In some past e-mails from a friend, I was asked a bunch of questions, that, if answered, would help out a lot of people who are looking into submitting designs. I wrote back to her in an e-mail the other day (which, BTW I couldn't get my internet access to let me send it, so it's sitting on my computer at home waiting to be sent again... you'll get it soon, I swear), here are some of her questions:

How much time is usually given to finish a garment if your design is accepted?
I've had anywhere from 2–6 weeks. It all depends on how organized the publisher is and what part of the process they're in when your design is selected.

If they don't love the yarn you choose, do they change it, or do they forget your design altogether?
Most editors have a pretty good eye for seeing projects in different yarns. If your yarn isn't one that fits into their theme, but you design is, they will most likely accept the design but change the yarn.

Do they send you money for the yarn needed to finish the garment, or is that up to you?
For all the submissions I have had accepted, the yarn has been sent to me. I think it depends on time constraints, but sometimes the publisher will send the yarn, and sometimes it comes directly from the yarn company. I can't speak for all publishers, but this has been my experience.

Do you have any advice for what to keep in mind when swatching designs?
I try to be as detailed as possible. Show the fancy details of the design, if there is something special about the neck shaping, or the way the garment is shaped, or if there are multiple stitch patterns... swatch it all. The more detail you can show in your submisssion the better idea the editor can get of what the final piece will look like.

How do you choose the yarn?
This took me awhile to get the hang of, so you'll have to be patient with learning this skill. I've been working on learning more about different types of fibers. What are they used for generally? How do they drape when knitted in different stitch patterns, lace, cables, etc…? Is it a yarn that is relatively new to the market? Many publications like using newer yarns, so that is sometimes taken into consideration. There are lots of variables, you'll figure out what works best for you eventually... but keep in mind that there's always the possibility that they'll change the yarn on you anyway.

What is tech editing?
Tech editing is the process of double, and sometimes triple checking the pattern to make sure everything makes sense, and will actually work out correctly to make the garment that is expected. All the schematic measurements, pattern repeats, charts, shaping, math… everything is checked.

As an aside: I've always loved math, so I think that writing patterns and tech editing are just the cat's Meow. Purrrr

An appropriate next project...

August 30th, 2007

I must really be looking forward to Fall. This past week, has been pretty hot and muggy, but I've been knitting with cashmere. I must be a little crazy (just a little, hehe). No, so seriously, the air conditioning at work is a bit overbearing at times, and I end up wearing sweaters all year anyway because of it... so, that's the real reason.

I think that my fascination with the changing leaves has inspired this creation. Hence, the leaf pattern all over the body of the sweater. I'm about a third finished with both of the sleeves. I feel this project being finished by next week. Yay! I love fast projects. This one was started last Saturday evening, and the Body piece was finished Monday morning. Although, I did notice when I was blocking it that the shoulder shaping on the two fronts is slanting the wrong direction. So I'll have to fix that before sewing it up.

One of the pirks of working at a yarn company, is that sometimes there is something not-so-perfect about some yarn, and we need to get rid of it. Then, we can buy it cheap! To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure why this yarn was marked down, but I jumped at the opportunity to get cashmere at a good price.

I haven't decided what I'll be doing with this design yet. It may end up being sold to CEY's luxury department... in that case, you would need to purchase the yarn to receive the pattern free. If they don't want it, I'll come up with a less expensive yarn that could be substituted for Forbidden, and stick it up on my website.

Changing Leaves

August 24th, 2007

I'm really enjoying the experience this year of Summer changing to Fall. At the first sign of cooler weather I began watching the trees for a sign that Autumn is on its way. Each morning on my way into work I notice more and more color mixed amongst the various shades of green. I think this is one of my favorite times of year, close to the change from Winter to Spring. Both show the cycle of life, death and rebirth in such a beautiful manner.

I've been mostly designing for Spring and Summer, but now I'm really eager to be thinking about and swatching for cooler weather garments. I feel that there's more satisfaction in designing and knitting with a goal of keeping someone warm. While Spring/Summer time knitting is still rather enjoyable, it's not as easy to imagine how to keep someone cool during the sweltering hot afternoons by knitting them something.

Superwash or not?

August 23rd, 2007

Tuesday, while at work a bunch of us got into a conversation about what knitters prefer to knit with, superwash wool, or non superwash wool… My boss is pretty adament about her decision, but I'm not convinced that she really knows what the average knitter really wants. So, I've started a poll on the Knitting Help forum where knitters can vote. This is more of a personal inquiry rather than one for the company. They've decided what they are going to do, so it will in no way effect that. But I would love to know which you would prefer to knit with. Vote here.

Thanks everyone!

Finally… a place to design

August 22nd, 2007

Last Friday, when I arrived home from work, our apartment was sparkeling clean. Jim spent the whole day cleaning everything you could imagine… except my desk. Which makes sense, it's all my stuff. Because it was the only dirty thing in the whole apartment, I was pretty inspired to clean it off and set it up for knitting related things. I've been wanting an area that will inspire me to design, swatch, write patterns and tech edit. Once I found a home for every piece of paper and sewing notion that was cluttering my desktop, I started to bring in design items. Jim helped me screw a shelf into the wall above my desk, so I can keep the top of the desk clear for whatever I may need it for. I spent the rest of the day Saturday swatching and drawing schematics for upcoming magazine submissions. Then, I slipped each design into its own sheet protector and organized a 3 ring binder to hold them all. I plan on getting the actual submissions ready to go to the magazines sometime this week. They're not due until sometime in September, but they're ready, so I may as well get them finished. I'm also beginning to help Interweave Crochet with their tech editing, so this newly dedicated space will definitely be useful.

My Sundance market bag hasn't progressed much. I've been more in design mode, than knitting mode. I'm partially expecting this to be one of those projects that I pick up every few weeks and knit a few rows. Right now, I'm just too bored with the straight knitting to want to continue it much. I did pick it up on Sunday afternoon and knit 1 row. Then I packed it back into the bag it's in and set it aside. It will be finished someday.

Provence Broken Rib Yoke Debut!

August 14th, 2007

As promised, here is the pattern for the Provence Broken Rib Yoke. Enjoy!

Classic Elite has also sent this out in one their weekly web-letter. Pam and I came up with some great information on how to work short rows. If you're not sure how to do them, take a look before you start on this pattern. It'll be pretty helpful.

If you're interested in knitting one of these, please join me in the Classic Elite Knitalong.

See you there!

Yay! I'm human

August 13th, 2007

As you can see, the stitch pattern in the image to the right doesn't look exactly the same as the stitch pattern in the post below. I realized this over the weekend... I was knitting happily along, and suddenly I remembered looking at the bag this past week while at work. It dawned on me that I didn't remember there being any vertical lines noticible in the lace pattern. But mine certainly has vertical lines.

The stitch pattern said to "Slip 2 sts knitwise, k1, pass the 2 slipped sts over", so, I grabbed 2 sts together and slipped them, knit 1 st, then passed my slipped stitches over my knit stitch. This decreases 2 stitches, which the pattern calls for, but the way I did it decreases 1 stitch on each side of the center stitch, thus creating a vertical line (or many, as it seems…)

I talked to Cecily a moment ago, to double check exactly how she did this decrease stitch when she knit the original market bag. She did slip 2 stitches, knit 1 and pass the slipped stitches over the knit stitch, but as I watched her do it I noticed that she slipped her stitches one at a time, rather than both of them together. It's funny how such a simple mistake can lead to such a different looking result. So... if you're interested in making this bag the way I did, do what I did in the second paragraph, otherwise slip your stitches one at a time.

Because I'm getting somewhat bored with the pattern as it is, I'm thinking that I'm going to make the other side using the correct method. This way I can pick and choose which side I want to show to the world depending on my mood. Plus, it'll be a little more interesting to knit.

Market Bag Progress

August 10th, 2007

I'm exactly half way up one side of the Market bag. It measures 71⁄2". Once I get to 15" I can bind off (Yay!) It's going pretty quickly, but I'm getting restless with repeating the same pattern over and over without anything extra to hold my attention, like side shaping. I s'pose I could start counting the rows, just to give me a goal, and the ability to note progress. It's funny, it doesn't feel like I've knit much more of it since I photographed it the other day, but once I opened up my blog, I noticed that I had only done 4 rows of the lace. It wasn't until then that it dawned on me that progress has been made, despite it not feeling like it. I guess that's why photographs are helpful… so here's another photo, er scan.

I also wanted to get this into writing, because it's something that's been somewhat amusing to me lately. On Thursday, August 2nd I noticed that each time I was driving around—it didn't matter where I was going or what time of day it was—I would see a New York license plate. That's just the day I became aware of it happening... I still see them each time I'm driving, without fail. I know New York is not very far away from Massachusetts, but I'm really beginning to wonder why there are so many New Yorkers driving through Massachusetts. I saw 3 on my drive home from work yesterday. I can't say this is something that I've ever experienced before. It's not like I'm seeing a Connecticut or Rhode Island plate (which are relatively closer than NY). Meh, who knows. Just an amusing coincedence I guess. Figured I'd share.

Some Picture Updates

August 7th, 2007

Last night I cast on for the Sundance Market Bag! I made the executive decision NOT to do a swatch, just because I really didn't feel like it. I'm usually adamently against not taking gauge, but I feel like I can allow myself at least one project where gauge doesn't matter, so I don't check it.

Over this past weekend, I began and finished a different market bag. It was crocheted in a pretty simple pattern that worked up SO fast. I did however change the handle design to make it into a back pack. I have been doing my food shopping by bike lately, and having a back pack market bag just made so much more sense. Sometimes we need to get more things than I can carry back on my bike, so I'm thinking more than one market bag can't hurt.

I must be on some sort of bag kick. I just remembered that I still haven't debuted the Banana Bag. I've been carrying it around with me since it's been finished, so it's probably a little more beat-up than the majority of the projects I post. But that's only natural. I should write down this pattern before I forget what I did...

I really underestimated how much the garter stitch strap would stretch out. When I'm wearing it, I need two hands to reach anything inside it. One to lift up the bag, and the other to dig in and search. Totally worth it though! I love the bag.

I've been considering making a lining for it someday too. One of these days when the magic faries decide to add a few extra hours onto my day, perhaps.

Classic Elite Knitalong

August 4th, 2007

Just because I thought it would be fun, I started up a knit-a-long (KAL) for anyone who is interested in knitting any of Classic Elite's free patterns available from the Web-Letters. I'm sure you've seen the Web-Letters by now, I've been talking about them alot lately... so, if you're interested in knitting any of the patterns available come join me in the KAL!

Provence Broken Rib Yoke Debut - August 14!

August 3rd, 2007

I've decided that I am going to hold off on the photo debut of the Provence Broken Rib Yoke until after the pattern is ready and Classic Elite sends it out in their web-letter. Which is scheduled for August 14th. I'm hoping you're all signed up and as eager to see it as I am! I'm planning on having a little information about short rows and different types of cottons. I've certainly learned quite a bit while researching this. I learn a little something new with each one of the web-letters we do. Working on these with Pam is really keeping my creativity flowing into knitting and crocheting, which is great! I feel like I've been on some what of a creative stand still. But since we started working on these I've had ideas coming to me non-stop!

One of my VERY first designs

August 1st, 2007

While I was visiting my dad tonight he asked me to go through a bunch of things that he thought belonged to either my sister or me. In doing so, I came across one of the many crocheted slippers that I had made when I was pretty young. I'm going to have to say I was between the ages of 10 and 12 when I was creating these. I'm not exactly positive of the exact time-frame, but that gives you an idea.

I'm surprised that it still (relatively) fits me; and I'm actually impressed that I took into consideration the curve that each foot has. I can tell that this slipper was made specifically for a right foot. It seems as though I had used some sort of instinctual knowledge of short rowing to do this. The bottom of the slipper was made using a tunesian method of crochet, which makes it thicker than the rest of it, which is made using single crochet. I'm really thinking or copying this "design" and coming up with something new from it. As a design that was created by a kid, I'm pretty impressed, even though it was me.

My Raw journey

Patterns for Sale

Tweed Beret

Violet, the Slouchy Head Friend

Lush Woven Scarf

Petal Socks

River of Life Socks

Crochet Motif Cardigan

Beatrice Ribbed Tie Coat