It started out wanting to make knotions mobile-friendly to address the updates to Google earlier this year.  Then one thing led to another and I admitted – I missed knotions.  The patterns, the editing, the techniques, the reviews.

Then I looked at it with fresh eyes.  It wasn’t social-friendly either – sharing on pinterest or facebook was hard.  Too hard.  And that design – ugh it needed some serious updating too.  Those tabs were great 8 years ago – but not today.  And those images – they needed be viewed from the same page – not in that awkward popup.

What you see here is the start of the new knotions – mobile-friendly, social-friendly, better for search engines, new design, new logo and new colors.  It’s a big update and one that I’m proud to have gotten started.

Take a look and let me know what you think.  This is your site so – is it user-friendly?  Is it intuitive?  Do you get the functionality you expect?  What would make it really sing?

New Patterns?

Yes!  We’ll be accepting new patterns and article submissions!  We plan to publish 4 to 6 times per year, with more releases in the colder months than the warmer ones (because we all know that we knit more for the cooler weather).  We’ll have less things in each release, and more of them (so the total should be around the same).  I’m being vague because I’m still working out the details.

New Feature

We’ve added What Would Knotions Do? – a way for you to ask us questions and we’ll answer them (and do the research and footwork for you).  You’ll also get to see answers to questions we’ve responded to and can comment on them as well.  It’s another way for all of us to knit smarter.

The Plan

This is just the start – we’ll be releasing all pages on the site with this new look.  We’ll be doing it one issue at a time, and will likely be done in around 6 months.

We’ve added in-line images that pop up to show more info.  We’ve added social sharing.  We’ve made the site work on mobile too (many of you are using mobile as your first screen).  And we can’t wait to roll out the patterns in a bit too!

In the meantime, new pages will be added and the old links will go to the new pages.  No links will need to be updated – the old links will work.  If you’re the designer of a knotions pattern and you want to change something (name change, errata, clarification, etc), drop us a line.  And if you find a link that’s broken, let us know.  It’s easy to add it.

Knotions Behind the Scenes

I’m also going to be doing a Knotions Behind the Scenes blog.  I’ll talk about the technology and marketing behind knotions.  This serves two purposes.  For you all – if you have your own site/blog you may appreciate some of the conversation.  And for me – it gives me an avenue to explore the other half of what I like about knotions – marketing technology.  This blog will be separate from knotions and you can choose to read it or never look at it again – your choice.  And I’d love it if a few non-knitters started reading as well.

Enjoy the new site, click around and see what’s here and know this is just the first peek at a brand new knotions.  Enjoy and I’ll be back soon.