half-a-bag-o'-cat ~ posted by Melissa

I've had a secret.  A really, really, really big secret since last January.  And I managed to keep it for just shy of an entire year from all my closest friends and family.  I did spill to a few long distance internet buddies who I swore to secrecy and now I can finally share (at least in part) with everyone else who might think this is the slightest bit cool.

I got an email at the beginning of the year asking me if I had designed anything to which I replied, 'nope'.  And then another email followed asking if I would be interested in designing something to be included in a book.  Gulp.  To which I immediately replied, 'YES'!  I was given a few guidelines ~ a shawl, using about 450 yards of yarn, simple in nature that would fit the theme of the book.  Over the next couple weeks, I sketched and swatched and submitted and tweaked and resubmitted and waited for yarn to come in the mail and knit an entire shawl while I waited and then knit another to be featured in the book when the yarn finally arrived and wrote and rewrote and edited and rewrote the pattern and took some pictures of the final book piece before packing up the finished shawl and my pattern to be sent to a tech editor for more tweaking.  The pattern was test knit by 3 people and I knit 8 more over the course of this year so that I could give my mom, mother-in-law, sister, sisters-in-law, brother's girlfriend and my nieces each their own shawl for Christmas.  The picture off to the side is what I can show you of all 9 samples that I knit and gave away this week as gifts.

The best part of the whole thing was knowing I had this enormous secret that I managed to keep for 12 months and being able to include notes in the presents that the pattern was going to be published.  It's the biggest secret I've ever kept and definitely the longest.  I think in the end I was more excited about it than anyone else but that's okay.  It's been a fun year of knitting and planning and choosing yarns for each person.

The book is still not published, and I'm not sure that it ever will be.  That's as much as I can say about that right now.  It's completely out of my hands at this point so it's a waiting game.  The fun part is that the author is letting everyone keep copyright on their designs so we will eventually get them back whether the book sees the light of day or not.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be and I really do believe that it's just a matter of time.  I have complete faith in the gal who put the whole thing together and her message and her perseverance to see her dream through til the end.  I'm so glad she asked me to participate and I'm completely honored that she thought to include me at all.

Anywho, that's my big news and why the cat is only partially out of the bag.  Once the design is public, I'll let the other 1/2 cat out and share some photos of what I've been up to.  If you managed to read this whole post through to the end, thanks for humoring me and hope I didn't bore you to tears!

Wishing everyone a merry holiday week filled with a little rest and a little knitting and lots of family.  I'll update everyone about the upcoming New Year's Knitalong in a couple days.  Happy knitting!   ~ Melissa