Review: The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design (How to Keep Your Knits About You)

Very few things please me more than a well-written book about knitting ... when the book is also about knit design, and being a "professional" at that, well I just devour a book like that!  And Shannon Okey's latest didn't let me down at'all!

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design is one of those absolutely unassuming books ... some might even pass it by due to its dull and text-booky look.  But don't!  Okey's siganture-style wit and wisdom emanates from every page in this book!

First off, this is not a book about designing -- there are lots of great books about designing your own knitwear (some I often recommend include Deborah Newton's Designing Knitwear, ANY of Elizabeth Zimmermann's books especially Knitting Without Tears or Knitting Around, Shirley Paden's Knitwear Design Workshop: The Comprehensive Guide to Handknits, Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook, and the eternal classic Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book  (quite a justifiable claim in my mind!) cover every aspect of designing great hand-knits. 

No, Okey's book is purely about putting the "professional" into knitting design.  She starts out with defining what "professional design" is all about ... mentioning a few names of real pros (and the last chapter is pure interviews with some of the best knitting designers and support folks in the business!).  She then goes on to describe social media and their many benefits to running a design business -- going way beyond the social, time-wasting and delving into this new-age way of marketing. [On a side note ... I'm now twittering as MaryGKnits ...!] 

The next few chapters discuss the knitty-gritty, business side of things including accounting, writing proposals, finding professionals for help (yes, we all need to pay a pro occasionally!) and copyright and contract issues.   Other chapters develop how to write patterns (including suggestions about design software), making sales (and who should do this for you!), advertising, where to get truly educated, professional organizations (including the Association of Knitwear Designers, a grand group of folks I've been pleased to be a member of since before the millenial-change when it was still called the Professional Knitwear Designers' Guild!).  The last third of the book is devoted to interviews with some 32 (!) of the best and the brightest in the professional-side of knitting design work: designers, publishers, editors, tech-editors, etc.  Some of these folks you may never "meet" ... and yet they all have valuable advice and wisdom to share with the reader.

As you can see, I really like this book -- I've already implemented a few of her suggestions, have pages marked for further research and plan on pulling out this book at least on an annual basis to re-vamp my work.  That said, I wish she had done a few things:

1. the book is very techy -- there are NO graphics except the cover.  It is loaded with text and wisdom and advice ... but it's definitely got more of a feel of a text book than a coffee-table, eye-candy look
2. there is no index!  I can't stand books without indices -- I'm willing to put up with it for this particular book ... but it means my copy of this particular book will be dogeared, pencil-marked, sticky-noted so I can find the right quote, reference or advice I need.
3. because Shannon is young and caters to the young X-gen (maybe Y-gen ... who knows) batch of knitters, she tended to talk with the newer designers.  I wish she had interviewed some of the "old school" ... the contemps of Elizabeth Zimmermann who paved the way for those of us who grew up in the 70s, drooling over their wool sweaters, and tried to imitate them ...

Definitely give this book a "two-thumbs up" for being informative and well-worth the cover price, the time to read and the shelf-space to keep it nearby.  Enjoy!

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

GWOY: January 2009 swatches

The Great Wall of Yarn for the January 2009 TNNA convention is one of my favorite things to do ... I love getting the latest yarns ... playing with them and designing with them .... knitting up swatches that show the yarn to the best advantage.

Here are the swatches I did this year (only two as the package was crushed by USPS and one skein was lost in the mail ...):

This one is O-Wool's (fully organic wool) "Legacy Bulky" in a lovely clay. I used #10s and did this cable pattern (with slight re-drafting of stitches) from Melissa Leapman's latest book Continuous Cables (which is one of those books every knitter should have on their shelves if only to do these cool, out-of-nowhere cable patterns!) This yarn is luscious and knits up beautifully! This yarn would make a spectacular hoodie with cable patterns throughout -- can't wait to start designing one.

This second swatch is SWTC's "Jezebel" (a hand-dyed sock yarn) which I did here in a toe-up, short-row heeled baby sock. The pictures don't do justice to this beautiful purple-shaded yarn that knits up in a delicious "hand" on #2 needles. I did a "heart" lace pattern on the top of the foot with a 2x2 rib sole ... than a mock-cable ribbed cuff that would hold the sock on but look a little more "posh" than a simple rib. Gorgeous, yes? Well, maybe you should see it in "real life"!

I love this opportunity that being a member of AKD gives me ... the chance to swatch with the latest and greatest from the yarn companies (with a special thanks to Heidi at Trendsetters for all she does to get this GWOY out, in and up!).

Happy knittin'

I'm a nut ...

... a nut for history of knitting type books and a nut for ethnic knitting books. Books like Sheila McGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and Traditional Scandinavian Knitting, Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia, Marcia Lewandowski's Andean Folk Knits, as well as the Folk Knit series from Interweave that includes: Folk Shawls, Folk Socks, Folk Vests, and Folk Mittens are all well-thumbed books on my design shelf. I get lots of inspiration and great ideas from these as well as feeding my fascination with knitting old and new. I love reading these books, over and over again; each time I read them I get new ideas or learn an ancient technique that I never knew ... and my knitting is better because of these kind of books.

I just found out that a new book is coming in April -- I've actually pre-ordered it -- written by a fellow Association of Knitwear Designers member. Terri Shea has been working on a certification for museum studies and began her research on the Selbu knitting tradition in Norway. Her new book, Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition, contains the history of this unique cottage industry (that began with one young shepherdess tending her flock) and contains 30(!) patterns for mittens and gloves using the traditional designs of the Selbu. If you click on the link above, you can see sample pages of this fascinating work.

Go ahead (you know you want to) and pre-order this book -- should be here sometime around Easter so you can always say the Easter Bunny brought it!

Swatches for TNNA

As a hand-knits designer, I am a card-carrying member of a really cool guild named Association of Knitwear Designers. We all help each build the design profession as well as encouraging those in the yarn and knit publications industries to purchase our lovely designs.

One way we get our name out to those who should know us is by submitting swatches for the semi-annual convention of the trade association, The National Needlework Association (TNNA). They have a convention in January in San Diego and one in June in Columbus (Ohio). The swatches AKD members produce are then placed on the Great Wall of Yarn as way to advertise the yarn as well as the designers' talents.

For the January 2007 convention, I created seven swatches from some absolutely luscious sample skeins:

1. Silk purse made from GGH's "TajMahal" is a gorgeous rusty orange -- 100% silk and a dream to knit!

2. Baby cap made from Kraemer Yarn's "Vingtage 2006" -- a 100% alpaca yarn that I knit with thistle panels.

3. A traveling cable stitch called "dancers" makes this 50% silk/50% wool blend yarn from Lorna's Laces really look nice! The yarn, "Lion & Lamb" is soft but holds a texture pattern nicely.

4. Misti International has a lovely 100% baby alpaca yarn called "Misti Alpaca". Using a US#7, I have swatched a sample that could eventually become a lovely, soft, cozy shawl.

5. Another baby cap, this one uses a small traveling stitch panel and Skacel's "Sojabama" -- a blend of 55% bamboo and 45% soy. This picture doesn't do justice to the soft, cozy feel of this yarn!

6. Twinkle Handknits has a gorgeous 70% silk/30% cotton blend yarn that holds a texture pattern brilliantly. Here I've knit a cable/garter stitch medley called "Jacob's Ladder" -- this would make an elegant spring/summer knitted top.

7. Last, but certainly not least, this swatch is probably my favorite of all. Woolyarns, a New Zealand company, has a line of yarns called "Zealand" -- this is a black (which is why it didn't photo too well) yarn with that is a merino and cashmere blend. The softness of this one is unbelievable, especially if you see how well it takes a cable pattern -- this one is called horseshoe. Isn't it lovely?

I love helping with the Great Wall of Yarn -- I don't get paid for doing these swatches, but I do get to play with yarns I'd never be able to afford to play with; I can see all the latest colors, fibers, and just have a month or so of satisfying my fiber fetish.