This is the sort of thing I was talking about yesterday (wander over to yesterday’s post to see what I mean).

This is a super fun way to handle the ends on this hat (well, this is my first pass at it where I’m just checking if the idea is viable, the one I actually do for real will be all tidy and neat at the top and end in a tassel at the bottom and just generally be a monument to orderliness, but you knew that already). It’s pretty and fun and I love it and it makes me so so so so happy.

But also, if I put it in the pattern, it’s another four to eight pages of material to create (which means lots of extra pictures, lots of extra text, lots of extra editing, lots of extra support work).

And so I have to decide, hey, do I put this super fun thing in the pattern? Will I sell enough copies of it to cover the (substantial) extra time it will take to explain all that? Or do I leave it out and just say weave in your ends?

And normally I just sort of do the nifty thing and don’t ever ever ever tell you about it or show it to you. Because I know that putting it in the pattern would be a ton of extra work, and if I just don’t show it to you, you don’t know what you’re missing.

But I really sort of like the idea of saying ‘look, if what you want is a regular pattern, you can buy that through the regular channels…but if you want to follow along with me as I explore these little extra bits, I’ll share those with folks over on patreon as I create them.’

That keeps the prices the same for folks who don’t want an absurd stack of extras, but gives me a place to share the extra bits if there are enough people who want them.

Oh, and someone somewhere is about to work really really hard to intentionally misunderstand me, so I’m going to head that off early for my own peace of mind. I’m not saying the regular versions of patterns won’t still be delightful. I’m just saying that I need to stop doing that thing where a ‘simple hat pattern’ turns into a 20+ page pattern with dozens of instructional photos and a stack of different options.

Because that is, um, not sustainable long term. Ask me how I know.