July 2018

Of course by "got" I mean was given, by "new" I mean it's second hand, and by "just" I mean I've had it for a year but never plugged it in.

So far I like the messy look and even better this sketch took me literally minutes instead of an hour.

10/07/2018

The Fickle Beast

My concentration is a fickle beast and can only be tamed if I feed it whatever shiny new project has caught it's eye. Therefore, instead of doing what I want, and working on a nice simple idea to get back on the pattern writing pony, we are working out how to knit transparent insect wings.

Here's the first complete try, made using sewing cotton on 3mm needles and stretched on a wire loop.

Not shown are the twenty partial attempts, where I tried to find a lace stitch floaty enough to be worked in dk yarn and still look translucent. I haven't decided if I'm sticking with this very basic design in cotton or adding in some holes down one side to make it look more like my initial design sketch:

01/07/2018

What's Been Happening

During the past couple of months I've been doing some updating on the site. The biggest difference is the new cookie consent banner and button. Because GDPR I have to make it easier for people to turn computer cookies off and on so you should always be able to see a small "Cookie Settings" button on the bottom left of the screen to let you manage this.

Short of learning Javascript the only way I've found to block the google cookies is to stop the right sidebar loading entirely for people that click the "no" button. It's not the best solution and I'm still not sure how much of a hit it will be financially, but there are other options I can look into if it makes too much of a difference.

On that note please consider donating to the ODDknit Ko-Fi Fund to help support the costs of the website.

In less frustrating news I'm making another attempt to do social media. I have a brand new twitter account, @ODDknit and I plan on tweeting whenever I upload a new pattern so it will be a good way to keep track of new releases. If you knit one of my designs or particularly like a pattern, please do let me know.

I made myself a special icon for it and everything. Look! It's me!

In other news I've just finished a month long exhibition with the rest of the Goddard Family + Ian who is engaged to my sister. I sold some art and a few bits of knitting, so I'm all sorts of pleased with myself. Here are a few shots of the exhibition. If you see anything you like there's a Family Goddard website where you can browse the art more closely.

In more other news, earlier this year I entered a competition to design an Ashford Snowdog — the snowdogs are large ceramic sculptures in the shape of the Raymond Briggs Snowdog character. There are going to be multiple hand painted snowdogs deployed on a trail around Ashford, Kent this Autumn and they wanted to hear from artists willing to decorate them.

I was very lucky to have my design "Infinity Dog" chosen by one of the sponsors, Leath Park Developments. As of next week I'm going to be painting up my design on a sculpture almost as tall as I am!

Phew.

I do plan to start releasing monthly patterns again. Though I haven't quite figured out what July's will be yet. Busy busy busy.