On IG last week, some of you asked me to share a little bit about the process for submitting a design to a publication. Typically the start of the whole thing begins with the publication putting out a “call” which includes a description of the theme of the issue, in this case, “inside nature,” as well as what types of pieces they’re looking for - garments and accessories (sometimes there’s a specific number of each), a mood board and a deadline for submissions. Sometimes the call includes submissions for articles and stories on the theme.
The submission for Making Stories Magazine, Issue 5, published March 2021. You can see the finished Twisted Vines sweater on Ravelry here.
This is my submission for Making Stories - Issue 5 - Inside Nature. The editor, Hanna Lisa, is really generous with her submission timeline, providing at least a month or more, and sending out reminders. Other publications give only a few weeks.
My submissions always have 6 parts: inspiration photo(s), a sketch, a description, swatch photo(s), swatch information, as well as contact information and the heading. Each part is crucial to putting together a strong submission.
THE INSPIRATION: I keep private and public Pinterest boards with lots of inspiration. I have boards with designer knitwear, architecture, art, nature, poetry, quotes, - lots of different kinds of things. There is always something to inspire me, although it can be difficult to come up with an idea that fits the theme of the publication and is seasonally appropriate. In this case, I had these pictures of old trees with gnarled branches and vines crawling up them. They reminded me of cables and I wanted to add twisted stitches to them to mimic these trees.. I ended up only putting 2 of these photos in the actual submission.
My original sketch included a patterned back panel, which didn’t make the final cut.
THE SKETCH: With a complex stitch pattern I knew I wanted to keep things simple by highlighting only one special detail - the sleeves. I thought to maximize that detail, I would try out a saddle shoulder. This would extend the length of patterning and make a bigger impact. I had never designed a saddle shoulder sweater before, but I often don’t let things like that stop me. I had knit one, so I knew I could design one. I use a croquis that I drew years ago to keep things simple. I make copies of the croquis and then layer on the knits. I’ve found that using the croquis helps me concentrate on the sweater without worrying about the proportions of the body. You can see she’s kind of faceless, too. Faces cause distractions.
I also did a Stockinette stitch swatch. That’s important as most of the sweater is Stockinette.
THE SWATCH: Now it was time to swatch. I love DK weight yarn and the one I used for this is a blend of cotton and wool - The Plucky Knitter Crew. I love it. It was a deep, forest-y green that I thought fit the call, and the yarn has a tight twist which makes the stitch definition really good. The blend of cotton and wool, which takes the dye differently, gave it a subtle shift of color, but didn’t detract from the cabling. I also knew the cable pattern I used had to be intricate, but couldn’t be an unreasonable number of rows. I had to get a good number of repeats in the length of the sleeve. I also knew I wanted to pair a complicated cable with a simpler one at each side. After trying out a few different stitch patterns, I decided on this one. After knitting the swatch, I washed, blocked, and photographed it. I did the same with a Stockinette stitch swatch.
SWATCH INFORMATION: It’s important to the editors to know what yarn you used even if they’re not going to use it in the publication itself. Yarn affects everything: size, drape, stitch definition, choices of color, etc. So I always include the name of the yarn, yarn composition, the color I’ve used, the needle I’ve used to knit each swatch and the stitch and row gauge for each swatch I’ve included.
DESCRIPTION: I now spend some time thinking about how I would need to knit the garment or accessory in order to “bring it to life.” I always think first of whether I can knit a garment top down and if it can be knitted seamlessly, as this is the way most knitters want to knit. However, sometimes an idea will be overly and unnecessarily complicated by doing it this way. I find simpler is always better and there are times when a design needs to be knitted bottom up or with seams for just that reason. For accessories, I usually just think about how I want to knit it. After I give these things some thought, I write out a sequence of knitting steps: first, second, third, etc. involved. Once these thing are done, I write my description. I like to do a combination of aesthetics with practical construction details, along with some suggestions for the yarn to use.
HEADING AND CONTACT INFORMATION: You might think this isn’t critical, but it is. I always include the name of the publication, the issue and the theme of the issue and I always name my designs. It makes the submission more special. It’s also crucial to include your contact information in case your submission gets separated from the email you sent. I always include my physical address and phone number because the publication will need that when they arrange for your yarn to be shipped out to you. (You can’t see those in the image because I’ve blocked them out!) Finally, I make sure there are links to my Ravelry design page and my website so the editors can check out my work if they’re unfamiliar with it.
If you’ve gotten all the way through this, I’d love to hear from you - especially if you design too or are planning to design. Tell me what your process is.
