Not me, I’m a very long way from wanting or being able to afford that! But a few eBooks will be soon.

Front cover of the Going Straight eBook

Front cover of the Bambeanies eBook

As I’ve been reviewing every single pattern and eBook over the last couple of years, rebuilding the business from the bottom up, I’ve been preparing to retire a number of patterns and eBooks. Some of those single patterns have become free patterns - such as Urchin Cap and Trenza - and others will simply be removed from sale, especially if they’re part of a collection.

Most of the single patterns that I planned to retire have been already, and it’s possible going forward there’ll be a few more - if I can convert them to free patterns all the better, but I won’t promise that as I’ll review each one of an individual basis.

What I want to talk about today is the eBooks that will be retiring.

Front cover of the Wee Woolly Toppers eBook

Front cover of the Hatopia eBook

These 4 eBooks - Going Straight, Bambeanies, Wee Woolly Toppers and Hatopia - will be retiring within the next month.

It feels quite monumental, considering that GoingStraight was my very first book, and has been revised and updated more times than any other! And Wee Woolly Toppers was my second book, with the designs developed just after Aran was born.

There’s a few reasons for saying goodbye to them, but the biggest one is that going forward, with the new website, I not only want to present the products that I’m proudest of - both in a design and photography sense - but also ensure each product makes sense with the new business structure that we’ve been working on back-end. There’s a lot of things I’ve needed to simplify in terms of the new database, pattern and eBook formats and layout, ISBNs, pricing and much more. And it’s with this in mind I’ve decided it’s time to say cheerio to these collections.

This doesn’t mean that everyone’s free to share the copies they have - they are still my copyright and I will still defend that! I know that it’s no fun running across a pattern that you like only to find it’s no longer available. And that’s why, where possible, I’m keeping as many of the single patterns within these eBooks available. The most popular patterns in Going Straight were revisited in GS The Remixes for example. A number from Hatopia are now free, or otherwise still available as singles.

With this is mind, I wanted to give everyone plenty of warning that they’re going to be retired! I will have a retirement sale a little nearer the time, and if you’re a member of The Woolly Hat Society you’ll not only hear about the sale first, but also get a deeper member-exclusive discount - if you’ve not signed up already, it’s free to join.

Going forward, all new eBooks will be in the same format as the recent collections from Circled onwards - I really like this zine-like feel and layout, and it works well for me in a few ways. It works in print and print wholesale as well as digitally - they’ve a collectable feel about them and folks seem to enjoy that. Sales wise their figures are stronger and I think that’s because I can deep dive and get much better designs when I’m focussing around a technique or construction method, compared to trying to achieve 10 or 20 designs under a lose theme. And in turn, I’ve noticed knitters are keener to knit through them all, completing most or even the whole collection! Overall, I’m delivering much better designs, much better books and eBooks with better tutorials and layout these days, and this new format has a lot to do with that. Not that it’s really new any more, it’s been just over 5 years now since Circled was published? Where does the time go!

Anyhows, keep your eye out for a newsletter in the next couple of weeks - this will be the last chance to get these eBooks, I’m not likely to bring any of them back.

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AuthorWoolly Wormhead
CategoriesBooks

I've very kindly received these two knitting books from David and Charles Books to review - Patty Lyons 'Knitting Bag of Tricks' and 'The Gansey Knitting Sourcebook' by Di Gilpin Knitwear and Sheila Greenwell.

The reviews will go live on this blog soon. I've not had a chance to read them just yet, I will share more once I have!

We've a very busy few weeks ahead on the personal front, with some big changes being made, so I'm taking a few weeks off work and aim to be back in the middle of January. But I look forward to reading these of an evening when I need to escape from the chaos of the day that the next few weeks will bring.

Thanks for sending them to me and putting trust in my opinion. I look forward to adding them to my book shelves!

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AuthorWoolly Wormhead
CategoriesReviews, Books

If you think this looks like a pile of swatches then you'll not be wrong!

This project, one I'm working on in collaboration with Soho Publishing, home to Vogue Knitting and Sixth & Spring Books, and Malabrigo Yarn, is taking up every spare inch of time and headspace, leaving me little time to think of anything else let alone remember what else might need my attention.

I'm rapidly approaching the first major deadline, whereby the next phase brings in a whole new chapter - quite literally - and a set of fresh new challenges. Because I'm not working on this project alone, I'm bringing in guest designers, and I'm project managing the entire thing.

Which is mighty daunting! So I'm trying not to think about just how big this whole project is, or the amount of work needed to get from those first discussions with my editor to the handing in of the manuscript. I can tell you though that as much as I'm distracted and exhausted and chasing my tail, I'm very much enjoying myself. The creative challenges I've faced have been some of the best problem solving games I've played and I *know* the finished book is going to be bloody amazing.

I'm still not in great mental health, so to get through this project I'm needing to switch a lot of the world off to help me focus. The slightest interruptions can lose me days. But I'm getting through it and that alone is a major achievement. The fact that I'm enjoying it and doing something highly creative and innovative? It's bloody marvellous! It's getting me through the dark and cold and miserable winter days.

If I’m a little quiet, distracted or forgetful, this’ll be why…

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AuthorWoolly Wormhead

Yup, print wholesale too!

Launching a new collection always, always takes it out of me so I’m a little late getting this news on the blog, but I’m really excited that this collection joins the others in this range by going into print.

You can buy the 60-page over on Magcloud, where right now you get both the print and eBook for $25. I’ve tried to keep each of these books to the same RRP so I make less per copy of this than, say, Elemental, but it’s worth it to me to try and keep it as affordable as possible. Besides, I keep my single patterns all the same price and the eBooks all the same price because it’s a whole lot easier on my brain - memory and executive function - so I do the same with the print books, too.

So far this book has sold more copies in print than any before it and that’s a very welcome surprise. I hope that bodes well for wholesale, as it’s also available directly from Deep South Fibers! I’ve been slowly adding more and more to my wholesale catalogue and in due course I will add some of my single patterns. For now you can find all of these recent eBooks with the exception of Lateralis, which is due some fresh photos.

How are you finding the book so far? I’ve so much more to share, including posts from my editors, but we’ve all needed a short break. I really can’t wait to see what Hats you make from this book!

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AuthorWoolly Wormhead
CategoriesCuboidal, Books

Phew, it’s been busy back-end and I really didn’t mean to go so quiet here on the blog. We’ve been working flat out getting Cuboidal finished and I finally have a release date for you!

Cuboidal will be published this coming Tuesday, 27th September! We’re all working this weekend, right into the evening, to get this polished.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails, comments and questions asking about release dates and details, so here’s what I have at the moment:

  • the eBook will be available at my usual outlets - my website, Etsy, Payhip and Ravelry.

  • I can’t tell you yet what time of day it’ll be released but it won’t be too late my time, Central European Time, as I need to be awake and functioning for several hours after release to make sure everything goes smoothly! Which means it’ll likely be sometime on the morning of Tuesday 27th September for folks in the US.

  • members of The Woolly Hat Society will be the first to hear when it’s published AND will get an exclusive member-only discount. Member discounts are always more generous than any public discounts and it’s free to join!

  • the individual patterns will not be made available by themselves. I’ve explained this in more depth in other posts relating to this collection, but in short this collection is tutorial heavy and it’s almost impossible to break the collection up into 8 different chunks. It won’t be cost effective to do so, either, as individual patterns rarely sell enough to warrant the extra work.

  • The eBook will be greater than the sum of it’s parts! It will cost $23 for the eBook, which contains 8 patterns - usually $9 each - and so many tutorials and calculation chapters and more.

  • it’s a 60 page eBook, of which over a third are tutorials!

  • the file size is 20MB and we’ve not been able to get it any smaller without compromising the print quality. This is a bigger file size than I’d like but there are over 20 pages of in-depth photographic tutorials included, this is the biggest collection that I’ve put together in years.

  • all of my samples are knit in Malabrigo Arroyo because it’s a yarn I love and had plenty on hand, but you can knit them in any Hat-suitable yarn!

  • there are indeed 12 sizes across 8 gauges included, and there’ll also be extra information about the square sizes themselves as well as a chapter on measuring yardage and more. It’s basically an ‘any yarn, any size’ book. It is LOADED with info!

  • there are also 8 different square styles and yes, you’ll be able to mix and match them to create your own interpretation of the Hats! The possibilities are almost endless.

  • as always, pattern support - or any kind of technical support, too - will be available through my Ravelry and Facebook groups. I’m as frustrated as you that we don’t yet have the forum working on this website but until we do, please use one of these two groups.

  • the book will be available in print and will be going into wholesale distribution with Deep South Fibers! We’ve been focusing on getting the digital version finished as that makes up 99% of my sales, but it will absolutely be available from DSF and in my Magcloud store very shortly.

  • it doesn’t matter whether you’re a mitred square pro or not - the tutorials have you covered. Even if you are a mitred square pro you’ll still need the tutorials as I’ve remixed some of the traditional methods with some new techniques to ensure a perfectly seamless Hat.

I hope this covers everything but if it doesn’t, please leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you! I love how excited you all are about this collection, but please don’t email me unless it’s critical, as we’re working flat out and my energy is better spent answering questions on this blog post where I can help more people at once.

Phew! I cannot wait to see what you make!

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AuthorWoolly Wormhead
CategoriesCuboidal, Books