Weekly Budding Designers Tip

happy Sunday everyone ^^/

it's time again for the Weekly Budding Designers Tip!!

since i first embarked on this journey, i've learned a lot about the design process, the tips and tricks of the trade . this weekly segment is my way of giving back and helping out other budding designers like myself by sharing my knowledge.


this weeks tip will be part one of 2 tutorials about making your own charts. we'll be talking about making Lace and Illusion charts with help from Chez Plum.

Lace Charts:


if you click on the link above you'll be redirected to the tutorial page over at Chez Plum. Sylvie has already done an amazing job of showing you exactly how she uses Excell (or a similar program) to make lace charts, so there's no need for me to try to reiterate it here. if you're a Lace designer i urge you to follow the link above and check out her tutorial. i'm going to start my tutorial series with Illusion charts, and next week we'll move on to Cable charts.


Illusion Charts:


if you've been following my blog then you'll know that i've dabbled quite a bit in Illusion design. up until very recently i have been writing all my illusions patterns out without the use of a chart. but then i found the Chez Plum tutorial for making Lace charts and i thought to myself "maybe i can modify this technique to make illusion charts." and that's just what i did.


here's how i did it:

• we'll start off by opening Excell or Open Office, or any similar spreadsheet program. don't be afraid of working with spreadsheets, it's really not as difficult as you might think. for the purposes of this tutorial i'll be working with Open Office, you can click that link to download it if you don't have a spreadsheet program.
  
  
• first click the box in the upper left corner of your spreadsheet to highlight all the cells, then go to format/columns/width to decrease the width of the columns ( i decrease to about .29")

{click the box in the black oval to highlight}

{click on "Format" then go to "Columns" and "Width" and type in your new width}

• once you've adjusted the size of your cells you're ready to begin charting. you'll need 4 colors to make an illusion chart, i like to use a light and dark shade of 2 different colors but in theory you can use any colors you want.
  
  

{the icon in the oval will be used to color your cells}

• i like to start by highlighting the exact area i'm going to be working with and then adding a border to that area so that i don't color beyond it. the button for adding borders is just to the left of the button for coloring as shown above.
  

• then i color in every other row in alternating light shades as seen below

• now it's time to fill in the area for your design or pattern in the darker shades of the color:
  
  



• and then all that's left is to fill in the remaining area in the lighter colors like so:
  
  
  

[Quick Tip: by holding down the "Control (Ctrl)" button on your keyboard you can highlight multiple boxes at one time in different places on your chart. you can use this to select all cells that will be the same color. this will save you the time of having to fill in the cells one by one]

• finally, the last step in creating a chart is to make a legend for the chart like mine seen below:
  
  

i've taken the time to make a swatch of what this simple cross illusion chart looks like knit up.

once you're finished making your chart and legend take a screen shot of your work by pressing the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard (it's usually next to the "F12" button.) then simply paste your screenshot into a program like Microsoft Paint by holding down the "Ctrl" button and pressing "V."

now you'll be able to edit or modify your chart a bit in Paint and finally save it to your computer as a JPEG file to be inserted into your pattern.


and that's all there is to it! it may seem a bit complicated at first, but chart making really is invaluable knowledge for any budding designer to learn. it saves you money on Tech Editing, and lets you be more in control of the design process and the final pattern product.


well that's this weeks budding designers tip, i hope this will be beneficial to some of my budding designer followers out there, and any of my followers who ever wanted to know a bit more about illusion knitting or charting. tune in next week for the Cable Chart Tutorial.

~Carla

weekly budding designers tip

hello everyone ^^/

i know my blog has been silent, so to speak, for the last week or two, but i've been busy knitting and crocheting and ordering supplies and planning for the opening of my Etsy Shop. i was hoping to be up and running by Valentines day, but i grossely underestimated the amount of work and time it would take to get started. it's just been such an exciting prospect and so my plans have been growing more and more elaborate by the day it seems. i originally intended to open the shop with just a few hand knit totes, but now i'm planning on at least 3 or 4 different items. so I'll probably be opening up closer to the end of February/beginning of March, check back with my blog for a an exact Grand Opening date, plus possible giveaways and sales on merchandise ^-^

but all shop news aside, something was recently brought to my attention that gave me the idea adding a new weekly segment to my blog, the "weekly budding designers tip" or wbdt for short, so i'll move right along to the first evar weekly budding designers tip!!!!

if you follow my blog, you'll remember that in my last post i mentioned the Red Heart "save the planet, one project at a time" design contest.

however, in reality their logo should look a little something more like this:

i decided to post an announcement about this group in the budding designers group on Ravelry, and just a few days later someone posted this painfully complicated peice of legal jargon from the competition rules:

By submitting your entry, you irrevocably assign and transfer to the Sponsor any and all rights, title and interest in and to the submission, including without limitation all ideas, concepts, and copyrighted or copyrightable material embodied in or represented by the submission, and intellectual property rights including without limitation all rights of persons and owners of property appearing therein. You hereby waive any and all moral or similar rights you may have in and to the project design, the photograph, and every other element of your submission. The Sponsor Parties shall have the right, but not the obligation, to publish, use, edit, adapt, modify, and create derivative works from the project design and the photograph submitted in your entry in any way without territorial, time, use or other restrictions, and for any and all purposes, including but not limited to advertising and marketing, in any and all media now known or hereafter to become known worldwide without further compensation to you or any other person or entity.

what it boils down to is that any design you submit to the contest becomes property of the "sponsers" (in this case either Red Heart or JoAnn.) the most unsettling part is that this rule applies EVEN IF YOU DON'T WIN!!! most of the budding designers are outraged by this, although some of the more seasoned designers in the group say that it is aparently nothing new, and that companies have been doing this for a long time.

so whats the moral of the story? the budding designers tip of the week:

never submit a design without reading the guidelines and contest rules thoroughly!!!

those of us who are just starting out in this business are more likely to fall prey to these kinds of things. we're all looking for exposure, but even when the prizes seem fabulous, we can't let ourselves be blinded by that and not thoroughly investigate what we're getting ourselves into. this very stern, mom looking woman wagging her finger at you should get the point across nicely xD

but seriously folks, i'm rather disappointed with this turn of events. i was looking forward to submitting one of my designs but now it's definItely not worth it. oh well, i'll just have to re-knit all my designs using KnitPicks yarns now to submit to their Independant Designer program . i just realized that i never gave a linky to the KnitPicks submission rules page when i last spoke of this program, so for those of you who wanted it there it is. it makes me even more glad now that there are companies out there like KnitPicks who aren't trying to steal designs from us and are instead giving us a fair opportunity for exposure.

well it's now 2:30 am and i've got a busy day of laundry and knitting for the shop tomorrow, so it's time for me to get some sleep.

have a great weekend everyone :)

~Carla