diversity, inclusion & equity statement

Working towards a truly inclusive and equitable society is important to me, and I wish to reflect those aims within my work and the yarn industry.

This is by no means an exhaustive or complete list – I recognise that this is an ongoing work and I’m committed to that. I am open to feedback on this work and you can get in touch via email.

• I recognise that to be fully inclusive and equitable, I need to consider the needs of all marginalised groups, and recognise that privilege is intersectional.

• I aim to make my shared spaces – my forums, website and social media places – as safe as possible for marginalised people and recognise that this is an ongoing practice.

• I will not tolerate any words or behaviours that could cause harm to a marginalised person and will take responsibility for monitoring and moderating my spaces. If any such behaviour comes to my attention I will act quickly and responsively.

• I aim to centre impact over intent and hold myself responsible for my actions and emotions. I recognise that I will make mistakes, I will be open to feedback and I wish to be held accountable for my actions. If and when I am called out, I will apologise, make necessary changes, and respond without defensiveness or fear.

• I will continue to work with businesses – publishers and indie yarn dyers alike – who are committed to fair and equitable practices.

• I aim to use my platform to raise awareness, promote and create space for members of the yarn industry from underrepresented groups.

• I will continue to collaborate with models who represent diversity in race, skin tone, ability, age, size, gender and economic background.

• I aim to collaborate with more professionals from underrepresented groups, such as editors, yarn dyers and layout designers.

• I will continue to include a wide range of sizes in my patterns, and where possible include notes for adjustment for different head proportions.

• I will continue to provide enough information about the yarn suggested in my patterns so that knitters can chose to substitute with a more locally available or more economical yarn.

• I aim to add more accessible features to my social media posts and website pages, such as alt-text and image descriptions.

• I aim to improve my pattern and tutorial templates so that they are more usable on common screen readers for vision impaired knitters.

• I will continue to offer discounts and promotions aimed at making my patterns more economically accessible through my newsletter, The Woolly Hat Society. Membership will always remain free and use of rewards and discounts will remain anonymous.

• I will continue to offer free tutorials on my website for a wide range of techniques.

• I will continue to my tutorials in both photo+text and short video format wherever possible. These formats will continue to be as accessible as possible to those with slow or poor internet connection, as well as provide different presentations of information to suit differing learning needs.

• I will continue to provide free patterns, and with the continued support of my Patreons aim to increase the number and range of free patterns available.

• I will continue to work on providing translations of my patterns and tutorials so that they can be more accessible to non-English speakers.

• I will continue to include both metric and imperial measurements and needle sizes in my patterns, and both UK and US terms in my occasional crochet patterns.

• I will continue to offer my patterns and books, premium or free, in a PDF format which doesn’t require specialist technology or software to use. Similarly, I will continue to offer all of my tutorials, patterns and books without DRM restrictions.