And lest we forget…

…to follow up on my theme of supporting designer-friendly enterprises this month: Knitty.com

Knitty is the queen mama of online knitmags, run by the empress I just usually call “my friend Amy,” with able assistance, especially on the Knittyspin side of things, from goddess-like Jillian. Online since 2002. TWO MILLION+ visitors per month. Birthplace of so many patterns you have all knit (come on, you know it!), and loved — they are the OG designer-friendly enterprise.

(Note to non-Ice T fans, the OG refers to one of my favorite albums. Ahem).

So, how am I supporting Knitty this month? I took out an ad for my patterns in an upcoming issue.

How is Knitty designer-friendly, you ask? It’s a touchy topic, but here’s a good example, for a start. I personally know of some shops who have tried to sell patterns from Knitty in complete and utter violation of the designers’ rights. You can’t stop everyone but you can build awareness, and that page does the trick all while remaining nice and helpful (by providing a PDF shop owners can use instead to help their customers find the pattern they want).

On the designer side, see their submission guidelines for more, but this is pretty key if you ask me:

You [the creator of the work] will retain all copyrights to your own work. By submitting work to be published in Knitty and accepting the honorarium, you are giving your permission for your pattern or article and all related images to be included in Knitty magazine in its current format and other electronic or computer-readable distribution formats. Back issues of Knitty will remain available online indefinitely.

Once the current issue that showcases your pattern or article has moved to the archives, you are free to do as you wish with the pattern or article, which includes submitting it elsewhere or self publishing.

I’ll tell you, when I was writing the Knitgrrl books, Knitty was the first place I went to find cool designers I could invite to be in the books. Some of my best, best friends today I met through Knitty. Knitty has set the standard for fair, reasonable, quality online knit publishing, and I am proud to continue to support them in every way I can.

Update 23 February 2009: Our Amy responds. I love you, Amy, but now I am thinking about chips and salsa. Maybe it is time for lunch.

This reminds me of a little story: when Amy made it public she was quitting ye olde day job to do Knitty full time (at TNNA…it was a while ago), literally every single person she whispered it to, yours truly included, jumped up and down and said YAY! How could we not?

Tagged with: Knitting