Working without a Job

I was chatting with friends on a recent night, the usual inconsequential gibberish you get to engage in on occasion when the kids are in bed and everyone can relax with a few drinks, when the topic circled to an acquaintance who seemed overwhelmed juggling work and 3 kids. I commented that, like this woman, it was also difficult for me to manage some days, although I only have 2 kids, because our youngest is developmentally delayed, and my husband quickly responded, "Yes, but she has a job."

That really hurt.

I quickly shot back that I was running my own small business, thank you very much, which he thoughtfully acknowledged but said that was "different."

And he's right. It is different.

Because if I were sitting in an office 8 hours a day, regardless of what I was actually doing there or how much money I was making, no one would ever dare say I didn't have a job. Instead I spend my days entertaining, teaching, caring for and cleaning up after my children, and my evenings and weekends running a small business: knitting, writing patterns, developing classes, teaching, running test knits, marketing, bookkeeping, editing photos, and the list goes on.

Yes, I'm writing and selling knitting patterns. No, my job isn't "necessary;" the world would continue to turn without knitting pattern designers.  I'm not curing cancer. I'm not making millions of dollars. I'm never going to be rich and famous, and no one other than my family and friends will remember my name when I've died.

But guess what? The same is true of my husband. And most of our friends. And the vast majority of people. At the end of the day, a very small percentage of people are going to make a major impact or get rich and famous doing their jobs. 

So, all things being even in the end, why is it that the job that I've built myself, that I pour all my free time into, that is something I love doing, is somehow not a "real" job? Because I don't sit in an office 40 hours a week? Because I don't bring home a paycheck at the end of the month? Because the product I'm creating isn't really necessary? Because knitting is "women's work?" Or all of the above?

Being a creative is a challenge. People outside the industry struggle to understand what goes into creative jobs--and their default position seems to be that if they can't understand it (and frankly, most don't seem to have actually tried), it's not "real." So if you're a pattern designer, yarn dyer, tech editor, knitting instructor, or in any other creative business, and feeling like people don't appreciate how much work goes into your job,  I just wanted to take a minute to let you know that we're all here with you--your job is just as real and valuable as any other, whether or not your spouse, family or friends understand and appreciate it.

June Wrap-up!

What was happening with MediaPeruana Designs in June--which is somehow over already? 

• I shared a new tutorial on how I take and edit my photos for Instagram.
• The Catoctin and Evangeline patterns, previously exclusive to Knittin' Little, are now available to purchase directly from MPD.
• I released the Brujería shawl pattern.
• I hit 2000 followers on Instagram.
• I started a fundraiser for RAICES Texas; $1 from every single pattern and $5 from every ebook sold through Thursday, July 5 will go to RAICES' fund for reuniting families separated at the border. 

July means more patterns from Juntos: Knits for Togetherness--stay tuned!

A Day in the Life: Summer 2018

Now that's school's out for a few months, my regular work schedule has been upset just a bit--and it wasn't that great to begin with. I used to drop the kids off at school around 8:50, and then work until it was time to pick them up around 11:15--2 whole hours. But those days are gone. 

So I thought you might like a peek at my current daily schedule (and I use the term schedule loosely):

6a: Husband gets up for work. I am now half-awake, but refuse to move. (One of my meds causes night sweats and weird dreams, so my sleep is . . . not great.)

6:30: Child 1 wakes up and starts singing, reciting books and otherwise making a lot of noise for no apparent reason.

6:40: Child 2 is now awake, but since he's as-yet non-verbal, he's considerably quieter. Unless we take too long to get him up, at which point he lays on his back in bed and kicks the wall. 

6:50: Bring both children to my bed so I can laze around half-asleep while they play iPad for a bit. Husband leaves for work.

7:15: Get up, put contacts in, shower, dress, attempt to work for about 30 minutes while children run into my studio approximately every 45 seconds with a "problem": the cat isn't being friendly, the iPad game is too hard, they're dying of dehydration, one child wants to trade iPads and the other is refusing even though they have literally the EXACT. SAME. GAMES. on them.

8: Breakfast. Get food ready for the kids. By the time I get food ready for myself, both children have finished eating and will spend the duration of my breakfast time asking me questions while I say "not right now, mommy's eating" over and over and over again.

8:30: Watch Elmo's Potty Time because we're trying to potty train Child 2. Child 1 recites his favorite bits at an increasing volume while asking questions like "does Elmo have a penis?"

9: Dress children. Remind Child 1 that he is 5 years old and does not need me to dress him, nor do I need to spot him as he dresses. Change Child 2's pull-up because despite all the Elmo encouragement he is perfectly happy to let me wipe his little booty until he graduates high school, possibly college. 

9:30 Get out of the house. Possibly errands, or go for a walk if it's not too hot yet. 

11: Return home. Try to encourage children to do something educational or creative until lunchtime. Fail. Listen to them chase the cats and fight over toys instead while I start a load of laundry and try to clean up some clutter.

11:45: Start making lunch. Length of time this takes depends on whether or not Child 1 insists on "helping" me. Make same peanut butter on graham crackers the children eat every single day. 

12: Serve children lunch, make my own lunch. Repeat same scenario from breakfast. 

12:30: Consider taking kids to the pool, am exhausted just thinking about it. Play in the backyard instead. Child 2 will happily play in the water table or splashpad for at least an hour. Child 1 will sit on the swing and ask to go inside every 5 minutes, despite repeated efforts to interest him in t-ball, soccer, water table, splashpad, or other toys/games. I will attempt to garden or knit. Push Child 2 on the swing for at least 15 minutes, which may well be the most boring parenting task known to man. If they happen to find a worm to annoy, I'm golden. 

2: Come back inside, change Child 2's clothes because he's sopping wet, or get him dry clothes if he's already stripped in the yard. Why don't I just preemptively remove his clothes or put him in a bathing suit? I don't really know. 

2:15: Take children down to the playroom, which is filled with more toys than I had my entire childhood. Attempt to do chores while they're distracted with toys, but if I leave the room for more than 5 minutes, they come find me, or worse, start screeching for me to return at top volume. On the off chance that I can escape to start any chores, children will immediately start fighting over a single toy despite the abundance of toys in the room.

3: Distribute snacks and put on TV for kids. Naively think I will have the opportunity to knit, work or catch up on chores, but Child 2 insists on sitting in my lap for TV time. I know he won't be this little forever, so I let him and spend an hour watching Thomas the Tank Engine, Peppa Pig, or something else that is slowly rotting my brain, while scrolling Instagram or Twitter.

4: Again attempt to coerce children into doing something educational or creative. Fail again and give up. Offer to play Chutes and Ladders or any other number of games but am rebuffed. Attempt to escape playroom again. Repeat previous reaction to attempts to escape. Lamely sit on the sofa watching children play, periodically breaking up fights, taking children to the bathroom, and knitting about 4 stitches at a time.

5: Husband will be home in 20-30 minutes (traffic willing), so bring the kids up to my bedroom and distract them with the iPads again while I attempt to work for 30 minutes. Children insist on being in my presence (I am REALLY awesome, guys), so they plant themselves on the floor of the studio with iPads, each playing a different game with annoying music. Stop every 5 minutes to restart a game because kids games on iPads are really buggy and constantly freezing up.

5:30: Prepare dinner while husband entertains children. Laugh at the optimistic meal I planned in the morning and toss a pot of water on the stove to boil while I dig through pantry for spaghetti and sauce. Children, of course, will not eat spaghetti because . . . reasons . . . so find some alternate dinner for them.

6: Dinner! Attempt to have adult conversation with husband while Child 1 asks questions like "Where do carrots live?" and "Have all dziadzi's parents died?"

6:20: Dinner is over in less time than it took to make. Half of it is on the floor and the other half gets thrown out because children have suddenly decided they don't like whatever their favorite food yesterday was. Remember how my sister and I ate whatever was served or went to bed hungry. Decide my children would actually starve themselves out of spite.

6:30: YOGA. Finally. Husband takes children to the playroom and I get some (relative) peace and quiet to hang out with my lifesaver Adriene.

7: Squeeze in 20 minutes of work until bath time. 

7:20: Children come up for bath time. Husband gives the kids a bath so there is literally no reason I am needed at this point except that Child 1 will throw a fit unless I am present. I told you I'm awesome. 

7:40: Get kids into PJs, say goodnights, read Child 1 his bedtime stories, sing him a goodnight song and am FINALLY free of children!

8: If I'm not totally exhausted, squeeze in another 30 minutes of work while Child 1 performs a concert from his bed. He is never tired. Husband, thankfully, washes dishes and/or loads dishwasher.

8:30: Collapse on couch. Remember that I attempted to wash clothes in the morning and forgot about them. Get up to rewash them. Return to couch, possibly with a beverage, and place knitting in my lap. Get distracted by Twitter. Finally put phone down and knit.

10: Toss clothes in the dryer and head up to bed. Complete lengthy bedtime routine that seems to longer the older I get: brush, floss, contacts out, eye cream, face cream, hand cream, other useless preservatives designed to fool me into thinking I still look 25. Read as long as I can keep my eyes open, usually about 30 minutes. 

11ish: Attempt to sleep. Husband is snoring. Elbow him. Attempt to sleep again, realize I have to pee. Repeat at intervals throughout the night. 

So, that's how my summer is shaping up. How's summer treating you so far?

Quick Mods for Custom Sweaters

It might seem the wrong time of year to be discussing sweater knitting, but if you want those cute fall sweaters, the best time to start them is NOW! But, before you cast on, I thought I'd offer some ideas for making your sweaters uniquely you without  having to rewrite entire patterns. 

Knitting is, in part, about creating unique, well-crafted garments that will last for years. 

Sometimes, though, we get a little too comfortable following patterns. We forget that we're allowed to make changes, as if the pattern police are going to take away our needles if we dare to knit the ribbing a little longer, or the collar a little shorter.

But making small modifications is a great way to knit a truly unique sweater without having to design it from scratch. It's also a good way to become more comfortable with your own knitting creativity.

I put together a quick list of modifications, from simple to more complicated, to consider when knitting your next sweater.

Ribbing length

Many a sweater pattern starts the same way: CO X sts and work in 2x2 rib for 2 inches. Is 2" a magic number? No!  This is an easy modification that, for the most part, will not alter the final fit of your sweater or require any math. So feel free to cut it short or extend it--the world is your oyster.

And speaking of trim, while 2x2 ribbing is often used because it's nice and stretchy, try experimenting with other options at the hem, collar and  cuffs: 1x1 twisted rib, mistake rib, garter stitch, or even stockinette for a rolled hem/collar.

Contrast colors

I snuck some contrast color in on the pocket lining of Mister Postman!

Adding a second color can really liven up a plainer sweater. You can go subtle with a yarn that's just a few shades lighter or darker than your main color, or  bold with something bright and eye catching. Try using it along the hems and collar, add some stripes, or try the colorblock trend and knit body and sleeves in one color, and then the yoke and sleeve caps in another.

Sleeve length

Here's a quick mod that can really change the look of your sweater--try a different sleeve length! You may need to adjust the spacing of the sleeve increases/decreases, but sleeves that stop just above or below the elbow or even short sleeves are a simple way to change things up (and they mean a project that's finished sooner and uses less yarn!). Especially if you always find yourself pushing your sleeves up, don't be afraid to knit them to exactly the length you want. You could even knit them extra long and add a thumb hole in the cuff (this is how I wore every sweatshirt through college)--at the point where you thumb would poke through, work the cuff flat for 1 1/2" or so, and then switch back to knitting in the round to finish off. 

Filler stitches

The majority of sweaters use stockinette as their "base" stitch, adding lace, cables, etc around it. But there's no reason you can't liven things up by using reverse stockinette, seed, moss, or garter stitch as your filler stitch. Be sure to make adjustments for gauge, if necessary, and bear in mind that some of these stitch patterns are stretchier than others. 

Waist shaping

Torbellino has no waist shaping at all!

You may need to adjust the spacing of the increases and decreases, but modifying the waist shaping on a garment will change the whole look. Give a close fitting sweater a more casual shape by working fewer (or no!) decrease rounds, or make a loose fitting sweater more sophisticated with an hourglass shape. 

Tubular cast on

Tubular cast on used for a hat

Tubular cast ons are fiddly, but it's hard to argue with the results--the tidy looking hem really gives your finished garment a polished look. Ysolda offers a thorough tutorial on this technique here. 

Add a hood

Cartero was the first hood I ever designed, and it was easy peasy!

Removing a hood is pretty easy--just don't knit one!--but adding one is a little more challenging. It's probably easier than you think, though. You pick up stitches around the collar as usual, increase around the center back stitch to give it a little depth, then work straight until the hood is as tall as you want, divide the stitches and Kitchener them together. Voila! You can also knit a hood separately and sew it on.

Zipper vs. buttons

If you know your way around a zipper--or if you're willing to learn!--replace a button front with a zipper to give your cardigan a unique element. Tech Knitter's no-sew method is a great place to start. 

Pullover vs. cardigan

Really change things up by making a pullover into a cardigan, or vice versa! This is a bigger modification, but if you love everything about a pattern except the sweater style, take matters into your own hands to get the sweater you really want! To convert your pullover into a cardigan, work flat and make sure you subtract the stitches for the buttonband from your total. To convert a cardigan to a pullover, work in the round, but add extra stitches to cover the buttonband. Already finished a pullover and wish it were a cardigan? Try steeking it! (EEK!)

What are your favorite simple ways to add your own touch to your sweaters?

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Taking and Editing Photos for Instagram

Ahhh, Instagram. We all love scrolling through our feeds, looking at all those yarn and project photos. Everyone's stashes and WIPs and FOs just look amazing. 

Too amazing. 

How is everyone else knitting so quickly? How can they afford all that yarn? And WHY do their photos look so fantastic?

Rustic. Modern. Ethereal. Cozy. Warm. Inviting. Natural. Exotic. Everyone has their aesthetic.

But how are they doing it?

Before we answer that question, let's remind ourselves of one very important fact: Instagram is a user's highlight reel. Just because you see a photo of a knitter curled elegantly into a window-side armchair, knitting studiously on a gorgeous project with a decorative mug of steaming coffee by her side doesn't mean she's doing that every day--or even every week, for that matter. What you're missing out on is her daily reality--an exhausted mom who forgot to shower, sipping a chipped mug of coffee she's reheated twice, trying desperately to knit a row or two while her kids watch the same episode of Thomas the Tank Engine they've watched every single day for the last two and a half weeks. You're seeing her best moments, the best photo out of 37 she took of her new shawl, and a photo she edited carefully to make it look just right. 

Also keep in mind that maybe you don't need an "aesthetic." If you just want to share photos of your knits with friends, family and knitters who might appreciate them, a lot of editing and filtering probably isn't necessary. But if you want to stand out on Instagram--whether you're a designer, a yarn dyer, or a knitter looking to build a following--outstanding photos are the way to do it. (Well, that and figuring out how to beat the darn algorithm so people actually see your photos, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.)

If you're in the latter camp, this post if for you: today I'm going to give you a few tips for taking photos for Instagram and then should you how I edit them. 

Taking Photos

But, you might say, I don't have a fancy camera!
You don't need a fancy camera.
I take 95% of the photos I share on Instagram with my iPhone. In fact, the only photos I don't take with my iPhone are pattern photos--for those, I do use a "fancy" DSLR camera and photo editing software. 
But for Instagram, your camera phone is the way to go.
Just, make sure the lens is clean. We carry our phones in our pockets, our kids play with them, we set them on the counter to scroll recipes while cooking--the phone camera lens is exposed to much more dirt and dust than a regular camera, so make sure you wipe if off before you get started.

Use natural light.
Make sure you've got the flash turned off (not auto) and position yourself near a window. Early morning light is lovely if you can catch it. You don't want necessarily want direct sunlight on your project because it can create glare and shadows and wash out your photo, but you do want indirect natural light to light the shot. 

Check the background.
Even if your project looks lovely, you probably don't want piles of laundry, kids' toys, or your dog lifting his leg on the sofa in the background of your shot. On the other hand, you might want to add a small plant, a coffee mug, a little notions pouch, or something to add a special touch to the photo.
And what is your project on? If it's lying flat, you want it to be on something that's not distracting from your project. A tablecloth or sheet makes an unfussy backdrop--just make sure it's smooth and wrinkle-free. Can't find anything to use as a backdrop? Buy one. I own 2 of these and I love them. 

Ready? OK: take a million photos.
Well, not literally. But take a LOT of photos. Far more than you need, more than any sane person would. Take photos from different angles, from close up, from further away, detail shots, full shots, solo shots, shots of your project modeled and lying flat ... you really can't take too many photos. You want to have lots of photos to choose from so you can pick the one that makes your sweater, shawl, octopus holder, whatever look the best. And it's much simpler and more convenient to take 23 photos and delete 22 than it is to take 4, hate them all, and then have to go back and take more. 

Editing Photos

This is a quick overview of how I edit my photos--obviously, other people may edit their photos differently, so consider this just an example.

My first step is to narrow down my photos to the best one. Best is subjective, of course, but you want to slowly whittle them down until you have the 2 or 3 you like the most. Toss the ones that are blurry, washed out, or just unusable for whatever reason. Then look at what's left and see which ones tell the story you want to tell. For example, do you want a photo that shows your whole project, or just a small piece of it? Do you want a close up detail of the stitch patterns, or a larger flat lay that shows your project, your needles, the yarn, and your adorable coffee mug? A number of your photos might be good, but that doesn't mean they're really sharing what you want to share.

Once you've got it narrowed down to a handful, then consider which one is going to be easiest to edit (if you have one you love, but your cat's tail is sticking into it, you really can't work around that), and fits best with your aesthetic. If you have one.

What's an aesthetic? In general terms, it means the overall look of your Instagram feed. Now, maybe not every single photo fits together, but overall, your photos have a cohesive look, whether that's outdoorsy and full of nature, bright and modern, or rustic and homey. Here are a few examples:

Aroha Knits, Francoise Danoy:

All her photos are brightly lit, minimalist, with pops of color. There's lots of white space, and overall it looks very clean and sparse.

DreaRenee Knits, Andrea Mowry:

All her photos look warm, a bit rustic, with lots of outdoor shots. In contrast to the Aroha Knits photos, the lighting is dimmer, and the photos are busier. 

And here's a shot of my feed:

The overall look I'm going for is warm and inviting (and also, hot guys in sweaters). I try to use natural light and warm tones to create photos that look homey and inviting. I consider developing this aesthetic a work in progress. 

So once you've determined your aesthetic (or decided you don't need one), you want to edit your photo to fit that aesthetic, or your mood, or the story you're trying to tell.

Here's the photo I edited for this post.

I use 2 primary apps to edit my IG photos: Aviary and Afterlight. Both are free, with optional in-app purchases. 

Aviary is my first step. I use it to improve and refine the photo--adjust the brightness, saturation, warmth, highlights and shadows.

I will also use Aviary to bump up the sharpness if I want the photo to look extra crisp, and/or change the focus, if I want to give part of the photo that slightly-out-of-focus appearance.

It also has a blemish feature that can take care of an unexpected pimple (WHY did no one ever tell me that you will get wrinkles and pimples at the same time?!?), and whitening, which is helpful if warming up the photo also leads to yellowish teeth. 

Then, I take the photo as edited in Aviary and pop it into Afterlight. Afterlight I use to put the finishing touch on the photo by adding a little ambiance. Afterlight actually has many of the same features as Aviary in terms of photo editing, but I find Aviary more intuitive for those aspects (probably just because I started using that app first).

With Afterlight, I add a little texture to the photo with the "dusty" option--it creates the appearance of dust particles, which sounds like something you wouldn't want on your photo (after all, I did tell you to clean your lens) but it's very artfully arranged, subtle dust that just adds a slightly rustic touch.

The other feature I usually use is Light Leak, which creates sunbeams across the photo in a number of different arrangements. This is especially great if the natural light on your photo is a bit washed out or bland, or specific parts of the photo need more light.

Finally, I usually play around with the filters in Afterlight or in Instagram itself, to see if any of them improve the final look of my photo. Most of the time I end up not using a filter; when I do, I never use it at 100% strength, which tends to look a bit overdone and "hey, everyone, I used a filter on this!" But some of the filters, at reduced strength, can bump up the cozy, inviting vibe I'm going for in my feed.

And here's the end result:

And as a special bonus, I created a short video tutorial, demonstrating the entire process of editing a photo, beginning to end! 

Monthly Wrap-up: May 2018

It's the last day of May, so let's wrap up what's been going on around MediaPeruana Designs. I didn't publish any new patterns this month, but it's still been quite busy.

In early May I attended Maryland Sheep and Wool, as well as the indie pop-up shop at The Knot House in Frederick, MD. As I'm not heading to Rhinebeck this year, it was my big fiber event for 2018. I bought too much yarn, as is customary for such events.

In mid-May my first e-course, Swatch Master, wrapped up.  I had 12 eager students that I declared Swatch Masters after our 4 weeks together. I enjoyed running the course and look forward to offering it again, as well as developing one or two more e-courses. This was my project for the spring, so now it almost feels like I'm on vacation, just designing patterns. 

The SLIP into Shawls KAL is winding down, but I've extended the end date to June 11. That gives all participants an extra weekend to finish their projects and be entered to win one of the grand prizes. It also means if you want to sneak in with a last-minute project, you still have 11 days to knit a pair of Calentito slippers, which is totally doable.

I met the deadline for a project I have coming out in the October issue of a knitting magazine--I sent my sample out, pattern done and am patiently waiting for comments from the tech editor. This is the first third-party publication I've tackled this year, and I was happy to get back into the swing of things.

I've implemented a new test knitting process, inspired by Francoise of Aroha Knits. I'm now using Slack, an online collaborative workspace, for test knits, and I'm already liking it a million times better than trying to run tests in the Ravelry group. It's much easier to have back-and-forth with testers and share files and photos. The downside is asking people to join yet another online platform, but it's pretty intuitive to use and I'm very happy with it. (If you're interested in becoming a test knitter you can sign up here.)

I've updated the MediaPeruana Designs terms and conditions and privacy policy, just like everyone else on the entire Internet.

Aaaaaaand that's it for May! Check back tomorrow, I've got a new blog post for you on how I edit photos for Instagram! 

Swatch Master: Reflections on My First E-course

Last month I launched my very first e-course.

After getting the course set up to run in the fall and then having to cancel it because of health issues, it was both exciting and nerve racking to finally go forward with it.

My 12 students and I embarked on 4 weeks of intensive swatch study. The course ended up being over 4 hours of video content, not including weekly live chats--who knew I had so much to say about swatching?

Well, I kinda did--that's why I created the course. 

Still, when I sat down to actually put it all together, I was pleasantly surprised that I really did have (more than) enough content to share over 4 weeks of instruction--plus some bonus content!

I found the e-course format to be a great way to present a brand new course without the pressure of a classroom full of eyes directed at you for 3 straight hours. Creating the video modules required being comfortable on camera, which, while not exactly the same as speaking to a classroom, does involve putting yourself out there as an expert of sorts. And the weekly live chat did provide an opportunity to interact directly with students and answer questions in real time, similar to a classroom, but in a much smaller dose (20-30 minutes, not 3 hours).  

Ideally I would've loved to present the course on Teachable or another platform specifically designed for e-courses, but the costs were prohibitively expensive for a new project I wasn't sure would take off, so instead I worked to combine several different platforms and use them together as seamlessly as possible.

Each week students received an email from me (sent via MailChimp) with their lesson for the week. Video modules were hosted on Vimeo, where an affordable basic plan allowed me to password protect the course content, and included a sufficiently large upload limit each week. I created a course workbook on my own and uploaded it to MailChimp, which hosts files for users, so I did not need to use a separate file hosting platform. I created a Facebook group for students, where I also hosted the weekly live chat (the first week we tried YouTube for the live chat, but it was not as user friendly). Facebook has some obvious drawbacks, but it allowed me to create a closed, easily-monitored group, which is not possible on Ravelry.

All graphics for the course were created using Canva, and I recorded video in my home office/studio and edited it easily with the basic video editing software included with Windows. I bought a separate mic because the one on my laptop is poor quality--I think it ran me about $10. I also purchased what's called a "magic arm" for my camera, AKA my phone, which allowed me to clip the phone above me to record myself knitting.

Best of all, I learned that Microsoft PowerPoint now allows you to record narration of your slideshow--and even video! So each presentation had a little video of me in the corner, almost like a professor giving a lecture. The presentations can then be saved as mp4 files and uploaded to a hosting site like a regular video. The only trouble I ran into was in trying to combine multiple of these files into a single video with the editor--the audio would not stay in sync. Whether this was an issue with the editing software, PowerPoint, or both, I don't know, but simply leaving them as separate files was the easiest solution. 

As for my "class," we had a mix of quiet and active students, but all seemingly eager to learn. I know it's a leap of faith when you sign up for any kind of course with a new professor, so I sincerely appreciate their willingness to give me a chance! I particularly enjoyed the live chats, though participation was low (understandably because it's simply impossible to find a time that works for everyone), because I got some really great questions that kept me on my toes and showed me that my students were really thinking!

Feedback on the course has been positive, and I really enjoyed the experience of creating the course, which has me looking forward to not only offering Swatch Master again, but to developing 1 or 2 more e-courses in the future. Swatch Master was a very positive experience overall, and after struggling late last year and early this year to get back on track with work, I feel like I've really accomplished something! 

(If you'd like to learn more about Swatch Master, or sign up to be notified when the course is offered again, click here.)

Know your Worth: Why I Stopped Heavily Discounting my Knitting Patterns

There's been a lot of buzz in the fiber arts community this week after Thread and Ladle published an informative blog post on the cost of a knitting pattern, which was shared widely on social media. I wrote a similar post a couple years back, and they both lead to the same conclusion: a lot of time, effort, and money goes into making quality knitting patterns, and some members of the community continue to undervalue them, and therefore, the designers' work. And Beatrice notes in her piece:

"Here’s the problem with that- if we are only ever willing to pay designers less than a fair price for their work, then it won’t be a sustainable job for anyone.  And all those amazing knitting patterns that inspired your knitting project in the first place… poof!"

Pattern prices have been increasing over the years--when I started knitting in 2007, a good sweater pattern would cost around $5, and now they run $7-9--but so has the quality. When digital patterns first came onto the scene, sweater patterns included far fewer sizes, rarely did you get a schematic, and the instructions would often include gems like "reverse shaping for opposite side" or "decrease 17 stitches evenly over the next 2 rows."

That improved quality means a lot more work for the designers, and while we are able to charge a bit more for all that extra grading, drawing schematics, writing clear instructions, and so on, we're not quite ready to buy a Mercedes with all that extra cash. 

Almost no one can make a living exclusively as a pattern designer. Think of some of the most popular designers--Ysolda, Jared Flood, Caitlin Hunter, Aroha Knits. They all have, as it's called these days, multiple income streams--they sell patterns, yarn, kits, e-courses, teach workshops, etc. 

Designer cannot live on patterns alone.

I've been working hard to grow the MediaPeruana Designs brand over the last 2 years, with mixed results, and an income that's still well below where I want it to be. Part of that is just reach--getting my patterns noticed. But part of it, I realized, is that I'm simply not getting paid a fair wage for my work. 

So on January 1, prices for MediaPeruana Designs patterns increased--garment patterns are now $7 and accessories $6. And further, I made the decision to stop offering so many sales, discounts and other deals on my patterns. 

It seems like I used to have a sale every other month--Easter, Independence Day, Back to School, Yay Fall is Here--and with significant discounts too. But I realized that I don't actually want to attract customers who were only willing to buy patterns when they are 50% off. I want to attract customers who love my work enough to pay a fair price for it.

Of course, we all like a good deal occasionally. But if I'm constantly selling my work at a price point that makes it impossible to recoup costs, let alone make a profit, how is this ever going to become a viable business? I appreciate every single pattern purchase, but to create a sustainable business, I need to build a community of supporters who like and value my work whether it's on sale or not. 

That's not to say sales can't be found. Newsletter subscribers always get a discount on new pattern releases as a thank you for their support, and every quarter I offer a different free pattern to new subscribers. I also occasionally offer pattern bundles when a new release drops, so you can get a bunch of patterns for a flat discounted price. I always participate in the Indie Design Gift-a-Long, which includes a sale period, and I will still have sales throughout the year.

But the discounts will be smaller and the sales will be less frequent. I'm will no longer be sponsoring a whole bunch of KALs and offering special coupons and free pattern prizes for each one. I won't be hosting a new Instagram giveaway every month. And access to my free patterns will be exclusive to newsletter subscribers and Patreon patrons.

Because I can't build a business giving away my work. 

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