Established 2002, Knitty is the online knitting magazine with a sense of humor and absolutely no doily patterns.

If you've watched the video, you can scroll down to the pretty Knitty Patron logo. (It's the same stuff till then.)

In 2002, Knitty freaked people out. We published the first issue of our online knitting magazine when there was nothing else like it on the internet. It was completely free, and it didn’t stink. In fact, it was pretty good and it surprised a lot of people. I created Knitty to collect knitting talent from all over the web and publish it in one professional-looking place where it would be properly vetted, showcased and get the recognition it deserved from knitters worldwide.

And that’s what we’ve continued to do, for the last 13 years: seek out and publish amazing knitting patterns, encourage and expose more inspiring work from budding knitwear designers, share great patterns from names you already know and love, and showcase great knitting yarns and products. We have helped launch the careers of some of the most talented people in the handknitting industry. As more and more people have become designers thanks to the ease with which they can publish on Ravelry, we continue to bring the brightest and best to your attention, helping them stand out and get the notice they deserve.

Many of the most legendary internet-instigated knitting patterns and techniques found their audience through our pages: the iconic Clapotis, the mind-blowing Skew sock, the inspiring Lizard Ridge blanket, and the body parts we love to knit – the Womb, the cute and cuddly reproductive organ, and the Tit-Bit, a design which is a functional solution for those who have lost one or both breasts. And so many more, it would take a whole page just to list them.

We are proud of our role in the online knitting world and we want to continue to uphold that mission for the benefit of readers like you, and the designers, patterns and knitting products you’ve yet to see. And so we are doing something unprecedented. We are asking for your support.

Let’s get something clear right now: we are a free magazine and we will remain free as long as we are able to publish. We have been supported by our advertisers since 2003. However, since the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, as I’m sure you have personally witnessed, budgets worldwide (those of individuals, small businesses, and even huge corporations) have gotten leaner. Advertisers everywhere have cut back on the ads they run in all media. Not just with us – it's affecting every industry in some way. We've continued to produce the best possible magazine we can while making less and less money doing it, because we love making Knitty for you, and we want to continue to support and promote all aspects of the knitting industry. The hard fact is that we're currently bringing in less than half what we were making in 2008. The hard fact is that it's only getting worse, issue by issue. At the same time, we've been working hard to keep Knitty as Knitty as possible. 

Covering every square inch of screen space with the same flashy, obnoxious ad stuff you see all over the Internet is not an option we want to choose. We want to do better.

If Knitty is to remain free and advertising alone is no longer covering the cost of producing the magazine, how are we to stay in business? Well, we’ve found a solution.

You're looking at it. Patreon is like an ongoing Kickstarter. 
It's a way for people who love something to support it financially at whatever level they wish, and get some extra-cool stuff in return. That ongoing support allows us at Knitty to count on a reasonably stable income so we can continue to pay our staff and contributors fairly as we produce the best possible magazine for you. It will also allow us the freedom to plan exciting new features for our readers, once the contributions grow beyond our staff costs. Patreon will help us grow and thrive.

Do you have to pay? Absolutely not. Knitty will still come out every 3 months absolutely free, for as long as we’re able to produce it. But could you pay? Would you contribute a few dollars an Issue to thank the contributors for their work and to make sure it can continue? For all the enjoyment you've gotten from Knitty over the years? To make sure that you don’t miss out on the next Dunfallandy blanket, Gemini sweater, or inspired sock designed by a ridiculously talented 15-year-old high school student?

What do you get in return? Scroll down past this message to see the different reward levels. I hope there's one that feels right to you. Do you have an idea for a reward level I haven't included here? Write me and maybe I can make it happen!

The rewards are designed to give you access to Knitty in a more personal way than has ever been available before. You could get early access to every new issue and surprise, ahead of the rest of the internet. You could have access to Knitty’s Editor/Publisher (that's me) and our staff and the design talent that we feature each issue. There are even tangible goodies available at some levels, because we love cool stuff, and we want you to have some, too, if that’s your thing.

Being able to connect with Knitty readers like I'm going to be able to through Patreon has me super-excited to meet you all, and hear what you’re thinking, working on, dreaming about. Several of the reward levels include two-way web hangouts with me (and occasional guest visits from the knitterati!). So we can talk and knit together and get to know each other. Just you, me and the yarn. 

What will your money do? There are several goals planned. First, Knitty has regular expenses like server costs, which are a fixed monthly expense. We’ve got to pay those bills. The next part is the most important part of all: the staff who work with me on Knitty and all the designers – they're long overdue for a raise to ensure their wages are fair and competitive for the excellent work they do. Those are my first priorities. Your help in ensuring the Knitty staff can count on a stable income means we'll be around for years to come.

Should the Patreon funds add up to a bigger amount, we can ramp up the long-overdue redesign and recode of the magazine to work better with smartphones and tablets. More funds means we can expand the upgrade to the back issues in the Knitty Library so our older issues will continue to be useful to you. We launched 13 years ago, and technology and code have changed so much in that time span, yet our first issues are little HTML dinosaurs desperately in need of an overhaul. We want to keep those patterns, tutorials and articles useful to you! In addition, development has been going on stealthily for more than a year on another huge undertaking that we hope to release in 2015, and additional funds will help us get that to you more quickly. 

There's a lot we could do with consistent, reliable financial support from our readers. From you. We need your help to make it happen. We need your help to continue to exist.

Two dollars every Issue from a large number of our readers would really add up. That's just $8 per year. A larger pledge will make an even bigger difference. But if every person who enjoys Knitty puts two dollars or more in our coffee can, that quickly adds up to a lot of dollars over the year. It adds up to a secure future for Knitty and our readers.

One important thing to know about Patreon (besides how cool it is) is that it's been built with both the artist (that's us) and the Patrons (that's you) in mind. When we release a new Issue, I'll click the GO BUTTON that says we've made something and released it to our Patrons. You then have to the end of that month to decide if you still want your money to go to Knitty or not. You're not stuck supporting something you don't love. If you leave things be, we'll get your dollars at the beginning of the month following a new release. I won't click the GO BUTTON for the surprises...we consider those part of the Issue. So you'll be contributing 4 times per year, and that's all.

There are other less-Knitty (less friendly, less tasteful, less positive) ways to pay our bills, but this is the one that feels the most right to us. It will change the magazine for the better and allow us to do things we've only dreamed of for years. Knitty was groundbreaking when it launched in September of 2002, completely free. Patreon is similarly groundbreaking and we're excited to be part of this new platform that allows creators and their community to work together to make beautiful things happen.

(If you have about 6 minutes, take a look at what the Knitterati had to say about our Patreon campaign.)



More questions? Read our FAQ page.
 
Thank you for your support for the past 13 years, and for your help in ensuring Knitty stays strong and vibrant into the future!
Amy
[editor, Knitty.com]