I may have bitten off more than I can chew

Alex's mittens knit by his Momma :)

Today I submitted a design proposal for inclusion in the Librarian Knits book.  I can't say much about it, except that it's an honest-to-goodness garment and it's crocheted.  Two things I've never done before.  I've never designed a garment, at least one that'll be written in multiple sizes and was intended to be worn by anyone other than myself.  And I've never designed in crochet before, although I learned to crochet when I was about 10-years old and I've been doing that far longer than I've been knitting.

There were just so many things to be considered with this.  Yarns.  Sizing!  I can't begin to tell you the headache I dealt with just deciding on the measurements, and I can tell you that I'm definitely going to need help from a tech editor to grade this baby.  Sketches.  I'm not the best artist (as I've recently mentioned) and unfortunately, I couldn't simply knit a tiny version of my design and call it a day.  I actually had to sketch the garment and put it on an illustrated lady with a pretty blouse and makeup and pearls.  I had to take photos of the sketch and the of the swatches.  Thankfully, I'd finished the swatches weeks ago.  Then there was the dreaded Schematic.  This time I used Photoshop to make it, and it came out much nicer.  I'm definitely learning my way around these Adobe Illustrator programs :)  Then, I made sure to use a nice, pretty, easy to read font and to check out the PDF before sending it off into the ether.

I've got confirmation that it was received, and now I wait.  So what's the worst thing that could happen, you ask?  Well, maybe they say no (and I'm prepared for that).  I'll sulk for a while, and then go back and look at Jared Flood's Ravelry fav's and find my Quilt and Cable blanket there, and I'll feel better ;)  Or maybe they say yes... then I'd actually have to pull this thing off!  I have no idea if I can make this work within the deadline, but I think I can do it.  I don't know if I can afford to use a tech-editor, but I've got a few good testers on hand and if I do most of the work ahead of time, I can cut down the amount of time they need to put in and that will save me some money.  Or maybe the publisher will have an editor that they use and I won't have to come up with the cash for that...  And what if Interweave accepts my proposal too??  Then I'd have one project/pattern due in February and one in March, and neither would see the light of day until the Fall of 2012.  All that work, and nothing I can blog about for months and months!

So now, we wait.