Friday roundup - new style

Those of you with an eagle eye will notice a few changes in this weeks Friday roundup as it is sent to you via Substack rather than my regular email newsletter software.

If you’ve seen my posts on social media over the past week or two you might have seen that I’ve slowly been setting up home on Substack - a new(ish) platform for writers and all manner of online creatives.

It’s part blog, part newsletter - a place where people can write and share all manner of creative content with their audience. But there’s a crucial difference - people can comment on what’s shared, start conversations, share their own interesting stuff with their friends and generally have a fine old time in the comments.

It’s like the heady days of blog rolls and Google Reader - you can explore and find new people to connect with and people who are sharing the kind of content you want to see.

And best of all there are no algorithms, no adverts and absolutely no dancing reels.

Substack is different in that as a provider, they don’t depend on ads to make money. Your content is not ranked by how long people spend on an app, and it doesn’t feed into the attention economy. Collectively, we’re tired of being used by social media. Maddy Marquardt.

What does this mean for my newsletter?

Absolutely nothing. I’ll still be sending this out every Friday although it will have a slightly different format. And you’ll still receive it in your email inbox. What it will mean though is that you’ll be able to chat to other recipients of the newsletter in the comments - and I’ll be able to chat to you. It will be less of a one-way broadcast and more of a two-way conversation.

In addition, I’ll be hosting a midweek chat on Substack (an email will come out to you on Wednesday mornings as a reminder). It’s just a place where people can hang out for a short while and share the happy things that are getting them through the week. We did our first one this week and I was thrilled that so many people joined in - a sincere thank you to all those who helped to brighten my midweek.

Upgrade options

One of the benefits of Substack is that it firmly believes that writers and online creatives need a way to be paid for their work and so they are very up front about the subscriber model. Everyone is encouraged to share their best work for free (and as a newsletter subscriber you’ll always receive that). There is the option though to upgrade to being a paid subscriber in order to support your favourite creatives.

It’s a bit like how we hoped Patreon and ko-fi would work out, although I could never get them to work for me. To that end, I’ll be closing both of my accounts there and asking those lovely folk who would like to support my online work to do so here instead.

To start with I’ll be experimenting with recording a monthly podcast - it’s only been on my to-do list for the last 5 years. So if you’d like to receive that and to help support my future work then you can use the button below - with my very heartfelt thanks.

On with the knitting…

That’s quite enough of all that - on with the knitting.

I’m still plugging away on my Love Note sweater - and I wrote a piece the other day about how having the right tools (needles) for the job (sleeves) was really helping me to overcome my sweater sleeve dread and power on through them.

I’m also working on a new baby blanket design - more detail later - and some stripy socks in trusty West Yorkshire Spinners Birds yarn for a friend.

Making me smile this week

• Betsan Corkhill’s book Knit for Health and Wellness. I can’t believe I haven’t read this before but I am enjoying it so much. It’s one of those books where you start to highlight something and then before you know it the entire page is covered in colour.

• Waterbearer cardigan by Jacqueline Cieslak. I found this via RobAndThread on Twitter and I am absolutely obsessed by watching his progress on it. After I finish my Love Note it might well be next on my needles.

• A stashtastic new pattern from Wool & Pine. I’m a huge fan of all things stashbusting-related and when this landed in my inbox I might have let out a little squeal. Bluegrass is a colourful shawl knit on the bias that uses leftover yarn to great effect. It does involve brioche but it describes itself as ‘adventurous brioche knitter friendly’.

Thank you for being here and for being part of the Everyday Knitter community as we explore our new Substack home a little more. If you’d like to share this with friends, that would be wonderful and very much appreciated. Please just use the button below.

As ever you can find all of my knitting designs available for sale on my website HERE