Fiber Festival, Teaching, and Yarn Crawl

It's been a really busy time for me, both as a knitting designer and as an editor. Some days I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through everything and once I have made it past a big event, I'm not sure how I did it. Craziness, but also lots of fun even though I'm exhausted each evening.

The first big event was the Blackland Prairie Artisan and Fibre Faire (BPAFF) in Denison, TX. For this event, since it was a fairly long drive, I chose to stay overnight in a nearby hotel. Not only was it the first time that I was bringing my stuff to a fiber festival, it was also the first time I stayed overnight away from my three-year-old son (two nights even!). It was hard at first (when I dropped him off at my mom's and knew I wouldn't be tucking him into bed that night), but I was so busy and exhausted that I didn't have much time to dwell on missing him. But I was really happy to see him on Sunday!

I got to the location a little later than expected, so I put the other people in my booth a bit behind in setting up since I had the tables (sorry!), but once I got there, it was set-up time. The other ladies in the booth (MAFIA: Mansfield Area Fiber Inspired Artisans) have done this type of thing before, so they were able to get things set up pretty quickly. We did have one scary moment when the grids on the table got a bit top heavy and almost fell forward, but two of us where right there and caught them in time and we managed to figure out a way to secure them so they wouldn't topple over. Whew!

My space included my handspun yarn and earrings and keychains made with my handspun as well as my patterns and the samples. I used waterfall hooks to hang the handspun but found that they weren't great because they then overshadowed the stuff beneath them. I also secured my samples to the grids with zip ties--for the scarves that wasn't the greatest idea in the end because they were held with one tie so both of them stretched out from the weight of hanging. Fortunately, once I got home and reblocked them, they went right back into shape. Another whew!

The worst thing about the festival was the heat. Fortunately it wasn't over 100 degrees outside, but inside felt like it was. We were in a big arena used for livestock shows so no A/C and the giant fans overhead didn't do much. I had brought a small portable fan that we plugged in and aimed into our booth which helped a little but not much. And there was one corner of our booth that was just completely too hot. But the ladies who organized the festival were amazing! They kept bringing around cold bottles of water to the vendors (as soon as I finished one bottle, they were making the rounds again), which was very much appreciated.

I got to meet a lot of neat people who came by the booth and got to learn how to use Square--especially the card reader which didn't want to work for me. Argh.

One of the other things I did at this festival was teach a knitting class on how to work cables without using a cable needle. My class was small (five) and included a range of experience, but I felt that overall it was successful. And it made me realize how much I miss being in a classroom. I so much enjoyed working with the students in the class and helping them learn this new skill and cheering them on when they got it. I'm going to work on developing more knitting classes and sending in proposals to other fiber festivals. I want to get back into the classroom more often. And the best part about teaching a knitting class vs. a college English class? No grading!

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So the other big event was the DFW Yarn Crawl. MAFIA was a location this year and operated out of the house of the MAFIA organizer. We had some great stuff under her roof (which she had to live with and be tempted by for 10 days!!) and quite a few shopper during the crawl. I was there for a good chunk of time and got to meet a lot of people who were surprised (in a good way) that all of these indie dyers and designers were right there (nearby for some shoppers or across DFW for others).

Once again I set up my space and was unhappy with the waterfall hooks but wasn't sure how to get past that. This time on the samples, though, I used some hangers and put the scarves on the display figures and was able to spread out the shawl on the wall. During the first weekend, the MAFIA host had a great idea for how to display my stuff without using the waterfall hooks.

So much better, I think, although I'm still thinking about ways that I can change this up to have a better display as I'm still not 100% happy with it. I really want the emphasis to be on the patterns rather than the handspun, so I need to brainstorm and experiment a bit more.

I'll get a chance to do that on a limited scale this weekend as Saturday is the Fall Gift Market at Jacob Rewards Farm. Three of us from MAFIA will be there with our wares. If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by.

After this, we (meaning MAFIA) don't have any big events planned until DFW Fiber Fest in six months. We're considering some other avenues before then since six months (especially during the colder weather when people want to knit!) is a long time. In the meantime, I'm continuing to design (new shawl pattern almost finished testing and another new shawl pattern soon to enter testing) and I have a full editing calendar ahead of me. (I just finished editing a truly wonderful epic medieval fantasy book..) So even if we don't have any events, I'll still be pretty busy.

Value of a Picture

Yesterday I released my new shawl pattern, the Astolat Shawl. When I first released it, I used a close up of the stitch pattern as the main cover photo:

I really like this picture and was extremely happy when I saw it come out of my camera, so that's why I used it. But I'm wondering if it's not quite as "clickable" as I wanted it to be. When I first released the pattern, I did get a few favorites (and sold a copy right away), but for the first few hours, movement was slow, even though I had posted around Ravelry about it. I checked the Patterns page in the "Hot Right Now" order and even after going through 6-7 pages, I didn't see my pattern. I thought perhaps the release was a bit of a bust.

On almost a whim, I decided to change out the cover photo for one of my sister (my model) running with the shawl. I was really happy when I saw this picture because of the movement that her hair shows while still having the shawl mostly in focus.

I thought that it couldn't hurt to try out the new photo. And then it happened. More favorites. I checked Hot Right Now and found Astolat at the top of page 3. The HRN pages update every hour, so I spent the last few hours before bed refreshing. I was thrilled to see it move to page 2. Could it go all the way to page 1? I wondered. Even though I was tired, I stayed up until just past 11:00 so I could check the page once more (worried that it would lose momentum overnight and I might miss it if it did move to the first page). And what did I see? There was Astolat on page 1 in the bottom row. I'll take it! I went to sleep with a smile on my face.

This morning I woke up to find that it had moved up a bit on page 1 and my latest refresh had it moving up two more spots. Wait, it's just past the hour. Refresh time. Woot!! It moved up five more spots. It's now #30 for Hot Right Now patterns. Thank you so much to everyone who has viewed the shawl, favorited it, and bought it. I'm excited to see more versions of the shawl pop up on Ravelry (the test knitters have some lovely ones already!).

I don't know if the picture change truly made a difference. Perhaps it would have still taken off with the original cover photo, but I can't really determine that. I just know that it seemed to have stalled with the original picture and picked up momentum when I changed it. I know that photography is one of the main selling points for patterns, but this experience really highlights how important it just might be to pick the right cover shot!

P.S. The name comes from the story of the Fair Maid of Astolat (aka Lady of Shalott) as told by Sir Thomas Malory. I've summarized the story on the project page and on my website.

Darn Pretty Needles

So I'm a complete convert to DyakCraft's Darn Pretty needles (as well as the Heavy Metals in the smaller sizes). I've placed several orders and have also gotten some through destashes. My goal is to have at least one in every color currently offered. Here's my list so far:

5" interchangeables in Vermont Apple - these were the ones I first received, though a destash. They are quite lovely although at first I thought that I would destash them myself when my other sets arrived. But the more I used them, the more I fell in love, so they're staying with me.


5" interchangeables in Vermont Rosewood - part of my original order. Gods, these are a gorgeous deep dark wood color.

Rosewood

3.5" interchangeables in Emerald - I knew that I wanted a color and some of the pictures of Emerald were a deep but bright green that was just stunning. I was so happy to get mine and fine that same saturated shade. Love.

One pair of 3.5" tips in Positively Pink - I wasn't sure that I wanted a whole set in pink so I thought I'd try one. Yeah, I'd totally do a whole set in pink. Yum!

Positively Pink and Emerald

Set of DPNs in sock sizes in Winter Sky, striped - I wasn't sure whether to order stripes or swirls for the DPNs. I think part of the "danger" with stripes is that depending on how they are cut, they might not show all the possible colors in that colorway. Such is the case with my Winter Sky needles. I'm completely missing the pinkish color of Winter Sky. Not to say that the needles are not pretty, but they don't say "Winter Sky" to me, so I may at some point consider ordering a different set or trying to trade for another set in swirls.

Set of DPNs in larger sizes in Turquoise - beautiful. I do wonder if I had swapped my color choices (turquoise for small sizes and Winter Sky for larger) if I would have seem more color variation for the Winter Sky with the larger circumference.

I wanted the two sets to match, but they almost look exactly the same. You can see some bits of charcoal in the Winter Sky but no pink and from far away like this, they look just like the Turquoise ones.

Just Turquoise

The Winter Sky

One pair of 3.5" tips in Madras - Just got these today. This was not really one of the colors that I felt immediately drawn to, but now that I've seen one in person, I'm so glad that I got it. As you turn the needle, you see different colors shift into prominence or fade into the background.

One pair of 3.5" tips in Malachite - Also received today. In my head, Malachite was one of the solid tones but just looking at the website I see they are listed under the multi tones. And I can now see why. They have very clear (those nicely blended) swirls of blue and green.

One pair of 5" tips in Bubblegum - I almost didn't get these since I have some Bubblegum coming in another order, but I decided to go ahead. Very happy that I did since the order I have is for straights which I probably won't use very often. And Bubblegum is a color that deserves to be used more often, which it will be since it's in a size 8 which is one of my most used sizes.

The three pairs that I got today. From top to bottom: Madras, Bubblegum, Malachite

 

My interchangeable tips collection so far (minus the ones currently in use)

On order are a set of mini straights in Bubblegum and a interchangeable set in the Heaven on Earth mix, which will include Heaven on Earth, Charcoal, Indigo, and Chestnut. Seeing pictures of that mix set has just made me so excited about it, but I just placed the order so it will be at least six months before I see them. I'll just have to wait, but I'm so very much looking forward to it.

P.S. I haven't blogged about it yet, but expect to be hearing a lot about Indie Books Gone Wild in the future as I have joined the editorial team! We devote our editing services specifically to indie authors. It's an amazing group of ladies that I am so proud to be part of! Here's the post where I am introduced!

P.P.S. I got a Ravelry message from a blogger who does a featured indie knitting designer post each week. She wants to feature me in an upcoming post! So exciting! That was definitely a "feeling like a designer" moment. So in another month or so, I'll post here when my profile gets posted over there.

Good things are happening in both of my business worlds!

Finished Scarf and Finished Book

I finished two things yesterday and today, a scarf that has been on my loom for months and a pretty good book.

As for the scarf, it is my second weaving project that I have completed. Weaving doesn't actually take that much time (it's setting it all up that takes the most time--the actual weaving goes quickly) and it took only an hour or two to finish the scarf. The scarf that I started several months ago (I can't remember exactly when). Why has it been sitting unfinished for so long? Because, to be honest, although weaving does have its perks, it's just not my "thing" especially compared to knitting and spinning. I've had my loom for well over a year and have made just two scarves. I've considered selling my loom, but I got such a great deal on it that I fear that one day I might want to get more into weaving and I'll never be able to replace the loom for what I paid for it. So I'll hold onto it for now. (But if any of my local fiber people want to borrow it for a little while, I'm happy to loan it out.)

Anyway, the yarn I used was given to me by a friend who had tried several knitting projects with it and nothing really worked with the colors. I do think that the yarn was made for a weaving project, as it does look quite nice. It's not super soft though (superwash wool and nylon), even after a good washing, so I'm not sure how truly useful it will be to wear around the neck. Anyway, without further ado, here's the finished woven scarf:

So the other thing that I finished this morning was a book I've been reading, Derivatives of Displacement #1: A Pair of Docks by Jennifer Ellis.

I discovered this book through Indie Books Gone Wild; one of the editors there did a proofreading on the book.

It took me a little while to get into the book (part of that could be that I'm a distracted reader these days with the toddler around) and to start to like the main character, Abbey. At first she seems like just a brain walking around in the body, rigidly wanting to sticks to rules, scientific or otherwise. But as the book progresses, she starts to bend a little and by the end of the book, although she hasn't thrown out her belief in science, she comes to realize that the world contains things that can't always be explained through scientific terms. Once she does start opening up, her character becomes much easier to relate to and care about. (Caring about the characters is one of the things I find most important in books I enjoy.)

Because this is the first book in a series and also because the kids themselves are trying to figure out what is going on with these stones and where they are traveling, it does take the reader a while to get any sort of answers to what is going on. But the second half (and especially the last third) of the book really picks up and it was at that point that I found myself wanting to pick up the book more often and leave the toddler to his own devices so I could finish it (sometimes that worked better than other times).

And although some answers are provided in the book, it ends with more questions (especially after what Abbey learns right at the end) which lead directly into the setup for the next book. Although I don't feel the need for the next book RIGHT NOW as I do with some books, I am disappointed to have to wait for the next one instead of being able to go straight to it. So I'll be keeping my eye on this series and picking up the next book when it does come out (according to the author's Amazon page, it will be coming out in October).

A Better Day

Today didn't start out so great, with not sleeping well and being awake at 4 am. But I decided that I would just try to push forward anyway.

I had to go to the post office to mail off some yarn I had destashed (going to Australia!), so I decided to get Luke's hair cut while we were out. He really impressed me today. While I was busy getting his water and a snack to take with us, he brought me his shoes to put on him. Since I was busy, I told him to put them on himself, not really expecting that to happen. Imagine my surprise when he not only tried but also succeeded in putting on his shoes--correctly! Then during his hair cut he sat in the chair all by himself for the first time. It was so nice not to have him on my lap and thus feel like I'm in the way and also feel like I am covered in his hair after the cut even though I have on a cape too.

My little boy is growing up!

Since he was such a good sport, I took him next door to get a doughnut. He was a little loud (shouting "hey" to the other customers who came in--at least he is trying to be friendly), but he sat in his chair and ate his doughnut. Off to the post office, where he was a little up to his usual acts (trying to run off instead of staying near me). But there was actually quite a line at the post office, so I don't really blame him for not wanting to stand in line all that time.

After that was the biggest snag of the day. I had planned to go to a store that I hadn't been to before (well, that location at least--it's a chain). I had a basic idea of where it was but couldn't remember exactly. I drove around and around trying to find it, finally trying to locate it with my phone. Nothing popped up at first. I tried the store locator on the store's website but it didn't seem to want to work with my phone. So finally I looked at a different map app and found it, only to see that it said "permanently closed." Ah! So that's why I didn't find it!

By this time it was almost 11 and as we generally get lunch around then, I decided to stop for lunch. Instead of getting Rosa's to go, since Luke had been good overall, I tried out going inside to eat. He happily munched on his chips and queso and mostly stayed in his seat. Once again, he shouted "hey" at the people next to us (and tried offering them his chips!). After I was finished eating but while he was still munching, he started to stand up in the booth, so we left at that point.

Home where he played happily (more or less) until nap time, which he took (and is still currently taking) without too much protest. I used the time to get a short editing project done, to do a little spinning for the Tour de Fleece, and to finish typing up the draft of the pattern for my latest cowl. (Oh! This morning I sewed on the buttons that I had picked up for it yesterday and took some pictures of it.) I was able to get everything set up for the test knit and already have two test knitters. (I'm still looking for more--if you're interested, go to Ravelry for more information.)

Current spinning project

The Wife of Bath's Cowl

The back side of the cowl

Plus, an announcement about my editing business made its first phase today (sorry for being vague but I don't want to give it away quite yet) and the part involving me will occur on Monday--so stayed tuned for more details then! This is something I'm super excited about so I'm thrilled to see it moving forward.

So, whew! It's not quite 4:00 and it's been a pretty darn good day so far. I definitely needed that after how I felt about yesterday!

Tough Day

Yesterday was a tough day. It started out okay--or as okay as an early morning dentist appointment can be. I got my son to my mom's house with plenty of time to spare (a lot of times I run it pretty close to almost being late) and made it to my appointment early. I had been worried about my appointment possibly running late because we also had Little Gym that morning, but I got out (with no problems with my teeth) in plenty of time and was even able to chat with my mom a little while Luke got to play with his cousin who was also there.

On to Little Gym, where things started out okay. The rock climbing wall was set up this time (I say "wall" but since this is for toddlers, it is not very tall) and Luke was all over it. Quite literally. I had to hold him back so that the other kids could take their turns on it. He was so into it that he didn't want to do any of the class activities. But then he saw that the water fountain, which is usually covered, was uncovered. And he wanted to play with it. After sticking his face in the water and getting water all over the floor, I pulled him away. He lost it. Full on tantrum. I took him to the side to help him calm down. He did only to go back to the fountain. More screaming. I took him out of the room to calm down. Then tried it one more time. No go. So we left early (the class ended just as we had finished putting on our shoes and gathering our stuff so it wasn't too early).

I had planned to go to Joann's to get buttons for my new cowl and really wanted to still do that. Fortunately I had some bunnies in my purse and eating those calmed Luke down enough for me to be able to get the buttons I needed. Then I decided to go ahead with the next errand since Luke had seemed to calm down: Toys 'R Us. (Thomas engines are on sale for 40% off plus they have some great clearance deals right now.) Picked up some toys to stash as treats for potty training and also picked up a toy for Luke's birthday.

It seemed like things were looking up. But then Luke fell asleep in the car on the way home and I was worried. He hadn't eaten lunch yet. Did I wake him up and feed him lunch and risk that he wouldn't go down for a nap (sometimes those car naps spoil his real nap) or did I skip lunch and put him into bed and hope he didn't wake up too early because he was hungry? I opted for the second option since he seemed super sleepy when I got him out of the car. Wrong choice. Five minutes after putting him into bed, he was awake. He did stay in his bed, talking to himself, so I started to work (I had an editing job that would take several hours to complete). That didn't last much longer before he was out of bed and nothing I could do would get him to go back to sleep. I was feeling a bit frazzled myself, so I gave up trying to get him to sleep on his own and laid down with him. He still didn't want to sleep, but after quite a while, he finally drifted off. Success!? Nope. Anytime I tried to move he would wake up. So I was trapped in his room. I drifted off myself which was another mistake because when I woke up I felt even worse than I did before (those power naps never seem to work out for me).

At least shortly after that, my husband came home so I could sit down and do a little work. And Luke did go to bed without too much trouble. I finished my editing work with just under an hour before bedtime so I did do some spinning.

But then I slept horribly last night and was wide awake around 4 am. Luke woke up a little after 5. I'm hoping today is better but we'll see.

You know, typing this out, yesterday doesn't seem quite so bad. Good things happened: positive dentist experience, small chat with my mom, finding the buttons I needed, getting a good deal on some toys, finishing an editing job, getting some spinning time in. The bad things were Luke throwing several tantrums in public and not taking a nap. And that's not untypical of toddler behavior. I think I just haven't been sleeping well or feeling great so those annoyances get extra annoying and seem to overshadow everything else. I've almost deleted this post since it seems like I'm complaining about a bad day that really wasn't all that bad after all. But I think I'll post it anyway because writing it out helped me realize that it wasn't that terrible and maybe I'll need this reminder again. Okay, so there's probably no maybe about it. But maybe I'll have a better attitude about it next time.

Since April

Quite a lot has been going on here since I last posted in April.

I now have five knitting patterns available (one free and four to purchase) in my Ravelry store and on my website. I have two patterns currently in test knitting and one pattern soon to enter test knitting. And I have a number of ideas for new patterns (it's been hard to decide what to work on next!). So there's been a lot of progress on the design front.

I'm also learning a lot more about designing, both the actual design process as well as the business of design, especially as an indie publisher. I've been watching a lot of Craftsy courses and reading books and blogs and some very helpful forums on Ravelry.

I'm also hoping to expand the availability of my patterns so that they can be purchased as hard copies. The first step there is to actually get them into hard copy form. I looked into a number of options for printing but was getting discouraged as many of the places I looked at had minimum runs of 250 copies, which would mean a huge investment up front and me with 250 copies of each pattern not yet knowing if I could even need that many copies. Fortunately, people have gone before me and I can benefit from their experience. A thread on Ravelry produced some great suggestions and I followed up with a print-on-demand publisher. Not only can I get smaller runs of each pattern, the per pattern price is actually less than I had calculated with my other options. I went ahead and ordered a small run of one pattern (Lady Bertilak) and I was very happy when I received it to see it printed exactly as I had wanted it to be. So now I just need to make sure the other patterns are formatted for this printer and order copies of them.

My first planned test run with the hard copies will be in September at Blackland Prairie Artisan & Fibre Faire (BPAFF). I'll be at the MAFIA booth (Mansfield Area Fiber Inspired Artisans) with some other lovely ladies in my local knitting group (they'll have dyed fiber and yarn, spinning wheels, projects bags, and some of their patterns). If you're anywhere near the area (DFW, Texas), I hope you'll come see us September 20-21. (We'll also be at the DFW Fiber Fest next year.)

My goal beyond that is to see if local knitting shops would start carrying my patterns. I need to do a little more research here to find out exactly how the shop owners should be approached and what to expect. Plus, I want to get my pattern library to be a bit larger before I work on this goal.

So there's been a lot going on with the design business. My other business, my copy editing, has also been going well. I've had steady work from my regular clients and I've picked up an odd job here and there with new clients. But my most exciting news is still to come. As soon as it has been officially announced, I'll write up a post to announce that news. But it should help me expand my editing business and also take it in the direction that I really want to go, with editing fiction.

Luke is growing up so fast. He'll be three years old next month (I need to start planning his party!) and although he's still being a super picky eater and still quite stubborn and throwing tantrums, he is communicating better and is using complete sentences more often. He's also enjoying building his own train tracks and working on puzzles and, of course, playing with anything that has wheels. He also loves being in the water although we haven't gone swimming as often as we probably should be. Sometimes I just sit and watch him play and it makes me so happy to see him working things out for himself and also just having fun. He's also made a new friend--the son of one of the ladies in my knitting group who is about 8 months younger than Luke--and actually asked the other day to go play with this little boy (it happened to be a day where we could go to a toddler activity where the other little boy was also going to be so it worked out).

I'm trying to carve out more time for reading these days since I've gone from reading 200-250 books per year to less than 10. That's just crazy for someone who is a professed book worm. But I've just been feeling this itch with my hands and if I don't have something in them (usually knitting related), then it feels wrong. So I do some reading while knitting simple projects, but I want to get to the point where I can just get lost in a book again. Perhaps that won't happen until Luke gets a little older anyway (it's not just the feeling that I need to be knitting that is a distraction), but I am doing better. I've started using my GoodReads account again.

There's a lot more that is going on or that has happened (such as our vacation last month to Maui!), but I think that's enough of an update for now.