A third knit zine?
When I started I didn't really think I'd make a third issue of Take Back the Knit, but now it's seems that I might. Here's all you need to know about how to go about submitting to the zine. Consider it at least - it's fun being published.
Need topic ideas? Here's my wish list:
* a knitting q&a - you can come up with the questions yourself, or ask your friends
* comics and illustrations
* product reviews - yarns, needles (doesn't someone wanna gush about Lantern Moon?), books, magazines and other zines...
* an interview with a knitter (includes your grandma or best friend, a yarn shop owner or employee, a sheep or alpaca farmer, someone famous who knits, etc.)
* how to's - tips, step-by-step explanation of a technique (intarsia, felting, dying, finishing)...
* other small crafty projects, maybe related to spinning, dying, sewing, crocheting, quilting, silkscreening, etc.
* stories about your family's knitting herstory or how you learned to knit
* articles about knitting and feminism, knitting and gender, the d.i.y. movement, knitting in public, veganism and knitting, environmental aspects of knitting, how knitting builds community, your stitch n' bitch group or LYS, seeking out yarn shops while on vacation...
* I would be thrilled if someone creative approached me to discuss, and hopefully design, cover art.
* and of course, patterns (in various levels of difficulty)! wintery projects that come to mind include toques and scarves, mitts and gloves, sweaters, hot water bottle covers (Rachel?), slippers, wooly socks, leg warmers, afghans...
The Knitty Gritty:
The best way to get a feel for what I'm looking for (and what's already been done) is to get yer hot li'l hands on a copy of a previous issues of Take Back the Knit. I am particularly drawn to things with a d.i.y./feminist/punk-rock/hipster/granola-feel, though it's not a must that your submissions emit any one of these vibes. (And when I say "punk-rock," I'm not talkin' literally, necessarily.) I'm not so big on submissions with a Chicken Soupy feel, if you catch my meaning.
Submissions should be seasonally appropriate or non-season specific. (If your submission has a summerier feel I'll just hold on to it for the following issue.)
Submissions should be sent as MS Word attachments. Please don't do any fancy formatting as it likely won't fit with the template I have for the zine. Images should be sent as jpegs (do not include them in the same file as the text, though you may indicate where they should be placed). I am not very tech-savvy, so it's easy to confuse me with anything else.
In the past with zine submissions I've suggested a 1200 word maximum. I'm not super concerned with the word count, just as long as the piece doesn't ramble on.
It's fine to submit previously published work - that includes blog exerpts. A blog post could make a perfectly appropriate piece.
Pieces with accompanying art (line drawings, photos) are preferred, though not required. Patterns, however, do require photos. In regards to sending photos, please scale them down so that they don't take up my entire Inbox.
If your submission is primarily text this doesn't really affect you, but page sizes are 4 1/4" x7" (half of a legal-sized sheet of paper). One piece should typically occupy 1 to 4 pages.
It's fine to mention small businesses owned by kind people who treat their staff and/or animals with care and respect. If you are interested in advertising space in the zine, please contact me.
Include a biography of no more than 60 words written in the first person (this is new, it used to be third person). It might sound something like this:
"More than a dozen zines under my belt now, and being published still gets me giddy. I spend most of my days baking or knitting or pickin' up after kids, and trying to find a comfortable middleground between Martha Stewart and Kim Gordon. I can be reached through my weblog, Domestic Affair (http://domesticaffair.blogspot.com)."
Please get someone else to read your piece over before your send it off (for clarity, spelling, grammar, etc.). Note: spelling should be Canadian, not American. This includes words like "fibre", "colour", "centre", "metre", "neighbourhood", "tonne", etc. With patterns, be sure to include US and mm needle sizing, as well as yardage and metres for yarn.
If your piece is printed in the zine, you receive a free copy of the publication.
I welcome questions and topic proposals before pieces are sent in, but within reason. Is this okay? Is this okay? Is this okay? will not fly for me. I'm pretty busy and try to spend as little unnecessary time on the computer as possible, so please read the guidelines carefully (they're not that tricky) and try to figure things out yerself.
I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with all this information....
SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE MONDAY AUGUST 29 2005, and submissions received on or before that date are given priority.
Send 'em to takebacktheknit AT gmail DOT com .
The zine'll hopefully be in print by early-mid October.
Great! Now bring it on!
(And, fellow knit-bloggers, it'd be great if you wanted to mention this call for submissions on your site too. Thank you kindly!)
Need topic ideas? Here's my wish list:
* a knitting q&a - you can come up with the questions yourself, or ask your friends
* comics and illustrations
* product reviews - yarns, needles (doesn't someone wanna gush about Lantern Moon?), books, magazines and other zines...
* an interview with a knitter (includes your grandma or best friend, a yarn shop owner or employee, a sheep or alpaca farmer, someone famous who knits, etc.)
* how to's - tips, step-by-step explanation of a technique (intarsia, felting, dying, finishing)...
* other small crafty projects, maybe related to spinning, dying, sewing, crocheting, quilting, silkscreening, etc.
* stories about your family's knitting herstory or how you learned to knit
* articles about knitting and feminism, knitting and gender, the d.i.y. movement, knitting in public, veganism and knitting, environmental aspects of knitting, how knitting builds community, your stitch n' bitch group or LYS, seeking out yarn shops while on vacation...
* I would be thrilled if someone creative approached me to discuss, and hopefully design, cover art.
* and of course, patterns (in various levels of difficulty)! wintery projects that come to mind include toques and scarves, mitts and gloves, sweaters, hot water bottle covers (Rachel?), slippers, wooly socks, leg warmers, afghans...
The Knitty Gritty:
The best way to get a feel for what I'm looking for (and what's already been done) is to get yer hot li'l hands on a copy of a previous issues of Take Back the Knit. I am particularly drawn to things with a d.i.y./feminist/punk-rock/hipster/granola-feel, though it's not a must that your submissions emit any one of these vibes. (And when I say "punk-rock," I'm not talkin' literally, necessarily.) I'm not so big on submissions with a Chicken Soupy feel, if you catch my meaning.
Submissions should be seasonally appropriate or non-season specific. (If your submission has a summerier feel I'll just hold on to it for the following issue.)
Submissions should be sent as MS Word attachments. Please don't do any fancy formatting as it likely won't fit with the template I have for the zine. Images should be sent as jpegs (do not include them in the same file as the text, though you may indicate where they should be placed). I am not very tech-savvy, so it's easy to confuse me with anything else.
In the past with zine submissions I've suggested a 1200 word maximum. I'm not super concerned with the word count, just as long as the piece doesn't ramble on.
It's fine to submit previously published work - that includes blog exerpts. A blog post could make a perfectly appropriate piece.
Pieces with accompanying art (line drawings, photos) are preferred, though not required. Patterns, however, do require photos. In regards to sending photos, please scale them down so that they don't take up my entire Inbox.
If your submission is primarily text this doesn't really affect you, but page sizes are 4 1/4" x7" (half of a legal-sized sheet of paper). One piece should typically occupy 1 to 4 pages.
It's fine to mention small businesses owned by kind people who treat their staff and/or animals with care and respect. If you are interested in advertising space in the zine, please contact me.
Include a biography of no more than 60 words written in the first person (this is new, it used to be third person). It might sound something like this:
Please get someone else to read your piece over before your send it off (for clarity, spelling, grammar, etc.). Note: spelling should be Canadian, not American. This includes words like "fibre", "colour", "centre", "metre", "neighbourhood", "tonne", etc. With patterns, be sure to include US and mm needle sizing, as well as yardage and metres for yarn.
If your piece is printed in the zine, you receive a free copy of the publication.
I welcome questions and topic proposals before pieces are sent in, but within reason. Is this okay? Is this okay? Is this okay? will not fly for me. I'm pretty busy and try to spend as little unnecessary time on the computer as possible, so please read the guidelines carefully (they're not that tricky) and try to figure things out yerself.
I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with all this information....
SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE MONDAY AUGUST 29 2005, and submissions received on or before that date are given priority.
Send 'em to takebacktheknit AT gmail DOT com .
The zine'll hopefully be in print by early-mid October.
Great! Now bring it on!
(And, fellow knit-bloggers, it'd be great if you wanted to mention this call for submissions on your site too. Thank you kindly!)
posted by jae at 1:53 PM
