METM24 presentation

Spinning a yarn: how I honed my craft and created my niche

Sara Blackshire, Granollers (Barcelona), Spain

We have all been told that, as language professionals, we need to specialise to stand out, but how do we cast our net wide and find new fields of expertise? This talk will introduce attendees to the idea of crafting new specialisations out of our hobbies or personal interests, whether they are board games, gardening, mending, DIY home improvement projects, or car repair. We will delve into why a particular area might lend itself to becoming a translation niche, and how to follow that path. I will share my personal experience of how I got into the world of knitting, crochet, spinning, and sewing. More specifically, how I became part of the Spanish-speaking crafting community, which led me to specialise in translating and editing knitting, crochet, and sewing patterns, as well as other yarn-related texts, and subtitles for crafting tutorials. The aim is to spark attendees’ curiosity and share suggestions on how to specialise in our interests, and how to network and find clients, including but not limited to social media, with specific examples from the world of textile handcrafts. The independent knitting magazines I have worked on in both English and Spanish will be available for viewing. We will close the session with a lively discussion of how attendees found their own specialisms.

This talk is for both newer translators and seasoned veterans interested in widening their scope of expertise into more unusual subject matters. Attendees should expect to leave with new ideas on how to get their hobby to bring them work.

About the presenter

Sara Blackshire is a bilingual English and Spanish freelance translator, editor, and proofreader by day and an avid knitter, crocheter, sewist, and spinner by night. Crafting has been closely interwoven with her freelance career, and she hopes to share insights into how she turned her hobby into one of her specialisations.