New Motif of the Month and a Free Pattern to go with it.
I’ve got the newest Motif of the Month posted with a four part video tutorial that walks you through all the important steps and gives you little tricks and tips along the way. This cool 3D granny square is fun to make and I’ve also included a free pattern for a yarn stash bag or purse made from the square. Click here for the pattern or start watching the videos below.
Single Crochet Join Tutorial
Today’s tutorial will show you how to join two pieces of crochet together using the simple single crochet stitch. This join is about the most sturdy you can make, so it’s great for projects that will get lots of wear and tear. To see a video tutorial on this method, click here.
To begin this join you will put the two pieces you want to join together with the right sides facing each other.
Line up the stitches for easy joining.
With a slip knot already on your hook, insert it through the first stitch of both pieces to begin your join.
You can enter you hook under both loops or just the inside or outside.
I like to put my hook under both loops.
Next, just like a single crochet, yarn over and pull up the loop through both pieces.
If it’s difficult to pull the hook through, separate the pieces slightly so you can pull through just two loops at a time.
Now, yarn over and finish off your first single crochet.
You can begin your first joining stitch wherever you need, it doesn’t just have to be at the end of your pieces.
Important Step: Before beginning your next stitch, tighten down the previous stitch. This gives a nice tight join.
Tighten down every stitch you make the same way.
Continue down your entire seam single crocheting into every stitch you come to.
If there are not any stitches to work into (like side rows of pieces) just work them as evenly across as you can.
Once you reach the end, fasten off and weave in the ends. I’ve used a contrasting color for this tutorial so you can see exactly what shows through to the right side of your work.
If this was worked in the green, this seam would be pretty much invisible.
Be warned that this join will create a raised seam. If you need a flat seam you can try the mattress seam or whipstitch seam which will give you a nice flat seam.
This seam’s super sturdy construction makes a three dimensional seam.
Destiny Shawl – New Pattern
I’ve just added a new pattern to the shop.
It is the Destiny Shawl and is a deceptively easy pattern that is great for any time of year. Made with light weight yarn and using just chains and double crochets you can make this shawl to wear with any of your outfits. Click on any of the pictures to go check it out in the shop.
Make sure you are signed up for my newsletter so you can get the special discount I offer for my new patterns. Hurry though, the offer is only for the first week of release. If you miss this one, sign up anyway, I add patterns all the time and offer special discounts just for those signed up.
Formatting Photos For Self-Publishing
This post is going to talk all about photos.
However, instead of talking about how to compose good photographs (you can only read “use natural lighting” so many times before your eyes start bleeding), this post is going to go in depth on formatting pictures for different applications. I’m going to explain how and why to make your photos the correct size and PPI(I will explain this abbreviation in a bit) depending on what kind of self-publishing you are going to do. First I’m going to talk about the why, then I’ll get into the how.
What exactly is PPI?PPI stands for points or pixels per inch, and if not set correctly can change your crisp clear photo into a pixelated mess. Quite simply, it is the number of pixels that are placed in your photo per inch. So, if my photo was 20 PPI, I would have 20 pixels in one square inch of the photo.
Why is that important?Each pixel is a small dot of color. Picture a square inch of paper and putting 20 dots of color in that inch. You will have to convey the design with just those 20 dots of color. The result will not give you much detail.
Now, picture putting 300 dots of color in that one inch. Those dots would be much smaller. Not only are they smaller, but now you have 300 different options for color. Your design will have much more detail than the 20 dot design.
See how blurry and pixelated a 20 PPI photo looks.
Each picture you produce for your book whether ePub or print will have a specific PPI that you will need to use. Knowing the best resolution (or PPI) for your project will save you time and space (in your project file).
Why should I care if my file is big or not?One important reason is money. Got your attention now huh? Certain distributors such as Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) will take out of your profits an amount directly related to your file size. They call it the transfer fee and they charge about $0.15 per mb (megabyte) when you choose the 70% royalty (I will explain all that good stuff about royalties in a later post).
Not only will you put more profits in your pocket, but editing a smaller file is much quicker than a larger one. Having to load a 3 GB file as opposed to a 3 MB file is night and day. Especially when using a complicated editing program like Adobe InDesign.
So what do I choose for PPI?It depends on what you are doing.
Print is easy, your pictures must be at least 300 PPI for the pictures to not look blurry when printed (and to not be rejected by most print houses).
But I’ve noticed that when I send my 72 PPI pictures to Snapfish, they print out fine.Good point, this is where it gets a little confusing. When you take a picture on a digital camera, the camera has a set amount of pixels to assign to each picture (that is where your megapixel amount comes in). For instance, a 5 MP (megapixel) camera will usually tell you that you can print a good 8×10 print with your camera set to its highest setting. If you were to open one of the pictures you took in Photoshop and looked at the image size when your photo is set at 72 PPI you would see that the inches are way bigger than 8 x 10.
Look at how many inches I get out of my DSLR when I’m set at 72 PPI!
The reason this happens is because of all the pixels your camera has to dole out. You could either print a blurry 63 inch picture, or when this file is sent to Snapfish, or your home printer, it gets converted into a 300 PPI image by reducing the size to bring all those pixels into closer proximity to make a crisp clear picture. How that actually happens and how the printer makes the pixels the correct color in the correct place is of course magic — or at least that is how I believe its done since I have no idea how that part actually happens.
Unfortunately, you can’t just stick all your pictures in your project at 63 inches and 72 PPI and have the printer figure it all out. You must put your photos in at the size you want them printed on your page which means you have to know how to convert a 72 PPI image to a 300 PPI. Good thing you’re reading this post because I explain all that below.
If 300 is good then 3000 is great! Right?Not really. 300 is what is usually required by most book printers (including Amazon Createspace), upping your PPI to 3000 will not increase the resolution or crispness of the picture, it will only increase your file size. So save space and stick with 300 PPI.
What size should my ePubs be?There are some common standards, but they are changing slightly with the invention of HD displays on things like the iPad and Kindle Fire HD.
Most people will tell you to set your PPI at 72. Before the iPad and other HD tablets were invented, the best your computer monitor could display was 72 PPI (and that is still pretty true today). iPads with their Retina display and other similar products have upped the digital quality to about 120 to 130 PPI. So to truely get the best resolution on one of these devices, your images would need to be set at this PPI. You can check out a whole rundown of PPI by device on this Wikipedia page.
Okay, back to confused, what should I make my ePubs then?The real honest answer — it’s up to you. Though, I am seeing alot of people start to set their PPI to 96. I say if you have just a few images, up them to 130 to cover all devices and computer screens. If you have a photo heavy ePub and file size is a big concern, stick with 72 PPI. The difference on the newer devices is minimal to most people.
What about PDFs that are for viewing and printing?If you’ve ever printed a photo from the internet and wonder why its clear on screen but fuzzy when you print it, you’ve probably printed a 72 PPI picture. Your home printer, like a professional printer likes 300 PPI pictures because that’s how many dots it sprays per inch. When you have less, it fills in the dots with whatever color is around the 72 dots it sees and makes the picture look less crisp.
So it’s up to you to decide if you want to set your photos up for viewing or printing. If you think most people will print your pattern, or PDF, make your photos 300 PPI. If you think most people will be viewing your PDF online, set it up for 72.
What I do personally with my single pattern PDFs is make any nonimportant pictures 72 PPI and any important pictures (like a stitch chart or instructional picture with small detail) set at 300 PPI. I would set everything at 300, but I’ve found that people like smaller files whenever possible.
Okay, I’m convinced I need to do this, now how do I do it?This is a pretty easy process once you have it down, but the first important step is to decide if you are making the picture for print or ePub.
If you are making both, you will need two files of the same photo since they will have different PPIs.
If you have a DSLR camera you can usually shoot in RAW or Fine quality which will get you in the 200 to 300 PPI range right off the bat, then you can make a duplicate copy and change the PPI to 72-130 for the ePub from the original.
Wait, what? I have to have a special camera?No, not at all. If you don’t happen to have a DSLR that has the options of RAW files or large/fine format, you can use your standard digital. Even most standard digital cameras have a menu where you can change the quality of the photo you take, just make sure it is on the finest, or largest megapixel quality before taking your pictures. Then you can do less work on the back end.
Okay, figured out what PPI I need, now what?First, keep an original unedited photo. That way you always have the original that can be edited again.
Now, open up a photo editing program. It needs to be a decent one that has the option to change PPI to make life as easy as possible. I recommend Photoshop Elements if you don’t want to spend a lot of money and regular Photoshop if money is no option. I’ll be using screenshots from both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop to illustrate where you make the PPI changes.
Special Note: Most of this PPI business is most important for print, so if you are only interested in ePubs you can usually forgo all this extra PPI work and use the free program (like Microsoft Paint) your computer came with to change just the dimensions of your photo. Follow the instructions below about how and why to change the size of the photo for where you want to put it.
Load up the photo you need to edit into the program. Then click on the Image tab in your toolbar, then click on Resize Image (or Resize -> Image) or Image Size (depending on what program you are using) and you should get a popup that looks similar to this (other versions of Photoshop might look slightly different).
This dialog box is from Photoshop Elements 9
Before you crop or do anything, you should change your PPI, especially if you are changing it to 300 PPI. That way you have the maximum number of pixels available to you while re-sizing.
What do you mean “maximum number of pixels”?Once you crop the image, the pixels that you chop off disappear – they no longer can work to your benefit. For example, if you were to crop out 50% of your picture before you change PPI, instead of having 4592 pixels to rearrange into your photo, you will instead only have 2296. Having more pixels when changing PPI ensures your photo will look its best. Plus in your next step you will be removing pixels so starting with as many as possible is a good idea.
So looking at the dialog box above you will see that the PPI is currently set at 72 PPI. I want to change it to 300, so I make sure that the “Resample Image” box is unchecked (I’ll explain this box in more detail later) and I simply type in 300 in the box labeled “Resolution” (make sure the drop down is set to pixels/inch as it is in the picture above and below.
See my overall pixels are the same (look up in the pixel dimension box) as before, but my inches are now reduced.
BTW: This dialog box is from Photoshop CS5.5
Hit OK and you have now changed your PPI. Follow these same steps no matter what PPI you want to change your photo to.
Now you can get ready to crop your photo.
If you need to remove parts of your photo you will use the basic crop feature. I won’t go into detail about this, I will focus on “cropping” inches off of your photo for placement into your project.
You’re confusing me again. There are two types of cropping?Yes. There is cropping with the crop tool in any photo editing software. This type of cropping can remove unneeded space in a photo or get a close up. For example, the photo I’m using in this post has been cropped to show just the face and hat of my little model.
The second type of “cropping” is removing unwanted inches from a picture that is ready to be published.
Why don’t I just leave it as is? Why do I need to take off inches?File size can be dramatically affected by removing unnecessary inches off of your pictures. Using the dialog box above, my picture states it’s currently 15 inches wide by 10 inches high. If I only need to fill a 4 inch square on my page, I’ve got 9 extra inches of pixels I could reduce my picture by. Each less pixel is file space saved.
Why can’t I just put the picture in the document and use my sizing handle to make it smaller. Why do I need to change it before I put it in?The reason you don’t want to insert your picture and then re-size with the handles in your word or design program is because the program will still save the picture at the original size you put it in. So Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign will save the file as 15 inches wide, but display at the size you make it. It’s just wasted space that is taking profit away from you.
So how do I change the inches?First, figure out what size you want your picture to appear on your page.
For example, if you are making a standard 8.5″ x 11″ PDF and want a photo to sit in the upper hand corner of the first page. Figure out what size you want that photo to be. 4″ wide? 6″ wide? 8″ tall? You don’t have to pick the exact measurements (as in 4″ wide by 6″ tall), but you should choose a maximum width or height to begin with. Your photo may dictate the other measurement (this will make more sense in a minute).
I’ve decided I want my picture to sit on my page at 6 inches wide. Since my photo is in landscape orientation (the width is bigger than the height), I will let Photoshop figure out what my other dimension will be.
I pull up my Image Size popup again. This time I make sure my “Resample Image” box is checked. This box allows me to change the inches of my picture while keeping the same PPI. If I left this box unchecked, when I changed the inches, all my pixels would try to fit into the new dimension and my PPI would jump to an insane number like 1200 PPI. This would my make file size the same as if I didn’t change the inches, so be sure to check this box.
I also want to make sure my “Constrain Proportions” is checked before I change my inches. This will make Photoshop automatically adjust my height or width to match the proportion I originally began with. For example, if my original picture was 4 x 6, by checking this box, I can just enter 3 inches in for my width and the height would automatically adjust to 2 inches.
After I make sure these two boxes are checked, I change my width inch to 6 as shown below.
See how Photoshop automatically changed my height to 3.993, this is why I say to choose just one of your measurements. Let Photoshop adjust the second to get the perfect fit.
You can see that my pixel dimension has changed. The overall pixels has been reduced, but I still get 300 PPI. I click OK and my photo will not be the perfect size for my document and the smallest file possible. All I have to do is save it and put it in my document.
Super Important Note for ePub makers:
When you save your photos, DO NOT put spaces in your file name. For example, if your file name is “Scarf Close Up” save it as “scarf_close_up”. If you have spaces in your file name when you go to validate your ePub (will cover in another post), it will be rejected and you will have to go back and change all the file names so there are no spaces and re-link them all to your project. Ask me how I know.
So here is a rundown of what I covered today for easy reference:
- Save an original, unedited file of each of your photos
- Before you do any editing of your photo, change it to the PPI you need for what you are making (make sure “Resample Image” is unchecked)
- Crop and edit photo as desired
- Change size of photo to fit exactly where you need it (check “Resample Image” and “Constrain Proportions” boxes before changing size)
- Save photo with no spaces in the file name
The next topic I will cover will be RGB photos vs. CMYK photos and the how and why’s about choosing one format over the other.
See Previous Topic: Print Books vs. ePubs
Crochet Pants. Best. Design. Ever.
I love crochet pants!
I don’t know about you, but whenever I see crochet translated into pants, it makes me smile. Maybe because I know that if you actually making pants that aren’t see through the resulting fabric will probably be something like cardboard when worn.
Even the poor boy from this ad can’t help but grin at the situation he’s in with this 3 pc outfit. Or he’s smiling through the pain and just wishing the photographer’s assistant hadn’t double knotted the earflap hat so he could pull it off and cool down a bit.
Tips from a 5 year old ~ #3: Catchy Hook
Originally published in 2011 on my original website.
Having a 5 year old to teach, I find all kinds of beginner troubles that I never would have thought of because I simply can’t remember that far back to when I began crocheting. Since it’s been so many years since I first learned to crochet (over 20), I can’t seem to remember if I ever had problems with my hook catching when completing stitches.
By catching I mean, as you make your last yarn over and you pull that loop through all of your remaining loops on the hook you may find your hook catching on those loops. You might find you have to wiggle and turn your hook this way and that to get it through the yarn. Though I’m not sure if I had this trouble so long ago, Jacqui certainly does.
To fix her problem I took the hook and yarn and did a couple of stitches very slowly to see how I completed the stitch without catching the yarn. It was a super easy fix, but something beginners might not get without a lot of experimenting. Lucky for you, I am here to share these tips to help you through your first try at crochet.
The super easy way to keep your hook from catching on your yarn when completing stitches is to simply face your hook down after catching your loop. Look at the picture below as I explain in more detail.
Point the hook down towards your work to have it slide through easily.
I am performing a single crochet in this picture. You can see two loops already on my hook. That means I had one loop on my hook from my previous stitch, I inserted my hook under the next stitch and pulled up a loop.
Now to complete my single crochet, I wrapped another loop around my hook (arrow pointing at this loop). After I catch this last loop, I turn my hook so it is facing down towards my work. By turning my hook towards my work, when I pull it through my two loops it doesn’t have a chance to catch on the yarn.
Once you get the hang of turning your hook after catching your yarn, it will become second nature and you won’t have to think about it with every stitch.
How to Whipstitch Join
Up next in my crochet joining tutorials is the Whipstitch seam. This is another great join when you want a flat seam and it is a really easy seam to make. All you will need are the pieces you want to join, a length of yarn to join them with and a yarn or tapestry needle to make the join. If you would like to see a video on this technique, you can click here to go check it out.
So to get started, you want to put the right sides together of the two pieces you want to join. Be sure to line up your “V”s (stitches) to be able to stitch through them easier.
Notice my stitches are lined up, now I can easily sew through both layers much faster.
Now I begin on the right side of my two pieces (you can start on the left side if you prefer) and insert my needle through just the outside loops of my bottom most stitches. I will be working from bottom to top with this join.
You can insert your needle through both loops, but I like the effect the inside loops give (you’ll see what I mean at the end).
I pull my yarn through the stitches and then bring my needle back across my pieces and insert it again from the right side of my project for the next set of stitches.
If you began on the left, be sure to go back over to the left side for the next stitch join.
Then go through the outside loop of the second piece.
Go through both outside loops to join the next set of stitches.
As you work, you can either tighten the yarn as you go or leave it slightly slack until the end of the seam.
I’ve left the seam slack here so I can tighten at the end. Notice for my next stitch, I again come from the right to start the join.
You will repeat the steps of inserting your needle through both outside loops then coming back to the same side you started the join to make the next stitch. It is almost like stitching in a circle around your two pieces.
Continue the steps until you get to the end of your piece or the end of the seam you are joining.
Once you finish the seam, if you haven’t already, take your tails and tighten the stitches down to get a tight, closed seam.
If you beginning tail isn’t anchored to anything, hold each tail with one hand and pull to tighten.
If is already anchored just hold onto the very beginning of the seam when tightening the tail.
Once you tighten you are ready to open your seam and check out the handy work.
This is the wrong side of the work. You can see the bars from where we exited one side and went in the other.
This seam is not as invisible as the mattress stitch join, but if worked in a matching color as the main piece it should be almost invisible.
Here is the right side and you can see the small bars that appear in the contrasting color I used for joining.
Also notice the inside loops I didn’t join when stitching became a nice visual spot on each side of the seam.
The seam will be almost flat which makes this a nice seam for clothing where a raised seam may not be comfortable. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask them below. I will get back to you as quick as possible!
Print Books vs. ePubs
Are you going to design and print your own books, just stick to ePubs, or make both? You may not know the difference or what can kind of work each type can entail. I sure didn’t at first. I could not wrap my head around what happens to your print book when it’s converted to ePub, or how to do it. Thankfully, if you’ve found this post, you will get a cliffs notes version of all the stuff I’ve learned about the two formats.
I’ve complied a list of differences between print and ePub publishing. This list in no way encompasses all that is different, but it gives the most important differences that can help you make the choice as to how you want to produce your pattern/book. Don’t worry if I use an abbreviation or term you’ve never heard of before, everything I talk about below will become their own topic in a future post where I will cover in depth what you need to know to self-publish.
Also let it be noted that I’m referring to full pattern books below, a lot of this is not relevant if you are self-publishing single patterns. I will cover that topic more in another post.
Print is design specific.
You have page layouts with picture placement, page numbers and a variety of other elements on each page in a print book. A design program such as Adobe InDesign most likely will be needed. You could try to layout your entire book in Microsoft Word (or any similar word processing program), but it will be difficult and may not produce very professional looking results.
ePubs are print (or reading) specific.
eReaders are made with the intent of reading words on a device that can be adjusted at the readers whim. With most eReaders, the user can pick the font and the size of the text. Trying to use CSS (don’t worry I’ll explain that abbreviation later) to style your ePub can be done, but it’s usually more work that it’s worth.
Most eReaders have their own font bank to choose from and their own sizing. Using simple formatting you can easily write a whole book on Word (or similar word processing program), with no special software needed.
In print you have to worry about layout.
Do you have a half title page, a title page, a copyright page? Are they in order? Do you have the correct page numbering? Do my facing pages look good together? All of these things are needed for print books. People have in mind what they are used to seeing in a print book and if you are missing these things, it can effect how they view your work.
On a side note, what got me interested in designing my own print books was finding a book very fortuitously called Indie Publishing
The book gave me great starting off points and I recommend it to anyone deciding to take on the task of print self-publishing. It gives lots of information on how exactly books are set up (which even if you own lots of books that you can open up and look at, having it explained can ensure you don’t miss anything).
Forget layouts in ePubs.
Having a beautiful transparent background image on your print page is useless in ePubs. Epubs are meant to change with the device they are being read on, anything that is in a print book that normally wouldn’t move (like page numbers) need to be removed in ePubs. If you’ve ever read anything on a tablet or phone you know that just moving from portrait to landscape can change the whole layout.
You need an ISBN for print books.
ISBN stands for : International Standard Book Number. It’s that 10 or 13 digit number that usually rests above the barcode on the back of the book, and you need one to put on your print book so it can be catalogued and searched for. If you only buy one, it can be really expensive (like $125 a pop), if you buy in a bunch ($250 for 10), you may never use the extra ones.
The good thing about ISBNs is that they never expire, so you can always get the 10 pack to save money and not worry about how fast you need to write books to put them on.
You need a barcode to sell your print book in stores.
Add another $25 to every ISBN you buy to get the corresponding barcode. If you get picked up in a store you will need one of these printed on your book for inventory control. If you use a print on demand service (like Amazon Createspace) they will put the barcode on for free with the ISBN you supply.
Depending on who you work with to print your book, you also have the option to have them supply you with their ISBNs and barcodes for free. I will talk more about that option when I talk about the different outlets you can work with for self-publishing in another post.
Print books can cost you money up front.
You made a print book, now how are you going to distribute it? If you want to make a bigger profit you will want to buy a bulk amount of preprinted books and sell them wherever you can (craft fairs, your online store, etc…). You will have to purchase a good amount to keep your profits high and hope to sell them all.
You do have the no money up front option of print on demand services (like Amazon Createspace, which I use). When someone buys your book, Amazon prints, packs and ships it for you. You receive a much smaller profit, but I find the lack of involvement on my part ideal and I don’t mind the reduced profit.
ePubs are pretty much free to make.
You can buy an ISBN if you want, but beyond that only your time (and possibly any computer programs you purchase to help you make the ePub) are the only costs to you.
Of course depending on where you sell your ePub you may have to pay a percentage of your sale to that website, but they take it out of your profits, not up front.
Print and ePubs have different photographic requirements.
If you’ve never heard of PPI, by the time you are done with this series you will be an expert on it. It stands for pixels or points per inch and effects the resolution of your pictures. It also is something that much be adjusted when making a print book versus an ePub. You can easily lower a picture’s resolution for ePub, but it’s a big challenge to increase resolution for print. You will have to make the decision of whether you will ever print your book before editing your pictures.
As you can see from the list above, printing a book can be a complicated and daunting task as compared with ePubs. Especially when making print books that contain lots of photographs. So why would you choose to take on the extra task of laying out and producing print books when ePubs are so much easier? Simple, people still like reading physical books. Especially ones that have lots of pictures that are much easier to see in print than at a fixed size on his/her tablet. Luckily for you, I have conquered both and have lived to tell about it. And I will walk you through both processes so you can do it too. Stay tuned for my next installment of self-publishing where I will go more in depth on picture requirements.
See Previous topic: My Top Three Reasons I Self Publish
See Next topic: Formatting Photos For Self-Publishing
