November 26, 2008

In Retrospect

One of the most interesting (or frustrating, depending on who you are in the process) things about publishing, is how long it takes things to go from start to finish. It takes a really, really long time for things to go from beginning to end. Sure, we can put people on the moon, and a whole computer can fit in your pocket, but it still takes more than a year for a book to go from my head to your bookstore. For the last few months I've been working on the 2010 "Never Not Knitting" page a day calendar, and the whole thing has made me a little freaked out. Firstly, there's the fact that nobody is using the 2009 Never Not Knitting one yet, so who knows what anyone thinks of it, and here I am, boldly churning out the next one, without benefit of any feedback at all. Thursdays in that calendar (and this one) are titled "The Way Knit Was", and for all I know, all of knitterdom will universally agree that you hate hearing about knitting history in a calendar, send me thousands of emails begging me to never do it again, and I will be helpless to change a word of it.

Then there's the fact that I'm writing entries for dates so far away, that I worry that something will happen in the world that makes what I'm writing now totally irrelevant. The day you guys will start using this is more than a year away, and there's no way that I can know that what I write for April 10th of 2010 will make any sense at all, considering that I don't know what will happen on April 10th of 2009. Sheep could be extinct, wool could be rare - knitting could be revolutionized by the invention of something I can't even imagine right now (self installing zippers would be good) and here my calendar will look stupid and ignorant. I worry. (I know that me worrying excessively will come as a terrible shock to all of you. It's so unlike me.)

I've been trudging along, finishing these things, making decisions, writing, writing, writing.. all with an eye to the deadline of December 1st, and I think maybe it was making me a little more stressed out than I thought it was, because today (oh glorious, glorious day) I finished the thing and emailed it to my editor (days early, I feel so proud) and sat here completely stunned by what happened in my head.

My first thought was "Wow. I'm so glad that's finished. What a load off my mind."

The second one?

I think I might want to knit something other than 1x1 rib.

Posted by Stephanie at November 26, 2008 4:04 PM