Here is a quick look from the designer’s side of publishing a project in a publication. This post looks at the steps from design idea to publication for the Camellia Cowl published in Interweave Knits Gifts 2020 in September of 2020.
The first step of any design publication is replying to a Call for Submissions with your idea. I submitted the idea for this cowl in October of 2019. It takes a while for a publication to carefully consider each submission and assign projects. For Camellia, I heard back about seven weeks after my submission in mid-December that Interweave wanted to include my design in the publication.
Not here yet. 
Yarn has arrived!
After a design is accepted, the next step is waiting for the yarn to arrive. Sometimes the wait can be long and hard on the nerves! We had a problem with the yarn shipment. By mid-January we realized that the original yarn Interweave editors chose would not arrive on time to complete the sample garment and written pattern by the due date of March 2nd. We made some quick decisions on a replacement yarn and I got to work as soon as the package arrived on January 29th!
My next step was comparing the assigned yarn support with the submission sample yarn to see if the two are similar enough in weight, stitches per inch, twist, color saturation and other properties for the design to work as imagined or if I’d need to change the pattern slightly. In this case, my original sample is the pink single ply on the left and the final design yarn is the blue single ply on the right. Both are beautiful yarns! And they are similar enough that the design did not need drastic changes. That always helps save time! The closer the yarn support matches the sample, the better because every design has a firm deadline that I never want to miss.
Swatching comes next. For Camellia, the two yarns were similar enough that I was able to swatch in the pink yarn and keep most of the blue design yarn pristine for the final cowl. Camellia had three main swatches – the original submission worked flat, a tiny sample cowl knit in the round and another tiny swatch in the blue final design yarn. I wash, block and dry each swatch exactly how I plan to treat the final design. That way I can be sure that the stitch and row gauges are accurate and catch any design issues at this early stage.
After all of that, it is finally time to start the actual cowl. The process of writing, editing and sample knitting takes place over a number of weeks. By the the time I finish a design, I will have read and worked through a pattern many, many times (usually more than 20 times at a minimum) to produce the best design that I possibly can for the publication and for knitters. You can see some of the versions of this pattern along with notes and edits behind the sample on the left here.
Next I wash, block and dry the final sample exactly as I did the swatches. (Look for a blog post about the exact process I use in a couple of weeks.) After that, I complete the final edits and updates on the pattern. Then I send all of the pattern bits to my editors like the finished written pattern, pattern math spreadsheets, notes or questions, charts and schematics. Then I mail the finished design garment to the publication. Later, I’ll hear from the project editors as they work through the process on their end.
Screen capture courtesy of Interweave Knits Photo courtesy of Interweave Knits, photographer Molly Stevenson
From start to finish, the normal design process takes months. In this case, it was very nearly 12 months from design idea to publication. I submitted my idea at the end of October 2019, heard my submission had been accepted in mid-December of 2019, received the yarn support at the end of January 2020 (later than expected since we had delivery issues for the original yarn as sometimes happens), delivered the completed written pattern plus sample cowl by the deadline in early March 2020, received the magazine section proofs for my review in early July 2020 and the magazine edition published mid-September of 2020.
I hope sharing my process can help others. If you’re interested to hear more about what I’m up to, sign up here for my newsletter to receive updates and exclusive discounts.
