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.

Art Yarn. Or possibly, Bob Yarn.

What do you get when you cross Shetland with Crosspatch?

Twice as much two-ply as you might have had, spinning them alone!  I took the morning off to ply up these singles, and see what all the fuss is about with yarn that is intentionally bumpy, irregular and unpredictable.

I asked myself, "Would I buy this skein of yarn if I were just now seeing it for the first time?"  And the answer is "I'm not sure.  Is it on sale?"

But then I laid aside my smoothness prejudice ( I really like it when I know what size each stitch is going to be), and tried to embrace my inner spinner.  She's only 2 years old, after all, and there is still a lot she has to explore about spinning.

I decided that I like the colors, especially the surprises of the odd bright blue or lavender speck.  I think I dig it, as a skein, but I might like it less, once knitted.  On the other hand, knitted yarn is so much different than skeined yarn that they are almost different species, so I really should suspend judgement.

There are going to be about 300 yards of this, once finished.  Bigger brains than mine should suggest what to make with it...

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.