Yes – everything is prerecorded for you to work at your own pace, and the content is dropped module by module. You can absolutely send questions in ahead of time for the live calls. There are Google forms available for you to do that, and everything is recorded for replay. 

How feedback and Q&As work

In each module, you’ll have access to a Google drive folder – this is where you upload files for me to look at your work and give you personalised attention and feedback. This can be on a Zoom call or I can record a video for you to download if we’re not awake at the same time. You can do this on an ongoing basis or at the end of a module, whichever suits you best, or even both. It’s completely up to you.

There are live sessions and/or Q&As every fortnight on Thursdays, which are also recorded for replay.  The idea is that live sessions will supplement the prerecorded content by allowing learners to see me do something and ask questions in real time, and be a way to work together as a group on drawing exercises, for example.  For Q&As, everyone will be able to submit questions in advance, and these will be prioritised over the ones I get on the live call.  I’m trying to replicate all the best bits from when I taught the knitwear pathway on an undergraduate degree — but more detail below on how that works in practice away from university or college.

Not at all.  No time limits here.  In the beta run, the earliest folk finished was in just over 12 months, and that was with live lessons.  But please don’t forget – it’s very much a self-paced course with lifetime access, and there definitely won’t be any pressure on you from my side.  Two years after wrapping up, I’m supporting designers who are still figuring things out and creating their first patterns at a slow pace, one of whom has a small child who will be two years old this weekend!  And another person from the beta who has had to take time out for a year has said she’ll be back in the fold shortly.

You have complete freedom; organise your time as you need to.

So I have intentionally left room for you to live your life, with or without curveballs or unexpected events, and definitely with time to rest.  This was one thing I regretted when I taught undergraduate students; we were always on a clock.  It was not easy to see students put time pressure on themselves in a learning environment, so I wanted to remove as much of that as possible.  The advantage that you have is that the course, myself and the community will be here when you’re ready.  

Some people need more time than others because we are all on our own schedule – and there’s nothing wrong with that.  All I’d ever ask is that you stay in touch and let me know if there’s anything I can do, how long you might be away for, things like that.  If you’re committed, I’m committed – whatever that commitment looks like for you.

You don’t need to be brilliant at maths. I’m not! (Ask any of my school teachers!) I just know enough to be good at my job. 

On the design side, it’s more about converting visual information into mathematical information, like the number of stitches in a pattern repeat. For the technical side, it’s Pythagoras and what I call MSG for calculating the number of stitches and rows for a given measurement. I treat it like the “speed = distance/time” triangle we had at school. I have a blog post on it here, and have a video extract I can upload to YouTube.  

A lot of it is repetition; you’re doing the same kind of sums all the time for knitting patterns. Plus, the context helps a LOT. I got much better at maths when the numbers had meaning, like they do with knitting.

Critiques/Mentoring:

There are office hours exclusively for the KDI cohort, plus fortnightly sanctuary calls on Mondays, and you can schedule one-to-ones with me (you get lifetime access to the material).  The content will be dripped/available after a certain timeframe, module by module.  I’ve structured the course so that it takes you from end to end, from blank page to solid pattern, so that as a cohort you’ll be at similar paces (as much as life allows!) and get the emotional support of shared experience. 

There are interim or formative assessments roughly halfway through each module, and then more summative assessments at the end.  These will be a mix of group and individual feedback via Zoom (or prerecorded if timezones can’t be worked out), but my goal is to be in contact with you at least once every week or two to make sure you’re okay and progressing optimally.  The sanctuary calls mentioned above are optional, not recorded, and more of a community space for the cohort.  I’m present, but I offer them as a way for you to get to know everyone on the course (plus some of the beta cohort) and to create a more private space away from the recorded calls.

Time Commitment/Capstone Project/Portfolio Review:

I anticipate no more than 15 months at a comfortable pace, but it may well be shorter.  I received some feedback that it was a bit of a squeeze, that some would’ve liked more time to absorb the content around their regular work and personal commitments.  So this time I’ve tried to be more flexible and allow more time to watch the replays if needed, anticipating that most folk will get through the content and their project within 15 months.

The cohort intake, module progression, and dripped content is designed to support a capstone project or portfolio review.  It’s linear to begin with, but design journeys aren’t always (ever?) like that, and there’ll be enough room for you to circle back or revisit ideas from earlier on in the course.

The beta test took 15 months, so I’m going to see what 12 is like for the first proper outing.

Yes.  My guarantee and refund policy has been created to ensure the integrity of the learning environment. I am focused on attracting people who are serious about turning inspiration into a sustainable knitwear business or craft, or augmenting the knitwear business they already have.

The Conditional Guarantee: I only want serious designers.

Whilst I offer lifetime access to the material, the window for a refund is limited, and it comes with a condition: you must demonstrate that you’ve made a good-faith effort.

What this means for you:

1. 30-Day Window: You have 30 days from enrolment to decide if the course is the right fit.
2. Show Your Work: To be eligible for a refund, you must demonstrate that you have completed the initial mandatory module(s) and submitted the required assignments for feedback. You must have tried the material.

How this benefits you:

This policy is my promise to you that the course is structured for action. It acts as a necessary filter, ensuring that:

• The community you join is full of dedicated, active learners — not just passive consumers.
• My time and resources are directed towards students who are committed to applying the feedback and seeing results.

If you commit to the work and find the course truly isn’t for you, we stand behind the material. But we both know that success only happens when you show up.  And this doesn’t contradict what I’ve already said about your time being your own to manage; rather, it’s making sure that you take the time to look around and make sure the course you choose is definitely worth it first — before you start working out your schedule and getting set up for the long term.

Yes to Excel/Sheets workflows. 

The grading content includes walkthroughs of spreadsheet builds, with me thinking out loud so that you can get some insight into my thought process and creative problem solving, plus commentary on completed ones and the related design to provide another angle.  I also devote some time to visual or manual grading methods. That’s often more accessible for some and can also support spreadsheet work in terms of visual connections such as pattern placement.  It gives the numbers more context and meaning because grading is more of a triangulation process for me.

Level of sketching instruction:

I go right back to the basics with this, right down to exploring the different ways in which you can hold a pencil, with a strong focus on capturing tone, texture, and compositional relationships.  Dry media (pencil, graphite, charcoal) is the focus, as this is a more tactile way of capturing nuances of yarn and knitted textures, and I really want you to have strong mark-making skills and a wide visual vocabulary.  That said, I also love water-based media (watercolour, ink, gouache) and can definitely support that as a next step, especially if you want to move into colour mixing and more illustration.  The more you can practice and experiment, the better — and there are several exercises in Visual Communication.

Recommended software:

Excel or Google Sheets for grading; Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer for high-quality vector graphics.

I assume basic familiarity with the software mentioned, but I do focus on how to use the tools for knitwear or apparel design specifically (e.g., drawing schematics, setting up graded measurements). Dedicated, general software walkthroughs are best left to specialists, as I am not an oracle on every single feature. You can rest assured that I will teach you everything you need to know to get the job done for your pattern.

This is also where our community spaces and ‘hive mind’ come in! Everyone in the cohort has their own experience to share and learn from, and continuous professional development (CPD) definitely applies when learning new software and professional practices.

Yes, they do.  I 100% support this level of detail if you need to produce tech packs and any other documentation for factory production.  This is another carry-over from my undergraduate teaching.  For example, garment dimensions are typically to the nearest half centimetre or quarter inch, and gauge is to the nearest half stitch or full row.  Schematics are drawn using Adobe Illustrator as mentioned above (this is what I use), but Affinity Designer has been popular with the beta cohort and the quality of the diagrams is high enough for a tech pack.  The interface is also quite similar to Adobe Illustrator.

Yes, you own the designs and patterns you create during the course entirely. Your Intellectual Property (IP) is yours. You are using my established frameworks and methodology to create your work (which is my IP). But the final creative output — the design itself — is 100% your own. I will never claim or nick your designs.

The course focuses intensively on conceptualisation, product development, creating that first pattern and getting it up to the standard required for the tech editor, test knitters, or the tech pack for a factory.

Your working relationship with your industry partners is important, but no two setups will be the same. You are an individual designer with individual needs. The single most vital element is communication — a common reason for high production costs is often poor information exchange. Tech editors and factories are often abundantly clear about the information they need from you as a designer, so I strongly encourage you to bring any questions about specific industry partner requirements to the community spaces for discussion.

You should be seeing the price in your own currency, for the most part. I’ve set the store so that all English speaking countries will see their own currency, plus added Euros for my neighbours (I’m based in London, U.K.).  It will default to GBP if you’re not in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or the Euro zone.

No, they aren’t.  Offering modules separately was part of the original plan after the pilot or beta, but after supporting that group for the subsequent three years I cannot do this. 

Why not?

There would be too many people doing different things at their own pace and with their own individual needs. This is why I created the smaller options of the sleeves masterclass and made to measure knitwear; they were based on how the material was being used after the course had finished. It was an observation over time.

After some reflection and several months I scrapped it to strengthen the community/personal contact elements, overall cohesion, and make sure that the design development skills for anyone taking KDI were well optimised.  Idea generation skills are the ones you’ll lean on most heavily in the wild, so practising and honing this skill is the key to customer retention, e.g., to keep putting new twists on old favourites, or on the other hand, bundling to increase average order value for new customers.  But regardless of strategy, idea generation is what protects and preserves your creative energy as a designer, and safeguards your longevity.

Yes, but sadly they didn’t work out. I looked into payment plan options but the costs were too prohibitive (WooCommerce plugin) or required complex setup (Klarna, AfterPay et al). This is something I wanted to offer but couldn’t in the end. I’m sorry. It turns out there are reasons why only huge companies offer them, not individuals like me.  And some of them are murky, I might add.  Credit brokering is not something I’m prepared to get into.  Please save up if you need to.  If you join the waitlist, I will announce any price increases well in advance to respect your efforts.

The classes are prerecorded, so they start when you do. There will be live classes or sessions at least once a month, which are recorded for replay.  After this intake in autumn/winter 2025, I will reopen the doors for all courses in early 2027.

No. The course is self-paced, meaning you can work through the materials, in order, on a schedule that fits your life. However, it is a linear, high-touch mentored programme, not a content drop.  I like to think of it as an Intentional Design Framework.

To ensure you get the most out of your investment, modules are unlocked sequentially. Once you submit your work for review and we’ve touched base on your progress, the next section will open. I’ve designed it this way because each module builds a functional foundation for the next — for example, the visual communication skills in Module 1 are essential for the technical grading, schematic drawing, and tech pack maths in later modules.  

Clear communication equals a successful product.  Cultivating drawing skills specifically for you to develop your powers of observation and proportion is definitely not a hobby; it’s a key part of pre-production engineering that will take you safely through your workflow to a well-graded pattern.  This structure ensures you don’t hit a knowledge or skill gap later and guarantees you receive the personalised feedback you’ve signed up for.