Hello everyone! Tara here—

When I started crocheting, I knew crochet magazines existed, but I never thought much about what went into them. I thought that maybe the companies has a group of designers on staff that would just make all of the projects in the issue, but I’m happy to say that is not the case with Crochet World or Crochet! magazine.

You could have one of your designs published in either magazine!

Having a design published in one of the magazines is a really great way to get exposure as a designer. Even if you have a following online—there are still some makers that prefer print patterns and may be seeing your work for the first time in a magazine.

Plus, the process of having a piece published is easier than you think.

First, you have to know more about the magazine you’re submitting to.

Crochet World is published every other month. It’s a 68-page magazine that offers patterns, tutorials and technique articles for all types of crochet, though it does focus on projects and accessories for your family and heirloom pieces like afghans and thread crochet. Regular features that can be found in each issue include Beginner’s Luck; Fast, Easy, Fun!; Scraps Delight; Learn A Stitch; Touch of Style; Just Threads and In the World of Crochet.

Crochet! is published quarterly, so each issue is dedicated to a season. It’s a 74-page magazine and offers patterns, tutorials and technique articles for all types of crochet. This magazine focuses mostly on garments and accessories, but will feature some home décor and afghan projects as well. Features include Done in 1, 2, 3 Skeins; What’s Hot; You Loved, We Listened; and Beginner’s Corner. Also included is a Crochet Tutorial 101 article complete with step-by-step photos and a finished project.

Each magazine also publishes two special issues a year, which each focused on one theme. There have been special issues like Crochet Home, Mandala-Style Throws to Crochet, Quick One-Skein Crochet, Scrap-Busting Crochet and so many others! You can find some of them here!

Once you know which magazine you want to submit to, you have to make sure you’re signed up to get Call Outs, which will let you know when the magazines are looking for new designs, what the deadlines for the new issue will be and what the themes the new issue will have.

Email Editor@Crochet-World.com and Editor@CrochetMagazine.com to sign up for Call Outs from the two magazines.

You can also receive our Editorial Calendars, which will let you know what themes we’re planning on having in each issue for the year. This lets you plan ahead of time so you don’t have as much of a rush with the submission deadlines.

With each Call Out, you’ll receive a Project Submission Form.

This form lets us know what you’re thinking about making for the issue. You don’t have to have a completed piece to fill this out and submit it!

You must submit an original design. It has to be a project and pattern that you have created yourself. If your patterns is accepted, you will be given a deadline and asked to send in the pattern and a crocheted sample of the design (if you submit an afghan or sweater, you will be expected to mail in a completed afghan or sweater).

As editors, we use this form to see what type of project you’re thinking of making, how big (or small) you’re thinking about making it, how hard you think it will be to make, what category/section of the issue you think it would fit in the best, what stitches you plan on using to make the piece and what kind of yarn you think would be the best to use.

The most important part of this form is the sketch/swatch/photo section.

This section lets us see exactly what you’re thinking with the design. The photos and drawings don’t have to be fancy! You can even send inspiration photos like the below example.

If there’s stripes, it will tell us what you’re expecting the stripes to look like on the piece. If you’re combining a few different stitches to make a textured pattern, a small swatch will let us see what the texture is going to look like. The more details you give us, the better!

Once you fill in the Project Submission Form and have a photo/sketch/swatch ready, send it in and let us know which issue you’re submitting it for.

It can take 14 business days AFTER the project submission deadline for us to make our decisions, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear back from us immediately! With only so many pages available in each issue, we can’t fit every project we receive (though we would love to). Don’t let that discourage you from submitting more projects in the future. There’s a very good chance that we loved your piece and just didn’t have the page count or budget to include it in the issue you submitted it too. We may even ask to hold on to your design for a future issue if we think we can make it fit better there.

 

If you could publish any pattern, what would it be?

– Tara Orchard, Editor of Crochet! Magazine

 Do you know how to knit? Submit a design to our Annie’s Halloween and Annie’s Christmas Special Issues!