For those of you who have been following my blog for a long time, you’ve watched my journey to becoming a professional knitwear designer. You may have seen me back when I was even learning to knit in 2004, experimenting with cables lace and other various techniques. I designed my first pattern in 2007 when BG was just 6 months old. I started out by measuring a similar top in the silhouette I was designing, probably something from Old Navy. I looked online at other patterns to make sure my ratio of sleeve/back/front stitches seemed correct for up by the neck. I was flying by the seat of my pants with no guidance at all. I was always intimidated by the idea of submitting to magazines or book publishers. Now 2.5 years later things are a bit different, I’ve had a lot of experiences and I know a lot more then I did then but there is still a lot to learn.

This brings us to the fantastic new book, “The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design“. You are probably familiar with Shannon Okey of Knitgrrl.com who has published many books, written many articles, designed many patterns and is part of the Stitch Cooperative. I had the pleasure of meeting Shannon at TNNA recently, and she’s just incredible sweet and enthusiastic about what she does.  I had heard about the pre-orders for her book in twitter, and quickly put in for one, and it just arrived yesterday! I read about 30% of it last night, using a flashlight because our electricity went out in a big storm. The first few pages read like a mini history lesson in the online knitting world and its humble beginnings, which was such fun to read.

The book is published by Cooperative Press which means its been independently published, and like many of the amazing entrepreneurial knitters I’ve met recently, the quality is superb. There are a bunch of interviews in the back which I have not gotten to yet, pages and pages of interviews with your favorite designs. There are even chapters talking about web design, blog set up and all the things involved in setting yourself up with an online presence in the ever growing world of social networking. This of course includes lots of good information on Ravelry as well. In the first two chapters I saw at-least half a dozen cited links that I wanted to follow up on, amazing amounts of information, stuff I was not even ware of and I consider myself fairly savvy.

If you are considering knitwear design, or are already designing but don’t know what to do next this book is for you! If you’re like me and you’ve been publishing for a little while on your own and consider yourself fairly knowledgeable, you too will find a wealth of information. I was not asked to write this review, and I bought the book on my own. I absolutely adore it, it’s the best thing out there for anyone who wants to or already is designing. Now please excuse my while I go run off to read the interviews chapter!