If I'm going to be a designer I need to start calling myself a designer. So here goes: I am a knitting designer!Here are several of the patterns I've published and put up for sale on Ravelry and Craftsy. What do I like about designing? Finding a stitch pattern that I like and then coming up with the final product, while doing the research involved in figuring out how to put the particular stitch pattern onto paper as I'm knitting the new shawl/scarf, etc. I'm partial to scarves, especially triangular shawls. They are small enough to fit in my purse and take out when I get cold during a summer movie, and it layers nicely over a jean jacket in the fall and spring.
What is my design process? Firs,t I look through the stitch pattern dictionaries that I have looking for a stitch pattern. Then I swatch the stitch pattern and jot down notes in this
handy notebook and then write the pattern as I knit. Writing as I knit can be a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I'm knitting as I'm designing the pattern, bad thing because if I jot down notes and then loose those notes it's a little tricky trying to figure out what I knit. A good friend suggested that I dictate as I knit, which I think is a fabulous idea. Guess what? The new iPad has that feature...lucky me. (I'll let you know how it works out the next time I'm designing a pattern)After I've written the pattern by hand, I type it up and add pictures. Normally I edit the pattern myself. This time I decided to utilize a knitting technical editor. On Ravelry, I went to the tech editor section of the Indy Pattern Designers' Resource forum. I tried one tech editor but she sent me an email that she couldn't take on any new work at this time. Scrolling through the tech editor thread I found Holly from sillylittlelady. Her extensive knitting background and her love of math and the fact that she was just starting out as a tech editor stood out and made me want to give her a try. After emailing her with my request and sending her the pattern, I hear from her right away stating her availability. The process was easy. In less than a couple of hours she had sent back her corrections. And after communicating back on forth several times with questions, and corrections, the pattern was done! The best part is that until August 10 she is offering a special. Check out her Sillylittlelady's Space for more information.
The pattern is now with the pattern testers and should be ready for publishing by mid August.
Why hadn't I used a tech editor before? I thought I was good enough to check any typos and mistakes, Holly caught some pretty obvious typos that I missed. I also thought that I had the math correct, it turns out that I was missing a total of 8 stitches, thanks to Holly she caught that huge mistake and helped me write the missing 'row' in a more concise manner.
Thank you Holly, for future patterns, you are my tech editor!
