Do you want to see your designs featured in Your Crochet & Knitting magazine? We're looking for designers for our Christmas issue. Read on to find out how to submit your design ideas...

Light the fire, hang the mistletoe and get your hugging arms ready – we’re commissioning for a merry and bright Christmas! Christmas this year is going to be very special, and we want more than ever to feel merry and bright! For our festive issue, we're looking for exceptionally cute toys, must-make decorations, fun and cosy home makes, and accessories that make perfect gifts for loved ones. Embrace the bold colour palette and have fun – bonus points if there’s a new technique our readers can learn! You can find the full Pinterest moodboard here.

About the magazine

Your Crochet & Knitting is a quarterly newsstand title, widely available in supermarkets, newsagents and craft stores across the UK as well as select retailers worldwide. Each issue of the magazine comes with 6-8 balls of yarn, a crochet hook and knitting needles, so readers can get started right away. This means most of our projects are smaller scale, but we do also include larger patterns in non-kit yarns.

This issue's yarn kit includes 8 balls of 4-ply yarn (approx 60-66m per ball) - you do not need to use all the colours, but bear in mind the yardage you will need. The crochet hook will be 3mm; the knitting needles will be 3.5mm. You must use this kit for your submission – we don’t commission in branded yarn.

  • Gold rings (yellow)
  • French  hens (red)
  • Pear tree (green)
  • Turtle doves (pale blue)
  • Ladies dancing (peach)
  • Drummers drumming (brown)
  • Geese a-laying (white)
  • Lords leaping (black)

How to submit

Please send your submissions to me by email: joanna.cummings@practicalpublishing.co.uk

Please create a separate PDF for each idea and name the file in the following format: YourName _PatternName_YS5.pdf, with your name and email address on every page. Your submission should include a sketch and accompanying paragraph describing the item and a photograph or scan of your swatch. Please give us links to other examples of your work.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions will be 9am UK time on Tuesday 8th June 2021. I am aiming to get all commissions sent out within a week or so of that date. Deadlines for final patterns and samples will be September 2021.

Compensation/Support

You will be commissioned to write a full pattern (including any alternative sizes) and crochet/knit a sample. We will take care of photography.

Compensation is on a sliding scale, the exact fee depending on the size and complexity of the project, taking into account the amount of labour required.

4 months after publication, rights will revert to you and you will then be able to use the final tech-edited version of the pattern (including charts/schematics) as you wish. We arrange yarn support for all designers. Your sample remains your property, but we will hold onto it for a while in case we get pattern queries, or for display at shows. We will return your sample to you at the same time as your publication rights.

FAQs

  1. Return of samples – We’re happy to return samples to you. Any unwanted samples are donated to charity.
  2. International Designers – You are very welcome to submit, but remember that ours is a UK magazine so we’ll be using British terminology and will need to send you our own yarn kit (which we will arrange to be sent to you). Postage of      the sample may also be expensive for you.
  3. Photography – We will be taking care of all the photography for patterns, but the      rights to photos will remain with us, so if you don’t want your sample      back, consider taking photos before you send it in.
  4. Sewing/other non-knitting elements – We’re open to any and all good quality patterns, and if it needs a little sewing or embroidery, that won’t rule it out.
  5. Tech editing – We do have tech editors, but they will only be polishing your      patterns – they won’t be doing any grading for you.
  6. Multiple submissions – There’s no limit on the number of ideas you can submit. If you receive multiple commissions, we will work with you to spread out your      deadlines.
  7. Previously published patterns – As a general rule, I am not looking for patterns      which have previously been published at all. If you’ve posted a couple of      project pics online, that’s fine – but the patterns should come as a nice      surprise for our readers when we publish them. Your commission is      confidential until a week before the on-sale date of the magazine.
  8. Future calls – If you want to add yourself to the mailing list for future calls,      just fill in your details at http://eepurl.com/b-_zQD