Published!

Today’s mail brought the winter 2008 issue of Knitter’s Magazine… inside of which you will find my very first PUBLISHED KNITTING PATTERN! Yes! It is the Arabesque Tote, pictured on page 69, with directions on page 70 (here’s a quick picture of the pages:)

You can also go to the Knitter’s web site and take a look at a better picture of the bag:

http://www.knittinguniverse.com/flash/knitters/GalleryDetail.php?IssueNum=93&ID=7550

Or take a look at a picture I snapped before sending it off to them:

The body and handle of the bag is knitted with two strands of wool and wet felted in the washing machine.  The swirling designs are needle-felted onto the bag afterward, using the same varigated yarn used to make the handle.  It seems like forever since I submitted my design idea (it was June) and wrote the pattern and knitted the sample bag (that was back in early August).  But magazines work well in advance.  In fact, I’m working right now on the model for another pattern for the summer 2009 issue of Knitters!  Too soon to reveal any details, but I will say despite the bitter cold outside, I’m knitting with pretty pastel cotton/silk yarn!

Before I submitted the design for this bag, I made one for myself, but in a different colorway and with a different yarn than the very nice Mountain Colors kettle-dyed and handpaint yarns that Knitters provided for the model.  My prototype bag won a blue ribbon at the 2008 Virginia Fall Fiber festival.  Topic for another day: pictures of this bag in my original colorway, and instructions on how I put a lining in it!