Thinking About The Future

For the past eight years or so, we've enjoyed a surge in quality indie designers offering amazing patterns for us to download. A digital revolution has changed crafting completely: knitters (and crocheters) came out as the winners because we suddenly had all these fantastic designers at our disposal with just one click of a button. From Ysolda Teague & Stephen West to Kate Davies & Gudrun Johnston, many designers started with a single pattern and gradually started growing as designers and businesses. I don't know if you know, but the knitting & crochet community is going through a bit of a sea-change at the minute. Making that same journey is going to be awfully hard in years to come and the real losers are the knitters and crocheters.

It's a dull and technical thing, really. The EU is changing laws about digital sales (in an attempt to stop Big Business from dodging taxes) but the UK is implementing the laws in a way that's very damaging to small sole traders (if you want to learn more, Woolly Wormhead has written extensively about it).

Digital downloads have changed the knitting industry forever but incoming legislation will complicate things immensely. The knitting community I love and treasure so much will now become an bit of a gated community for many aspiring designers. It worries me and saddens me because I am a firm believer in diversity and innovation.

On a tangentially related note,  I found this essay by an American indie rock band interesting. They talk about the realities of going on tour and how they are "making it" rather than "having made it". Sometimes it really hits you hard when you realise how much daily grinding is involved in creatives trying to make a reality of their dreams and talents.

Me? I wrote an article for Wovember about the relationship between sheep, wool and designer. Because that is where I am at and that is what I do.

ETA: I write this from a UK perspective because that is where I live. However, these law changes affect anyone who sells digitally online to EU customers - even designers living in Australia, the US or Easter Island.

Important Announcements

Folks, there are going to be some changes around here. My work/life balance has been seriously dysfunctional for some time and I am feeling the toll. In order to avoid burning out and crashing out of my job, I'm simply going to make some changes to how I offer support. I am very sorry. I love hearing from you guys - I really, really do and I hope you know this - but I also need time to design and write stuff.

These are the main changes:

1. I am going to have set office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 4pm, I will be at my desk dealing with emails, pattern queries, media requests and all the other stuff.

2. I will no longer be dealing with pattern queries via my Ravelry inbox. Likewise, I won't be able to help with queries on Twitter or Facebook. Please use my email for pattern queries (the email address is on the Ravelry receipt).

3. I am going to encourage you to use my Ravelry group as much as possible because a) the people there are amazing, b) many of them have knitted everything I've designed several times, and c) it's likely that your query has been answered there before. Really, go join the group. It's great!

4. I am working on a FAQ which I hope to have finished in the next few weeks.

5. I cannot offer general knitting help - I only offer help with my own patterns, I am afraid. For general knitting problems, knittinghelp.com is a fantastic and undervalued resource. Likewise, if you have any technical issues with my patterns, try checking the Ravelry Help pages.

Hopefully these changes will mean a less stressed-out Karie which means a happier Karie which means more Karie-stuff from Karie! (And I'll use pronouns more responsibly too.)

Another change is afoot:

I have been dragging my feet over this, but I have to adjust my pricing come January 1st. I haven't adjusted my prices in years despite rising costs, but I can no longer afford to keep prices where they are now. This means that my £3 patterns will go up to £3.75 - I am trying to keep the ebook collections at the same price as they are now, but I will have to review this decision again come summer. I really do not like passing on costs to customers and I am very sorry about having to do this.

Thank you so, so much for your understanding.

Knitting Journeys

I love travelling on ferries. I suppose I could blame my Viking blood, but I have always found sailing immensely enjoyable and relaxing. Last week I visited Northern Ireland for the first time which meant a long ferry ride across the Irish Sea as well as a long bus journey through the Scottish Lowlands. The journey home was especially lovely as the sun was out and I found myself a window seat where I could knit away and watch the waves without getting disturbed. Utter bliss.

I'll write more about this towards the end of the year, but I have realised that knitting is both a journey for me as well as something that makes me travel to all corners of the British Isles.

At the heart of it, every knitting project is a journey. You begin travelling as soon as you cast on and the process of your project is the road you are travelling. The language of geography is intertwined with the language of knitting: the yarn travels through our fingers, we have travelling stitches and we consult charts to help us navigate a challenging pattern. Then, as we near the end of our project, we have the diary of our trip in our lap. Do you remember the day that you worked the rib section? How happy you were to cross that river or climb that mountain? Or the evening you sat knitting dreaming of future adventures as you traversed across an endless desert of stocking stitch?

And it also means something else for me personally.

Currently I am knitting socks. They are the perfect travel project and they kept me entertained during my stay in Northern Ireland (no internet connection! it was lovely!). I have designed three sock patterns for the Old Maiden Aunt Sock Club 2015 (also three exclusive never-to-be-repeated OMA colourways) and I really, really enjoyed the experience. A sock is a very different canvas to, say, a shawl and I relished playing with this new-to-me canvas.

I am currently on my second almost-vanilla sock. This pair is just for me and my journeys around these isles. Who knows what will happen next.

Say Hello to the Scollay Cardigan

2014 turns out to be the year where I break free from all the ..but surely I can't .. whispers at the back of my head. I am fully self-employed, I have been part of all sorts of incredible craft events with properly big knitting names, and now I've released my first garment pattern. Designing garments always felt daunting because they have to fit across sizes, there are all sorts of things to keep track off, and (crucially) they have to fit people other than me. So, say hello to Scollay.

Scollay is published in the latest Knit Now magazine (issue 41, in shops this week). I have a long-standing working relationship with the editor, so I knew I could trust the editorial team to be on-board with my first garment and lend me moral support. And I really think we got it right.

The inspiration behind the cardigan is two-fold.

Firstly, I knew I wanted an everyday cardigan which would work as a layering piece. I am mildly obsessed with "the everyday wardrobe" where you have some some amazing essential pieces you go back to again and again. I wanted to design a cardigan I knew I could just put on - I think we all have those garments that only work with a certain shirt and I wanted to avoid that.

Secondly, I was hugely inspired by the work of Louise Scollay who runs the Knit British website and podcast. Louise champions the idea of using local yarns and is very vocal about how supporting local yarns is both affordable and sustainable.  I knew I wanted to use  a local yarn for my cardigan - and then the name of the pattern became obvious: Scollay. I have an interview with her coming up on this blog where I'll be asking her just how it feels to have a pattern named after you!

The Scollay cardigan is knitted in New Lanark DK which is spun just down the road from me. New Lanark is a UNESCO Heritage site which spins its own yarn using the Falls of Clyde to power its mill. It is not a coincidence that I chose to work with this yarn - I have visited New Lanark many times and the site holds special significance to me. Scollay's seamless construction cuts down on the amount of yarn you need and New Lanark is astonishing affordable at just £3.50 per ball. £3.50 for a piece of British industrial heritage, Scottish progressive social  history and a yarn imbued with landscape, history, meaning, locality, and soul?

Oh come on.

A few suggestions for modifications. The cardigan is knitted bottom-up with the sleeves and body joined before you work the yoke. This sort of construction allows for relatively easy mods:

• the cardigan hits me well below the hips (as you can tell) but I am really short-waisted. If you want a slightly shorter cardigan, take out an inch before and after the waist shaping.
• you can adjust the length of the sleeves by taking out a couple of inches before you join the sleeves to the body.
• it is designed to have a smidgen of positive ease because I wanted a cardigan that would work for layering. The model in the magazine looks super-cool in her relaxed fit cardi. However, I am wearing the cardigan with an inch of negative ease.
• I do love the New Lanark yarn with a fiery passion, but it has a lot of character which I understand is not for all people (though it works perfectly for me). If you are looking for a substitute, you need to look for a double-knitting yarn with good stitch definition and memory. The construction means the yoke bears the weight of the garment, so make sure you find a substitute with sturdiness - cottons and silk-blends won't work in the long run.

It is such a thrill to finally be able to blog about the cardigan. I designed it in the spring and knitted it during the hottest Scottish summer in memory (I am modelling it on a hot July day in these photos ) - so it's been a hard secret to keep. But it is released this week and I finally feel like I am a proper grown-up designer. Heh.

Now We're Getting Somewhere

I was looking through an old photo folder when I came across this swatch I did for what would eventually become the Proserpine shawl. The swatch was knitted in an unreleased Old Maiden Aunt shade and I love how the camera picks up unexpected shades in the soft khaki green. Patterns have an interesting path they take from initial swatch to finished object. Proserpine was always going to be knitted in a rich, jewel-like shade, but for a short period of time it only existed partially in my head and partially in this soft green shade. Colours play such a part in how we see designs - once I knitted Proserpine in Caerthan's rich teal, it became a different, separate thing to what it was at this early stage. Part of me still wonders what it would look like in the OMA colourway. If I had but world enough and time..

.. if I had but world enough and time, I would knit many things.

(Loch Fyne earlier this year; so many ideas)

Maybe this is a good time to tell you that I have tentatively begun doing research into Something New. It is much too early to say more about it as I want to run this very differently than Doggerland. In fact, the research is at such an early stage that I'm yet to pull together a colour palette or formulate a design vocabulary (and all those other things that make my partner laugh when I start talking about them - "are you sure you didn't go to art school?"). But the idea is there, it has been there for some time and it keeps nudging me. All this is good.

However, first I will be focusing on other things. It is Wovember, after all, and I have a lot of travel time over the next few weeks. I am hoping to get a few knitted gifts done (strong emphasis on hope) and I have some delicious Blacker Yarn earmarked for that. I'm finishing up a few articles too and there is something very special in a knitting magazine later this month.

Just a brief, final note. I have been out for the count with a dreadful migraine for the first five days or so of this month. I took three days off (as I couldn't see out of my left eye!) and I'm now trying to get through all messages, mails, edits, revisions, and so forth as quickly as I possibly can - please be patient with me!

That Was The October That Was

Lately I have had my head buried in spreadsheets, charts, style sheets and gauge swatches. All work and no play makes for a dull Karie. Sure, there were some bright spots (like my surprise trip to Arran) but I've mainly focused on ticking off items on my to-do list.

I celebrated Socktober by getting stuck into sock design for the first time. I have always had a mild phobia of feet (don't ask) but several people challenged me to conquer my phobia. I am glad I did because I really enjoyed playing around with a new canvas and checking out new techniques. I'm joining forces with Ms Old Maiden Aunt for her 2015 club - three exclusive colourways and three sock patterns by yours truly. I am truly excited to hear what people think of my sock patterns as it's a new area for me. I am not ruling out designing more socks, incidentally, as my friend Paula gave me a pair of luxurious hand-knitted socks as a belated birthday present and I love them to bits.

Just don't make me look at other people's toes, aghr.

Another highlight was teaching workshops. I really love teaching - that moment a tricky technique is mastered by someone or I can see someone getting it .. well, you cannot beat that feeling. One of my workshops took place at Dundee's Fluph yarn shop. We had six native languages between us and experience ranging from "designing my own jumpers" to "I learned to knit three months ago and have never worked in the round". Just such a great time and I love the six finished mini jumpers. All speak of the knitters' personalities and how much they were up for a challenge. The red jumper on the left? The lady had never attempted colourwork before and was excited to put small borders on her jumper. Ace stuff.

New designs? Yes. I finished nine new designs this months - including the three sock patterns that pushed me out of my comfort zone. I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone doing that many designs in a month, but I found being busy silenced that annoying voice going "it's not good enough, Karie". I have struggled with perfectionism and impossibly high standards before - and it was interesting to see how being busy felt liberating.

I was excited to meet and chat with Susan McComb, the Knitter-In-Residence at Glasgow University for Wool Week. The residency was an extension of the ongoing Knitting in the Round project and since I have been part of the project in a number of ways, I was looking forward to seeing Susan's work. She had translated architectural details found around campus into knitting patterns, had taught knitting workshops throughout the university and spoken with Material Culture students about textiles. Susan spoke with passion about keeping your eyes open and knit what you see in every day life (this reminded me of Felicity Ford's recent work). We had a great conversation about inner/outer landscapes and the relationship between landscapes and textiles. Incidentally, if you can make it, the Knitting in the Round project has a workshop on Sanquhar knitting in Sanquhar tomorrow, November 1.

And I finished the Doggerland collection, my word. Part of me thought I would never get to the finishing line as the aforementioned perfectionism reared its ugly head again and again. But I did finish and I cannot quite believe that something that was inside my head for so long is now out in the world. The finished collection is almost 50 pages long (only because I used a relatively small sized font, ha ha) and has 8 patterns with essays and hand-drawn schematics.

I love collaborations and working closely with others on a design brief - but I take great pleasure to looking at Doggerland knowing it would not exist if it weren't for my stubbornness and my odd ideas.

It has also been quite overwhelming listening to people's responses - and i mean that in a positive way! I have been corresponding with few knitters (and non-knitters) over the past year or so, and I have heard so many incredible stories about how Doggerland has affected them or made them think. I'll be sharing some of those stories in a separate post, but it is truly one of the joys of my life that my work can affect people. It feels quite humbling.

So. November. What will November bring? Some time to breathe?