Too Much Secret Knitting

I know, I know, bloggers are always apologizing for being busy and not posting in awhile. My excuse isn’t that I’m too busy, it’s that I’m not allowed to talk about the projects on my needles!

I’ve given myself a few goals to take my knitting and designing to the next level this year. One of these goals was to submit some patterns for publication. As someone who has only really designed for her own site, this was a certainly quite a learning experience.

I submitted design ideas to three different places. Each publication had different requirements for their submissions. Some are very specific about what yarns and colors to use, some just have themes. Most want some sort of sketch or swatch. I was very lucky and two of my designs were picked!

Then comes the time for knitting samples and writing patterns. I find that I have a hard time writing patterns without actually knitting the item. (Except for mittens, I can write a mitten pattern without knitting it easily at this point!) It is just the way I work. So, that means most of my knitting time recently has been spent working on those projects. (And ripping them out too!)

Writing the actual pattern has also been a new experience. Each publication has a different style guide and formatting that they use. I’m trying to be very careful to do everything correctly. I’m so used to just having my own formatting style.

Finally, both publications want me to write something about the pattern. I don’t know why I find this so tricky! I write about my projects here on the blog all the time, but trying to come up with the right thing to say for someplace else is giving me writers’ block!

I’m not complaining. I’m so thrilled to have been successful with this goal and I can’t wait until I can actually share the projects with all of you.

I am still working on finishing up my second Twins Opening Day mittens, just over a week until I’ll need them.

Plus, I have started working out the ideas for this year’s Christmas KAL. Details on that will follow in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, just know if you don’t hear from me for a week or so, that just means I’m busily creating new patterns for you to knit