Every time

Every time a pattern for a tiny thing gets popular I get comments like this. These read "I would recommend checking the price again. It is disproportionate to patterns for sweaters in 7 sizes" & "Nice design and commentary, but I simply cannot justify $10 for a washcloth….nor do I want to download 26 pages….a less expensive pattern would sell much better, imo".   And I'll be honest, they used to wreck me. But not anymore. My full response is in the screenshots (transcribed below in case it's hard to read or you want the links), but the gist is [...]

February 22, 2024|

Psssst…

So I'm knitting cupcakes.  Which is fun and frivolous and festive and should be a carefree sort of thing, right?  And for the most part it totally is!  But one thing keeps happening, and I'm in a place where I want to talk about it for just a quick second. People keep saying over and over and over 'oh look, cupcakes without calories' or 'guilt free cupcakes' or 'finally some cupcakes I can feel good about' or something else that seems to strongly suggest that the other kind of cupcakes...the kind that you eat, the kind that contain food, the [...]

April 1, 2019|

You’re probably right

We need to talk about something... When I post a picture of a swatch or a project on instagram, the second most common comment I get (right after 'what's that yarn?') is some version of 'I could never do that, that's way too hard for me!'  And it sort of breaks my heart.  Because if that's what you're telling yourself, you're probably right...you probably can't. But I have some news!  You're not right because the thing itself is particularly hard.  You're right because if you go into it thinking 'I could never...' then you're not ever going to try, and [...]

February 7, 2019|

Gather round

I really sort of want to just hide them all around the neighborhood and see if anyone notices... And before you ask, yes, there will be a pattern (and quite soon too, but I want to knit a few more first). But I want to talk about something for a minute.  This is a little scary, but here goes. I strongly considered not putting this pattern out, because the last few times I've put out a pattern for something cute and tiny, I've gotten a few really distressing messages.  There are a handful of folks who took time out of their day [...]

October 10, 2018|

Nope Nope Nope

Every once in a  while I get a string of comments in quick succession, and the cumulative effect of them leaves me feeling a bit cranky.  I'm sure this makes me a big meany pants.  But I am a big meany pants with my very own handy dandy website, so I can actually take a moment and write about two of these kinds of comments all at once and then point people here if they come up again.  So without further ado, two things I will not do for you (even if you call me names). Put the pattern out [...]

March 30, 2016|

Keep It Up

Last week was a bit of a rollercoaster.  It started when I learned that someone was selling scans of one of my books on Etsy.  I asked Etsy to take the listing down, and they did.  Then I asked them to take down the seller's shop (everything in it was clearly stolen).  They didn't, despite fervent claims that they take copyright issues seriously. So I told you about it and asked you to help me persuade Etsy to fix it.  And you did!  The seller's shop was empty come morning. Alas, the story doesn't end there.  The very next day [...]

July 13, 2015|

Disappointing

Update: Holy Wowza we did it! When I got up this morning, I saw that the site had zero listings.  Thank you all! Update, Part Two: Sigh, I found another scummy seller listing my book. This time, I figured I'd write a little guide on what to do if it happens to you or a creator you care about. Are you up for a little rant about intellectual property rights?  Because I have a tale to tell, and I could use a little help. On Monday evening, the lovely Julie very kindly sent me  a tweet telling me someone on [...]

July 8, 2015|

Standards

Every now and then, someone writes to me and says something along the lines of "why don't you use the standard chart symbols?"  More often, I'll see someone say on ravelry some variation of "gee, I like her patterns, but I wish she'd use standard chart symbols."  The only thing I can think in response is what standard chart symbols? There is really no such thing.  Not even a little. In fact, chart symbols (and charts in general) are staggeringly different from one book to the next.  I pulled a handful of books off my shelf, they all use different [...]

January 15, 2015|

How (not) to ask for help

I must preface this by saying that the vast majority of the knitters I talk to are absolute delights.  They are clever and interesting and just generally nifty people who will go out of their way to be as nice as can be. When I hear from people with questions or comments about my patterns, I'm almost universally amazed by how gracious and good spirited they are.  To those folks, I say thank you.  But lately, I've had a little run of comments and questions that weren't quite like that.  Let's just say they were the sort of communication where [...]

June 19, 2014|
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