Price Differences

I have received some really lovely emails from people lately. The big question on their minds is “Which will benefit you more? My purchasing your patterns from Knitpicks IDP or directly from you?” Isn’t that sweet? I thank you all for your concern. But, truly, the choice is yours. Here’s how it works.

1) You can purchase the patterns directly from my website, Kimane Designs. If you purchase directly from my website, you will receive an email from PayPal as your receipt and you will receive an email from Ravelry, with a link to your download. You don’t need to be a member of Ravelry. That is the service I use for downloaded patterns. Patterns purchased directly from my website are at their full price.

2) If you are a member of Ravelry, you can purchase the patterns directly on Ravelry. When you purchase patterns directly on Ravelry, you will still receive the PayPal receipt and the download email from Ravelry, but you will also have the option of having the pattern in your PDF library on Ravelry so that you can access it from any computer at any time. Patterns purchased directly on Ravelry are at their full price.

3) You can purchase similar versions of some of my patterns (three of them) on Knit Picks. These patterns are available at discounted, wholesale prices.

Personally, I would be torn. I really appreciate the benefit of having the PDF in my Ravelry library. But, I really love the build-your-own kit option that Knit Picks offers. I would be torn. But, in making your decision, don’t worry about me at all. Just do what works for you.

New Design: Tween Throw and Pillow

Tween Throw and Pillow (Click here)

I remember stitching up this afghan and pillow. I was still in Illinois at the time. It really brightened several of my days because I love the Simply Soft color of Rubine Red. It’s my favorite of all the colors and it was so fun to be able to do a large project with it.

This afghan was designed for the teen and pre-teen girl in mind. What’s better than pink and purple? The colors could easily be changed to suit any decor, though. And, you will not believe the really cool stitch pattern. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s fun!

For those of you curious about designing and submitting swatches for publication, I also have a photo of the swatch I sent in before the design was purchased. You see, you don’t generally need to send in an entire afghan for submission. You just send in a swatch like this, approximately 10″ x 10″ or so.

Crazy Busy and Knit Picks IDP

To say that things have been crazy busy would be an understatement, I suppose. No time to make a blog post. No time to respond to emails. Just, you know, extremely busy around here! But, don’t get me wrong. It’s really a good thing. I need to stay busy. Designing and writing patterns is how I pay the bills around here.

I write this immediately after weaving in about 400 ends of an afghan. Oh, yes, you read that correctly! 400 ends. ha! For so many years, I shied away from designing things that required a lot of color changes and, therefore, a lot of ends. I know that it’s not exactly the favorite activity for a lot of people. But, if something is requested, I can’t really shy away from it, can I?

I have gained a much greater respect for the process of weaving in ends over the years. I find it relaxing. And, it’s fun for me to slowly expose the back of the afghan by carefully sewing in all those ends. It reminds me of a movie I saw once where a woman was painstakingly cleaning the grime off centuries old paintings for a museum. It could take hours just to remove the gunk from one small space. But, what lies beneath is where all the fun resides.

I’m happy to say that the past 12 months or so have been a whirlwind. I could scarcely breathe, much less try to work on designs for my self-publishing. And, things are going to remain busy between now and the CGOA conference in July. An entire year with little breathing is actually a good thing. It’s really difficult when I have a lull in the designing and start to worry about how I’ll be paying the rent and such.

This month, two of my crochet designs have been accepted in the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program. It is quite an exciting thing indeed to see the embracing of crochet. I had a difficult time keeping the new Spring colors away from everyone. They are so pretty. Click directly on the photo to go the design page on Knit Picks where you can build-your-own kit with some of these new, fresh Spring colors.

Introducing My New Teacher Program

I positively love to teach! It is fun and energizing! But, one of the most difficult things about teaching is first coming up with a class idea, writing up all the class material and coming up with a pattern that the students can use to learn what I’m teaching. I just want to jump in there and start teaching a fun class! While I would love to be able to travel across the country, teaching at many different venues, I’m unable to do that right now. My life is at home raising my little guy, 5-year-old Christian.

But, I would still like to spread the teaching love! I thought about it a long time and finally came up with what I hope to become truly brilliant!

Imagine, if you will, public and private schools. Teachers do the teaching to our youth. But, they don’t write the books they use for teaching. Why couldn’t I write class material and provide it to teachers across the country (or the world) to use for their classes?

In a typical situation, due to copyright laws, each teacher comes up with his/her own class material and pattern. But, what if we could take the burden of producing that material away? Wouldn’t it be terrific to have that provided to you?

I would like to introduce my new Teacher Program (click here). With this being a radical new concept in teaching crochet and knitting to our communities, I have listed only one class Packet for purchase for now. But, I have plans on adding many more in the coming months.

With this Program, teachers will still be doing the teaching. They’ll be planning their classes and teaching in their own style and their own pace. But, all the material will be provided to them to get started. Additionally, all teachers in the Program will be invited to a private YahooGroup where I am hopeful there will be discussions such as how to promote their classes, how much to charge their students for the class, how long the classes should be or how to separate their classes into more than one session.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this progresses! It’s such an exciting new concept in sharing our love of crochet and knitting with our communities.

CLF: 2010 Flamies Awards!

I am so honored to have been nominated for the 2010 Crochet Flamies, sponsored by the Crochet Liberation Front!

I think that a few of you may have liked these designs.

Sweetheart Ripple Afghan, February 2009, Crochet World magazine

Luna Sweater, Winter 2009, Interweave Crochet magazine

And, maybe some of you like my new book, Learn to Do Tunisian Lace Stitches.

Please go to the one-page survey for the 2010 Flamies and vote for your favorites!

2010 Crochet Flamies, VOTE HERE!

New Design: Springtime Empire

I want to introduce you to my new design, Springtime Empire. This design is available in the May 2010 issue of Creative Knitting magazine. It is an A-line style worked from the hem in the round, split at the armhole to work in rows, then the neckline is picked up and worked in the round. There is no seaming! Sizes are small through 2X.

This design is made in Super Petalspun, a 100% rayon yarn from Pisgah Yarns.

And, just a note about the pattern instructions.

Armhole DEPTH is stated in the pattern as 8 (8, 8, 8, 8.5)”. It is a typo made during the publishing process. These numbers are actually Armhole HEIGHT, not depth.

The actual armhole depth (after blocking) is approximately 10 (11, 11, 11.5, 12)”.

Stitch Diagrams at Kimane Designs

Together with the help of talented Amie Hirtes of Nexstitch.com, all crochet lace patterns at Kimane Designs now include lace stitch diagrams. These include the following:

Clarice	Marilyn
Dreams	Solaris
Circulos	Garden Party

Updated versions of the patterns have been sent out to those who have purchased the patterns previously. If you do not receive your updated versions, be sure to email me so that I can get your downloadable link to you.

Garment Design Quick Tip

Did you ever make a tank top that covered the bra straps in the back but mysteriously didn’t cover the bra straps in the front? Or, perhaps you are working on a set-in sleeve design and, when you try it on, the upper back fits perfectly, but why is the upper front hanging so close to the shoulder? The solution to this problem can be found by looking at a human skeleton.

You see those bones at the top, across the shoulders? They curve to the front. They aren’t straight across. This makes the distance from shoulder-to-shoulder less in the front than the back. It stands to reason that any garment should be less in the front than across the back. (Note: I’m not referring to the bust/chest area. Naturally, that is larger in the front. LOL I’m talking about the top, above the bustline.)

In order to get something to fit better, when you’re doing your armhole decreasing, remove a little bit more in the front than the back.

I’ve been asked why my designs are written with more decreasing in the front, at the armhole. So, I thought a visual would work best.

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For Facebook users, this is a blog post made into a note on Facebook. To see the original post, click here.

Update on Knitpicks IDP

I was asked for an update on how this program is working for me. As you know, I have just recently begun selling knit patterns in addition to the crochet patterns. Since I’m not at all known for my knit patterns (for now!), I felt that my design for this racerback button-front vest, Liana, would be an excellent addition for the Knitpicks Independent Designer Program. I really like the design, but it’s just not seen because people visiting Kimane Designs are only looking for crochet patterns.

This pattern has been available for just under six months on my website. I’m very happy to report that, in the less than two weeks it’s been available in the Knitpicks program, it has sold more patterns than the full six months on my website! So, yes, although I’ve only been participating for a very short time, I’m going to say that the program is definitely working for me. Thank you to all my new customers! I hope you will enjoy the pattern!

Thanks for the Responses!

Thank you so much, everyone, for your responses yesterday, privately, here in the blog and on Facebook, about my sale prices question! It definitely helped. I knew that it was going to be a transition when some of my prices were lowered, but I didn’t expect the email I received at all and it caught me a little off-guard.

I will stick to my initial plan. I feel that it’s fair and reasonable to make a partial refund on a pattern someone has purchased in the two weeks prior to its being discounted. Above all else, my goal is to be fair and reasonable. I try to treat people how I would like to be treated. I even have notes on the pattern pages indicating that similar versions of the pattern are available elsewhere at a discounted rate. How many businesses have you seen do that? Ever go to Amazon.com, click on a product, and right there on the page is a note that you can purchase the same thing at another site for less money? LOL

The sales I received in the last year enabled me to hire someone to draw stitch diagrams for my patterns. I updated those patterns with stitch diagrams and sent an update through Ravelry. The patterns updated were Marilyn, Clarice, Dreams and Solaris. Still to come are Circulos and Garden Party. If you did not receive an updated pattern and would like the stitch diagrams, please email me to let me know.