I got published! Cool!

#a month of moments
4. Cool
One day in late October I was checking my pigeonhole at work last thing in the day on my way out the door to do the school bus pick up and there was a post-pack in it. Now parcels are a relatively rare occurrence but they usually turn out to be desk copies of rivetingly exciting new stats books. So I stopped and opened the parcel and tipped it upside down and out fell a knitting pattern book, a piece of paper and a cardboard tube. The piece of paper was a letter and it read:

"Congratulations!

 Your letter was printed in a recent issue of Simply Knitting. Thank you very much for sharing your knitting with us. Here is your prize, a pair of Millward knitting needles and a Patons pattern book.

We'd love to see what you made with your prize!

The Simply Knitting team"

Sure enough when I opened the cardboard tube there were a set of beautiful 4mm bamboo knitting needles inside. Needless to say, this totally made my day! Though I did have to explain why someone was sending me knitting needles at work to the school secretary!
I then had to wait until I got my hands on the next issue, November to find myself in print.

Here's my letter (and photo) on the letter page of the November 2012 issue 99 of Simply Knitting.

The letter says:
" Marvellous Mitts
Your lovely magazine reaches me each month in Australia thanks to my local newsagent who gets it air express delivered.
I find there are always three of four things each month I just want to knit. So I want to say a big thanks for the Owl Mitts pattern by Amanda Jones in issue 94. My girls are great fans of knitted accessories. And I love owls, especially of the wearable kind! These were such fun to knit. They didn't take much time or much yarn and in fact I made two pairs in one long weekend out of up-cycled wool from my stash and the local op shop. 
The buttons are from my grandmother's button collection, which I inherited. The creamy ones are for my daughter, and the brown owl mitts will be mine.
Jo-ann Larkins, Australia"
And the reply says:
We love the colours you've chosen, Jo-ann, and think they're superbly modelled too!
(Cool, someone likes my photography skills!). Actually the hands doing the modelling here are Mel's and the boy's. The boy is slightly miffed that the magazine has misrepresented his hands as mine. For more about the Owl mitts and a slightly out of control photoshoot that resulted in this photo go and read the post Owlishly Warm. It was also really cool that they printed what I sent them unedited.

And here's my prize. A set of Millward 4mm Bamboo needles and a Pattern Book for Patons Fusion. I absolutely love the needles but don't think I'll use the pattern book as we don't have that particular Patons yarn in Australia yet. Also I'm a thinnish yarn sort of girl. 8ply (DK or worsted weight) is about as thick as I like to go.

(And my coolest Christmas Present was a subscription to Simply Knitting from my Mum and sisters!)