Magazine Deadlines

This has been the summer of deadlines!  Normally my summers are carefree but this year I thought I'd try a few magazine submissions and even an unsolicitated book submission to fill in the void that summer usually brings to my business.  Holy smokes - I almost bit off more than I could chew!  I had a few submissions that I had to "trust" my calculations and hope that my vision turns out right.  With an average knit time being 3 weeks from the time I get the yarn to the time I need to block it, I had to trust my instincts as I didn't have the time to rip and re-do.  Thankfully, they did and I was over-joyed with the outcomes and very relieved.  2 deadlines were mailed out yesterday and 2 more were mailed out today.  I just have 2 more hanging over my head --both due end of September and then I'm taking a small break to catch up on the house, kids and personal life and breathe! 

I see the same designers in a multitude of magazines, issues and sometimes even several designs in each issue and I wonder how they do it.  I'm not sure if they use test knitters which frees them from the long knitting hours or if they are just quicker then me in both knitting and pattern writing.  And...how do they come up with so many acceptable designs?  Do they also do their own schematics and charts too?  I have a techie doing those but if I tried to do them myself, it would tack on another 8 hours of work.  I must be doing something slow and wrong, I just don't know yet.  I guess I'll have to chum up with another designer and exchange notes.

That's been my summer in a nut shell.