One of my new goals for the year was to decide on the format for my patterns and do my best to make sure they are all consistent. One year ago, January 2015, I decided that I was going to try out pattern writing and began with a basic half double crochet striped hat. I wanted to create a simple hat with simple color change and have it in all sizes. This is what I ended up with.
I was pretty happy with my first pattern, so decided to continue on. I progress from hats to diaper covers, capes, swaddle sacks/cocoons, amigurumi, and several other newborn outfits. This past year of selling patterns has been great and I have learned a lot! I made the final switch in June, when I moved to Seattle, downsized my yarn collection, and started the switch to only selling my patterns. Over the past year I have switched to more newborn based items, put more focus on getting professional photographers, and now to creating consistency in my patterns.
If you look at my early patterns, such as all of my fuzzy pipsqueak animals, you will see a lot of differences to now and future patterns. A lot of these changes are very new, but I am going to slowly be going back to previous patterns to update. I changed the header, to now be my simple logo, instead of a full banner. That way, if you decide to print the pattern, I will not use up all of your ink. I have changed my abbreviations to match the Craft Yarn Council’s standardized list. The main problems I had, was I put everything in caps, such as “SLST” (slip stitch). The Craft Yarn Council has the abbreviation as “sl st”, so that is what I will be using from now on. Also, I would abbreviate magic circle as “MC”, which the CYC(craft yarn council) has as “main color”. Therefore, you will now be seeing this as a magic ring instead.
I will be continuing to add more photo tutorials to my site, so that I can refer customers here instead of trying to include everything in the pattern. This will make the patterns shorter, more printer friendly, and give easier access to you, for reference. Of course, I will still have plenty of pictures in my patterns, but I want to have the basics such as the magic circle, foundation double crochet, and changing color, all available here for reference.
A lot of the changes are minor, but the best improvement will be with the yardage. I don’t know why I didn’t think it was important to count/calculate the yardage as I was creating my patterns, but I regret it now. This is the part that will take me the longest. I am going back and recreating all of my items, checking the patterns, counting and updating the yardage, along with adding any additional notes that I think will help. I started adding yardage information about half way through the year, but I will update them all as soon as I can.
Of course, if you have a pattern of mine already, I will be more than happy to send you the updated copy. If you purchased a pattern from me on Ravelry, you will get e-mailed the update automatically. I would love to hear what you think of my new pattern layout! Since Easter is coming up, I thought I should go back and update my Easter bunny pattern first. I have finished the updated version of the bunny with diaper cover tonight and will be doing the Easter bunny with cape next!
Also, I have added two new patterns, with my new format. A newborn raccoon hat with unattached tail and a newborn sloth hat.
Up next, will be my next free pattern, newborn angel wings and halo! I have just finished creating the pattern and I am hoping to hear back from the photographer soon, with her adorable photos. Mine… are not the best.
However, if I don’t hear back by tomorrow, I will get the pattern ready to publish with mine. That way you can have time to create it before Valentine’s day.
Thanks for reading!
