Ochiba

I have been crafting, heaven knows, just not blogging about it. But my main New Year's resolution was to publish more patterns. So I dusted off a file I'd created in 2009, got a friend to model the piece, and agonized for a week or so about how to present 22 different sizes in one pattern.



Ochiba is a seamless skirt, knit from the top, with A-line shaping that grows naturally out of the leaf motifs. I actually went on a bit of a leaf-themed tear after Green Thumb, but this is the only project that I thought was completely successful.

I ended up writing a template that requires the knitter to plug in a number and actually calculate two quantities. I do this with some trepidation, but the alternatives are either not offering a large range of sizes, or writing pattern instructions that have 22 different numbers in parentheses three times per line. I've also priced it at $2.50. We'll just see how this all pans out.

The big roadblock for me with patterns has been photographs (ever since someone on Ravelry kindly and accurately pointed out that most of my photos look like snapshots taken in the backyard.) Now I actually have photos for two more patterns (both crocheted scarves, as it turns out) although these will also involve charting with crochet symbols. I am the proud owner of a new computer, which makes my life so much more wonderful in so many ways, but it does mean that I no longer own a working, all-purpose drawing program. I may have to buy something. I'm also almost done (and have been for, oh, most of a year) with another skirt, this one done in little squares, and that will get written up as soon as I can rope another friend into posing for me.

I do realize that crocheted skirts and scarves are not the most lucrative section of the pattern market (which is, of course, pretty far from being lucrative in any real sense of the word.) But they're original, and I'm pleased at how they've come out. I need to come up with another Green Thumb, so I can live a life of luxury off of my pattern sales.

One reason I've been so absent from this blog is that I'm starting a produce store in downtown San José. It's called Veggie Box. I can't actually tell you exactly when it will open at this point, but I hope it will be some time this summer. It's even got its own Facebook page, if you want to follow along at home.