Designs and Prototypes and Shawls, Oh My!

Well I had hoped to write a few more witty and informative blog posts this week but I have been so busy with actual knitting the writing about knitting thing has had to go on the back burner.
Priorities y'know.

First, and most excitingly, I got my very first pattern commission from a magazine! A month or so back I got in touch with the editor of Knit Now magazine asking about their design submission process.  She sent me a link to sign up to their designers email list and a couple of weeks ago I received the first 'call to action' - a design challenge using just one skein of yarn (from a selection) to be submitted in three days. I spent a quite enjoyable Sunday playing with stitch patterns, sketching my idea and creating a design submission which I duly emailed before the deadline. I may have whooped a little when I got an email back to say that they wanted to commission my design for the December issue!! So now I am furiously knitting up my design and wading through the magazine style sheet to write my pattern in the correct manner for the magazine. It's all a bit exciting. And scary. What if I get it wrong? What if the design just doesn't work with the yarn? What if I just don't like the finished object? What if no-one else likes the finished object? Stepping into the unknown is always a little stressful for me but I keep reminding myself that they must have liked my idea enough to take a chance on me.
Obviously I can't reveal any more right now but I will be shouting from the rooftops when the pattern finally goes into print!

Then a few days later I received another knitting job - this time from designer Erika Knight whom I knit design samples for. A bag of super chunky wool and a prototype pattern to knit up asap for a photo shoot for new product range for John Lewis. How exciting is that? Again I can't share much just yet but it's a great project and I look forward to seeing the results!

Thank goodness for knitting, tea and chocolate digestives.

And if that was not enough knitting to be getting on with the first pattern in The Shawl Society was also released and after a month or so of anticipation (I blogged about it here) of course I just HAD to get that started too! I probably shouldn't have, what with deadlines and all that, but I just couldn't wait to start knitting up that gorgeous Wool Kitchen yarn!

The Talisman Shawl is a simple stocking stitch crescent shawl with cute, yet subtle rows of star stitches and lace border. As always Helen's pattern is beautifully written with percentage system she uses being so useful in ensuring you have enough yarn AND so encouraging - just want to keep knitting to the next 5% mark! It's a simple enough knit to work whilst watching TV so whilst my days have been filled with work knitting, my evenings have been all about Talisman. As I type I am at about 75% so it won't be long before I get to the lace border and that picot bind off but they may have to wait due to aforementioned deadlines!!




And so, although it's the weekend, I shall mostly be working - albeit in my pj's, on the sofa, watching movies with my boy...  #lovemyjob