Description
Building a Book I have a collection of knitting patterns that I designed over the past several years and am gathering half of them into a pattern book. This half is all texture patterns. The other half are stranded-knitting color patterns that want a book of their own. I thought it might be fun to share the book-construction experience with you, especially if you also dream of collecting patterns into a publication. This is the first installment. (November 19, 2004) What's in a Name? This collection is called "Great Lakes Chill Chasers." The name grew out of an experience I had on the way to Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp. I was traveling in a van with several friends from Dayton, Ohio and we stayed the night in Ludington, Michigan. Early the next morning when the day was already quite warm, we boarded a car ferry to cross Lake Michigan to Manitowac, Wisconsin. Despite the heat, I wore a sweater. We sat around a table, ate breakfast, laughed, knit and enjoyed the 4-hour voyage. When we reached the middle of the lake, it was quite chilly and I was glad to have my sweater. I announced that it was my Great Lakes Chill Chaser. That is when I decided to gather that sweater pattern and other textured projects into a pattern book. Planning a Book Start with the end product — Printing costs put constraints on book production if the final price is to be kept in a reasonable range. Since the patterns in the Great Lakes Chill Chaser collection are all texture, they do not need to be printed in color. Here is what I consider when planning the basic book design: 1. Nice, uncoated paper will be durable and allow the reader to write notes in the book when working on the projects. 2. A warm, dark ink is friendlier, screens to pleasant shades in photos and costs the same as black ink. 3. Saddle stitched binding (stapled) allows the book to open flat or be turned back on itself and is economical. I also like a book to be three-hole drilled (hole punched) so it can be kept in a notebook if preferred. 4. A standard book size is more economical to produce and easier to store with other patterns. Therefore, this book will be designed to stay within the following specifications: • The same house stock at was used for the Tongue River Sock Collection. House stock is paper a printing company keeps on hand for general printing runs. Companies usually have a variety of good quality choices, and these cost less than special order paper since they purchase it in large quantities. A good rule of thumb is, don't scrimp on paper quality for a book that will be handled a lot. • An ink color called "buffalo brown" which is a black with a touch or red added so it screens to a warm brown for photos. • 8.5" x 11" folded, saddle stitched and 3-hole drilled. This guides page layout so the inside margins are deeper to accommodate the holes. This also means the book needs to have multiples of 4 pages (probably 48). Designing a Book I am a publication designer by trade, but you don't have to have that background to design and produce a polished, professional-looking printed piece. Here are some guidelines: 1. Start with a content outline and the printing specifications. 2.