Interview: Annie Lin
Annie is the force behind www.knitabl.com. She provides grading, editing, schematics, and pattern support for knitwear design.
She actually enjoys working in the spreadsheet mines doing the mathy bits!
Prior to editing, Annie worked in biotech, knit and modified over 50 sweaters, and wrangled her then-small children.
Follow Annie on IG: www.instagram.com/knitabl
Let’s get into the interview!
(This interview was conducted by Sarah Walworth and has been edited for length and clarity.)
What were you doing before you became a technical editor?
My editing life started a long time ago, actually. I was a peer editor when I was in college; I was editing for French and also editing chemistry papers, which is a very technical thing. And I never really thought about it until this particular question, but it started back then and led right into the specifics, the nitty gritty of details, a very confined structure and so forth.
I worked in biotech for about ten years, where I was teaching people how to use the products of the company that I worked for, troubleshooting, and I wrote the instruction manuals--so technical writing. And I had a brief stint in bookkeeping, but that was not my thing. When my kids were really little, I was looking for something more to do, and so I ended up in knitting instruction.
Were you a knitter?
Yep. My maternal grandmother taught me to knit when I was about four. I remember bright red acrylic yarn and straight needles and just making something that sort of went every which way in garter—you know, the perpetual, long first scarf. And I picked up knitting and put it down a lot when I was younger. And then in my twenties, I picked it back up again and really started getting into it, and that's when it just snowballed. And so when I got to the point of starting my business, I was deep into sweaters and other garments and all the accessories in the world, and I was test knitting, knitting just as much as I possibly could. It was like the thing that kept me sane when my kids were little.
What made you decide to become a technical editor?
When I was doing test knits, I was finding more than the average tester in terms of things that you wouldn't typically rely on a test knitter to find—it was more the things that a tech editor would find. I made some great friends at the local yarn shop and was teaching and having a good time doing that. It really fulfilled that part of me that needed to be something other than mama at that point in my life. And I met really fabulous people—just the generosity and the kindness and inclusion of this group of people was exactly what I needed.
And one night, I was out with a couple of fiber friends who are local here to the Boston area, one of whom is a designer, and I said, you know, I was thinking maybe I should be a tech editor. And they were like, “Yes! Yes, you should.” And the next week, I had a pattern sitting in my email, and that was the start of it. It was just like, okay, here I go!
I have learned a lot on the way. It's been about ten years that I've been dabbling in this direction.
What’s your workspace like?
It used to be that I had a laptop and a tablet, and I would work with the spreadsheet on my laptop and my tablet would have the pattern, and I would annotate on that--just handwritten notes. It was perfect in the beginning because I could go to the space in my house where it was quietest, and just do my thing. I could go sit in a cafe. It was portable, it was easy, it was quick.
But over the years, things built up and I found all of a sudden some weeks I was working 25 hours, some weeks it was 40 hours or more, and the tablet and the laptop just weren't cutting it anymore. My partner would watch me scrolling on the screen in my spreadsheet, jumping up and down and back and forth to double check and refer to things in my spreadsheet cells, and he was just like, “Oh, come on, you need a bigger screen than that!”
Eventually I did upgrade to a desktop computer and two monitors, one of which I put vertically and one of which is horizontal I don't know how I ever did it without the two big monitors anymore. And I have a desk that's standing and sitting; it moves up and down, which is amazing and wonderful. But that meant that I needed to have an actual office space, which our house doesn't really accommodate.
So, I am currently in a very public space in our house, which is good and bad. When my kids are in school, then it's no problem at all. And I have taught everybody that if they need my attention to come and stand in my peripheral vision and just wait until I get to a point where I can stop and not break my train of thought.
I've also invested in some really good noise-canceling headphones. They make a world of difference, especially in the summertime or in the afternoon after my kids are home if I'm trying to focus on something. But because of that, my day gets split up. I usually work during school hours during the school year, and then I stop at the end of school and spend the afternoon with my kids and make dinner, and spend time with my family. Then after they go to bed, I often come back to my desk another few hours. So I work a split shift, and it's what works in my life right now, and it's great.
What's been the hardest part of tech editing for you?
I would say in the beginning it was confidence. Starting out and learning something new is hard, it's really hard to do. And self doubt came in; for me, that's just a vulnerable point. So when I was first getting going, both at tech editing and then later when I first started grading, the self confidence and the trust in myself that I had done the work, I had done the learning, I understood the things, and that my voice deserved to be heard was really the first, biggest struggle for me.
And I think that was echoed a little bit because I started out working for indie designers (and that's still the core part of my business). Some of the designers that I was working for were very well established and have a certain way of doing things that was in direct conflict with some of the information I was getting from lessons I was taking on how to tech edit or what should a pattern be like. And so it took a while to find the balance between, yes, it's good for an indie designer to have their own style and their own voice and everything be the way that they have done it and they want it to be, and keep that style for them, and also at different times push back a little bit more. Like, this thing in the pattern is going to be a problem, and then figuring out when to push back and how to push back and make that all work without being too overbearing.
I second guessed myself so much in the very beginning, especially in first grading projects. But I recently walked a client through her first grading project that took months from start to finish. It's really fulfilling to watch someone find their feet, find their voice, learn what they need to learn, and get to the point where they're saying, This is going to work. And then have something go to test and have the feedback be fabulous. I just love that process. I am all for getting people to the point where they outgrow me.
I love it because people that I have guided into the process of writing a clear pattern or learning how to grade the first time, then become good at it. I'm learning from them, and it's a collaboration, and it pushes me to keep striving to become better, to learn more, to do something new, to pick up something I haven't done in years. I love that continual change.
I am not the kind of person who can have the same job every single day, so I love the change, the refreshing bit of it, the new construction, all the new things to dive into.
What references or tools do you find yourself always reaching for in your work?
This actually cracks me up. I cannot remember, for the life of me the conversions between us, needle sizes and metric mm. It just does not penetrate my brain. So I have a printed-out table of that's in a little notebook next to my computer, and I reach for that every single time I edit a pattern.
I also have a fit model that I have developed on my own. It's a combination, pulled from every source I've ever seen of what the fit should be for women's bodies, for men's bodies, for kids, for heads, for feet, you know, whatever it needs to be. And I've compiled all of those together because I find that sometimes they're in conflict with each other.
So back when I started grading, I spent a lot of time just studying the different fit models and seeing where they were different and why they were different, and looking at the various parts of the body and the ratios as the size and total circumferences increase. How come the waist to underarm changes in the way that it does, and how come it's not the same? I spent a lot of time when I didn't have grading business learning that stuff and just looking at it from a zoomed-out perspective.
And then I drilled in and made a fit model that's my own, where I think things fit best for overall bodies—leaving out the stuff that I think was incorrect in other sources and pulling other notations in. Like, I have a little flag to the side saying, hey, pay attention: the underarm to waist length actually gets shorter here as sizes get larger. And, hey, look, that feels weird, but it right.
When I have read a book or a really great resource on something, and a little nugget pops out at me, and I'll put it in a spreadsheet with where I got it and what page it was on, because a lot of times I'll be like, oh, I remember I read this thing about x, y, or z, where did I see that? I know I can picture it on a page, but whose book was that? So I found this was something that was helpful for me to keep track of where my references were. These are the things that I pull up most of the time.
What is the best piece of wisdom you have heard or read lately?
I think it's actually something that applies both to editing and to life. Adam Grant put up a thing recently that said, The antidote to overthinking isn't thinking less, it's rethinking more. And he went into further detail, talking about how overthinking is when you get stuck in those loops, and you're looking at the same thing over and over in the same way, and it really just zeros you in and it gets exhausting. But rethinking is when you look at the same issue, but you go from a totally different perspective. It's broadening out, taking a step back, and letting you see things more clearly.
And I find when I'm stuck on something in a pattern, or I can't understand why something is or isn't working, I need to focus on rethinking instead of overthinking, especially if I'm trying to grade something. And when I've come up against a really tricky way of making a texture or a pattern work within the number of stitches that I have, I can get stuck in that overthinking loop. Rethinking really helps to take a step back and get that perspective.
How do you rethink? Do you move away from your workspace, or do you just give it time? Do you do sleep?
Yes, yes, and yes. Sometimes if I've been staring at the same thing, I just physically walk away from it. I’ll go do something simple like wash a couple dishes or load the laundry in the laundry machine, go cut some flowers in the garden or shovel some snow if it's winter—just physically do something different for a minute and come back. Sometimes I will sleep on it. It's often why I leave a few days between when I actually can complete a grade and when I have it promised back, because if I get stuck on something, I might need extra time to just work it through. And also, I really value different people that I know who can be thinking partners on this.
My partner, for example, he understands just enough of the lingo that he can follow what I'm saying, but he is not in this industry at all and is not a knitter. He's cast on and knit a few stitches, but that's about it. But if we go for a walk and I explain, this is where I'm stuck, even if 90% of it goes over his head, he's very good at being a verbal mirror for me and saying so, “I'm hearing you saying this.” Often that's all that I need—somebody to just bounce it back at me, and then I have a light bulb moment, and I can fix it.
Do you have any advice for editors who are just starting out? If you could travel back in time, what wisdom would you whisper to yourself?
Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. Ask questions.
I think by asking questions as an editor, we show that we're observant because we're noticing that things are different here or there, or that it didn't quite make sense to us. Listening to that little head in your brain that's saying, what does that mean? And rather than making an assumption, a lot of times I find that a designer may have done something on purpose and it's not a mistake. It was done with clear intent. It just wasn't explained clearly why it was done as it was. So don't be afraid to ask a question. And when you ask that question, make sure that you're not just asserting something is wrong.
Ask the question in the way of, this is how I see this. Is this what you meant, or is this how it's supposed to be? Because it's not necessarily just wrong. You're a partner. You're not an adversary. You're trying to make things even better than they already are.
The other day, I was working with a client, I was editing a pattern, and I was like, oh, your front and your back necklines just don't work. And she bounced it back to me, and she was like, “Are you sure?” And I looked at it, went, oh, no, I made a math mistake. You are totally, 100% correct.
We're human, and in a partnership. And I do not guarantee that everything I return is 100% error free, because I am human. And I mess up. I make mistakes. And I expect that my clients will be taking my feedback in the same way of like, oh, I made a mistake. Great, we caught it. Let's move on. Let's make it better.
What's something in your business that you are happy worked out differently than you expected?
Originally I started into this to find my own identity again after having had two kids in short succession. I wanted something that would let me use my brain, be somebody other than mama, and interact with people who are over the age of two. That was really what I was looking for, and I found that I was not expecting it to become a full time job. I was not expecting it to be something where in the last year, I had to actually pull back and say, I am not taking on new clients, and saying no.
I started turning down some jobs, turning down new clients, because I had to set some personal boundaries in the balance between my personal life, what was going on there and work. And I never anticipated that happening, but I'm really happy that it did.
What’s your favorite way to take a break from editing?
Knitting is good. I have other hobbies that I like to do, including getting outside in the yard; it's hard for me to sit at a desk all day. So getting up and taking a break, getting some actual sunlight or, you know, rain falling on my face, is always a good thing. I do love to knit. I love to read, and my family is deep in games, so there's a lot of game playing that happens in our house, too. My kids love wordplay, so a lot of times we'll sit at the dinner table and there will be a word that comes up or a game that my younger child will come up with and say, “What if we did this,” and we start playing a game during dinner. There's still a lot of words in my life. I'm realizing that it's fantastic.
What are your hopes for yourself?
I think you've hit on vulnerability. I really struggle with long-term planning. I'm very much a, okay, this is what I want, and then I have to make it happen kind of person. I'm a quick turnaround from a decision into reality, if I can make it work. I've always held myself to really high standards, and I've always been very proud of accomplishing what I set out to do. So I guess, I would like to continue to have pride in what I'm deeming as success in what I'm attempting.
And I want to keep learning; I don't want to become stagnant. I want to keep developing and furthering what I can do. Go deeper, go wider, find something more. I don't want to stay exactly where I am. I'm content with what I have, but I want it to keep moving.
I'm really happy to be a part of a community that is focusing on building up instead of pulling each other down. I think both the fiber industry in general, if you can find those partners, those people who are there to not be competitive, but to be supportive, it is a wonderful thing to find. And I was lucky to find that in my knitting community locally and with some people that I worked with back from the beginning, when my kids were super little. And I have been lucky to find that in The Tech Editor Hub. I'm super happy to be there and to be able to participate in my own way, contributing what I know to people who are just getting going and who are at that moment of vulnerability.
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Thank you for being here, dear tech editors! Leave a comment below (I read each one!) ~ Sarah Walworth