Knit Now makes a design submission call for quick makes.

Read the press release below.

Fancy a quick little design challenge?

I’m looking for some fun little quick makes today. As you may know, we sometimes give away cute little knitting kits with the magazine. Recently we’ve done an Alice in Wonderland kit and a little Christmas dog kit in his own Christmas jumper. We also like to offer our readers some alternative makes for their kit yarn – things like mitts, hats, mug cosies etc.

Your designs don’t need to use up all of the yarn, or even use all of the colours if you don’t want to. You can add beads, buttons, notions etc. but please don’t add any extra yarns.

Due to the tight turn-arounds, this call will be for UK/Europe-based designers only but I’m trying to get further ahead and future calls will hopefully be open to all designers.

So, if that sounds like it might be up your street, read on for the details.

About the yarn
All of the yarn is 4-ply acrylic, 400m per 100g – very similar to something like Patons Fairytale Fab 4-ply, or other popular baby acrylics.

 

Sorbet Kit: on sale August

This is a big bumper kit with 22g/88m each in 6 colours:
Mango, Candyfloss, Blueberry, Apple, Toffee & Sugar

Projects we’d like to see for Sorbet Kit:
Knitting AND crochet projects!
Crochet: small baby blanket or other baby makes, toys, women’s accessories (hats etc), homewares
Knitting: Baby garments, toys, women’s accessories
Skill level: Keep this beginner-friendly. All projects must be worked on 3.5mm straight knitting needles or a 3mm crochet hook.

 

Cosy Traditional Kit: on sale September

Red: 8g/32m
Blue: 20g/80m
Yellow: 2g/8m
Brown 22g/88m
Fawn: 3g/12m

Projects we’d like to see for the Cosy Traditional kit:
Knitting only.
We already have a toy all tied up for this kit but we’d like to offer a couple of accessories for Autumn as alternative makes.

 

Festive Fun kit: on sale October

 

Red: 7g/28m
Green: 9g/36m
Yellow: 4g/16m
Blue: 7g/28m
Fawn: 12g/48m
White: 11g/44m

Projects we’d like to see for the Festive Fun kit:
Knitting only.
This kit has a festive theme, so let me see all of your Christmassy ideas! I’m particularly interested in seeing some practical Christmas gifts – this is enough yarn for a hat, for example (and this yarn works well for stranded knitting). For this kit, I’d like to see a mix of techniques, including designs which are knitted flat and in the round.

 

What to send:
Please send a PDF, including a sketch and a description of your idea. It would of course be best if you can include a swatch as well, but I know this is a super-tight turn-around so if you don’t have time, don’t let that be a barrier to submitting.
IMPORTANT: Please save the PDF as kitname_yourname_patternname.pdf
For example – FestiveFun_SarahJones_MugCosy.pdf

Deadline:
Please send in your submission to me at kate.heppell@practicalpublishing.co.uk by midday UK time on Monday 16th April – that’s just over a week away. Commissions will be sent out the same day, the yarn will be sent straight out and final patterns and samples will be due back with me by Thursday 3rd May for Festive Fun and Monday 21st May for Sorbet and Cosy Traditional. Yes, that is the right way round and there are totally logical reasons why the deadline is sooner for an issue that’s on sale later I promise, but I won’t bore you with those here!The usual rights and terms apply for these patterns – you will be paid fairly for your work, your samples remain your property, and 4 months after publication, the rights to your patterns will return to you.For those of you who have sent me submissions for the main Autumn call – the team is working through your amazing submissions right now and I’m hoping to get back to you all with decisions next week.

If you have any questions at all, please just give me a shout.

Happy swatching,

Kate x