Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Oh yeah, so the photo shoot wasn't the only thing laying claim to my attention over the last week or two. There was also this. Well, actually, there was that times two. The first pallet of books has just already been opened and dealt with. It's all because the last shipment, you know, the one that came seven weeks ago, is gone. Totally totally gone. So I had to go ahead and do this. Kinda nifty if you ask me. Let's see if we can do that for the next book, too, ok?
Join Battle
Oh. So we're at this point. I know this point. This is where I spend 45 minutes trying to grok all the rules around hyphens and the nuances of various kinds of dashes. You'd think some day I'd just start remembering this from one book to the next, but so far, no. And yes, of course, I have other people edit it before you see it. But I like it to be as close to perfect as possible before they see it, so Chicago and I spend some quality time together first.
The Lists don’t Handle This
The photo shoot is always a little scary. It's the one point in the whole book making process where I pull in a bunch of other people, assemble them (and the knitting) in one place at one time, and expect magic to happen. And somehow, it always does. I'm pretty sure this is because I have amazingly obliging friends, a really good photographer, an awfully nifty Boy, and a penchant for advance planning. The combination seems to work well. That doesn't mean there aren't occasional hiccups (like "oh surprise, it's pneumonia" or "what do you mean, we lost the knitting? How [...]
In Which Props are Assembled
As far as I can can tell, the key to photo shoots (quite possibly to books in general) is lists. Lists of knitting. Lists of photo ideas. Lists of props. The list of props for this one looks something like this. That's an old trunk, a blanket, a pair of pajama pants, handkerchiefs, fancy hangers, a tea cup, a champagne coupe, a bottle of champagne, a pair of boots, a stack of old books, yarn, and a basket. And yes, yes I need them all. There is a plan for each and every one of them, and I think they're [...]
Pet
You'll have to excuse me, I've been over here petting the pretties. The photo shoot is Tuesday (a week from today). I'm making lists (one of which includes a bottle of champagne, I swear it's a prop) and plans and possibly even schemes. Remind me that a week from tomorrow it will be over, and I'll have survived another one, and all will be well. And then make me stop petting the projects and actually do some work.
Button, button, who’s got the button
I have one more thing to take care of before the photo shoot. Well no, that's a horrid lie. I have a lot of things to do before the photo shoot, but only one more thing that involves actually fiddling with knitting. I have to decide upon and attach a button. This lovely blue bit of business here needs a button, so of course I went on a button hunting expedition. I found two suitable candidates. The top one (glass) is pretty much a spot on perfect match for the yarn. Like so close I would not have believed it [...]
More Shades
Back in December I showed you the first batch of yarns for the next Curls book. The second batch has since come to fill my mailbox with happiness, so I thought it only fitting to show it off too! Those two together are pretty much all of them. There is one more I couldn't resist, so it's on its way still. But then I promise I'll be good and stop adding more projects every time I see a pretty gray yarn. Probably. I do have a certain weakness you know...
Stanch the Bleeding
When last we left the pillow, it was in a rather precarious state, feathers open to the world, at the mercy of any of the Kitten Overlords. I want this pillow to be an elongated tetrahedron (think a 4 sided die, stretched). So basically I needed to close the open side up perpendicular to the original seam. It quickly became apparent that this would be an iterative process. First stanch the bleeding by whatever means necessary (the feathers wanted to escape everywhere). In this case, binder clips. The next step was to get a seam - any seam - in [...]
Rescue…part two
Back in December I explained that the the marvelous purse I treated myself to at Rhinebeck had fallen prey to an evil swarm of hideous pills. I was considering several de-fuzzing options and wanted you guys to weigh in on the choices out there. I eventually went with the gleener. It came, it defuzzed, all was well. The purse was saved -- for about a two months. Then the fuzzies came back. I think it's just a problem with the material the purse is made out of. It appears to need a brisk combing every two months to stay looking [...]
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