Nearly yearly update

Hi, everyone. I’ve been a lot more active as a test knitter than a designer as of late. I’ve been enjoying making myself tops that actually fit me properly – sadly, it can be trickier than you’d expect as a fat crafter. Shown here are my Cottage Living Jumper from Victoria Marchant Knits (who I’m posing with in the photo – we met for the first time in person this past March at the East Anglia Yarn Festival) and my Staple Tank from Perfectly Knotted, using Sister Ananse Yarn. I figured I’d also show off a beautiful hat pattern (the Northern Attitude Beanie, also from Perfectly Knotted) that I enjoyed test knitting so much, I made it twice!

A close-up of the top of the aqua Northern Attitude Beanie. You can see the lifted crown increases, and the cerise stripes contrasting with the main aqua yarn. The ribbed brim is thick and cosy.
A side view of me wearing the multicoloured Northern Attitude Beanie. You can see the cream stripes on the crown and how the brim covers my ears entirely, keeping me warm and cosy.
A photo of me and Victoria at the East Anglia Yarn Festival! I dyed my hair blue, green and yellow to match my jumper, which Victoria designed. Victoria is wearing a pastel green linen dress topped with her own design, a pastel green lace cardigan.
I'm standing in a 3/4 view facing the camera, wearing a brightly coloured, variegated knitted tank top (the Staple Tank by Claire Jackson/Perfectly Knotted) in shades of yellow, green, orange, and pink, with splashes of black. The tank top has black ribbing around the collar, armholes, and bottom hem. My arms are open wide and I am smiling.

Since I have been not focused on designing patterns, I decided to fully close down my Patreon page. It had been inactive (not charging anything) for well over a year, so I thought the time had come to close it for good. I left my Ko-fi open as a tipping option, but honestly, I’m not expecting payments from anyone at all. I appreciate everyone who supported me while I was actively designing.

, , ,
Posted on

Store switchover + small update

Hi everybody. My knitting BFF Silver just opened their own Ko-fi pattern store, so you can shop their patterns there. They just released a brand-new shawl pattern called “Pronoun Party”, and for the month of June, 100% of the proceeds will be donated to The Trevor Project. Give it a go!

A photo of me wearing my Pronoun Party shawl, designed by Silver.
Me modelling my Pronoun Party shawl, made in genderqueer pride colours.

As such, I’ve revamped the store that was here, moving it to an external site – PayHip. This has made Mercurial Knits load MUCH faster and also allowed me to add a pay-what-you-want scheme for my patterns which used to be at a fixed price. I changed the pricing to free simply because these early patterns of mine were not properly graded or tested, as I was very new to pattern writing. My newer ones are much more size inclusive and better written overall, and thus still have a baseline price.

For me, it’s been a tough few years. About a year and a half into my studies, my dad became severely ill, and the stress of it all while being 3,000+ miles away made it impossible for me to focus. I withdrew, and at this point, I have essentially forgotten most of what I learned. I want to go back to Korean and Japanese, but I am very, very slow with it. Then, another chronic illness added itself to my list, so I am managing that as best I can. Finally, early this year, my mother-in-law, who had been an absolute rock for me ever since I moved to the UK, passed away suddenly. Our whole family barely had any time to say goodbye – it was very painful. We are healing slowly but we still feel her loss deeply.

Eventually, I would like to finish my alphabet of fingerless mitts patterns. Can you believe I already got Q out of the way and then just stopped? There really aren’t that many letters left to do.

I hope everyone is doing well.

, , ,
Posted on

Three new fingerless mitts patterns available in my store!

Hello again! Three of my fingerless mitts patterns, previously only available via Patreon, are now accessible from my Pattern Shop! Two of them you’ve seen previewed on here before, the Ribbed Leaf Mitts and the Swift and Simple Lace Mitts, but the third one has only been seen on Patreon – my Tweed Rib Mitts! Check them out and let me know what you think. 🙂

Tweed Rib Mitts
My hand, wearing my Tweed Rib Mitts while practicing hiragana (Japanese characters).
,
Posted on

Changes to Patreon billing & life update

Hello, everyone! 2020 was a hell of a year, and 2021 is looking like it might be more of the same. I got through my first semester of university (well… eighth semester if you count my first degree from just over 12 years ago, but it’s my first semester of THIS university) and discovered, yes, I absolutely love studying Korean and Japanese. However, school really takes a lot of my energy, so I changed my Patreon from a monthly bill to just one tier which is per-creation. This means that you only get charged when I release a full pattern, but can still see my behind-the-scenes work if you pledge. Anyway, it’s still completely optional, of course, and the patterns I release through Patreon will eventually be available on the site for my normal fingerless gloves pattern pricing.

Another major change in my life the past year is that I have finally recognised, as a white and cis-passing person, that I am not only able to, but have a duty to use my privilege in life to stand up and speak out for marginalised people. I already had quite a few LGBTQ+ community friends and accounts I followed, but now I have been following more Black, Asian, and other POC designers on my Instagram page. It was easy to sympathise with queer people, many of whom look like me already, but I was unintentionally ignoring designers of colour almost completely. Of course, following, listening, learning, and appreciating are all good things to do, but I don’t think that’s enough on its own. Yu Ra from Knitboop Designs mentioned on her Instagram story how she chooses not to work with designers, dyers, etc. who don’t have an anti-racist or inclusivity statement on their social media or company webpage. Now, I understand that this message was more directed at large companies, but I felt moved to make my own statement and link to it permanently in my site’s top menu. If you’re interested, you can read what I wrote here; please do follow the links to amazing BIPOC makers that I’ve added. I have tried my whole life to not be racist despite the overwhelmingly white community I was raised in, but I now understand that it takes more to be truly, actively ANTI-racist – and I want to continue to do what I can to help dismantle white supremacy.

Lots of love and care.

, ,
Posted on

Two new fingerless mitts patterns available through Patreon!

Hello and happy September!

I’m pleased to say that my Patreon page is growing and I’ve uploaded two fingerless mitt patterns which are only available through there: Ribbed Leaf Mitts and Swift & Simple Lace Mitts. They’re both quick to knit and easily amendable to a range of sizes.

Ribbed Leaf Mitts in two sizes - large on the left, medium on the right.
Ribbed Leaf Mitts in two sizes
Emily wearing the Swift and Simple Lace Fingerless Mitts.
Me wearing the Swift & Simple Lace Mitts.
My two new fingerless mitt patterns.

I’d also like to say that, thanks to a kind knitter alerting me to the problem, the pattern shop is now operating as intended. Before, it asked you to accept the terms & conditions for shopping, but there was no checkbox to click – this was a bug and has now been fixed, so you can get all the patterns available in my shop with no issue.

Thank you for your continued support! <3

, ,
Posted on