Subtle and Obvious Thievery

I should have known better. If you give something away for free, someone else will take it and sell it. In a round-a-bout way, that is what the websites that gather free patterns in one place are doing. They make money from the advertisements they sell. So people go to the websites for the pattern and see all the ridiculous links to “download” something. A few of these sites have had my patterns up and they redirect people to this blog for the pattern. I surrendered early on to that situation. I check the link, and if it really goes to my blog, I just let it be. These shitty sites include, but are not limited to: sarahmaker.com, knit-knit.com, and intheloopknitting.com. Do not click on them!

Sometimes my name has been removed for a pattern/chart and there is no link to me or to Fleece Love and Happiness. When this happens on Pinterest I fill out a complaint form. I prove it’s my pattern by linking to my original post. Pinterest deals with it right away! Within 24 hours they will take those fraudulent pins down. Today I was on a site that had my photography and my charted pattern and the name on it was Sarah White. Wow. That’s probably not even a person. An AI bot probably scooped a bunch of free patterns off the internet and posted them to sell adds.

I come from an era of using the internet to share ideas. That’s why I wrote free patterns and that’s why I blab away on this blog. But times have changed and every corner of the internet has been monetarized. Today I edited every post that I have made that includes a free pattern download pdf to say: “Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.” I’m not sure that will deter anyone but I figured I should state it clearly.

Theft is a problem for all artists and craftspeople who put their work on the internet. I’m a beginner silversmith and I hear from the real artists that make their living selling jewelry that scams are everywhere. Thieves take the photos of their jewelry and post it for sale, take the money, and never send the item because, of course, they never had it. I’m talking about beautiful hand crafted silver pieces worth several hundred dollars. To make matters worse, the duped buyer is livid and they write horrible reviews of the artist.

On that note, I can only be a little grumpy about people taking my free patterns. What’s really crazy is people posting knitting patterns that are in books or purchased pdfs. I cringe when I see those Pinterest pins of photos taken of the pages from a pattern book.

The photo above is a pattern called Pretty Please Mittens that I published on this blog in 2023. I found it on a website that had “10 Free Patterns for Beginner Knitters”. Ok, anyone who has knitted my mitten patterns knows they are not for beginners! They are knitted on size 2 needles, in the round, using 2 strands at a time, and changing colors often. I think an adventurous intermediate knitter could give this a go, but you’d drive yourself crazy if you were a true “beginner”.

I’ll end it there. I know I’ve been a little cranky in my last few posts. Bear with me. I’ll get back to Fleece Love and Happiness!

AI Slop is EVERYWHERE

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Photo taken with my shitty AI integrated phone.

The internet is unbearable these days. Social media is filled with slop and bots. I usually enjoy the social media groups that pertain to my specific hobbies. For example, I’ve learned silversmithing from youtube videos and posts on a facebook group. I couldn’t find a class or teacher were I live so I turned to the internet and it’s been great for that. I sell patterns on Ravelry and that has also been a good place without slop and bots. However…

I made a huge mistake and got a Pixel 10 google phone—because it was cheap and I heard it had a good camera. It’s AI integrated. I’m not the person this phone was made for. I turned off as much annoying AI integration as possible and now most apps don’t work right. OK fine, but there’s certain places in my life that I don’t want AI: my CRAFTS. Including photographing my crafts.

Yesterday I photographed a pair of mittens and my phone automatically made a sparkly outline around them that wiggled and shimmered. What the hell? I deleted it immediately. I can’t stand all the wiggly photography. It’s not that I’m old and can’t keep up with the progress—it’s just that the progress is ugly junk.

So for anyone who reads my blog, know that I will not use AI to write it. I don’t want AI in my craft life including the photographing and promoting my patterns. I’m sure it will creep in around the edges but I’m going to fight the slop!

Note: wordpress has a button for “Improve with AI” that I do not use. So be guaranteed by me that there will be grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes. Your welcom.

Cascade 220 Fingering Weight – A Quick Review

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Earlier this week I received my package of Cascade 220 Fingering Weight yarn that I ordered from LittleKnits.Com. They sell this yarn for $4.75 usd/ skein. Most stores sell it for $6.00/ skein. I think of yarn as “tubes of paint” and I like to have lots of colors to create my art. The colors were pretty much as they were photographed on the website. The first thing I did was to figure out where the colors landed on the grayscale. Sometimes I’m tricked by bright colors so I get help from a black and white photo.

I picked out some colors that I planned to use right away and wound them into balls. This yarn has 273 yds/ 50g. Knit Picks Palette has 231 yd/50g. I consider the Palette line to be fingering and Cascade 220 Fingering to be light fingering. My swatch on size 2 needles gave me 40st/ 36 rows for 4″ square. That’s 10 stitches per inch!

I started experimenting with some pattern ideas. This yarn is just asking to be knit on Size 2 needles. The fabric I get with that gauge is really nice. The ribbing is on Size 1 needles and I plan to make some stitch count adjustments to get the cuff of the mitt to fit better.

The yarn is nice to knit with and it doesn’t spit. I washed and blocked my samples and the colors did not run. Good thing I like it since I bought so much! This yarn is going to keep me busy for a really long time.

Happy Knitting! ~~Traci

Fingering Weight Yarns

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The quest for new-to-me fingering weight yarns continues. I thought I’d share some of my notes here with you all. Thanks to k1teach2 for the comment and suggestions for US made yarns. I narrowed them down to 100% wool only (no alpaca, no superwash). This list contains only companies that have a supply ready to be purchased. My brain works in “grams of yarn” so in the end I put the price for 50 grams.

Barstow by Jill Draper	48 colors	113g/ 425 yds $28.00 skein	$12.38 for 50g	USA
Cascade 220 Fingering by Cascade Yards	82 colors	50g/ 273 yds $6.00 skein	$6.00 for 50g	Peru/Turkey
Finch by Quince and Co.	46 colors	50g/ 221 yads $12.00 skein	$12.00 for 50g	Mostly USA
Fingering Wt by Blackberry Ridge	55 colors	4oz/ 450 yds $26.00 skein	$11.46 for 50g	USA
Lana by Green Mountain Spinnery	13 colors	3.5oz/ 400yds $25.20 skein	$12.69 for 50g	USA
Palette by Knit Picks	160 colors	50g/ 231yds $5.49 ball	$5.49 for 50g	Peru/Italy/China

To figure the cost for a sweater project I used the requirements from the pattern I wrote called Twoolen. Twoolen calls for 6 different colors and if you were making size 3, 4, or 5 you would need 11 balls of Palette yarn. That would cost you $60.39 at full price right now. I remember when my test knitters started this there was a big sale on that yarn and I priced it out at $38. at the time. Having sales is a big plus for the brands like Cascade and Knit Picks. Anyway, If you wanted to use Barstow yarn for that project it would cost $136.18. The imported yarns are roughly half as much as the US made yarns.

These notes don’t say anything about quality. I’m waiting for some yarn to come in the mail and once I get my hands on it I’ll have more information.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Marling Ate My Yarn Stash

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Since I had so many little bits of fingering weight yarn, I decided to knit them all together to make a sweater. I went with all my blues and grays and started a simple drop shoulder sweater. I held to yarns together and changed them at the end of the rows, keeping it somewhat random and somewhat balanced. Before I finished the sleeves and neck I ran out of yarn! I stuck it away until I get more blue scraps.

I had so much fun using up my scraps, I started a new sweater. This time I made sure I had enough yarn! I went with my red/orange/gold scraps and held one strand of Plotulopi and one strand of fingering weight yarn. This one is a oversized seemed cardigan and I’ve finished all the pieces and it’s being block now.

As I was watching youtube shows while I was knitting these sweaters and I found out this style of knitting has a name! I’ve been knitting for 50 years—-yes, you heard that right—and I did not know the word “marling”. I’ve used two and three strand to make interesting yarns to knit my whole life. As a spinner, I would take the unused yarns off bobbins and spin them together essentially making a marled yarn. As a weaver, I’ve taken the cut ends off the loom and knitted them together working the 8 inch strands together slowly to make a hat.

All of this marling has eaten up my scrap yarns and lots of my perfectly good balls of Knit Picks Palette yarn. During this time I was taking a break from designing and writing patterns. I took some time to research other yarns to use once I get back to designing. After an exhaustive search for locally made yarn (by locally I mean the West Coast of the United States), I went back to large companies. I ordered some new yarns and will give them a try. You see, I’m afraid to write a pattern that requires yarn that will be unavailable or discontinued. I’m looking for fingering weight 100% wool (not superwash) in a variety of colors. If anyone has an idea of a yarn company that’s well established and located in the US, let me know!

I want to end this rambling post with a rare project that didn’t involve wool – well, not much wool. I marled together a cotton/hemp yarn and a hemp/wool yarn and got this nice blue color. It doesn’t end with this market bag. I’ve got Lopi scraps that are just bagging to be knit together.

Five Floral Mittens

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Greetings! I wanted to write a bit here about how I ended up making an ebook called Five Floral Mittens. I have spent the last few years knitting and writing patterns that I put out for free on this blog. It was lots of fun and some of the patterns got attention and were knitted by folks that found me here or on Ravelry. Some of the patterns did not do so well but I left them up anyways since I found out that you can not delete a pattern of Ravelry. It can become “unavailable” but the photos and information remain.

Over time I felt uncomfortable about some not-so-good patterns and wanted to fix them. I reknitted and rewrote a few patterns and they did look better. In the mean time I was starting to work with an editor for my new pattens and anything I had edited I would charge money for. No more free pattern. The more I learned while working with the editor the more I cringed at my old patterns.

I went back to work on Carmelita Mittens. I actually changed the yarn/gauge and fixed some awkward elements in the design (long floats, ugly thumb, etc.). I set them aside and started working on one another pattern called Wild Flower Mittens. Again, the thumb was difficult with long floats, so I change that and reknitted them. I kept the basic design the same. At first glace, they look like the same mitten, but they knit up easier than the original pattern.

After re-working the Wild Flower Mittens pattern I started looked for the next in line of poorly written patterns. I thought Floriculture Mittens needed some help. But WAIT! This is when the idea came to me. There was theme to these pattern that I was rewriting. Floral designs. 2 colored stranded knitting. Same front and back, so all mittens are not designated left or right. All fancy thumbs!

I looked through my patterns and decided that Flowerfest Mittens needed to be in the group. My plan was to compile all these patterns and send them off to the tech editor. I arranged them as an ebook with a plan to sell them on Ravelry. Since it was a little odd to take free patterns and turn them into for-sale patterns I thought I’d take them time to create something new. The new pattern is really what you are buying and the others are kind of thrown in for the editing. I was planning on charging the price for one pattern and the other four were kind of a bonus.

Floria Mittens were designed with the same elements as the others: floral motif, fancy thumbs, same pattern front and back, 2 colors.

The ebook has been edited and Five Floral Mittens is now available on Ravelry. I have taking down the links for Carmelita Mittens, Flowerfest Mittens, Wild Flower Mittens, and Floriculture Mittens. You can find them, plus Floria Mittens, in the ebook. I’m listing it for $8.50.

For more info and to purchase: Five Floral Mittens.

Children’s Fair Isle Mittens

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Back in November I started a small project of Children’s Fair Isle Mittens. Each grandkid got a pair this year and that allowed me to make every size that’s available in the pattern. The pattern has been tech edited now and is up on Ravelry as of today!

Children’s Fair Isle Mittens have a corrugated cuff, checkerboard palms and thumbs, and a star motif on the body of the mitten. Each size has it’s own chart in the pattern. Although it’s best to measure the child’s hand to get the right fit, the sizes are: Size 1 age 2-3, Size 2 ages 4-6, Size 3 ages 7-9.

Finished Measurements:
Mitten length from cuff to tip: 5.5 in/ 14 cm (6 in/ 15 cm, 7 in/ 17.5 cm)
Mitten circumference at knuckles: 6 in/ 15 cm (6.5 in/ 16.5 cm, 7 in/ 17.5 cm)

The colorwork charts are in grayscale and the instructions include information about choosing colors. You can use the colors noted from the sample mittens or choose your own colors from your leftover 100% wool fingering weight yarn. The mittens have a main color (MC) and three contrasting colors (CC).

Size 1
MC – 51 yds/ 47 m
CC1 – 30 yds/ 28 m
CC2 – 15 yds/ 14 m
CC3 – 15 yds/ 14 m

Size 2
MC – 71 yds/ 65 m
CC1 – 36 yds/ 33 m
CC2 – 15 yds/ 14 m
CC3 – 15 yds/ 14 m

Size 3
MC – 76 yds/ 70 m
CC1 – 41 yds/ 38 m
CC2 – 15 yds/ 14 m
CC3 – 20 yds/ 19 m

You can buy this pattern on Ravelry. buy now

The Jacobina Set

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Introducing my latest pattern: The Jacobina Set. This pattern is named after my daughter – her middle name actually since I’ve already used her first name in a pattern! I just published it on Ravelry this morning. It’s sold as an “ebook” because the pattern contain both the hat and the fingerless mitts.

The ribbing is knitted with US Size 2/ 2.75mm needles and the charted colorwork is knitted with US Size 3/ 3.25mm needles.

Materials needed: Knit Picks Palette, fingering weight 100% wool. 1 ball = 231 yds/ 212 m/ 50 g

Color	Knit Picks color name	Yarn Estimate for Hat	Yarn Estimate for Mitts	Yarn Estimate for Full Set
Brown (MC)	PumaHeather	41 yds/ 38 m	66 yds/ 61 m	107 yds/ 98 m
Light Blue	Clarity	46 yds/ 42 m	51 yds/ 47 m	97 yds/ 89 m
Gray	MarbleHeather	25 yds/ 23 m	30 yds/ 28 m	55 yds/ 51 m
Teal	TidepoolHeather	20 yds/ 19 m	25 yds/ 23 m	45 yds/ 42 m
Cream	Oyster	20 yds/ 19 m	15 yds/ 15 m	35 yds/ 33 m
Sage	Sagebrush	30 yds/ 28 m	25 yds/ 23 m	55 yds/ 51 m

You can buy the ebook for $7.50 on Ravelry.

If you’d like to be redirected to Ravelry to buy this pattern click: buy now.

Twoolen

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Today I posted my first sweater pattern for sale on Ravelry. I started designing this is April 2025. It took about 3 and a half weeks to knit, then I wrote the pattern. It went to my editor, then back to me—then back to the editor and so forth. Finally it was ready for the test knitters. I found the test knitters on the Stranded Knitting group on facebook. The timeline for them was 14 weeks or so. That process was very helpful to me. So here we are in October 2025 and it’s ready!

Twoolen uses two strands of wool yarn at a time to create a sweater with Fair Isle style. Knit in the round, this drop shoulder sweater uses steeks to form the armholes and shape the neck. Worked bottom-up, the sweater starts with a generous colorwork ribbing that matches the cuffs of the sleeves. Follow the colorwork charts and a beautiful pattern with 6 colors will be revealed. Finish off with a smaller colorwork ribbing for the neck.

Each size has it’s own chart for the sleeves so it’s easy to keep track of your decreases while working the colorwork pattern.

Sizing
Choose size according to the largest measurement around your chest. There should be 6-10 in/ 15-25 cm of positive ease.
Chest circumference of finished sweater:
Size 1 34.75 in/ 88.5 cm
Size 2 39.75 in/ 101 cm
Size 3 44.75 in/ 113.5 cm
Size 4 49.75 in/ 126.5 cm
Size 5 54.5 in/ 138.5
Size 6 59.5 in/ 151 cm
Size 7 64.5 in/ 164 cm
Size 8 69.5 in/ 176.5 cm

Materials
Knit Picks Palette 231 yds/50 grams, fingering weight 100% wool
Light 1/cream Cream (MC) 2 (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3) balls
Dark 1/rust Autumn Heather 2 (2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3) balls
Light 2/tan Coriander Heather 2 (2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4) balls
Dark 2/dark blue Abyss Heather 2 (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3) balls
Light 3/light gray Finnley Heather 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) balls
Dark 3/brown Grizzly Heather 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2) balls

Substitutions: Always use 100% wool in fingering weight. Superwash yarn is not advised due to the steeking sections. For alternative colors, choose 3 light colors and 3 dark colors to achieve the desired contrast.

For more information and photos from the test knitters, see my Ravelry page. To purchase this sweater pattern click on the link in the right hand column of this website.

The Darrington Set

Materials

Knit Picks Palette, fingering weight 100% wool.

1 ball = 231 yds/ 212 m/ 50 g

Color	Knit Picks color name	Yarn Estimate forHat	Yarn Estimate forCowl	Yarn Estimate forMitts	Yarn Estimate for Full Set
Brown (MC)	Grizzley Heather	46 yds/42 m	66 yds/60.5 m	51 yds/47 m	163 yds/150 m
Tan	Coriander Heather	25 yds/23 m	25 yds/23 m	20 yds/18.5 m	70 yds/64 m
Cream	Oyster	30 yds/27.5 m	41 yds/38 m	15 yds/14 m	86 yds/79 m
Navy	Abyss Heather	20 yds/18.5 m	25 yds/23 m	20 yds/18.5 m	65 yds/60 m
Orange	Brindle Heather	15 yds/14 m	30 yds/27.5 m	11 yds/10 m	56 yds/51.5 m
Gold	Brass Heather	20 yds/18.5 m	20 yds/18.5 m	5 yds/4.5 m	45 yds/41.5 m
Light Gray	Finnley Heather	25 yds/23 m	30 yds/27.5 m	11 yds/10 m	66 yds/60.5
Blue	Opal Heather	20 yds/18.5 m	25 yds/23 m	15 yds/14 m	60 yds/55 m

Size

One size: adult. Hat fits a 22-24 in/ 56 – 61 cm head. Cowl is 8.5 in/ 21.5 cm tall and 23 in/ 58.5 cm in circumference. Mitts are 5.5 in/ 14 cm from cuff edge to finger opening. Mitts are 7.5 in/ 18.75 cm around the knuckles.

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Materials

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