Just enough ....

Blue cable jumper

There is some fabulous yarn out there and one of my favourites is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo Double Knit. It is 80% Bamboo sourced viscose and 20% wool. It knits into a beautiful soft, sheeny stitch which is perfect for young skin. I had bought some balls of this yarn, knitted a baby jumper, sold it on eBay, but still had some yarn left.  I decided to make the same jumper again to sell but wasn't sure that I had enough yarn. I started to look around on the internet to find more in 'Sail boat' and nice, mid-blue colour only to discover that the yarn had been discontinued and I probably had the last few balls left in the world. The pressure was on to finish the yarn with what I had left, or I could undo what I had done and make something else. I decided to plough on and hope for the best. Making the jumper in 0-6 months, it should take the least amount of wool possible.

In the end, I did have enough, just. It is a shame that Sirdar have decided not to continue this colour. The trouble with many of the baby yarns is that the colours are a bit pastel. 

The finish article is now available on my ebay store via the following link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Babys-blue-cable-jumper-for-age-0-6-months-in-Sirdar-Snuggly-Baby-Bamboo-dk-/231178971575?pt=Baby_Clothing&hash=item35d35729b7

The next big step

Scallop baby blanket pattern

I was reviewing the initial idea that was Layette Knitting recently which was held as a file on my computer. One of the things that I planned to do was to sell the patterns as a pdf download to save on the postage. This was something that I initially tried with eBay only to be instructed that eBay don't allow pdf downloads because of the risk of malicious content. So for the last couple of years, selling my patterns involved printing out the pattern on quality paper, printing out the buyers address and an invoice, putting them in an envelope, paying for postage and getting the board-backed envelope into a post box that could take it (not many of those around here).

So my options for selling downloadable pdfs seemed to lie with my own website. After a bit of research I attempted to create one on 1&1. This did not go well and was soon abandoned as a bad idea.

Cable baby blanket pattern

I have been a member on Ravelry for a short while and recall that it is possible to sell downloadable pdfs from that site but the problem that I have with Ravelry is that it would tend to be the hardy, more experienced knitter who would frequent the site and my patterns tend to be for the novice knitter. My patterns have had quite alot of success on eBay with buyers recognising that they are helpful and easy to follow. Within 12 hours of uploading my patterns to Ravelry, I am pleased to say I have made a sale and been paid. Hoorahh!

Ravelry.com is an excellent website with many downloadable patterns, some of which are free and I have used the patterns available to achieve some excellent results. It is a free log in website and then you can search for me under Designers to find my Easy to Knit patterns.

www.ravelry.com

These patterns are still available on my ebay shop as before but you can save on time and postage by downloading them from ravelry virtually instantly.