Designing Knitwear with Kat

The anatomy of a perfect design proposal

Lately I've been getting a lot of designers asking me what I like to see in a design proposal.  There are a few things that I like to see.

Details! - I'm usually pretty busy and can have a terrible memory.  The more things that I can see on a page and can save somewhere, the better. (that also means that I have to ask you fewer questions!) A few things that are of extreme importance:

1. 1. Project Name/Description
   2. Yarn requirements - # of balls, color
   3. Timeframe - Usually less than a month. Any longer than that and I might forget about the project.
   4. Compensation request: yarn or money? or a combination!
      

With all of that being said, I have to take a minute to brag about a proposal that landed on my desk yesterday afternoon. It is from Patti Pierce Stone (www.p2designs.com) and this glowing piece of perfection looks like this:
The memo: This reminds me of just what the heck I'm about to see.

The proposal: Complete with project name, description, skill level, target audience, yarn requirements, timeframe, and compensation request.

A picture: This can either be a picture or a sketch. In either case it helps me to see specific details of the garment as well as a general shape.

The Pattern: This is not necessary at this stage, but if the pattern is done, it's nice to see it up front in case I read through it and have any questions.

CD: This should have the pattern in a Word document along with any pictures that we had agreed that I can use.

The only thing missing from this proposal is the copyright assignment and the only reason it's missing is because I forgot to send it.

Now that I've shown you all what a printed proposal looks like, I'd like to talk for a sec about what needs to be included in an electronic proposal. Electronic proposals are fantastic beceause it is much easier for me to catagorize, save, and later find an e-mail rather than something I've filed in the filing cabinet. Electronic proposals should have a majority of what you saw above: some kind of intro to tell me what you envision for the piece, the knitty gritty of what yarns, time, and cost is involved, and pictures/sketches/swatch of the proposed piece.

Calling all sock knitters!

It's recently come to my attention that I have a much larger demand for TOFUtsies sock models than I had thought and I need more! If you're a sock knitter and want to knit a sock or two for us, please e-mail me!! kat@soysilk.com

We're also getting set to launch our 15 newest colors of TOFUtsies so if you've got a sock proposal, send that too! i'm looking for new patterns!

Also, Jonelle dropped two Leslye Solomon patterns on my desk this week that would look stunning in Karaoke. I'd love to have these to show off! So, if you're not afraid of sweater knitting, drop me a line!

On the knitting front, I'm sure you've heard me talk about how crazy i am about Stefanie Japel's patterns and I'm super excited to announce that she's working on 3 for SWTC for the Vickie Howell Collection! I also bought her One Skein Wonder pattern last week and finished mine this week.

I knit mine out of my all time favorite Karaoke color - Loganberry! I worked on it all last week (well all 2 days) of my speech class and everyone was so curious what it was going to be. It's soooo soft - I can't wait to wear it on Tuesday. (my only hope is that it's not 93 degrees like it is today!)

This weekend I plan to stop ignoring my socks that I've been working on. I need to finish my TOFUtsies sock for me *vbg* and my hand dyed Optimum sock for my Mommy. (It's the original Foot the Bill colorway and it's yummy.)

And um....also....I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it yet but we're getting 5 new colors of Karaoke too and they are SOOOO pretty. Wait til you see #308. I've been fighting for this color for 2 years. I think I can die a happy knitter now!