Attention: Patternfish is closing

Patternfish will cease selling patterns on 31 May, 2019.

If you have bought any patterns through Patternfish, now is a good time to check your account and make sure you have downloaded them.

According to their website:
We will continue to make our customers’ stashes accessible to them to the end of 30 June, 2019, in order to provide them with time to save their purchased patterns to their personal hard drives.

However, they do not seem to have communicated thiss via email, so unless you checked the Patternfish website or Ravelry group, you may well have missed it.

I am saddened by this news. Competition within an industry makes it stronger, and in recent years the pattern-selling landscape has shrunk and become less accessible to smaller designers, after a majority of Craftsy pattern shops being closed and the Knitpicks IDP becoming more selective last year.

In addition to that, Patternfish prided itself on hosting many exclusive patterns, and the future of those designs and resources is uncertain. I would hate to think that access to these may be lost. Patternfish hosts some weaving resources, for example, which would not be able to be sold through Ravelry or Loveknitting. I wish all designers the best with the transition to new channels, and I thank the staff at Patternfish for their hard work over the years.

As for myself, I'm sad to see it go, but you will still find my patterns on Ravelry, LoveKnitting, and Etsy.

By the way, if you did buy any of my patterns on Patternfish, and would like them in your Ravelry library, send me an email with proof of purchase (to joyuna at gmail.com) and I'll sort it out. :)

~Joyuna

30 before 30

Little Grey Stormclouds is my 30th design, according to the Ravelry database. That's not a significant number, except for one thing: I have a birthday coming up next month.

29 felt so expectant. Unfinished. Ever since my knitting mojo returned last year, that big '29 designs' has been staring me in the face, mocking me. What kind of an awkward, incomplete number is 29?

I set myself a goal that was simultaneously modest and unthinkable: release a new pattern before turning 30. Just the one. Just one simple, tiny, insignificant little pattern...

...and hours of knitting and re-knitting...
...and scraps of paper filled with notes and math...
...and a camera refresher course...
...and months of photo editing practice...
...and learning a whole new layout program...
...and getting over my anxiety to coordinate with a tech editor and test knitters...
...and speaking of anxiety, what if no one likes it? What if I make a hundred mistakes? What if this is the moment that will finally reveal how much of a talentless fraud I am?

It was so long since I'd been through this process. And it's still an awful lot of work! But, it's enriching work. I feel very fortunate to have the energy and headspace now to devote to this creative work.



My day job is about 5% satisfying, fulfilling accomplishments, and 95% mindless drudgery. It pays the bills, and it doesn't make me actively miserable. But one week is much like the next week, which is much like the next, and I'll probably spend the next 4 decades caught in this cycle without anything to show for it. If I want to leave something behind, I have to do it on my own time.

I didn't create at all during my darkest mental-health times. I started doing better, and my knitting mojo started to return. And I was very happy to make things only for myself for a while, but the more I sunk into it and experimented, the more I wanted to do the design thing again. To create something I could share with others.

As soon as I committed to designing again, ideas came flooding in. Hell, there are a couple nearly-complete patterns from years ago sitting on my hard drive that I never released. So I'm working on a whole handful of other patterns, and we'll see how many actually see the light of day. I'm working slowly, but enthusiastically, and I'm excited to keep going.

So bring it on, 30, and let's see what you have in store for me.

~Joyuna

New pattern: Little Grey Stormclouds

These are my Little Grey Stormclouds.

These are my typing gloves, my reading gloves, my knitting gloves, my this-office-is-too-darn-cold gloves.

These were my mojo-rejuvenation project, my startitis project, my instant gratification project.

Easy, lazy knitting, and a well-loved FO. For me, they're the ideal combination of process knitting and product knitting. I loved knitting them and I love wearing them even more.

They're a straightforward knit, with practical touches:

1. Mock cables

I love the look of cables, but I do not like knitting cables. This mock cable is dead simple when you get the hang of it, and I include a photo tutorial in the pattern.

2. Open thumb

No waste yarn, no picking up stitches. Just bind off and leave your thumb free.

3. Short hand length

Again, it's all about keeping your fingers free. Nothing getting in your way, just a little extra warmth around your palm and wrist. And less length means less knitting, so they knit up super-quickly.

4. Tight gauge

Knitting these gloves at a dense gauge makes the stitches really pop, and gives them extra durability. I've been wearing mine since 2015, shoving them in pockets, tossing them in bags, and generally mistreating them - and there's still not a single pill. From a 100% merino yarn!

It's a simple but very effective pattern, and I've graded it for four sizes to fit a range of hands for all genders.

for $5.00

Sizes: 7 [7.75, 8.25, 9]" (18 [20, 21, 23]cm) measured around the hand at the base of the fingers

Yarn: Between 110-165 yards of fingering/4-ply weight yarn (Shown: Shibui Sock, 100% merino). That’s less than 50g of your typical sock yarn.

Needles: US 1.5 / 2.5mm DPNs or circs, or whichever size gives you 8.5 stitches per inch in stockinette in the round

Pattern is fully written (not charted), and includes a photo tutorial for working the mock cable stitch.

~Joyuna

Pinstripes & Chains set - now for sale on Ravelry

The Pinstripes & Chains mitts and tam patterns, originally published in Knit Now Magazine, are now available as Ravelry downloads.

These quick accessories are easier than they look - the slipped stitches are a clever way to create vertical stripes while only working one colour per round. If you're up for more of a challenge, you can work the cabled "chains", but they're totally optional.

Since you're using two colours, these are a great project for using up the odd balls and scraps that you might have accumulated - and there's lots of room to experiment with colour combinations.

If you make size Small or Medium, you can make both a hat and pair of mitts with one 50g ball of each colour.

If you buy both the hat and the mitts together, you'll get a $3 discount.

Buy the set:
$7.00

Buy the mitts pattern:
$5.00

Buy the hat pattern:
$5.00



~Joyuna

Dusting off some old patterns

I was still in university when I published some of my first knitting patterns. While I remain proud of all my knitting designs, I've never been a graphic designer, and many of my early PDFs reflected that fact.

In my current day job I've been gaining experience in Photoshop and InDesign, and I've been able to transfer those skills back to designing. One of my projects for the year is to re-format as many of my old patterns as I can, using real layout software (no more layout in OpenOffice!) and the principles I've picked up from web design (white space! balance! nicely edited photos!).

I think you will find the new layouts much clearer, with more logical organisation, and generally more attractive. Plus, the PDF conversion is optimised so that in many cases the file sizes are smaller too.

The first patterns to receive this treatment are the Unbraiding Cables hat, Chain Link Tank, and Dogwood Shawlette.

If you've already bought these patterns on Ravelry, you should already have the update in your library. If you bought them on another platform, contact me at Joyuna at Gmail dot Com and I can send you an updated version.

~Joyuna

Socks that tell a story - American Sock Knitting

I have a new design that's been a long time coming, but I'm very pleased to see it come to light - it's called From the Fields to the Stars, and it features in the new book American Sock Knitting.

American Sock Knitting is a book of sock patterns inspired by US states - mine takes inspiration from my home state of Ohio. Ohio is the birthplace of presidents, astronauts, innovators, those whose names end up in the history books; but it's also the home of farmers, factory workers, those who have shaped the country in an often-forgotten way.

These toe-up socks are a journey - from waving wheat fields, over the horizon, and up into a star-studded sky. They're fun knitting, too - they feature mini-cables, a touch of lace, and Fibonacci striping. You can knit a pair with a 50g ball each of the two colors, so they're great for stashbusting or leftovers. They are a real treat for a process knitter.


~Joyuna

Stitching in the Stacks

Cooperative Press (and Sarah Barbour)'s latest book, Stitching in the Stacks, has just been released. I'm just stoked to be a part of it.

My contribution to this project is the Jessamyn Mitts, inspired by Jessamyn West. I've admired Jessamyn for some time now, so I was thrilled to hear that she would be getting involved with the book too. Not only did she provide the foreword for the book... She also wrote it while wearing a pair of the mitts bearing her name. :)

Photo © Caro Sheridan
The pattern is a fun knit, if I do say so myself - quick but engaging. I've made two pairs so far (one for the book, and one as a gift for my mom). In DK yarn, they really knit up in a flash.

It features an unusual stitch pattern with lots of texture created by increases & decreases, which also form the thumb gusset and wrist shaping. The right and left mitts are mirror images of each other - the stitches form a stair-step pattern. Plus, they’re worked in Debbie Bliss Andes, the cushiest most gorgeous alpaca-silk blend yarn.

This book has been a long time coming, and besides my own pattern I'm thrilled to see what the other designers have come up with. There's functional librarian gear (Kindle cover or French Press cozy, anyone?), and garments & accessories both practical and fanciful.

It has patterns inspired not only by classic pop culture librarians like Barbara Gordon and Mariam "Madam Librarian" Paroo, but also real-life librarians. Flipping through the book, I've learned about incredible women such as Belle Greene and the Pack Horse Librarians.

You can buy Stitching in the Stacks digitally on Ravelry or at the CP shop, where you can also pre-order the print version.

~Joyuna

Interview at KnittingRobin

I was thrilled to hear from KnittingRobin recently, asking if I would complete an interview for her blog!

I talk about inspiration, my favorite techniques, the design process and more. You can read the full thing here.

~Joyuna

Post your FOs and Win!

I love, love, love seeing the FOs people have made from my patterns. For me, it's the ultimate compliment that someone would use their precious knitting time and materials to work up something I designed.

Sometimes people make lovely modifications, or they take beautiful photos, and sometimes they just look really happy with their FO. And that makes me happy!

So if you've made something from one of my patterns, I want to give back. Head on over to my Ravelry group and find the Post your FOs and Win thread. Just post a picture of your FO - that's it. Then, I'll have a drawing and the winner gets a free pattern. :)

~Joyuna

Review: Sizing Knitwear Patterns class on Craftsy

The most challenging aspect of knitwear design, for myself at least, is sizing. Resources for grading patterns are not easy to find, so I try to absorb all the information I can from all the sources I can find.

With this in mind, I signed up for Sizing Knitwear Patterns taught by Faina Goberstein on Craftsy. The class contains all the information you need to grade a woman's sweater in a wide range of sizes.

Course Videos

In the video lessons that take up the majority of the class, Faina takes us through the grading of a sweater step-by-step. It starts with a basic guide to taking measurements or using standard measurements, moves on to teaching the basic Excel formulas used in the spreadsheet, and then the spreadsheet gets filled in row by row. All sections of a woman's sweater, knit flat in pieces and seamed, are covered - and the principles can easily be applied to knitting in the round seamlessly as well.

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Had a Blast at Glasgow School of Yarn 2013

A few weekends ago I was back up in Glasgow for GSoY! Last year was its first year, and the second year was even better.

I do love Glasgow - I got to go back to the Botanic Gardens which I saw last year (though no woolly graffiti this time), and I also visited the Kelvingrove Gallery, a massive museum that covers both art and history. I saw some Egyptian weaving tools...

Took in some of Glasgow's native Mackintosh art...

...and, at the church, even got to see the Mackintoshes themselves!

I took Liz Lovick's spinning finer class, which was a wonderful experience and taught me a lot. You can see a few photos over at Liz's blog (you might even be able to find me in one of them!). Since the class I've been working hard on my frog-hair - mostly as a challenge to myself, though I'm hoping that I will be able to put all my practice yarns together into a shawl (I know that sampling and practice spinning is important, but I just can't bear to see "wasted" yarn!).

Here is what I brought back with me...

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Jane Austen Knits: Lady Russell Shawl

Jane Austen Knits is a fabulous magazine series from Interweave. (Whoever thought it up must have been a genius. The Regency aesthetic lends itself so well to knitting.) And with the fall 2012 issue, I am proud to be a part of it!

The Lady Russell shawl is a sort of hybird - half semicircle, half stole. The long arms are perfect to tie, drape over your front, or just leave at each side. The lace pattern is quite simple so it's a surprisingly quick knit. The edge is finished off with a feminine ruffle. (I love ruffles!)

The shawl takes its name from Lady Russell, Anne Elliot's good friend in Persuasion. It's knit with 2 skeins of Fyberspates Ethereal 4-ply, a delectable fingering weight cashmere/silk blend. You could also sub in any 4-ply / fingering weight yarn that has enough drape - look for drapey fibers like silk or alpaca.

Jane Austen Knits is available now digitally and the print edition is available for pre-order, to be hitting newsstands soon. You can also find the pattern's Ravelry page here to fave or queue.

~Joyuna

The New Joyuna.com

You might have noticed a few months back that I switched from blogspot to my own domain (never fear, all links and bookmarks will still work). That was a preliminary step towards... (drumroll, trumpets fanfare)

My new website! Welcome to Joyuna.com.

It isn't much, but it's mine. I broke out my rusty HTML and even learned a bit of CSS along the way, too. As such I'm a little more proud of it than I ought to be, for what it is, which is nothing more than a brief bio and portfolio for the time being.

But in time I hope to make it into an all-in-one source for all my design stuff, including a much more polished online shopfront than the current one.

What's new with me? Well, I haven't been knitting much lately (more on that in a future post), I've got a few designs stuck in the publishing pipeline which should hopefully be released soon, and I'm working on a few self-publishing projects - one of which will go public very soon, provided I get it done in time. :) See you soon!

~Joyuna

Pinstripes & Chains in Knit Now

The Pinstripes & Chains set is my latest design, in issue 12 of Knit Now - it's at newsagents now in the UK, and should be at select shops in the US next month.

This hat & mitts set makes use of stripes and slipped-stitch colorwork to create vertical stripes - optional cables add an extra bit of interest. Best of all, the above hat & mitts set took just one 50g ball each of the two colors! Time to shop the stash...

I loved knitting these - the slipped stitches are so simple and I love the pinstriped effect. Carrying the yarn up the inside of the work means a minimum of ends to weave in. While knitting the two sets of mitts (one with cables and one without), I had a serious case of "one more round"!

You can find the Pinstripes & Chains Mitts and Pinstripes & Chains Tam pattern pages on Ravelry.

~Joyuna

Garden Path Moebius wrap

My newest pattern is the Garden Path Moebius. It's a knitted moebius capelet featuring a cables and lace pattern, edged with a sweet ruffle. I've loved moebius knitting ever since I first heard about it. Once you master the cast-on, it's just regular knitting... with a bit of a twist.

The Garden Path Moebius (rav link) takes its name from my studies in linguistics - a garden path sentence leads the reader astray as it is being read. It's perfectly grammatical, but it takes an unexpected turn. Examples include "The old man the boat," (the old people man the boat) or "The horse raced past the barn fell" (the horse, who was being raced, fell).


The Garden Path Moebius combines some of my all-time favorite things -- the name comes from my passion in linguistics, the yarn comes from my favorite indie dyer, Juno Fibre Arts, and the knitting combines some great techniques: moebius knitting (which itself comes from one of my favorite designers, Cat Bordhi), cables and lace, a reversible stitch pattern, and ruffles. This design was a real labor of love for me, so I hope you enjoy it.

for $6.00

Sizes: Available in five sizes: 31 [37, 43.5, 50, 56]" (79 [94, 110, 127, 142]cm). To pick the size that best suits you, measure comfortably below your shoulders, at the widest point of your upper arm. Sizing is flexible, and if in doubt, go for a larger rather than smaller size.
Yarn: 550 - 910 yds of fingering weight yarn (Shown: Juno Fibre Arts Myrtle, two 100g skeins). All but the largest size require under 200g of fingering yarn.
Needles: US 7 / 4.5mm - 47" or longer circular needle.
Special Techniques: Moebius/mobius cast on (full instructions included), twisted stitch cables (instructions included), lace knitting, reading cables & lace from a chart or from written instructions

~Joyuna

Designer Shop Talk: Pattern Formats

I just came across a post by Carol Feller of Stolen Stitches: Survey results. Any designers out there might be interested in taking a look - she surveyed her readers about what kinds of pattern formats (single, ebook, hard copy) they prefer.

The PDFs won by a landslide in Carol's survey: Do you agree? I definitely do. I've always been a bit wary of ebooks as a replacement for dead tree books (real books are easier to page through and never run out of batteries) but I really think that PDFs are the ideal format for single patterns.

I was cemented in this belief when I fell in love with and ordered EZ's Green Sweater. I fell in love with the story of this sweater in Twist Collective and its details captivated me. In other words, I needed to knit it, and there could be no substitute.

Schoolhouse Press sold the pattern, but only in hard copy format. So I already had my yarn and was itching to cast on, but I had to wait for the pattern to arrive. To be fair, when the pattern arrived it was beautiful - skillfully formatted into an 8.5x11" booklet, in a plastic sleeve, full color and glossy. But the paper pattern can get creased, or torn, or lost, and unless I scan it, once it's gone, it's gone. And having gone through 6 moves in the past 3 years, I worry about important patterns getting lost for good.

Digital patterns can get lost too - hard drives fail, CDs deteriorate, email accounts get hacked. But the options for backups are plentiful - the majority of my pattern files are stored not only on my laptop, but also in my Ravelry library, my Dropbox account, my thumb drive, and my iPod.

I love PDFs for knitting because they're infinitely portable, I can access them on any of my devices, I can add bookmarks and notes to them just like I could a paper pattern, and heck, I could even print them out if I wanted to. They're instantly delivered and, on Ravelry or Patternfish, automatically updated. It's not as easy to leisurely flip through a book on a screen, so I often prefer paper books for actual reading, but for knitting patterns, PDFs are my format of choice.

-- I digress a little bit. Carol's survey is not just about digital versus tangible. It also contains some valuable information about distribution preferences. How many patterns should be in a collection? What kinds of patterns? How should they be released? Very worthwhile reading for any indie designer.

~Joyuna

A Timeline of Events - KAL/All Craft Media

I've been following this situation for some time now, as a member of the sock club and a former designer with KNIT Magazine. There's a lot of information about it out there, but it's all scattered around the web in fragments. It's very difficult to get the full picture from just one source. So here is my attempt at collecting all the relevant information together.
If you're a non-knitter - note that many of the links below are from Ravelry, and will not be visible to non-members.

First, some acknowledgements. Alex Tinsley's post on Dull Roar was an ideal starting point for piecing together the big picture. I couldn't have put this together without the tireless efforts of the Ravelry Rubberneckers, either, nor Ruth Garcia-Alcatund (Rock and Purl) for being the first one to come forward in the blog community. Very little of this information is originally mine; I am just compiling it so others can read it all in one place.
If you think something should be added to this timeline or anything needs to be corrected, please let me know in the comments.

In researching this I found it went farther back than I ever expected. There is a long history...

August 2005 -
Kerrie Allman buys Hipknits yarns. It was originally founded by Dee of Posh Yarn, sold on to Kerrie, and is now run by Kerrie's father. (Added Mar 5 2012 - Dee weighs in)

2007 -
Kerrie works on a book, Handpainted, commissioning designs and collecting samples from designers. The book was never published. Samples were not returned.

June 2007 -
Hipknits project club starts. Parcels go missing, poor communication.

April 2008 -
Reports spring up of Hipknits orders going missing. Prior to this mega-thread, Hipknits had been having post problems as early as 2006. Hipknits eBay feedback.

Around the same time, Magknits is closed, all the archived patterns being wiped. Kerrie's explanation. A new issue of the magazine had gone live only a week before.
(Magknits, for those who don't know, was a quite popular free online mag, akin to Knitty. Popular patterns that originate on Magknits include the Jaywalker Socks, Evangeline gloves, Hannah ponytail hat, and Odessa hat.)

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Regarding a Certain UK mag company

You may have heard about some drama blowing up in the knitting world recently - specifically, dealing with KNIT Magazine / Yarn Forward / All Craft Media / KAL Media.
Rock and Purl recently came out with a post here and her followup here. Then, Anniken Allis shared her story. And, outside the blogosphere, you can find a lot of information via Ravelry and Twitter. (just search for @KnitMagazine, #allcraftmedia, Knit Sock Club, or KAL Media)

The company and its owners seem to have a long history of less-than-excellent business practices and disappointing customer service. As both a designer who has worked with KNIT and a member of the ill-fated sock club, I've been finding out firsthand just how poor this company's service and communication is.

I wouldn't create a stink unless I really, truly felt that word needed to get out about this company. As a designer my experience wasn't as bad as most, but there are still plenty of designers who are waiting on payment and samples - or who finally received them, many many months overdue, only after a long struggle.
In the sock club, things went smoothly - if not perfectly - for the first few shipments, and then things started to get delayed with no word, shipments changed around, and finally, adding insult to injury, our final yarn shipment won't even be hand-dyed - it's a commercial yarn that can be had at about half the price of any of the other yarns sent in the club. When the club members cried out against this last blow, we were basically told, 'Tough.'

There have been whispers about this company for a while, and now's the time for word to finally get out so others don't get disappointed or swindled. The company has decided that the business of a hundred sock club members and the contributions of dozens of designers are worthless to them -- so this is my plea to not support this company when there are so many other worthy magazines out there. Designers, don't submit to KNIT (keeping in mind that they will be changing their name yet again in a few months' time), and knitters, please don't buy it.

It is tough when people are locked in to design contracts or subscriptions months ahead of time, as Anni mentioned in her blog post, and when people are reluctant to speak out. Yarn Forward and Magknits were once great publications, and those in charge at All Craft Media need a wake up call to either shape up or get out.

ETA: Alex Tinsley at Dull Roar has a great round-up of the history of the company and its predecessors here: All Craft Media, and Why You Should Run the Other Way.

~Joyuna

Creating Original Stitch Patterns

For some of my designs, such as Rose Tendrils and Unbraiding Cables, I have created original stitch patterns to suit the design. There's nothing at all wrong with using an existing stitch pattern from a dictionary, but sometimes you want something specific that you can't find - such as the growing cable motif in Unbraiding Cables.

I don't take credit for 'inventing' any of these patterns - as Elizabeth Zimmerman has said, I'm only 'unventing' them. There's only so many ways to arrange increases and decreases, knits and purls, so someone has probably done the same or similar thing to what I'm doing before.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel
There's no need to start wholly from scratch when you can use an existing stitch as a jumping-off point. Flip through stitch dictionaries to find something similar to what you want, and modify it to suit.

In order to develop the main instep pattern on my Rose Tendrils socks, I took two different motifs from a Japanese stitch dictionary -- one of the leaves, and one of the 'buds' - and merged them together. The basis of my Unbraiding Cables came from a straight column of braided cables in a dictionary, which I then grew & shrank to fit on a hat.

Of course, if you can't find anything resembling what you want, you can try and create something from scratch. You can find an example of this process for lace in this Knitty article.

Chart and swatch, swatch, swatch!
I find it easiest to work out a rough chart before knitting; some may prefer to knit and write down your actions as you go. After I've found a pattern that will form the base of my stitch, I chart it out and make the necessary modifications, or if I don't have a pattern for a base, I rough out a chart that I think will work.

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Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design - Review

As part of Knitgrrl's Kickstarter campaign for Cooperative Press, I got a digital copy of The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design. This was a real bonus, as I was intending on buying the book myself. :)

The book starts with some marketing nuts and bolts - social media. With such a rapidly changing field, it's difficult to keep on the cutting edge in a book. The data is mostly up to date, but with a few minor things that have changed since publication (like automatic re-tweets on Twitter, for instance, and several references to the now-defunct AKD - Association of Knitwear Designers). There are also a few mentions of flash-in-the-pan internet phenomena - for instance, a subscription service which was started last year (!!), Patterndraft, which now has disappeared!

While the core ideas of the book are solid, I worry that parts of it will be less and less relevant as time goes on. Unless there are plans to release a new edition every so often, some sections will no longer be relevant, say, five years from now. Think about it: a little over five years ago, Twitter didn't even exist (it was launched in July 2006). Luckily, a digital copy can be easily updated as trends progress.

The book also covers more timeless topics, such as maintaining a professional persona, setting up multiple streams of income in addition to selling patterns, copyright, and formatting patterns. It's all really useful information - a lot of it I already knew, but some of it was new to me. Intriguingly, tucked in an appendix at the end of the book is a Book Proposal Template - a sample book proposal with notes about writing your own. If you dream about submitting your own knitting book to a publisher, this is a heck of a start.

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