Use the Skinny Lens, Please.

As many of you are aware (because we've been talking about it incessantly), Cassandra and I were lucky enough to have an original pattern of our design chosen to be in What (Else) Would Madame DeFarge Knit, due to be published in June 2012. The process has been wonderful, frustrating, surreal, and exhilarating. A million thanks to Heather Ordover for seeing something in our pitch and agreeing to take a chance on two people who had never designed anything more complicated than a hat.


One tends to forget, while in the throes of working out a pattern, that there are ancillary things that are required of a "published knitwear designer." For example, we needed a bio of some sort. Fortunately, that wasn't too much of a stretch to create. We also needed a head shot. Wait. What?! You want our photo?? And, potentially, thousands of people are going to see it? Oy... this is my worst nightmare.


When you become a "woman of a certain age", having your photo taken is monumentally stressful. I see every wrinkle, every jowl, every pound of extra weight. And, lest you think that my young(er) friend Cassandra is immune, think again. She despises having her picture taken.


Please don't misunderstand me. We're both perfectly fine looking people. We're not scarred or deformed in any way. Our hair (while a little courser) is pretty nice. We both have nice smiles. We may be a bit thicker in the middle (and the top, and the bottom) but we're fairly normal sized for Midwesterners. It's just that we're not the hotsy-totsy cuties we were back in our 20's.


We called our dear friend Kim, a real-live professional photographer who does AMAZING portraits, and asked if she'd do our photos for us. We decided that we wanted to have fun pictures - not just our two heads smiling at the camera. So, we brainstormed some ideas and settled on a couple that we really loved - tableau's that would show our personality and, hopefully, convey that we were crafty.

Make me look like this!

Then we asked Kim to make sure she used the "skinny lens" in all the pictures. (This is a real thing - ask any photographer. I swear!)


The photo shoot was a blast! Kim took us to an old warehouse studio so we had this gritty wall and old windows to work against. The natural light in the room was incredible and it really made for some interesting lighting in the photos.


For the one scene, Cassandra and I put on temporary tattoos that Cassandra had designed. Her's was heart-shaped with pins and needles coming out of the top and a ribbon that said "Stitch Bitch". Mine was a ball of yarn with two needles sticking through and ribbons that said, "Knit Fast, Die Warm". We borrowed a tattoo gun machine from a friend and made it look like Cassandra was tattooing my arm. The next set of poses are what we call our "engagement pictures". They're probably my least favorite but they're good for cropping if we need just our heads for something. Then, the final set is Cassandra and me, sitting on the floor, surrounded by piles of craft materials. In the last set, Kim suggested that we make beatific faces - as though we were on some kind of crafting high. They're hilarious, as long as you understand the context. Otherwise, I think we just look nuts. LOL


Here are a few of our favorites for your viewing pleasure. In a few months, you'll be able to see our pic on the website for What (Else) Would Madame DeFarge Knit in the designers area. Woot!! We're (nearly) famous!

My fave. Cassandra says she has "helmet hair".

This is one we like.

Our "engagement" photo

Seriously, it looks like we took Ecstasy or something...

Designing Your Own

The shift happened slowly. One day, I picked up my pointy sticks and thought, "I can make a hat without a pattern. All I need is a couple of inches of ribbing, some stockinette, and a decrease." So, I (sort of) made a hat without a pattern. My first few attempts were pretty lame because I didn't have a good sense of how to decrease correctly. Some had weirdly flat tops or tops that were too shallow. Eventually, I figured out that, by referencing other hat patterns, I could develop my own method of decreasing and have a hat that looked pretty good.

Not too bad. Added icords & pom-pons.

When Cassandra and I submitted our pattern idea for the book, What (Else) Would Madame DeFarge Knit, I had been experimenting with making simple things without a pattern for about a year. Cassandra hadn't done anything off pattern that she can remember. We took a great leap of faith and, with unfounded confidence, decided to design a pretty complicated item (which ya'll get to see in a few months!)


The process was actually one of the best parts of designing something from scratch. We knew we wanted the item to have a retro look so we scoured old knitting patterns that Cassandra had inherited from her grandmother. We picked design elements we liked and then modified them to fit our purposes.

Next, we dug through a number of different stitch pattern books for stitches that would provide us with look we wanted. If you've never looked at a stitch pattern book, run (don't walk) to your nearest library or bookstore and sit with one for an hour or so. If you're not inspired by all the possibility, I'll eat one of my poorly-designed hats.

Awesome book of just edging.

Loads of great stitch patterns in this book.

Finally, we started putting it all together. Our design has multiple pieces so Cassandra tackled the largest and I took the two smaller ones. Our process for writing the pattern itself was very different. I visualized what I wanted and wrote down how I THOUGHT the pattern should read. Then I knitted it and corrected as I went. Cassandra did the opposite. She started knitting, and wrote down what she was doing as she went - correcting both the knitting and the pattern at the same time. Both ways worked and I think that it's really a matter of attacking it whatever way makes the most sense to the individual.


Our very best tip for designing your own knitting patterns is this: TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST.... etc.


I'm not kidding when I tell you that, with every single test knit, we found ways to make the pattern better and/or typos and/or general errata. It's frightening to think that, if we didn't have a deadline, I could tweak this darn thing forever.


Once you've designed your own pattern you can sell it on Ravelry or give it away on your blog or just wallow in the fact that you are now a bonafide knitting pattern designer! Whatever you choose, I can promise you that the rewards are fantastic.


I may never be Debbie Bliss or Ysolda Teague but I sure am proud of the work that we've done and I absolutely can't wait to design our next project.


- Alex