The courses will be pre-recorded, but the initial release of each course will be on a week by week basis. Once all the lessons are up, they will be available as evergreen content.
Self Publishing Toolkit
The Self Publishing Toolkit
Online courses for crochet design professionals
Self Publishing Transformed Our Business
We can remember the day The Crochet Project changed forever. It was March 2015 and we had been invited to hold a stand at Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Though we had been working together for about 6 years before that, our partnership had been a bit more loosely formed and, in all fairness, wasn't making us any sort of money.
We decided that in order to make the most of a stall at one of the world's most exciting yarn festivals, we need to have something to sell. Together, we designed, photographed, edited and published The Shawl Project: Book One. We printed 100 copies - a huge investment for a business that had barely paid us previously. We sold out almost instantly.
In the last 5 years as The Crochet Project (and the 6 years prior), together and separately we have published hundreds of individual designs, 14 books and been featured in magazines and yarn stores all over the world. Our self publishing company now pays us a decent salary that helps support our two families.
We have learned so much in these last years - about publishing for print, design, layout, photography and marketing. Joanne has gone on to be one of the most sought after crochet designers in the world, writing for magazines and leading the way in wearable crochet. And Kat can finally design a motif crochet chart without wanting to throw my computer out the window.
The Self Publishing Toolkit is a series of 4 courses that will teach you the basics of bringing your patterns to life in print or online formats.
The Self Publishing Toolkit
Buy all 4 courses for £250
I met Joanne when she was running a face-to-face Tunisian crochet workshop at a local yarn shop, just as I was first experimenting with crochet design. Since that day, she has taught me an immeasurable amount about crochet design and, in particular garment construction. Joanne has the depth of knowledge that can only be gathered over a lifetime of learning and practice. She instinctively knows the answers to all those niche questions that the books seem to ignore (or assume you already know!).
When I was starting out as a designer, she was infinitely patient and kind in the face of my ignorance, and always humorous to boot. Joanne has a way of explaining things so they just clicked. There were plenty of ah-ha moments and no questions too basic. I know, without a doubt, that I would not have come so far, so fast in my crochet journey without her help.
-Michelle White, Dora Does
Are the courses live or pre-recorded?
Do I need to be a crochet designer to take these courses?
These courses are designed with the crochet designer in mind. That is where our experience lies, but most of the content will be applicable to knitwear designers as well.
Are there any bursaries or scholarships available?
Yes! We are offering scholarships and pay what you can spaces. More information to follow.
Do I need any special equipment or software?
For the Layout and Charting courses, we will use software to make our charts and do our layouts. Each course will cover a free software option (Inkscape for Charting and Scribus for Layout) and a paid option - Adobe Illustrator and Indesign respectively. Personally, I prefer Adobe. While it can be expensive, it is the industry standard and you will generally find your printer can help with any issues you may come up against. If you have children in school or college or attend or work for an educational institution, you may be entitled to the Student and Teacher discount. All Adobe products also have a 30 day trial period so you can try before you buy.
You will need to purchase Stitchin Crochet Pro Font for the charting course for £3.99
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adriprints/stitchin-crochet-pro