More socks and on to intros -

I know I have been very quiet lately. I finished two (nearly three) sock mates last week and cast on for another one today. When I finish one inch of foot and a toe, I will have completed six sock mates for the book.

At my editor's urging, I wrote introductions to two of the patterns and although she found them interesting, she wanted me to add more specifics about the pattern rather than just the Japanese inspiration for it. So - I rewrote them and sent them to her. Of course it is a long weekend and she's not working so I won't hear back until after Monday sometime.

This week I am starting a toe up sock (rare for me) in birch colored Regia wool and a rose colored lace sock using yarn from Elann.com. I was told to get yarn from many manufacturers and I think I ended up with twenty different companies before I was done. Who knows what it will be after the new colors are chosen.

Be careful what you wish for -

Well, I heard from my editor and many changes need to be made. Four socks need to be reknitted in new colors. Two need to be in new colors and made into knee socks. One pair of child's socks need to be knit in sport rather than the original fingering weight. The Over the knee socks need a different colored cuff! The legwarmers need to be made longer - thigh high, in fact.

So much for my plan of getting all of the knitting done by the end of June.

The editor and graphic artist are going to review color samples and decide what colors the "changed" ones will be knit in. My brain hurts!

The good news is that the socks I took a chance on knitting mates for were all unchanged except for the child's sock so I haven't been wasting my time while I waited.

Tomorrow should be the day -

I finally heard something from my editor. She is meeting with the graphic artist late this afternoon to discuss the thirty-one socks I sent her. They will make the decision of which ones will finally be in the book. She said she would get back to me tonight or, more likely, tomorrow.

While I have been waiting to hear from her, I have felt like I am developing an ulcer. I also am apparently not paying proper attention to my knitting as I have had to rip out several rows of the pedicure sock I was working on, two times now.

And yesterday, I cast on for the Samurai sock and was merrily knitting along when I got to the seventeenth round of the sock and realized that one needle had two stitches less than the other three and had to rip it out and start all over on it. I am sure this is all stress related. Either that or I have a seriously fast developing case of dementia.

Still "On Hold"

My editor didn't contact me yesterday, so I guess it won't be until Monday now. Meanwhile, I'm ignoring her advice to wait until I talk to her to start the second socks. The Japanese Seaweed is down to the heel flap and the Fuji Pedicure sock is about at the same point. At least I don't feel like I am wasting my time while I am waiting and these are all patterns she really liked so hopefully, I am right about them.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to scan Japanese stitch charts into my computer. It dawned on me today that I really ought to be putting all of this stuff on disks or flash drives in case my computer takes a dive at some point.

I have to write the intros for all of the patterns and I guess I could be doing that too but you know I have to keep knitting.

It's All About Me!

I can relax a bit as Melanie has my box of socks. It's not missing in the great void. She says she will be in contact with me today or Monday. An here I was envisioning her opening the box immediately, being thrilled with what I did and calling me immediately.

I keep forgetting that she has a full-time job with a publisher and is working on other things than my book! She had the nerve to take a week off recently and I was freaking out.

The hardest part at this point is that I can't be sure which socks will be in the book so am (theoretically)on hold. I'm supposed to be knitting thirty socks during May and June! I'm losing valuable time! I decided to go ahead and start knitting ones I know she really likes and take a chance rather than sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I finished one yesterday and started another. Why didn't I scan all of them before sending them? It would have been so easy and I would have been sure that my instructions were right and that it really was two repeats plus twenty more rounds. I look at the sock and wonder - was it really three repeats?

I was wrong!

Well, I heard from Melanie yesterday and the ribbing I thought was the "right" one for the Kabuki boot wasn't the right one! How could I have written a pattern and put in seven rows of the wrong rib pattern? My brain must have really been on overload that day!

She encouraged me to go ahead and start writing the introductions for the patterns while I am waiting for her to get the last box of "first" socks. When she gets them, she will call and we will discuss them and then she will decide which ones will be in the book. Then I will have to knit my fingers off, trying to finish thirty "second" socks (actually, only twenty-nine since I did send the Sumo sock with the recent box). My deadline is August 1 for the entire package of socks, charts, intros and all other writing. This is going to be a memorable summer.

I just couldn't wait without knitting in my hands so I got out the rest of the ball of Strawberry Cream colored Panda Silk and began the second sock of a pair for a child because I know she loved the pattern and chances are good it will be used. There is also an adult sock to match and I'll probably start it next.

Arrgh!

I decided to go ahead and start the second Kabuki boot even though I wasn't absolutely sure if I was doing the rib pattern that I used in the first one. Lorraine Erlinger pointed out that I should have taken pictures of all of the socks before sending them off. Unfortunately, her advice came too late to help this time.
I also have to confess that I will not have enough yarn in a single skein of this sage colored Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted to finish the sock. I contacted my Brown Sheep contact via email and begged for a second skein. When I bought it at my LYS, I didn't know what I was going to do with it at the time.

This morning, I scanned what I had done and sent it to my editor in hope that she can tell me it is "right."

I figured I didn't have time to waste so got my last pattern into the computer and sent to my pattern tester. Then I began the job of scanning pattern charts, cropping out the single repeat and saving them to send to the graphic artist to re-format for the book. I thought that as I do "second" socks, I'll do this too so that they will all be ready when the deadline hits.

Now I am going to beg my editor to tell me I can start another "second" sock.

One down - twenty nine to go

I heard from my editor yesterday and will ship off the last batch of "first" socks to her on Monday. She said if I was anxious to get started on second socks, I could go ahead with the Sumo and Kabuki socks. Hooray!

I quickly printed off the patterns for those socks and got out the yarn. One of them uses very bulky yarn and I worked on it most of the day and finished it. It's going to go to her tomorrow along with the last sample batch! That means I have only twenty-nine more socks to knit for the book by the end of June.

I got out the yarn for the Kabuki socks and cast on and discovered that my pattern was incomplete - only seven rounds of twenty were written on the pattern! How could I do that? OK - no panic. I have a box of index cards that have all the patterns written on them and those are what I worked from originally. I can just look there and find it.

So - firt thing this morning, I dug through the box and found a card that said "Kabuki" on it and it's not even the right pattern! Argh!

She said she would send back the originals if I needed them so they would be sure to match but I thought I could get through them without it. If I could just see it for a minute, I would know what I did. I believe I know as I found the rib pattern I think I used but altered to some degree but can't be sure.

Well - at least one of the second socks is done!

I just can't stop!

I finished the thirtieth sock for the book. I could take a break. So - what did I do? I cast on for the thirty-first sock. There was one pattern that I really liked and wanted to see what it would look like and I just happened to have some gray Regia silk handy. True confession time - I have one inch left to go before the toe and it's done. Since my editor is apparently on vacation, I didn't send the last batch of ten socks and now it will be eleven instead. I'm mailing them to her office if I don't hear anything over the weekend from her. She only goes into the office in New York a couple of days a week but at least I'll know they are there.

My pattern tester and friend, Barbara, came into the shop yesterday and I was telling her what I was up to and she suggested that maybe I have a second book of sock patterns in me. That may be true but I can't think about that now.