The Beginners Guide to Writing Patterns with Kate Atherley

The Beginners Guide to Writing Patterns with Kate Atherley was the featured book on today’s Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.

Kate Atherley

Kate was mentioned on the podcast recently, because she is a tech editor with Knitty.com, as we heard with Amy Singer. She’s put together a wonderful new book based on her experience as a teacher, designer and that tech editor work.

We love that Kate says that she doesn’t really want a designer to be great a pattern writing, because she wants to allow them to focus on the creative elements. She originally wrote this book and self published it so that she could help those that she was working with to have a few guidelines. However, she discovered there is a broader audience that she could have imagined and worked with Interweave to make sure it was available to more who needed and wanted to learn where to begin. 

In The Beginner’s Guide to Pattern Writing: Learn to Write Patterns that Others Can Knit Kate says she wants to help the pattern writer to be serious and professional, to help the knitter be successful. The book is divided into chapters, Pattern Structure & Elements, Actual Knitting Instructions, Charts, Grading, Formatting & Layout, the Process, Selling Online, On Copyright and include in the appendix examples of Basic Pattern Template, Abbreviations, Standard Terms & Glossary, Resources & Bibliography. All of these elements have to be thought out by a pattern writer and Kate cheerfully gives helpful advice on things to consider when making decisions.

Part of this conversation between Marly and Kate is self-publishing, with tech editing or test knitting, and how to get your patterns out there. Part of Marly’s concern is just not appearing stupid to a publisher (and thus inciting further work together), but also to save time later when the pattern becomes available for your own again.

Although, we are all human and knitters can be pretty forgiving, being as professional as possible will go a long way for a designer.

Kate Atherley can be followed through her website, www.kateatherley.com, and her work through Knitty.com, especially her posts for Knitty, her designer page in Ravelry and Twitter.

It hasn’t been a year since Kate Atherley was on last, she’s THAT busy helping us be better knitters, last time was with her new book Custom Socks, just last September.

If you missed getting to hear this visit LIVE, you can still hear it as an archived episode where it aired originally: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2016/04/26/the-beginners-guide-to-writing-patterns-with-kate-atherley or with your favorite podcast catcher like iTunes or Stitcher Radio.