Blog Roundups for designers. How to grow your knitting, crochet or sewing buisness fast

Blog Roundups are a great opportunity for designers to promote their patterns. If you create patterns for knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting or any other craft you can boost your business by taking part in blog round ups. In this post I will cover what a round up is, how to get featured in one, and the overall pros and cons of Blog round ups as a collaborative marketing strategy.

This post about blog roundups for designers is part of a series about collaborative marketing strategies for Indy designers. Each week I will post about a different way that designers can work together and support each other to grow our businesses. You can find the overview post in the link above, and last weeks post about Blog Hops .

Round-ups are ideal for designers who want low-effort, high-reach exposure. They’re especially useful for those who don’t have a blog, lack time for active collaborations, or want to build backlinks for SEO. Round ups work equally well for bloggers or you tubers who want to direct traffic to free patterns, and for sellers who want visitors to their Etsy, Ravelry or Shopify stores. Blog round ups do not do much for generating newsletter sign ups or increasing social media reach. Watch out for next week’s post about Summits to discover a strategy that’s great for those.

Too Long, didn’t read (TL:DR)

Join designer communities (e.g., Facebook groups, Ravelry).

Respond to relevant calls for patterns

Share the feature on social media (optional but helpful).

Pros: Passive promotion, evergreen traffic, SEO benefits.

Cons: Risk of spammy associations, potential copyright issues with images

What is a Blog Round up?

Blog round-ups are curated lists of patterns (or resources) published by bloggers. They’re a low-effort way to gain exposure, backlinks, and social proof.

I was recently featured as a designer in a roundup Knitting Patterns for Men by Knitting with Chopsticks. This is a great example of a round up blog post. Throughout the post we will mention how this post is a good example, and avoids the pitfalls that blog round up posts can bring.

In the crafting world, a roundup post is usually a list of between 10 and 20 patterns following a theme. For example, a Blogger may do a post about
‘The 20 best summer cardigan crochet patterns’
‘15 great knitting patterns for fathers day’
‘50 doll house miniatures you want to craft’
‘10 best quilt blocks for the first time quilter to try’

When writing a roundup, the blogger will list resources available on line, with an image, a link to the pattern, and often a short review, just a few sentences, saying what they like about this pattern and why they recommend it.

How is a blog roundup different from a blog hop or a blog index?

A blog roundup post is a blog post, containing a list of resources, and the reader may visit all the links, or just select their favourite. A blog hop, which we covered last week, is an event. People check back every day, and participate.
A pattern index is a static page on a Web site that provides a list of all (or as many as possible) resources under a particular category. For example, the accessible pattern index lists patterns that have ‘low vision’ and other accessibility features, while the curvy index lists sewing patterns that include plus sizes. The index is just to help people search. It’s not designed for reading and inspiration. Whereas a blog round up post is designed to be enjoyable to read, and give inspiration.

Where does recruitment happen – how to get featured in a roundup post, and showcase your design.

I advise any crocheters and knitters interested in seeing their pattern in a roundup to join the ‘Crochet and Knit Blogger Social’ Facebook page. This page exists, in part, to link up designers writing round ups or blog Hops with other designers who want to participate.
More generally, for any craft, it’s important to be active in the behind-the-scenes social media spaces for designers. Depending on your craft, this may be on Facebook, instagram, reddit or discord. And any knitting or crochet designers should also be checking the ravelry groups ‘Designers’ and ‘Budding designers’ where all kinds of opportunities, not just blog round ups, get posted.

The nuts and bolts of taking part – what do I need to do, step by step

What do I gain? – benefits to the designer from participating in a blog round up.

Being featured in another bloggers blog hop is a very low effort collaboration on your part, if you are just letting another Blogger feature your pattern and write a mini review of it. All you need to do is offer your pattern under a request. That’s a fraction of the work of taking part in a blog hop! You may even be surprised to find yourself featured in a blog round up you didn’t know about, because someone came across your pattern, and included it, without asking. More about that below, under pros and cons.

In return, you will get eyes on your pattern, and traffic. That will never be the explosion of visitors a hop can create. But it can be a slow, steady evergreen trickle, which in its own way is actually far more useful.

Finally, taking part in the right pattern round up can be great social proof. If a big, well known and well respected Blogger features and recommends your work, that can help rapidly build trust.

And finally, backlinks. For those of us who put free patterns on a blog, we need to get other bloggers to point to our patterns. Otherwise Google itself doesn’t trust us, and won’t feature our patterns. According to ubersuggests, if i want to rank for ‘crochet hairband pattern’ and have Google show my crochet pattern to people, it is an easy keyword to rank for, and needs only a mere 15 backlinks to do well. 15 might be low in SEO terms, but it’s a giant mountain to climb for me. Every round up I can feature my pattern in is one step up the rankings, and an extra chance it will show on the first page of results.

Pros and cons of round ups

Round ups are easy and quick. They won’t take up days or weeks of your time.
They bring your pattern new visitors
They add social proof
And they create organic backlinks.

What’s not to love?

Some issues with blog Roundup Posts for designers

There is sadly nothing without a downside. Round up blog posts can be spammy, to say the least.
So, to take an example. I recently bought a drill and a circular saw. Enough years waiting for some man to come and rescue me, and do the urgent jobs needed around the house. Time to become a WITCH (Woman In Total Control of Herself). That’s my goal. And step 1 (for me) is learning how to use power tools properly. But they terrifying me. And while it may not make sense to others, I felt I could enjoy gaining confidence making some dolls furniture for my 18 inch dolls that I also write knitting patterns for, before tackling the bigger projects around the house. So I just wanted basic tutorials for making a table and chairs on a 1:4 scale for 18 inch dolls, using real wood and screws.

But finding a specific type of pattern isn’t always easy

I foolishly used Pinterest for my search. I should have known better, but I was on Pinterest creating my own pins anyway. What did I find? Every link Pinterest showed me was a round up. Every one. And none of them were for the right scale, or materials. I lost an hour which I won’t get back, opening links to round up style blog posts, where I still had to hunt inside the post, wasting time discovering what I wanted wasn’t there. So frustrating!
Many knitters, crocheters, sewers, quilters and other crafters moan about this problem. Facebook craft groups are full of these complaints. They want something specific. They search for it. But all they find are endless spammy round up posts that don’t deliver what they are looking for.
At their worst, blog round ups can be spammy, tawdry, and far from helping, just leave real crafters who really want our designs and tutorials feeling cross and resentful, as blog posts block up their search intent and stop them finding what they want.

A couple of other issues can crop up for designers.

Ownership concerns

As mentioned above, you may be surprised to find yourself featured in a blog round up you don’t even remember agreeing to take part in. Not all bloggers ask before adding a pattern to a blog round up.

And while it’s considered good manners to ask (in the crafting world anyway) it’s not required. Once you publish a pattern, it’s out in the world for others to discover, share, and celebrate—just like a book review or a restaurant recommendation. If a blogger includes your work in a roundup, they’re doing you a favor by sharing your talent with a new audience! As long as they credit you, link to your pattern, and respect copyright (e.g., using your photos with attribution), it’s a win for your visibility.

Most roundup hosts only highlight designs they love, so think of it as free promotion. If you’re not comfortable with this, consider how you’d like your work to be shared before publishing—and maybe add a polite note in your pattern description about how others can feature it. Remember, you can ban anyone from sharing the content. But you can’t ban anyone from doing a review, as long as they don’t breach copyright.

On the issue of copyright, however,

Recently, Pinterest has cracked down on pins featuring images that don’t belong to the original creator—even in roundups. This means if your design is included in a blogger’s roundup, Pinterest may suppress their pin if it uses your image, assuming it’s unauthorized. To work around this, some bloggers are now using AI-generated mockups of designs instead of original photos.
This has sparked debate: Some designers are uncomfortable with AI-altered images of their work circulating, while others see it as a necessary adaptation. If you’re concerned, here’s what you can do:
Clarify your preferences: Add a note to your pattern description (e.g., “You’re welcome to feature my design in roundups, but please use my original photos only
Communicate directly: If a blogger asks to include your work, let them know your stance on AI mockups
Stay informed: Pinterest’s policies are evolving, so keep an eye on updates from their creator guidelines
Ultimately, roundups are about collaboration and exposure. Whether you’re okay with AI mockups or prefer original images, clear communication helps everyone respect your boundaries.

Conclusion

Comparing this week’s topic of round ups to last week’s topic of blog hops
Much less work for you
Slower gains
Will never be surprised to find yourself in a blog hop, but you might not even know you were featured in a round up.
No need to give away premium patterns for free with a round up.
You don’t need your own blog to take part in a round up, just an etsy or ravelry listing.

Why Roundups Belong in Your Marketing Toolkit
Blog roundups are the quiet workhorses of collaborative marketing. Unlike blog hops, they require minimal effort from you—no hosting, no daily posts, no free patterns. Yet, they deliver steady benefits: backlinks for SEO, social proof from trusted bloggers, and evergreen traffic that trickles in long after the post goes live.
For designers short on time or hesitant to dive into active collaborations, round-ups are a gateway. They’re also a reminder that marketing doesn’t always need to be loud or labor-intensive. By strategically participating in (or even hosting) round-ups, you’re not just sharing your work—you’re building a network of peers who amplify your reach.
Your turn: Have you been featured in a round-up? Share your experience in the comments—or if you’re a blogger, tell us what makes a pattern stand out to you