I am SUCH a Hypocrite

All that talk about not needing validation flew right out the window today.

I'm a REAL Designer
I just had my first validation as a designer, and I can't tell you how tickled I was by the event.

I was at Simply Knit looking for yarn for my next design idea (which is going to be great, I think). The owner, Carol and my friend Janis were sitting, knitting and chatting while I searched for the perfect accent color to the main color I had already chosen (a vibrant rusty red tweed). The phone rang, and since I was closest to the phone, I answered it.

The woman on the other end started to tell me that she had been in last week and had purchased fourteen balls of the Jo Sharp DK cotton in cream (dye lot 32) and she was into the first sleeve of her project, and thought she might not have enough. Did we have any more? I checked, and sure enough, there were five more of that dye lot on the shelf.

I asked her what she was making with this yarn, and she said that she was making a "Joe Wilcox design sweater". I contained my excitement long enough to ask which one. She was making the high v-neck, patterned pullover (the same one I made for my sister). She started telling me how much she was enjoying the pattern, and that Joe Wilcox designs fit her son perfectly.

At that point, I had to tell her she was speaking to the designer, and she was so excited to be able to thank me for such a great design.

Suffice it to say, I certainly don't need validation of my knitting, but the ego boost provided by this conversation had my head so large, it was hard to fit it into my car on the way home.

New Design Color
My newest design idea (which won't be knit until after Donegal and Chock-a-Block II are both done) is going to be mostly in one color with an accent color around the neck. Here's what I've chosen as the main color, and the initial swatch of rib I'm thinking about using.



After selecting a number of different colors as the accent color, I realized I didn't have to choose that color at this very moment, since I didn't have to do that part until I did the neck (unless I decide to add a stripe in the ribbing at the bottom as well). So I didn't buy any accent color yet.

Donegal
After Wendy mentioned that I was "ahead" of her on the sleeve (I can't wait to see how far along she is on Monday), I worked like a dog and finished the first sleeve of Donegal.



At one point, I got incredibly bored of knitting on the sleeve, and I was tempted to work on one of my other projects. Instead, I picked up the stitches for the second sleeve. It provided just the relief I needed so that I could proceed to finish the first sleeve.