my place

The past few months have been a time for pursuing fruitful collaborations. I’m currently creating work for my Mexican collaboration (under the aegis of Applied Arts Scotland and the British Council); Tom and Sam are completing the final interviews and photography for People Make Glasgow; we’ve a fun collaboration in the pipeline with Ardbeg Distillery, and we’ve almost completed work on our first collaboration under our Make // Mark scheme.

We’ve now commissioned four projects under the scheme, in which we mentor and support authors and designers through the process of publishing their first book – two for 2020, and two for 2021 – and the first book will be published under the new Make // Mark imprint next month (very exciting!). I think it’s fair to say that, over a year of working on this great project, everyone involved has found the process incredibly rewarding. We are all looking forward to revealing more about the new book in coming weeks.

Make // Mark is all about widening the supportive circle of what we do as a company, and we’ve recently come up with another interesting way for us to do that . . .

Introducing the My Place Design Competition

For the past few years, KDD has organised popular design competitions, which have resulted in two inspiring collaborative projects . . . which then became two beautiful books (Milarrochy Heids (2018), Warm Hands (2019-20)). For 2020/21, we’d like to commission a collection in which each designer has specifically taken inspiration from their place in the world to create a shawl, hap, wrap, scarf, cowl, snood, kerchief, or other neckwear accessory in Milarrochy Tweed – our versatile fingering-weight single-ply yarn – with the offer of yarn support to anyone who needs it. Like previous collaborative projects, around half of the commissioned designs in the final collection will be drawn from entries to the competition, with the specific aim of helping new designers gain experience of professional pattern writing and to provide a prominent platform for their work. All commissioned designs will be remunerated at our standard rate (£300.00)

The competition rules are very simple
* Create a neckwear design that’s inspired by your place in the world (interpret that phrase however you like)
* use any technique you like to create any kind of fabric from colourwork to cables. (Crochet as well as knit designs are welcome)
*Work up your design sample in Milarrochy Tweed (see yarn support scheme below)
*Photograph your sample
*Write a short description of how the My Place theme has inspired you and your design
*Post the photograph and description to the My Place thread in the KDD Ravelry group by July 31st
*The competition will be judged by the KDD team. Competition winners will informed by email by September 1st and designs formally commissioned (for the My Place 2021 collection) shortly thereafter.

Inclusion
We are particularly keen to receive, and would specifically encourage submissions from:
* designers from under-represented and / or marginalised groups (BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ+ designers)
* designers on low or limited incomes (eg: carers, students)
* designers at the very beginning of their careers

My Place yarn support scheme
To encourage submissions from designers from under-represented groups and those on low incomes, the My Place competition includes a yarn support scheme, which will be available to the first 100 applicants (or until we run out of yarn set aside for the scheme, whichever happens first). It is for you to decide whether you, as an individual, “need” to apply for yarn support under this scheme. All you’ll have to pay for is the shipping for your yarn (charges will be minimal, wherever in the world you are). Note that any application to the scheme will be accepted by us without question, judgment or requirement for explanation.

To apply for yarn support under the scheme
Please send an email to us at info@katedaviesdesigns.com with “My Place” as the subject heading, including:
*a short written description of your planned design
*a sketch suggesting its final appearance
*an estimate of the yarn required to knit your sample (that is, the number of shades the design includes and the approximate amount in yards)

On receipt of your application
we’ll let you know which shade(s) of yarn are available for you to knit your sample, and issue you with a Paypal invoice to ship your yarn. Once your shipping invoice is paid, we will ship your yarn to you, and you can get straight to work on your competition design!

Please note that:
shade choices under this scheme are limited; final decisions about shades and yarn quantities assigned to each applicant are made by us, and that yarn support under this scheme will only be available for the first 100 designer applicants (or until we run out of yarn), whichever happens first.

and
applying for the scheme constitutes your assurance that the yarn support that we provide will be used for the purpose of creating a design sample for the My Place competition, to be submitted by the deadline of July 31st.

Please share this call for submissions with interested friends, with your local knitting groups and yarn stores, and on your social media!
Thankyou!

Kate and the KDD team

Any questions?

Pop over to the KDD Ravelry group to discuss any aspect of the competition, or feel free to contact us at:
info@katedaviesdesigns.com