Accountability

Happy New Year everyone! I've had a lovely break over the holidays with loads of family time and rampant socializing. It's been something of a relief this week to have work and school start up again just to provide some semblance of structure to the days. Or structure that is not comprised of lots of cookies, adult beverages and staying up far too late.

Every year, I think about making New Year's Resolutions, and every year I turn up my nose in disgust at the idea. "Resolutions" to me implies that I've been doing it wrong (whatever "it" is), and just generally feels negative in addition to setting me up for failing: a resolution gets broken, there's no turning back or saving the situation. Instead, I like to think of goals for the year ahead, as I do much better when I'm working towards something specific rather then trying to move away from a less-optimal tendency. And I also know that I am much more likely to stay on track if I'm accountable to someone outside of my own brain (and Alli), so here, in no particular order, are some goals for 2015:

1. Organize the stash: we moved to a lovely house over the summer that has afforded me my very own room to hold the stash(es). In typical fashion, this has meant dumping everything into boxes and piles scattered around the room. One of my main goals is to sort out and quantify the Yarn Stash (by the end of January), the Fiber Stash (maybe alongside the YS) and just generally get a better handle on all the Stuff that I have, so I can use it. I'm not a huge buyer of yarn, but I have been known to have brushes with major stash enhancement on occasion, so this year is going to be about knitting from stash as much as possible. Exceptions to the yarn/fiber diet will be: already existing fiber and weaving clubs, visits to foreign countries (but only if I by yarn that is local to the locale), and trips to fiber festivals (so far on the tentative schedule are Unravel, Wonderwool Wales, iKnit Fandango, Fibre East, an as-yet-unannounced event in September and Shetland Wool Week. Lest that seem like a lot, at at least 3 of those I will be very, very busy and probably won't have a chance to pee, much less go buy yarn).
2. Design goals: I'd like to continue to get out about a pattern a month this year in the self-publishing venue. I didn't manage to do that last year (that whole moving unexpectedly thing), but I had 6 self-published designs and three others in various places. Another design goal (that goes along with the fact that I discovered multiple sweater lots of yarn in my stash over the weekend) is to get some of the sweater designs percolating in my brain actually out into the world. 
3. Knitting goals: a) knit up 2 of the 3 sweater lots of handspun that I have in stash. b) knit up a bunch of Porpoise Fur colorways into samples.
4. Spinning goals: I got a new Turkish spindle for myself as a birthday/Christmas present last autumn, and I've decided I want to spindle myself a sweater over the course of the year. Initially I wanted to do this by mid-May, but I'm revising that in the face of, well...reality.
5. Sewing goals (really!): finish quilt tops for the girls' birthdays. Then they can help me pick backing fabric and binding so I can finish them up by the summer. Better get going!

I think that's going to have to be it for the moment. Some concrete, short term goals and some longer, more fluid ones. Who's with me? If you've got goals and resolutions for 2015, share them - the more accountability the better, as far as I'm concerned.

What I'm doing about the VAT mess

Last week on the podcast, Allison and I talked about the upcoming change to VAT regulations in the EU in regards to the sales of digital goods, and interviewed Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits to get an overview of what's happening. Things have continued to change since the interview (and even since the podcast was released!), but here's the issues, from my perspective and current state of understanding:

1. As of 1 January 2015, sales of digital goods (e.g. pdf knitting patterns) will be taxed based on the location of the BUYER, not the SELLER. So if you live in Germany and buy a knitting pattern from any independent knitwear designer anywhere in the world, someone is responsible for paying the appropriate VAT to the German government for that sale.
2. The threshold for being required to remit VAT varies depending on the country AND the product being purchased. Some countries have a zero threshold for VAT on digital goods, which means that VAT must be charged from the very first sale in that country.
3. There is an EU-wide online portal, called MOSS (mini one stop shop), to allow businesses to handle all of the fuss of remitting VAT payments to EU member states using one website. This is all good. Except...
4. In order to use MOSS, you have to be VAT registered.
5. In the UK, the threshold for being required to register for VAT is high (£81,000) as compared to many other EU countries, so a huge number of micro-businesses are not VAT-registered. And therefore can't use VAT MOSS (as of recently - this may change. It may have already changed in fact, but I've read so much stuff about this craziness that my brain is broken).

So the bottom line for independent knitwear designers like yours truly is that sales of my patterns are going to get a bit more complicated in a couple of weeks. Here's what I'm planning to do to address these issues:

1. All of my patterns will be available to EU residents in at least a couple of ways. First off: Casey at Ravelry has worked an absolute miracle with the help of the fabulous people at Loveknitting to allow designers to redirect EU customers to the Loveknitting website where they will be able to buy the patterns; the pattern pdfs will still go into customer's Ravelry libraries. There are a couple of issues with this solution: prices on Loveknitting have to be listed in GBP, and they will be VAT-exclusive. That means that VAT will be added on to the pattern price dependent on the location of the buyer - the final price of the pattern will be the listed price PLUS VAT.
2. My patterns will also be available via the Designs page of my website. One of the workarounds for this whole mess is for sellers to individually attached pdf files to emails and send them on to the buyer. As long as the email isn't automatically generated, and the pdf isn't automatically attached, the transaction will be VAT-exempt. I will very gladly also gift you a copy of the pdf into your Ravelry library if you have a Ravelry account.

If you are in the UK, or anywhere else in the rest of the world that is not part of the EU, nothing will change for you. I'm well under the UK VAT threshold, so UK purchases are still VAT-exempt. If you are in the EU, but outside of the UK, you'll have two choices: if you need instant pattern access, you can go to the Loveknitting pattern listing from Ravelry and get the pattern immediately. If you're willing to wait a little while (probably well under 24 hrs in most instances), you can come here and buy the pattern. I'll email you the pdf. The first case will be more expensive, as you'll be paying VAT on top of the pattern price. The second case will mean that more of the pattern price comes directly back to me, the designer.

If anyone has any questions or concerns, there are a number of resources online you can access. First off, there is a huge long thread on the UK Shopkeepers group about the whole mess, and a much shorter thread from Casey about changes that Ravelry is making and various updates as they occur. Ysolda has blogged about this issue, and Louise has a number of posts on her blog for knitters and designers. Please bear in mind that this is new for (I would venture to say) all of us, and there are bound to be some growing pains in the first few months. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or problems with purchasing my patterns, and thanks for your patience as we get this all sorted out!

Christmas Crafting Madness (no yarn needed)

It's that time of year again. That time when crafters around the globe suddenly take leave of their collective senses and decide that they will craft perfectly beautiful handmade works of art for all of their loved ones. And their neighbors. And the milkman. And their local barista (who is looking awfully chilly now that he's shaved off his Movember stache). Before you know it, the crafters in question are spending precious crafting minutes making spreadsheets to track their progress, gathering their materials and spending long sleepless hours  knitting/hooking/spinning/ embroidering/papercutting themselves in to a lovely New Year's resolution of avoiding RSI for the 2015 Holiday Season.

Or maybe it's just me. Every year, EVERY STINKIN' YEAR, I make a conscious choice to remain steadfast in the face of (solely internally generated) holiday crafting pressure. I will not knit for every single member of my family and their dogs/cats/assorted goldfish. I will not lose sleep over trying to finish just one more present as time winds down to Christmas. I will perhaps gift a few, extremely knit-worthy people with handknitted items, but there is no reason for me to a) make myself crazy, b) make my family crazy (scrambled eggs for dinner will only fly so many times you know) and c) make the world any more crazy then it already is around this time of year by adding my stress vibes to the ether.

And even after all that, every year December 1 hits and I start making lists. Lists of who can be gifted knits already finished. Lists of super quick projects I can knit up in an evening with worsted weight yarn held doubled. Lists of postal timings and who would like yarn for a present and who needs an actual finished object. Things degenerate quickly - Himself needs new (fingering weight) socks, and the girls would love felted slippers. Maybe a lace shawl for my mom. The SCN (Super Cute Nephew) probably needs a new sweater for Christmas, maybe with an intarsia Rudolph face? You can see where this is going...

This year, things are different. Yes indeed. Totally different. Himself is not getting knitwear this time around - maybe a woven scarf, but I can whip that out in no time at all. The in-laws are arriving AFTER Christmas so there's plenty of time to sort out their gifts after December 25. If I'm mailing things back to the States they have to be in the post by the end of next week so pfft! Not going to happen.

This fabulous planning ahead and resisting the urge to START. ALL. THE. THINGS!!!!! means that it's totally reasonable for me to make the girls quilts for Christmas, right?

You can see above the evidence of my weakness in the face of Country Thread's collection of Moda Jelly Rolls from our Bath scouting trip at the beginning of November. I've been obsessed with the idea of making jelly roll quilts for about six months now, and finally have the materials to get started. But let's review the facts:

1) I have a very old, very small Singer Featherweight sewing machine.

2) I have never made a quilt of any size in my entire life.

3) This project will require excavating the desk in my studio which is buried about 1.5 ft deep in Other Very Important Stuff (otherwise known as Junk).

What could go wrong?

(Some) Mondays are no fun

Well. Here it is. Another Monday. This one, in particular, has been established as A Very Bad Day by virtue of the following:

1. I arrived at work, ready for a very busy day of lab stuff, only to find that the cells I was going to use were all growing beasties that should not have been there. Break out the bleach, rejigger the experimental schedule, and grumble.

2. I have, apparently, come down with the same beasties that my cells have. Cue runny nose, headache, scratchy throat and general brain fuzzies*. So off I go to procure pharmaceutical aids.

Better living through pharmacology.

3. Ahhh...there isn't really a number 3. I think numbers 1 and 2 have taken care of it.

So now I am huddled in front of the computer, trying to get things taken care of for the Yarn in the City Road Trip, and wishing I could consume Lemsip more often then every four hours. Thankfully, there is a steaming hot toddy in my very near future, plus huddling under the covers with my latest, very special design project. 

On the left is the start of the sock on Saturday, on the right is the new sock and the old one that I'm reproducing. Suffice to say that this design has historical, genealogical and medical interest, and I'm looking forward to getting it in a final form** for you all. 

* We will ignore the fact that said brain fuzz might also be a general state of being in my world.

** Top-down and toe-up FTW y'all.

FO: Sitka Spruce Hat, in handspun

I've finally given in to the urge to start knitting with all the handspun that I now have on display in my studio. This current frenzy of handspun knitting was triggered by my mother, who was visiting over half term, and demanded that I put her to work knitting up samples for me. Who am I to say no to the offer of free labor? She knit up a Penobscot Bay Shawl in some soft, squooshy Porpoise Fur Targhee in Golgi (with a bit of YFP for an edging when she ran out of yarn for the bind off). So I decided I needed to be knitting up some samples. Plus, it's gotten cold in my house and I needed a new hat. So...

Pattern: Sitka Spruce from Tin Can Knits

Yarn: 2-ply handspun Corriedale from Porpoise Fur, in the colorway "Haematoma", spun up from the ends left over after dyeing. I had approximately 160 yds of more-or-less worsted weight yarn.

Needles: US 7/3.5 mm circulars/dpns

Start/finish: 3 November - 7 November 2014

Comments/modifications: such a lovely pattern! The hat comes in two different styles - beanie and beret - and while I wanted a slouchier hat, I didn't think I had enough yarn to make the beret. So I knit the beanie as written, but added in an extra half repeat of the stitch pattern to make it a little longer.

This meant that I then had to shift the chart for the crown decreases, but once I wrapped my head around how that had to work, it was smooth sailing.

I love the subtle striping from the handspun. This ended up coming out a lot redder then I would have predicted from the dyed fiber OR the yarn in the skein. Just another example of how much the look of handspun can change from fiber to yarn to FO.

Handspun hat, and the  next handspun hat (in progress)

I'm thrilled with this lovely little hat, and am now wishing I had some more yarn to knit the matching mittens. However, I'm forging ahead to cast on one of my two Shawl Lots for the Porpoise Fur Two Color Shawl SAL/KAL, which I've been sitting on for ages. More handspun FOs ahead!