Designing a pattern is an interesting process to me, and I have honed it a lot in the past year I have been concentrating on it. Not far off my goal of 1 a month for a year, it now takes me half the time from inspiration to publication.
I think some of this is due to my rigorous note taking and formula writing, but also my process has been helped by my attempt to get my patterns into some magazines, both in-the-flesh ones and online.(which, by the way, I have done, here)
Working in a template, seeing the common factors for pattern submissions, and the more abstract concept submissions some go for, they all give some insight as to how to put across your own creative idea to another individual. This has then been useful for working on many projects of my own, skipping from one to another, and shifting my inspiration, without making them all become the same, as I record, photograph and sketch and summarize along the way.
So, the money isn't great. 70 quid for one or two full weeks work when I have young children is a little irksome. And giving someone else rights to my work is a little concerning too, I can't quite put my finger on it. But if at the end my process and therefore patterns are better off and more polished, and I get more airtime, that has got to be worth the hassle, at least for now.
Image courtesy of Kate Heppell, Practical Publishing
Maybe you should look into publishing your own free knitting magazine and getting knitters of your own as well as yourself to contribute designs the advertising for various wools and pattern companies would probably pay you a bigger sum and you would still get to publish your designs.
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