From sketch to publication

I always love seeing "behind" the scenes of a photoshoot or a cooking show to see what happens behind the camera and out of view to get the project from its inception to its final cut.  So here is a quick time line of what a magazine design may look like from start to finish.

1 of 3 submission pages

Last March (2011), I submitted this design sketch along with a detailed page description which includes everything from the inspiration, the construction details to the suggested yarns and colors.  I actually sent 2 sketches of 2 designs, the other one being a sleeveless pullover with the star stitch pattern being on the bust and a St st on the bodice.  The sleeveless pullover was yellow and the sleeveless vest was in blue.  I suggested either yellow or blue for the garment.

I swatch out the stitch pattern and attached a jpeg of the swatch to the publication company.  In the olden days, this swatch would have been mailed in to the company - but nowadays, a good picture is all that you need.

Upon acceptance (I think this was accepted within a month of submission), I had 2 months to complete it from start to finish including all schematics and 5 sizes written using the magazines style sheet.  I take a picture of the sweater and send the sweater, the yarn label with a piece of yarn attached and the pattern itself to the editor - and then pray that the sweater safely arrives to its destination!  My biggest fear is that it gets lost or damaged in transit!  This garment was sent to Creative Knitting in June - maybe July (can't remember now).

Normally I don't get to see this part of it - but Creative Knitting has been posting pictures onto Facebook of the Photoshoots (love seeing this part!).   This is just part of the photoshoot and these pictures were just posted a few weeks ago.

Here is the final picture of the sweater and the cover of the magazine which just hit newsstands this past month.  The sweater was returned to me along with a copy of the magazine.

Yarn used was Frog Tree Meriboo (MW).

So from submission to final publication - you are looking at almost a year!