Tag: Design

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Somebody’s Everything

You may or may not have noticed that I’m tending towards using song titles for my blog posts. Music has been a huge part of my life ever since my mum used to hum into the top of my head to help me sleep as a baby. (And, of course, there were the 21 years when I was a music teacher for 11-18 year olds!)

I’m feeling quite sentimental today as it’s our 15th anniversary. We started off with a Civil Partnership and converted it on our 9th anniversary so that we became legally married. It’s the most amazing thing to know that someone has got your back through thick and thin and that you’ve got theirs too. And Dolly Parton’s song is also rather splendid!

Looking back over the past week I can safely say it has been eventful. So many people’s plans for the next few days have been upended and here in Wales ‘non-essential’ businesses have once again had to close their doors. There is definitely an air of increased caution in our town and most people are being even more aware of giving each other space.

It’s great that Yarn O’clock has several people already signed up for our next MKAL. As a reminder, Llanberis is a colour-work accessory, using no more than 25g of each of 3 colours of DK yarn, released in three parts and starting on January 8th 2021. You can buy the pattern on its own from me, while Anne is selling kits in the shop (and will post/do click and collect). If you buy the pattern on Payhip, just make sure you tick the box underneath where you type your email address (to allow product updates), so I can easily send you each section of the pattern as it is released.

There are new two new calls for submissions for me to experiment with which is perfect timing now that I have got my second Craftucation course up and listed, (of course, my brain has started planning the next course already…) and I’ve been doing more spinning! Lots of yarnie things to play with.

Anne was delighted with her yarn, created from some of the fluff she gave me.

Teal and black yarn handspun to about a sport-weight, lying on the sideboard

Today’s post will be the final one of 2020. I will write again on January 5th. It sounds like a long way off and who knows what the world will have brought us by then, but, in reality, it is only two weeks.

Until then, stay as safe as you can, enjoy Christmas and New Year however you keep them, and keep knitting! K x

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Design Submissions

One of my favourite types of email landed in my inbox last night – a call for submissions. These have the effect of creating a serious case of ‘start-itis’, unless I’m up to my eyeballs in an existing project/design. Fortunately, I’ve reached the border on the shawl I’m currently designing for Yarn O’clock and I’m therefore allowing myself to be tempted.

Submission calls vary greatly. Some just have a word or idea, like ‘growth’, and these are the most open, but can also be the hardest to work with. Some come with big mood boards, showing inspirational pictures that are often nothing to do with knitting, but capture the theme or idea of the call. Some show knitted items in the style that would be welcomed, a kind of “this sort of thing, but not exactly this”. They all nearly always tell you what type of items are being looked for, what size range is needed, what type of knitted fabrics are wanted (lace, cables etc) and usually, but not always, what the ‘compensation’ is – how much they’ll pay.

The one I got yesterday is for ‘advanced lace’ shawls and wraps. This is right up my street and I love an excuse to get all complex! So, today I have begun my process towards submission. There’s always a lot to do, but I don’t mind that as if it doesn’t get selected then I’ll have a design ready and raring to go for someone else or for self-publication.

For the first time (influenced by my bullet journalling course) I have put a list down of all the steps I need to complete for the submission. I’ve done the first two, which might not seem much, but it’s an important start. For example, I try not to use silk anymore, so I’ve gone through the list of yarns available for this submission and selected ones that don’t contain silk. I’ve also rejected superwash yarns as I find they don’t keep their shape quite as well after blocking when working fine, open lace patterns. That left me with a choice of two! Using that I’ve gone through my stash (mostly looking at leftovers from previous designs/projects) and chosen some yarns that are a good match in terms of how they’re spun and what they’re made of (shown in pic at top). Now the fun can really begin. I think I will appreciate my list more and more in the next couple of weeks as there’s often something I will forget to do (like measuring the gauge – how many stitches and rows there are per 10cm).

My design submission job-list

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Keep knitting, K x