I have two new patterns published in Knit Now (Issue 61) which hits the shops this week.
First, the Shoreline Blanket – modelled here with a baby, but it could work as a lap blanket too:
Photo: Dominic Crolla for Practical Publishing
The Harbour View mitts have cables travelling up the back of the hand and in this lime colourway certainly brightens a dull day!
Photo: Daniel Walmsley for Practical Publishing
The new edition of Knit Now magazine (issue 54) is published today and includes my latest patterns – Sebright hat and mittens:
Photo: Dan Walmsley, Practical Publishing
It was a relief to see the finished hat being worn by someone – everyone in our house has a particularly large head, so there was no-one who could try on the required sample size! It was artfully modelled over a few bowls and inflated balloons, but that’s not quite the same as a real live person…
This set uses the broken seed stitch, which creates a really interesting textured pattern, but is very simple to create – a row of knit stitches in one colour and then a row of alternating knit and purl stitches.
Persuading the stitch pattern to decrease for the crown/top of the mittens in a consistent way was a challenge, but I was pleased with the finished effect:
Pattern naming also proved to be a challenge.
Originally these patterns had a name that was inspired by the similarity of the stitch pattern to the “laced” feathers on a Wyandotte chicken. If you need to know more about these chickens, there’s a detailed history here.
Now, how many other people would name patterns after chickens? Surely not many? But by some strange coincidence another designer for Knit Now had already used the name Wyandotte – and for a hat and mitten set too. So, back to the drawing board…
Consulting my book of fancy chicken markings (I’m sure you have a copy on your bookshelf…) I found that the Wyandotte was developed by breeding Sebright bantams with larger birds to obtain the markings in a full sized bird. So Sebright it is!
This week sees the publication of my third pattern for Knit Now magazine.
Issue 51, which should be available in shops this weekend, features a gardening theme, including my boot toppers. These should jazz up your digging boots but also add some cushioning your ankles:
The boot toppers are a good introduction to charted colourwork in the round – each round uses only two colours and there are not too many stitches between each motif, so carrying yarn is easy.
My first pattern of 2015 is published today in Knit Now Magazine (Issue 44).
Photo: Dan Walmsley – Practical Publishing
It’s a neck-hugging cowl, perfect for the snowy weather we are having in the UK at the moment! It features reversible cables, so you can fling it on in a hurry, safe in the knowledge that you won’t be wondering around with it on inside out 🙂
It can be worn with the top folded down, or as a tube to keep as much of you warm as possible.
The cowl was knitted using Emrys Bluefaced Leicester Aran by Triskelion Yarn and Fibre. The yarn was a delight to knit with, a great colour (Hafren) and very very squishy.
From the original prototype that I made I thought that it would be touch and go to make the cowl from one skein. There was an awful lot of knitting a round, weighing the cowl, weighing the remaining yarn, crossing fingers etc. When, after all that worry, the finished cowl used 90g of yarn, I was mightily relieved!
I enjoy writing patterns. I have several waiting to published, some of which I am planning to offer as paid patterns. I have no way of knowing whether I will end up selling no patterns, a few patterns or, in the words of Del Boy ‘this time next year we’ll be millionaires…’! My income as a fledgling self-employed designer, is (very, very, very) unlikely to edge over the threshold for income tax in the UK (about £9,500). A typical pattern price would be £3 – £4 so that represents sales of 2,400 pattern sales in a year!
Just as I was about to publish my first paid pattern VATMoss/EUVAT raised its ugly head. The rules on dealing with VAT on sales to Europe are changing and it seems that the smallest businesses have been totally disregarded and are about to be hit hardest – and everyone has to start small at some point!
The VAT changes will mean that giant firms, such as Amazon, will no longer be able to take advantage of being based in low-VAT EU countries in order to sell their digital products at cheaper prices (the VAT at present is charged at the rate of the country of the supplier). From 1 January 2015 the VAT has to be charged at the appropriate rate for the country where the person purchasing the digital item is based. This in itself doesn’t seem too unreasonable – but tiny businesses are being treated in exactly the same way as the giants.
If I were offering to print and post my patterns to you and I could guarantee that people from elsewhere in the EU wouldn’t buy my patterns, the legislation wouldn’t apply at all and I could go on my merry way earning up to £81,000 before having to worry about registering for VAT in the UK. Thresholds like this are meant to encourage small businesses, enabling them to concentrate on ‘doing business’ not ‘spending all their time on admin’.
There is debate as to whether I could possibly avoid all this by sending you a personalised email with the pattern attached (yes, this is the 21st century…) But who wants to buy paper patterns or wait for an email in this digital age? We have all got used to the luxury of having an electronic version of a pattern within seconds of purchasing it and using websites such as Ravelry to keep them secure. We’re all meant to be going green and saving the world by not chopping down forests and using paper…
The legislation has existed since 2008 – which is a very long time in terms of digital sales development and thousands of business have come into existence because of the advent of online publishing, payment processors and shop-window websites charging minimal fees. Often these businesses are run by people who cannot work in traditional jobs due to the commitments of caring for family or health issues. Sadly, HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the tax department in the UK) do not seem to have communicated at all with the smallest businesses. They do (or did, we are quite a noisy bunch when we put our mind to it!) not know we existed, had no idea how we operate and in return we have been left unaware of their expectations about paying VAT.
It’s not just the VAT. If I sell directly I need to keep records to prove where my customers live (in two different ways) so I can hand over the VAT to the appropriate government (the fact that this data is not actually available to small scale sellers seems to have bypassed HMRC). If I keep this sort of data (for ten years as required) then I may need to register with the relevant data agencies – and they may wish to audit me at some point.
So I have a few choices:
It does make you think ‘is it all worth it?’ – but that’s the easy way out!
These changes will affect anyone who buys/sells digital products – patterns, instructional videos, illustrations, web adverts – whether they are in the EU or elsewhere (yes, if someone in the USA sells a pattern to someone in Europe they should be remitting the VAT to the appropriate country too). If the VAT has to be paid the seller needs to factor it into their pricing, as well as the cost of their time in administering it. Prices are bound to increase and some businesses will just opt out of the madness altogether and cease trading.
Digital products are just the start, physical goods are next on the horizon, bringing this nonsense to a whole new range of nano-businesses and their customers. So much for encouraging small businesses and as for the current campaign to #DoMoreOnline…!
Today there is a TwitterStorm using the hashtag EUVAT. Previous Twitterstorms have raised awareness and brought about some communication with HMRC, this one is aimed at the EU. If you want to know more I’d suggest looking at EU VAT Action and in particular completing their survey or signing this petition.
If you’re reading this, hopefully you’ll see my shiny new website address at the top of the screen, my very own .com 🙂
I have been busy putting together knitting and crochet patterns, which I will start shamelessly plugging telling you about over the next few weeks – watch this space!
Posted in Patterns
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