If you’ve started designing and releasing your own knitting patterns, you’ll know that there is a surprising amount of writing involved in the process - and I don’t mean pattern writing!

Knitting pattern designers don’t just publish their patterns and move on. They have to promote themselves and their patterns to help attract new customers, and often, this promotion happens in the form of writing.

That’s all well and good if you are a fan of writing, but what if it’s not your strong point? You can spend hours in front of your laptop trying to figure out what to say whilst the cursor just keeps blinking.

Well, in today’s blog post, I’m going to help you out. I don’t claim to be an amazing writer, but I do have a lot of experience - I have been blogging on Sister Mountain since 2016, after all!

I realised recently that my Designer Profile Page on Ravelry needed a major refresh since I haven’t updated it in a couple of years, so I’m going to share the structure I used to help me write it.

Feel free to swipe it and make it your own if any of your designer profile pages need some TLC. In only 30 minutes, you’ll have a shiny new profile page to help you connect with new customers!

Image description: an image of a woman typing on a laptop, the text overlay says How to Write Your Designer Profile Page in 30 Minutes.

How to Write Your Designer Profile Page in 30 Minutes

Image description: a screen shot of Clare Mountain-Manipon’s Ravelry designer profile page.

Headline

As soon as a potential customer lands on your profile page, they should know what you are offering them. What sorts of patterns do you design? What sets your work apart from other designers? Create a short and snappy headline that tells browsers what to expect from you, so they are curious to scroll down and learn more.

For my headline, I wanted to focus on the fact that I design contemporary, stylish knitting patterns that slot easily into your own wardrobe. Wearability is a huge focus for me as a designer, so I wanted to include that in my headline.

Modern Knitting Patterns for your Everyday Wardrobe

Ravelry doesn’t offer the option to use headings in your profile, so I simply made the text bold and created a gap above the headline by adding <br> above it. Otherwise, it would have been directly below the “My username is…” section, and it wouldn’t have stood out quite so much.

How can you help them?

Did you know that, as a knitting pattern designer, you are also a problem-solver? We all have a certain amount of problems or frustrations as knitters, and your job here is to tell the reader what problem you and your patterns solve. How will your patterns help them?

Perhaps you include both written instructions as well as charts in your pattern so that knitters can choose the option that they prefer.

…Or maybe you include shaping tables in your pattern so that knitters can tick off their progress as they go?

…Or maybe you design your patterns in an inclusive range of sizes with opportunities for knitters to customise along the way?

…Or maybe you design patterns that emphasise the beauty of hand-dyed yarns?

Whatever it may be, shout about it on your profile page. Tell knitters how you make their knitting experience better, easier or more fulfilling!

On my profile page, I expanded upon my headline by sharing how I design patterns that makers will feel good wearing.

Stop knitting clothes that you hardly ever wear! Stick with me, and I’ll help you knit a collection of elevated basics that will slot perfectly into your daily wardrobe.
My contemporary knitting patterns are easy to style, comfortable to wear and use clever techniques that make your knits look even more polished.

Image description: a woman types on a laptop. The text says, Knitting Pattern Design. How to Write Your Designer Profile Page in 30 Minutes.

Optional: Tell a Short Story

It can be fun to share a short, personal story here related to why you do what you do.

Don’t go overboard, though! As much as this is your designer profile page, it’s actually all about your potential customers and what you can offer them.

The key here is to tell a story that helps readers relate to you and the problem you had and then trust you to help them solve that same problem using your knitting patterns.

I started knitting as a young teenager, and over the years, I made many garments and accessories that looked beautiful in pattern photos but, in reality, weren’t in tune with my personal style.
Whilst I had fun knitting them, I never felt 100% comfortable wearing the things I’d made because there was always something “off” about them. More often than not, they were too busy, didn’t fit well, or weren’t practical for my lifestyle.
It wasn’t until I started designing my own knitting patterns that I finally felt amazing in the clothes that I knitted.
I can’t be the only one who has experienced disappointment in how difficult it is to integrate your handknits into your everyday wardrobe.
That’s why my patterns focus on modern, elevated basics that are incredibly wearable so that you can feel amazing in your knits, too!

If someone who is reading this has experienced disappointment when trying to wear their FOs, they will relate to what I’ve written and are more likely to check out my knitting patterns. They may even become curious about designing their own!

If you want to include a horizontal line to break up the text as I did on my profile page, you can just type “--------------------” and Ravelry will fill the rest in.

Call-to-Action

A call-to-action (CTA) is a direct invitation to browsers to take a particular action. The action that you ask them to take will depend on what your goal is for your profile page. You might want them to sign up for your newsletter (always a good one!), subscribe to your podcast or follow you on social media. It’s up to you, as you will know your goals best.

Because I am a knitting pattern designer who also teaches knitting pattern design, I decided to make my CTA about visiting my blog. People viewing my profile page may not know I teach design, so it’s a way to introduce them to my teaching and potentially gain some new students down the line.

If you find yourself daydreaming about designing your own knitting patterns, I’d love to invite you to check out my blog, Sister Mountain, where I teach thousands of enthusiastic knitters how to design their own knitting patterns using my tried and true system. It has become a go-to resource for so many aspiring designers!

It’s quite an indirect call-to-action, as I won’t have any way to contact them again via this method, but because I’m speaking to a potentially “cold” audience who are not necessarily interested in designing their own knitting patterns (unlike here, on my website), I think it’s a good way to introduce my work to potential new subscribers. You may wish to be more direct with yours, though.

Your call-to-action doesn’t have to be at the top of the page, as I have done on my own profile. In fact, it is usually shared at the end, but I wanted to draw attention to it as it is one of the main things I wanted readers to take away from this page.

I also put it inside a text box to help it stand out, as it could get lost in the midst of all that text. To use a text box on your Ravelry designer page, use the Blockquote option.

Contact Information

Ravelry isn’t always the easiest place to respond to customer enquiries, especially as you grow and get more customers, so I highly recommend sharing an email address here where customers can send pattern support questions.

For pattern support: hello@sistermountain.com

You can also include links here to relevant social media sites or your website so that they can keep up to date with your work.

Conclusion: How to Write Your Designer Profile Page in 30 Minutes

Writing your designer profile page isn’t always easy, but with these tips, you’ll have your shiny new page updated and ready to publish in just 30 minutes!

And if you get stuck, just remember that your profile page is not really about you after all! It’s all about how you can make your potential customer’s knitting experience more fulfilling.

What do you like to see on a designer’s profile page? Have I forgotten anything here? Share in the comments section!