What is Common Threads?
With the addition of our Early Bird Pre-Order listing in the shop, now seems like a great time to give you more of a comprehensive view of our new publication, Common Threads! In our Common Threads Introduction post, we mostly addressed the first submissions and inclusions—but now we’re ready to share more details with you about the type of publication Common Threads really is, and why we think it has the potential to have a big impact.
A mission to showcase our community.
Photo by Gale Zucker; featuring members Gail of Cornwall Yarn Shop, Mary Jeanne of Battenkill Fiber Mill, and Deborah of Stoneledge Farm
Although we will draw heavily on the Hudson Valley Textile Project membership for features, articles, stories and submissions, our network is so much larger than those who have heard of us—any many talented artists who should be members aren’t yet! Editor Hannah Thiessen Howard (author of Slow Knitting and Seasonal Slow Knitting) has carefully reviewed and reached out to hundreds of New York based businesses, designers and yarn companies with the direction and assistance HVTP board members to develop Issue 001. While this issue is still partially in development, we’ve already confirmed the involvement of over 30 regional participants in this first issue, with more to come.
In this way, we hope that Common Threads will provide a platform for people to discover and explore what’s happening in the Hudson Valley and beyond and spark conversations about current topics and issues in our industry and craft spheres. You’ll also have the opportunity to get to know the people involved in each issue through interviews with farms, fiber companies, designers, writers and more, both within our issue and in the supplemental blog posts that go alongside each release!
A new way to look at patterns in publications.
We’ll have a deep dive on our pattern model in another blog post, but I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version here: we’re turning away from the “traditional” publishing model of churning out a full collection of new patterns every publication.
Independent pattern design (regardless of craft) has become a breakneck, fast-paced world. This is thanks in part to the steady rise of the internet and e-commerce. Ravelry, the primary source for knitting patterns, announced in their 2022 roundup that over 70,000 patterns were published in the last year. That means that the average number of patterns published in a single month added to Ravelry was 5,833! That’s a lot of competition for patterns to be recognized, noticed, or even to sell at all—regardless of how beautiful the patterns themselves are. If you were to add up all the costs that go into producing a pattern (technical editing, photography, samples, testing and marketing), you’d realize pretty quickly that our designers are doing a lot of work, in some cases for very little reward or recognition—and we want to change that!
Each issue of Common Threads will have a carefully curated selection of patterns that have been previously published and are being revisited in regional yarns and fibers. These patterns have already been produced to the highest quality standards, but may have gone unnoticed or under-appreciated at the time of release. Within the pages of Common Threads, they’ll generate new inspiration and ideas for crafters, who can then pick and choose if they’d like to follow up and purchase the design for themselves, directly from the designer. This way the designer keeps 100% of their hard-earned pattern profits.
In addition to the revisited knitting pattern selection in each issue, Common Threads will contract a new pattern from a Hudson Valley Textile Project member. The craft of this pattern may vary from issue to issue and will introduce readers to the wide variety of crafts practiced by our talented members! Expect to see weaving, knitting, crochet, punch needle, felting, sewing, or something unexpected in this section, which will also profile the featured artist so you can get to know their work.
Material suggestions that inform and educate.
What do crafters want? We love to explore and experiment with new materials, but it can be expensive to dive in by trial and error with precious, small-batch materials. For each of the patterns we feature, our team creates swatches or alternative material references so you can see how the pattern works up in different textures! Get to know each of our yarn support features individually: through interviews within the issue and in the bonus issue content right here on our blog.
Over time, these yarn selections will teach knitters how to choose the right yarns for their projects through familiarity and texture recognition that can carry into future purchases.
Thoughtful printing choices.
Everything—and we mean everything—about Common Threads is thoughtfully designed to support businesses within our region. Our printing partners are located in New York to lower our carbon footprint, and we’ll be using the most sustainable and environmentally friendly printing and paper options we can. Print copies of Common Threads will be fully recyclable, and an entirely digital version (also included with the purchase of print) is also available from the issue’s launch date for our readers who prefer more no-waste lifestyles.
Affordable pricing.
Rising costs are a concern for everyone, and greed is a primary driver behind why many products continue to become more and more expensive and inaccessible for the average person. As a non-profit, the Hudson Valley Textile Project is in a unique position as a publisher. While we need to cover production costs and pay each contributor well, Common Threads is designed to be a tool and aid for our regional farmers and fiber producers, not a money-making venture. This gives us more flexibility than traditional publications and hopefully helps our readers feel good about supporting us through Advertising and individual issue sales.
We believe affordability is a form of accessibility, and have priced each issue at only $10 retail, with members getting new releases for free with their membership or being able to purchase additional, discounted issues for resale in their shops, booths and web stores.
