Not Knitting
I like my dining room table. And I absolutely adore my teapot. But alas, the two of them don't quite get along. When I set the hot teapot on the table (something that happens about once a day if all is right with the world), it has a tendency to leave white marks on the table. Now I've discovered that these marks come right out if I rub them with a walnut (no idea why, but seems to be true). But that's a bit tedious if you do it too often. And of course I could just set a potholder [...]
Juggling
Hi there. I sort of looked up at the calendar and realized I'd somehow managed to wander off for a shockingly long time without checking in. So, just for those wondering, yup, I'm here. Here and working. I am, alas, just doing that sort of work that's somewhat less than photogenic (you really don't want to see pictures of me setting boxes out for the postman or fine tuning hyphens for the next book, it's not terribly fascinating for the onlookers). But, on the slightly more sharable with the world front, there are also swatches for Curls 2 (otherwise known [...]
Decisions decisions
Remember when I mention that one of the things that's handy about sequels is that you have to make far fewer decisions than you do for the first book in a series? That's been on my mind a lot the last few days. For you see, I've been making piles and piles and piles of decisions for the next book, and it's making me a little dizzy. The decisions for KCC weren't too bad. It was the first book I published, so I wanted to keep things simple. I was also absolutely determined that it would look like it belonged [...]
Argent, Fourth Curls KAL
We're doing knitalongs for the patterns in Curls, and it's time for the fourth pattern in the book, Argent. I am a firm believer in low-key knitalongs, so there isn't really too much structure. All the details for this one are over the KAL thread in my ravelry group. But the gist is knit this pattern over the next two months, show it off and talk about it in that thread, and some time after the KAL ends I’ll send someone who posted a picture of a finished project something fun in the mail. Pretty simple really! We’ve already got [...]
Sequels
You know the cool thing about sequels? Scratch that, there are lots of cool things about sequels (not least of which is that the list of decisions you have to make in producing them is way, way, way shorter than for first books in a series). You know a cool thing about sequels? You don't have to be all secretive about them. You all know I'm working on Curls 2 (gray, gray, all glorious gray). So instead of being alarmingly coy and discreet and saying 'a project for a new book came in' I can just 'holy yarn fairies, the [...]
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 [...]
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