Taking a Bow!

I did it! I finished the last sock for the Japanese stitch inspired book last evening at precisely 7:41 PM EST. The box of socks is heading to my editor in New York via UPS today.

I have one toe instruction to rewrite and send to the tech editor and the pattern writing is done. I'll be working with her for several months on pattern clarifications and creating charts but the knitting is done, done, done.

I can see the finish line -

OK - I have three of the last four socks on needles! One pair will go quickly as it's a pair of Manos del Uruguay knee socks on size five needles. The other two are fingering weight knee socks with 24 and 30 rounds of pattern, respectively. I work and work on them and seem to make very little headway.

Most of the patterns are completed and off to the tech editor and the charts have been sent to her too.

Surely, I am nearly done. Introductions are being edited as is the techniques chapter. All I have left is the book introduction and a page of acknowledgements and credits to the yarn companies who provided the yarn.

I'm hoping I'll be finished in time for the pre-season football games so I can relax and enjoy them!

Deadline looming

I know it's been a long time since I posted but all I have been doing is knitting socks and more socks. A couple of weeks ago, I shipped off a box with seventeen pairs of socks to my editor and another box with seven more pairs is going today. I have twelve more socks to knit for the book and have five of them on the needles right now.

Unfortunately, two pair that have to be done are very fine fingering weight yarn and I have to make knee socks! My eyes are giving me fits these days from staring at the tiny stitches. I believe one of the patterns has 32 different rows and one has 24. I have what was "stable" macular degeneration but I'm suspicious that it has become unstable at this point. I'm seeing the eye doctor next week.

I received yarn for two more pairs this week and both yarns are heavy worsted weight. Apparently, my editor feels that people don't want to just knit socks in fingering and sport weights. I believe that at least five of the thirty-two patterns will be worsted or heavier at this point.

My original dealine to have everything done was August 1 but since it is the editor holding things up by adding patterns and changing yarns, it is being moved. I have three editors at this point - one who edits text, one who edits patterns and my primary editor who oversees it all. I sure hope that this book will be a success as it's really been a lot more work than I expected.

A new direction for the book -

I've finished five of the pattern introductions and they have been edited and, hopefully, this weekend, I'll do five more. My editor had to drag in another editor to work with me since she says I respond so quickly that she feels pressure to do that too and she's working with a lot of people, not just me. The new editor is supposed to be "in touch" on Monday morning.

When I proposed my book idea it was supposed to be themed as Japanese "inspired" but the publisher thought it would fit as one of the "Knitting New" series. Now that they are really seeing the patterns and the cultural introductions, they are going to change the book back to reflect my journey through the Japanese stitches. Hooray! My editor was ordering the books I used and was going to have a Japanese knitter review them and see if there's anything critical I am missing. I warn the reader that my patterns may be "imperfect" versions of the originals, by the way.

Meanwhile, I finished the child's socks and am working on a fingering weight knee sock (editor's idea, not mine)as well as an interesting one that combines some elements of the feather and fan with ribbing. Life's never dull with a new sock on the needles!

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.