I got an email this last week asking if I were still in business. Uh...haha, yes! Of course! You can still learn to tech edit knitting patterns or crochet patterns. We editors have been busy chatting about lifted increases, schematics for blocking, and pattern formatting in the Community.
But I haven't sent any newsletters.
It feels really weird to talk about finding errors in a PDF download when there is war and the consequences of war, environmental disasters, political unrest, atrocities, misery, and economic turmoil happening.
Then something happened.
When I heard that Israel had bombed Iran and Iran had bombed Israel, instantly it was 1979 again. I was standing in my mother's sunny sewing room, listening to the radio updates on the hostage crisis in Iran while the sewing machine whirred and the presser foot clicked.
Then it was 1983 and the radio listed the death toll of the bombing in Beirut while I played with my own fabric cut outs and the sewing machine still whirred, then stopped, then whirred again.
Then it was 1991 and we watched the reporters on top of the roofs following missile trails while worrying if our friends would come home safely from the Gulf while developing photos of anti-war demonstrations.
Then it was 2020 and we sewed masks and taught our neighbors to knit and crochet while watching the John Hopkins COVID-19 map.
Making has always existed at the same time as chaos and crises. Now is not any different.
There seems to be a dissonance, answering the creative force and bringing something to life with our hands while the world burns. But throughout history, hand making, especially traditional crafts, have sustained, healed, and provided income for people through enslavement, recessions, depressions, imprisonments, and war.
What folks made (and often re-made) with their hands not only provided joy and solace from the terror, but it also led to innovation, adaptation, and creative change within the crafts themselves.
Elizabeth Zimmermann famously wrote, "Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises." The process of making teaches us to trust that we can fix our mistakes, creating something beautiful and new from what we have. Or maybe to re-learn when it's time to just rip it all back and start over again.
Making also physically empowers us and has long been a means for political voice and expression. Betsy Greer has said that craftivism is "less about mass action and more about realizing what you can do to make things around you better." Editing patterns makes things better. Can editing be craftivism? Absolutely, if you choose it to be.
We editors may discount what we are doing as trivial when we work with a designer to improve a pattern. But I think it is astoundingly important, first for the maker who will use the pattern without frustration, but also for the forward trajectory of creative arts today, by improving, innovating, updating...right now. And not just because we found that copy-paste error, but because our relating to each other over our craft touches something bigger.
Our kindness to a client, our encouragement and consolation for a struggling colleague, our saying "yes" to a creative vision that supports the oppressed and marginalized--all these bring something amazing into the world that ripples out and counteracts the terrible.
Yes, things are changing in our industry, but I see renewal and renovation. The stitchers who first picked up a hook or needles in 2020 or 2021 are now designing incredible patterns, and they need education and support and coaching. Your knowledge and experience is exceptionally valuable to them.
My local craft thrift and reuse store is always busy. A new LYS opened near me and has a "Joanns room" with affordable quality yarns displayed on old Joanns fixtures. Stitching classes are still filling up and craft meetups are hopping. Stitchers are still serving the hungry, the homeless, the suffering, and the grieving.
Making happens at the same time as destruction. It produces hope, not only in loved and beautiful finished objects, but in people, in communities, in humanity. I am here making for the long run, are you?
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And now for a little boost for your editing business.
Social media used to be best way to connect with designers, have conversations, make connections. Engagement is harder to get now and will probably change again.
But something in the marketing world hasn't changed much in 46 years: writing newsletters. You own the list of people, you own the topics and the content, forever. People opt-in to hear from you and usually are happy to see you in their inbox. (So ironic that it's been hard for me to write one!)
Happening tomorrow in The Tech Editor Hub Community:
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Thursday 6/26 @ 11 amCT
Newsletters can be your most valuable and versatile form of marketing your business, but it's not always easy to know where to start. Join knitwear designer and virtual assistant, Jenessa Keller, to
- learn why newsletters are so important
- how to create content for them
- the nitty-gritty details of setting one up from scratch.
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I am opening the Community for any tech editor to join for FREE for one week so you can participate in the newsletter workshop above (or watch the replay). I think everyone needs to hear about this topic and I want there to more opportunity and less hassle while working to reach our ideal clients.
While you are in the Community, suss around a bit. You can:
- replay last week's Roundtable where a team of experienced editors gave 30 minutes of advice about finding that first client
- binge watch all the modules on building your back office (agreements, feedback, workflow, oh my!) and marketing yourself
- catch our weekly livestream hot topic and chat on Monday
- pop into the Forum chat and ask those questions about the pattern you are editing (is it cast-on, caston, or cast on?)
And then pop out if you want. You are not obligated to stay past a week, but we would absolutely love it if you did because the more connections we have to each other, the better editors we all become.
CLICK HERE TO TRY OUT THE COMMUNITY FOR A WEEK FOR FREE.
In the free FB Group
Glenda is looking for recommendations for software for formatting patterns.
Nikki invites you to be added to her list of editors in her design membership group.
Thanks for reading and thanks for being here,
Sarah
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I am a knitting technical editor, author, sweater nerd, and hope punk. I like coffee, puzzles, many books (all at once), and a good sniff of yarn fumes. This Hub is all about helping *you* find success as a technical editor from any direction that works.
When you are ready:
- Schedule a strategy session with me. Go deep and get unstuck.
- Or just book a virtual cuppa with me. How can I help you?
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