Solidarity

I just read this post by Annie Modesitt and then went and read this by Ysolda, they are calling on people like you and me to make the stand with them.

So, come on knitsibs (as Brenda Dayne likes to call us) take the stand with them. This is one situation where solidarity will be the catalyst of getting the changes made. These wonderful designers are providing us with beautiful items to knit/crochet and getting a pittance how can that be right or just? We can help them so, so easily we don't even have to get off our butts to do it.

If you've a subscription to a magazine that treats these people so poorly, then cancel it and let the magazine know why. If you buy one of these magazines from the news stand, stop and choose another like Interweave knits or Yarn Forward. lets put our money into the designers hand or into the coffers of magazines that give our designers a fair and decent price for all the hard work they put into a design.

We as knitters of the net have the power to make that change, we litrally have the power at our fingertips. Go to your favourite designers website and buy direct, check out Ravelry to find out other ways of buying that pattern you've been lusting after or online magazines like Twist Collective . Blog about it, tweet it, have it in your Facebook profile tell everyone and anyone you can.

Let your fingers do the talking and put your money where it most deserves to be, with the people who design the things you want to knit. The only way that this will work is if we all do our bit, designers and knitters alike.

I've only ever designed four things, I'm working my way to be a 'proper' designer and hopefully one day I will be. I would be so thrilled if a magazine like Vogue Knitting asked me to submit a design, I mean I'd be bouncing off the walls with excitement but with their current policy I'd have to turn them down. Not only would I be selling myself short, I'd also be a part of the problem that current designers are experiancing. I'm not sure I could live with that. Could you?