Answers to questions you may be asking…
What sort of yarn should I use to embellish with?
The best results seem to come from embellishing with wool on wool. Most of my knitting and embellishing is done with “hand wash only” wool because I knit mostly soakers and longies at this point in time. Any wool will work well, but soft, many-stranded wool is my preference for a few reasons: It is easy to work with, it covers the knitted base well as the strands spread out a little, and it is easy to peel or thin down for different techniques as explained in the tutorials.
Is embellishing difficult?
I don’t think it is as difficult as it may look. Just as a complicated lace or patterned piece of knitting is simply a combination of well-placed increases and decreases and a few fancy stitches thrown in to show off, so embellishing is simply a combination of a few simple techniques and a few fancy stitches thrown in to show off. Jump in with both feet!
How can I learn to embellish?
Have a look around, download one of the free charts, have a read through the tutorials and give it a go. There’s no better way to learn than to simply try. Don’t be afraid to stuff it up and start again.
Any advice for new embellishers?
As I said, don’t be afraid to stuff it up. I often rip out part, or all, of an embellishment, so I should offer the advice of not weaving in the ends until the whole duplicate stitching portion is finished. It may seem easier to weave in the ends as you go, but it’s more difficult to undo a section of duplicate stitch if you’ve drawn another thread through your woven in ends.
Why are your charts not listed on Ravelry?
I love, love, love Ravelry and I am super keen to list my charts on Rav and even to sell through Rav. What an awesome way to advertise and even to support Rav through my sales. However, I have asked “the powers that be” and they have made it clear that they prefer charts not to be put on the patterns database. They may in the future make a separate database for stitch dictionaries, charts, and a number of other desired inclusions. There have been a number of discussions about this in the Big Six forums and there are a few places in the “bug and feature requests” lists where you can add your voice and vote for these features. Thanks for understanding, and if you add your voice to the requests for these features on Ravelry, then I thank you all the more. For now I will be supporting Ravelry with my advertising dollars.
Can Watermellish charts be used to knit fairisle style?
Unfortunately, no. My duplicate stitch technique takes advantage of being able to stitch half-stitches in a way which is not possible by knitting. This is explained in the duplicate stitch tutorial.
Can Watermellish designs be sold once they’re put on a knitted item?
I have changed my policy on this. It is all explained here. In short, all charts in future will say:
Watermellish charts are offered licence-free. This means you are free to sell items made with Watermellish embellishments on them. As a courtesy it would be appreciated for you to credit Watermellish with the design in your sale listing. Please do not sell the charts or claim the designs to be your own. Please support independent designers by respecting their work and their rights.
And this will also apply to charts already sold/downloaded.
How can I pay for my purchases? How do I receive my purchases?
I have enabled Paypal buttons for simple payment. As soon as I see a payment has come into my Paypal account I will send off the the charts to your email address (linked to your Paypal account). If you would like your charts sent to a different email address, please leave a message with the alternative email address in the “message to seller” part of the Paypal checkout, or email me before finalising the transaction.
If you are in Australia and would like to pay by Direct Debit then please email me.
