A Little Something

This is the latest release from Vogue Knitting (Soho Publishing).  It's available here, and I have a pattern in it !  It's not the one on the front, so until it hits the bookstores in on May 2, you'll have to take my word for it.  But it's full of really cute things that wee ones and the people who knit for them will like.  All the pieces are made from our dear old friend, Cascade 220, so you know they will be fun to make and easy to keep looking good.

If you have Smallies in your life, or know someone who does (or will), consider picking up a copy.  My design is called "Sweet Pea", and alert readers inform me it can be found on page 39.  I hope you'll take a look for it when you can.

Random Bits of Fluff

1 Announcement:

I am scheduled to teach twice in California at the end of this month.

Green Planet Yarn  in Campbell, CA on Saturday, April 30
and
Piedmont Yarn in Oakland, CA on Sunday, May 1

Both classes currently have openings, so please come and play with me if you will be in the area!

1 Silly Picture:

The dogs were there first; Lindsay decided to join them on their chair.

3 Tantalizing Teasers:

Lest you suspect that the Knitwear designer writing this here blog doesn't do any actual knitting lately, I just thought I'd share a wee bit.  These are for the new book.  And it's about Color Knitting.  And I really love them.  And there are more still to do.  Many more.  My final deadline is September 1, so I'm pretty much a knitting fool.  Not that I wasn't before.

And finally;

1 Dog Grooming Update:

The Good News is that no one has been physically injured.  The Bad News is, well:

Paisley and Bailey and I are in agreement:  Dog grooming is NOT as easy as it looks.

We three have much to learn, in the ways of the clippers.

Surgical Precision

Got my first batch of edited chapters back this week.  My editor is great.  Extremely fair and open to my work.  She is also forced to be my teacher, to a great degree, because the sort of book that I'm working on has to be written to the publisher's exact specifications.  It's part of a series, all of which follow an identical format.

So there *may* be some rewriting in my immediate future.  Like, today, immediate.

I'm working really hard, but only with my brain.  It's so weird - I stand up from my desk and it's like my body has completely forgotten what it's supposed to do, while my brain is completely exhausted and refuses to go.

I keep finding myself in rooms that aren't where my computer is, wondering what I went in there for.  The exception to this is of course, the Laundry Room, where Mount Washmore is always waiting for me.  I think I go in there just because I know that when I find myself there, I will remember what I'm meant to do.  There may be a cognition delay, but at least in there, it comes back to me.

Other rooms are far more ambiguous.  I just noticed myself standing in the bedroom, gazing longingly at the bed and thinking that maybe a nap would be in order.  And then I remembered that the reason I had gone there was to find a book I need to reference.  For a sentence I think I have been writing for three days.  Or ten minutes - I'm not sure which.

Editing is hard, because its basic premise is that what has been done so far is in some way lacking, insufficient, off-base or just plain wrong.  What a bizarrely unpleasant sieve to force one's work through.  I am fortunately able to separate my personal self from my creative products (usually), but it's still not as much fun as some other parts of the process.  Like the knitting part.  Or the designing part.  Or the seeing my book in the bookstore part.

I am reminding myself that if it were easy, then everybody would do it.  But I think it's time for a little self-bribery.  As soon as I get this chapter finished, I'm taking a course of retail therapy.  I think there might be a pair of shoes out there someplace with my name on it.