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Twist Collective BlogTips for submitting to Twist Collective
Submission time at Twist Collective is equal parts exciting anticipation and stressful—the latter, because inevitably, we have to pare our final list down to about 30 projects and those 30 projects need to represent a wide variety of skills, styles and project types. None of us look forward to saying “no” to the hundreds of other submissions we receive. It is impossible for us to give detailed feedback to each person who submits and, truth be told, there often isn’t any feedback to give, we simply have to decline many submissions we love for no other reason than that we already have a sufficient number of designs for the edition. Read the submission guidelines This may seem obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how often people leave off their contact information or miss the deadline. Our mood boards always have two pages; one with inspirational images and another outlining the format, deadline and information we need from you. Be concise There’s no need to send in a fully written pattern. Those of us reviewing submissions won’t have time to review all that text and we’ll just end up scrolling past it. If you’ve already written a pattern and created a prototype, include a schematic which will gives us a nice snapshot of your range of sizes and your skills with grading. In the same vein, if you’ve knit a prototype or a series of swatches, we love to see good clear photos of what you have, but generally what you can show in 40 images isn’t much more informative for us than what you can show in a dozen or less. We receive lots of comprehensive submissions that fill only 1-4 pages. Keep that as a target, adding extra pages sparingly and only as absolutely needed. Do not include any pertinent information in the body of your email unless it’s also in your PDF. The review board for submissions receives only the PDFs, not the full email you send in, so information contained only in your email body will not be considered when reviewing your proposal. Send any questions to the email indicated in the submission guidelines We process submissions in batches, generally waiting until a certain number come in before even opening them. Sending questions directly to the submissions email address, especially if your subject line is vague, may mean that your email isn’t answered until it is quite close to the deadline. We always provide contact information in our mood board and on our site, for inquiries about submitting. Writing to that address will ensure a prompt reply, usually within one business day. Consider the Twist Collective business model Designers are compensated with a percentage of each pattern sold and patterns are sold for $5-$9 USD each. There are times that we decline a really great design simply because we are not sure our customers will pay at least $5 for the pattern. Single stitch rectangular scarves, and other very simple projects may be stunning pieces but if we cannot sell the pattern, neither the designer nor Twist can recoup their investments in the project. If you have an idea for a hat consider adding a second piece to the submission such as a scarf, mittens, shawlette or another variant of the design. Look at our library of existing patterns No matter how wonderful a submission might be, if it looks a lot like a pattern we’ve already published, we’ll have to decline it. Coincidences happen but you can save some time if you catch doppelgangers before submitting. Think legibility While it can be great to set a mood with your submission, employing fonts and colors to compliment your idea, if we can’t read what you have written, we won’t be able to appreciate all the hard work you put into your proposal. Avoid using artistic shots that obscure the details of the work. We are most interested in your project and we want to be able to see it clearly. Also, be sure your swatch is big enough to really show how the fabric will look and behave. A tiny little swatch is almost the same as no swatch at all. Keep all your info together Each submission is assigned its own number for review. Be sure that each page of your PDF contains information for only one proposal and that all the pages for a given submission are sequential. It is fine to have a title page and a bio page that is applicable to all the submissions but please avoid intermingling the information for multiple proposals. Allow for flexibility If there is only one yarn in the whole world that can be used to successfully complete your project, then our international customers and those that may not be able to afford or find that yarn locally are not going to be able to knit the pattern. Be sure that your proposal allows for some flexibility in yarn choice so that as many people as possible will be able to knit it. Help us see your vision We know that great designers are not always skilled illustrators and we don’t hold that against you. There are a variety of ways to convey what you are envisioning and you can use those in any combination that works for you. Submissions should generally include a drawing of how the garment will look when worn, a swatch and possibly a schematic of how the piece looks flat. The sketch shows us how the piece will fall on the body, the length, ease, and proportion of details. The swatch gives us an idea of the scale of the stitch pattern, the texture of the fabric and, if applicable the combination of colors you wish to use. The schematic outlines specific details that may not be apparent in the sketch. If you have trouble drawing garments on people, include photos of garments with similar shapes and proportions found online or in magazines. Add explanatory text where necessary, to further describe your proposal. Follow instructions Please be sure you read all the instructions included with the mood board. Not only does this help us understand and process your submission more quickly, but it is also a way for us to see that you are up to the task of following our publishing guidelines and you see your work as a professional endeavor, not just a hobby. vFAQs — Very frequently asked questionsAlong with the pitfalls listed above, these questions come in almost every season. How many submissions may I send in? As many as you like. We have people who only ever send in one idea and some who have sent in several more per season. That said, we’d rather you sent 2 that you are really confident about, than 8 mediocre ideas. Should I send in each submission as a separate PDF or all in a single PDF? Whatever is easiest for you, will work for us, just be sure to read through the information above. I heard back about one proposal but did not hear back about another. Unfortunately, we only have time to send one reply to each person who submits. If you receive an acceptance on one submission you will not receive any rejections for other submissions. If you receive one rejection letter, it applies to all submissions. We do our best to try to give some feedback if there is a particular reason that we cannot take a piece. For instance, if a proposal is very nice but similar to something we have already accepted for a future edition, we will let you know. May I submit crochet/children’s patterns/projects with sewing/etc? The answer to this type of question is hard to answer. We are happy to consider any of these types of projects but we don’t run them regularly and our customers tend to be less interested in these sorts of patterns. However, we love great projects no matter how they are constructed or who they are for and we certainly want to see your proposal if you have something you are excited about. Will you give me yarn if my design is accepted? Twist Collective will assign yarn to you for any projects that are accepted. Please do not contact a yarn company on our behalf. Thank you As always, it’s a sincere pleasure to work with so many wonderful designers and see all your inspiration each season. If you ever have any questions, comments or feedback, feel free to contact Marnie at marnie AT twistcollective DOT com. We know how much work goes into each submission you send and we try our best to make your experience with us, a positive one. Harriet as a Cardigan
Prolific and talented designer, Fiona Ellis interviews a knitter who worked her Harriet design as a cardigan instead of the pullover shown in the magazine. Find out about working the cardigan version, below, and purchase the pattern and make your own pullover or cardigan or both, here.
I love to see what knitters have done with my patterns, especially if they have made modification of their own. It’s one of the things that I love about Ravelry and reading knitter’s blogs. I have a couple of patterns on Twist that give instructions for both a sweater and a cardigan version. I had only made up the sweater version for photography so I was dying to see what knitters did with the cardigan versions of each. I had used Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort yarn for Harriet so I was particularly delighted to hear that Eric Robinson who works at GMS had made up the cardigan version. I did a mini telephone interview with her to find out first hand her perspective on the project.
Fiona: What yarn did you use for your cardigan? Eric: GMS Sylvan Spirit (50% wool / 50% tencel), which has good stitch definition so the cables look really good in it. It is one of those yarns that look better knit up than in the skein – it’s more complex and sophisticated looking as a fabric, probably because the fleece is dyed and then blended with white tencel. Fiona: What did you enjoy about the pattern? Eric: I loved that there was always something going on so it kept me interested the whole way through. Actually Eric said that I was diabolical (meaning devilish or fiendish) with the pattern, which made me laugh, and I took as a compliment - I love to challenge knitters. She said having knit since she was a girl (21 years+…I never tell a lady’s age) she enjoyed the complexity of it. Fiona: How did the cardigan fit when you were finished? Eric: I made the 38” size which gives me about 2” of ease…I love how it fits. I love the shape of the neckline; it’s flattering and a little unusual. I also loved the lower sleeve shaping with the flare of the sleeve. Springing from questions that have arisen in my cable workshops the whole team at Twist and I attempted something different with the cable charts for this pattern. We included color as well as symbols for added clarity. So I asked… Fiona: How did you find working from the charts? Eric: I did find having color on the charts helpful but I must say I am so experienced at cables that I didn’t feel that I needed the extra information, it does make the chart easy to look at, though. Fiona: Is there anything that you would change about this pattern? Eric: I found having to seam in Reverse Stockinette a bit tiresome, it didn’t go quickly and I had to pay a lot of attention but I was pleased with the result in the end. I think that you will agree that Eric looks really fabulous in her Harriet, that color looks amazing on her doesn’t it? I would also love to hear from other knitters who have worked from the charts for Harriet as the Twist team endeavor to give you the clearest, easy to use and accurate patterns that we can, so we love your feedback. I’ll be teaching a cable intensive weekend of workshops at GMS this fall. Avivah
Mary-Heather Cogar is not only an outstanding model but a wonderful designer too. Last year, she designed a soft, feminine and flattering Promenade pullover, and she followed that up with this season's Avivah socks. In this post, Mary-Heather describes her designing process. This is a cross post from her own blog. I'm in a rare phase in my crafting where I have no pressing deadlines for secret projects and am actually in the mood to finish up a few works-in-progress. Since I'm about to cast off my current portable project, though (more on that soon!) I brought out this pretty Miss Babs Windsor to start a pair of Avivah socks (my pattern from the Spring 2011 Twist Collective) for myself:
I love that color! Since I don't have progress pics yet, I thought this would be the perfect better-late-than-never time to blog about my Avivah pattern.
I submitted for Twist with a desire to make a sock pattern that would have a very spring-like, sweet look and feel. I knew that I wanted the main focus of the sock to be a single motif up the entire foot and front of the sock, so I swatched and charted until I'd created a trellis of twisted stitches which framed climbing eyelet rosettes. This stitch pattern could be carried on longer if desired; there are separate charts for the neatly closing toe and cuff parts of the trellis. The socks are worked from the toe up, and have a short-row toe and a tidy gusset heel.
It was also important to me that this motif neatly-but-organically flowed into the deeply ribbed cuff, but as this design is garden-inspired (and my favorite gardens always have a bit of a wild look about them, at least in places), there are some rosettes on the back of the leg, as well - rambling roses, bursting forth from the contained garden trellis.
The yarn I used for the Twist sample socks is Miss Babs Windsor - a beautiful, squishy soft, handpainted semisolid blend of 80/20 superwash merino and nylon. I always love to fondle the beautiful range of semisolid colors that Miss Babs creates when I see her booth at fiber festivals, so getting to work with the yarn for Twist was exciting - there were so many gorgeous colors from which to choose! The Twist socks are worked in the Sugar colorway, which is a lovely pale pink that is perfectly but not overly sweet.
The name was the last thing to come for this pattern - until a few days before the issue went live, we were working with another pattern name that means "rose garden." Unfortunately, the name was a touch too similar to another recent Twist Collective pattern name, so we started brainstorming other names that evoked springtime and gardens and flowers. Avivah is a beautiful Hebrew name that means Springtime, and I happened to work with a woman named Avivah once - she was smart, and bubbly, and so sweet and fun, so my associations with the name are really good. I thought the name would be perfect for these socks, and thankfully Kate Gilbert agreed! It is always so fun to see projects pop up for my designs on Ravelry, and the biggest advantage to my delayed blog post about this design is that there are a few more finished Avivah socks to admire through Ravelry projects!
All the photos in this post except for the first one are copyright Jamie Dixon - she did the photoshoot for Twist Collective right here in Albuquerque. :) Marnie blogged about the shoot and the trip that she and Kate took to New Mexico; it was so great to see them here - maybe Jamie and I should try to convince them to come out to the 'burque again soon! (I'm not sure that our 100-degree temps are much of a draw right now, but hey, no humidity!) Twist Collective is consistently full of thoughtful, beautiful designs, and I was so honored to once again be a part of this publication! Blue Daisy Genesis
Hilary Smith Callis' debut pattern with Twist Collective, is Blue Daisy, a charming double-breasted cardigan, worked in an artful combination of stitch patterns. In today's post, she talks about coming up with this design. This is cross posted from her own blog. A post I've been meaning to do for awhile now (but someone hasn't let me, the little stinker) is about the origins of the Blue Daisy cardigan, which can be found in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Twist Collective. Last spring, I kept seeing dresses and outfits in my favorite shops that combined patterns that I wouldn't normally put together -- stripes with polka dots, paisleys with plaids, florals with all of the above -- in very interesting ways. I wanted to use this idea in a knitted garment, but how? I thought about using different patterning yarns or multiple colors, but ultimately decided that contrasting textures was the way to go. So I got swatching. Harriet
Fiona Ellis has a way with cables (and lace and colorwork, for that matter) and her design for Spring/Summer is no exception. Harriet is proof that gorgeous cables can be perfect for cool weather in a comfortable cotton blend. Fiona takes us through her design process in this fascinating blog post.
“Knitting is a traditional craft, linked both to the past and to the future by the thread of current practice.” A line that I use over and over to describe my approach to designing: basically we don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time, we can apply what we have learned from traditional techniques to make contemporary garments and thus come up with new ways to approach our craft. So when I was designing Harriet I knew that I wanted to add what I call “filler stitches” into the areas defined by the cables to add extra texture and dimension. So my starting point was looking at cables that already existed and at what filler stitches had been used before. I quickly came to the conclusion that from a technical standpoint, I could not deviate easily from this tried and tested route. These patterns need to have small repeats to make them simple to put into small areas and so ruled out many interesting initial possibilities. I ended up with the old stand-bys of seed and rib, both of which have a two stitch repeat. With that settled I moved onto looking at the path the cable cords themselves would draw. Harriet was to be a feminine sweater or cardigan (instructions are given for both), so the lines created needed to be soft and flowing. I also liked the idea of working with a pattern that created pairs or double elements. Using tradition patterns as a jumping off point I came up with several variations, some of which I liked and some of which I thought were ugly. You can never tell what a cable will look like until you knit it, so swatching is the only way to know. I love doing this. It is the part of the process which for me can generate many other ideas, some of which head off on tangents, that’s why I keep a notebook, enabling me to return to them one day. The size of the repeat, especially the row count became very important at this stage. I could certainly come up with something beautiful but knew that some (although certainly not all) knitters might be put off by a huge long repeat. I think that there must be some kind of magic number to this, you know not so long that you can never learn it but long enough to encourage you to knit a whole repeat in one sitting and thus move the project along at a good speed. Now if only I knew what that magic number was…. but I’m sure it varies from knitter to knitter. Anyway I thought you might like to see a few of my swatches and hear my thoughts on what I thought worked (and what did not). 1) Single element divided with the two filler stitches contained in the same circle - didn’t look feminine enough and would produce a sort of polka dot effect.
2) Celtic Knot first attempt: mirror cables within the same repeat. This is 52 rows long – yikes! Plus the areas for adding the filler stitches are way too small.
3) Titling cables: loved the lines and the filler stitch areas are a good size but again repeat is too long at a whopping 56 rows.
4) Final design: row repeat is a minuscule (ahem) 42 rows, nice size areas for the filler stitches. Soft gentle curving lines. Then I decided to create the mirror image cable, as the negative space created between two cables can sometimes be almost as interesting as the cable its-self. Also I felt that the double element aspect would be more aesthetically pleasing if placed symmetrically. I guess I didn’t achieve my aim to have a really manageable row repeat but I loved the cable and knowing that it would probably appeal to avid cable knitters I decided to go with it anyway. More Articles...Subcategories
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