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Have Any Patterns for the Pattern-a-Day Calendar?

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knitting pattern calendarI’m sure you’ve seen those knitting (and crochet, and other craft) pattern-a-day calendars at your local bookstore or yarn shop. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of patterns (365, maybe? actually, it’s more like 100, as some patterns fill multiple days) to fill one of those, so the publishers are always eager for submissions. The submission period is open for the 2014 calendars, but won’t be for much longer.

In fact, the deadline was today for any patterns that wanted to be considered for inclusion in the photos on the cover of the calendar, but you have until August 15 if you want to submit a pattern — or several — to be included. All the details can be found right here, but you have to send good-quality, full-color photos (digitally or by some other means) as well as the pattern and a form that includes all the basic pattern info and your permission to publish it.

Designers of the three best patterns in the calendar will also be awarded cash prizes (up to $500), and you’ll get a free copy of the calendar for each of your patterns that is accepted, as well as the ability to link to your website in the calendar.

Have you ever submitted for or been published in one of these calendars? Spill it! I might try this year if I can come up with something that won’t take me away from my book knitting for too long!

[Photo by Accord Publishing.]

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Comments

Have you read?

Knit a Fish Pouch, for Reasons

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]