Post · bonfire.cafe

Caution: Knitting 🧶 blabber!

I am not sure what I did to call this forth from the void, but a long-queued, favourited pattern in my Ravelry queue appeared to be lost a year or so ago - the page indicated the pattern source had disappeared.

I quietly went about some used-bookstore shopping and moping, even KW Knitters' Fair standby Grantham Books didn't have the indie-published. Book.

Just now, on some random queue-visibility troubleshooting - ta-daaahhh!

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-null-hypothesis-scarf

Ravelry

The Null Hypothesis Scarf pattern by Katrina Elsaesser

A six-foot long double-knit scarf with a non-repeating Mad Science themed pattern - but you don’t have to be crazy to knit this (or do you…?)

Johanna, CanCon variety

@johannab@cosocial.ca · 3 hours ago

Also, bwaaahahaha ... I was puzzled to find I own this paid pattern after it reappeared, as I thought I was looking to buy it when I noticed it missing. Since I couldn't purchase it, I couldn't add it to my library, but now it is there.

Apparently it was sent to me as a gift in 2018, probably during one of the Fishmas secret swaps I haven't joined for a couple years now. 🤣 De-listing the pattern disappeared it, but Ravelry is amazing, I'm guessing what happened is they corrected a DB orphan.

FallsMom 🌻

@FallsMom@mastodon.coffee · 3 hours ago

@johannab

I've found a few orphan patterns via the awesome internet archive!

Johanna, CanCon variety

@johannab@cosocial.ca · 2 hours ago

@FallsMom This one was not there, that I could find. Possibly due to the combination of Ravelry not being "open" (you have to have an account) and the pattern itself not being free/opensource, which is not unusual.

The "orphan" in my use of it is a technical DB term - someone at Ravelry realized that paid-for patterns "disappeared", likely by doing some database housekeeping. They would see purchase/gift records that became detached from the stored document record.

Johanna, CanCon variety

@johannab@cosocial.ca · 2 hours ago

@FallsMom

Why I continue to be in love with Ravelry and insist it is one of the best designed information systems I have ever seen is that database oopses like that are everywhere, and for the most part, no one notices, and if noticed, no one cares.

Someone at Rav noticed, cared, and did some work to track down the author(s)/publisher(s) to get the pattern document re-linked and uploaded for new sales.

Johanna, CanCon variety

@johannab@cosocial.ca · 3 hours ago

This probably makes no sense to those who don't use Ravelry, but the TL;DR is, support your small businesses, both knitwear designers/publishers/vendors and the tiny family biz that is Ravelry. They are a textile arts treasury and most people have no idea how amazing their databases and community services are.