Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Patternfish special?

All we do is sell patterns for personalized download. That's it. And we want to be the best at it in the world.

Patternfish is pretty technical in its appreciation of the needle arts. In addition to our bedrock site programming itself, with its mighty search tools, we have commissioned two important pieces of proprietary software.

PDF Watermarking Software

Our watermarking software was written exclusively for us. Every time you download a pattern from our site, it arrives freshly and uniquely watermarked for you, listing our internal order number, your name (or what you've registered as your name in your PayPal information), and the date and time of your order. We do this so that any criminal element (not you) can't turn around and immediately post the PDF on the Internet somewhere without it being traceable back to them.

Otherways to identify misused PDFs may also be present. We don't talk about them because we don't want people to be aware of their possible form. This need not bother the innocent at all, but could and should concern the dishonest (again, not you).

We cannot prevent all criminal activity, but we can make it harder to do. Theft in various forms has happened for many years with regular paper patterns. If such activity involving Patternfish product is brought to our attention, we will immediately alert the copyright holder, who will be free to pursue the matter legally with all the assistance we can provide. Patternfish patterns are for the personal use of the buyer only.

Pattern Cleanup Software

The Pattern Cleanup software is also ours alone, and is especially important with our more seasoned patterns. After we scan a hard copy, we run it through our PC process. This does two things: one, it makes the text more distinct from its background (and can even turn a medium-toned background into a white one for easier reading). It will not remove all signs of age, but the text is clear and easier to read. Two, it can detect almost any possible deviation of text on a PDF page from a true vertical orientation (in case the pattern was printed or scanned at an annoying angle) and can correct its rotation to within 0.1 degrees. Every text page of every scanned pattern in our inventory, old and new, has been through this process. That said, errors can still still occur-- if you find something especially annoying, let us know and we'll try to fix it.

Patternfish is always looking for ways to improve the security and presentation of its product. Investment in these areas is ongoing.

As a Patternfish customer, you can rest assured knowing that if we are ever supplied with errata for one of our listings, we will email it out promptly to anyone who has ever bought that pattern, and may also supply a new copy of the PDF with the corrections incorporated. Our master PDF will be upgraded as soon as possible.

Is there anything in particular I have to do to use Patternfish?

You must have browser cookies enabled. Cookies are normally enabled by default. We don't use cookies for tracking or advertising or marketing; we use them only to maintain your login session and shopping cart.

You must have javascript enabled. Javascript is normally enabled by default. We will be working towards making the site friendly to non-javascript browsers but at least for now, some key features depend on javascript.

How does Patternfish work?

We work entirely on commission. It costs nothing to list a pattern for sale, and individuals or companies may submit as many as they like. Each time a pattern sells, at least 60% of the retail price goes to the publisher (whomever listed the pattern), and as much as 40% stays with us. There are no ceilings on what you can earn; no pattern need ever be discontinued; and our inventory can be as big as the world can make it. You can earn more if you submit a pattern on an exclusive basis, or exceed certain sales targets. For more on this, see About Selling.

How did you get your content?

Mostly the old-fashioned way: by asking politely. And asking some courageous people, who very bravely trusted us to do well by their intellectual property. Some extraordinary folk sought us out by word of mouth.

Where companies were concerned, the first thing on everyone's mind was Supporting the LYS (Local Yarn Store). They are the spine of our industry; without them, everything starts to collapse. Companies kept this in mind when submitting patterns for uploading. Some felt that all yarn stores would benefit from having an all-access-pass to their patterns online. After all, the yarn still has to be bought, and frankly that's what the LYS business depends on.

Others felt that stores might benefit from having greater access to previous seasons or years; usually the sales rep doesn't show those patterns anymore, and yet there are always some real gems which could inspire the independent knitter or crocheter. The Usual Suspects is still a great movie, even though it came out in 1995. People still listen to the Beatles. Same thing with patterns, but older ones can be very hard to find, or in bad shape, or both. This is one area in which Patternfish really excels: we can take older patterns, scan, clean up, preserve, and sell them alongside the newest and hippest designs imaginable.

There is no longer a reason to discontinue any pattern, ever. We'll carry it, and sooner or later every pattern will find someone who loves it and brings it into their home.

Much of Patternfish's future corporate content will depend on the reaction of the LYS to our existence. If being able to find the perfect pattern on your own helps them, then we'll have a lot more corporate contributions. If you, the consumer, feel that it helps you, it would be good to let the pattern-producing companies and LYS's know that.

From the independent designer's point of view, it seems that a lot of them were looking for a way to be creative and make money without necessarily having to conform to the deadlines and editorial themes of publications and yarn companies. They also find it hard to develop good distribution. One of our great joys has been being able to offer this to them, and just seeing what they come up with when given their heads. We love free-range designers.

What's the difference between Patternfish and knitting or crochet magazines?

1. Patternfish has no editorial voice.
2. We don't take advertising.
3. Our pattern writing is neither standardized nor guaranteed.
4. Magazines remain a WAY better deal than we are. 25 or more brand new patterns for $7? Can't beat it. Plus you get ads, which we love in magazines.

Why no editorial voice?

Magazines and books are commissioned and directed by individuals to present a unique point of view, or theme, or news. They evaluate and select, edit and interpret. They can be opinionated and of-the-moment.

We can do none of those things. In our infinitely large market where virtually anyone can sell virtually any knitted or crocheted thing, we try very hard to value it all equally and not to display preferences.

Publications serve an invaluable purpose and tend to reflect the extraordinary abilities and interests of their individual editors and authors, season by season. Many of these people are very gifted. This gives each periodical a distinct editorial tang and flavour. Patternfish is the opposite: we present only the abilities and interests of our many contributors, who are a pretty diverse bunch. Our management couldn't design a way out of a wet paper bag.

Magazines develop a style by choosing their content, often calling attention to this or that special yarn, technique, or talent. They also bear some responsibility for the accuracy of their patterns. If you have a problem with a pattern, the magazine should help to solve it. Our 'style' is determined by everything our designers or companies submit, over which we have virtually no control. Our individual contributors (as well as companies) are exclusively liable for errors or problems in their own patterns, just as they are if you were to buy their patterns in a LYS.

Why doesn't Patternfish take advertising?

Several reasons. Let's say you're looking at a fine Cabin Fever pattern and trying to decide whether or not to buy it. All of a sudden some flashy advertisement pops up saying, “Buy the amazing patterns of Joan Townsend!” A competitor interrupts: it's just rude.

Secondly, we want nothing to affect our independence. If we took advertising we might become dependent on it for survival, and then we would be vulnerable to outside influences and 'suggestions'. What if a large corporate advertiser demanded special treatment, especially at the expense of smaller independent designers? We don't know any large corporations in our business who'd do that, but still. Better not.

Third, advertising can be extremely distracting (not to say irritating in high doses). Patternfish is intended to be a calm place where you can browse and choose at length without incessant interruption. Put some of your own music on and relax.

Fourth, we don't want to have to dedicate time, people, and resources to chasing advertising revenue when we could be developing ways to sell patterns better or improving your selection.

Advertising can be very useful and fun, and spreads information and knowledge. We happily advertise ourselves, for example, elsewhere.

There are lots of ads about. Just not here.

Why don't you standardize or guarantee the Patternfish patterns?

No standardizing

The patterns on the site are usually sold in other venues, too. And once someone is familiar with the 'look' of an Ilga Leja or Artful Yarns or Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton pattern, we want them to recognize that 'look' anywhere they find it-- in a LYS (local yarn store), at a yarn fair, or wherever. The only thing we change about a contributor's format is adding our watermark at an edge of a page.

There may be a Patternfish pattern line at some point. If that happens, it will of course have its own look. But we will not impose a specific format on people. We can strongly recommend a template to people who are not familiar with how to structure a pattern, but it is not required.

For example, this one:

A Pattern Template

No guaranteeing

Patternfish launches in the hope that we will eventually have thousands of contributors from all over the world. Policing, test knitting, or tech-editing all their work would be a practical impossibility.

That said, people who have bought a pattern are free to comment on it. And if the reaction is strong enough, and if we are asked our opinion, and if we agree with the general consensus, we can delist a pattern and may take such other steps as we deem necessary.

Buying patterns from well-known names can give a sense of security. But there are thousands of wonderful patterns, beautifully written, from independent designers all over the world. If you find a bad egg, let us know, and we'll deal with it. And if you have suggestions for improvements, you can let the designer know through your comments or an email.

Once again: our individual contributors (as well as companies) are exclusively liable for errors or problems in their own patterns, just as they are if you were to buy their patterns in a LYS.

Why don't you provide free patterns in addition to your regularly-priced ones?

See the first blog entry. Big topic!

Why do you spell things funny?

We're Canadian.

We may not write 'tonne' for 'ton', but you can expect 'colour ' and 'catalogue'.

If you're so Canadian, why do you bill (and insist we charge) in U.S. Dollars?

Tragically, the Canadian dollar does not have the international recognition (for good or ill) that the American dollar does. We want this website to be international, and people worldwide seem to have a good handle on what an American dollar is worth in their own currency. However, if currency fluctuations strongly favour the Canadian dollar (meaning the American dollar falls against it), we may switch so that our designers aren't suddenly making a lot less money selling the same patterns.

When we hear from you about what you want, and figure out how to handle several different currencies in one shopping cart without having to pay 15% of the gross for the privilege, we'll be open to all kinds of change.

Why does some of your inventory seem to appear in clumps? At the beginning there's a lot of Naturally, for example.

Right now our patterns appear in the order in which they were entered. New ones land up in the top left-hand corner of the first SHOP page and push all the others to the right and downward. The very first ones entered are on the last pages.

Scanning and coding patterns for search, digitally cleaning them, checking them, uploading, and visually checking each uploaded PDF (yes, we did this) is a time-consuming process to say the least. We started several months ago with what some stalwart souls were willing to provide based on our extravagant promises. We tried to mix up our suppliers as much as we could, but at the beginning we had a lot of Naturally (bless them), Mags Kandis (guts, that girl!), and Wendy, Twilleys, Robin, and Peter Pan (thanks, brave Ramsden Group). Then as we would run out a few new suppliers would enter the field and we'd load them too. So, they were supplied in bunches which arrived at different stages, they got uploaded like that, and that's how you currently see them.

If we could think of a better way to salt them about without delaying our launch by another few weeks, we would. As it is, that's why you can't sort by 'date entered' yet. You will, but we don't want to penalize the suppliers who trusted us at the outset by not encouraging you to look at the whole available field for a while.