Still somewhat obsessed with finding additional information, this is a

Lavor 4mm Hook Point for Portuguese Style Knitting

What I really want to find out is WHY it has both – Is there some technique,

or is it just practicality so that the tool owner can do either.

Speaking of Practicality, if you don’t have one of Andrea’s pins, it turns out, that depending on what I am wearing, that either

Clover Yarn Holders,

Or, the

No-Coil Safety Pins

are great for the yarn holding if you don’t want to wear the skein around your neck.

I even found a blog page with video on how to turn a paper clip into a safety pin

As TNNA approaches, where Andrea will be teaching, I am having “visions” of countless shop owners, walking the show floor, with glorious skeins of yarns around their necks, happily knitting or crocheting or Portuguese Knitting. Sort of like the year at Soar where Ed had everyone wandering around dropping spinning while walking

Ever since finding the Pony Double Ended Crochet hooks, about two years ago, I have been using experimenting with them for knitting – thinking this might be good for kids (and grown ups) to help in learning knit techniques. When I started tripping over reference to Portuguese Knitting and its use of crochet hooks, naturally I got curious but then and now, there just never are enough hours in the day to “research”.

Recently Abby wrote about Andean spinning and that reminded me of how often I wished I could ask her Dad, Ed Franquemont about this. He was such a fountain of historical information – usually with good data to back it up.

Well, the last few weeks, it seems I am on something of a tear attempting to find more info about “Portuguese Knitting” which seems to share some technique with the Andean poeples as well.

What I have been able to find “so far”, mostly surmised from YouTube Videos, vagure memories of watching Ed Franquemont showing some “Incan” knitting and pictures in a few books, is that some how yarn is tension either by wearing the skein like a necklace, or using a pin on one’s shoulder. (See the picture of Andrea Wong here

Thus the yarn is between you and the work “most of the time”. And the yarn is manipulated to form the stitches, using your thumb in a seemingly very efficient manner. BTW, if you are a “visual” learner, then you may just find that the YouTubes with the voice over being in Portuguese to be the most helpful/clear.

Although many have suggested Andean & Portuguese are the same, so far only “Portuguese” knitting seems to use crochet hooks and at least one of the more esoteric suppliers of fiber art tools, sells these needles – hook on one end, point on the other in a limited variety of sizes, in sets of four or five per size – suggesting use for in the round type project.

I have been told that

Andrea Wong’s Video is an excellent resource, but unhappily it will not play in any of our machines.

Several have suggested I might find more information in the out of print book, Andean Folk Knitting: Traditions and Techniques from Peru and Bolivia. by Cynthia Gravelle Lecount, ISBN: 0932394078, but so far I have not been able to find an affordable copy and/or library that has it.

I was able to find lots of sources for Marasha Lewandowski’s

Andean Folk Knits: Great Designs…

So Abby, (or anyone else) I’d love to hear from you – Or should I just resign myself, accept I can knit with crochet hooks and will never know the history

And Software Update in Progress, what better way to spend NewYearsDay than working out the details of Security Upgrades.
and then there are the upgrades to the plug-ins,

As is “normal” at this time of year, both our regular mail and email all seem to have new pricing information.

There is no question that all our suppliers to the independent shops, the “Brick, Click or DownLoad LSO’s” have been doing all they can to hold prices in all niches of the NeedleArts. Considering the escalating costs for production, delivery, customs and the new hoops created by HSA; it is VERY REASONABLE that our suppliers need to put increased prices in place.

This is about PUBLISHED Pricing and I truly believe it to be a serious disservice to the Independent Brick, Click or DownLoad Retailer when a price increase does not include a raise in the published Suggested Retail Price as I have seen in several received in the last 30 days.

This creates a perception problem for Retailers and it should be “addressed” immediately.

Consumers “assume” that Independent Brick, Click or DownLoad Retailers pay “only” 50% of MSRP.

Consumers rarely take into account (although some do) the many other expenses related to making these products available in the independent Brick, Click or DownLoad Shops for the convenience of the consumer/needlearts hobbyist. The more reasonable will often comment that they understand and are willing to accept a small percent over Suggested Retail for this convenience and availability.

Nor, is this about peripheral costs such as postage or shipping, which must be taken into account over the long term to know if the calculations are correct and if the increased sales generates enough cash flow to justify the some revenue loses.

This is about the appearance of a supplier undercutting the Independent Retailers by creating a situation where their direct sales give the consumer the impression that the Retailer is (notice IS not MAY) be “gouging”.

When a supplier is also offering their products directly to consumers, I believe it is imperative they not do so in a many which will be harmful to the industry in general and to the Independent Retailers specifically.

At a time when the “mega stores” are visible reducing their offerings for Sewing/Quilting & NeedleArts, our industry interests lie, as they always have, in supporting the Independent Brick, Click or DownLoad Retailers who continue to keep products for the NeedleArts readily available to the Consumers.

No matter how these products are delivered, Brick, Click or DownLoad, if the supplier is going to offer products directly, or through a partnership with their retailers such as the Shop-A-Tron network, it is imperative that their published prices do not require the Retailer to be guaranteed a lose for the costs of delivering the merchandise.

And, yes as a spinner and weaver of many decades, I do understand that when a product is produced in what can only be called a very labor intensive manner such as many fiber craft items often are, or in small production runs rather than in huge mega factory situations, the “discount” may not be full keystone – BUT THE SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE CERTAINLY MUST BE AT LEAST KEYSTONE and the really good guys will make sure their published pricing does allow for the additional overhead related to running an independent NeedleArts Business.

The simple fact is that if we do not work together to make it profitable for us all to stay in business, then everyone loses, and most of all it will be the consumer who suffers when the products they love and want are no longer available.

I do sincerely hope that those several companies who prices lists for 2008 I recently received will rethink and republish appropriate “suggested retail”

Best Wishes for a Peaceful & Profitable New Year

It is year end and like all business folk, we are looking back over the year and seeing what and who have most impacted our business this year.

Personally, family health issues have kept us at home instead of “enjoying” the life of show gypsy, but life happens and you have to roll with it. Instead we have been working on new products and the development of retail & wholesale websites.

The second biggest impact on our business has been what some like to call infringement, but what is in reality the rampant stealing of intellectual property.

Our YARNandTHREAD businesses are heavily involved with the Design Community so tend to be publicly proactive regarding copyright and intellectual property issues.

Sooner or later in any On-Line group discussions, someone starts spouting what I call the

Robin Hood Rationalization

These are the most insidious of the offenders. And, once introduced to the discussion, It is also the point at which further discussion becomes pointless.

They have decided, (without ever checking on the facts) that because they disagree with a law that protects Intellectual Property, and because these laws only exist because of their lack of respect for anyone or anything that stands in the path of what they have decided they are entitled to…

They attempt to cloak their criminal activity by Rationalizing their behavior by saying the law ONLY protects “BIG CORPORATIONS” so they are only stealing from those bad nasty people.

Like Robin Hood, these Thieves, these Pattern Pirates,

believe it is okay to STEAL

Apparently without any thought or concerns for who might be hurt.

Recently one person ranted that their action was justified as an act of Civil Disobedience. She made mention o f the Boston Tea Party. I would respond that there is a vast difference between Civil Disobedience to protest an unjust governmental policy – be that policy about where to sit on the bus to Taxation without Representation.

In fact, the reference to the Boston Tea Party, an act having to do with Taxation and how that was
considered Robbery without at Gun, is used to justify a similar act, the Stealing of a livelihood from the individual who has worked to create the pattern, chart or instructions you are enjoying.

I submit that behavior has more in common with Machevelli than Robin Hood.

Ignoring the fact that without BIG CORPORATIONS with the Deep Pockets to defending their Coroporate interests, there would be no viable protections for the tiny Microscopic Business of the Needle & Fiber Arts Independent Self-Publishers to have any protection at all.

Next time, you download a copy that someone else is illegally offering

Next time, before you STEAL (not share) an illegal copy of a pattern or chart –

Next time you offer to make Counterfeit copy of a Pattern or Chart or other Intellectual Property

Ask yourself,
Do I really want to be a petty criminal?
Do I really want to teach others that Stealing is Okay?

Everyone loves the myth of Robin Hood, and we seem to live in a Machiavellian Society.

Yet, it that really who you want to be. When all is said and done, nothing more than a common thief?