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Episode 3: Style Sheets
187 Plays3 years ago
I try to answer “What is a Style Sheet”, how you create one, and when you may want to use one.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Knit, Design, Edit, Sleep, Repeat'
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Knit, Design, Edit, Sleep, Repeat with Lisa Conway and Denise Finley. Let's listen in and see what's happening, who's happening and what's new in their world.
COVID Scare - A False Alarm
00:00:37
Speaker
Hey, Lisa, do you have a minute? Hey, Denise, of course, always for you. Aw, well, you're such a sweetie. So how's everybody doing today? First of all, let's get that out of the way. Just real quick. Everybody's happy and healthy. We had a brief scare with a possible COVID exposure that turned out to not be a COVID exposure. It was a third party kind of thing. Yeah.
00:01:05
Speaker
that person never came down with COVID. So we're fine. Yay. Okay.
What is a Style Sheet?
00:01:10
Speaker
Well, I just have a, just a really quick question about something that I had never heard of before, but it was mentioned in a knit thing that I was in online the other day. And so I thought, I know somebody I can ask a question about with this because she's a deck editor, right? So here's the question. And I might have a few more after that. What is a style sheet?
00:01:35
Speaker
Oh, that's a big question, actually. It's going to take me a few minutes to answer it, probably. I got time. I'm glad you've got time. Okay. A style sheet. Most
Consistency with Style Sheets
00:01:48
Speaker
style sheets are actually used by publishers, but I think that designers can help improve and speed up their pattern writing process by creating one of their own or getting their tech editor to help them create one.
00:02:05
Speaker
What it is, is all of the rules that you're going to apply to how your pattern is laid out, formatted, abbreviated, all of the little technical details that say, this piece comes before that piece. This abbreviation is always used, capitalized, that kind of thing.
The Role of Pattern Templates
00:02:35
Speaker
Hmm, okay, so I guess then do you think every designer needs to have a style sheet? I don't know that every designer needs a full style sheet. They do need a good solid pattern template which is part of the style sheet so that when they lay out their pattern they're consistent from one pattern to the next. And you know
00:03:06
Speaker
That day we talked about what a tech editor does. One of the things I didn't mention is that if you've got a client that you edit multiple patterns, you'll develop an eye for how that designer lays out their patterns. And suddenly you'll see a pattern that comes through and they've moved something. And the first question I have is,
00:03:30
Speaker
Is this deliberate? Is
Spotting Inconsistencies
00:03:31
Speaker
there a reason for this change? Should we maybe take it back to the original pattern template? Ah, so you can spot those things after you've worked with the designer then is what you're saying. You'll get used to a particular designer and suddenly realize that they've changed their template somehow and it does bring up the question. Sure. Did you do this on purpose? Or is it a boo-boo?
00:03:59
Speaker
Is it is it because you copied and pasted something and things got out of order? And is this something you want to change permanently for other patterns as well?
Information Placement and Style Sheets
00:04:09
Speaker
So a pattern template that literally lays out Where you place the name where you place the majority of your photographs those tend to move around a little bit within a pattern do you always put the
00:04:26
Speaker
supplies list on the first page or the last page. I have one designer that right now that all of her supplies information goes on the back because her patterns are often sold in a store where they are shrink wrapped. And so the title page and the yarn information and all of that are back to back. That makes sense. With the pattern in between and it's
00:04:52
Speaker
allows the buyer to see that information without opening the package. So where does that information come from? That's all part of the style sheet or pattern template so that you know every single time you create a pattern where that information goes, you just have to fill in the blanks.
00:05:12
Speaker
You know, it's funny, now that you mention that, there's a couple of designers that I have more than one of their patterns, you know, because I kind of liked their style or whatever, or they ran a special. But yeah, I've noticed that one designer in particular, that she, everything looks exactly the same on her front page.
00:05:31
Speaker
And then I know that sometimes it takes longer to describe something or to make a list of supplies or whatever, you know, because you're using more things. But then the rest of her pattern, it's almost exactly the same as the other ones. That's interesting that you should talk about that. Well, and style sheets are used a lot, say, by magazines.
Editorial Consistency in Magazines
00:05:52
Speaker
If you're submitting to a magazine,
00:05:55
Speaker
They've accepted your proposal. They will send you their style sheets so that you know what format you need to use. And especially when it comes to like use of abbreviations and things like that, magazines want real control over that because they don't put a glossary with every pattern. It is in a separate place in the magazine. Yeah.
00:06:22
Speaker
So how those abbreviations show up abbreviations, tripped over that one, how those show up within your pattern need to match how they're gonna show up in their glossary. But an individual designer can build their own abbreviation style sheets so that their abbreviations stay consistent from one pattern to the next, helping their knitter
00:06:51
Speaker
be able to say, oh, if I see capital M1, that always means make one right. But if I see M1L, that means always means make one left. Now, that's not really the best explanation because really it should be M1R and M1L. But if the designer is consistent in using those the same way all the time, then it's really
00:07:20
Speaker
if they've got that in a list, they know not to make the mistake of changing it. I actually just came across that M1 and M1 are in a pattern and it is written by somebody from one of the Slavic countries. So perhaps that's just something that they do in their style maybe. It's probably just the designer's individual style. It's how she's
00:07:44
Speaker
she or he has chosen to represent that particular stitch within their patterns. Whether they are consistent depends on whether or not they have looked at that as a consistency issue. Yeah, because I had to look up in her glossary because I'm like, M1, well, which way do I go? Right
Elements of a Style Sheet
00:08:04
Speaker
or left? You know? But it makes sense then when I read it in the glossary.
00:08:09
Speaker
And sometimes you will see a designer that literally lists all three because they have a situation where they want you to decide which one to use. Oh, that's very interesting. Now, this is another little thing about abbreviations, probably better left for another episode, but that's okay, is that there is only one source of
00:08:36
Speaker
standards for abbreviations. And that's the craft yarn council. So it's really important for designers to make those choices and stay the same from one pattern to the next. It's easier for them as much as it's easier for the knitter. Oh, sure. So that's where a style sheet becomes absolutely the best thing they could refer to
00:09:07
Speaker
because they know they're doing the same thing all the time. Well, you just brought up my next question because we're talking about style sheets. But what do you put in a style sheet? What should be in a style sheet? What should be in a style sheet? Well, like I said in the beginning, where things are going to go in your pattern. So listing out how your pattern is going to be broken up
00:09:35
Speaker
What kind of titles are you going to use on your individual sections? What are those going to look like? Are they going to be bolded or are they just going to be a larger font and where those pieces go? Should it always be the same font? Like if you're going to be multiple designs, do you think they should always stick with the same font? Question. Yes. For consistency, I would say that the
00:10:01
Speaker
you should choose a font, stick with it. Stick with it. Okay, that makes sense to me. But yeah, I didn't know if it was important. It's not crucial. Okay. I mean, that's a design decision. And as our patterns, as we create more patterns, we may find a different font. So somewhere down the road, those fonts may change. But if you stay consistent from one pattern
Formatting and Punctuation Details
00:10:26
Speaker
to the next, it can be really helpful.
00:10:30
Speaker
I will also mention since we're talking fonts here to make sure you're using an easily readable font. Definitely. Don't get fancy with your font. Don't use curly cues and super script type fonts. Keep the fonts clean. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So the style sheet, anything else?
00:11:00
Speaker
like so you basically you're taking it apart piece by piece by piece like or point yes point okay point by point where so how what is your layout what is your formatting that should be in your style sheet
00:11:15
Speaker
So are you going to use half inch margins or are you going to use bigger margins? There are some avenues where you might want to use like one inch margins, for example. Don't use too small of a margin. So pick a margin that's wide enough that all printers can handle it. And printers are getting better at being able to print borderless.
00:11:45
Speaker
But there are still a lot of printers out there that won't print outside of that half inch margin. So I wouldn't go any smaller than that. So whatever your margin size is should be in there. Racking my brain here, trying to remember the last time I saw a style sheet and everything that was covered in terms of formatting. Like I said, how your titles show up. And by titles, I mean section breaks.
00:12:13
Speaker
and how you do those. Are you going to use colons? That's another piece is what type of punctuation are you going to use? Are you going to make sure that for repeats you always use an asterisk? Are you going to use parentheses or brackets? Are you going to use a standard hyphen versus an N dash or an M dash?
00:12:43
Speaker
because those are different, look it up in a style guide. That was one of the things that I still to this day, even after a year of doing this, sometimes have to look up when it's appropriate to use the M dash versus the N dash because they are different lengths. Yes, they are.
Benefits for Designers and Editors
00:13:08
Speaker
And whether or not you put a space before and after it is another
00:13:13
Speaker
Yep. A little tiny issue in the punctuation correction realm, but having it stated, this is what I'm going to use so that when you come to it, you know what? I know a designer that is almost overly fond of the M dash, and I know that
00:13:37
Speaker
that particular designer's tech editor will call them on it once in a while. It's kind of funny. They call me on the tilde because I use it to separate my paragraphs like a time frame, like it's the next day or something, but it's the same chapter. I'm not changing chapters. So I use some tildes and they're, what? I'm like, hey, give me one. I'm an independent author. So I hear what you're saying. Right.
00:14:06
Speaker
So much of those types of things are really personal preference. Yeah. That as a tech editor, if I get a style sheet from a designer that says, this is what I'm going to use, this is what I'm going to use it, it's really, really helpful. I think I've seen one, but that's okay. The next thing that should always be in your style sheet, and this is really the bulk of the style sheet is how, when
00:14:35
Speaker
and what you're going to use for your abbreviations because when you capitalize an abbreviation and when you don't, it should stay consistent throughout. Basically, if you have in your abbreviation glossary or in the list at the beginning of the pattern, you say capital M1, you should
00:15:02
Speaker
Always, every reference to that abbreviation should be capital M1. If you have it on the style sheet that that's how you're going to do it, you don't forget. Right. So a style sheet helps you to know what to use. It also can be extremely beneficial to your tech editor because they can go through and check.
00:15:24
Speaker
based on your style sheet. Right. I know what you said you were going to use. Yeah, that makes sense. Right. So a style sheet should always have, have how do you, how do you format your abbreviations? What abbreviations do you use and when do you not use an abbreviation? Are you always going to write out cast on? Are you going to use capital CO, which is the most common and
00:15:54
Speaker
is in the standards list through Craftyron Crowdsole is the capital CO, or are you gonna lowercase CO? How you're gonna do that should be in that style sheet, if you're gonna use a style sheet. And the more common style sheets become, the faster it becomes for your editor to edit for you, actually.
Creating a Style Sheet
00:16:19
Speaker
Ah, that makes sense. Because it's easier to hunt through those things.
00:16:24
Speaker
So I figure I think of myself, I think I'm going to make a style sheet, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever reason. How do I create it? I mean, is there a form that I can find somewhere? Is there a template or a program, you know, or something? How do you do that? There's not a piece of specific software. No, this is something you generally will do in your word processing program. OK.
00:16:53
Speaker
I have toyed, haven't done it yet, have toyed with creating a template for you to create your style sheet. So check back because this might just be the kick in the pants that I need to get it done. Could you make one for me? Just me, Lisa. But basically what you want to do is take your patterns that you have created and examine them and look at
00:17:24
Speaker
What have I done in forms of formatting? What margins have I used? What types of fonts have I used? How did I designate my individual sections and create a template? When you've created that template, then every time you go to write a new pattern, you just open the template, resave it as the new pattern name and
00:17:47
Speaker
And off you go. Now you're just filling in sections. I was just going to say, you're filling in the blanks, kind of. You're filling in the blanks now. The second document, and these really should be two separate documents for your benefit, because the pattern template, like I said, you can reuse over and over again. The second template you can either do in a word processor or in a spreadsheet, if you know how to use spreadsheets for basically just data collection.
00:18:16
Speaker
and not worrying about all the formulas and things. But create a table. And for every single abbreviation that you use, look at the different ways that abbreviation can be written. So capitalized, lowercase, with commas, with dashes, whatever it is. And across the table,
00:18:44
Speaker
In the first column, write down what is the, what is the stitch? So if it's knit, write out, knit it, you know, if it's make one, right. Right. Make one, right. And then show every possibility for that and decide.
00:19:04
Speaker
Which one of those do I really want to use and circle it, print it out, circle it, and then keep that in a file. Make sure you keep the electronic copy because as you go along, you might want to make changes, but keep that piece of paper. And then every time you write a pattern, pull that piece of paper out, set it on your desk and refer to it. Now sharing that with your tech editor is a little more challenging.
00:19:31
Speaker
Once you've circled it, you can create a separate document that just says, what is the stitch name? What is the way I'm going to abbreviate it? So it's just two columns. Right. And that gives you an electronic file you can share with your tech editor. And it would be the same every time as long as you're being consistent, correct? Right. And you should only have to share it with your tech editor once or if you've made a major change for some reason. And that does happen.
00:20:02
Speaker
I've seen style sheets where rather than doing it that way, they will have just a phrase that says, write out cast on every time. Oh, yeah. Always utilize capital letters for the following abbreviations. So it's just a sentence that says what they do. But I like the table because it's easier to lay on your desk and refer to.
00:20:30
Speaker
Well, at least for me. At least for me. Yeah, yeah. No, it makes sense because it's easier to read, especially if it's alphabetized, you know. Yes, exactly. And that's the joy of using a spreadsheet because you can put those abbreviations in and then alphabetize the spreadsheet after the fact. You
Submitting Work to Publications
00:20:51
Speaker
don't have to think about putting them in an alphabetical order.
00:20:55
Speaker
Well, and I'm thinking, you know, like the first project that I send into my tech editor might just be a real simple, basic whatever. And then the next three or four might be medium. And then I'm going to bump up to cables or something. They have different abbreviations. They have different standards for that. So I can see where adding it would be easier that way. You know, another thing that might, and I haven't actually seen it up until now, but just you mentioning cables made me think about it.
00:21:26
Speaker
you might even want to show what symbols you would use if you were gonna do a chart. So that your abbreviation stays consistent not only within the pattern but with your chart legend and matches to the symbol correctly. That would be another thing you could do on a spreadsheet is to put that symbol in on the spreadsheet so that it shows and is
00:21:53
Speaker
always associated with that same abbreviation. Wow. But this just makes my head span. No, all this stuff, you know, like, do I really want to be a designer? I don't know if I could get somebody else to do all that stuff for me. No. I mean, I think it would be a fun education. Well, like I said, a style sheet isn't critical for a small independent designer. Understanding how to read a style sheet is critical if you're going to
00:22:22
Speaker
submit to publications, magazines or book publishers or those kinds of people because you want to be able to read the style sheet they sent you and format your pattern to their specifications because the more you do on your end, the happier they're going to be and the more frequently they're going to come back to you when you've submitted.
00:22:45
Speaker
Right. Well, Lisa, you have been just a fountain of information. I do have some editing of my own to do and a couple of my books. But is there anything else you want to add before we hang up?
Denise's 'Modern Fairy Tale' Series
00:22:58
Speaker
No, just keep an eye on my website as to whether or not I get that style sheet template created. Oh, yeah. It'll be under the newsletter signups that are going to go on the website here in the next couple of weeks. It'll be on that same page. So look under newsletter.
00:23:15
Speaker
and then freebie. It'll be listed as a freebie on there. Give us that site information again. My website is arcticedits.com. Arctic, like where it's called. A-R-C-T-I-C-E-D-I-T-S, Arctic Edits. Okay. Okay, sweetie. Well, my books are calling me. Yes, and I really look forward to seeing the new version. Yeah, one will be out and about.
00:23:46
Speaker
less than a week. Oh lovely, yay! Okay sweetie. Hey Connie, tell everybody what the name of your book is. Well I have a series, my first series, and the entire series is called Modern Fairy Tale, and each book is basically has the name of a state in it. The first book is called Michigan Magic,
00:24:13
Speaker
Book two is Arkansas Adventure. Book three is Texas Transformation. Then with book four, I started somewhat of a little different format because it was many years later past all of this stuff that happened in the first three books.
Inspiration Behind 'Modern Fairy Tale, The Shawl'
00:24:31
Speaker
Well, the first two books actually. And it's called Flint Finale.
00:24:37
Speaker
and chapter one. So those are the four books that I am re-editing and putting back on Amazon for your download to Kindle or purchase a paperback. And they even have a beta thing going with hardback right now and I might even try that, but like I need to learn something.
00:24:59
Speaker
Honey, I don't care how old we get, we all should learn something new on a regular basis. Everybody should write a book, okay, and put it on Kindle, trust me. That is the best example I can give. But the books are, like I said, Book One, Michigan Magic, will be re-available with some additions, some fun stuff in it, a couple of major
00:25:22
Speaker
snafus in a couple of chapters that I fixed because I did not know what I was doing two and a half years ago when I published these books at all. I've learned a lot since then. I've also published, beginning another series that is, the first book is still online. It's called What Just Happened? Colorado Style. Yes, I've lived in all of these places, but this book is
00:25:48
Speaker
just the beginning of a journey of a young girl who marries someone quite a bit older than herself who goes into politics. So that's a little bit of a different kind of flavor. And I have so many on the whiteboard. It's not even funny. I don't have enough hours in a day.
00:26:06
Speaker
I think that's all of us. I am. Believe me, my potential design list now that you've spurred me into writing patterns of my own, it's growing exponentially every single day.
Podcast Wrap-up and Contact Info
00:26:21
Speaker
I come up with a new idea and I have to go write that in the notebook so I don't forget. You know what? Just real briefly, tell them about your first design.
00:26:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah, you can find my first pattern on Ravelry and I'm looking for an alternative source outside of Ravelry. It's called Modern Fairy Tale, The Shawl. It was inspired by Denise and her husband, Randy, who you will hear from here in a few weeks.
00:26:54
Speaker
their love story over the years because what you learn in Denise's books is they met like in middle school. Seventh grade. So like 13 years old. Yep. And how many years later did you finally get married? 42. Yeah. So it's, it's a long running romance. And so this shawl, modern fairy tale, the shawl,
00:27:20
Speaker
is the story of that romance in it form. And it's beautiful people. I am making one.
00:27:26
Speaker
I am not quite done. But it has a couple of the elements that are important to the story. And if you read the book, you can you know what it is. And it's it's a fun knit. It's it's it's actually pretty fast, but I haven't had enough time to finish mine. So you're working on a dress for a wedding. Come on. I know. I know. Yeah. Well, I did the wedding dress, the bride's dress. I got that done.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, but you're still working on your dress for the wedding and that's got a deadline. Yep. Yep. Into March. Got to get it done or I'm going to be looking pretty funny standing up there with her. Alright, Denise. Well, I need to go get another cup of coffee because I've actually been up long enough that I've drained the cup. Okie doke. Well, we will chat again next time. Alright. Love you. Love you too. Bye.
00:28:22
Speaker
Hit follow or subscribe in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss our next episode featuring Randy Finley, a former intellectual property attorney talking copyright as it relates to patterns and designing. Remember you can reach us through our Facebook or our Ravelry group.
00:28:44
Speaker
at our email at knitdesignedit at gmail.com. And if you would like to learn more about tech editing or grading or other services that I provide, please visit my website at arcticedits.com.