Bonus Episode: Interview with Knitting Designer, Ashwini Jambhekar

Bonus Episode

I’m sharing an interview today with Ashwini Jambhekar as a bonus episode! I temporarily misplaced the recording (gasp!) while organizing files and, since I also skipped a week of podcasting this year, I thought I’d add this interview back into the fold as a bonus.

About Ashwini Jambhekar

Ashwini Jambhekar is a part-time knitting designer with a background as a scientist and ballet dancer. Ashwini has designed her own projects for years, but she got her start as a published designer back in 2011. She frequently shared her finished knit projects on Facebook, and a friend from dance class referred Ashwini to her mother-in-law, who was writing a knitting book. Ashwini ended up submitting the design for the Jive Sweater, which published in 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters: A Guide to Holistic Knitting, Yarn, and Life by Vicki Stiefel and Lisa Souza.

Ashwini can be found online as Ashwini J Designs on her blog, Facebook, Ravelry (as AshwiniJ, on her designer page, and in the Ashwini Sashka Designs Group, which she co-moderates with my knitting tech editor, Sashka Macievich). Ashwini is currently participating in the Ravelry Indie Design Gift-a-Long through December 31, 2014, and she was recently interviewed about it on Sarah Jordan’s blog here. Ashwini also recently got started as a tech editor, and you can read more about her services here.

About the Interview

In this interview, Ashwini talks about how the perspective and skills she learned through her training and career as a scientist inform her knitwear design. In particular, she talks about the concept of grading patterns using a percent difference (or “fold difference”) rather than a flat difference in measurement.

Ashwini also writes her pattern instructions in different ways and then chooses between them considering which write up is clearest, what may be lost by being more concise, and understanding her audience. Because Ashwini targets intermediate to advanced knitters, she places value on in her patterns, but she also includes notes in the Ravelry pattern pages to indicate difficulty.

She doesn’t use a formal style sheet for her own designs but she adapts her writing from previous patterns. Ashwini doesn’t see an intrinsic value to sticking to a very specific style sheet nor to always changing your format.

Ashwini also talks about what she enjoys about collaborating with third party publishers on her designs, as well as the benefits and potential challenges of sharing Ravelry group with another designer.

If you enjoyed this episode

The Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show is no longer broadcasting. Episodes are available as a service to the yarn community. This episode originally aired in December, 2014. Be aware that content may be outdated.

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