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Post Mortem Part 1: Octopodes Socks

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Back about a year and a half ago I had an idea for a pair of mittens – a cute little pair with an octopus on them.  So I printed out some knitting graph paper and sketched out a design.  I thought I wanted to either self-publish these or submit them to Knitty (because what other publication would want octopus mittens? – they seemed pretty niche), and then I wrote a proposal for yarn support and sent it to Dragonfly.  It went like this:

I could have fallen over when Kate, from Dragonfly, said yes.  Since Dragonfly is not even a 10 minute drive away, I went to them to pick the yarn up.  When talking to one of Kate’s employees (who were helping me with the color choices), she advised me toward the Silver Fox and Poseidon.  I’d been looking at Kelpie and an Orange that I liked – and she mentioned that it might not be such a good idea, as there was already a pair of blue and orange octopus mittens on Ravelry… which were also done in similar yarn.
I quickly settled on the Silver Fox and Poseidon after that.  And then I went home to Ravelry to look up the mittens – titled Octopus Mittens.  They were lovely.  Amazing.  And I couldn’t believe that Emily Peters had gotten to the idea first.
I was devastated.  I’d really loved my idea of Octopus Mittens, and I didn’t want to give it up… but I was so rattled by the similarities I didn’t know what to do.
That evening I told Michael (now Mr.Turtle) about my dilemma.  His response?  “Put them on a pair of socks.  Socks are the same as mittens, right?  I mean, one has thumbs, the other has heels.  Both only have one hole.”
That bit of common sense broke my panic.  Emily’s octopus was completely different from mine.  Mine was a little cutesy, and hers was definitely more tentacle-ly.  Hers had bubbles and the design moving onto the palm, mine did not.  And now we were even working in different colors.
And I had chosen sock yarn for the mitten pattern – so no problems there.  Socks they would be then!  So I began knitting on the socks – not realizing there’d be a lot more to this design.  Stay tuned tomorrow for Post Mortem – Part II!
Did you know that Dragonfly and I are running a KAL, starting on the 24th?  Pick out your yarn and get your needles ready (or even get a head start!) for an epic KAL.

Post Mortem: Larkin

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Larkin is the story of the design call that could.  Just like the iconic train saying “I think I can,” Larkin was a design I believed in from the beginning, but one that just had to keep plugging along until it got accepted. Larkin started out as “50’s Flame” – a vintage inspired top for a design call for Three Irish Girls nearly 4 years ago.  It looked like this:

It got rejected.  I also submitted it to Knitpicks, Interweave Knits, and a handful of other design calls.  Each time it would come back, a few months later, unchosen.  Which happens.  I knew the design was a good one, but it just never was quite what the editing team was looking for.
So I’d wait until another design call came along where this pattern would fit, repackage the pattern, and submit again.
Until last year, with Classic Elite.  Over time the design layout had been updated, I’d gotten a new logo and a new company name. The wording had changed (a little) and the name had changed.  It was now called Flaming Mamie, after a great swingy song I used to sing at camp.
Let’s be frank – not much changed.  But this time it was the right time, right place, right design, and CEY picked the design up.
So let’s compare the sketch to the finished product:
Puffed sleeves, flame motif, same neckline, scoop neck and false neckline.  The flames in this yarn are a little squatter and slimmer- I made them slightly smaller to accommodate sizing.  The ribbing along the neckline went away, because I thought the more rustic neck matched the yarn, and I wanted to keep that area a little less busy.  But otherwise?  Not much changed.  The things that made me believe this design was a keeper in the first place remained the things that I love in the finished product.
I love how the sleeves are slightly pleated.  I love how the ribbing runs seamlessly into the pattern.  I love how the design is slightly retro and oh-so feminine.  I love the figure-complimenting look.
I just kept pitching the design until someone saw it’s potential.  Thank-you CEY!
Love the design – like it on Ravelry or Facebook!  Want to know when others come out – sign up for our newsletter!

Post Mortem: Devil at Crossroads

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Sockupied design calls can sometimes be hard if I don’t have a design already burning in the back of my brain.  In the case of Devil at Crossroads, I’d been fooling around on a train ride back from North Carolina.  I’d read about helix knitting on TECHknitting.  Naturally, when I learn something new, I like playing around with it to see how far things can go before they “break.”

The result of this brainstorming was this small little swatch.

So I put together a design proposal for Sockupied.  A little hint here: Sockupied when they give you the spec sheet (the document that tells you how to format your patterns), have a page where there are these little “mini-prompts.”  If you choose to fill them out, they’re meant to be used as inserts or marginalia for the main pattern.  After I finished Totem, I started thinking about the prompts.  One of them asks if you would like to write a mini-article on a technique in your pattern.

I thought, why don’t I write a full article to go with the pattern?

My sub looked like this:

But when I attached it to my email, I mentioned that I’d be willing to write a technique article to go along with the proposal.  Anne, the editor at Sockupied, liked this idea.  They asked for both the pattern and the article.

What are some of my thoughts on this proposal?  Well, I was pretty proud of my new layout for design submissions – the new logo, the boxes with the different color.  My swatch has a rather glaring mistake in the cable – I missed a shift and had to compensate.  I figured that the editor’s could overlook the mistake, which seems to be true.

In the proposal, the cuffs at the top of each sock are a different color.
 In the final piece, I chose to keep the helix stripping going up the entirety of the sock.  I think it was a better choice, simply because I didn’t have to write in the final pattern that each cuff would be a different color.

And on a final note: I didn’t name these socks.  CPAAG, a group on Ravelry, is a wonderful resource for coming up with names.  I’ll be using the benefits of their collective genius for time to come.

Post Mortem: Witchlace

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It’s time for another round of Post Mortems!  I have to admit, I’ve dropped the ball with the last two releases – so while I’m away you get a double dose.  Witchlace today, and Devil at Crossroads later this week.

I tried to go back and look and see if I could find the design call for the Knit Picks Collection, but it’s been lost in the email transition, more than likely.  So you’ll have to do with my recolection.

Witchlace was a natural extension of Newport.  In Newport I used side to side shaping to create a ribbed effect.  In Witchlace, I wanted to push the idea  little bit further.  What else could I do with side to side shaping?

I also really wanted to make a yoked cardigan, mostly because I was pretty burnt out on figuring out shoulder shaping when working a design side to side.  I’d been swatching in the round with broomstick crochet for a while.  After I finished with Sunburst, I wanted to do more with broomstick, but I didn’t want to weave in nearly as many ends!

A yoked cardigan seemed like the right answer.  Plus, I love little glimpses of collarbones – that hint of skin is both very feminine and sexy!

At this point, I was still proposing with my old letterhead.  I’m really proud of the sketch here – I think it conveyed very well what I was going for.  I dithered a lot about cutting out her head or not, but I’d really messed up on her face and didn’t want to do the sketch over, so I just cropped it out.  I don’t think it hurts the sub too much.

I’m not sure what I’d write about things I’d do differently or well.  As I mentioned before, I think my “hooks” (the little intros I write that frame the piece) are well done, but I don’t have much proof that they influence the publisher’s choice or not.  I think that the hooks matter a little more in magazines (where I find they are sometimes used) more than design collections like this one.  Shortly after this submission I went to my new letterhead and logo, which I think was a good improvement.

Have a Post Mortem?  Are you talking about your design subs and what you think you did well, or not?  Let me know, I’d love to feature you, or do a writeup!

Post Mortem: Newport

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Newport started as a submission titled Whisper.

I knew I wanted to design for Classic Elite Yarns, and had gotten in touch with someone on Ravelry who had designed for them before, asking how I would go about approaching them.  The Ravelry user told me that Classic Elite has a mailing list for designers who want to know about design calls.  The Ravelry user gave me the person to contact, and I went about emailing CEY.  There’d been a design call that had ended a day or two ago, but CEY said if I could pull a proposal off by the end of the week, they would consider it.

The design call featured lots of color blocks, open and airy pieces (makes sense – it is the spring call).  Some of the pictures had a beach in the background, or sailor themed jackets.  You can see some of the slides that were included below:

In about a day I pulled together my design proposal, as you can see below:
Link

Or view above.
Things I Did Well:
  • I followed the design demands.
  • I’ve got a clear schematic, that is actually really well drawn, considering.
  • My sketch approximates colors that Classic Elite actually carries in Classic Silk
  • I’ve got a bio, my contact information, needles needed, how it’s worked up, and a lot of other information that helps them come to an informed decision.
  • Right Place, Right time.  I was late, but I just happened to submit a crochet pattern in the yarn they needed to fill in the CEY Crochet Booklet.  I was late, but somehow, I managed to be the thing they needed right then.  Being in the right place at the right time cannot be discounted.  And the only way to do that is to put yourself forward.  If I’d decided to put myself forward a week later, it would have been too late, I’m sure.

What I could have done better:

  • The Sketch seems rough, which it is.  I was rushed.  Also, I think she looks rather like a boy.  Not a bad thing, but not what I was going for.
  • I wish it was on one page.  One page is about all people have the attention for, luckily my second page is just a visual, and not much reading.  Acceptable.
  • The bio needs to be smaller.  Gosh, that took up so much space that I could have used for other things.
  • The swatch is not blocked very well, and is rather small and long.  I would have liked to have done something wider so it gave a better idea of fabric – but again, time.
Some nitpicky personal things:
  • you’ll notice the sleeves are shaped differently than is said in the sketch.  I figured out the way I imagined was a lot of fabric and didn’t look good.
  • Also, there’s only one sleeve length in the final pattern.  Grading one sleeve length was enough.  Don’t need long sleeves on a spring pattern either.
  • Shaping is done differently than described: I use short rows instead of shaping like the Cap-Sleeve Top by Mary Jane Hall that inspired the pattern.  This, I think, is a good thing.
  • The name changed.  This happens in about 50% of patterns, especially in magazines and cohesive collections like CEY puts out.  They have a theme, and the name will be changed to reflect the theme.  I think Newport is a better name than Whisper anyway.
So what are your thoughts?  What could have been done better?  What do you think worked well?  Are you surprised by anything?  How does the proposal compare to the original?

One last thing: I’m not the only one who is doing Post Mortems.  Check out this post inspired by my last Post Mortem.

Check out the Proposal! Totem

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When I first
started designing, one of the most helpful resources I had access to was a
thread on Ravelry (actually, it might have been several) that outlined
successful proposals that designers had sent publishers.  In the spirit of giving to others, I’ve been
wanting to open a series of posts about successful proposals that I have done,
in the hopes that other budding designers can learn from them.
I’m also doing
it in the spirit of a Theatre Traditon (actors and stagehands and practically everyone that has something to do with the stage are big on traditions) which
is called the Post Mortem (debriefing).  Literally
“after death”, it’s a meeting after the run of a play that talks about what has
been done well, what didn’t go well, and what would be changed in the future.  Nobody’s perfect.  There’s always room to improve.
So in that
spirit, this is my proposal for Sockupied Spring 2013.
You can take a look at it here, or it is embedded below.

I actually sent
them two proposals, but one of them I’m sending out to other magazines, so I
can’t show you yet.  But I can show you
the one that got in.
Things that were
done well:

  • Big
    picture of the swatch.  Well photographed
    and in good light.  A must.
  •  Outline
    of inspiration – a fair amount of companies, I’ve found, often use the language
    from my inspiration post that I write on my proposals.  It works for me, so I keep doing it.
  •  I
    meet the design call requirements – I have my contact information, the yarn
    needed, and construction details.  I have
    a brief bio that I always use.
  • I high-lighted that this pattern works well in multicolored and solid yarns.  A lot of companies like patterns that are
    able to do this, and in this case, it made a good fit for the One Sock Two Ways
    feature in Sockupied.
  • It’s
    one page. 

Things that I could have done better:  

  • My
    drawing skills need to improve.  I could have
    made a much better drawing – and this is something I’m working to fix.  On the other hand, as long as the drawing is
    functional and conveys what you want it to convey – don’t stress out about it
    too much.  Companies are hiring a
    designer for their knit or crochet ability – not their drawing ability.
  • I
    could have used a more professional layout. This I’ve already fixed.  I hired someone shortly after I submitted this to create a logo for me, and
    later in the year I’ll be hiring the same person (Knitterella) to do layout
    design for me.   This is the first way
    many editors meet me – it always pays to present yourself well.

Have you submitted any proposals to be published?  What do you think went well?  What could have went better?

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