Erssie Knits
I have no skill at knitting, and I never regret that more than when I run across patterns like the ones at Erssie Knits.
Erssie Major is a UK knitter who has been featured in several magazines, and her work has a definite pagan/goth bent. She makes many of her patterns available online, either free (such as this cute calavera) or quite inexpensively (like this skully knit cap).
The site is a little hard to navigate, since some links seem to circle back on themselves and the sidebar isn’t consistent, but the patterns are worth a bit of digging. I love this goth glam hat, and the collection of symbols in the magickal throw is impressive (although it’d be nice if they were sold as a bundle in addition to individually).
She’s also got a blog where she features new creations. One of her latest is this great “punk skull” sweater; she notes that she’ll make a pattern available for it soon.
If you knit, definitely check out the collection. There are some great potential holiday gifts.
Update: – Apparently Erssie decided to clean up her site and ditch the patterns two days ago. You can still find them at Ravelry: If you don’t have an account and don’t want to register, get a username/password at BugMeNot. Just log in and search for “Erssie.” (Bah.)
Posted in Needful Things | 4 Comments »
November 1st, 2012 at 10:50 am
That’s one odd site. None of the links are working for me. Luckily I can’t knit anyway!
November 1st, 2012 at 12:01 pm
So…all those links are broken. (For me at this moment.) But I love quilting! Which is to say, I am morally opposed to quilting but love piecing! Unless it’s color-on-color, no one cares about the quilt part, anyway. So you should try piecing!!
November 28th, 2012 at 9:59 am
Thank you for this post I came across it entirely by accident. And sorry for being so hard to get to pattern wise!
Having patterns available very cheaply, or for nothing on my very public detailed website meant evil folks from Russia and China were ripping off my designs by downloading detailed pictures and charts and copying them and manufacturing them without permission or any revenue coming my way.
That would not be so bad if I could just ignore it and take it as flattery, but it was actually causing me loss of work.
One person, having used a free pattern, then licensed my design to a yarn company and refused to tell me who in the World it was but that actually meant one of my clients who wanted to commission me to print in a prestigious magazine were no longer interested, had to drop my job, because it had already been used ”commercially” elsewhere and it made the copyright contentious.
Sadly having an external public website did no more to promote me, or help my designs become more successful and it just led to me being ripped off in a big way.
I am currently working on goth, dark, pagan and punk designs that I enjoy and making it available to people like us who truly appreciate a cheap or free pattern for their own personal wardrobe and are willing to get hold of it indepently via crafting social networking sites like.
Sadly I can no longer do totally free knitting charts because apparently in Russia free translates to Public Domain, as in they can do what they like with designs. I was mightily shocked to see one of my charted artworks appear on a well known brand of Gothic clothing on sale Worldwide imported from the Far East.
I am in no way stopping designing or crafting etc, but will just have to continue making my designs available to people like us….but in the meantime, apologise for being so cryptic.
Links on my website aren’t broken, but there is no pattern store there as it is entirely on Ravelry, or only available in books and magazines only.
Interestingly, since not having a public website and having it all on Ravelry, my pattern income has increased slightly (seasonal change) but not decreased as expected.
Nevertheless, money to be had for quirky indie crafty patterns is totally pants even at best….so I just do what I enjoy.
January 14th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
My Erssie pattern links are back up. Now the copyright thieves have scattered a bit!
Btw, you don’t need to join Ravelry in order to be able to see patterns on that website….most pattern shops are open to the public which is good. Obviously joining means you can take part in specialist forums, e.g. the fairly new Knitting Dead (zombies) and other Arts of Darkness themed groups.