My dream and heartfelt desire is to teach lots and lots of people to machine knit. I want to give them confidence, I want to get them knitting, I want to utterly popularize the craft.
What's wrong with dreaming big?
This is why I have done a boatload of free content, my free lessons and videos, and this is why I have put so much beginner-oriented material on the site. It's why I over-explain and avoid abbreviations. And it's working, at least, I'm teaching lots of people to knit. I sit right beside them in pixel form, hands, voice, and latch hooks. Poor things, they can rewind me and play me again...
I will not give up doing free content.
As the project became so busy and my time commitment grew, I began to work on some products for sale. It's an important next step, to get quality companion materials into the hands of people who want and need them, but also to earn a little money since the site has begun to eat personal resources. There are things I cannot teach on a blog or a tiny YouTube video, but I can teach them in a detailed, empowering way with a book and a high-def video.
Earning money is secondary, and I'm not too worried about a slow financial start. The slow start getting materials done is more frustrating, but it simply takes a lot of time to do things well.
If people learn from me and knit my designs, like the silly-simple but very pretty circular baby blanket, they'll be back and buy patterns and videos.
The hitch in the new product side of things is my schedule. I have a wonderful position at a Boy Scout council, getting to be part of an incredible mission and working with terrific people. I don't have much free time, but I'll just chip away at it. I have to try to create good quality, because errors and skimpy directions are insidious knitting underminers. You can't get things perfect, but you can get 'em darn good. I had a long vacation during the holidays, and probably invested most of it in creating my sock book and video. In the end, I was satisfied with it because the quality is good, but it was an first product, and I have a lot of other things I want to do.
So - that's the plan, subject to changes and the adventures of life.
Happy Knitting!
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Maybe you could consider embedding a (PayPal) donation button on your blog? I've seen some of your free videos on YouTube and would happily donate some money as I think you're doing a great job helping so many people.
ReplyDeleteConsider me inspired
ReplyDeleteI just met you (ok, found you on the web) but I think you just saved me! This past weekend, I helped pack up my 97yr old Grandma's stuff as she is moving from independent living to assisted living. As we were packing, I asked her if I could have one (she has many) knitting machines. All my life, and I am 42, my Gram has sat at her knitting machine rolling out hats, blankets, sweaters, you name it, watching her stories as she went back and forth. She knit at home for various companies and entered the fair for years always bringing home a ribbon, most often blue. So now I have a Studio 700 and a Ribber (had to research to figure out what I had). She said they had pattern cards, but I didn't get them. Her parting words to me were, if you can read you can knit. And, Casting on and Casting off is the most important. Here I sit, using modern technology to figure this whole thing out. Her eyes are gone and we live 700 miles away so her teaching me isn't possible. I am hoping that your videos will. So thanks for filling in for my Gram! And any help you can give will be awesome! I am a bit intimidated at this point.
ReplyDeletecmcgu@aol.com
Hi, Anonymous, I've heard good things about the Singer 700. You will find some of the settings different, but the beginner course should be helpful anyway. Keep the Singer manual handy.
ReplyDeletePunch cards are still widely available. You will most likely need to punch you own on the unpunched cards. You can get those individually or even in a long roll.
Hello Diana,
ReplyDeletethank you for all you do for the machine knitting community! You are truly an inspiration to me, and I am sure, countless others. I do like your YouTube videos, but I wanted to have the content available here at home, so I am very happy that you made the decision to sell your dvds. My resolution this year is to buy your dvd, perfect my knowledge level, then go on and buy the next one. It is important that we all support each other in our endeavors. Bless you and your family.