Today is the big day. Really big. So excited that I could burst!!!!!
The Everdene Wrap makes its debut in Knit Picks latest (due to be released today so keep your eyes peeled!) Bulky Fall/Winter Pattern Collection (I have no idea if that's the actual title--this has been a very hush, hush endeavor). As of this minute, it hasn't appeared on the website (I've been checking every 30 minutes or so since 5:30 am), but it's coming. I can only show a few snippets, I'm afraid, until after the big reveal.
At first, I was downtrodden when I received the email a year ago about my submission that said "we can't use your pattern for the submission collection", but then I read further and the email said that my pattern was going to be used for a special collection. Okay, that's cool, right? So I followed the schedule, felt totally awkward and apologetic for my lack of experience with the whole professional publication process--usually they just say "Here's some yarn. Write it, test it, format it however you like, photograph it, send it in." Not this time. There were rules and editors and deadlines and photo shoots and templates. The more the year progressed, the more unclear I was about why there were so many hoops to jump through. There was a considerable amount of secrecy and tidbits of information doled out on a need-to-know basis. Glenna C.'s Classic Color collection came out on the Knit Picks website in September, and when the catalogue arrived in my mailbox I thought "how amazing would it be if my pattern were to be printed in the catalogue in a special collection layout like this!" (Secretly I long to be Glenna C. No joke. She's my knitting idol.) When the pattern came to my inbox for final edits, it was GORGEOUS!!! I was thrilled to the core just with the way they made my written instructions seem so polished and had done the charting for me so nicely, let alone with the pictures of the seriously beautiful model wearing the test-knit in a bright teal color I hadn't expected but absolutely loved. I was going to be happy with a footnote at the back of the catalogue at this point just because the pattern was such absolute eye candy.
And then came a request for me to write a description of the inspiration for the pattern. Well, that was new. No one who had agreed to publish my patterns has asked for that before. I guess it's a good thing that I actually had one. Coincidentally, my mother had asked me the very same thing about two weeks prior--"Why did you name it Everdene?"
Here's why: The wrap is pretty simple. I could have made it incredibly complicated, but the bulky recycled yarn that I had originally begun to knit it with was sort of rustic and tweedy and I thought, you know, something rustic and simple is what this yarn wants. So that was the onset of the pattern. When I sent in the submission, Knit Picks sent me a dark solid yarn to test the pattern with (Wallaby), and wow!, that really made the pattern pop! And when it was knit up and I tried it on, I got the picture of a novel heroine in my head and I just knew that one of my favorite authors, Thomas Hardy, had created a character in Far From the Madding Crowd that would, seriously, wear this wrap to market or for a stroll down a country lane with a beau she had no intention of marrying. I guess that's a little too much of the English teacher pushing through, right? So, to make a long story short, I named it Everdene after the tragic heroine Bathsheba Everdene. (She's only tragic because she's too much of a diva for rural Victorian England and can't ever be satisfied.) By definition, I guess that makes this wrap the perfect accessory for both the pastoral beauty AND the urban diva. Such a deal!
And then it came. The email that pretty much bowled me over and left me sputtering. The one that said "We will be sending you … copies of the book." Really? There's a book? Yes. There's a book. My Everdene Wrap is in a BOOK!! Wow. What else does one say to that besides just "Wow." Weeks later, I'm still just saying "Wow", but gushing with joy when I say it (and still doing my happy dance). I just wish Blogger would quit changing the color of the picture every time I load a new one.
So now I am nervously (I don't know why "nervously" because I have the photo shoot pics and I know what it's going to look like) awaiting the arrival of my copies of "The Book" and the debut on the Knit Picks website. (Yes, I just paused to see if it had gone live yet; it hasn't.)
I hope everyone will go to the website and check it out, buy it, knit it, love it, show up at some fiber festival where I have a booth and show it off ... because, well, it is written for a variety of sizes and it's IN A BOOK!
Happy knitting to you all! (Happy dance, happy dance!)
The Everdene Wrap makes its debut in Knit Picks latest (due to be released today so keep your eyes peeled!) Bulky Fall/Winter Pattern Collection (I have no idea if that's the actual title--this has been a very hush, hush endeavor). As of this minute, it hasn't appeared on the website (I've been checking every 30 minutes or so since 5:30 am), but it's coming. I can only show a few snippets, I'm afraid, until after the big reveal.
At first, I was downtrodden when I received the email a year ago about my submission that said "we can't use your pattern for the submission collection", but then I read further and the email said that my pattern was going to be used for a special collection. Okay, that's cool, right? So I followed the schedule, felt totally awkward and apologetic for my lack of experience with the whole professional publication process--usually they just say "Here's some yarn. Write it, test it, format it however you like, photograph it, send it in." Not this time. There were rules and editors and deadlines and photo shoots and templates. The more the year progressed, the more unclear I was about why there were so many hoops to jump through. There was a considerable amount of secrecy and tidbits of information doled out on a need-to-know basis. Glenna C.'s Classic Color collection came out on the Knit Picks website in September, and when the catalogue arrived in my mailbox I thought "how amazing would it be if my pattern were to be printed in the catalogue in a special collection layout like this!" (Secretly I long to be Glenna C. No joke. She's my knitting idol.) When the pattern came to my inbox for final edits, it was GORGEOUS!!! I was thrilled to the core just with the way they made my written instructions seem so polished and had done the charting for me so nicely, let alone with the pictures of the seriously beautiful model wearing the test-knit in a bright teal color I hadn't expected but absolutely loved. I was going to be happy with a footnote at the back of the catalogue at this point just because the pattern was such absolute eye candy.
And then came a request for me to write a description of the inspiration for the pattern. Well, that was new. No one who had agreed to publish my patterns has asked for that before. I guess it's a good thing that I actually had one. Coincidentally, my mother had asked me the very same thing about two weeks prior--"Why did you name it Everdene?"
Here's why: The wrap is pretty simple. I could have made it incredibly complicated, but the bulky recycled yarn that I had originally begun to knit it with was sort of rustic and tweedy and I thought, you know, something rustic and simple is what this yarn wants. So that was the onset of the pattern. When I sent in the submission, Knit Picks sent me a dark solid yarn to test the pattern with (Wallaby), and wow!, that really made the pattern pop! And when it was knit up and I tried it on, I got the picture of a novel heroine in my head and I just knew that one of my favorite authors, Thomas Hardy, had created a character in Far From the Madding Crowd that would, seriously, wear this wrap to market or for a stroll down a country lane with a beau she had no intention of marrying. I guess that's a little too much of the English teacher pushing through, right? So, to make a long story short, I named it Everdene after the tragic heroine Bathsheba Everdene. (She's only tragic because she's too much of a diva for rural Victorian England and can't ever be satisfied.) By definition, I guess that makes this wrap the perfect accessory for both the pastoral beauty AND the urban diva. Such a deal!
And then it came. The email that pretty much bowled me over and left me sputtering. The one that said "We will be sending you … copies of the book." Really? There's a book? Yes. There's a book. My Everdene Wrap is in a BOOK!! Wow. What else does one say to that besides just "Wow." Weeks later, I'm still just saying "Wow", but gushing with joy when I say it (and still doing my happy dance). I just wish Blogger would quit changing the color of the picture every time I load a new one.
So now I am nervously (I don't know why "nervously" because I have the photo shoot pics and I know what it's going to look like) awaiting the arrival of my copies of "The Book" and the debut on the Knit Picks website. (Yes, I just paused to see if it had gone live yet; it hasn't.)
I hope everyone will go to the website and check it out, buy it, knit it, love it, show up at some fiber festival where I have a booth and show it off ... because, well, it is written for a variety of sizes and it's IN A BOOK!
Happy knitting to you all! (Happy dance, happy dance!)
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