadband being speed limited at the moment because we used up our monthly bandwidth limit 2 weeks ago. Good news is that it should reset and speed up tomorrow. I do have to install image magick and netpbm myself using shell access. I've never done this sort of thing before but (fingers crossed) I can get it up and going. At the moment I'm uploading the website files to the new server. It takes a while to upload a gig on a speed limited connection (a couple of days). Suffolk Puffing 1,404 suffolk puff yo-yos made. 196 puffs and a whole lot of sewing together to go (by August 19th). I'm cautiously confident about getting it finished in time. I'm also saving some fabric to make myself a couple of cushion covers, although I won't be using them until we buy our own house. KnitWiki The spam protection methods I installed seem to be working well. We haven't had any spam users sign up since I installed recaptcha. Once the server move is finished I'm going to install it in my blog as well so that commenters won't have to wait for me to approve comments. Hopefully this will encourage readers to have some sort of discussion in the comments. Bink's Skully Jumper Haven't gotten any further since the last post because suffolk puffs and website moves are taking up all my time. Must work on it some more so she can wear it before Spring :-P Hat Book Rewrite The rewrite of my hat book remains unfinished due to many reasons. As soon as the website and the yo-yo quilt are done I'm going to work on nothing else until it's finished and sent to the illustrator that I have in mind so they can see if they want to work on it. I do apologise to everyone who's been emailing me after a copy. After deciding to rewrite the book we have had a death in the family, sold our home, moved 900km, been homeless for 8 months (our family of three lived in a single room at my Dad's house and were really grateful to have somewhere to stay at all), had our possessions in storage for about a year, lost two dear pets to cancer and are only just getting sorted out and back on track. I am terrible at multi-tasking so I have to make it the next priority. If I don't have it released in time for Christmas you all have permission to send me hate mail. Actually, I'm going to go and work on it now while my ftp program uploads files. Photo Albums, Wiki and BlogPosted by on Monday 18 June, 2007 12:10 PM I'm just backing up the photo gallery, wiki and blog in order to backup the installations for the move to the new server. This means they may go offline for a while in order to ensure that what I am backing up will reinstall properly on the new server. The rest of the site will still be working. Thanks for your patience. I Like My New Web HostPosted by on Monday 18 June, 2007 05:19 AM They may constantly overestimate my technical knowledge when it comes to servers and stuff, but they do help out awfully quickly. I received a message this morning that PHP 5 has been installed. Now I have to ask them if image magick and/or netpbm is installed. Hopefully if it isn't I can install it myself. A very kind person on the mediawiki user's forum has offered to help out if I have any trouble but hopefully I'll be OK. If you use mediawiki software check out the forum at http://www.mwusers.com. Most of the people there are incredibly helpful and kind. And geeky. In a good way :-) Now I just have to finish backing up the website on it's current server and I can start uploading and setting up. I'm backing up the gallery because I accidentally deleted the backup on my computer and I can't undelete it because it was too large for the recycle bin to hold. Plus I have to back up the last 107 images I uploaded to the wiki and backup both databases. I've been backing them up every day but I want to make sure I have the latest versions to go on the new server. At least it won't be disastrous if I lose the images from the wiki. They'll still be in the database so the links will be in all the articles so I could just upload them again. I have them on my computer but since mediawiki puts them in random folders when you upload a file it's easier to just download them when you make a backup. OK, that was boring for everyone who came here for a needlework post. PS: Yes, I know it's awfully early. Insomnia struck at 4:30 am so I gave in and got out of bed. VPS and BiscornuPosted by on Sunday 17 June, 2007 11:06 AM I think I have figured out how to use the new virtual private server thing that my webhost made me upgrade to. We're just having a "discussion" about how they've moved me from a server with php 5 (needed to run the wiki) to a server with php 4, and what they're going to do about it. I've been told I didn't "request" it when I ordered the vps. When they told me I had to upgrade they didn't mention that I would have to make a special request in order to have exactly the same version of php that I was using put on the new server. I'm annoyed but they're pretty good at sorting these things out so hopefully they'll get it fixed asap. I don't know if they have installed imagemagick and netpbm yet. I'm not going to ask about that until I have the php issue resolved. I'm envisioning having to learn to install them myself, which means I'll have to figure out shell access and all that kind of thing. Luckily I have an ftp program that includes telnet and shell so as long as the documentation is good I might be able to do it. Lest I start sounding like I know what I'm talking about, I can assure you I don't. I'm just repeating what the various "how to" manuals I have read say. I don't pretend to understand it at all. But I can follow instructions as long as they're not too jargonish so maybe I'll be OK. On the needlework side of things, I just found out about biscornu. Biscornu are cute little embroidered pincushions made from two squares. They're cleverly stitched together with a decorative seam with the corners offset to produce a shaped eight sided cushion. They're usually finished off with buttons or a charm in the centre. I'm putting one of these on my "to do" list after I finish my suffolk puff/yo-yo coverlet and Miss Binky's jumper. In case you'd like to try them too, here are some instructions :-) Panic Stations - A Small Vent and Game Plan (Sort of)Posted by on Friday 15 June, 2007 09:34 AM I received notification this morning that the new virtual private server has been set up. That's the good news. (At the time of writing this the site is still running off the shared server). Bad news is that even though I was assured I can run this website on the new server with only the skills I told them I had (some HTML and the ability to reinstall my databses using PHPadmin), I can't even figure out how to log in to the damn thing to even start setting stuff up. And the cost is blowing out much higher than I had anticipated and just gets more expensive by the second. I'm beginning to panic. I expected $40 US per month, which has already gone up to $50 per month because I need them to install cpanel because I don't know how to run a website using anything else. Luckily the extra $10 also includes upgrades to php and other things I don't know how to run. However it doesn't include the licenses to use these other products and I'm in a panic that it's going to blowout the cost to over double that. Is the knitting wiki worth the extra cost of $500 to $1200 per year? I have no idea. If it gets too popular then I'll have to upgrade to a dedicated server and that starts at $100 per month before any addons. And the wiki has only been online for 3 and a half months. Without any ongoing sponsorship or people making regular monthly donations I'm afraid the cost is going to get totally out of control, let alone the technical aspects of running my own server. What do I need to get this under control? I need: *Someone I can trust that has the skills needed to run a virtual private server or dedicated server (if we need to upgrade again) *Someone with PHP and CSS skills - the wiki needs a new skin to make it look more professional *Short term lend of the skills of a graphic designer. We need a decent logo and someone to work with the php and css person to design the layout of the wiki skin *Regular monthly donations. I'm going to see if I can set up buttons in the donations section so people can sign up to make a regular monthly donation of 5 or 10 dollars as well as single one-off donations if they choose. Recent donations covered the cost of paying for one year (at $50 per month, not the anticipated $40) and emergency purchase of a new modem when mine fried itself a few weeks ago but it's all gone already. Believe it or not, a regular $5 donation makes a huge difference. If 25 people signed up to make a monthly $5 donation that would cover the basic cost of a dedicated server. On a more content related basis we need: *People to add photos to the pages on http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Category:Pages_Requiring_Photographs *People willing to add their favourite public domain knitting patterns. These can be scanned images from the original vintage books or typed. You'll find copyright info at *People to add their favourite (free and purchasable) patterns and pattern tips to the favourite patterns category at: Got a favourite knitting podcast? Tell us all about it and where to find them by adding an article to the podcast category: If it's about anything to do with knitting please feel free to add it! Even if you just paste in plain text another user can always some along and add the appropriate category, links etc. I guess I should post some of this to the wiki too. Wiki Stuff UpsPosted by on Tuesday 22 May, 2007 12:34 PM My apologies for the recent stuff-up with the wiki URLs not working properly over the last day or two. It's fixed now, so all offsite links to the wiki will now work properly. I apologise for the inconvenience but I hadn't realised my previous fix was redirecting everyone who followed a link to the home page without the index.html at the end of the URL to the wiki, instead of where it was supposed to go. Update on fund raisingPosted by on Monday 21 May, 2007 11:50 AM I want to keep everyone up to date with how the fund raising to keep knitting-and.com online went last night. First of all, I can't tell you all how grateful I am that you were concerned enough to help out with donations and also all the really nice notes that people sent privately. I appreciate it a great deal. Having put 11 years of work into the site, knowing that knitting-and.com is a resource that people value enough to help out in a crisis means a lot to me. In 24 hours you have donated all but $22 that was needed to keep the website running. That's an enormous amount of effort and generosity on your part. The web host has also given me time to get all the money together to pay for the virtual private server without removing the wiki and in future years I will be able to pay for it without any problems (having a year to come up with the money instead of 24 hours makes it a lot easier!) Thank you. Emergency Funding Help NeededPosted by on Sunday 20 May, 2007 09:14 AM I have some bad news. The wiki is too popular. It may sound funny that that's a bad thing but the consequences are pretty bad. I received a message from my web host this morning saying that I have to move my website to a virtual private server because I am using one and a half times the resources they allocate to my type of web host service. If I don't tell them what I'm going to do within 24 hours they will shut down the whole knitting-and.com site. They've given me 24 hours to find around US$470 for the hosting. That's not the kind of money I usually have lying around for emergencies considering one of my jobs pays me once a month and my 2nd job pays me one once every six months... If you would like to donate even a dollar or two to help out I'd really appreciate it. You can use the donate page at http://www.knitting-and.com/donate.htm or paypal to me at sarah @ knitting-and . com (without the spaces) I'm really in a panic because of the tiny amount of time they've given me. Sarah, knitting-and.com KnitWiki host. Back to NormalPosted by on Monday 14 May, 2007 06:21 PM Emergency over. Everything but the doctor who wiki is working fine. I need to find out how to use a different style of short url for the doctorwho wiki because the one I was using won't work any more and the one I used for the knitting wiki won't work for the dr who one. 50/50Posted by on Monday 14 May, 2007 04:43 PM The gallery is now working but the wiki is not redirecting properly. I'm going to have to remove the short url function and redo it. DonationsPosted by on Wednesday 7 February, 2007 10:37 AM After much deliberation (several year's worth!) I have decided to add a "donate" page to the website so that visitors who wish to do so can contribute to the day-to-day running costs. Hopefully this means that I will be able to spend more time adding new content. I want to add: About 300 vintage knitting booklets (no, that isn't a typo. I have that many!), Approximately 30 sheets of vintage embroidery transfers, About 10 vintage crochet booklets A new section dedicated to knitting for the troops (from WW1 to today), I need to finish the Home work knitting collection once and for all (I love it but it needs to be finished) I'm deliberating on whether I should also add the Home Work crochet collection... I have an enormous amount of information to add to the daisy looms section And I want to get the Knitting and Spinning Wikis off the ground (and possibly a weaving wiki too). Over the years (eleven of them!!!) many people have expressed their desire to do something for me in return for all the information I have provided. I hope this is one solution. :-) Even More New Stuff!Posted by on Thursday 4 May, 2006 12:15 PM Firstly, some new photo albums: Campbelltown Show needlework and crafts display Nowra Air Show (this year's theme was vintage aircraft) I've also added a picture of a Dr Who Scarf that I made to the pattern, and have added the yardage for the skeins of yarn I used. I've also repaired all links that went to patterns and articles from the now defunct Southern Cross Knitting Magazine. The articles and patterns that I wrote are now housed here on Knitting-and.com, including the very popular Lucy's Diamond Scarf. In the near future I'll be adding a whole section on book reviews, beginning with the reviews I wrote for Southern Cross Knitting, with new titles added whenever I read something new! Free Patterns Coming Soon!Posted by on Sunday 25 September, 2005 10:33 AM I just thought I'd get you all excited about my upcoming collection of free patterns :-) They will be: I'm just waiting for the Himalayan hat to dry so I can work out how much yarn I used. New Free Pattern!Posted by on Thursday 8 September, 2005 09:04 PM
Excuse MePosted by on Sunday 28 August, 2005 10:22 AM Sorry for any inconvenience re not being able to read stuff, but the blog is going to look funky while I change the templates to the new design. I Hope You Like PinkPosted by on Friday 26 August, 2005 07:37 PM Things are going to look a bit funky around knitting-and.com for a few hours while I upload a new website design. The new files should be uploaded by tomorrow, then I'll have to do a bit of tweaking here and there. What do you think of this?Posted by on Thursday 4 August, 2005 05:34 PM I know I should be doing other things (ie: packing), but I couldn't resist the urge to make some graphics and play with a new website design. (Thanks Relle for the advice on changing the colours).
What do you think? It's a variation of the Parchini colourway, with a very slightly darker orange and a paler shade of the pink instead of mauve. Both Narelle's idea. :-) A Change of SceneryPosted by on Thursday 4 August, 2005 12:34 PM Every now and again I get a terrible urge to redesign my website because I get totally sick of the coluors I'm using. This is generally not an easy thing to do considering I have something like a dozen different templates for the site, some of which have to be edited online. Even though I have a background in art, I'm not very confident in choosing colours that work in a website (art and graphic design are two very different disciplines!), so I'm listing the 10 colour schemes I have whittled my choice down to below. Please help me out by choosing your favourite and letting me know your choice in the comments. But before you do, a few notes: Berry summer and ihateorange appeal to my colour theory obsessed self because they have all the "contrast colour" theory going on Ritz carlton and Summer are possibly a bit too subdued but I'm not sure Strawberry-Chocolate and Chocolate Caramel make me hungry Happy Day, Purll and Parchini are lovely and bright and happy but would need to be used very carefully in order to not be too overpowering. I think that making any one of them work would be fun though. Here are the colours.
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