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I just returned from a quick little spur of the moment trip to visit my family in Minnesota and had a much appreciated break! I managed to get in a coffee with my bestie, lots of laughs and just an all around good time. The kids had fun, I had fun, and now I’m feeling excited and rejuvenated to get back to business. I’ve got some YouTube videos in the works for you all, a new tank coming along, amongst some other exciting spring things!

I had brought along a purple skein of We Are Knitters “the cotton” to Minnesota and hadn’t thought much of it for the first couple days I was there. Too busy doing Target and coffee runs tbh. But then I booked a Florida trip because ticket prices were insanely low, which led to searching for some clothes for the trip, which led to casting on stitches for a purple tank top.

It seems whenever I start getting the urge to design a new project, but don’t know what to do, I just take a step back. I don’t force it. I’ll go about my regular days for a bit and be snapping photos of whatever and doing whatever. Then it always seems once the “aha!” moment hits, I’ll look back through my camera roll and have a whole vibe going that I didn’t realize. And it’s usually a color vibe. So I think subconsciously I’m drawn to a certain color first. I feel like my color choices are always a current mood. I’ve been buying everything purple right now and it’s just making me happy. So this new project was just destined to be purple.

Then I envision wearing a piece knit with the color. Just a quick like, getting coffee in a cute Floridian coffee shop, what are you wearing? Knit purple tank, denim shorts, gold necklace, some rings and a bracelet, ankle wrap sandals. Got it.

Now that I have the color and basic stitch planned, I’ll have more ideas come to mind as I’m knitting the piece. It never fails. I always go in with one idea and come out with the idea plus extra. Also, I’m not going to describe what this new tank design is because I love having it be a surprise! It wont take long!

I think the design process is so different for each designer. I even often just sit and stare at my yarn, for an embarrassingly long time, testing ideas in my head. My kids will walk by and be like “what are you doing?” But it works really well for me! And as a bonus, it’s almost like meditation too.

I hope your week has been off to a great start! Don’t forget to do those little things that make your life happy and looking forward to every day! ❤️

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First off, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a great start to what will be a fabulous year for us all! It’s been such a whirlwind of events the last few weeks and now that everything is kind of settling down, I have a few things I’d like to mention. If you follow me on Instagram, you’re already going to be familiar with all of this.

For the past few years, I have had my designs stolen again and again. It first started with actual pattern companies. A few big name ones even. The first experience I had with actually taking to one was the company Phildar. I had received a message from a follower showing they were selling a pattern nearly identical to one of mine. When I posted on my Instagram about it, many people were tagging the company, upset about it. So Phildar contacted me, wanting the post taken down and they were taking about compensation and what not. Maybe working with them on a collaboration for a new design. Lesson learned there. I took the post down and after a couple conversations via phone with the company, I never heard from them again. I received no compensation, nor did any collaboration come to be. What came to be, is they profited off of one of their designers copying my work.

I have had customers of mine find my knitting patterns on other Etsy shops, along with my pattern photos, selling the pattern as their own. With those, I am able to contact Etsy and they take them down.

I’m not going to mention them because I really don’t like accusing people of things, but I have seen other knitwear designers on Instagram publish work eerily similar to mine as well. I love designing knitwear and one of my first thoughts when I started, was that what’s going to stop others from copying my work? I love the creative process of it all and bringing something I imagine to life is one of the best feelings! So it’s a lot more than just money. That being said, I mix colors, stitches, patterns, to something that is unique and my own. I know it’s definitely possible for others to create similar things without ever knowing me or my work, but when it’s people who follow me and are familiar with my designs, I find no coincidence.

The recent Temu incident is the one that finally got to me. Temu is using my photos of my summer daisy sweater as advertising for Pinterest ads. They’re using my photos to sell copycats of the sweater on their site. I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but I have had so many people suddenly finding my sweater on there and sending me images, links, etc. I even had an email from a media company in Germany wondering if I would be open to an interview regarding my stolen work on Temu.

This is so disheartening to me on so many levels. While I love working with customers and making my own money doing something I love, I’m tired of my work being stolen. These bigger companies stealing from me, are making much more money from my work than I am. I’m not quite sure what this year will look like moving forward with publishing my patterns. There’s no stopping these companies, as far as I know.

I will never quit designing, that’s for sure. It is a love addiction that is a part of me.

So just a heads up there! I’m working on trying to figure out a way to share my work with you all and will keep you updated as I go along.

Make sure you sign up to receive emails from my site here, as I’m going to be primarily sharing information and fun stuff here instead of Instagram! There’s going to be video tutorials coming, a design class, just pure fun things.

Regardless of it all, I’m excited about what this new year will hold for Happy Love Co!