Holy crow! It’s been a busy year. (Though not so much with making stuff which is a bummer. sad face.) The biggest news is that we got the chance to move to Germany in March, which has been an… interesting (?) process.  I intended to blog the whole experience but, uhh, life. y’know. Technology has not exactly been a team player towards this end.

Until now! So, what you’ve missed:

The Purge

Kenneling Richard and Melrose (until we have a place for them here)   ;_;

The Packout

The Visit to D.C. to see family and friends for a couple of days before

THE VERY GREAT MOVE (an overnight flight from Dulles to Frankfurt) on March 22/23.

The Posh Hotel Stay That Turned Slightly Nightmarish While House-hunting (including excessive illness, phone debacles, total disillusionment of ‘German Efficiency’, treachery by children– I mean REALLY, chatting to landlords about our dogs who like to “run a lot and tear up the house” ?!?!, and increasingly panicked calls to realtors that never get returned.)

ok, we’re still on that one so I guess I’ll pick up there.

There are quite a few things I would avoid if we were to have a do-over. Or just, little important facts that nobody told us, that actually are fairly important and life changing.

1 ) Do not arrive at Easter. Or, if you do, be aware that it is a full on 2 week holiday here including spring break from school, vacations away, fairs, and NOBODY WORKING. (Particularly in real estate offices, apparently)

2 ) Do not move at the exact same time as 2000 other families with housing allowances from work. The market here is so extremely flooded with cash and desperate people that landlords and realtors are as unmotivated as I have ever seen in my life. (and I was a broker in NYC for a while)

3 ) Do not be surprised when 85% of phone calls you make are met with a “I will call you back in 15 minutes” and never hear back at all. (and are met with no apology when *you* call them back to see what’s up. Kind of the opposite actually. We even had someone pick up the phone, not answer, and then hang up. Nobody needs or wants your business here.)

4 ) As dog friendly as Germany is, having 2 labradors is not a *plus* in the potential renter column.

5 ) It is perfectly legal (and quite common) to post no children (but a dog is usually ok) for rentals, or sometimes “for a family with one child”. Many, many, many times we found HUGE penthouses, old villas, townhouses, etc, that would suit us perfectly (and were twice the square footage of either of our previous homes) but the owners or neighbors would not consent to living near children. In my day to day experience people younger than 50 do indeed seem fairly put out by children existing (especially outside of their prescribed societally accepted enclosures) but older folks have all been immediately charmed and coo and gush at them.

6 ) Find a way to hear “It is not possible” 80 bajillion million times without physically assaulting the utterer. This phrase can mean “I’d rather not” or “why would you ever need/want that? It is out of our societal norm wich is extremely accepting of authority so asking a second time or being emphatic that you want something different is NOT POSSIBLE” or just that the person doesn’t really want to deal with you.

7 ) Working hours are much more limited than in the USA, and so is motivation to complete tasks. I did not expect the “European” work week here so much as this is the most productive economy, etc, but seriously, don’t expect to have phone call returned within 1-2 days or find a bank that is open unless you take time off. Everything is closed Sunday except restaurants and bars.

8 ) Realize that even (especially?) the realtors who seem friendly and understanding are probably as slimy and devious as the slimiest worst evil ones you would expect in cities like NY, etc. Be prepared to be lied to, or have other people already rented to or be in the process of signing a lease even as you are being told to hurry up and sign a lease. This was a huge block for me as I felt that being straightforward and making quick decisions were a viable way to get a place. In fact you must have multiple back up places being strung along as you are most likely being strung along as a backup tenant and only when multiple deals fall through on both sides will you actually get to sign a lease.

One the up side, even when things look bleak you can always go for a walk along the Rhine and let the kids play at one of the sandbox or swings to take a break. I do love it here, and hopefully we will have a lease signed soon so we can really enjoy ourselves a bit more.

I recently read this article by Dan Rutter (of Dan’s Data fame, a great hero to mr. seamlessknits and was brought to my attention by the aforementioned) which affirmed my theory (hope?) that people are basically good, will support their creative artist types given the chance, and do not want to be hindered by copyright, DRM and other irritating nuisance constructs invented by giant content conglomerates. Dan suggests that fame is no longer really the deciding factor on how successful an artist will be given the ease with which anyone can make their stuff available digitally. As more and more creatives can put their work out there, more and more consumers of creative work are trying new and different genres AND, (this is the important part) have the means to make meaningful contributions. (financial and otherwise)

So how does it actually work? What does this mean to me, a designer/maker/artist/writer?

It’s hard for me to say how the model will actually look (let’s pretend for a moment that the free and open movement is even successful) in 10 years. I hope that the environment will be much more relaxed (less “it’s my intellectual property! Mine! MINE!”) and people will have a method of releasing their work while still “being able to eat”. (I like to use that euphemism because it conveys the meaning of the problem. We are not talking crass levels of greed and money obsession, what is at issue is the ability of a person to do their work fully and maintain themselves.) Through my rosy lenses I see a panorama of artists in various fields blogging (or whatever the new social digital publishing arena is at that point) their latest stuff in whatever format applicable (images, stories, knitting patterns, as a few examples) with a “pay what you wish” button and a culture of consumers that UNDERSTANDS that button.

I think right now there are a lot of consumers of craft media who simply don’t understand what it means to only take the free and never “sponsor” an artist. As a consumer of such media, I see both the free content and the stuff behind a paywall (occasionally) and I have to say, the quality varies wildly. There are some amazing free things, and there are some amazingly crappy for pay things. I am often reluctant to buy digital content because I can’t browse through it before purchasing, or sell it on (like a used book) if I don’t have any use for it. I want to know that I am going to get something useful/interesting/worth it to me before I click “buy”. Sometimes I do it anyway because the creator is someone I trust to put out high quality content, but even then I hesitate because “what if I don’t even like it this time?” So it is perfectly understandable to me that there are hurdles for the digital consumer to clear before parting with cash. (This isn’t even getting into the initial hurdle of “going digital” in the first place and teaching 74 year old grandparents to open pdf’s on the iPad)

Another aspect is the “what is it worth to me” question. I don’t often purchase knitting books or digital patterns just for the pattern. I might have some curiosity about how the construction was worked out, or how the pattern itself is laid out, or other technical stuff, but it is certainly not worth the same to me as something that will teach me a new technique or construction. When I see a book I am mildly interested in but not desperate for, I wait until I see it used for sale cheap. I’d be just as happy (happier possibly) to have the digital version and have those few dollars go to the creator instead of 70% to shipping and the little bit left to half.com and some used book dealer. Many writers find that when they publish a “real book” the royalties for each are in the quite small dollar amount anyway, so why not give the “used” price to the author directly?

Ultimately, the landscape where “free and open” thrives is going to have to be more like a museum or library with a recommended donation rather than (as my husband so horrifyingly put it) a homeless squeegee dude who scrubs your window before you can say no and then puts his hand out.

How can we be more museum and library like than homeless squeegee dude? For starters we can educate the consumer about how they can participate in the “free and open” concept. It may be obvious to people involved in computer programming or not-for-profits, but for the rest of society sponsoring/curating/supporting/being a patron, may not be a role that is particularly clearly defined. I don’t want anyone to not consume my work because they can’t afford it. I never felt like I had to pay the recommended donation when I spent time at museums as a teen, but as I got older and was able to I became a member and felt good about supporting them. Similar to public television, (though there is a distinct stench of homeless squeegee demands during the pledge drives lately) a person may benefit from the service throughout their lifetime but only contribute when they are able.

It was recently suggested to me that if I want to actually be successful (aka, make a living) with free content, I needed to actually sell tangible stuff to accompany the free. I’m not so sure this is actually the best route in the knitting world. I don’t think there is necessarily the same sort of autographed photo, t-shirt buying, sign my boobs sort of vibe as in the music and entertainment industry. In the software world, one doesn’t necessarily need any sort of business model or even user support because there is always the possibility of “giant company X” (or government) that will pay exorbitant rates for software support/training or just give you a job or contract based on your awesomeness. Are there yarn companies that will give people gigs as design directors with awesome compensation just because of their inherent awsomeness? No? drat. So there goes that option.

Anyway, I think there is SO much room for discussion and what ‘could be‘ in the future here. This doesn’t just apply to knitters or even crafters specifically. What about photographers? Other than gigs for journalism folks, how do you manage if you are into the art aspect? (rather than say, wedding photography) I know it’s cliche, but what about all the starving painters struggling to survive?What about writers who are being continually pushed into smaller and smaller compensation set-ups from major publishers. How about just writing, and having enough people care about your work that they chip in a buck now and then. Ridiculous, I know. Mr. Seamlessknits tells me it is just not possible to make a comfortable living as an artist, so just find a sugar daddy and get on with it. I think there has to be a better way, and the world has changed enough with digital content distribution that I think we can figure it out now.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way artists and designers make a living. The theme is practically a constant in the circles I run around in. “How can my work be about content and creating things that are not a product for sale, and still eat?” It’s a little easier if you have actual items that you make because the paradigm of buying a product and thus supporting the maker is the basis for our society. Still, supporting indy artisans is not widely spread and needs to be spoken about more, but at least conceptually it is not a huge leap for the average consumer. (accepting the expense involved may be, but that is a separate issue)

So how do crafters and artists who don’t habitually create items (like paintings, photographic prints, hand-painted fiber) for SALE, get paid? In the knitting community, designers conceptualize a garment (or accessory) submit the idea for approval to a publisher, get yarn approved for the project, knit the thing, write detailed instructions for recreating said object, and eventually get paid (usually less than minimum wage when calculated over the many hours of highly skilled labor involved) by the publisher. There are quite a few twists on this storyline since the rise of digital publishing and venues like Ravelry.com or e-zines like Twistcollective.com that market patterns directly to consumers who then pay the designer directly or buy them from the zine who pays the designers a higher percentage than traditional publishers. Most knitting designers I know personally find that they need to supplement their designing income by teaching, writing, and possibly holding down a day job as well. But why is that? There are masses of crafters who consume patters/tutorials/how-to’s and spend a not insignificant amount of money on their hobbies.

I think that highly skilled artisan knowledge and labor are undervalued because the few historic outlets for such things tended to market and package them in a way the habituated consumers to thinking of them as cheap or free. Perhaps advertising revenue paid for the bulk of the costs associated with publishing, perhaps the large captive audience made it easier for a few companies to scale their business such that they were able to charge less per customer. In any case, I don’t want to discuss how we got here, I want to talk about where we are going. Everything about the traditional publishing model of both CRAFT (in which I am including art for the moment) and other content, is changing radically. Yes, there are still gorgeous full color dead tree books which we purchase and treasure, but the market for other types of media and forms of content has exploded and we (as a society in the internet age) don’t quite know how to handle it. For me, the onslaught of free information/video/media is a bit overwhelming and often the quality is very mixed. You can find really excellent stuff but you might just as easily get total crap. I find the best way to sift through and find good content is through suggestions from friends and other types of referrals or other type of endorsement by a trusted source.

The social endorsement aspect of sifting content dovetails into the concept of open source. The technology world has an entire culture of “free and open” that feels very comfortable for me. I want to support the creators of good content, but I want to see the content before committing financially and I want to be able to use the ideas I learn. In the spirit of “try it before you buy it” I’m going to start making content available free in the hopes that it will encourage more designers to do the same and that knitters will support it on a “pay what you wish” basis.

I am a big fan of Flattr.com which makes it easy to give little “tips” for web c0ntent, but paypal donate buttons and other ways of actually making a financial transaction are better suited for some users and occasions. In any case, I think this way of sharing is going to evolve over time and there will be other ways to support and endorse content. I am putting out the “recipe” for the socks I debuted at sock summit and making it available (and shareable) through a creative commons license. There is a LOT to say about the creative commons licensing idea, and I’ll talk about it at length another day. For now I will just say it is a pretty neat idea, and I have an explanation of the specific license I used for the sock recipe on the last page. Take a look if you can and let me know what you think!

Fruit Con-Feet (so called for the bitter orange sock yarn that made me think of marmelade) is available as a pdf download via Ravelry.com and it is licensed under creative commons (CC BY SA) which means it can be shared, used for other creative work, and is basically as open as is possible with only a requirement that there be a mention of where you got the original content and that you “share alike” by using the same license on your derivative work. You can download the pdf with this link here. The sock is a very basic toe-up design. My “recipe” gives an explanation of how to start with a Bosnian square toe, knit the the foot, do a short row heel, knit and shape the leg, add eyelets, and finally a picot cast off. I don’t give instructions for each of those things, this is intended for intermediate knitters, or adventurous beginners who are comfortable following “recipe” style instructions that require you to do a bit of research or decision making on your own. Kits are available (or will be soon!) in the shop. I’m very excited about how the bitter orange, raspberry and mixed berry “jam” colorways are coming out in the base yarn I chose for this. Each kit will come with 2 lengths of ribbon in a choice of gingham or chocolate velvet, a nifty label with pithy directions on the back and an email with the pattern pdf.

Read more about Creative Commons licensing here.

edit (4/5/11): I found it! The twitter source (lifehacker) and the original source (Ira Glass)

Sort of. I read something recently that explained how I feel about my new spinning and dyeing work.  Basically, (someone on Twitter, shamefully I cannot recall who) they said that as a maker/crafter/artist you are drawn to your work because you have excellent taste. This aesthetic desire means you try things out that have the potential to satisfy you personally, but, for most people, the ability doesn’t immediately culminate in a product that pleases you, because (get this) you have great taste!

Makes massive sense, and covers the past several months of my new fiber pursuits. I just wasn’t quite “there” for a while, the quality of the work was not what I wanted to represent me, and I was not comfortable in my abilities at all. It has taken this time for me to transition out of the clumsy beginning stages of a new craft into being able to create something I really love. (and I hope you will too!) I know I have lots more to learn, and skills to hone, but for now I am pleased with what’s coming out of my studio.

There will be more posts for me to whinge about the technical difficulties in photographing intensely colored fibers, and setting up a functional e-shop, and introducing new products (!) but at long last, I introduce…

Fiber Escape (my shop! a real honest to goodness shop! Where I put up stuff that I made!)

So a couple of months ago Mercedes of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks asked around to gauge interest for a craft film club and it turns out there were several of us maker types who enjoy a good flick about art or crafting, or generally interesting visual and thought provoking stuff. So far we’ve watched Herb & Dorothy, Beautiful Losers, Amelie, and Umbrellas of Cherbourg. (ok, I missed that last one, but I hear great, and weird, things, so check it out!) You can sign up to be on Mercedes’ mailing list for film club updates only here.

My picks for this month are (drum roll please!) The Cats of Mirikitani, and Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I loved The Cats of Mirikitani in spite of feeling sad and angry during a lot of the movie because of the Japanese internment camps that play a huge role in Mr. Mirikitani’s situation. The sights and sounds of lower manhattan made me quite nostalgic, and the moments of film simply focused on Mirikitani making his art using crayons and bic pens (of all things!) had me rethinking all sorts of possible art supplies and how they can be used.

Exit Through the Gift Shop starts out looking like a cool behind the scenes look at street art, but theres a twist! I expect this one to be a good discussion generator.

I hope you guys enjoy the films, and feel free to comment here with ideas, questions, etc. There is also a Craft Film Club Flickr group for sharing projects inspired by what we watch here.

What we’ve watched so far:

Some other flicks that came up in discussion (or that I just like and want to share):

I somehow, um, accidentally found myself spinning just before Christmas last year… It could happen to anyone! What? I mean, as a knitter of course you accumulate a spindle or two and maybe a little bit of fiber from festivals or farm visits, right?

er, so anyway, I’d begun spinning using a couple of different top whorl drop spindles and some quite messy uncombed roving, and I thought to myself “self! this is silly! Go get some decent fiber to experiment with! It’s what you do!”.

So I did.

I picked up a Turkish spindle and some plain merino top, which I dyed, and was totally hooked.

Enthralled though I was by the fun of drop spindling, I was a bit frustrated by having to gather up the freshly spun yarn every couple of feet and I didn’t like having to re-tie the slip knot to secure the top of the spindle either. I solved the re-tying issue by grabbing a mini hair clip and using it, but the whole winding yarn onto the spindle by hand was just killer. So I randomly happened to be searching fantasizing about spinning wheels and someone on our little craig’s list was selling their Ashford traditional wheel and drum carder! (and a loom actually, but I wasn’t going to be crazy and just take up a new craft when I’m in the middle of so many things right now… hah har.) Long story short, we conversed, bartered a bit, and I had my first spinning wheel and carder!!! After some initial hiccups figuring out how to, you know, use the wheel, (thank you twitter spinning peeps and Ashford for having an online pdfs for all their manuals!) I figured out how rig a tensioner (out of rubberbands and kitchen twine, call me macguyver) and started SPINNING!

Now I’m sure everyone else in the world who has ever spun immediately churned out the most gorgeous and even, plied, neatly drafted yarn. right? hahar. So I have a few skeins of, um, slightly weird, maybe even artistic looking, extremely energized singles that may also have had some dye problems. No fear! I am working on a neat idea to actually make the most of these special, dear to my heart first spun skeins which I hope will be useful to other beginner spinners.

I mean, really, when you get down to it, a serious part of the meaning and beauty in hand made (knit, crochet, spun, etc…) items is in the making. When I knit a garment or toy for my children it is saturated with my hopes and wishes for them as I work on the piece. I hope those socks I knit for various relatives are all the more warm and comforting for the thoughts that were imbued  with each stitch. SO, I feel that when I spin the yarn, and perhaps dye the fiber or yarn, imagine a design, and then knit the gift, it is even more deeply permeated with whatever ethereal “hope” or prayer or thought or whatever it is that I’m talking about. Know what I mean? (or not?)

What is the point/meaning of being a maker to you?

Can you guess what came for M’s birthday? If you thought “why, a handcrafted waldorf style doll made especially to miss M’s specifications by one of Rebekah’s oldest friends!” than you thought correctly.

SpinningJezebel designed and made an 18″ doll for each of the girls, with coordinating little clothes. So cute. Cannot take the cuteness. The little toes and fingers. Belly buttons even! I also quite like the mohair hair, but it appears that S may be allergic to it, so thankfully it can be replaced. (Isn’t it lucky that mommy is friends with such craftastic peeps?)

That is a doll sized september swing cardigan, in case you were wondering!

I’ve already been required to knit a cardigan, a vest and a hat for our new arrivals (and already had a bog jacket for a smaller doll handy). I foresee quite a bit more doll knits in the future, so keep your eyes peeled! The scale matches the standard 18″ doll size so I might write up some patterns…