I'm back

About a three weeks ago I had an allergic reaction to something that covered me in hives, a week and a half ago we figured out what it was, and today for the first time in what feels like forever my skin is more or less comfortable.  Most of the hives seemed to clear overnight and I look and feel so much better, which is great.  It's been a super unproductive time since Benadryl knocks me out but I'm excited to get back into getting things done a bit more regularly.  I have a test knit I'm running that feels like it's taking forever, but I'm super-excited to release that pattern later this month.

Nothing

I have plenty of things on my to do list, but this month I haven't done much so far.  I did February's bookkeeping, I've discovered if I leave it for long periods of time I hate it like the plague but that if I do it monthly it's actually kind of fun since it doesn't take too long and I get to see that I actually made money.  I'd worked so hard to get that top sized and done for the end of February that I just didn't want to look at another to do list.  I do have things to do, the next on the docket is swatching for a magazine comission.  The yarn they're sending me hasn't arrived yet but I have that yarn in other colours that I can use to figure out gauge and hopefully do a lot of the math before it gets here.

Wonderful man

There was a giant yarn sale on my husband's birthday, the yarn I wanted for the baby's blanket and stocking was on sale.  My wonderful husband drove me to the yarn store and stayed in the car with the kids while I went in to pick the yarn before we went and had dinner at this local buffet that's free for the person who's having your birthday.  He said he wanted that so I didn't have to cook dinner for the extended family and a cake and everything, and that he knew I liked eating there.

He is great.

What a day

You know what's great?  Awesomely gracious knitting testers.

I'm running a test knit for a sweater pattern, (it is knit by volunteers before release to find anything that's wrong/unclear).  Something wasn't working and I spent the last day trying to figure out what it was.  Actually I landed on the problem almost immediately, and then spent a few hours hoping against hope that wasn't actually the problem and trying to find another problem because it was too horrible to contemplate.

I'd double checked all the math in the spreadsheet, double checked the stitch counts in the pattern were the same as the numbers in the spreadsheet where I did the math for all the sizes, double checked that key measurements made sense.  But I made a typo that I hadn't caught.

The typo was the stitch gauge.  It was supposed to be 14 sts/4" but I hit 7 instead of 4 and it never occurred to me to check that I hadn't made this particular mistake.

I felt so bad, for wasting my testers' time since whatever progress they had made wouldn't fit them.  It will need to be started over.  I told them any who wanted to leave the test could and would get the free patterns I'd promised as compensation for completing the test, that we could change the deadline and anyone who wanted to stay could have double the number of patterns I'd originally promised.

Guys, they were so nice about it.  So nice, which is such a wonderful relief.

So I'm back to sizing my text garment that's supposed to come out, I'll definitely be double checking that I put the gauge in right this time.

Grading

I've been working on grading (writing out the instructions for each size) this pattern for a while, it seems like it's going well then suddenly I hit a roadblock.  I finally figured out the last one and got past it only to discover there's something funny about the armholes.  I have the sample, it fits perfectly so the original instructions are fine.  But my spreadsheet isn't lining up with the instructions, there has to be some wonky typo somewhere that's throwing everything off.  It's taking way longer than I had originally planned, but the yarn I'm waiting for is delayed so I have time to work on it and I think I'll still be able to meet my goal for when I want it to be released.

In other news I released a new pattern this week, it's something I liked but a magazine rejected.  I'd already made the sample though, it's such a small project that a swatch seemed silly when I could knit the entire tiny bowl myself.  It's already sold twice and I'm pleased as punch.

Relief

I feel like myself instead of a pregnant zombie, it's about the most amazing thing ever.  The mittens I cast on last week are not working out, but that's okay because the magazine I submitted the other idea that uses the same chart bought the pattern, I haven't had a ton of commissions yet but I imagine the "we would like to publish your work and pay you" emails never get old.

There is a large yarn sale later this week and I will be going to get the yarn for baby's blanket and stocking, I'll be making Fly Away by TinCan Knits for the blanket and I'm super-excited about it.  I've already done the bath so I know how many balls of each colour to get in the yarn I've picked.

Looking up

We haven't had any disasters in the last couple days, the kids are being normal children (so mischievous but not terrors), my knitting tests are going well, one person left a really nice comment on my sweater project page and someone else wants to be earburned when it's released.  Also, I am about to go eat some ice cream.  I am having a really good day.

I've been knitting mostly on the blanket recently but I've decided it's time to knit something fun.  I had a hat planned, swatched, and realized that what I was thinking isn't going to work.  Then I decided on mittens, there's a chart I made for a submission I sent in a couple weeks ago that I could use except then I'd have to keep the whole thing under wraps until the real design is rejected or published.  I should hear any day but I might just make the mittens, and keep them as secret mittens if the magazine does buy the pattern.