How My Knowledge of Fiber Saved My Life

10 November, 2008 |

Last night I was sitting on the sofa by a lovely roaring fire, typing away at my blog post. My boyfriend had gone down to the pub with his friend, and I was all alone in the small Welsh cottage. As I got up to get myself a mug of tea, I glanced at the woodburner and noticed that the candle that had been left on top of it (note use of passive) looked a bit lopsided, so I thought I’d better take it off there and put it to one side. The saucer was full of hot melted wax though, so it was rather tricky to do, and I noticed that the flames were licking away at that side of the burner, making it even hotter. Not knowing a whole lot about fires, I opened the woodburner door to try to rearrange the logs. Woosh! The flames licked out of the hinge and one side of the woodburner caught fire. It finally clicked that there was hot hot wax dripping down that entire side of the woodburner. In a few brief moments, many thoughts ran through my head:

- My God, the fire is outside the woodburner.
- Maybe if I leave it, it’ll just burn up.
- I can’t call my boyfriend.
- How am I going to tell him I burnt his house down?

9 comments

Educating Non-Knitters on Garment Care

9 November, 2008 |

Yarn |

tags: care, design, labels, Yarn.

I noticed that a discussion on the Ravelry forums linked to the garment labels I posted yesterday. The question is “how do you educate non-knitters you knit for, to care for their garment?” Especially with the Christmas season coming up, this seems like an important problem to try to resolve. Sewing in a fabric label, such as those found in shop-bought clothes, seems an ideal solution because people are accustomed to consulting them, and they are always available for quick reference on the garment itself. But this is clearly not an option for smaller knitted items such as socks and gloves, and may not be feasible on lacy pieces where they would show through. In these cases it would be necessary to provide the instructions separately.

So where would the recipient be most likely to keep the instructions?