Knititude

Aargh.

Every day since the first day of September, I've been checking and re-checking my e-mail, waiting for the notice to Knitty readers that the fall Knitty was up; you'd think that at some point during that time I might have realized that I NEGLECTED TO INCLUDE THE URL TO THIS SITE in my designer blurb.  So all that web traffic never got directed HERE (or QUI, as we say here in Italia).  See the expression on the kid's face?  Well, compared to how I feel, he's turning mental cartwheels.  I mean, if my top priority was to make a lot of moolah, I would have stuck with veterinary medicine (NOT!!--although that was the mother lode compared to knitwear design)--but it sure would be nice to at least be able to support my expensive yarn habit with my own earnings.

Of merry men

I've been so busy, what with trying to finish my project for Big Girl Knits 2 and planning for our family's pending move to Italy*, that I almost forgot:  the fall Knitty will contain one of my patterns, for a pullover.  Woohoo!  Of course, I can't say much more than that, but I offer this photo as a hint.

*Travel bulletin:  I've been on a dozen flights in the last 3 months, both transatlantic and within Europe, with both metal dpns and circs, and with not a peep from a single security checkpoint.

Shoot me! Kiss me!

I was thinking that my visit to Milan would yield photos of tempting and imaginative knit confections, so I was surprised that several afternoons of  window shopping yielded only three (3!) windows containing any knitwear at all (and not much crochet, even though that seems especially big in the U.S. this season).  Pictured is the best of the bunch, if you can believe it.  Knitwear designers, if we want to keep the popularity of original knitwear high, apparently we aren't going to get huge amounts of help from the Italians.  Or maybe come fall those windows will tell a different story--I hope so.

Oh, and the post title?  Checked my e-mail and found out that my two pattern submissions to Knitty were rejected.  And in the time it took me shake myself, hard, and tell myself to get on with it, I got another e-mail, this time accepting my pattern submission for Big Girl Knits 2.  HOORAY! 

Good News/Bad News

Although I've been knitting furiously for the past week, little or none of it has been bloggable (bad news).  However, by next week, I should have 2 or 3 completed pattern submissions to send off to knitty in time for the deadline for their July issue (good news).  My limited experience with submissions for publication, whether print or online, has been that rejections are to be expected (bad news).  I've heard that knitty's editor, Amy Singer, at least lets you know quickly whether your pattern will be used (good news), and if NOT (bad news), then I will be posting those patterns here on my blog, instead (good news).

I haven't given up on Chinese Lace, and the other day I was flipping through the yellowing pages of 1500 Patterns, a softcover "Knitting Encyclopedia" from Mon Tricot that I've had for about 20 years, when I found this.  Look familiar?  Aside from using k2togs instead of SSKs, it is a block of four pattern lines from Chinese Lace, and that lovely diagonal has me thinking I might resurrect this idea--or at least the mock wrap part of it, combined with C.L. sleeves.