About Me


Well, my name is Sarah Dawn, and I write knitting and crochet patterns!

I'm a Canadian with Welsh ancestry, living in Toronto, Ontario.  I'm (slowly) learning the Welsh language, I share my space in Toronto with two cats and my roommate. Technically one of the cats is mine and one is my roommates, but they love us both pretty much equally, and both will sometimes appear on (or troll) my Twitch Stream!

 A woman wearing a blue bulky knit cowl. The cowl has a lace and cable pattern.
Photo Credit: Douvlak Photography
As for the fiber arts, I learned to knit when I was 5 years old as a form of physical therapy for my fine motor skills, and came back to it in my University years. I’m currently trying to teach myself to spin, and while my spinning could definitely use more practice, I am enjoying it!  I'm also re-teaching myself to crochet, with the help of the internet.  I've got the basic stitches down now, and have, in fact, published my first crochet pattern, with more in progress!

My favorite fibers tend towards silk and alpaca blends, but I’ll knit just about any fiber as the mood strikes me. I’ve not yet tried qiviut, but it’s on my list of things to try (and I now do have some in my stash!)

When I'm not knitting, I'm an avid disability rights champion. This means that my work is very focused on disability inclusion, and inclusion and diversity is a huge part of what I try and do with this work.  Screen-reader friendly patterns, captioned videos, transcribed podcasts, wide range of garment sizes, gender-neutral garments and sizing,  and more, is only part of the work I do.   I often say "You are Human, You can Art!" and I aim to prove that true with every pattern I publish or every lesson I teach.

My other major interests are the various corners of nerd-dom.  And yes, I blame my love of Earl Grey Tea on Captain Jean-Luc Picard.  It all started because I wanted to know what he was drinking, so I tried some!

So, how Did Sarah Dawn's Designs come about?

Well, the idea of designing my own patterns had been in my head for a while.  Once I realized that I could play with the basic structure of say a sock, or a hat, it just seemed to make sense.  But I didn't really do anything about it. After doing some odd jobs, I started designing knitting off and on, but didn't do anything too serious with it.  Indeed, the earlier posts on this very blog date from that time.  What I realized then was, instead of selling finished knitted objects, (which a lot of people suggested, but I knew I couldn't sustain that), I could sell the patterns -- and that, I could sustain!

So, when my last contract position wrapped up,  I knew I didn't want to go back and subject myself to another round of useless interviews, and I decided to actually go fully for this designing thing!    Not that I had a clue what I was doing, of course.  So, in May 2016 I enrolled in the Toronto Business Development Program's Biz Futures Class.  That's where I learned just how much I didn't know, (eek!) and I've been learning ever since!

Right now, I'm cobbling together funding sources, and hoping to one day make this my "real job"!

So I hope that's shed some light on who I am and what's up in my little corner of the universe!

Oh, want to actually hang out with me?  Come check out my Ravelry Group!

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