Brixton Purl

Dear self It's ok not to have made your wardrobe yourself. It's ok to buy clothes in shops. Sure, you've knitted a lot of sweaters, shawls, hats, etc. but you don't have to weave your own fabrics and sew your own clothes - you make a lot of other things! What about the print on the wall you made? Or the necklace? You made those! Be proud of things you've made or accomplished, even though it may not be your whole outfit.  May is a fantastic month and on social media a lot of the peope I follow celebrate Me Made May, a celebration of a home made wardrobe. I can sometimes feel the pressure to join in the choir, but the truth is that I've made the decision not to make my own clothes. I want to spend my time on other things and I'm happy to go shopping for my clothes. During MeMadeMay I sometimes have to remind myself that it is OK to wear store bought clothes. For some people it's not a choice, they may not know how to sew, in my case it's more of a ch

Demystifying search engines so you can be found  Searches and being found in search results is key for designers. Depending on the search engine used to look for patterns the designer needs to provide the information in different ways, this is called search engine optimisation and you probably recognise it by the abbreviation SEO. One thing that they all have in common is that you need to try to figure out what the users are searching for. You can add all the fancy names and words you want, but if that’s not what customers are searching for, then your page/pattern won’t be found. The search engines also work differently and take different information into account in the search. Google works in one way, but if you also sell patterns on Ravelry and LoveKnitting they both have internal search engines that you need to think about. Ravelry The internal search on Ravelry searches in the pattern name field, but doesn’t take the pattern description into account. The filters enables

Winter has arrived to UK, and we've even seen a little bit of snow in the capital; something we haven't had much of the last couple of years. For us knitters it's a perfect excuse to wear more knitwear! So what are we wearing this year? Looking at social media among knitters it's quite clear that knitted sweaters, especially with a little bit of pattern on the yoke,  are a strong trend at the moment; and for a good reason! Imagine an Icelandic or Bohus style round yoke with colour pattern, and then you update it with a little bit of graphic patterns, and also delicate botanical inspiration. Update the colours to the latest trends and the yarn choices are plenty to suit any taste and wallet. There are 3 names topping the trends, Jennifer Steingass, Caitlin Hunter and the ever so talented Isabelle Kreamer. These designers are definitely topping the design game! Check out my Pinterest board for the winter 2018 trends  here . Jennifer Steingass has so far released 12 p