I am so excited! I have a mentor. I think I mentioned a while ago that I was going to be taking a grading class. Grading is taking a sweater/garment design and creating it in several different sizes so others can make your design in their size. Major missing piece in my knitting skills bag of tricks.
So the next step was to find an actual class. That was not an easy task. But as luck would have it, or serendipity would, I discovered Ruth Garcia-Alcantud of rock+purl (love that name). She lives in the UK and is an incredible designer. I’ve purchased a couple of her patterns from Ravelry and they are fantastic. She is also a tech editor, will grade your pattern for you and will create schematics as well. And of course she is a teacher. I signed up for her grading class and also chose the option to have 2 hours of mentoring with her over Skype IM. We just completed my first hour session and I am so excited! I have homework and deadlines and these patterns are going to get written and published! My main issue with this business is completing the pattern, getting it to the tech editor and getting it released. It’s really easy for me to come up with the idea and knit the piece. If you’ve been to my Ravelry store, you’ll notice there aren’t any sweaters for sale – yet. That’s because I didn’t know how to grade them. We’re still in the middle of our class, but I’m learning how to do just that.
So Ruth is putting me to task to prioritize my designs by season (brilliant), projected release date, etc. I’m to have a list to her by next Friday. Also, I’m going to be setting up a vision board with my list of priorities on it. Sounds much more fun and inspiring than looking at my spreadsheet list of tasks to accomplish (which I will still have and update). I think I gave her a mini heart attack when I told her how many designs I have that need to be completed.
So now I have a mentor that is pointing me down MY right path to help me in meeting my goals and making this big old dream of mine a reality. Ruth really has a passion for helping new designers on this path. And I’m so grateful to have found her. I think it’s pretty incredible in an industry that could (and might be for some) be a very competitive business, there are so many designers and knitters who want to share their passion and skills with others. After my bookkeeping hat was put away the other day at the yarn company, I taught one of the new girls working on the graphic design team to knit. She learned to cast on, knit continental and purl continental with her thumb. The last two skills I taught myself within the last couple of years and it’s improved my knitting tremendously. She did some swatching/practicing and was going to start working on her hat! I can’t tell you how excited I get when I teach someone to knit. I just love sharing the passion. I find most knitters I know feel the same way. I think that’s a big part of why I love knitting so much. Not only do I get immense joy out of knitting and creating, but I also love learning and sharing new things. It’s pretty cool to know that I will not possibly learn every knitting technique out there. And so the journey continues.
So now I’m off to do some bookkeeping and later today I will work on my priority list and schedule time to work on the tasks on the list (another missing piece).
Have a fantastic day and happy knitting to you!
Shellie
s h e l Designs 