Designing: Some Pieces of Advice

A few weeks ago one of the ladies at Knit Night asked how I got started as a knitwear designer. So here are some pieces of advice that I found really helpful and some things I wish I would have known when I started.

• Knit. A lot. Learn new skills and ask questions. Read as many knitting books as you can and take knitting classes. Spend time at your local yarn store and with other knitters.
• Start small. Tweek existing patterns to get a knit just how you want it. Try your hand at writing patterns for your own projects. Once you feel comfortable doing that, consider writing a simple pattern to eventually self-publish.
• Get other eyes to look at your patterns. Look for test knitters and listen closely to their questions, suggestions and comments as they work through your pattern. Some good places to find possible test knitters are on Ravelry threads or at knit nights. Never forget that your testers are spending their time and effort and yarn on your designs and you need to be certain to value that.
• Find a tech editor to help you with your patterns. Hiring a good tech editor can be a costly but necessary step. Or you may be surprised to find that a trusted friend or family member might have just the skills you need for this in the beginning. Again remember to value the time of anyone who is helping you.
• Be resilient. If something fails, take the time to find out why and how to fix it.
• Publish. If you decide this is the right fit for you, at some point you are going to have to be brave enough to actually click “publish” on your first pattern. It is very easy to get into the trap of thinking you need to do more or learn more before you can actually begin. Being prepared and learning your craft is very important, but you can’t let learning about the thing keep you from actually doing the thing. To sort of quote the inspirational memes we’ve all seen – “If you wait until you are ready, you’ll be waiting forever.” Sometimes that first step is the hardest.
• If you want someone to buy a design from you, they have to trust you. For me this meant self-publishing many, many designs from 2011 to 2017. I thought of my early patterns as starting a foundation of built up trust in me and my pattern writing so I offered many of them for free or at discounts in the beginning.
• Once you are ready to start submitting in response to Calls for Submissions, don’t take it personally if a submission is rejected. It doesn’t mean you are not cut out to be designer; it just means that this submission didn’t work. I generally set a goal for myself to submit a minimum of two design ideas a month with the understanding that many of them will not be accepted. In fact, if all of my design submissions were accepted I would really scramble to meet the deadlines.

You’ll definitely learn more as you go! Below is a look at some of my designs changing and growing between 2011 and 2017. Top left corner starts in 2011 and follow through like reading lines of a book to 2017 at the bottom. Currently I have more than 60 designs out in the wild through Ravelry, LoveKnitting, Knit Picks, Cascade, WEBS, Love of Knitting magazine, Knit Now magazine and others. All grown from being brave enough to click “publish” on my first pattern.

2011

2015

2011

2012

2012

2015

2011

2014

2011

2017, photo provided by Knit Picks

2014

2015

2016

2017

2017

2017

2017, photo provided by Cascade Yarns

2017, photo provided by Love of Knitting

2017

2017

2018

Photo Courtesy of Cascade Yarns

2018, photo provided by Knit Now

 

 

 

Hiking: Merit Badge

You know how I said we needed to get back out on the trail for family hikes? And how it was such a great way to connect with my teen and almost teen boys? Well, it looks like I’m going to get my wish.

The older boy wants to earn his Hiking Merit Badge for Boy Scouts. That is a great goal for him! And also means we’ll be back out on the trail as a family a lot over the coming spring and summer. Especially since the younger boy will want to earn his badge too.

I just looked up the requirements. And I couldn’t help thinking to myself – “Wow! We just did almost all of that training for the Grand Canyon hike. Why, oh why, did we not pay attention and do the preparation and book-work for this as we trained?”

The requirements for this are pretty straight forward. He needs to walk one 5-mile hike, three 10-mile hikes, one 15-mile hike and one 20-mile hike. Stopping for short rest periods and meals as needed are allowed, stopping overnight is not. And he needs to do the preparation and planning for these hikes.

We’ve already done all of that except the 20-mile hike and we were in perfect shape to finish off with that hike right after we got back from the Grand Canyon.

Then I realized – you know what this does? This gets us back out on the trails together as a family. It gets us all working together on hiking goals. It gets the boys planning where we’ll hike and what we’ll eat on the trail. And it makes it all their idea!! That is pretty great.

Wonder where they’ll take us? I’m hoping somewhere in the Southwest.

Pattern Spotlight: Masala

Published in 2015 Masala is a simple top down raglan v-neck with alternating leaf stitch at the bottom of the sleeves and body. Tunic length with instructions to shorten if desired. Waist and hip shaping for flattering fit. Written in 7 sizes. Leaf stitch is charted and written. Sample knit in Cascade Ultra Pima Fine color 3771 (Paprika).

Masala is my favorite of my series of top-down tees. The color, the length, the neckline and the drape of it make it a great fit for me. And Masala works well for me with my two favorites – either jeans or a maxi skirt.

Masala is available through Ravelry, LoveKnitting, WEBS and Craftsy.

 

 

Sneak Peek: Ariana

The Ariana test knit is almost finished. This is a tough time of year for test knits because everyone is busy with knitting for themselves after the rush to finish holiday gifts. Plus almost no one is quite ready to start buying yarn in sweater quantities just yet. So I’m extra grateful for the testers that put down their own projects, dug deep in their stash and offered their own time and thought to help test this sweater!

Ariana is a simple top-down seamless raglan with mock cable edging on the body, sleeves and neck. Ariana also features subtle waist and hip shaping for flattering fit and a split hem. Written in 7 sizes. No cables or cable needle!

I love this sweater a lot and think it will be my go-to sweater for the season. I just wore it for a day of watching the boys and husband ski. I really like the comfy feel of it and the split hems!

New Pattern: Judy

Every year I fill a Christmas Basket for the holidays and take it around as we visit family and friends to let everyone pick their favorite piece as a gift. Here is a picture of a partially emptied Christmas Basket from our 2017 holidays. If you look close at the basket above, you’ll notice that you see exactly zero ponytail hats in it. That’s because they were snatched up as fast as I could knit them this season. I’m not exaggerating to say that several of them were claimed before they got off the needles and worn immediately after I sewed in the ends.

I made the same hat over and over again with no variation to the number of cast-on stitches or the yarn (except colors). It fit a little slouchy on Corrine, just right on Amanda and Kaylene, a little loose Tessie, a little tight on Naomi and so on………you get the picture – one size really did fit most. Also, I made a lot of them over the holidays.

From time to time I like to offer a free pattern. So, I’m releasing this simple one-size ponytail hat recipe for free. Find the pattern here. (Named Judy after a sweet pony from my childhood.)

As an added bonus, here is a look at some of the steps from yarn to hat. (I think I might actually get to keep this one for myself since the holidays are long over!)

 

My tools for this hat started with The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd and Knit Picks self-striping Felici Worsted. I worked up a simple gauge swatch to decide which needles worked best for me with this yarn and to measure my gauge. It would take a whole blog post to say everything I think about gauge swatches – so I’ll shorten that to just say I think they are definitely worth the time it takes to cast on 20-ish stitches and work for a couple inches in whatever stitch pattern you plan to use for your project.

 

From my gauge and the tables in the book I determined a number of cast-on stitches I hoped would be generic enough to fit most head sizes and I worked 2×2 ribbing for an extremely long ribbing section of 2.5″. My reasoning was that knit fabric is stretchy so that would help with any heads that were a little larger than my guessed generic size and ribbing helps tighten the stretchy so that would help with any heads that were a little smaller than my guessed generic size.

After that I switched to stockinette stitch and knit every round until the hat measures 8.25″ from the cast-on edge. That turned out to be just the right length for some heads and slightly slouchy for other heads. (If you’re looking closely at the background on these photos, you’ll notice that I knit almost this whole hat between my turns while we played a very long family board game one Saturday afternoon.)

 

Since this is a simple ponytail hat the decreases are very down and dirty from at this point and accomplished over just 4 rounds – a first decrease round of k2tog around, a knit round, a second decrease round of k2tog and a final knit round. Then I bound off all remaining stitches loosely in knit and sewed in the ends.

 

Now I’m going to try to keep a hold of it before someone else claims it!! I put a link to the free pattern earlier in this blog post. But I’m including it again here just in case you’ve made it to the end without clicking the earlier link.