This week

I was going to write a post about medical miracles – my father had deep brain stimulation surgery to treat Parkinson’s last week, and it has had a miraculous effect, and after years of declining function, he has has renewed energy and abilities, and he is back, enjoying his retirement, and will be deep sea fishing soon. This article pretty much describes what Dad went through, and the effect it also had on him. He looks amazing, apart from some rather scary scars and shaved head.  I’m pretty sure he’s happy for the world to know about the surgery, he did tell the local paper!

Unfortunately, major brain surgery on my father is only one of the significant medical events happening in my family.  The family emergency which required the temporary closure of Yarn Workshop in September has become significantly worse, with the patient (who has entirely reasonably requested privacy), being diagnosed with a another life threatening condition that is going to require months of significant medical treatment. I’ll be doing more knitting in hospital corridors.

We only have a few certainties,  Yarn Workshop will go into temporary hiatus from 13 November 2009 until it is unpacked in Sydney Australia; and we are in the fortunate position where the Fireman has a job in Sydney. Apart from that, we do not know when we move, where we will move to, whether we will put the kids into school for the dregs of the Australian school year.  A few things to figure out.

I’ve recently come across A Commonplace Life via a-black-pepper, and decided to participate in her concept Moments. I edit what goes on in this blog fairly ruthlessly (so you can probably guess how discombobulated my life actually is), but in the photo below you see my dining room on Thursday.

For me, this actually isn’t that messy.  There is only one package on the dining table awaiting shipping, one old Koolhaas being stretched into a new shape (effectively as it turns out), the sewing machine which has been in same position for the last three weeks, and stacks of books and papers. The skein of alpaca over the far dining chair has been there for at least 4 weeks.  It is awaiting overdyeing. The books and papers situation does not improve around the house, and the guiltiest part of it all is that we actually have a live-in housekeeper who is maniacally tidy.

When we moved to Hong Kong, it became apparent that we had no reasonably priced child care  options apart from a live in helper (and I mean none – there are no child care centres for working parents, and we have no family here). N started with us, and stayed when I returned to full time work, and is still with us now. I manage to turn her tidiness into mess.

When we return to Australia, she will not be able to come with us (because of Australia’s immigration laws), and it will be a big readjustment for our family.  I’ve taken care of our kids without a helper, and am not so concerned about that aspect, but the girls have known her nearly all their lives, and for them it will be a real loss. Older daughter seems to have inherited a recessive tidy gene, so for her, the change will be really dramatic. What does it say when you actually have a housekeeper, and your house ends up looking like this?

In other news, I’ve updated my “About” page, and formalised my husband’s blog identity as “the Fireman”.  He really was a professional firefighter when I met him (over 10 years in the NSW Fire Brigade), and he is still wonderfully calm in the face of a crisis.

No more Addi needles

I received this email from the Hong Kong Addi distributor yesterday:

“Dear Ingrid,

Thank you for your payment and the previous orders. Unfortunately, I am sorry to tell you that I cannot supply you anymore the Addi Needle.

The Manufacturer of Addi Needle receives a lot of complaints from US distributors that there is online sale of the Addi Needle in USA. They have traced out the source and found that you are the supplier. Your online sale activity has ruined the market in US. As a responsible distributor in Hong Kong, I would take the responsibility to protect the market not only in Hong Kong but also in other countries. I am asked to stop supplying you the needles with immediate effect.

I would supply you again the Addi needles once your online sale activity stops. Thank you for your understanding and I am looking forward to doing business with you soon in the near future.

Very best rgds
Adrian Pong
Winsome Wool & Craft Co. Ltd”

There has been a lot of talk recently in the online knitting world about the exploitation of knitting designers inspired by this post by Annie Modesitt. I agree with Annie’s contentions, and after participating in the knitting industry for a couple of years, have noticed the inefficient archaic business practices throughout the industry that do not benefit knitting consumers.

It is absurd to suggest that my little online business has “ruined the market in the US” for Addi needles.   We literally store our  Addi needles in drawers under our bed. The existence of my business highlights the way in which Skacel has exploited their monopoly in the North American markets.  It seems that US wholesale prices for Addi needles are higher than the retail prices in Hong Kong.  All the products are produced in the same factory in Germany. There is a huge profit being made by Skacel, and they are adopting any means necessary to protect their market. Their price maintenance practices mean that many consumers worldwide are losing the opportunity to purchase good quality needles at reasonable prices.

Our family is fortunate, we weren’t relying on the Addi needle income to pay our rent.  We are planning to relocate to Australia in the new year (along with the yarn side of Yarn Workshop), and I had been approached by a potential buyer of the Hong Kong based needle business. Unfortunately, the value of the needle business has been destroyed by this predatory behaviour. Instead of selling that portion of my business, I am instead going to sell all the remaining stock of knitting needles at very significant discount.

The Hong Kong distributor was careful enough to send me their email immediately after I had received delivery of a large expensive order of new needles including Addi Click sets and Addi Lace needles. My decision to make this email public was motivated by my outrage at the facade of politeness that many in the knitting industry maintain while they engage in uncompetitive conduct.  I strongly believe in fair competition, and have not worked in any other industry where this style of conduct would be considered acceptable.  If you look at this post by Steve Elkins of Webs (scroll down the page), you will see that in the knitting needle market, this kind of behaviour is not isolated, and I believe that a lot of other participants have remained silent about their intimidation.

The whole knitting market, not just the pattern industry requires a shake up – so that profit is not stored solely in the hands of the yarn and knitting needle distributors. At present, companies like Skacel exploit inefficiencies in the model of distribution to their benefit.  Its a real shame, because many consumers have been priced out using good tools that really enhance their knitting experience. I’m interested to try Hiya Hiya needles – they are a new entrant in the market, and seem interested in offering quality at a reasonable price.

The old business model will inevitably be overcome by the forces of the market in an e-commerce world, and the demise of part of my business will be a hiccup along the way. If you think that Skacel need a nudge along the way into the modern world, or you feel that  you don’t want to pay an unnecessary premium on your Addi needles, try emailing karin@skacelknitting.com.

Everything I do, I do a zillion times

Finally, I finished the socks for my younger daughter, somewhere just before a pleasant sounding Qantas pilot announced that we would not be going immediately to Hong Kong, but had been diverted to Manila.  If you have a sense of deja vu, so did I.

I knitted with Knit Pro fixed metal circulars on both the flight to Australia and on the return, and knitting helped to preserve my sanity.  On the flight to Sydney, I was accosted by an elderly woman as I knitted.  She asked “How did you get those on the plane?”.  She began to tell a tale of woe about her knitting not being allowed when the seatbelt sign came on.

If I had had the chance, I would have said to her, that I am firmly in the camp of seeking forgiveness rather than permission when it comes to knitting on a plane.  I think that having an inherently non-threatning kind of project, and short needles also will help you clear security. Sock gauge bamboo double pointed needles also fit rather nicely in a small child’s pencil case, or in a make-up bag.

I should have removed the bag from underneath the chair for the shot above!  In the tradition of contrariness for which my family might be known, older daughter is modelling her younger sister’s socks, and I only had a small window of co-operation within which to work. If you look closely, you can see that I added a row of purl stitches after the ribbing, solely to provide a device for distinguishing the two pairs.

These socks caused me further trouble after the last incident with the incorrect number of cast on stitches.  I managed to start the heel on sock 1, mark 2 way too soon, and had to rip it out again after cutting the hand dyed yarn. This caused some irregular pooling in the yarn, which I am choosing to ignore.

When I reached the toe on sock 2, I realised that I had stopped the gusset decreases 3 stitches too soon, and had to rip back all of the foot.  Given that the first pair of these socks fairly flew off the needles, I was surprised at how many stupid mistakes I made on these.  Maybe waiting for a family member to receive medical treatment requires projects calling for even less concentration.  The patient has recovered well from surgery, and should recover completely.  I am glad to be back in Hong Kong, and back at work.

Ene’s Scarf

This is a quick post – I just have been out walking with the kids, and persuaded a my husband to take some shots of the Ene’s scarf on me. It was insanely hot and glary getting these, so you will have to excuse the squint.

That gives you the idea! Taking photos of lace is tricky – especially when I do not need to be wearing a shawl.

Project details here. The colour is much more accurate in the first shot.