January is traditionally a time for starting new things and this week I have started three new things! I have begun a new design for a publication I haven’t submitted to before, I have done the majority of my first proper tech editing job and I have done my first day as an exam invigilator. I am enjoying all of them, although I am hoping I learn the layout of the school soon and don’t have to keep asking fellow invigilators where the staff toilets or staff room are! When I’m tech editing I know where everything is, as I’m working from home! By the way, if you can’t read the writing on the pencil in the main pic, it says “Knitting feeds my soul”. Very true.
The new design is for knitty.com. They are very different to other publications as you don’t send them a submission of a design proposal, you send them the finished written pattern, complete with photographs of the finished item! One benefit of this is that, if it is rejected, you have a completed pattern ready to be tech edited, rather than an idea which languishes for a couple of years before you find it again (either at the bottom of the swatch box or in a computer file marked “Submissions/Unpublished” – yes I do have a file with this name!). Fortunately the lead-times are much longer than for other publications with their submissions – with about a three month deadline rather than three weeks, in recognition of the significantly bigger task! I can’t tell you anything more about what I’m doing, or share any pics, but I’ll let you know when I find out if it’s been accepted (probably by the end of April!).
The new socks for Sue are coming on apace and I am delighted with how the self-striping yarn is behaving. By total accidental/serendipity the heel turn is red. The yarn changed colour just as I started the heel turn and finished just before I picked up the stitches to start working the gusset (foot shaping). It’s a bit like a Louboutin sock!
I bet the second sock doesn’t do this – I have no idea whereabouts during the grey section of the yarn I began the cast-on, so I can’t reliably replicate it.
I’m also gearing up to begin the new season of yarn shows, several of which are new to me this year (TexStyle in Manchester in March is a brand new show as is The Midlands Wool Festival at Wolverhampton Racecourse in July, and I’ll be doing The Wool Monty in Sheffield in June for the first time too.
The first show of the year is in just over a month! The North West Winter Wool Festival is being held at Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool this year and I am not only exhibiting there, but teaching two workshops as well. An Introduction to Brioche Knitting is on Saturday 14th February and Moebius Knitting is on Sunday 15th February. There are only two places left for the brioche workshop!
Contact me directly if you’d like to book a place on either of these workshops (you will also need to buy a ticket for the show itself – £8 for the day or £10 for the whole weekend, which includes a code for a free knitting pattern, designed by me!). There are lots of other workshops taking place at the show as well and they are all listed on the North West Winter Wool Festival’s workshops page.
March will be very busy with TexStyle in Manchester on March 14th and 15th and the East Anglia Yarn Festival in Norwich the following weekend (March 21st and 22nd)!
The organisers of TexStyle have generously allowed those of us exhibiting to run ticket give-aways and so I have five pairs of tickets up for grabs! If you and a friend would like a ticket for TexStyle at Manchester Central On March 14th/15th let me know in the comments and I will draw names from a hat on Friday 23rd January and get the relevant code to the lucky winners!
That’s all from me for today! I now need to get back to making sure Lorelai is going to be ready for her relaunch as an individual pattern in time for the show in Blackpool! This is one of the lovely photos from The Knitter:
Take care and remember to comment if you’d like to be in the draw for TexStyle tickets! K x