Jen Lucas, Author and Designer

Jen Lucas, Author and Designer, took time from her busy schedule to visit the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.

Jen called from her home office to share with us what is new and happening with her! She shared her beginnings: she and a friend decided they wanted to learn to knit, about ten or eleven years ago. Her friend gave her a learn-to-knit booklet. She felt she was learning to do her own thing, but also took a class with Stefanie Japel, about designing. Jen began publishing patterns on Ravelry, and submitted a book to Martingale which became Sock Yarn Shawls.

One of the things she found helpful was to work with yarn companies, creating designs for their yarns, then when she started submitting to the publishers, she had some self published and then some that were published elsewhere to show them. Understandably, you have to search out these opportunities, because, as she cautions ‘if you’re waiting for them to approach you to publish your patterns, you’ll be waiting a very long time.’

Her recent publication Sock Yarn Shawls II included shawls of different shapes and sizes. Sierra was inspired by a pattern she found in a Japanese stitch dictionary, she loved the peaks and valleys. Earth and Sky was created with yarn she had on hand from Fiesta Yarns that she had kept separate. Inspiration came when she put them together. Demeter was her first pi shawl design after Jen took a class with Myra Woods. This half-pi’s lace patterns went together well for her. Daylily is a full pi shawl, incorporating a wavy lace of feather-and-fan style patterns.

It was just recently that Jen was able to go full time with her design work, after this second Sock Yarn Shawls book. She has books in the works (she says Sock Yarn Shawls needs to be a trilogy, like ‘Hunger Games’!) so watching her website, Facebook page, and of course Ravelry has wonderful list of her designs.  One thing you’ll see is that she has been self-publishing a series (four have come out and two more to come in April) of Gradient Shawls. Jen did a really inventive thing by offering the e-book at a lower price and with each pattern as they were added, the price for the e-book went up, making it a deal to get in on that offer at the beginning.

Here is the link to Jen’s previous visit to the Yarn Thing Podcast: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2013/12/03/jen-lucas

If you missed hearing this LIVE, you can still listen to the archived episode: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2015/03/24/jen-lucas-author-and-designer or in iTunes

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