1. Moulin Rouge
2. Memoirs of a Geisha
3. Clueless
4. Empire Records
5. Center Stage
6. Walk the Line
7. Little Women (with Winona Rider)
8. Pride and Prejudice (any version)
9. Kill Bill vol 1
10. Kill Bill vol 2

It’s not all acceptances and contracts around here. I’d say for every pattern that gets accepted, I have at least five that were rejected.

At first, every rejection was like a stab in the heart. Why didn’t she like my idea?!?! I’d be crushed for days; discouraged from submitting again. But now I just look at it as an opportunity to be a better fit somewhere else. Several times I’ve gotten a design that was originally rejected from one source, accepted into another. It was just a better fit.

When a design gets rejected, I move it into a folder named “Homeless”. When a new call goes out, I always look through that folder first to see if anything there would fit. If I feel like something would, I’m already ahead of the game by being able to use a previous submission again.

Occasionally I end up self-publishing my homeless designs. Turning failures into success is motivating. Mercurial and Mormorio are two examples where I’ve made a lot more money by self-publishing than I would have had they been accepted for publication.

As hard as the rejection is, the worst kind of failure is the second — the kind that we make up when comparing ourselves to others. I do this too much. As a creative trying to “make it” in business, I’m constantly looking at what other successful people are doing. What makes them successful? And why isn’t what I’m doing making me as successful?

Some of this comes from envy. I’m jealous that others seem to come by success so easily when I’m working my butt off. How do they do it? Is it just luck of timing? Or are they really just so much more creatively brilliant than I am? So many times I find myself saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

But some of it comes from something else, something I don’t know the right word for. I don’t envy people that are successful by recycling the same design again and again. I have little respect for the “designer” that publishes the same shawl one hundred times with a different lace border. I have no desire to do that, and hope I never fall into that trap. But I hate that they become successful when doing this. It’s not fair.

Among all this envy and whatever-the-word-is I find that I’m still able to be excited and happy for my friends that get acceptances even when I fail. I know they work hard and I love to see their success. We can’t all be in all the things all the time. If one of us get’s published, that’s something to be excited about. There’s a camaraderie among the hard workers. We need to band together to collectively out-design those pretenders!

All this brings me back to success. Success from hard work is much more satisfying than success from luck or whatever-the-word-is. I have faith that no matter how much of a failure I feel like, if I keep working hard, I’ll find my own success in my own time. Already things are starting to happen for me. Now I need to keep positive, and keep moving forward.

I don’t usually enjoy “knitting” fiction. Something about it always seems fake. The knitting feels forced and can even take away from the story. The characters are typically flat and stereotypical; the situations are generally eye-roll worthy.

The Broken Circle, Yarns of the Knitting Witches is different. I loved reading this book! The entire fantastical world that Cheryl has created relies on knitting, dyeing, and fiber arts and so these things feel integrated, not added-on. The characters are well developed and interesting. Each has their own interesting story, and I want to know them all.

The plot of the story unfolds amidst colorful descriptions of hand-knits, fiber, and of course, the knitting witches. The world is in trouble and only the knitting witches have the power (maybe) to save it! Magic crystals, fantastical creatures, a war torn land, and clever women come together in this truly enjoyable yarn. The Broken Circle is the first of a trilogy and I’m anxiously awaiting the next installment to be finished so I can find out what happens next.

Along with the novel, a pattern booklet is available with projects inspired by items in the book. I think this is an ingenious addition and really brings the whole story together.

Both the novel and pattern book are available here.

During high school I got very sick. After a life threatening event caused me to start my junior year late, I started focusing on school. I had a new outlook on life. My new passion was physics. I read everything I could about it and I took all the physics and mathematics classes I was able to take at my silly little school. This focus led me to college as a physics major.

College got me down. I admit, I became lost in the vastness of it. My tiny town and tiny school were mere puddles when compared to the ocean of opportunity at college. I drowned in the combination of scholastic pressure, social awkwardness, medical illness, and waning focus.

I switched my major to computer science because all my friends were doing it. Seriously — this is the most immature, stupid reason to do anything. It was something I was pretty good at without having to put in any effort, which is what made it appealing.

By the end of my short college career, I just wanted out. I ended up dropping out of the honors college in order to graduate early. I was accepted into a Ph.D. program and so I was off to grad school. What?!? Why would I leave school so impatiently just to rush off to another, even bigger, school? Yes, this. I realized my folly about a month after starting graduate studies and dropped out.

I took a job that I hated, mostly because I just needed a job. I started taking art classes online. (I love art. If I could go back and do it all again, I would have majored in english composition and art. I think I would have enjoyed college much more, but this is for another story.) In addition to drawing, I also tried many hobbies including but not limited to beading, poly clay, sewing, journaling, painting porcelain, and spinning yarn.

Boredom led me to switch jobs not once, but twice. I ended up working an hour and a half away doing programming for a government contracting company. My days included driving, working, driving, playing World of Warcraft with coworkers until 2am, sleep, repeat. I realized I had developed an addiction to WoW, I had even quit my art classes. So, I quit playing. What would fill the void? Knitting.

I had started knitting back in college. But in the last few years, had touched it little. Now I picked it up again with fervor. I knitted in every spare moment. I joined a carpool group so that I could knit during the commute even though it meant getting up every day at 4am. My addiction to WoW became an addiction to knitting. Later I took a similar but closer-to-home job. I couldn’t knit in the car, but I knit before and after work. I even knit at work on occasion.

I started designing in 2009 while still at my full time job. After two years of intense focus, designing and knitting in every spare moment, knitwear design became my full time job in 2011. Designing is my focus, my passion. It’s a job I love. Finally.

My focus and dedication to designing has lead to my success. In less than five years, I’ve been published in magazines, worked with yarn companies, am writing a book, and started a related business. I could not do all these things if I was still drawing, writing, beading, etc. If I lacked focus, I would still be working for some man, in some cubical, writing code. I would not be where I am today.

I chose to change my life. It took a while to get there, but I did it. I found that one thing that I love to do and made it my career. It was scary. It required me quitting a good paying job to pursue my dream. And it required, and still requires, a lot of hard work. In the end, I think I’ve been successful.

To keep everything going I rely on lists. Lists everywhere. Lists on my keyboard, lists on my computer, lists on the back of my phone. It’s an love song to the post-it note in my house. But just to keep things real, or maybe to make things a little more crazy, I’ll make another list here.

• I’m still working on my book, which is going well, but I’ve been slacking off a bit.
• I have three magazine designs due before my book deadline. Which perfectly illustrates my inability to say “no”.
• In August I’ll be teaching my most important class EVER.
• I have a Spring 2014 collection for a yarn company due in September.
• TNNA – I have reached approximately 1% completion on that to-do list. Sooooo much yet to do.

So yeah, very busy. I just need to remember:

1. Lantern Moon sheep tape measure
2. Tin of stitch markers & needle caps
3. Needle gauge/ruler
4. Highlighter tape – invaluable for charts
5. Fix-a-stitch
6. Clover Chibi – my favorite come in the orange container, metal with bent tips
7. Row counter – no idea when I last used this or what pattern row 9 was from
8. Cable needle – I prefer this U shaped kind
9. Crochet hook
10. Pom-pom makers – because you never know when you’ll need to make a pompom!

What notions do you carry around with you?

My mom has been very sick which means trips home to visit. I love living close enough to visit, but far enough away not to have to visit often. Trips to Hanover are filled with mixed emotions. I love my parents, but I hate the town. Too many bad childhood memories still hit a little close to the heart.

Growing up in Hanover wasn’t fun. I was adopted from South Korea. For many years I was the only non-white person in the entire town. Actually, that isn’t completely true, I remember one African American family moving into a nearby neighborhood. They didn’t stay long because they got chased away by fowl neighbors. Chased. Away. So sad. Even then, as a young child, I saw how wrong this was.

My mom tried to encourage me. Saying I wasn’t any different, that I was just like the other girls. This of course was terribly wrong. Instead of celebrating my uniqueness, I hated it. All throughout grade school I tried to be “just like everyone else”. But I couldn’t change my race. I got teased and harassed daily. I ended up compromising my sense of self in an effort to fit in. I wished I could be chased away.

It wasn’t until I moved to Lancaster for college did I start to feel like I could become myself. It took a long time for me to rediscover exactly who that was. Now that I have found myself, I would never dream of moving back to Hanover.

Of course things are better now. But, still, I cannot shake that very unwelcome feeling. Just driving through this dreary little town, looking at how things are getting run down, imagining the mean spirited people that live in these ever more shoddy looking homes…

This is a two color shawlette that starts with a lace border knit sideways. Stitches are then picked up and the body is worked from the bottom up. The slipped stitch cable and texture pattern give the illusion of a third color.

The Baah! LaJolla yarn used is fantastically bright and vibrant. Any of the beautifully saturated Baah! colorways would look great for this shawl.

Because it’s worked from the bottom up, your stitch count gets smaller and smaller making the knitting feel both fun and fast.

It’s shape is an exaggerated semi-circle, really more like 3/5 of a circle, meaning it will sit on the shoulders and hug the neck better than a straight top shawl.

Here are the details:

Size: One Size
Measurements: 40” wide by 18” deep
Yarn: Baah! La Jolla (100% merino; 400 yds [366 m]/100 g): pink tourmaline (MC), 1 skein and california poppy (CC), 1 skein
Needles: US #6 [4 mm] 24” circular
Gauge: 22 sts and 34 rows = 4” in st st, BLOCKED
Notions: stitch markers, cable needle, tapestry needle

Knit from just one skein of Aurora Yarns Silk Dreams (1090 yds), this circular shawl is 44″ in diameter.

Mercurial features three different lace patterns that swirl to create this beautifully sunny medallion.

This shawl starts from the center with just a few stitches and ends with a simple and clean crochet chain bind off.

Here are the details:

Size: One Size
Measurements: 44” diameter
Yarn: Aurora Yarns Silk Dreams (70% superfine merino, 30% silk; 1090 yds 1000 m/100 g): #112 sunshine
Needles: US #3 3.25 mm 24” circular and set of 4 dpns
Gauge: 24 sts and 32 rows = 4” in stockinette st, BLOCKED Notions: US D 3.25mm crochet hook, stitch markers, tapestry needle

© Interweave Press

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t love the styling on this piece. The front pieces of the sample are 20″ wide…for a 32″ sample, it’s supposed to drape in the front. I would guess this model is wearing it with at least 4-6″ of negative ease.  It fits her like it fit me, and I was a 38″ bust.

© Interweave Press

See how the side seam is not on the side, but on the back? Yeah, definitely too small for her.

© Interweave Press

This “vest” is knit with just one skein (for most sizes) of Suri Elegance by The Alpaca Yarn Company. Suri Elegance is a delicious suri alpaca lace weight yarn.

The back is knit from the bottom up, but the fronts are knitted side to side. This makes the pattern fun to knit despite it being stockinette.

Here are the details:

FINISHED SIZE 32 (36, 40, 44, 48)” bust circumference. Vest shown measures 32”.
YARN The Alpaca Yarn Company Suri Elegance (100% suri alpaca; 875 yd 800 m/3 1/2 oz 100 g): #1301 silver, 1 (1, 1, 2, 2) skein(s).
NEEDLES Size 4 (3.5 mm). Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.
NOTIONS Stitch holder; tapestry needle.
GAUGE 20 sts and 36 rows = 4” in St st.