Behind the scenes...

 

Here is a sneak preview of two patterns that will be published in June. Today was the day to take photos of the finished samples and our dog was very involved as always. 

There have been many different blog posts about how much time it takes to create a knitting pattern. How much money a knitting pattern should cost, in order to be profitable. There is never a good way to predict if a pattern will be successful and the designer will earn enough money to cover the cost of creating the pattern and if there will be a profit for the designer in the end. 

These two patterns are going to be a part of Knitpicks IDP showcase in June or July. Therefore, I have received a yarn support to create these two patterns. In order to be a part of the IDP showcase, I had to create a submission and submit it for consideration. To create a submission, you have to knit a swatch, draw a good sketch and take photo of the swatch and create the submission on a computer and send it out. That takes several hours, and sometimes the submission is not accepted. With these two submissions I was lucky, and they were accepted, and I received the yarn support. It took me about three weeks to create these samples. Technically, the actual knitting was less than three weeks, but I have other commitments, like work, house choirs etc. that occupy my time as well. I have to type up the patterns using my notes, and I had to send the pattern to my technical editor. After the initial editing, I spent more time on the patterns, and sent it to the editor again for another read through. After that there is the last editing and the photography. For these two patterns it was about seven hours of computer work and photography so far. Now I will be looking over the photos and pick the best, and if they are not good enough, they will have to be retaken and once all is ready it has to be uploaded and send to Knitpicks and then added to the other variety of websites that I have my patterns available on. It will take another two to three hours at least of computer work to have the patterns ready. 

I am not sure how much money I will make in the end of these two patterns, if it will cover the cost for the technical editor, and even if it will cover the time, I have spent working on them. In the end it all comes down to the fact that I just really enjoy knitting and creating with yarn. I even knitted the cover for my writing portfolio that I presented in order to graduate. 

  Thank you for visiting.

 

June 2021

 

June is all about freshly picked strawberries. The sweet taste of freshly picked strawberries brings back my memories of the time when we would go with my parents and collect the strawberries from our small community garden. It was a way for my parents to assure that we have fruits and vegetables to eat as the selection in the stores of that time was rather limited. These days, we have a small strawberry patch and even though the squirrels and birds are getting to some of our strawberries we still have few to snack on each day for a few weeks in June. 

Bellow are some of my knitted versions of strawberries, like those Strawberry Sandal Motif, which were published originally in June 2019 of I Like Knitting:

photo by I Like Knitting.

Or my basket of knitted strawberries, an art piece for an exhibit, or a little strawberry hat: if you want to see how I made the hat see the original post here:  Strawberry Hat 

Thank you for visiting.

Reflections

Reflections

Reflections on life.....
I started this blog post few weeks ago. Then I stopped and left it unfinished.
I wasn't sure what I would like to include in this post.
There are so many things that keep floating through my mind lately, and I am not sure where to start and where to end.
The first image is of my dog. We went for a hike few weeks ago and I took this photo. I posted it on my personal FB and a friend suggested that I should submit the image as she thought its beautiful. I haven't done anything serious in photography field for years. To be more specific, I haven't done anything since my pregnancy. I guess the whole motherhood somehow kept me occupied enough for years. It still keeps busy, but since the DVT and PE that happened to me last year in March I slowed down and started to reflect more on what I have close to my heart.
The thing about DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and PE (pulmonary embolism) is that it can kill you. Somewhere I read statistics that every 10th person dies from it. I guess I have been lucky twice so far. My first DVT was at the time when I had two weeks old baby, and then the next one was last year in March. Somehow the fact that I have this ticking bomb inside my veins is frightening and can keep me awake at nights. Yet I try to live my life and continue with day to day tasks and chores.
My hikes in the woods with the puppy, which arrived less than a month after my DVT and PE episode keep me busy in a positive way.
I spend about two to three hours a day walking. Most of the time I love it, except when it rains a lot and is windy. The other thing I dislike about these hikes is the higher exposure to the ticks. I have found them even in January!
Also the hikes in the woods take away my knitting time and my social media time. I wish it would take away my house choir time, but somehow that doesn't seem to be happening.
In any case, I try to carry on with my work on designing new and interesting knitting patterns, and I hope to continue for many years to come.
The picture bellow was taken on another hike with my dog and the kid. I have been collecting heart shaped stones for long time and sometimes I see the heart shape image in another places. When I captured this photo I saw only one heart shape, but then I looked at it again and saw another one,  dark and light halves put together creating an almost perfect heart shape. Can you see it too?

Hearts

Seven years ago I wrote first blog post. I must say it has been an interesting journey. Google statistic tells me that almost 750 000 people have visited this corner of the Internet. That is amazing. I hope that those who stopped by were inspired by my work and perhaps will keep returning to see what is new on my adventurous journey through life.

Here are few links I thought to share with you:

My first blog post

The post about Life, DVT, and PE
Photography contest entry

And as always, thank you for visiting.

As a thank you for the blog visitors I have created a discount for my knitting patterns. You can get one free pattern of your choice from my pattern collection by using the coupon code Life in the checkout. The promotion runs until Monday March 5th 2018 midnight Eastern US time.
My patterns

Cool wool....

Monster Al and his Friends

Somehow I have stumbled upon an article named "How wool got cool" by Rosie Ifould and the readers were encouraged to contribute to The Guardian by submitting their knitted or crocheted projects to Weird and wonderful knitting for a chance to have their work published. My two submitted pieces Diamondback Rattlesnake and Monster Al and his Friends were both accepted and are published on their website:
Link here



Diamondback Rattlesnake

About the same time I have stumbled upon The Crafty award where you can submit your do-it-yourself creations and once again I have submitted the Diamondback Rattlesnake and my submission was published as well.

Thank you for visiting.

Yarn Bombing

Yarn Bombing

After seeing images from various yarn bombing happening all over the world, I had an opportunity to see yarn bombing event in person. It was great.

Walking around the museum and actually participating (even though my contribution was miniscule compared to others) in the yarn bombing event was an interesting experience.

I wonder how long the yarn will stay on the trees and what it will look like in few months.

 

This little dog posed in the bicycle seat for its owners to photograph.

 

 

Thank you for visiting.

Too many hats to wear.

The oversized eyes that this cute Miranda, the owl has remind me of my own eyes after I finished reading one of the assigned books for my class "The Book". It seems that in today's world authors have to wear too many hats. We need to be the creative force behind the ideas and write. We also need to be a wizard in technology and computers, and create author's platforms and spend hours creating social connections. And most importantly, we need to market ourselves, which to me seems like I should switch my major and get at least an MBA in order to understand all the tricks and marketing rules.

I have a busy life (family to feed, home to clean, work to do, homework for school, friends to see, and other obligations) and I can devote only a certain amount of time to pursue the art of creating something new and interesting, may it be a new knitting toy, or pattern, or new picture, or piece of writing. Yet, the amount of time that I can devote to creativity seems to be cut short, by all the other aspects that I, the author, should pursue as well. It is a hard and difficult decision for every aspiring author, should we try to concentrate on marketing  the things that we have created, or should we rather let the creativity flow free and enjoy the richness and satisfaction that art can bring.

At the moment I am sitting on the fence, I would like to see that my work is valued and appreciated, but it seems to me that the cost is too high. If I have to spend most of the time I have available on the Internet doing marketing and promotions when  will I actually create something new?

The author of the book, strongly suggested that the blogs are registered with all of the blog catalogs, that it should increase traffic and exposure. Yet when I tried to do so, I basically wasted several hours and nothing really happened. Perhaps I should have spent that time creating instead. It would definitively be more rewarding and enjoyable.

I really appreciate all of the readers and visitors of this blog who found it without the blog being registered somewhere. It shows me that I am doing something right, and that people can find it.

Thank you for visiting.

 

Work in progress...

I must admit, at the moment I have more than enough of projects in various stages of progress.

Two new knitting patterns should be published soon, two patterns are in the stage of test knitting, and for several others I am finished with sample knitting and now I have to transcribe  my scribbles into coherent knitting patterns so others can understand.

Of course, there is always something new and interesting that catches my eye and I feel the urge to turn the idea into knitting piece. Which brings me to the most interesting news that I have at the moment. I am very lucky that my professor agreed to my proposed idea to write a knitting book as my school project for this semester class.  This is going to be an intersting and exciting adventure.

I cannot wait to share with you this project.

Thank you for visiting.

Earth.....

....is a wonderful place to live.

I love every day when I can open my eyes in the morning. That simple act assures me that I am still alive, and  have another day to enjoy the beauty of this planet.

I hope that our future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of our planet also. And  perhaps they will learn how to live in peace with each other.

Peace to all.

Thank you for visiting.

How to create soft and cuddly monster

Few weeks ago, my child draw a picture. It was a very specific drawing, with many details. Then I was asked to knit this monster. As always I couldn't say no. We picked the color and yarn.
I took my knitting needles and began to experiment.

 I always wonder if I can capture the vision of the artist. If I can translate the two dimensional drawing into the three dimensional knitted toy. I must have done a good job, since I have received several hugs and kisses in exchange for a new toy to play with.

We named him (or her?) Loopy.

In a sense this is what design is about. Translate an idea or a vision into an actual product.

Now, I have some more drawings. And of course  more monsters to knit.

Thank you for visiting.

Rumbling Of the Soul

This post is not a typical one for this blog.

 Mostly my blog Stana's Critters Etc. is all about knitting and Knitting Patterns. The most favorite posts are those that are actual Knitting Patterns, and that's fine with me. I enjoy when other people make something that I have designed and created. It's actually very satisfying to see other people's project and interpretations of my designs and ideas. To see how much joy the knitted critters can bring to their recipients.

But there is more to me, than knitting. Usually, I try to keep it out of the way, but today I feel like sharing this other part of me with you, my readers.  As a perpetual student in the field of Creative Writing I take various writing classes, and this spring I took a poetry class. It was interesting class and even though I do not consider myself a poet I enjoyed it. I must have done something right because the professor asked for a signed copy of my work titled "Voices of Babel". It's a visual poem with words in several languages repeating the same words "My journey through life from birth to death". The professor even suggested to me that I should submit the work. But the world of aspiring writers is filled with endless piles of rejection letters and unreplied query letters. Once in a while I feel so helpless that I want to give up, but it's like with the knitting, once you started you cannot stop. You may leave it aside for a while, but you always return to it.  I would like to end this post with another poem from the portfolio I created during the poetry class. The portfolio was titled Journeys and I hope that you will all enjoy the journeys you have ahead.

Thank you for visiting.

I walk alone

To visit the place

Where I buried

My dream

Sunset

I created this knitted image many years ago.
It used to be a sweater, but now it's just a knitted piece that I cannot part with. I like to look at it from time to time, wondering what to do with it.

Perhaps one day I will know what to do with it. Till then it stays half hidden in the box with memories from the past.

Thank you for visiting.

Art or Not?

This is not only the question I ask about knitting, but also the name I have chosen for the second piece of art that was accepted for art exhibition.

I have submitted one piece of art, and it was accepted. They asked to see more of my work, and accepted another piece.

I am very happy about it.

Thank you for visiting.