As promised

The silly little hat that started it all.

I know I've been teasing y'all lately with my bunny hat and I must admit, it's been fun.  The whole process has been interesting for me - exciting and unexpected.  Now, I am in the land of waiting for the final results and I am really bad at this part so I thought it might help me 'ease the pain' a bit if I shared my excitement with y'all.

Back in August 2011 there was a call for designers to submit small projects for publication towards a book about gift knitting across America.  51 projects would be chosen - one for each state and the District of Columbia.  One of my "Promises to Try" for 2012 was going to be having a pattern published - either by self publishing them or by having the courage to submit them to publications... I thought I'd do a test run before the new year started so I could be ready.

Working it all up and writing it all out.

I filled out all the necessary bits and bobs and included a photograph of the hat I had made for Hobbit the Christmas prior.  I didn't expect much since it was my first attempt so I sent it off and promptly forgot about it because I was sure that out of all the people submitting, my chance of representing Florida with a silly little bunny hat were honestly slim to none. The submissions had to be in by October and then the winners would be announced at some point in November.

That point was November 28th to be exact... at least, that is when I got my email.  I saw the address and figured it was just a sweet *TBNT but I told myself, before I even opened it, that I would take what I could and learn from it all so that when the new year rolled around, I was prepared.  I clicked the message and promptly fell over... they selected my silly little bunny hat!

Releases had to be signed, special yarn had to be ordered and shipped to me so I could make up the hat again for them to use for the book.  I also had to send back all unused yarn and write out the pattern in their format.  Once all of that had happened, within their 60 day turn around window of yarn receipt, I got excited.  This was real.  I am going to be a published knitwear designer.

Too cute for words.

I mailed the hat this past week.  It's only going two hours east of me but it feels like across the globe.  I think the final result was even better than the first.  Once everything is checked in by them, I'll even get a sizable gift card that I am going to use to purchase these beauties.

My daddy has always told me that if I wanted to do something then I should just go for it... what's the worst they could tell me - no?  I have lived by those words and they have never failed me. So many times in my life, I have wanted to do things - from being a Leader at Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts to having fabulous prizes for giveaways from people that I consider to be knitting community icons - and I have always just gone for it because of my daddy's words.  He taught me that failure just means another opportunity to grow and the only time you truly fail is when you don't learn from the experience.

I'm happy to say, I have always succeeded simply because I wasn't afraid to fail.

*TBNT = Thanks but no thanks