#amelia bartlett

Searching through endless seas of woolen beanies on Ravelry can become unsatisfyingly redundant… especially if you’re looking to mix up your style! Adding a knitted hat can take your outfit from boring to boho or from comfy to loungewear-chic when paired properly. Each of these hats are beginner-friendly and are lightweight enough to wear all year long.

Far Hills Hat, by Jared Flood

The Far Hills Hat by Jared Flood gives us serious cafe-grind vibes. Even if you don’t have big, bouncy curls like the model in this photo, letting your hair loose beneath this fitted, textured cap makes the statement, “I’m focused, and not just on style.” If you’ve not yet knitted from a chart or would like a smaller project to get reacquainted with the method, this hat is your go-to next project.

Link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/far-hills-hat

Dresden Beret, by Tara-Lynn Morrison

Not all lightweight hats are suitable for day and night wear. Think sun hats, visors, and bonnets… not exactly what we have in mind when we’re headed out for cocktail hour. The Dresden Beret is a minimal quick-knit that goes from a day trip to the farmers market to the jazz club on a Saturday evening with ease. Whip one up in your favorite shade of Malabrigo Rios for a bright remix of the forest-y sample.

Link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dresden-beret

Go!, by Andrea Mowry

Doesn’t this hat scream spring? Go! by Andrea Mowry is recommended in a super-light DK weight merino wool, making it the perfect transition hat for inbetween weather. This pattern is unisex so you and your partner can each enjoy this cap in your favorite color. In Mowry’s words about her stitch choice, “I chose the arrow motif as a friendly reminder to push on.” Keep her words in mind as you push on and add this cap to your knitwear collection.

Link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/go

Norby, by Gudrun Johnston

Maybe it’s the dainty tassels, maybe it’s the zigzag alternating texture from brim to crown… we love every element of Norby. Knit in ultra-light fingering weight yarn in a modest continuous text, this hat will help build your stitch confidence. The lightweight yarn leads to a generous stretch in the finished garment, so be sure to check your gauge as you knit and block accordingly!

Link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/norby

Instagram’s latest algorithm update + how to enjoy to the fullest.

A few times each year, Instagram updates their algorithm, AKA the wizardry that organizes your feed, helps you find new content, and determines how many (or how few) users see your content. The algorithm is usually a source of stress for business owners, whose primary complaint is that “if you aren’t paying for ads, your posts aren’t getting seen.” While this may be true for parent company Facebook, this couldn’t be farther from the truth about Instagram!

How Instagram’s algorithm creates your experience

The content - photos and videos - that you engage with, the accounts that you follow, and the hashtags you follow and use determine how your Instagram feed is displayed. Whether you follow 50 people or 5000 people, you’re only seeing a small fraction of what your following is sharing.

Each time you like or comment on a photo in your feed, the Instagram algorithm recognizes this engagement and prioritizes photos by that same person and that have similar subject-matter over the rest of your following’s posts. I engage frequently with 10 - 12 people, so I see their posts first, at the top of my feed, whenever I open the app.

Your Explore Page is curated just for you.

In addition to content posted by the users you follow, your Explore page is a cornucopia of photos, video, and Instagram Stories that the algorithm is certain you will like. Instagram uses machine learning to analyze your behavior within the app, and customizes the content it choose for you, especially inside the Explore feed, based on all of your activity.

Say you recently followed a few illustrators, following a trail of “Similar Accounts” and discovering new artists. Your Explore feed will shortly update to include not just more artists, but illustrators who are publishing similar-style work and may even be profiles you viewed, but chose not to follow.

To learn more about the Explore page, read our [latest post on why you definitely want your business page showing up in the Explore page]!

How the algorithm delivers (or doesn’t deliver) your content to your followers

Just as the algorithm customizes your feed based on the accounts you engage with the most, and the content you seem to like best, Instagram determines whether or not they will deliver your content to the people who follow you based on the same principles. If a users continues to engage with your posts after they’ve followed you, and especially if they engage with similar-content and similarly styled posts from other users, your posts will continue to land closer to the top of your followers’ feeds.

Seen a dip in engagement lately? Or feel like you can’t break through? Lack of engagement from your followers leads Instagram’s algorithm to believe that you aren’t creating quality content, and therefore pushes your posts lower down on everyone’s feed. This can happen if you are inconsistent in your posting, publishing at inopportune times, and if your content is - unfortunately to say - not very good.

If you’re worried your content isn’t up to par, visit our comprehensive [guide to taking better Instagram photos].

Try these tips to increase engagement on your posts and boost their standing in your followers’ feeds:

1.  Publish quality content consistently. By improving your photography, keeping a consistent style and subject-theme, and posting regularly (almost everyday, if you can manage), you’ll surely see a boost in engagement.

2.  Engage with those who engage with you. While it’s nice to have friends and family consistently supporting your posts, building a community outside your immediate network is crucial to your growth and success on Instagram. When a new person follows you, head over to their profile and like a few of their photos. When someone comments on your post, comment back and visit their page to show some love. I’m not suggesting you ‘follow back’ every person who follows you, but build trust and community within your network to improve your sustainable engagement.

3. Write captions people will actually read. Some of us are scrollers, some of us are readers. Regardless of your personal Instagram style, put thought into your captions for the people who will read them - which are more users than you might think!

How the algorithm delivers your content to new people and non-followers

Growing your Instagram following might be the best thing you focus on for your business + brand this year. Instagram’s algorithm is one of the most powerful advertising tools when used correctly. Think of it as a word-of-mouth robot that knows 800 million people and only shows your content to people who will actually care about it, because they’re proven to have cared about similar content in the past.

If you haven’t heard this enough yet, I’ll reiterate: HASHTAGS. Think of hashtags like a community - by applying the hashtag to your photo, you’re entering your photo into the pool of posts by hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. Anyone who clicks on that hashtag has the opportunity to see your post. While Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags, we’re starting to see that using only a few targeted, specific hashtags that relate to communities in which you’re cultivating a network, are most effective (and attractive) for regular posting.

Learn more about hashtags in our Hashtag How-To post.

Geotag your photos, as specifically or as vaguely as you want. Have you ever surfed the geotag (the location that appears at the top left hand corner of an Instagram post) and marveled at all the different perspectives, angles, and photos users have shared? By geotagging your posts, users who are interested in that specific area will see your post in the location feed, and potentially discover your profile.

The Explore page is where the algorithm shines, as it is an aggregate of posts (which expand into specific topic-like feeds) based on a user’s direct interests. If a user is interested in your style, craft, business, product, or lifestyle, they are the users you want to see your posts. By increasing the overall engagement of your posts, you are increasing the chance that your post is featured on the Explore page of a user who doesn’t follow you (yet). There isn’t a way to track if you’re featured on the Explore page, but we’ll share how once the option is released!

[ AMELIA BARTLETT ] ◆ Thirty-Two ◆ Civilian :: Homicide Detective

“There are a lot of innocent people in Chicago dying on the streets. They’re wondering if there will ever be peace; friends, family, parents and children. This isn’t their fight. But they are the ones who suffer.”

↳THE PAST 

The life of a Bartlett wasn’t an easy one. Amelia’s parents owned a small dry cleaner shop and barely managed to pay their bills on time.  Prompting her older brother, Elliot, to take part in a business that was sure to render some profit — drug dealing. He joined the ranks of the Red Clubs to help his family in their time of need, though he never really belonged in the sort of lifestyle that came with being a Red Club. It wasn't until Amelia found out that things began getting a little more complicated than he had expected. Amelia worked tirelessly to convince her brother that there were safer, more legitimate ways of earning that kind of money, though there was little evidence to support her claim. Every night she’d stay up, watching the door, waiting for her brother to return from another day of work. And when he’d walk in, a wave of relief would pass over her. But this false sense of security only lasted so long and soon Amelia did not see her brother return through their front door, but instead answered it to a couple of policeman informing her of her brother’s death.

↳ THE PRESENT

Amelia has completely changed her life around since her brother's death occurred. Instead of continuing with her small jobs such as waitressing, she went to the police academy to become a homicide detective. She has dedicated her life to finding her brothers killer. She spent her time day and night in the streets of Wonderland, promoting justice and good throughout the city. Amelia is an incredibly determined woman with a thirst to prove herself and to get revenge for her brother. She is fully confident in her abilities and is absolutely dedicated to her work and family above all else. Having come from a not very wealthy family, Amelia still sends a check home every month to make sure that her family is well taken care of. They have always been the most important thing to Amelia and after her brothers death, she has only become even more protective of them, hence why she now keeps her case on the Wonderland gangs a secret from them. She doesn't want them getting involved like her brother had, unable to even stand the though of losing another family member to the very thing she hated most. Years after her brother’s death, she has still not found his murderer but she continues to take jabs at the gangs, hoping that one day she’ll not only solve her brother’s case but also bring an end to the madness. 

+ Observant, Intelligent, Quick-Witted

- Vengeful, Obsessive, Tunnel-Visioned 

↳ CONNECTIONS

Sophia Rhodes ◆ Acquaintance: Amelia is a frequent visitor at the Queen's Garden, knowing it was neutral ground and she could keep an eye on the royals there. She is constantly pestering Sophia with questions and has no idea how annoyed Sophia gets with her.

Carter Pillar ◆ Suspect: Amelia has heard through the grapevine that Carter is one of the more ruthless of those in Wonderland and she finds him quite the mysterious character. She has started to look more into him in hopes that she has finally found her brothers killer.

James Spade ◆ Enemy: It didn't slip past her notice that the Prince of Spades himself had started spending time around her. She is not blind to the charms he has turned on her, but she is incredibly wary of his advances and keeps her gun close whenever she runs into him.

Ava Cobalt ◆ Close Friend: Out of all the people on the force, Amelia gets along best with Ava. She hasn't quite filled her in on everything concerning her brother yet, but she trusts her above all others.

Maia West ◆ Acquaintance: Amelia has singled Maia out as one of the weaker links of the Black Spades. Although she hasn't had many encounters with her yet, Amelia has been following her and hopes to get on her good side in order to gain information.

↳ STATUS

Faceclaim: Jennifer Morrison [ MODERATELY NEGOTIABLE ]

Availability: Deceased