Am I Excited, or What?

Am I excited, or what?!

A few weeks ago, I took the plunge and submitted three of my original sock patterns to Knitpicks for consideration for their Independent Designer Program. I really didn’t think much would come of it. Some of the patterns offered through the IDP are phenomenal. I wasn’t sure that my work would fit the bill.

At about 2 o’clock on Monday, my Blackberry chimed, letting me know that I had received an e-mail. At first glance it appeared to be spam and I intended to delete it. But I must have pressed the wrong button because the e-mail opened up instead of disappearing. “We’d be happy to have all three of your submissions for the IDP…”

IDP? IDP? What the heck is IDP? I wondered. Still thinking it was spam, I bent my thumb toward the menu button to delete it when I read, “We are prepared to pay you a $50 advance for each of your patterns…”

My eyes bugged out of my head. My jaw landed somewhere on the floor between my feet. My hands started to shake and tears spilled down my cheeks. I read the e-mail again. And again. And again, which was quite a feat with my vision blurred as it was by the tears.

I was in shock. I was ecstatic. I was an emotional wreck. It took hours and hours before I could calm down.

Unable to concentrate on work, though I tried to distract myself from my elation with it, I finally shut down my office computer and left to go home. On the way I had to stop at the store for some lunch meat. My eyes were red and I was still sniffling from crying, so I dashed in to the store, grabbed a package of lunch meat and pushed my debit card across the counter for the girl to swipe. I tried to keep my head down, not so much because of my blotchy face as much as because of the stupid grin plastered on it. My original sock patterns are going to be published and sold on Knitpicks! I must have looked like a complete idiot.

Knitpicks is one of my favourite places to be on the Net. (Along with Chapters-indigo and Amazon!) I stumbled on it a few years ago and now buy almost all of my yarn from them. Their prices are excellent. The quality and selection are incredible. At the moment my hope chest is completely filled with Knitpicks yarns – and (especially now) a lot of hope!

When I first noticed the Independent Designer Program (IDP. Of course!) last fall, I got very excited. The requirements were pretty straight forward: design knitwear using Knitpicks yarn, submit a pattern proposal or pattern and wait for a reply. There are some picky little hoops to jump through, but nothing outrageous or prohibitive or unmanageable. I debated with myself about it for months. I waffled back and forth. I chewed my nails and scratched my head and generally over-analyzed the whole thing until I finally did it.

For the first few days after making the submissions, I checked my in-box hopefully. I knew it would take a few weeks for them to get back to me, but I checked anyway. The agony was too much. I had to give myself a stern talking to and let it go. At least I had Bizz’s sweater to keep me occupied and distract me. When the sleeves went south on me for the second time, I admit there were a few days of despair. I had to set it aside and return to what I love most – making socks! I’m finishing the replacement sock for my friend that I started before Christmas. Then I’ll finish the sweater (or try to) and then I’ll work on my Om sweater and a pair of socks for my Dad.

(I am graphing out the pattern for them now. They are probably a little less conventional than he would normally wear, but I’m going to make them anyway. They don’t even match! (Giggle. Giggle.) Well, they will mirror one another. They will have a silhouetted coyote howling at the moon with a cactus nearby. I can’t wait to get them started! I will make them in shades of brown and beige. I was going to use purples and creams, but I think Dad is more of a brown kind of guy! I just have to figure out how to fade the colours in and out in the sky… That is the tricky part! But I think I have a possible solution in Knitpicks newest yarn, Chroma, which may mean the sky will be more of a sunset than just browns. Not sure yet. There are so many wonderful colours schemes to choose from… )

But I digress…

Then it happened. Heralded by a funky Asian gong, a long-time dream came true. The e-mail arrived and was real and someday – soon! – knitters from all over the world are going to be able to see, buy patterns for and make my socks. How cool is that?

I think it’s very cool.