Really Rockin'

Rockin' Sock Club® Spoiler Alert--

This post includes some details about the January 2014 yarn club kit.

I really cannot wait any longer to start talking about my latest design!  I am very proud of this one.  It was one of those designs that happened effortlessly... like it was meant to be...

First, some background on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club®... This is a sock yarn club that is going strong in its 9th year.  I learned from a Blue Moon Fiber post (by Tina Newton who is the creative spirit that founded and runs BMFA) that the current membership number is in the thousands.  Members in the club receive six shipments each year which include one 405 yd skein of Socks that Rock® lightweight or mediumweight yarn in a unique club colorway, along with two patterns commissioned exclusively for the club.  In the early years of the club, only a sock pattern came with each kit.  Beginning a few years back, a second non-sock accessory pattern was also included.

I learned from a March 2011 Knitter's Review post by Clara Parkes, that, in that particular year, she was one of the designers along with Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Mary Scott Huff, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I learned from this October 2013 Call for Submissions thread in the Designer's Group Discussion Board on Ravelry that in 2014, for the very first time, Blue Moon Fiber Arts would be sourcing designs for their sock yarn club through an open call.  The submissions call for January included a link to this inspiration board.

"Designer Inspiration Board - January 2014 Sock Club Shipment

We're taking our inspiration from the Chinese Zodiac. 2014 is the year of the wooden horse. Since wood is about trees, it is also considered the year of the green horse. Which makes it the Year of the Green Wooden Horse.

  Lanterns. Wood. Green. Horse. New Year. Luck. Hope. Number 7."

Do you see that little bit of an image of paper lanterns all-in-a-row on the right?  It totally reminded me of "The Queen's Edging" from Babara G. Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns that I had been swatching.  And that, along with some recent design exploration in a sideways-knit shawlette, clicked in my mind... I quickly put a submissions proposal together.

Not so very long later... my design was selected as the RSC non-sock pattern for January!  This makes me one of the very first "open call" designers, and I am both proud and exceedingly humble to join the ranks of other RSC designers such as those named above!

I am sharing my design "spark" before the design itself.  Let's just say that I am putting my green-wooden-horse in front of my cart until the end of the spoiler period.  I am looking forward to next time (in just about a week) when I will introduce you to my "Paper Lanterns".