Let's Knit Front Cover, Issue 32

Wow, my pattern made it to the front cover of the latest issue of Let's Knit.

It's a pleated short sleeve top with bead and texture detail.

I designed and knitted this in February with some help from my sister. I wished I could blog about it at the time because it didn't run very smoothly. I think I'll just try to put that behind me and bask in the excitement of being on the cover. This is a landmark for me and has prompted me to think more about what I want to achieve with designing. I've been working on several patterns for Let's Knit this year, most of which have been published now. Now I'm at a point where I could submit some new design ideas, which if they're accepted gives me a guaranteed income and a deadline to work to. However I sometimes find I'm not designing the patterns I really want to or using the best yarn for a project. There's limited space in a printed magazine so I can't just freely write and have to use such shorthand that I sometimes feel I'm not really getting across what I want to. I could try to publish independently, for example through Ravelry. This would give more freedom in yarn choice and style of pattern writing but at my own investment in yarn and perhaps I would never finish writing it when there's no editor waiting for me. And, eek, perhaps noone would pay for them? I suppose at the moment I'm working a low risk strategy and accepting the limits in return for the benefits. I'm not sure this is the best strategy anymore. I have a dayjob for security of income so perhaps now that I've got some more experience I should branch out and take a few more risks. I guess it all comes down to how much work I'm prepared to put in. Noone can answer that but me.