We have lost our home and studio in a massive fire. All of my samples, works in progress, and yarn were destroyed — over a decade of work and 40+ years of memories, up in smoke. I have no way of fulfilling orders or teaching virtual workshops. I have no idea when I will be able to begin normal operations again. My wife and I and the other tenants of the building are (at least physically) OK.
If you want to support me during this difficult time, please visit my Ravelry store. I have done my best to hide access to my store, but if you manage to place an order for physical books or patterns, it will be cancelled and refunded.
Later, I may ask for more concrete help — yarn from dyers I’ve worked with, samples from sample knitters — but for the moment I need to focus on rebuilding my life. You may feel free to contact me, but I cannot guarantee a timely reply.
It’s been a long time in coming, but a number of things have come together and it’s finally time to announce that I’m ready to teach virtual workshops!
During the lockdown, I’ve had more time to iron out some details. A week or so ago, I ran a small workshop with a group of friends to test out the instructional technology (this is mostly equipment I already use to teach; I just needed to make sure it would work remotely). A few weeks ago, I posted a survey to get input on various facets of this project. This week, I’ve been reworking large sections of my website to make it easier for people to find and register for workshops. Finally, today, Craftsy/Bluprint announced that it will be closing, which opens a huge hole in the online video workshop ecosystem.
Before I make my announcement, I want to go over the numbers and some other info (scroll to the bottom if you don’t care about statistics). First, I had 184 responses to the survey before I closed it down. I had noticed responses slowing down so I decided to stop the survey at that point. Here’s the breakdown of interest in these workshops, at least from these 184 people:
As you can see (and to my surprise) multi-color double-knitting takes the prize with 124 people interested (about 67% of respondents).
Availability seems to be highest in the evenings and weekend afternoons, regardless of the lockdown, so I’ll stick with those timings for now.
Nearly 75% of respondents said they’d prefer a workshop that was 3 hours long (same as my usual timing) but about 2/3 of those preferred a break midway through. Another 20% said 2 hours would be enough. Time will tell but we’ll start with the 3-hour workshops with a built-in break.
For price: almost 40% of people thought a price point between $40 and $60 would be reasonable, but a little more than 30% wanted between $20 and $40. 12% said $60-80, and the rest gave many, many individual suggestions. Due to the variety of responses, I’ve decided to offer my workshops at a sliding scale starting at $30 (with my Entrelac workshop starting higher, of course). This way, people can choose how much they value the workshop. And if they change their mind (at least in the positive direction) later, I’ve also implemented a tip jar.
Now, to the announcement:
Due to popular demand (see the graph above), I’ve decided to offer my multi-color double-knitting workshop as the inaugural virtual workshop! It’ll be a week from today, Saturday, May 30th, from 2-5pm ET. It’ll be capped at 15 people, so I expect it to sell out quickly. Register now!(…and it’s sold out!)
Some answers to inevitable questions follow:
Why so soon?Because I want to test the entire system sooner rather than later, and because logistics are a little less difficult right now since you don’t need to drive anywhere to get to the workshop.
Why so few people?Because I want to test the entire system — from payment and enrollment to the workshop itself — on a smaller number of people to reduce disappointment if something goes terribly wrong (not that I expect it to). And because I expect that finding 15 people out of 124 (or more) will not be terribly difficult.
Why not the intro first?Frankly, because I contractually can’t. I am teaching at Virtual Vogue Knitting Live in June, and I have a non-compete agreement that means I can’t teach my intro classes (the only ones they’re having me teach) from now-ish until June 29th.
I have not yet decided on a schedule for the other workshops but I will post about those as soon as I can.
Thanks for your continued interest and stay tuned soon for more!
This is something I should have sorted out long ago — but the lockdown (and the attendant cancellations of all of my 2020 gigs) has encouraged me to take a harder look at online video workshops. What I need to do now is to gauge your interest.
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who took my survey on video workshops. With 184 responses as of May 20th, 2020, I have enough info to proceed. I have closed the survey and will be analyzing the responses to make a game plan shortly. I’ll make another post about that soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to be sure to hear about workshops when they’re available (either physically or digitally), please follow my blog or Facebook page, or better yet join my mailing list. Thanks!
In other news
The patterns Abaciscus, Eureka, Waterford Crossing, and Hesperos have now been released as standalone versions! Hexworth should have been on that list, but the yarn has been discontinued, so I will need to find a reasonable replacement and work up a new sample before I can release that pattern. It probably goes without saying, but if you already own Double or Nothing, there is no reason for you to buy any of these patterns (but you can, if you’re a completist and want to support me).
If you’re waiting on individual patterns from Extreme Double-knitting, I’ll probably wait a little longer until I release those. Stay tuned!
