It seems like the unrelenting Coronavirus pandemic (or as we call it in my house, “the Covid”) is making everyone bonkers. Recently I was made aware of complaining from some quarters along the lines of “it is mean of knitting designers to use expensive yarn so poop on them.”
I have been writing about the knitting world for some time now. I was a member of the KnitList, for crying out loud (which I often felt like doing while reading the KnitList). I have seen some ridiculous fiber-related hullabaloos in my time, but this has to be one of the most ridiculous.
The complaint: that designers should not use expensive yarn for their samples because not everyone can afford to buy that yarn and it is somehow “exclusionary.” The ask: that designers knit multiple versions of their designs in different yarns, including ones at specific price points, so that knitters will know what a pattern “really” looks like in a different yarn.
My beef with the above is threefold. First of all, it’s based on a misunderstanding of how the industry works. Most established knitting designers do not buy their own yarn. In many cases, they may not even have any input into the selected yarn when they are hired to design a pattern. I have designed for magazines, books, and yarn companies. Leaving aside my own books (which had their own constraints), I rarely was allowed to dictate what yarn I wanted to use — the editors or creative head selected it for me, sometimes with my input, sometimes without. (In fact, it was not at all unusual to be sent yarn of a completely different gauge or fiber or color than the one used in my swatch.)
As I say in my yarn substitution class, there are many reasons that a particular yarn is used in a particular pattern. Not all of these reasons are sensible; some are. It may be that the magazine or the yarn company hopes to achieve a certain aesthetic or needs to select a yarn for more pragmatic reasons (like showcasing the products of advertisers). Even an indie designer who is selecting yarn for an indie pattern often gets yarn comped because it will drive sales for the company that donates the yarn. So blaming the designer for the yarn choice is, in most cases, just plain wrong.
The second reason I have no truck with this argument is because it reflects a stunning ignorance of the job that designers do.
Here is a partial list of things that a good designer must do before releasing a pattern: create and swatch the design, knit it and unknit it and reknit it until it’s right, write the pattern, get sample knitters and/or test knitters to make it, grade the pattern for multiples sizes, tech-edit the pattern, photograph it, do the graphic design, release it, and do social media (or pay another professional to do those things). That’s a lot of work — countless hours of work, actually — for patterns that sell between five and ten dollars.
Easy access to designers via social media and email means that designers are already the subject of extravagant demands. (Some) knitters expect the designer to troubleshoot their knitting, to explain techniques to them (even very basic ones), to create videos demonstrating techniques, and provide free modifications for their patterns. Those modifications are often requests to rewrite an entire pattern in a different gauge yarn or to change a cardigan into a pullover or to adapt it to one individual’s body type. In addition, designers are frequently asked for extensive yarn substitution advice, and sometimes have to gently remonstrate with knitters who are uninformed (one designer I know was told repeatedly that a pattern was wrong; the customer’s stitch pattern didn’t come out correctly not because the chart was wrong (it was not) but because the customer did not understand how to read charts yet insisted she did). If the designer`does not fulfill the demanding customer’s request, no matter how unreasonable, the designer may then be subject to disparaging comments on social media, demands for a refund, bad reviews, and the like. I know a knitting designer who had a purchaser of her design track her down on Saturday night via her private phone number to insist that said designer ANSWER MY QUESTION NOW.
I could go on and on, but demanding that knitting designers add the additional step of reknitting their design multiple times in multiple yarns is absurd. It will slow down the rate at which patterns are released. It requires the designer to find and pay sample knitters — this is a significant expense — and then do additional photography for the alternative yarn choices. The designer will have to source more yarn, asking additional companies to comp it or buy the yarn themselves. Even if the designer provides two additional samples, it won’t be enough; there will be grumbling about why X yarn was chosen and not Y. And the net effect: pattern prices will go up (the exact opposite of the desired effect if one has a limited knitting budget).
However, the last and most important reason that I find this argument ridiculous is what it says about today’s knitter. Have we really gotten to a point where knitters expect to be spoon-fed everything in their crafting journey? Free and low-cost knitting information has never been more available in the history of knitting. You can read blogs, watch videos, borrow books and e-books from a library, frequent different chat groups on Ravelry, go to yarn manufacturer and designer websites to find tutorials, join a guild or knitting circle and learn anything you want — including how to substitute yarn in a pattern.
If you buy a cookbook, do you email Ina Garten and demand that she rewrite her duck l’orange recipe using chicken (because you really don’t like duck) and lemons instead of oranges (because they’re too expensive right now)? Do you call up Giada and tell her the brand of olive oil she uses costs way too much and demand a list of good substitutes?
Of course not. So why should knitting be any different?
At Rosie’s Yarn Cellar, we used to say, only a little tongue-in-cheek, that you should become the master of your knitting — not let your knitting master you. The responsibility for yarn selection falls on you, the knitter. Not the editors of a magazine, not on the author of a book, and not on the designer of a knitting pattern you’d like to make. Professional knitting designers have worked hard to perfect their craft and create quality instructions, with lovely photographs and charts to accompany their work. They literally create something beautiful out of sticks and string. They’ve done their job; now it’s time for you to do yours.
Not to mention that , whereas in the U.S., we have a lot of yarn choices, that’s not the case in other countries. So – would a designer need to also show us how the equivalent yarn from every other country would work with the design? It’s all making me stabby.
YES! Thank you so much! No one deserves to have something just because they want it. If you can’t afford it, too bad. Substitute or knit something else.
This completely boggles my mind! Isn’t at least half, or even 3/4s of the knitting fun in trying different yarns in different patterns to see what you, the knitter/artist can come up with as your own individual version of the knitted piece?
I love playing with patterns and my yarn stash!!!
To clarify, I think we as the knitters ought to enjoy experimenting with other ysrn options and not have to be spoon fed the varieties.
Yes, this! The pattern is a starting point for me. Trying different options, both in my mind and on my needles, is part of the process, and more than half the fun! That said, I’ll never forget the customer who couldn’t figure out why she ran out of yarn when she tried to knit a scarf designed in DK yarn with one skein of Great Adirondack Fluff.
Thank you for writing this. I have tried to estimate how many patterns a designer needs to sell just to break even – after all, not everyone is Andrea Mowry or Stephen West. Designers are not personal assistants. Part of the joy in knitting is making it yours!
Preach! Thank you for some common sense. I’m so confused by this conversation.
You are fantastic. Indeed we all have very little control no matter what level of the process…..but we all get asked to do it all…..even when it’s not our job. The best part of being in a knitting community is that we support and help each other. Use your community and let the designers do their job.
Honestly, I agree with this article. Which is why I appreciate it when a pattern has the gauge listed. Because then, all I need to do is knit up a gauge swatch and check it against the gauge of the pattern. If it matches, great, if not, I start over with a different yarn. And if none of the yarn in my stash matches? I know how to spin yarn, and I can probably make something close enough to not bother my sensibilities (tbf, as long as what I’m making fits me comfortably, or doesn’t end up SUPER tiny or SUPER HUGE, I’m happy). It’s really not that hard… Or you can just wing it and mess with stuff ’til it fits right. Which is usually what I end up doing. lol
People need to quit being dicks to designers, period.
Being kind is a free action.
Telling someone who (hopefully) strives to be inclusive that your marketing is leaving people out is not being unkind.
“Exclusionary” suggests purposeful action designed to keep people out. But whenever a pattern is made, one yarn is used while countless others are not. If a designer picks a less expensive yarn, people who like more expensive yarns are “excluded” under your interpretation. If a designer uses a yarn available only in the UK, then everyone else in the world is being “excluded.” If a designer uses red, then everyone who hates red is “excluded.” Designers who use only wool are “excluding” people allergic to wool. The perceived exclusion never ends and IMHO is more a function of envy or resentment than true concern for patterns being accessible to all.
“‘Exclusionary’ suggests purposeful action designed to keep people out.“
One of the things I’ve learned over the past year and a half is that exclusion is not always purposeful.
People have got to stop being dicks period. So many ways people are being self centred twats right, it boggles my mind.
THANK YOU. I’m sorry to say that I’ve been in most of the situations you have mentioned above, as well as having complete strangers email me asking me to troubleshoot or rewrite another designer’s pattern. I’m barely designing these days but still I get ’em. I can’t imagine how bad it must be for prolific designers!
ALL OF THIS. I recently wrote a 3 part post on my Instagram to go over the realities. The second post was about my sadness as a knitting instructor that knitters were insisting that yarn sub is something that many knitters don’t have the knowledge to do. I wrote “As a knitting teacher one of the things that has saddened me over the years is seeing a shift away from knitters who want to take ownership of their craft. More and more the expectation seems to be that a pattern (instructions on how to make a thing) become a knitting how to book. There’s a strong movement away from wanting to learn and towards, just tell me every step. As a knitting teacher, this hurts my soul.” I had a long back and forth with a knitter who kept saying how patterns did not provide the proper information to do a yarn sub. I kept coming back to the SAME point . . . if a pattern is not telling you the yardage, fiber content, weight and gauge then it is NOT a professionally written and tech edited pattern (don’t get me started on using “test” knitters to check your pattern and replace a tech editor). AHHHH
I agree. Some knitters expect to be walked through each thing they do. If I love a pattern. But not the yarn it is knitted with I just start looking for the gauge to see what I can try. That’s the idea of making it yours.
This ‘demanding knitter’ thing blows me away. Especially now.
I’ve noticed a trend in the past ten years: there seems to be a surprising consensus among yarn companies that worsted yarn is 110 yards per 50 grams. Oh, it varies a bit–this one is 100 meters, that one is 112 yards, and so on. But astonishingly, you can pick up a skein of X brand worsted wool, and if you prefer a different color or an alpaca blend, yarn maker Y has the worsted you want at pretty damn near the same yardage and weight.
No, it’s not the cobweb lace pattern you might be looking at; nor is it the superbulky stuff you sought for that toque. The point though, is that the most timid knitter can confidently pick and choose among a vast array of pretty standard worsteds.
Isn’t that why we are given gauges and advised to make swatches? Learning is part of the journey of honing your skills.
If only people would swatch! Then they could easily figure out how to sub yarn. Gauge doesn’t match? You can try knitting a different size…no one will know the difference if you knit a large when you’re typically a small, but it’ll fit!
Truth. Thank you for laying this out so clearly.
One of the joys for me in knitting is finding a pattern that I like to look of and adapting it to the yearn that I like. I love the challenge of using my own yarn and making one of these beautiful patterns my own.
Thank you to all the incredible designers who have the skill to create these patterns for me to play with.
Yes there are too many people who want to be spoon fed but there are also so very many of us who love the challenge of creating from what you designers provide.
Thank you for sharing your skill with us and please don’t let the difficult people stop you from creating.
No one was asking designers to knit their samples in multiple yarns. They were requesting either suggestions, or — and this is key — to select test knitters who will use more price-accessible yarns. This is not hard for popular designers to do, as most have a very willing pool of testers who will subsequently help their sales.
Nonsense. That’s EXACTLY what you are asking designers to do. You’re asking them to solicit individuals and either pay them or not pay them (arguably problematic); give them the pattern; provide them with specific yarn or expect the knitter to provide the yarn; then pay for them to send the design back so the designer can photograph them. And to delay the release of the pattern while all of this gets done. That is a very large amount of time and energy added to the designer’s already full plate.
Alternatively, you are asking them to recommend substitutes, which requires a lot of research on their part, swatching for yarns they aren’t going to work with for that design, then deal with all the whinging from people who don’t like the substitute yarns or who knit the project and screw it up and blame the yarn rather than their own ignorance.
If you want to know what a design knit in a different yarn will look like, go to Ravelry. There, for free, you can see all the versions other knitters have created of that exact pattern. For example, Andrew Mowry’s Weekender currently has over 8750 projects attached to it, using all sorts of yarns other than one she chose.
Better yet, you will learn a great deal about yarn substitution for that specific design by reading comments. Or how about swatching for yourself? Put your desired yarn on the needles and take it for a ride — instead of expecting someone else to do that for you.
“If you want to know what a design knit in a different yarn will look like, go to Ravelry. There, for free, you can see all the versions other knitters have created of that exact pattern.”
Yes, you’re absolutely right about that. And one of the reasons to have test knitters is exactly for the purpose of showing potential customers the design made by other knitters — on a variety of body types and in a variety of yarns — as soon as the pattern is released and excitement is high. That’s not the same as sample knitting, which does have a cost and tight deadlines associated with it.
There’s certainly a valid argument for paying test knitters, however for the most part they volunteer in exchange for getting a pattern early, and are generally knitting a garment for their own use.
I’m not arguing that designers are often asked to do a lot in exchange for what they charge. I’m saying that there are some easy ways to be inclusive of different income levels without devaluing your hard work.
I think your knowledge of how knitting design works comes largely from reading the social media of a handful of super-popular designers whose market reach is atypical in the industry. According to Ravelry in January 2019 of the over 10,000 designers selling patterns on Ravelry, close to 75% made LESS than fifty dollars in sales for that month. While a few designers may have the ability to get free labor from folks who are willing to knit a design, most simply do not.
Even if they can, your assumption seems to be that the designer just sends a PDF and these folks will magically knit the design in yarn at various price points, photograph it and send pix to the designer, who then has the added responsibility of curating and posting this information. That’s incredibly unrealistic. And it imposes a significant time and management burden on the designer. The minute you make demands about what this “volunteer” knitter will use you are moving away from the “they want to make it for themselves anyway” concept into “designer is asking me to knit in a certain yarn for her marketing purposes,” which changes the nature of the ask.
The bottom line is that a designer has certain responsibilities that are part of the job. Tech edits, getting a sample knit, clear photographs, correct charts are some. However the knitter has responsibilities of their own. Individual yarn selection is one. Modifications to fit one’s own personal taste or body is another. Knowledge of generally-known techniques is yet another. I hate seeing the valid concept of inclusivity used as a cudgel to force designers to do more work and incur more expense for a task that is and should be the responsibility of the individual. And that can be viewed for free on Ravelry!
As a knitter I am mystified at why people want to knit when…..they don’t want to knit.
Not only do they melt down about yarn substitution but they are terrified of short rows, refuse to swatch, can’t understand the meaning of “reverse this shaping for other shoulder,” won’t seam, cry at the thought of picking up stitches, don’t fix simple mistakes, avoid charts, and refuse to block their finished project (when they even bother to finish a project).
Designers should learn to Just Say No. Stop saying you are available for “pattern support.” Don’t put your email on your patterns. Don’t respond to every ridiculous request that comes through FB, IG, and Ravelry. Don’t be scared of being badmouthed – if your designs are good real knitters are your customers. Nobody can take advantage of you if you don’t allow them to.
Completely agree with you, Carol. Loving a craft also means learning and experimenting with it. As an avid knitter, I don’t recall knitting with the yarn suggested in a knitting pattern, and all but two turned out wonderfully, in 12 years of knitting. We gotta learn.
Thank you so much for this!
How does one learn if not by making mistakes? Each time an item comes out less than the desired outcome I learn something new about yarn, needles, and patterns. Not enough drape? The yarn is too stiff. Too loose/tight a fabric? The wrong size needles for the yarn—more swatching needed. I’ve been knitting for 60+ years and am always learning something new. That’s what keeps my brain active!!!
Thank you for this article. You hit the nail on the head.
I am a budding designer, who doesn’t live in the US, I am trying to design for the yarns available to me and the people around me. I am rarely get given yarn, I have to buy most of it myself, and most of the yarn I use is coming from very small businesses who do not have the capacity to give way their merchandise. There is no way I can afford to do more than one sample of my designs, i have so far sold maybe 6 pattern copies total, and i design to the yarn that i have.
I do however try to get a variety of yarns from my pattern testers, to try give knitters some options and provide detailed gauge and yarn information in my patterns.
Quite frankly, if you are too lazy to read these detail and do a little research, than you are not worthy of my time.
Well said, Carol and many of the commenters. I am so sick of the needy, whiny questions I see on Ravelry from people demanding to be spoon fed rather than thinking for themselves and trashing anyone as mean if they don’t help. If someone does everything for you, you’ll never grow as a knitter (or as a person). These times have been stressful enough.
I find many patterns that I love but do not have the size/yarn requirements to fit my Rubenesque physique. For that I am eternally grateful to Sweater Wizard. It has made tweaking patterns much easier and faster!!