Technology is always changing and forcing us to change along with it. When I first published the Wheatsheaves Scarf, it was my first attempt to chart a knitting pattern with Excel. I simply plugged the chart directly into the pattern, not realizing that when it was converted to a pdf some people would have difficulty printing it. Eventually I caught on and de-activated the pattern, meaning to come back and deal with it. Then we had a move to a new house, a pandemic, and our two kids left home. A lot of stuff happened. Then Microsoft Office support was terminated. For a while, I tried switching my patterns to Google Docs, and then to the free version of Microsoft Word, but in both of those free apps, the conversion of documents to pdf's resulted in major formatting issues. Even Isabel, a software engineer at one of the major tech companies, didn't realize this was a problem, probably because she doesn't spend her days dealing with photo and knitting chart insertion issues. So, this morning I bit the bullet and finally subscribed to Microsoft 365 and in less than ten minutes all my problems have been solved. All I had to do was to create a new page 5 by scanning a print out of the Word version. Then I inserted it back into the Word document (so there was no direct Excel insertion), and finally I converted the whole thing to a new pdf. Phew!
The new version of the pattern is now back on Ravelry. My love for this design has grown over the years, especially when I see what knitters have done with it. The pattern can become a scarf or a shawl, depending on yarn choice and number of repeats worked. Look at this amazing version by HPbythesea knitted out of handspun dyed from local plants. Is it not a thing of beauty?
I had so much fun making and photographing this scarf/shawl the first time around,
