2024 designer sign-ups are now CLOSED.
However, we're keeping this information available as a reference for our participating designers.
What we can do for you
- Our event gives independent knitting and crochet designers an audience of eager crafters interested in buying and making your patterns!
- Our searchable database of designers and patterns will include information about you, all your single patterns which are purchasable online on an off-Ravelry channel, and your eBooks. To get an idea of what this will be like, check out our 2023 database - but keep in mind that we'll be introducing even more features this year!
- If you're worried about how difficult it'll be to provide detailed information about your products for our database, no worries! We grab data from the Ravelry API.
- If your product information is not fully available from the Ravelry API, we'll work with you to make your data entry happen. And if filling out a spreadsheet is not your thing, we have volunteers who can help.
- You can interact with our community directly in a friendly environment on a variety of online channels.
- You can sign up to participate in interactive events with the making audience, like Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) or video panels.
- You can use our "new releases" features to promote any new patterns or collections released after the event starts.
- New releases features open up on December 6, after the event's discount period ends:
- Use our new releases form
to submit your new releases to the event; they'll be added to your 2024 designer page and product search on this website (marked with a special "new" icon); and on our 2024 master spreadsheet - If you're on our Discord server, you can post about your new patterns to the #new-releases channel
- You should also feel free to post about it on social media using the #FastenOffYAL event hashtag
- Use our new releases form
- "New releases" can also include existing patterns and/or collections which have gone through an inclusivity upgrade, like adding more sizes or including low vision features
- New releases features open up on December 6, after the event's discount period ends:
- Recipients of your donated prize patterns may expand your fanbase by talking about your patterns.
- If you're looking for pattern testers, then our Discord server, with well over 600 members, will have a channel during the event where you can post about your upcoming test knits.
Do you qualify to sign up as a participating designer?
- Do you offer for-pay patterns via a non-Ravelry sales channel?
- Can you apply a custom code for a specific discount rate to products on that sales channel?
- Are a reasonable number of your self-published patterns available for purchase on that sales channel? ("Reasonable number" is defined as either 25% of all your self-published paid patterns, or 10 patterns, whichever is smaller.)
There is no minimum number of total self-published patterns required to be a participating designer.
Please note, though, that your patterns should be of professional quality, tested and/or tech edited to make them as error-free as possible. Inclusive patterns are particularly encouraged (accessible to crafters with low vision, screen reader compatible, graded to a full range of sizes, etc.)
There are zero restrictions on whether designers are participating in any other designer events at the same time.
Also please see participating designer responsibilities.
What participating designers must do
- You must have signed up during the 2024 designer sign-up window to be a participating designer.
- You'll need to set up the event's discount code FO2024 for 25% off on a certain number of your patterns:
- Discount code to be valid during the event's discount period: 9pmET November 22, 2024 to 11:59pmET December 5, 2024 - note that because we don't have a way to ensure time zone consistency, and because not all sales platforms allow merchants to set exact expiry times on code windows, we are asking designers who can't set exact expiry dates for codes to end their discounts a day later than the listed end date; i.e., coupon codes should be set to expire on December 6, 2024
- Minimum number of discounted patterns is 25% of your total number of self-published paid patterns (rounded up to the nearest whole number) or 10, whichever is smaller
- On top of this, you can also make any number of your eBooks eligible for the event discount, if you want
- No maximum number of discounted products
- If you want to set up the event discount code for your patterns on multiple sales channels (including Ravelry), feel free
- Provide five free virtual patterns (winner's choice from among all your self-published single patterns) to be used as prizes and in giveaways. You can choose to either arrange with winners directly for prize delivery (we'll send a notification to you and the winner), or provide us with prize codes and the website where they can be redeemed, so winners can self-serve.
- You'll work with event organizers to ensure that information about you and your self-published pattern products available on non-Ravelry sales channels are in our database
- You'll let us know which of these products will be eligible for the event discount code
- The vast majority of data entry will be done automatically by pulling data from Ravelry's API; if this is problematic for you, the event organizers can work with you to complete the process
- Designers who request volunteers to help them with data entry must gift patterns to them (volunteer's choice) as a thank-you; the rate is one pattern per group of up to 25 products input, e.g. 45 products = 2 patterns
- Respond promptly (i.e. within approximately 2 business days) and professionally to customer messages (especially issues with using the discount code on your patterns) and prize winners
- Organizers do not provide discount support and will direct participants to reach out to you instead
- If you have a dedicated channel for customer contact which you provide for publication in your designer profile on the event website, you're not expected to respond to messages outside that channel
- Ensure all information you provide for the event is accurate
- Moderate your own social spaces
- Follow the code of conduct
Special situations
Go ahead and submit the designer sign-up form, and we'll consider you as "pending" until you let us know that you've released your first pattern. Note that if you don't do any releases until after about November 13, that's cutting it pretty tight and we may not be able to accommodate you. But we will try!
If you do release that first pattern in time, then you will already be signed up and we can bring you on board! Make sure you contact us as soon as you release the pattern, so we can get the ball rolling!
If you don't release that first pattern in time, then we won't be able to include you this year (although we certainly hope to see you next year!) - but better safe than sorry, it's better to sign up anyway before the designer sign-up window closes, just in case!
We have no wish to interfere with your planned release schedule! Please go ahead and launch your designs on whatever schedule you have in mind. The only question is whether we can get the data for your new designs into our database in time for the beginning of the event.
The process for this situation is that we'll scrape the data for all of your currently-live products right away, and get the data entry process for them complete, either by you or a volunteer (depending on what you indicated during the sign-up process).
However, please contact us as soon as possible, to let us know:
- That this is your situation, and
- What your planned release dates are
If your new patterns are released on or before November 15, we will have time to scrape their data, work with you to complete data entry, upload your data to the website, and still give you enough time to review everything, in time for the event start date. You can even make the new patterns discount-eligible, if you like! You will need to let us know as soon as they're live, so we can get that process started.
If your new patterns aren't going to be released until after November 15, even if you release them before the start of the event, that's too tight of a timeline for us to be able to incorporate them into our database before the event starts. What we recommend in that case, is that you wait until December 6, when the event discount period is over and our new releases features open up, to submit them to us as new releases, and get them incorporated into our database that way. Note that if this is the case, your new releases will not be eligible for the event's discount code.
We can approach this one of two ways, depending on your preferences:
The collective approach
You and your partner(s) will be brought into the event under a single designing brand name.
- You'll have only one:
- Designer profile on our website
- Email address for us to communicate to you with
- Logo displaying on our website
- Business description
- Link per social media channel
- Set of five free patterns which you need to donate to the prize pool
- ...and so-on.
- Important: all designers within the collective must agree on how you'll handle things on your end, such as:
- Who's going to respond to communications that come in for the collective?
- Who's going to be reviewing the designer profile on our website?
- Who's going to participate in the interactive designer events (assuming you want to do those)?
...and so-on.
If you like this approach, then:
- Submit the designer sign-up form only once, and
- Email us immediately afterwards to let us know that this is your situation.
The individual approach
Each designer in the collective signs up separately and the event does not link them together in any way.
- Each designer will have their own:
- Profile on our website listing only their own designs and eBooks
- Point of contact
- Social media channels listed on our website
- Set of five free patterns to donate into the prize pool
- ...and so-on.
- This requires that each designer MUST have a separate webpage, showing ONLY the products for that designer, and not showing any products for any of the other designers in the collective.
If you like this approach, then each designer in the collective will need to submit a separate designer sign-up form.
Please email us as soon as you submit your sign-up form, to let us know:
- That this is your situation, and
- Which of your free patterns on Ravelry are for-purchase elsewhere.
This lets us know that we need to make an exception to the way we normally would bring in data, so that you aren't missing any patterns in our database. Thank you!
How to maximize your participation and grow your audience
Of course, you don't have to do any of these things if you don't have the capacity, but fuller participation in the yarnalong generally leads to being "discovered" by more makers, and increased audience growth, for both yourself and the yarnalong.
- Participate in event discussion forms
- Join the yarnalong by making a project from a participating designer's pattern, and share the project on social media
- Post about the event on social media
- Talk up your fellow participating designers on social media
- Sign up for interactive events with the making audience - Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) and/or live designer videos
- Promote the event to your existing audience (e.g. via mailing list and/or blog)
- Participate as an audience member in interactive designer events - AMAs and/or designer video panels
- Mention the yarnalong in any virtual or in-person stitch nights you attend
- Participate in event games
- Leverage the event to announce your new releases (see "What we can do for you" for how you can do that)