The great pattern reformatting

What began as the great website rebuild soon became the great pattern reformatting and the great business overhaul. My aim is to improve accessibility and accessibility comes in many guises. File size and downloadability; printability, language and translatability, and usability are all things I’ve wanted to improve. And that means starting at the bottom and working up. We don’t just make these things better by building a new website.

Today I want to talk about the changes I’ve made to all of my premium patterns. This has been one of the biggest tasks I’ve needed to do in recent years and it’s now done!

All of my premium patterns will have more printer friendly options, with the written and charted instructions separated. Most of the patterns that had some charted instructions have been converted to fully charted so that the chart page can function independently or at worst, with only a minor reference to the written instructions.

They’ll each have a greatly reduced file size which means quicker downloading and less storage space. I often find myself needing to remind folks that so many of us still don’t have access to good or reliable internet, let alone a fast service - I’m one of those people and big file sizes are a problem, especially if they don’t come with a warning. I’ve always considered the file size being noted on the download page to be good netiquette but that seems to have gone out of favour, presumably because folks are of the opinion that fast internet is now widespread :/

There’ll also be a larger image on the front cover to make it easier to see what’s what at a glance - they always had larger images on the first page anyway but now it’s the full page.

And all of the premium tutorials will be accessed via download links within the pattern. I’ve done this for a few reasons; firstly, this means you don’t have to download them all if you don’t need them, and folks who use my patterns regularly probably won’t need all of the tutorials. In turn, this means the pattern file size is smaller allowing for a quicker download speed. The download links are in a prominent place, too, so you can see what you need and download before starting.

Doing it this way has other advantages, too. It means that I can provide much more in-depth tutorials and produce a greater range of them. And it means that should I need to update the tutorials, either for an error or to add something extra to the tutorial, I can do it all backend and the same link will get you the latest version - it saves me having to update hundreds of files or pattern listings every time.

And… because I’ve been restructuring how the patterns are presented, in particular the charts, it’s made it much easier for me to add extra notes about how to make alterations to the pattern or how to achieve different sizes. The majority of my patterns have been made fully charted and or had extra size notes added, which is why it’s been so much work and taken so long, but it’s very much been worth it. My patterns have always been multi-sized with lots of options and a few have had extra sizes written in, but having the knowledge of how the pattern is structured is mighty helpful for lots of reasons.

Image description: the full chart for one panel within the Meret pattern.

So! Let me talk through the Meret pattern as an example.

When it was first available as a free PDF it had charted instructions, and the charts for the crown and body were separate due to the layout. When I reconverted it back to a blog post I initially left the charts out as I hadn’t reformatted them yet. That’s now been done and the blog post updated.

The chart here is now for the complete beret, from brim to crown, with the body repeat section marked in the black box. Even the cast on number and increase round are marked.

This one set of instructions is repeated multiple times within one round, and how many times depends on the size being made.

I’ve been able to do the chart like this because of the internal pattern maths. A lot of my patterns are structured in similar ways, meaning all of those could be made fully charted in the same kind of way.

Even those that aren’t could still be made fully charted, perhaps with only a minor reference to the written instructions at the very end or beginning of the pattern.

And let’s have a look at how the written and charted pages look within the pattern layout.

The written instructions neatly fit on one page. This wasn’t possible with all of the patterns, most of them even, but I have considered the layout and improved it on what it was. Under the ‘Special Techniques’ section is the list of tutorials that can be downloaded - those links weren’t active when I converted the PDF to images but they will be when the patterns go live.

Image description: a screenshot of the written instructions within the pattern PDF

Image description: a screenshot of the charted instructions within the pattern PDF

There’s also a new section - ‘Pattern Notes’. It’s within here that you’ll find details on how to make any alterations to the pattern or how to change the range of sizes or how to use different weight yarns, pattern maths permitting, and so on. It’s not an in-depth guide, rather a summary, but it gives you everything you need to know. Any specific notes that a pattern currently has will also be included in this section.

Tutorials on how to grade by gauge, both for sideways and vertically knit Hats, and for Hats that are structured with internal panels like the Meret and for those that aren’t, are at the top of my writing to-do list. Rather than make the pattern extra long by including all of that I’ve opted to add it is a downloadable tutorial. Given my ADHD patterns with lots of pages can be off-putting or difficult to read, even if they’re well laid out, and I’ve approached the pattern reformatting with that in mind.

Looking at the chart page we can see the chart in full alongside a full key and a summary of the pattern notes. This all makes the chart page self-sufficient. These pages within the great reformatting took a lot more work than the written instructions, which is understandable given the variability within charts. Some patterns required more notes for the page to be self-sufficient, some less. Some have larger charts, some smaller. Some patterns have more than one chart and where the charts cover different style options, each has it’s own self-sufficient page; where the charts are all needed within on pattern they’ve been treated as a set.

Although the reformatting is all done, most of the new versions haven’t been published yet. If you’ve purchased any of the recently published designs, such as Slonnet, Square Cubed or Trinity, you’ll have seen the new layout in action. But until I have a new permanent home to host the tutorials and therefore create permanent links for them, it’ll be an impossible amount of work to publish them all with temporary links only to have to update them.

Anyone who’s previously purchased a pattern will have access to the new versions when they’re ready, so you don’t need to wait! Ravelry has an automatic update system but Payhip and Etsy don’t - customers who’ve purchased through these shops will want to keep an eye on The Woolly Hat Society newsletters or this blog as to when they’re ready, then use the download links they were sent after purchase to get the latest versions.

Hopefully though this post has given you some insight into just one aspect of the great business overhaul and what to expect when the new versions go live!

It's been a while, I know

An update on the new website build is long, long overdue.

I’ve dreaded sitting down and trying to write a summary of what’s going on - what’s happened, what delays there’s been, what we’ve needed to do, what changes we’ve needed to make and what we’ve achieved.

This project has become something much bigger than I ever imagined. I knew it would be big but having never done anything like this let alone outsourced and brought a team together, I really was clueless.

Image description: close up detail of a pile of yarn oddments in bright and variegated colours

First things first - the website build itself has seen a lot of delays. Nearly all of them pandemic related, either directly with folks catching covid, or indirectly due to the knock-on effects of just about everything that the pandemic touches. We’re a small team and when one person needs to take time out I’m not going to not let them. But it does also mean that we can’t always just pick up where we left off, and this is a side to project management that’s been a tough lesson. It would’ve been nice not to learn all this the hard way with the weight of a pandemic but there we go.

The new site skeleton is in place, we’re working through kinks in the data that we’ve put together and how that codes with the site. There’s a lot of back-and-forth going on but we’re getting there, albeit slowly and in a non-linear fashion. I really want to give you a date but I don’t have one, and I’m not sure it’d be wise to entertain one at the moment anyway.

We’re also going through to check and refine the data that we’ve collected and sorted for every single Woolly Wormhead pattern. Which is a LOT. That task in itself has been huge but I’m really glad we’ve done it as we won’t ever likely need to do it again. And it’ll make for a much more functional database and website. There’s still a lot to be worked out but I’m continuing to remind myself that every delay, every new hurdle, is a chance to do things better. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose patience wanes or whose motivation falters at times, but we are continuing with that premise in mind.

Image description: close up detail of a pile of yarn oddments in bright and variegated colours

On the front end you may have seen a few changes filtering through. One of the biggest changes is to this blog, with the featured articles and tutorials and such.

I made the decision a while back to archive a truck-load of old blog posts, primarily those that were more personal, less work related. It was really strange reading back through them, trying to determine which should stay and which should go. And it was sad, if I’m honest, as I miss talking openly in this space. I miss all the interaction we used to have years ago when I first started blogging. But it all made me feel really vulnerable too. I’m a different person now to who I was then; Woolly Wormhead has changed and grown so much since those early days. And I figured it was best not to remove all of the posts and my voice completely, but to stick to Hat and yarn and knitting related topics. I still want to be myself here, but giving myself guidelines and boundaries feels really healthy.

Over the years the blog has moved to so many different platforms and with it all of it’s drafts and archives and posts. All of the free patterns and tutorials were blog posts until they weren’t; I hid, archived or deleted so many when I converted everything to free PDF. Now that everything’s going back to blog posts - and I’m trying not to kick myself for messing with things so much over the years! - I’ve been trying to put everything back to where it was historically.

I’ve been conflicted about this, as back-dating didn’t sit easy. Yet most of the drafts still existed and whilst some of the URLs have needed to change and I haven’t got all of the dates 100% correct, they’re close. And I think I’m OK with that. It wouldn’t feel right to suddenly post them all as new things when loads of old comments are still there on the drafts or archives. It’d also make the blog pretty top heavy on recent pages, not to mention be confusing if publication or copyright dates of existing versions out there in the wild don’t match the blog dates.

It’s been a huge mess to sort out yet pretty cathartic at the same time. There’s no doubt going to be a few broken URLs and some inconsistencies or references to posts that are no longer visible, and in time I plan to go through and tweak where needed - I probably won’t be able to do most of that until we’ve completely moved over to the new site and platform. But for now it’s all looking a lot leaner and a lot better organised.

Image description: close up detail of a pile of yarn oddments in bright and variegated colours

The next huge HUGE task that’s been finished is the pattern reformatting. I only finished this last week!

Long story short - and I really do need to get this into a blog post - is that I’m now an Estonian publisher. I was talking with my accountant about the differing VATmoss rates and they advised that the best way to ensure I’m not paying too much VAT was to get all of my publications ISBNs. I enquired and it turns out that yup, even my single patterns qualify. It surprised me, and no doubt surprises you too, which is why I need to get all of the info into a post!

However, to make sure that each one did fully qualify I wanted to change the pattern layout a little. We’d planned changes anyway to make them more downloadable and printer friendly and this was one extra step to that. Every single pattern now has a front cover and a back cover, where the back cover provides all the links to the various help pages, groups and more. All the patterns have links for all of the specific tutorials that are needed, so that you can download in-depth photo tutorials that cover far more than the current illustrated ones. And they’ve each been made printer friendly - in that the written and charted instructions have been separated. This was the bulk of the work, easy.

From a database perspective, written and charted instructions can mean different things if they’re not fully defined. I know folks who search for charted patterns on Ravelry or elsewhere often end up disappointed when they find that a pattern is still mostly a written pattern with a tiny chart that can’t work by itself. So I figured that I’d make as many as possible fully charted - which means the chart page, or pages, can function entirely by themselves, or with perhaps only a minor reference to the written instructions at worst. I’m really excited about this but I’m not kidding when I say that it’s been a serious amount of work. The vast majority of my patterns that had any kind of chart are now fully charted - there’s only a few, less than a handful, that had say a chart for a simple stitch pattern that have now lost that chart.

In addition to this, I’ve added notes to 95% of the patterns explaining how to adjust the pattern to your needs, and how to achieve different sizes outside of the range given and or work with a different weight yarns. The few that don’t have these extra notes are mostly those that already include 5 or more sizes, or are easier to adjust, and I’ll be providing a few blog posts about grading by gauge - i.e how to achieve different sizes via changes to yarn or needle sizes - to help with those.

None of these new pattern versions are published yet as we need to host the tutorial downloads on the new website, and I won’t let them go live without tutorials. The few new releases that have gone out in the new format have temporary links but I’m not keen to do that for the rest only to have to re-publish and re-upload all 220+ of them again to however many platforms and online stores - that’s a logistical nightmare, especially on our internet connection.

Image description: close up detail of a pile of yarn oddments in bright and variegated colours

The tutorials are the other big changes I’m wanting to talk about today, and they relate to both the blog changes and pattern changes.

Most of the old tutorial blog posts have been put back, and they’re in the process of being edited to not only make them clearer but also to make them screen-reader friendly. At some point the free patterns will get this treatment too, though that’s linked into the accessible pattern formats we’ve been working on that I had to press pause on that for a while as there’s only so much I can do, and I need to finish the pattern updates first.

The premium tutorials have all been updated and are in the queue for translation, with two languages done already! Go Czech and Italian!

The updates the premium tutorials have had are numerous. They’ve all got clear black and white photos, so they’re all consistent, which in turn meant some needed to be rephotographed. Most of them have been expanded and more details added. They’ve been through further tech and copy editing as well. They aren’t in a screen-reader friendly layout but neither are the patterns in the new print friendly ISBN format - the accessible patterns will get their own tutorials and shiny new layout.

A lot of the old tutorials that used to be available for download from this site will not be made available as PDFs going forward, and there’s a whole bunch of new ones been written. In short, if it’s needed to support a pattern then it becomes a premium download that’ll be linked within the premium patterns. If it’s not, or if it’s used in a free pattern, then it’s a blog post that everyone can access. The premium tutorials are available as blog posts, too, only they’re not all merged into one file.

I know a few folks weren’t happy about using the free patterns and tutorials on the current blog as it’s not especially accessible, and I am so sorry about the delays in getting the new accessible site up. But creating a new format, or even trying to re-animate the old versions, is going to add to the workload and end up delaying everything - I’d sooner we put our time and energy into the new site which will be better than anything we’ve done so far.

Image description: close up detail of a pile of yarn oddments in bright and variegated colours

Phew, so that’s an epic update self! I’m wanting to expand on some of this more, especially about the ISBNs and the new pattern formats and what extras they’ll include. For now though my eyes need a break and I imagine yours do, too.

First results of the Hatterly survey!

Thank you to everyone who filled in the Hatterly survey. We’ve sorted the data and are starting to work on solutions that we think will help folks.

Before I dive into today’s post, I’d like to reiterate that the survey was primarily to help us learn what we could develop right now for you to use whilst we wait for the new website to be finished. The answers will of course help make sure we’re on the right track with the new website and database, but I just want to be clear that the spreadsheet option isn’t a long term solution.

Yup, there are other databases out there, including Ravelry, yet none of them are Hat specific. You can’t search for earflap + pixie, for instance, and there isn’t a category for slouch. It’s discouraged on the Ravelry database to use two or more Hat tags as they’re all treated as styles, not attributes. I think that particular database is more effective for other garments - although I don’t use it for that, so I’m taking everyone else’s word for it! - but in terms of Hats and Hat styles, it’s limited. I’ll explain more in a forthcoming article, but essentially any style Hat can have earflaps added, or slouch added or a peak brim etc. I tend to mix up styles often and push the boundaries just a tad, and I’ve run into these problems often.

Back to what I should be talking about!

One solution we’ve been working on this week is a visual search method. The data showed us that the 2 most important search criteria for Hat knitters are Yarn Weight and Style, and they will absolutely be covered in the new website database, along with a whole bunch of other Hat specific things. Yet it was clear from the feedback that a visual search was very much needed, especially in the interim. It was almost a 50/50 split between sure, I’ll use a spreadsheet to search for what I want and I’d like to see the photos for these searches, please!

It was mighty helpful and I’m really glad we asked and you told us, else we’d have just run with the spreadsheet idea and it wouldn’t have been as helpful to everyone as we’d hoped.

Also, did I mention, over 1,000 entries!

So…. we’ve been building Pinterest boards that are grouped by Yarn Weight, Style and Construction. And within each board there are further categories. For instance in any of the Yarn Weight boards you’ll find categories for the Styles, and vice versa. So far the construction boards cover Modular and Sideways, as the Vertical one is the biggest and needs a bit more time. These 3 boards have categories grouped by Yarn Weight but I’m going to see if I can work some magic and create categories by Style as well.

At the moment the website database has about 15 styles or so, but for these boards I needed to simplify things and got them down to 8. There are 7 yarn weights as well, which is the range my patterns come in.

It’s been quite the task, as each pin needed to be manually uploaded and created, but we’ve got the groundwork done now and we can start to build on these. Phew!

Image is a screenshot of the Woolly Wormhead Pinterest homepage, with 20 different boards. Each board snapshot is a collage of some of the Hat pins to be found within the board.

I’ve never been a big Pinterest user and it’s been a sharp learning curve but I’m getting the hang of it now and have lots of plans to use it more! If you’re not following me already, now would be a good time to as you’ll see the new boards and searches develop as we get them built.

Image shows a screenshot of the DK weight Pinterest board. There are thumbnails for each category across the top and then it starts to show the images in full under each category sub-heading.

Image shows a screenshot of the Slouchy Hat Pinterest board. Just like the DK board, there are thumbnails for each category across the top and the first few images in full under each category sub-heading.

The two screenshots above are a snapshot of how the categories work under each main board. There are limitations with this method, as I can’t place categories within categories but I’ve a few ideas for how to create related categories or somehow show extra pins for those patterns that merge weights or styles or otherwise don’t firmly sit within one category without having to create loads of new pins.

You can of course create your own boards and re-pin these - I’d love to see that happening! Boards that match Hats to yarns, or wish-list patterns or queuing patterns you’d like to knit. It may not be the most sophisticated way to approach a search function but it certainly has a lot of potential.

I haven’t done all this by myself, I wouldn’t have been able to. Team WW have been amazing.

Right now all pins lead to this current website, which we know isn’t as accessible as it should be. However coupled with the spreadsheet - which is almost ready! - you’ll be able to visually search for the Hat of your preference and then grab the URL for Etsy or Payhip from the spreadsheet. We’d love to add boards for Etsy and Payhip as well but it’s taken a fair chunk of time to do these and we can’t promise we can get them all built quickly. But they are on the list and in the queue!

The Hatterly Survey

As we move ahead with the new website build we’ve hit a few hurdles, all of which were unforeseeable, and most of which are due to or impacted by the pandemic in one way or another. I appreciate folks patience and wanting us to get it right as much as we do, but that still leaves a number of folks unable to search my patterns, as the Ravelry database is no longer accessible to them.

Image shows a close-up of a knitted swatch. It has an eyelet and garter stitch pattern and is worked in multi-coloured yarns.

Now that we’ve got all of the Woolly Wormhead Hat pattern data entered, untangled and sorted we’re in a position to offer an interim solution - a searchable spreadsheet that whilst limited compared to the database we’re building, will help you find the right Hat pattern while we wait for the new website.

But before we can publish it, it’ll help us to know a few things first. Because there is so much data - which means it’ll make a fantastic database - there’s a little too much for a spreadsheet and so we’re looking for the key search criteria that we can focus on for this interim project. You’ll still get everything you need, we’re just wanting to reduce the overwhelm and make it as usable as possible.

And so we’ve built a quick survey! Anonymous answers are totally OK. And it doesn’t matter whether you’d prefer to continue to use Ravelry if you’re able to - if you search for Hat knitting patterns your input is helpful. The more folks who respond, the clearer it is for us.

Click here to complete the Hatterly Survey!

The form will stay open until Sunday evening, May 23rd. We don’t want to leave it open long as we want to get out and in use as soon as we can.

The Woolly Hat Society newsletter went out yesterday with details of the survey and the response so far has been fantastic, thank you! I’d like to reply to a couple of the comments publicly if I can, as I appreciate folks are concerned about a few things:

1. My patterns will remain on the Ravelry database - it’s going to be counterproductive to remove them, as someone will only add them back in, and I’d sooner manage my listings to keep things correct and tidy and I have help with that.

2. We’re not looking for answers to any of the questions, rather trying to gauge a response to help us make the spreadsheet as useable as possible. By all means if you’ve ideas about the database functionality please do share! But do bear in mind that for the interim we’re presenting a spreadsheet which won’t have the same functionality and therefore won’t be as sophisticated as the website database.

3. That said, this isn’t just for the interim spreadsheet! We will use the data to make sure we’re on the right track with the new website build so as I mentioned above, do leave comments with ideas and suggestions - we’re reading them all!

4. If you’re not comfortable using a spreadsheet or don’t know what one is, adding that to your comments is still helpful! We know that an interim solution won’t work for everyone. But we have some options and choices and your responses can help guide us. And it’ll certainly help us build a better, easier to use database on the new website.

Thanks in advance for your input! If more questions or concerns come up on the form I’ll edit this post and respond here. Ta!

New searchable feature on Payhip!

Granted, it's not a database, only a product name search, but it will make things a whole lot easier to find the pattern you're looking for.

Image shows a screenshot of the Woolly Wormhead store on Payhip. To the top left is Woolly Wormhead’s logo, and to the top right the search and cart buttons. There are 3 Woolly Wormhead patterns in view, showing images for Daedalus, Circe and Echo.

Payhip have been listening to their users and building in new features which is earning them a lot of respect, especially amongst the knitting community. I've not done a great deal with my storefront yet in terms of customisation or things like linking up The Woolly Hat Society but the fact that they've done this, and continue to add new features, means I'll likely keep using them as an outlet once the new website is finished.

While the coupon feature is still limited to what we're used to on Ravelry, any coupon codes and discounts I offer will still be valid on purchases made through the new Payhip store. I'm hopeful that in the future new coupon options will be forthcoming as well as other store features, like listing products alphabetically or by popularity or recently added etc. They have some interesting referral discounts which I should look into, too.

The fact that they automatically make adjustments on VATmoss rates for eBooks (I cover the cost of VAT, not you, which means I earn more on an eBook sale via Payhip than any other platform at the moment) and allows sellers the option to offer B2B sales (which means as a VAT registered business I can buy digital products via Payhip and not pay extra if the VAT is exclusive, or a seller doesn't have the VAT deducted if it's inclusive, and vice versa). Which is a long way of saying I like platforms that understand VAT and provide wider options - that goes a long way in my book.

Why yes, VAT is still occupying too much brain space given that I'm a British citizen living in the EU with a European business registered in a different state to the one I live in and Brexit and changes to VATmoss are colliding! *sigh*. More about that another time, should I ever get the words untangled.

Knowing that we've had another delay in the website build, we're working on creating a searchable spreadsheet that anyone can access that'll go some way to make up for the loss of access of the Ravelry database in the interim. This has taken some time to get ready as there's a shit tonne of pattern data(!) and we've needed to make sure everything's in, tidy and usable. I hope to have more on that very shortly, but once it's done I should be able to link to it from the front of the Payhip store for convenience, as well as my IG profile, from this blog and website, and more. I know the loss of access to the Ravelry database has been a real blow, searching for the right pattern for your yarn or size or skills is mighty difficult without it. We’re working on our own Hat-focused alternative, and despite the setbacks and hiccups, we’re moving in the right direction.