I’ve been looking through my Ravelry favourites and have a huge bundle of Summer Top Ideas which I love. Do you prefer knit or crochet summer tops? I knit more than I crochet but I do love crochet too, so there are plenty of ideas to go at.
Dingley Dell – Summer Top Ideas
Dingley Dell is a favourite of mine, I love the stripes, that you could knit it plain, bust some stash or do crazy with the striping. Knitted with 4ply / fingering weight yarn, it’ll be lightweight and would work in cotton, linen or wool blend yarns.
Tidewater Tee – Summer Top Ideas
The Tidewater Tee by Alexandria Wenninger is a yoked top, worked top down and in the round. The yoke pattern is pretty and interesting for the knitter.
Flowing Waves Top – Summer Top Ideas
The flowing waves top makes great use of a beautiful yarn, Scheephes Whirl and it’s gradient colour changes. I’m not sure I’d want an open back, being a girl who needs a decent bra, but it’s very pretty and would be an easy project to crochet.
Lola Pullover – Summer Top Ideas
The Lola Pullover is a light, lacy and very pretty summer top or sweater, with it’s cropped length it’s perfect for teens, tweens and young women.
LILLY halter top
I love the colours of the LILLY halter top, it’s crochet and great for using up stash and oddments to give a unique colour combination. You do need to measure yourself or the recipient and follow the instructions on how to get the best fit, but it’s worth a little bit of effort to have such a stunning piece in your wardrobe.
Sakura Summer Top
The Sakura summer top is a pretty, top down yoke pattern. Knitted in 4ply/fingering weight hemp, it’ll be cool, comfortable and wear well.
Emma and I look at some of them in our recent YouTube videos, links below
Cowlabunga 2021 is a 6 week long KAL/CAL (Knit along or crochet along) of cowls hosted by Loraine from Woolly Madly Deeply and myself. All our cowl patterns are eligible to be entered.
We had such fun with our cowl knitting and crocheting last year, didn’t we? It was initially kicked off to coincide with the release of Loraine’s pattern Find My Way cowl. We had some amazing entries and some worthy winners of the prizes.
From Sunday 4th April 2021 at 15:30 UK time through Sunday 18th April 2021 at 23:59pm we will be discounting all the cowl patterns we have available by 25% using the unique code Cowlabunga2021. The KAL itself will then continue to run until Sunday 2nd May 2021 at 16:00 UK time.
We will have a cast on party live in our Facebook group on the Sunday afternoon. You will be able to join us in the chat to tell us which patterns you have chosen and which yarns you will be using. We love to see your WIPs and FOs so don’t forget to post in the FB or Ravelry groups with pictures. And tag us when you are posting on social media!
Is there a Cowlabunga Discount?
There most certainly is! This year we will be using the discount code cowlabunga2021 and you can use it as many times as you want! Just put the patterns you want into your Ravelry shopping cart, enter and apply the code between Sunday 4th April 2021 at 15:30 UK time through Sunday 18th April 2021 at 23:59 pm and 25% will be taken off the price. You will be able to buy more than one pattern but if you choose to buy from both of us you will have to check each shop out separately.
What Prizes Can I win?
This year we will be offering pattern codes and e-books as prizes. Last year I don’t think we realised how much the Covid pandemic was going to affect life, the post included! And I must admit that I was absolutely terrible at getting to the post office to send off my physical prizes. So this year we have decided to keep everything digital. Both Loraine and I will be offering codes for our single self published patterns and some e-books of our collections.
Show Me Some Eligible Patterns!
Both Loraine and I have released new cowl patterns since last year, so even if you entered before there will be something new to tempt you. However, if you already own one of our cowl patterns you could make it again. Test knits are also eligible if the pattern releases before the event finishes on Sunday 2nd May 2021 23:59. As long as you don’t cast on before 4th April 15:30 you can enter your project for a prize!
You will find a bundle of all our eligible patterns on Ravelry – Cowlabunga Cowls
Following on from an excellent blog post about Pattern Pricing by my friend Ruth Brasch, it got me thinking about pattern pricing and the way the industry is moving. I’ll add links for Ruth’s post and also a post she references which goes through survey results of how long it takes to carry out each part of the pattern development and it’s a scary number. (links to all sources below on this page).
Like Ruth, I’m against the pay what you can model. Why? Because it appears in many cases to be a stealth method to up the lowest price (which is higher than the norm) and then add more expensive options. I like that it gives people choice, but 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁. I’ve put my prices up and I’m happy to have made that choice. My work has value, I have value and if you want the pattern, then buy it. If you don’t, that’s cool too. I’m not out to please everyone, it’s not possible.
I’m all for being flexible, but I did have someone give me a sob story about not being able to afford the pattern, gifted it to them and saw photos of them knitting it while on holiday in Barbados. I sat at home in Cumbria with no holiday. Did I get some exposure? I suppose I did, but not from anyone who buys patterns.
Looking at the figures in the article by Thread and Ladle, the minimum number of hours involved in creating a good quality knitting pattern for a sweater is 53.1 hrs, the maximum in her survey being 113.65 hrs. That’s NOT including yarn, the cost of Tech Editing, needles, notions, tools, website, email service, marketing the pattern, graphics, Ravelry fees, Paypal fees, models, schematics, time spent testing and answering testers questions.
To cover all that, and have some actual income for me, that means a minimum number of pattern sales of 350 to 760 per sweater pattern.
Sari Nordlund has an interesting chat about pattern pricing on her YouTube channel, what income she makes and what patterns are worth designing for her.
She’s very open and honest about it, so give it a look. Link below.
I appreciate money is tight for many people, but designers also need to make a living and cover their actual costs. There are lots of free patterns, sales and other promotions and we always discount a pattern on it’s launch with a bigger discount for email subscribers.
The amount of work is considerably more than most people think and to market your pattern effectively, you should spend double the time it took to create it. Adding more time to the calculations.
As someone who loves to knit garments, to wear and for pattern designing, it’s a sobering thought.
It’s not like I take the easy route out, I always go up to the larger plus sizes and add tips on how to upsize even more. It doubles the Tech Editing costs because there are more numbers, measurements and stitch counts to be checked. As a curvy woman, it’s important to me that I produce patterns that a woman of any size can wear, but it comes at a price.
Do I stick to accessories for a quicker win, or plod on with garments and hope that at some point, more of them will reach that magic number of sales?
Two colour stranded knitting, simple but stunning. I love the use of a variegated yarn and a great way to use those pesky skeins with lots of pattern or colour.
Indie Gift Along 2020 my WIPs, FOs and plans for December knitting and crochet.
I cast on the Ronan Cardigan by Tiona Murphy for the Gift Along, it’s going to my friends Ben and Kelly for their new baby boy who was born a few weeks ago. I used Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool in the Denim colourway and it works well with the cables. It’s also machine wash for a new and busy Mum of two.
I’m also sending them a couple of cotton burp cloths from a pattern by my good friend Emma Sadler, it’s called Muzies.
I have wanted to knit Alameda by Clarice Gomes since I saw her knitting the sample in a beautiful green colour when we met on a Saturday night Zoom knit and natter which we both go to. It’s absolutely stunning and I love it so much. I’m using Lanas Stop Bambini in the Linen colourway. You can buy that yarn here. I’ve knitted a bit more since then and will add another photo to the project page, click the image below to see more info.
This is Clarice’s sample
I did another crochet test of a pattern for Lillinette Crochet of her Ilsan pattern, you can make two of the squares and join them to make a Biscornu which is a clever construction and makes a very pretty pin cushion. I used scraps of DK sparkly yarn in silver grey, purple and magenta.
I cast on for the CareAway Shawl, I’m not sure I made the best yarn choice, but I do absolutely love the colours, it’s a creamy white, a light grey and a mustard yellow and is called Skittles. The yarn is Stylecraft Bambino DK.
