Holla Knits!

Back in May, I decided that I wanted to go from being a dabbling knitwear designer to being a Professional Knitwear Designer. It's something I've been wanting for a long time, and actually tried about a year and a half ago, but it turns out that if you already have a day job unrelated to knitting, being a Professional Knitwear Designer on the side is really, really hard. It takes all of the time. Seriously. As a self-professed nail polish addict, I have had blank nails for like a month now because I don't have time to have my hands still for that long. It sucks. My nail polish collection is upset with me.

So, arbitrarily, in May, I thought, you know what? Now's the time. Again. In a convoluted Google-blog-Ravelry path that I do not now recall, I found out that there was an online magazine called Holla Knits!, and that it was taking submissions for the fall issue. And the deadline was in like a week. Having never put together a magazine submission, I was a little lost, so of course, I Googled it. I knitted a swatch, drew a (really terrible) sketch, and wrote a little description of what I had in mind, and mailed it off. I think my exact thought when I put it in the mail was, "Well, it was good practice at least." Imagine my surprise when one week later, on the day before my birthday, I got an email saying that my design would be in the fall issue. First, silence. Then, literally jumping up and down, outside, in public. Then calling everyone I know. Then... panic. I knew when I submitted the idea that it was outside of my skill range. Also, I've never written a sweater pattern. Ever. Or size-graded a pattern. Or any number of things that I would now have to do, and on a deadline.

But... I did it. I made a sweater. I wrote a pattern. I size-graded the crap out of that thing. I learned just about everything there is to know about top-down designs, making charts, raglan increases, lace, my personal stress limits, yarn quantities, and that yarn and wine only go together up to a certain, specific point. And it's done, and I love it. Can't show you the whole thing, but here's a teaser.

I'm so excited to see my design in a proper knitting forum! I hope the pattern does well. Now I'm working like a the crazypants I am to get a couple of other designs self-published before this magazine, in the blind hopes that I will become an overnight sensation. :) Hooray, random last-minute magazine submissions!