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The Design Process, Part 2, The Sample

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The other week, I realized that many people who knit or crochet never give much thought to how they get their patterns.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about the different phases of the design process, and why a pattern might not be as perfect as you wanted it to be.  Last week I talked about the concept.  Today I’ll be talking about the sample, and in the next few weeks you’ll read about the pattern, photography, and layout.

A designer has pitched an idea to a publisher, and signed a contract to create a pattern and sample.  What happens next?

If a designer is lucky, they have a fair amount of time to turn around and create a design, but this isn’t always true.  It takes time for a publisher to choose a yarn to send the designer and for the mail to get it to them.  A designer might also be working on several different designs at once, and have to juggle multiple competing deadlines.  Turnaround time can be anything from 2-8 weeks.

Sample for my Teaching Socks


Wait, you say.  A designer doesn’t always get to choose the yarn?  Normally, a designer gets some say in what yarn they want to use: the weight and fiber content.  However, they don’t always get to choose what color or even necessarily the yarn line they want to use.  While a designer might pitch to a company for a project to be made in a wool worsted weight yarn, the company might change it to a cotton wool blend, if that is the yarn that needs to be highlighted in the issue.  If a designer is working for a magazine, the magazine might have agreements with specific yarn companies to feature their yarn in the magazine.  


Alternatively, if a designer is working for a company, the specific yarn style or color they might want may be in the process of being discontinued or not longer available.  There’s the expectation of a certain amount of flexibility on the part of the designer.

When the designer receives the agreed upon yarn, it then becomes time for them to craft a sample.  The sample is the garment that will be used to publicize the design.  It’s a way for a designer to work the pattern, and figure out if there are any problem areas.  The sample will be used for the photography for the design (like the pictures at Tangled of my Sunburst Shawl), and afterwards, it might be shipped out to yarn stores in a trunk show or displayed at booths at trade shows.  Sometimes, after all this is done, the designer might get back their sample.  Most times however, it remains the property of the publisher.

A variety of methods and processes exist in how a sample gets made.  Some designers write the pattern first, and then use the sample to test out the pattern they have written. 


Sometimes the designer writes the pattern, and then hires someone else to make the sample for him or her.  Some designers aren’t able to write a pattern without making the sample, so make the garment and take careful notes as they go, so they can write the instructions afterwards.

Hopefully, the pattern goes as expected.  It might not.  The designer might find that the yarn they swatched with works out differently than the yarn they were sent.  Perhaps they find that the yarn is too heavy for the construction of their sample, or the stitches don’t like they way the designer expected.  Occasionally the way the garment is made has to be totally re-imagined.

The last part of working the sample is the finishing.  This might involve blocking the individual pieces before putting them together.  It might mean adding buttons, blocking out lace, weaving in ends, adding zippers, lining, or fixing imperfections.

It’s then time to move toward writing the pattern.

I’ve always been terrible about keeping secrets

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So when I was little, the two people you didn’t tell a secret to in our family was my father and myself.  My father, because he’d keep your secret, but would drive you bonkers in the process.  (Imagine just before Christmas  and my father going to us kids, “I know what your mother got you.  You want to know?” Us kids: No.  “Are you sure?  It’s really cool.”  Us kids: we want it to be a surprise.  “You want me to give you a hint?”)  And there was me, who just simply couldn’t keep exciting news in me.  Not because I told either, just because my whole demeanor changes when I know something nobody else knows.

Well, I have to share this with you.

Today I got an e-mail from Classic Elite Yarns, specifically Susan Mills.  She had some questions for me about my design.  But attached to her e-mail was what simply has become the highlight of my day.  Some proof pictures of my Crochet Top that is going to be published this spring.

They’re simply beautiful.  Gorgeous in a way I can’t describe.  It’s such a clutch to the heart to see something you worked so hard on made more beautiful – Classic Elite Yarns really has a great team that does the photoshoots.

I can’t show you the pictures – not until they are published – but I’ll tell you it’s in a lovely rose and purple.  And it’s in Classic Silk.

Not the color, but it is the yarn.

And that’s all I can give you.

New Pattern: Totoro

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Exciting news today: I’ve got a new pattern out with Three Irish Girls called Totoro.  It’s being released as a club pattern for a while, and then it will be for sale for the public.  Check it out on Ravelry, or stay tuned for this next week, where I’ll be talking about all the time and effort it took to pull the pattern together.  This set of socks has a story behind it, let me tell you!

There’s already quite a bit of chatter over the sock in the the Sock Yarnista Club Group.  Go check it out.

Feline Friday – Peake

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The only time I can get a picture of Peake is when he is sleeping.  Truly.

When Michael and I were bringing Watson and Peake home, the only thing we had for the cats was a litter box.  Adopting them came rather suddenly, as we’d only been officially looking for a few days.

So on our way home, we didn’t have a box or a carrier to put them in.  So while Michael drove the car, I kept the two kittens in the front seat, between my legs.  While Watson was content to curl up and purr beneath my feet, Peake felt it necessary to climb up on my lap and watch all the traffic go by.

When we go to the vet’s, Peake is the one that leads the way out of the carrier (it fits the both of them) to investigate the room.

Peake is nearly 1.25 lbs larger than Watson, and just slightly more frisky.  He’s more of a proximity cat than a cuddle cat.  Interestingly enough, he’s the one that purrs more often, which is saying something, because the only time they aren’t purring is when I accidentally step on them in the middle of the night.

Feline Friday – Watson

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When Michael and I adopted Peake and Watson, I was hoping that two cats might give me an edge.  You see, I have this terrible problem.  Cats love Michael.  Doesn’t matter where we are, strays will try to follow him home, cats that aren’t friendly even to their owners will love Michael.  We’ll go to a friend’s house, and by the end of the night, if that person has a cat, the cat will be camped out on Michael’s lap.

Watson sleeping

It’s problematic for two reasons.  I have to compete with the cat for Michael’s affections *grins* AND I don’t stand a chance of a cat liking me more than Michael.  I was hoping that if we had two cats, I’d increase my chances of one of them liking me at least as much as Michael.

If I have any hope of that happening, it rests with Watson.  Watson shows all signs of mellowing out into a cuddle cat.  While he isn’t there yet (he’s still a kitten, though less so than in this picture) he will be the one to leap into my lap when I’m working at my desk and snuggling with me.

The Design Process, Part 1, the Concept

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The other day, I was talking to a customer about a pattern from a magazine.  She had come across a line that was particularly confusing in one part of the pattern, and had come into The Yarn Spot seeking help.  We puzzled over it for a couple of minutes and managed to get the pattern sorted out.

“I wish she had explained it better.  You would think that a designer would have more pride in their work,” I remember her saying.


At the time I let the comment stand, because I could understand her frustration. But as a designer, I felt it would be interesting to talk about patterns and their relationship with designers. The design process encompasses much more than just the pattern in the magazine.  It is entirely possible that the designer explained the pattern better in their original draft, but because of space constraints a magazine editor revised it to be shorter, sacrificing clarity.


Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about the different aspects of what happens during the design process, and why a pattern might not be as perfect as a designer wanted it to be.  I’ll be discussing the design process by further breaking it down into 5 key phases (though they don’t always come in this order):  the concept, the sample, the pattern, photography, and layout.


Let’s start with The concept.


Approximately 4-9 months before a magazine, booklet, book, or single pattern is scheduled to be published, the publisher sends out a design call.


Depending on the company and the medium, a design call can be many different things.  For a magazine, the editors might have a specific  theme in mind for that issue of the magazine.  For example, Interweave Knits might be doing a spring issue, and they want transitional pieces, pieces that move from winter to spring.  A yarn company might publish booklets to go with their yarn.  Classic Elite Yarn might want something that highlights their Classic Silk yarn.  Someone might want to publish a book all on designs inspired by Sherlock Holmes.  Once a publisher decides on the details of their theme, they put out a press release (most commonly via e-mail or on their website {like here, here or here) talking about the types of designs they want.  

Drawing of Idea

Designers are constantly keeping track of these different design calls.  Not all design calls fit all designers, so most pick and choose which ones they want to work on, and which ones they have the most likely-hood of getting into.


Swatch

Then, designers dream.  They draw pictures, create swatches, do math and layout schematics.  Finally they come up with an idea that they think it will work.  They put together everything they have done – the drawing, swatches, schematics and submit it to the company.


Designers then wait, work on other projects they have under contract and plan other ideas for design calls.  If their proposal is what the editors are looking for, they are notified with an offer to publish their design.  A contract with the publisher is signed, and the publisher (most often) sends them the yarn to create the sample.


But that’s another post.

Feline Friday

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Zephyr

You might have noticed a while ago that I let the feline friday feature fade from the blog.  There were several reasons for this – Zephyr, our room mate’s cat, became very sick after Michael and I moved from our room mate’s apartment.  A few months later, he died, and I found it hard to post pictures of him after he had gone.

However, a few months ago Michael and I decided it was time to adopt a cat of our own in our new apartment.  *grins*  In the course of a weekend it turned from one cat to two, and shortly afterwards we found a family that had adopted two kittens only to find that their children were allergic.

I’ve now accumulated enough pictures of our two cats that I feel comfortable re-opening this feature.

Let me introduce you to Watson and Peake.  Peake is named after the C&O’s famous Chessie‘s husband, Peake (I’ll talk about the history of that more another time).  Michael’s family has a (formerly) grey tabby named Chessie (she darkened with age, and is now a black cat).  It felt appropriate to name our grey tabby Peake.  Also, Zephyr is the name of a rail line in Califorina (the California Zephyr), so it was nice to stick with the theme in honor of Zephyr.

Watson is white, and his name has less meaning behind it – Michael and I have a list (of course we do) of good cat names.  Watson was the one that seemed to fit.  Watson isn’t really entirely white – he has the smallest smudge of black/brown on his forehead.  It looks like he got a bit of soot there, and he hasn’t groomed it away yet.

Peake and Watson

Apple Butter and Orchards

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It seems that apple picking, apple butter, apple sauce, and canning are in the air.  In my blog reader alone I had sever people telling of their weekend orchard adventures.  But most eerie was Laura Nelkin talking about making apple butter just as I came back from stirring my own in the crockpot.

Our recipes are a little different, but the idea is the same – taking the fruits of the harvest and preserving them for the year to come.

My family lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York, and before that, we came from Massachusetts, where when I went to school, learning about Johnny Appleseed was part of the preschool, 1st and 2nd grade curriculum (it might have also had something to do with the fact that he was born in Leominster, MA, where I lived when I was young).  Apple picking is nearly a cultural thing in both those parts.  On apple picking days the four of us children would eat a light breakfast (As my mother knew we’d be eating apples in the orchard until we were practically sick) and then go picking.  In a good orchard picking wouldn’t take very long, so then we’d go run in the maize maze, eat cider doughnuts and become awful hellions.  The ride home would be sticky-faced children that had subsided into an exhausted post-applepicking haze.

Those types of memories stay with you, and when I found out Michael had never went apple picking it was clear that had to change.  He had to be educated – seeing as he thought apples were “okay” and he’d really only had red delicious and granny smith (both of which are really not representative of the best of apples).

We now go picking each year.

Last year we went picking and accidentally got just over 100 lbs of apples.  We were processing for DAYS.

This year we were much more reasonable – 50 lbs for canning, 10 lbs for eating.  It’s going to be a fun next few days.

Our Apple Butter Recipe:
To make 8 cups of apple butter:

Core and quarter 48 apples, skins on.
Boil until they can be poked with a fork.
Run through food mill, skins on (if using red apples, it gives the sauce a lovely pink color).  We normally run it through the coarse setting, and then again through the finest setting.
Add desired amount of sugar (approx 2 cps) and apple pie spice (well, actually, Michael has his own mix, but seeing as it’s won prizes at the Montgomery County Fair, he’s not sharing, even with me)
Put in crockpot and cook on high, stirring every 1/2 hour to full hour.  Cook all day, until it’s reduced by 1/2.
Can it in mason jars.

Enjoy all year.

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