I try to design beautiful knitted articles but they may not be considered interesting. All of my designs are meaningful to me but of course they will not be meaningful for others. All of my patterns also have a story embedded within them often from inspiration of place, people or colour But my stories are also not that meaningful to other others.
And big yarn companies that make patterns like Rowan or Sirdar, don’t genuinely take inspiration from real places or people that they’ve met. They often start with a mood board which has no integrity within the finished article so how do independent designers like me make a living from our creative practice?
Well, the answer is we don’t. I work at the university 2 1/2 days a week to pay my bills then I do my house jobs, care for the cat and manage the car and daily tasks and try to fit my creative practice into the time left for me, which can be hard when so many other other things take up my time
Independent designers do their own marketing, promotion and social media – responding to comments on Instagram and writing for the website to promote my creative practice. But then if I do sell a pattern for say, £4 Ravelry take 10% and then so do Paypal so I get about £3.20 for probably three months work to design Knit, test knit it, write the pattern – And that’s if I sell any at all.
I don’t have funding like a lot of creative practitioners, nor financial support so I want this post to say a big thank to you if you have ever bought a pattern or been on one of my workshops with me which showsme that the hard work that I’ve put in over the years has not been wasted and now, when I do finally get time to sit down and knit – my cat sits on top of me.
Here is a spotlight on my favourite pattern that I have ever designed at the moment and it’s the kaleidoscope jumper with add-on sleeve pattern and matching hat. I love wearing this jumper and always receive so many beautiful little comments about it so from one independent designer to whoever it is reading this Thank you for supporting us
Here is the Kaleidoscope Jumper pattern
And here is the link to that alternaitive Tree and Star sleeve, if you prefer to have the sam motif for the sleeve as used in the body.
Thank you
tracey doxey 