The process of a pattern

On Wednesday, my first pattern was published with Three Irish Girls. It was a very long process and I am still in awe that it has actually happened. I thought it might be fun to look back over the entire experience and recap it for anyone who might be interested.

It all began with a blog post by Sharon of Three Irish Girls. It was a call for designs that would feature her yarn, which just happens to be my favorite yarn. I had been wanting to start designing for a while, but hadn't been able to totally pin down any concrete ideas, and I wasn't sure I could do it.  This call just seemed like it was meant to be - yarn I want to work with, collection I would love to be a part of, and the timing was perfect.

Task one: prepare a submission. Super simple, right? You just write about your idea and make a little sketch and you're done - yay! Except no. Not simple. Well, maybe it is for some people, but it wasn't for me. First of all, there are a LOT of decisions to be made for each design and you really need to have them all made before you send off your proposal. What yarn, what gauge, what silhouette, what construction method, what details, what kind of fit at different points on the body, what kind of neckline, etc, etc. Let's just say I had a lot of work to do since I was starting from a very not specific place. As in, what I had at the outset was 'a cute girls' sweater'.

I wish I could remember exactly how my idea formed, but I really can't (in my meager defense, the design call came out in November of 2011). I am glad that it came together though! I poured through stitch dictionaries to find the right details and checked through the Ravelry database to make sure I wasn't reinventing the wheel.

Things actually clicked! I found what I was looking for and I even had an idea of how I wanted to do it. Given my tendency towards indecisiveness, this was huge. I knew I wanted to work the sweater from the top down, somewhat because of my preference and somewhat because that seems to be the preference of most knitters lately. Set in sleeves, since a raglan line wouldn't work as well for the square neckline I wanted. Gathered bodice, patterned band at the underbust, cables down the sides of the body. Slightly puffed sleeves with a patterned band at the bicep, and a cute ruffle at the cuff.

The Side Cable

Bodice Plan

Whew! Lots of decisions! But, they were made and I was really excited about the whole thing. Hard part of the submission is done - or not. There was the small detail of sketching my design. I can't draw. At all. Lucky for me, you can find these things called croquis online that can give you a body shape to work with, that helped a lot - it saved me from trying to draw a sweater on a stick figure. It took an embarrassingly long time, but I finally had a sketch that didn't look like a 3 year old drew it and that got the idea across of what I wanted to do.

It was a huge relief to have that part done, now I had the parts of my proposal, and it was time to put them together. Unfortunately for me, formatting in Word did not go smoothly, but after lots of different attempts (and a lot of four letter words), I had everything I needed in the format required. It was both exhilarating and terrifying to hit the 'send' button and officially throw my hat in the ring. I knew it was more or less a Hail Mary, but you never know if you don't try, right?

Submission was sent at the end of December, and at the end of January I had a response in my inbox. I clicked and saw a line thanking me for my submission. Huge exhale, brace for the 'thanks, but no thanks'. Except it was a 'thanks, we loved it!' I seriously almost fell out of my chair from the shock. My then 9 month old was the only one in the house that I could share my news with and, to be honest, he wasn't all that impressed. I, on the other hand, was on cloud 9 for days.

Then reality sets in - I have to actually write a pattern. As in, completely figure out how to make this idea in my head appear accurately in yarn form and then have instructions clear enough that other people can make the same thing.

That's a daunting task, especially for someone like me. You see, I don't seem to be a typical designer. I didn't spend years always changing or tweaking what I was knitting. I followed the pattern - always. I knew I could change things in theory, but I was always terrified of screwing something up. So, this whole start knitting something from scratch with no predetermined pattern? Terrifying. Fear is not the boss of me, however, and once I have decided to do something, I am going to do it. Stubbornness for the win!

My first attempt didn't work. This was a bit of a blow because it was supposed to work. Because I wanted it to. The yarn didn't get the memo, so I started over, pouring over my copy of Barbara Walker's book Knitting From the Top and was determined to do better. Thankfully, I did. I created a sweater from an idea in my head and it fit an actual human - the one it was meant to fit even! It was not perfect, but I was thrilled.

Good first version, but there were things that needed to be tweaked: neckline is a bit too narrow and needs a little something above the gathers, and the sleeves are bordering on ginormous.

Back to the drawing board to fix those things. It was easier to go back and rework the details that needed it than it was to figure it out the first time, thank goodness.

I got my shipment of yarn from Three Irish Girls next and it was time to get started on the REAL DEAL sweater. Oh, and that minor thing called writing and grading (sizing) a pattern. No biggie, it just totally determines whether or not the whole goal of the project is a success.

Enter many, MANY hours spent focused on tables of standard sizes and my notebook as I calculated a gazillion different measurements. I was really happy to find a Craftsy class on grading that taught me how to use Excel to grade the pattern - saved me hours of work! I finished the pattern, finished the sample, took a few pictures of it, and sent it off - I actually DID it!

I had a few months to enjoy the satisfaction, and then came the editing. Let me just say that I am SO, SO thankful for my friend Trisha who wound up being my technical editor. She caught my silly mistakes, helped me fine tune some areas that needed it, made sure things were consistent across all sizes, and plain old taught me a lot. My pattern is so much better now and I have her to thank.

Fast forward almost a year (this was not the original plan, but life happens, even with publishers, and there were a few delays) and publication comes to pass. It was surreal to see my pattern for sale. It's still surreal to see it on Ravelry. I hope this feeling never gets old.

I am grateful that I had this chance. I'm not sure I ever would have pushed myself out of my comfort zone to try it if it hadn't been for this opportunity with Three Irish Girls. Sharon took a chance on me, she knew this was my first pattern. My knitting life has been forever changed by this in the most positive of ways.