How I became a Published Designer

Hi I'm Ferosa Harold Crochet Designer, designing professionally for the past 7 years. I taught myself to crochet at the age of 16. I started of making doilies to give as gifts to friends and family. Eventually as other people started seeing my work they wanted doilies too for their home and for gifts I began taking on commissioned work . My crochet book collection consisted of mainly Ondori and Nighon Vogue. In the 80's and 90's those were the only type of crochet books available here in Trinidad.

My introduction into learning how to adjust stitches came about when one customer wanted a combination of two doilies made into one. Mind you I didn't know how I was going to accomplish this but I said yes I can do it, and lo and behold I did it. Pretty soon I was trying my hands at designing and the finished pieces was always snatched up whenever I showed it as a new doily for sale. The sad part of that is I never wrote down the instructions because never in my wildest dreams I thought I would be good enough to get my work published. My story on how I got my first book published is very interesting.

In 1998 I lost my job and decided I wanted to be self employed. I would do commissioned work and teach people to crochet in my spare time. Commissioned work was slow and not many people was interested in lessons for crochet. My Father in Law who lives in Canada came home for a visit and he bought me a crochet magazine as he knew I love to crochet. In the magazine was an AD for the crochet guild of America and I contacted them about places to buy crochet books. I was suprised when I recieved a package in the mail with a whole listing of places in the USA to buy crochet books. I also became a member of the Crochet Guild of America. I contacted Annie's Attic to get information on buying from them. A very helpful customer service rep named Tori Currington called me with the information I needed. I asked her if Annie's Attic published their own crochet books and she said yes. So I questioned her some more about how to go about submitting designs to them. She was so patient and helpful, she told me to write a letter requesting the designer guidelines and fax it to her and she will pass it on to the relevant department. I faxed the letter and waited for a while, I didn't get any response so I thought "oh well" another avenue in crochet that wasn't to be. Then one day the phone rang and to my suprise it was Darla Hassell from Annie's Attic design department wanting to know if my mailing information is the same because she had a package with the designer guideline to send to me.

She was very helpful also told me exactly what to do to submit my book to the design acquisiton manager Ms. Deborah Hamburg.

Mind you I didn't have a computer and internet service at that time. My sister in law helped me to email the relevant information to Ms. Hamburg. I got my cousin to take pics of the designs and emailed it to Ms. Hamburg. I was overjoyed when I recieved a reply from her saying she was very interested in my work and to submit the designs for publication.

I borrowed a friend's typewriter to do the instructions for the book and my sister in law retyped it when I was done so that it looked a little more professional. I cannot tell you how many pages I spoiled because I couldn't type to save my life. I was on a learning curve in a lot of areas.
Learning to type, learning about computers and the internet, learning how to write pattern instructions etc! etc! etc! But I survived and learned and became a published Designer. My first checque from designing I used to purchase a computer and sign up for internet access.
My first Published book "Irish Lace Doilies" Published in 2001, it has since been discontinued but from time to time you will find a copy on ebay.