Category Archives: administrivia

administrivia

A Patreon conundrum

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In my enthusiasm for getting started on Patreon, I didn’t think through all the tax-related ramifications. I knew I might have to pay income tax on the proceeds, and am glad to do so. However, I didn’t think about sales tax.

The reward I had envisioned falls under the sales tax rules where I live. This means that if I keep providing exclusive digital goods for patrons, I would be legally required to find out whether patrons lived in North Carolina, and if so, pay the relevant sales tax to the state. I’m not inclined to do this; I don’t have any way of finding out where my backers live through Patreon.

I’m going to go ahead as originally planned for this month, but I can see a couple of alternatives for after that:

  1. Provide no special rewards for backers (just, I hope, the satisfaction of supporting someone who’s providing useful content for free to anyone who likes it).
  2. Let backers suggest words for me to encode, but make the resulting stitch patterns non-exclusive and free to my blog readers.

I’m inclined toward number two, since it’s closest to the original reward.

What do you think?

administrivia

Secret Code Stitch-of-the-month club via Patreon

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I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to put a donation button on my blog so that people who find my posts useful but don’t want to buy my patterns can make a donation if they like. I don’t want anyone to feel obliged, mind – this is information I happily provide for free. At the same time, I am trying to make some money from being a designer. So I’ve been trying to figure out an optional way for people to send me money if they can and if they feel my posts are useful.

I recently heard about Patreon, which is kind of like a variation on Kickstarter. In this case, it’s a way that people can support people who are making things they like. Creators can either be funded for specific projects or can set up a subscription if they post content regularly. Like me! This seems even better to me than a donation button.

So I thought I would set up a Patreon account. If you would like to subscribe (a dollar a month, or whatever you choose), I would really appreciate it. If enough people do it, I’ll be able to get rid of the ads on my blog, pay to be able to publish stitch maps with my patterns, and who knows what else.

In exchange, I’ll give you an extra stitch pattern each month that I won’t publish elsewhere. (Edit: I’ve changed this) There will always be an option that isn’t lace, even if it’s only a chart that can be used for colorwork. Note: colorwork charts can also be used for Tunisian crochet colorwork, cross stitch, needlepoint, beadwork, quilting patterns, designing weaving drafts… In short, anything that’s designed on a grid.

I think we could call it a secret code stitch-of-the-month club. (Even though not all of my patterns are based on encoding things as knitting.)

kaGh5_patreon_name_and_message

administrivia

Color-coded written instructions

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So I came across the idea to use what programmers call syntax coloring to help make written instructions easier to read (for some people; it’s harder for other people). I know a few people who find knitting charts difficult and also can find written instructions difficult. At least one of them leapt up and down with cries of joy at the sight of that webpage. What do you think? Would you be interested in separate versions of my patterns in this style? (It wouldn’t be difficult to make happen, I think. At least, I think it ought to be possible.)

administrivia

Knitting secret code posts

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My original secret code posts were done as blog posts, linked together, but they got unwieldy and out of order. I’ve reorganized them and given them a bit of a polish, and now they are pages accessible through a link at the top of my blog – there’s a dropdown menu that lets you see the other posts in the writeup.

This is the first post: Embedding Meaning in Your Knitting (or other Crafts). I will probably add one more page that links to anything else I post about my secret code (like the crochet posts) or to anyone’s projects or patterns that make use of the technique.

My friend Sarah is writing up her experience with it on a truly stunning shawl which I look forward to sharing with you when it’s ready.

administrivia

Change of pace

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I have been trying to post at least twice a week (you might have noticed): one stitch pattern-related post and one technique post. It turns out that between my family and my part time job, this leaves me not enough time for the designing I want to do! So, I’m going to drop down to posting at least once a week in no particular order.

I’ll post more as the fit takes me, but I also have two shawl patterns (one crochet and one knit), a pair of baby booties, a hat pattern, a thing I can’t talk about, and a mini stitch dictionary I want to work on. And that’s just the things I’m letting the front of my brain think about. There are other ideas lurking in the wings.

I also want to go over my secret code posts with a fine tooth comb and repost them as a set of pages to make them more easily accessible.

Optimistic? Yes. You’ll note I don’t have a deadline for any of that listed, but they’ll be done sooner if I’m not constantly working on blog posts. Not to worry, though. I have several posts in the queue.

administrivia

Settling in

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I certainly started out with a rush of posts this week, didn’t I? Well, I don’t know if I’ll have new posts on a daily basis from now on, though we’ll have to wait and see. I do hope to sporadically post links to things I find interesting, but didn’t write myself.

I plan to have either a free stitch pattern or a write up of a less-well-known technique (like the one I did last night) on a weekly basis. To that end, I’ve started work on the ones I hope to post over the next couple of weeks.

I don’t know how often new patterns will be going up; more often than I was during my hiatus for certain!

Is there anything you would like to see from me?