YIPPEE!

I've been sitting on my good news for a little while now, just in case I was dreaming....I received an email from Amy Singer of Knitty that my recent submission was selected to be in the Fall issue.
Woohoooooooo!

I have several things coming out in the next few months:

• a pattern in Knitty's upcoming fall issue (Sept. 2008)
• a pattern in Luxury One Skein Wonders (Oct. 2008)
• a pattern in Interweave Knits (Winter 2008)

Last month, I finally received my copy of Sweater Surgery for my many contributions. I haven't had time to scan and post about my contributions yet, since as you can see, I've been busy with designing, Handicraft Café, and visiting in-laws.



I'm also currently working on two projects for a book that is due out next year, but I don't want to get my hopes up because I had some concerns about the contract. I already contacted the editor to discuss some of my questions, and she was very willing to chat. I was supposed to receive a draft of some proposed changes, but I haven't received it yet. I need to call and follow up tomorrow.

If this book thing doesn't go through, then that will make book #2 that has led to some disappointment.
This project is already on hiatus. I haven't received any information regarding its status for a long time now, but to my understanding, it is still undergoing some negotiation with the publishing company and I am still under contract for 2 designs, so I can sell them elsewhere.


No doubt I am happy to have been selected in the first place. They were my first attempts with a book contribution, and to have been selected for each of the 3 books that I submitted patterns to is a great joy and validation of my work and ideas. I really try not to get my hopes up or get too excited, because I am also a realist and know that sometimes things just are beyond one's control. However, when a project doesn't go through for one reason or another, it will always a slight bubble burst and somewhat of a personal disappointment. I must say though, that everyone that I've contacted and worked with in my submissions have been kind, professional and talented. Really. The only situation where it wasn't very professional occurred 2 years ago with a now debunked knitting e-zine.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago, my knitting group gathered with other local groups for a knitting in public event at Whole Foods Market in Costa Mesa. We knitted in great company and smothered ourselves in gluttony with all the yummy foods at the various delis inside the store. My favorite was the gelato and dessert bar.


Aubrey showing of her triple brownie lollipop with her robo-arm.

Huntington Gardens

I took my in-laws to experience the wonder of Huntington Gardens and the Rose Garden Tea room last Monday. As usual, the gardens did not disappoint.

It was a leisurely walk around the gardens, though not so much for me because I was trying to make sure that the in-laws were okay and not getting too hot, tired or overheated. I also was trying to keep an eye on my mother-in-law, who really wanted to take a cutting off some of the plants to take back home to plant (she lives in Southeast Asia).

She said, "I should have brought a larger purse." Ai-yah! I told her that we'd get into a lot of trouble if she did. She did look around for fallen clippings or broken succulents that she could pick up and take, but to her disappointment, there were none.

I took them for afternoon tea for lunch. I knew that the food wasn't really something they're used to, but nevertheless it was an experience that would be memorable for them. They really liked all the fresh fruits, especially strawberries, which are hard to come by and expensive in their country. They weren't too keen on some of the sandwiches or cheese and my MIL remarked that the cheese didn't really taste good or special. Good cheese isn't really available where they live, nor is it a common food -- I think Velveeta is probably gourmet over there. The smoked salmon sandwich with caviar and the cheeses were among my favorites, so I set aside any possible embarrassment of my own gluttony and ate plenty to make up for what the in-laws didn't eat! ;)

My mother-in-law had to take several breaks along the way due to her health, so I took some of those opportunities to take some silly self-portraits with my knitting. In trying to take some of the photos, I unraveled my stitches several times and had to start over with my cast-on at least twice. Oh well. The orange yarn is some cheap superwash wool that I bought a while back. I'm thinking that this will be a sun hat project, but I think the reality is that this project will probably be untouched for the next few months. :-P

Handicraft Café is Live Online!

After lots of hard work and some delays, Aubrey and I are proud to announce the Beta launch of Handicraft Café!!

The launch means that we are open for online shopping! We're still constantly uploading and entering inventory and photos. And of course, some tweaking to the site here and there. There are still some missing photos and some photo distortion in the thumbnail view, but everything else seems to be in working order.

One of the most exciting features of the site for me is the multiple search functions and options. You can search through the customizable drop-down menu (pink), the keyword search (green) or through our detailed category lists (purple):


Another feature of the shop that we're very excited about is that we're going developing symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationships with artists of all kinds, with the majority of artists located locally to us. Zona Sherman, aka TwirlGirlFibers on Ravelry, has bravely volunteered to be our guinea pig first fiber artist tester. So far, we have uploaded and processed 6 of her yummy yarn creations. Future developments for the consignment section include adding more artists and bios of participating artists.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to our friends, especially the wonderful local knit community and our special friends at All Things String for their constant support and encouragement, to Ben for helping Aubrey with all the Photoshopping, to Anna for our logo and to Mike and Derek for all the hours of web design programming and debugging! And of course, extra thanks to our significant others for supporting us in doing our own thing (and continuing to write those mortgage checks).

Car Knitting and Impish Gnomes

I've been working on a secret project that has an early July deadline for publication in a knitting magazine. Since I currently have about 6 secret projects going, I'm going to give this one a pseudonym of "Leaf Pelfriffs."(Sorry I can't reveal more info at this time). Anyway, the hubby and I were on our way to my BIL's house to welcome my in-laws who had just flown in from overseas.

In my infinite and ambitious wisdom, I decided to work on my project during the dark 40 minute drive (9:30 p.m.). "Leaf Pelfriffs" is designed with cables and some stitch patterns in it, so I was really proud that I didn't drop any stitches in the car (or so I thought), so I continued working. This morning, and about 12 inches later, I discovered that I was missing a stitch. I apparently dropped it while knitting in the car in the dark. Ai-yah! It was far down enough and in a weird spot that it was not an easy fix with some unraveling and a crochet hook. I had to riiiiiiiiiiipppit. ::sigh::

"Leaf Pelfriffs" calls for buttons. I have some fantastic chunky buttons, which includes this chunky bone button at left. But alas, I cannot find my awesome buttons because apparently Impish Gnomes have decided to have a wild party in my craft room.

Luckily, my small jar of various buttons, including some vintage ones were not affected. However, I don't think any of them are exactly right for the this project. (see photos at the top)

I would try to look for my nice bone and tree nut buttons, but as I mentioned, the darn Impish Gnomes partied in my craft room. They must be tiny short gnomes because they don't seem to mess up anything stored above 4'.

I don't have any photos of the floor, because frankly, I'm embarrassed at all the fabric and yarn scraps that got strewn around like confetti by the partying Impish Gnomes.

Ugh, I really hate my white walls. I couldn't decide on a color when we moved into the house, so I thought I'd at least paint it white to cover the original puke-colored paint. I also thought that I could easily re-paint when I do decide on a color. Um, does anyone know how to exterminate Impish Gnomes and hire me some House Fairies?

These two photos above show my bags of knitting UFOs. If you go to the set in my flickr, you can see the notes to identify the baggies.

I swear that once in a while my craft room is organized. You can see the hints of organization behind the labels on my containers. I guess I'll have to find a way to banish those Gnomes once and for all.

The BEST WWKIP Day Ever

Clockwise: 1. Marie, Melyssa and Abraham with Christine grilling corn with her hubby in the back; 2. Seven our new alpaca friend; 3. (l-r) Holly's pooch, Holly, Michelle and Denise L. from the Anaheim Hills group photographing me photographing her; (l-r): Gloria, Victoria, Renata and Rachel chatting in front of the prize table.

This past Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day! Many groups in and around Southern California held WWKIP events. Of course this year, my knitting group held our annual picnic to coincide with WWKIP. We invited other knit and crochet clubs from Orange County, Long Beach, Los Angeles and anyone else to join us in the festivities. I think we had the very best WWKIP event. In fact, I think we may have had the best event all around! Okay, so I may be a little biased, but I don't know if the other groups say the following about their WWKIP events:

• We had jugglers and spear throwers who brought juggling and a unicycle. I didn't get photos of the jugglers, but Christine from Long Beach SnB did here!
  

• We had vivacious knitters that tried to knit while hula-hooping!

Above: Zona trying very hard not to drop her hoop and her stitches!


Above: Rachel also trying to keep up her hoop and stitches.

• We had animals at our picnic, including an alpaca! People brought their dogs, some kids brought their surprisingly cute rats and new ATS members Amanda and Margo brought their alpaca Seven, named so for his 7-7-07 birth date. I was really resisting stealing him away in my car, and since he's small, I was thinking that I may be able to pass him off as a rare dog breed or something. ;) Zona snapped a photo of the kids playing with the rat right above my head - eek!.
  

Clockwise: 1. Some kids playing with a pet rat. Rat is on the long-haired girl's shoulder; 2, 3. Seven the alpaca showing off his cute face and new haircut for the camera; 4. Seven smiling for the camera.

• We had musicians singing for us with their guitars. Zona also has a picture of Jeff and his guitar.
  

Jonathan and the kilt-wearing Jeff singing some tunes for us.

• We had several games and contests including a speed knitting war and a mystery fiber game! I didn't snap photos of the finished war fish, but Denise L. did here and here. Zona has a photo of the prize table.
  

Clockwise 1. Robert and 2. Chia working on their Knitting War projects, trying to kill each other off; 3. & 4. Courtney, Shawn, curious boy and Zona check out the Mystery Fibers.

• We had lots of spinners too, including a few very handy and crafty kids who got the hang of spinning in no time!

Clockwise: 1. Kristi spinning some luscious green wool ; 2. Jamie gets the cutest apprentice to help him spin some undyed wool from a small mill; 3. Me spinning some silk; 4. Aliza wanted to learn to spin, so I let her try out my wheel as her brothers watched.

• We had customized name tags! I made about 30-35 name tags for the folks that I knew from ATS and the Anaheim Hills Knit Night. I'm just a little bummed that I forgot to take photos of two of my favorite tags that I made. I made a "King Snark" for Robert, who is undoubtedly the bitchiest and snarkiest member of our group. (Robert wore his tag with pride, btw.) I also made one for Zona's very understanding hubby (Jeff the guitar-playing kilt dude). I gave Jeff a club of his own: S.P.O.O.F. (Supportive Partners Of Out-of-control Fiberholics)

All in all, we all had all the ingredients for a stupendous WWKIP event. We had good food, great people, fiber, prizes, laughs, good weather and an alpaca. Really, what can one ask for? I have more pics uploaded in my Flickr (lots more of Seven).

All this fun would not be possible without our group's fearless leader, Renata who did most of the arrangements, from the park permit to the pop-ups, tables, banner, jugglers and spear throwers!



Clockwise: 1. Karen and Debbie ; 2. Me, Rachel and Zona; 3. Abraham working on his needlepoint while Jamie knits.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Guess who I called me??? Read on as I keep you in suspense a little longer with my verboseness. :)

Though I have nothing I have been able to show or share publicly, I have been keeping myself very busy over the past 3-4 months with knitting. The reason is because all the things keeping me busy are knitting designs that I submitted to various publications. All that good stuff has to stay a secret until either (a) I get rejected and decide to self-publish or (b) I get accepted and the pattern gets published.

Since I started knitting not so long ago, I toyed with about 3 patterns that I randomly submitted to e-zines. Recently, I decided to take things to the next level and submit for real. I began reading public forums and researching how to submit designs.

My first attempt at a book submission occurred in December 2007 and it proved well, since 2 of my designs were selected to be in the follow-up to the successful Sensual Knits book. Currently, there is some delay with the publisher, but all the contributing designers are hopeful that all goes well. With any luck, I will resume work for this project soon.

More recently in the past few months, I submitted designs for 2 other books, 2 traditional print magazines, 1 e-zine, and a yarn company. I don't mean to be vague about to whom and what I submitted, but typically, one cannot and should not be divulging any specific or juicy details about pending projects unless thus granted by the companies or publishers.

• The yarn company wanted 4 of my designs. I've completed and was paid for one, and the yarn company is holding off the others for a later date as they work on additional things for their company.

• Two weeks ago, I received news about my submission for a book about summery knitting -- 2 of my 3 design submissions were selected for the book. I have since received the yummy yarns and am nearly halfway done on the first of the projects, due in June. The other project is due in July. The yarns and colorways for these projects are truly divine! I really wish I could post photos of the yarns.

• This past Monday, I received a voice mail message and an email from the editor of a superb knitting magazine saying that she wants to publish one of my designs. Woohoo! I was so excited from jumping up and down that I think my cats might have thought we were having an earthquake. It was my first "real" submission to this magazine. I just received the yarns for it (so lucious!), but I still haven't talked to the editor about the details of the project, which makes me just slightly nervous especially since the deadline is rather tight. -- I have less than 30 days to finish it. I know I will definitely meet it, but I think I'm just being a little more neurotic on this one because I want to make sure that I plan my time well in order to anticipate any unforeseen snafoos when working on multiple knitting design projects with overlapping deadlines.

Wait, I have more good news!

• Just 3 days ago, I received a packet from the publisher of the 2nd book containing news about 2 of 3 designs I submitted. The packet contained 1 rejection letter for the lace beanie shown in the photos, and 1 acceptance letter for the other project. The best part of this bit of news is that I already did the work so other than signing the contract, I don't have any deadlines to meet! I am now eagerly awaiting news on the 3rd submission for this book.

The "reject" hat is called Geode. In all honesty, I was not happy with it, but I didn't have time to rework it for the book submission, so I am not at all surprised that it was rejected. As for the fate of this design, I will definitely be self-publishing it though I have not decided whether to offer it as a free pattern or to rework it a bit and sell it.

The Mohair Ripper Strikes Again

Remember my CATastrophe? Okay, nothing really horrible has happened, but Whitey Coyote, aka Mohair Ripper, aka Yarn Thief has been stealing yarn and then giving it to me as presents for a few months now. She struck again tonight, and with some pretty funny results.

First of all, some background info: the Thief has expensive taste in yarn (kind of like her mommy). She likes the good stuff, the ones with higher price tags. She's so discernible that I have baited her with cotton and cheaper wool yarns with little success.

Damned Thieving Cat! She looks so innocent and cute in the picture above, but if you look closely, she's sitting on 2 hats made of a blend of merino/silk/cashmere.

Anyway, her new "surprise mommy with yarh presents" thing started a few months ago, when she dug up a small ball of handspun that I purposefully buried under handcarders, bobbins and a rubber mat, away from her. She somehow dug out the yarn, and dragged it from the family room, all the way upstairs to my bedroom.

Granted, I have to admit that I sometimes I miss a ball or two when cleaning up, but the cat has gotten so clever as to open my purses/bags. (Like any proper knitter, I usually have at least 1 project and some random yarns and needles in all my bags, just in case.) If there are 2 balls of yarn in my purse or around the house, she will take the more expensive of the two. Luckily, I take extra care with my projects and keep them better protected than the balls in my purse, although once, she did "gift" me a test sock with all the dpns still attached.

As her thieving skills improve, I take more care to hide the good yarns. But now, I think in her desperation to bring me yarn-gifts and the seemingly rare occurrence of good yarn accidentally laying around now, she has resorted to snatching yarns she does not like, but she still knows yarn values.

Once, though there were smaller remnant yarns in my knitting bag, she somehow opened it and stole a whole unused skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky and dragged the whole thing upstairs. The skein is almost half her size! She left the entire thing intact, because I guess she wasn't that interested in playing with it. She's even resorted to picking up large balls of cotton yarn, which she has ignored for the past 3-4 years, and drags them all the way upstairs. And last week, she even attacked some Knit Picks Cadena, which she does not like, and has ignored for a very long time -- I left that yarn for her as something she could play with when she started stealing my yarns, but she wasn't interested and it sat on a coffee table in plain sight for at least 3 months!

Tonight, she struck again -- this time she stole 2 skeins of yarn I handpainted and put on top of a TV on a narrow counter in the kitchen because I was about to mail it out. I thought my yarn was safe, because it has been kitty-free and really out of the reach of paws, but apparently I was wrong. After finding my "present" in the bedroom, I was just going to put it away as I do with all my yarn presents. But then I got a closer look:
At first I just thought she lost her collar. Then upon closer inspection, it was clear that her collar got stuck to the loosened hank that she dragged from the kitchen up to the master bedroom. And in the midst of trying to get herself untangled in the yarn, the yarn wedged into the split ring that holds her tag. When the safety release finally snapped, she got away, but not without leaving a chunk of fluffy evidence from her neck, which also managed to get caught in the split ring.
Silly cat.

Designing

I just finished writing a pattern for a very exciting accessory item. I really wish I could post the photo and talk about it, but I am planning on submitting it to Knitty or another knitting publication. I can't post a photo, but I suppose I can post a small swatch teaser and tell you that the yarn is a fantastic yarn, and one of my top faves: Savannah DK by The Fibre Company (50%Merno, 20% Orgainc Cotton, 15% Linen, 15% Soya Fiber)The photo is a small snipped of the completed item, unblocked.

For the past few days, I have been sketching and swatching for another book submission. It took me a lot longer than I had expected because I had to chart everything first, as if I was actually writing the pattern to 2 of the designs I submitted. The charting was very laborious and tedious. So in the end, I only submitted 3 total, although I had originally planned to submit double that. I figure that the more I submit, the likelihood that one of them would be selected would increase.

Since I'm still new to the whole design and submission process, I haven't really yet figured out how to do all of it smoothly and in a timely fashion. I start by a rough and horridly ugly drawing or illegible description of my ideas. I then narrow them down for the submission's theme and do a better color sketch of my idea. I then work one or two swatches as necessary for the design. After all that, I photograph or scan the swatches and the sketches, digitally clean up the scanned sketches and add typed details. Then print or convert everything into a PDF packet, and send everything off.

I don't really have anything more recent I can show on the blog because they are still pending, but below is an example of something that I did designed for a charity raffle for my previous employer. As you can see, I knit much better than I draw.

OTHER NEWS AND UPDATES

For those of you wondering about the progress of my projects for Sensual Evening Knits (follow up to Sensual Knits), I still have no updates on the status of the publication. I can't really reveal or say more than that because I'm still contracted to them and have to keep everything secret.

In other recent news, I petitioned to join and was accepted as an associate member of the Association of Knitwear Designers. I haven't really navigated the site and all that AKD has to offer, but I did request a mentor. My mentor is Kim of Dolce Hand Knits. Kim has been a great help and responded to my many questions about the design business while she was on vacation! The ironic thing is that I actually met Kim when I attended TNNA this January. We were both taking a techniques class with Melissa Leapman, crochet and knitwear designer extraordinaire . Aubrey and I later "stalked" Kim at one of the booths and talked to her about her designs and about our shop, Handicraft Cafe. I'm glad we didn't scare Kim off and that she agreed to mentor me. ;)

Her Name Was Rio

and she dances on the sand...

Rio Dances On The Sand is what I think I'm going to name the baby blanket I designed for JayJay and her bundle of joy. This project has been top secret for a while and since that it has been gifted as of yesterday, I can now post about it!

Since finding out that JayJay was expecting, my knitting buddies at All Things String and I decided that we should organize and knit a baby blanket for JayJay. So, I went to work on designing a blanket and came up with a knitted quilt in some ocean/sea colors to coordinate with JayJay's planned decor. It also ended up being quite appropriate and serendipitous since the baby's name is Rio! (We were all in the dark about the baby's name until after her birth.)

Aubrey, Amanda, Marie, Melyssa, Renata, Zona, Rae, Rachel and Jenn contributed to the project. We all knit various squares and triangles that were later pieced into squares. For the most part, everything went rather well, but there were a few wrinkles in the process.

The original idea and design layout was to have a substantial blanket using a total of 42 squares. The squares were either comprised of random right-angle stripes, or comprised of two 2-color triangles that were sewn together to form a square. We even had a seaming party where we arranged all the pieces, checked the numbers, pinned them together in the original layout and then sent folks home with some piecing "homework." Then the mystery started.

I discovered that we were missing 3 of the triangle squares, with no idea of how this happened. Everything seemed okay at the seaming party, and I'm pretty sure that everyone gave me their "homework." I even went to pick some up from Zona when she was not well. Furthermore, I stored all the yarn and blanket pieces in 1 large bag in my craft room, away from pets and untouched until I had everyone's pieces. In the end, I had to rearrange the design and make it a 36-square blanket, which still turned out great.
Aubrey helped me piece and seam the final blanket together, and to weave in what seemed like 100s of ends. After seeing how unattractive the back was, we decided that we should back the blanket. So, while I went shopping for some cotton fleece (which Zona recommended after a frantic phone call from me), I washed the blanket in my front loader on gentle cycle. After the washing, I was flabbergasted when 3 of the triangle squares split open in the center, where the triangles were sewn together to form a square. It appeared that whoever seamed those triangles together did not do a good job of weaving in the ends, or simply just forgot, hence the splitting upon washing. Luckily, that was an easy fix.



Pattern: Rio Dances on the Sand.
Yarn: 15-16 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash, 100% wool
Needles:US 7 (4.5mm) needles, or needles to obtain gauge
Notes: I'm working on formatting the pattern onto a pdf document right now. The backing is cotton fleece, first tacked and tied with yarn and then attached by hand-sewing a blind running stitch.

Threesome

About a month ago, I finally sent off the pattern and yarn to my test knitters for "Threesome" for Handicraft Café. Several months earlier, Zona and her family were kind enough to volunteer to be my models for the original hats. I specifically designed the pattern so that a knitter can knit 3 hats with 3 balls of yarn and get 3 very different looks. The resulting hat ensemble is a coordinated set for a family or to be distributed among friends.
My wonderful testers, Amy and Veronica, were not only speedy, they also gave great constructive feedback and did a wonderful job on the hats.

Over the weekend, I brought the fabulous hats to at get-together at Aubrey's. A couple of friends loved the hats so much that they immediately put them on and struck some fierce poses. In particular, they loved the color combination that we had Veronica knit. The impromptu photo shoot yielded a slew of fantastic, silly and funny photos. But unfortunately, it was a little dark and the results were not superb, even with some photo editing.

Derrick and Julian even dressed an orange with the baby hat and mounted it on a bottle of Heineken. And after working hard to show off his debonnaire style and poses, Aubrey thanked him with a massage, which resulted in a rather pornlicious snapshot.

As fabulous as some of these photos turned out, I don't think we could use them in the final print pattern - the resolution is not good enough for print, and they may just be a little too risqué for more conservative folks who want to knit a tame family project. However, some the the photos may end up on the Handicraft Café site as we continue to work on the programming for the search functions in the e-shop and the rest of the website. I think Derrick just started a new trend for all our future photo shoots. We may just have to enlist his modeling skills for the hats Amy made and some other upcoming projects. :)

Twister Contest

Thanks to everyone who commented in my blog post, on Ravelry and emailed me about your opinions and thoughts to my question about the Twister patterns. The contest is officially closed now. I will continue to consider all your input and weigh that with my goals for my patterns and the various delivery methods and options.

I'll select and announce a winner in the next week or two. I should have all the test knitters reviews in by then. Thanks again!!

::grumble::grumble::

Argh! I have spent the past day and a half unhappy. I put out free patterns for people to use because I want people to use them for their personal enjoyment. You'll also notice that there is a very clear copyright notice and statement at the bottom of each page. What part of "personal use ONLY" do people not understand? Crafters who sell their crafts even on a small scale should be aware of what a basic copyright means. Even people who don't sell, knows. Now, granted the depth of knowledge can vary.

Prompted by a request by someone asking me to grant him permission to sell swifts based on my yarn swift pattern for a very very small royalty for every one he sells, I decided to look on a certain website to see if other people were not so kind and did NOT even bother to request permission. Lo and behold, what did I find?

I found 2 sellers on this not-to-be-named website. One seller just listed this month and has not sold any swifts. This first person has altered the design a little (changed the look of the base), but it still eerily resembles my pattern and the options I discuss and provide in it. The second person, has sold about 20 swifts. I would say about 98% of it looks like the ones in my photos and the construction definitely is a spitting image of my design. The only thing that the second person didn't do is put in the CD that I used as a stabilizer in Version 1. You actually don't even need a CD, stabilizer or block spacer if you have nice tools that drill straight, but if you don't you'll need one. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous blog post or in the pattern itself.

I'm still on the fence right now about reporting the first seller. (edit 2/14/08, 1:59pm: I should note that the reason is that I was on the fence about it at the time of my blog post although it is similar, I do realize that it is possible that people can come up with similar ideas and designs. When I woke up this morning, I have decided not to do anything about the first seller, because I think the design is different enough that I don't think that this person used my plans.) However, I just shot off a notice to the second seller to remove all listings, and I reported it to the administrators of the website.

This has thrown me off a little because, though I know logically that there are always people who choose not to care about someones creative right, I chose not to believe it in my heart because I so love the knitting community and most of the people I have met through this community.

I do have some plans to sell swifts from my pattern at some point, but I don't have the tools or the time right now, especially since Aubrey and I are still working hard at Handicraft Cafe, which should be launched in the beta phase very very soon. We hope to be able to contract with someone to produce the swifts for us to sell. But this is not the reason for me getting upset about these people selling swifts. It's the fact that they are trying to sell and pass something off as their own design. Now, if they want to design their own easy-to-make, cost-effective and portable swift and then sell it, by all means they should -- just come up with their own plans and ideas! The other upsetting part of it is that I spent a lot of time writing and revising it so that people will benefit and be able to use it, and their violation of that is disheartening.

Oh- please be advised that no part of this post may be printed or distributed without my expressed written permission. This post is for your personal and non-commercial use only. :)

On a happier and related note, I just reformatted the swift pattern onto pdf in my new layout and included the long-awaited instructions for making it on a Lazy Susan! If you are on Ravelry, here is the link. If you are not, again, I am sorry, you will have to wait. I have plans to reorganize this website and don't want to have to upload and rearrange it twice later.

Sneak Preview

I've been wanting to put all my patterns in an attractive layout, including my free patterns. So I asked my sister to design a simple but attractive layouts for my patterns. My sister is a professional artist (medical illustrator) and has done some lovely non-medical freelance work, including the logos for Sugar Apple Creations and Handicraft Cafe.

I'm still converting my patterns to the new layout and learning InDesign as I go along, but I do have one completed for your sneak preview. I converted Buccaneer's Booty, which still lives here as html. The new pdf file has already been uploaded onto Ravelry as a free download. The link that the Raverly file is here. For those who aren't on Ravelry, unfortunately, you won't be able to access the download yet. My apologies to you. You'll have to wait a little, but here's a photo preview in the meantime:

If you're interested in having your patterns laid out, I highly recommend hiring a professional to do it for you. It's worth the investment for may reasons. It's something you'll be using over and over. You don't even need a professional program. Initially, I had asked my sis to do something that I could do in Word, but then because I have lots of stuff and am starting business, I figured installing InDesign would be better. Anyway, my sis is a medical illustrator, so her site, Anaphase Studios, is a portfolio of that type of work. She hasn't updated it to reflect other freelance design work yet.

Twister update & Contest

Quite a few people have been messaging me on Ravelry regarding Twister (previous blog post here; Ravelry link here), and inquiring whether it's ready. ALMOST! A great artist (my sis) is making new template layouts for me to make my patterns pretty for pdf, and I've already started converting my patterns, including the freebies and part of Twister to the new pdf format.

2 of my test knitters are done. THANK YOU!! Visit their blogs and/or Ravelry pages to check out their handiwork.
Tinker's blog
Tinker's Rav. page
CraftyCanadian's blog
CraftyCanadian's Rav. page

::CONTEST:: We all love them, don't we? All you have to do is to read through the rest of this post and then answer the question at the end of this post either by posting a comment or emailing me. I will do a random drawing of all who answer. There will be at least 3 winners (number of winners to be determined at my discretion). Winners will receive a final color laser- printed copy of Twister, Super Twister (being tested, see photos) and/or Mega Twister (in development) in protective plastic sleeves. Super Twister is Twister on bulky yarn, and Mega Twister is Twister done on polar/super bulky yarn. And if I happen to be having a good day, I'll send winners some yarn too. Contest ends: February 15, 2008.

Prototype of Super Twister. Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky.

Midway through the testing process, I wrote an alternative way in which the hat could be knit, using a provisional cast on and knitting on 2 circulars. CraftyCanadian knit hers the original way, while Tinker's version is a combination of the original way and new way -- the main hat is the old way, and her brim is the new way. A third tester, BunnySquirrel, will be doing hers using the new way. Actually, CraftyCanadian is starting another one using the new way, and her eagle eyes has caught some of my draft errors.

So what's the difference? The difference lies within the construction. I don't think there are true "pros" and "cons" in either way, because I think it's a matter of skill level, preference and how easy do you want to have it when working the pattern. Nonetheless, here are a few points that I think would/could be applied to each method:

The original way: the hat starts with a spiraling rib (so that it doesn't curl), then the rest of the body is the twisted stitch pattern. The brim is worked separately by picking up stitches along the cast on edge, shaped and then sewn together. Skill Level - intermediate. Pro: No pesky needles (except than the double points) to get in the way; easier to work than the new way. Con: Although there is an illusion of continuity from brim to crown that one can't really see unless they are a pro with eagle eyes, it's not seamless and "perfect".

The new way: The hat starts with working the brim, then the hem and the rest of the body is worked. There is no sewing of seams, and there's no spiraling rib pattern. Requires working on 2 circulars, off of 3 needles, and provisional cast on. Skill Level - advanced. Pro: True continuity of the spiraling stitch pattern from brim to crown; no seams between hat body and brim; built-in hem. Con: Working the brim first may be annoying, as it may get in the way when starting the hat body, can be confusing/challenging for a less experienced knitter.

Two versions? I was thinking of offering Twister as 2 separate patterns - one for intermediate, and one for advanced. Right now, I can't wrap my head around how to combine both options into one pattern without it being totally confusing to the end user, especially since the way you start and cast on is so different between the two. If I were to offer only one version, I think I'd do the advanced version, but that may turn away (scare off?) less experienced knitters. ETA: As CraftyCanadian stated in her comment, the skill set required to work the advanced version is quite different than the intermediate version. The difference is not just a matter of working on dpns versus 2 circulars. It includes casting onto 2 circulars provisionally more than once, and working a hem with 3 needles.

What do you think? Would you like to have the option of having an intermediate method and an advanced version of the pattern? Or would you hate to see someone selling 2 versions of the same pattern separately, albeit utilizing different techniques?

ETA: If you'd like to part of the drawing, please make sure that I will be able to contact you in case you win and include your email or blog address. This is especially for non-blogger users. I am unable to reply or find out who you are if you are not commenting through a blogger username/account.

EDIT #3: Moving my comment here for better visibility. ..Oh wow! Thank you all for your thoughts, comments and suggestions so far! You've definitely given me options that I had not thought of before, but will definitely weigh. Here's another question based on your comments:

So for those in the camp of packaging the 2 separate patterns together as a set, would you be willing to pay a little more for it then? I'd still have to format and figure out size/cost, but hypothetically, say, I was planning to sell at $6 for most single patterns, would you pay $9 for the set then? If I were to combine a package clearly labeling the 2 separate pattern & pattern techniques, it would drive my cost up, not just the amount of work, but also in pdf (file size, storage, photos, uploads, memory) and in printing, if I were to also sell paper patterns (paper, printing, ink, protective sheet costs. Thanks again!

Thanks!!

Twister at Whole Foods

Last Wednesday, my blogless friend Rachel organized a public stitching event at the Whole Foods in Tustin. Folks from at least 3 different local knit/crochet groups attended. It was a fabulous event where we were able to socialize with people we otherwise don't normally see or come across, and where we were able to meet new people. Another rather fabulous part of the Whole Foods experience, is all the yummy foods! The dining area of this whole foods is right behind the chocolate and dessert bar, so I was surrounded by some of the most wonderful smells in the world: wool and chocolate. Yum.

While at Whole Foods, CraftyCanadian of One Too Many Projects brought her newly finished Twister that she was test knitting for me, modeled here and here by her friend. If you are on Ravelry, then CraftyCanadian's Twister Project page is here. CraftyCanadian used Socks That Rock Heavyweight yarn.

If you are not on Ravelry and don't know what it is, the best way to describe it is that it is like MySpace for fiber artists, but 100 times better due to all the wonderful special features of the site. Warning though -- Ravelry is really well done and easy to use, so it can be very addictive.

Needle Holder

Since I still don't have the yarn yet, I can't start my designs for the follow-up of the Sensual Knits book, I decided to spend my waiting time designing other things. Last night, I worked on finishing "Super Twister," which I started 2 days ago. I worked in bed as I do many nights, and as always, I'm always looking around the floor, on the bed, between the sheets, etc., etc. for my needles, pens and other knitting things. I always find them eventually. However, no matter how much I looked, I could not find one of my dpns. I thought maybe the snoring hubby or the cats were sleeping on it, but after flipping them all over, I still found nothing. I finally gave up and decided to finish my hat with my remaining dpns, then I brushed my teeth and went to bed.

A few hours later, I awoke to something poking my chest. It turned out that my dpn had fallen in my shirt and decided to snuggle between my bra and boobs. (Since I am abnormally large, especially for an Asian girl, I am afraid of sagging when I get older, so I do wear a bra to sleep on most nights.) Anyway, I pulled my needle out and went back to bed. I don't know why I didn't notice it before. Thank goodness, it was a 5" US #10 (6mm) dpn
instead of something like a #1 dpn -- I shudder at the mishaps that could happen with such a tiny needle. From now on, I will be looking at my boobs the next time I lose a needle.

Sensual Knits

Have you seen the book? It was just released this month. Isn't it great? I admit I have not knitted anything from it yet, but I love the selections and patterns in this book. The patterns are modern yet classic, fitted and the photographs are great. In addition to the jacket featured on the cover, there's a lovely cabled cardigan that I'd like to knit.

The follow-up to Sensual Knits is already in the creation process. Guess who's going to have her designs in the follow-up book? Yes, me!!!! So, the sequel is even more destined to be fantastic too, right? ;)

As you can imagine, was quite elated when I opened an email from the editor last week that they had selected not one, but two of my design submissions for inclusion in the book. I wanted to post it everywhere, and tell everyone, but at the same time I wanted to keep a level head and didn't want to post anything without checking with the publisher. So, I apologize for the tease, but I am not at liberty to give you much more details about the book or my design at this point --- you'll just have to be patient and wait to see. The other reason that I don't want to get too giddy is because, until the book actually gets published in a concrete and tangible format, there's always the chance that nothing will happen (ahem, speaking from my past experience). So, I'm trying hard not to get too excited and trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, so to speak.

One of the things that I have to do as part of the design process is to select and recommend yarns and colors for the project. Even more fantabulous is that for the last 5 days, Aubrey and I have been attending TNNA, a needlearts trade show, so the timing worked out great, and I had lots of goodies to touch, smell and buy. But picking out a couple of yarns for the book project among thousands of great (ok, yes there were some not so great) yarns was a lot harder than you'd think!

I do not have any photos from TNNA, which was held in Long Beach, to share with you because we were not able to take photos in the exhibit halls. However, I promise to take photos of my loot (freebies and samples) later this week and tell you about our adventures including which yarn and knitting divas we ran into.

Twister

I've been playing so much on Ravelry that I almost forgot about my blog. Ha! I didn't really get what people were talking about at first when I heard my knitting friends rave about the site, but I GET IT! It is very well organized, easy to set up and navigate, AND the folks on the forums provide a bunch of wonderful and helpful information. I'm still catching up on updating my stuff, including my knitting projects and my patterns.

One of the projects/patterns that I listed is my Twister cap. I designed and finished it about 1 year ago, but I didn't post any photos or talk about it because I was trying my hand at submissions. Unfortunately, both Knitty and Interweave Knits rejected this project. After some hemming and hawing about whether I should try and submit elsewhere, I finally decided that I wanted to self-publish and sell the pattern. So, thanks to some lovely volunteers, Z's Momma, Bunny Squirrel, and Crafty Canadian, Twister is getting test knitted. No matter how many times I have knitted it (counting many prototypes and samples, it's at least 6+ total) and checked the pattern for errors, there's no way that I can catch the same errors and typos that test knitters may catch for me. Furthermore, it's a way to see if the instructions that I wrote are clear and concise.

Anyhow, as soon as I get the comments back from my lovely test knitters, I will officially release the pattern, which I'm really excited about. Now if you'll allow me to toot my own horn for a little bit: Since posting it on Ravelry about 2 weeks ago, to date, the project and pattern has been marked as a favorite by other Ravelers a total of over 30 times. This totally strokes my confidence to see that people like my work, and though I'm really not afraid or upset by rejection at all (I mean, seriously, the editors do have a difficult job of picking from 100s and 1000s of great designs to suit their respective publications.), it does make the slight disappointment seeing the words "we are sorry" all go away. Thanks y'all!!

Now, if I can just figure out and learn how to set up a shopping cart and pdf download system on this blog...