It’s hard to put into words what happens inside your head when you spend 6 months preparing to ask for help from your readership. As an editor who doesn’t run a subscription-based magazine, I had no way of knowing how far we’re reaching. We may have more than 100,000 likes on Facebook, but how would that translate into support for us when we needed it? Would it translate at all? Maybe people didn’t want to support us financially. Maybe we were done.
We weren’t done. We’re just getting started.
I will tell you very frankly that when the first Patrons signed up on September 1, 2015, I was only cautiously excited. I expected it to stop any minute. But then it didn’t. It kept going and growing, and the number of you that wanted to make sure we stick around and that we can pay everyone working with Knitty a fair wage…that number grew and grew. The amount you gave grew and grew.
What I hadn’t allowed myself to dream could happen ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Enough of you came forward with enough money to support us fully for the future. The worry and fretting and "how will we pay our bills" that Jillian and I have been quietly dealing with for years vanished almost instantly, and it's – honestly – taken us a bit of time to come to terms with this wonderful fact.
First thing I did: I paid all the staff for Deep Fall double what they'd expected to receive for the work they'd published with us. That felt so good, I wish every one of you could have been there as I sent out the emails and told them the good news. I doubled the rates we pay (from $75-100 per published pattern to $100-200) and listed them on our Submission Guidelines page. Those rates may go higher once we've established our regular cash flow after another issue or so.
I gave the Tech Editors a raise. I designed, ordered and paid for the swag that the Patrons are going to be receiving in the early part of 2016 (stickers, patches and bags, depending on their level of contribution). I found a sheltered workshop for the developmentally disabled, and they'll be putting the envelopes together to mail out to our Patrons when all the swag has arrived. Cause we have money to pay them, too.
We had a big Webcast and a few smaller Webchats, rewards for the Patrons again. We learned a lot about how to make these things run well, which will serve to make them more fun and more interesting as we move into 2016.
Our beloved Advertisers are still with us, and we're thrilled to have them. We love their energy and what they create, and helping them share their wares and services with fiber people all over the world at affordable ad rates is a big part of our mandate to promote all aspects of the handknitting industry. Now that we have Patron support, the pressure is off the Advertisers to keep us going singlehandedly, and we love that.
We've said it a lot, but I'm going to say it again. Thank you, Knitty Patrons, for your support. We could not have dreamt that you would do what you did, but you did. And we thank you.
Winter is the most knitterly time of year, and we hope what we've collected for you in our grassroots potluck of a magazine will make you reach for yarn and needles. There are some that we wanted to cast on for before the issue even came out. Which will you choose first?
Much love to you,
Amy Singer
[editor, Knitty]
photo: Amy
Singer
Hunkering.
Most winters I want to just settle in and spin and knit projects. Happily gather with my gang around a fireplace, with soup and something British on the TV. This winter I’m feeling restless, I don’t want to just cozy up (though I want to do that, too).
I want to blow out cobwebs and learn new things, which is usually a spring or summer thing for me. I don’t even have a feeling of what I want to learn next. I’m not quite sure how to plan for this type of winter spinning. I want to drag out my entire stash fiber and yarn and do something about it. I’m not sure if I want to use it all or get rid of it all. See, I said I was restless.
Maybe I’ll put something different on each of my wheels? Maybe have a big stash trade with my spinning group? The regular old thing is just not going to do for me this winter. I want to make a lot of yarn and use it in a hundred different ways.
Maybe one of the patterns in this issue’s Knittyspin will help me finds my spinning way, the chunky, lace gradient Cervus cowl by Christopher Kale or the Geldys sweater by Wool+Bricks made from an autobiographical yarn.
Or I could dig deeper into my Knittyspin column topic of blocking handspun yarn: should you or shouldn’t you?
Will any of you be at the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat? I’m teaching and might just have samples with me from my upcoming book!
If you have an
idea for a project or article for
knittyspin write me.
Knittyspin submission guidelines
are here.
If you have fiber,
spindles, books, or other spinny
products or tools that you'd like
us to review, you'll find information
how how to get your products in
to the hands of our reviewers here.
I love to talk about it all.
