This might be the thing I’m most excited about. But first a bit of backstory: Laura Zander is the owner of Jimmy Bean’s Wool. A little while back, she came out with the book Stitch Red, which kicked off the whole Red campaign.
Now she’s got another book coming out in December, called Stitch Mountain. I learned about this back in the very beginning of January, when she put out a call for designers. The concept behind Stitch Mountain is explained here, but basically it highlights the connection (and potential for connection) between the US Ski and Snowboard Administration and knitting. They have about 30 athletes signed on, and all the patterns in the book are inspired by something each athlete either has or wishes they had.
So anyway, I designed a sweater for Picabo Street, the Olympic skier. I sent it off in March and forgot about it. Now the book is almost ready to come out, the Stitch Mountain website launched, and I got a look at the cover of the book. Lo and behold (I hope you’re sitting down),
MY SWEATER IS ON THE COVER OF THE BOOK. THE COVER. THE COVER!!!!!
Don’t get TOO excited–there are five things on the cover and it’s not a huge picture, but STILL. The COVER!!!!! I freaked out so hard when I saw it that I had to run a lap around the block before I could go to bed (this all happened at like, midnight).
Anyway, the inspiration for the sweater mainly came from Picabo–she wanted a white turtleneck, maybe with some patterning somewhere. Now, let me tell you a secret: I have never been skiing. I have never been anywhere near a ski slope. This is not a culture I’m familiar with. Still, sweaters are something I can get behind. And I did used to be an almost-competitive figure skater (around the time I was doing that, when I was about 12, my anxiety level was pretty high and competition was just not something I needed) so winter sports are not a TOTAL mystery to me. I can imagine this sweater as the perfect thing to throw on over a leotard and tights for wandering around the ice rink during breaks from skating practice.
Back to the sweater. I looked though some stitch dictionaries and happened upon a pattern that looked like snowflakes. It’s similar to the Quilted Stockinette stitch I use all the time (Pennywood, X-Mitts, Smockerie) and I thought it would be perfect as a band across the middle of the sweater. And after that, it pretty much designed itself.
My little knitting circle sometimes meets at Barnes and Noble. When this book hits the shelves, there is not going to be a soul in that store that doesn’t know I DESIGNED THAT SWEATER ON THE COVER. The staff is going to have to put it on the front table just to shut me up. If I’m annoying enough, maybe they’ll even let me do a signing!