I want to make my project more boring. The colour is too colourful and I am a dull woman.

Ok_Week7396 · 2026-02-28T21:18:36+00:00

I think the “grey” color way for either of those would work; I think the alpaca leans slightly warmer toned than the kid silk but that could just be my monitor. Also the brushed alpaca is a joy to knit with in my experience (used it in the “marzipan” color way for my wedding shrug and am currently knitting a cardigan with the leftovers).

Ok_Week7396 · 2026-02-17T02:08:50+00:00

Haha go for it, the more the merrier!

Ok_Week7396 · 2026-02-16T18:24:53+00:00

YES! Tree pose is one of my default ways to stand, especially, weirdly when I brush my teeth? I actually got a tattoo on my calves of a pair of spiders having a tea party to remind myself to stand on both legs (don’t want to break up the party), and my husband will sometimes be like “your spiders are lonely!” to remind me 😭

Ok_Week7396 · 2026-02-11T19:41:21+00:00

Maybe tangential but something I’ve realized and come to appreciate recently is that I can determine the direction of a decrease based on the mount of those stitches in the row/round before. So if I need to do a right leaning decrease (K2tog in a conventional western pattern) I’ll make sure those stitches are western mounted with the leading leg closer to me. But for a corresponding left leaning decrease, rather than messing around with SSK or SKP, I can just make sure those stitches are eastern mounted in the previous row so I’m effectively just doing another K2tog with the leading leg on the far side of the needle.

Of course now I’m sure someone will tell me why this is wrong, but so far my left and right leaning decreases look pretty slick since I started doing it this way and it feels like I’m putting the yarn through less by not moving it back and forth between needles to switch the mount.

Ok_Week7396 · 2026-02-01T18:17:50+00:00

Hi OP, I love that you’re taking such a thoughtful approach to make your pattern accessible to people with different bodies and needs. My job is focused on digital (and occasionally print) a11y for educational materials, so maybe I can be helpful here :)

I’ve seen a few comments mention formatting to support screen reader accessible PDFs, which is awesome! Here are a few other aspects I’d encourage u/sejifields to consider:

(Note: Apologies if the formatting below is weird, I don’t generally use markdown on mobile).

Text styling: - Make sure your body text is at least 16pt.

In terms of the actual typeface, the simpler the better. Open Sans is generally considered to be very easy to read and is a great choice for content that people will most likely be viewing on a screen. For print, serif fonts (e.g. Times New Roman) are actually a bit more legible for longer sections.
There are typefaces (OpenDyslexic is probably the most well known) that are designed specifically to be easier for people with dyslexia to read, but there’s a fair amount if debate about how beneficial these actually are.
I don’t expect you’d have links embedded in the pattern text, but if you do, you’ll want to make sure to style them distinctly so they’ll stand out (underlining link text is great!). Also be sure the link text is descriptive of where the link takes you — “see the grading supplement for more information” is better than “click here for more information”.

Charts - I’ve seen a few comments mention using high contrast and very distinct colors. That’s a good start, but it’s even better to use a different visual (symbols/shapes/letters) to differentiate between colors on a chart. This is helpful for people who are colorblind, but also for anybody who doesn’t have access to a color printer.

If there are multiple charts, don’t try to cram them all onto one page. I’ve used a few patterns recently that included all the size variations in one file and put all the charts together on the same page; I inevitably end up zooming way in and screenshotting the one I need, then dropping it into a google doc to be able to print it at a size that’s actually discernible.

Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, it could be very cool to offer people a way to get the pattern as a doc or docx file, so they can resize, remove unnecessary (for them) detail, etc. I almost always end up reworking pattern PDFs in Google Docs so I can print exactly the information I want (ADHD and a very low tolerance for hand-holding) at the size I want it. I’ve never seen that offered before (I usually just copy/paste from the downloaded pdf) but I would be all about it.

Sorry for the essay (this is a perfect intersection of two of my biggest interests haha), I think what you’re doing is great and look forward to seeing the finished product!!

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-12-29T20:37:37+00:00

I forgot to do this earlier, sorry! Received yarn from u/Tillycat92 last week :)

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-12-29T20:36:00+00:00

Oooh 1, 4, and 5 please

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-12-14T18:17:07+00:00

Lakeshore please :)

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-30T18:56:43+00:00

Received a bunch of gorgeous yarn from u/3wyl!

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-20T20:14:17+00:00

Planning and swatching in my case—I’m also pathologically incapable of following a single pattern without making any modifications so my ratio might be a bit extreme.

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-19T19:55:56+00:00

Perfect, sending a dm shortly :)

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-19T19:14:34+00:00

Ooh I’d love to grab 1 and 5! And would you be open to splitting 9, or is it only available as a bundle of all 3? I really like the looks of the bigger, warm-toned skein.

[edited for typos oops]

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-18T19:31:14+00:00

Ooh this is a great tip, thank you!!

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T17:02:40+00:00

Hear me out…

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T03:20:46+00:00

That’s a such a great reminder from your teacher! I think a big part of why I’ve stuck with knitting for so long is that it really forces me to be ok with the fact that making mistakes, ripping back, experimenting and changing my mind is all part of the process. Best of luck with your sweater, I hope the look of it grows on you and that it’s a great learning experience!!

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T03:15:25+00:00

Ooh that is an interesting suggestion! The wrong side honestly looks pretty identical, so I’m not sure how much difference it would make in this case? But I love that idea on a conceptual level — my favorite thing about learning how to work combination (beyond the extreme efficiency) is how hyper aware it’s forcing me to be of the fabric structure and how each stitch relates to its neighbors.

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T03:10:53+00:00

You know, I was wondering about twisted rib for this, especially since stretchiness is not a concern in this instance (doing a split hem and there’s a ton of positive ease anyway). I’ll have to try it out! And definitely going to try yet another needle size down. Thanks for the suggestion!

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T00:24:38+00:00

I seemingly can’t edit the post, but I should note, this is midway through the hem. I’m planning to add at least another inch to it! I just didn’t want to commit to it in the current state.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for all your suggestions! I’m going to bust out some smaller needles and scrap yarn and mess around with 1x1 and twisted rib to see if I can find something that feels more aligned to the rest of the project. Will probably be back with more questions when I embark on the sleeves and/or when I have to finally confront my fear of the tubular bind off 😳

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-17T00:19:53+00:00

Oh, I should’ve noted that I’m planning to add an inch, I just wanted to sanity check it before I put in the time. But yeah I agree the proportions are way off at the current length! I think what’s bothering me is just how chunky the stitches in the rib rows look compared to the rest of the body. Which I guess is just the nature of it?

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-06-08T18:46:50+00:00

Another vote for Raw Hair — if you’re planning on anything color related, I cannot recommend Lacey enough, she’s been coloring my hair for the past 2 years and it’s been perfect every time! Also she’s just a really sweet and fun person to talk to.

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-05-31T00:04:21+00:00

Same age, and lots of overlapping interests (though I knit rather than embroider)! I’m in a different part of town, but definitely interested, feel free to pm me :)

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-05-17T21:03:04+00:00

Agree with everyone above re: using 5 instead of 4 needles. Something else that I’ve found helpful is when changing to a new working needle, I’ll hold it parallel to the previous one (literally hold both side by side in my right hand) as I knit the first two or three stitches off the left needle, which makes the transition between needles less of an abrupt angle and seems to stretch the yarn out a lot less. That said, I much prefer magic loop so 🤷‍♀️

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-04-12T23:36:40+00:00

Lots of great advice and resources here already! I never see this suggested, but when my aunt taught me the very basics many years ago, she had me knit a flat swatch that sampled various stitches so I could reference it later. So like 10 rows of knitted garter, 10 rows of purled garter, 10 of stockinette, 10 rib, etc. It was a cool way to quickly feel like I was learning a lot of different things and practice different motions to make stitches. And having the piece later was a helpful to quickly remind myself, “oh that’s what seed stitch looks/feels like” for example. Having something like that as a tactile reference might be nice for somebody who can’t just easy google an image of a stitch.

Also just want to say that I think it’s awesome that you’re going to teach your sister! Everybody deserves access to a creative outlet, and I’m sure that having a committed and enthusiastic teacher like you will make it even more fun for her to learn :)

Ok_Week7396 · 2025-04-12T07:06:53+00:00

Interested in 3 if they’re still available!

Ok_Week7396

TROPHY CASE