I'm back!

Wow, it has been awhile! I've actually been back since Friday, but I've been putting off blogging because it seems like there's just so much to talk about. There's nothing like stuff piling up on top of me to make me want to put everything off another day!

I've got lots to talk about, but I'm going to try to split this into a few posts so I don't get totally overwhelmed. We'll see if I get on a roll and end up with the neverending post... I'm going to work backwards, and start with an announcement from my friend Chris, who is doing PR for another friend. She sent me this great little press release to post:

StitchCraft, Nicholette Hoyer's craft shop specializing in organic yarns, fabrics, lace, and wallpaper, is holding its grand opening this Saturday, May 24! Here's what's happening:

* 10:00am Yarn Cutting Ceremony with Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard.
* 10% off your entire purchase on the 24th & 25th.
* All Gutermann Cotton and Hand Quilting threads are 30% off.
* Goody bags to the first 40 customers who make a purchase.
* Free scoop of Ice Cream Renaissance's finest for the first 40 customers who make a purchase.


Many of you know Nicholette, a Vancouver mom of two, from parenting and homeschooling Yahoo groups or from the knitting classes she taught at Yarn Garden. Please come support this awesome "momtrepeneur" in her newest venture, bringing the largest collection of organic, sustainably produced fibers under one roof to Portland area crafters. For those of you, like me, who have rarely ventured into Vancouver, fear not! Her shop is located merely two minutes and two turns off of I-5, at 2110 Main Street. Easy-peasy to get there and just 10 minutes from downtown Portland. For more information, visit stitchcraft.us.

I'm also very excited that today is primary day here in Oregon. We vote by mail, so our ballots were sent in before we left for the cruise, but the last voters can drop off their ballots today and the results start coming in around 8 pm.

Oh, look at that! It's after 8 pm! Somehow I got distracted finishing a hat and eating dinner. No wonder I never get any blogging done...

Anyway, you may have heard that a record crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland on Sunday for the big Obama rally. My mom was still here, so the two of us decided to brave the crowds and check it out. It was amazing - I'd already voted for Obama, but listening to him in person really clinched it for me. Here's someone who gets it - who talks about things like corporate welfare, and needing to give tax cuts to the lower and middle classes (and tax corporations at a higher rate to pay for them), and making sure that everyone has health care coverage that's as good as the coverage his family enjoys with him as a member of Congress (I often like to say that if Congress had to pay for their own private health care, the health care system would change very quickly...). He talked about reducing our dependence on foreign oil and investing in alternative energy so that Americans aren't sending all their money to foreign (often hostile) nations. He talked about taking care of our veterans who today are pretty much abandoned after they've served tour after tour in a poorly-planned war.

I know that there are plenty of people who would disagree with me, but listening to him, I couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to vote for him. For the first time since I've been old enough to vote, I REALLY want to vote for someone - I don't just want to play defense. I hope that people will set aside some of their preconceived notions and really listen to him during this election season. Even if he's possibly a bit naive and inexperienced, I love the fact that he hasn't given up before he's even gotten started. It often takes a maverick, talking about ideas that are ahead of their time, to start to get these ideas out into the collective subconscious. Once enough people start talking about them, they become normal instead of radical (can you tell I was discussing The Tipping Point with a friend this morning?).

I spend plenty of time fearing for my childrens' future and wondering what kind of a world they're going to be left with. If someone like Obama can be elected, I'm going to have a lot more hope for our country and our world. If we choose McCain and vote for a continuation of the Bush Path O' Destruction, well...I'm really going to have to wonder where our values as a nation got so off course. Why is it that we call ourselves a predominantly Christian nation, and yet we worship the dollar much more than we worship the ideals of Christ? Aren't we supposed to love our neighbor, and judge not lest we be judged, and yet we threaten to bomb any nation that thinks differently than we do? We're supposedly community-oriented, and yet we refuse to reach out to individuals who are struggling and tell them that they don't deserve a "free ride". We shop at Wal-Mart instead of supporting local businesses who help to keep our communities anchored.

Wow, how did I get off on this rant? It's been a few months, so I guess I was due. I've been thinking a lot lately with all the political talk (and the incredible brains on the Ravelry Obama group who have the most amazing, intelligent discussions), and living in Portland helps me incubate all my radical ideas. I love this city!

I think I've done enough damage for today - I'll leave the Sea Socks review for tomorrow (or the day after, or next week...if you want to see some other peoples' pictures in the meantime, there's a Flickr group which I have, of course, not yet contributed anything to). I've got to go stalk the Oregon election results and hope that we made a better showing here than they did in Kentucky!

Poor neglected blog...

Does anyone actually bother to read this thing anymore? Besides my mom (and even she may have given up on it by now)? I don't know why I just can't get the blogging mojo back. Too many other things going on, I guess (and then there's that darn time-waster called Ravelry).

I was hoping to do a nice pretty post with lots of pictures from the TKG Shop Hop last weekend and another design idea or two before leaving for Sea Socks, but it just ain't gonna happen. In the mad rush to get everything that needed to be done done before I left (not to mention organizing a team for Portland to Coast and planting the entire garden), blogging just didn't get around to happening.

I am off for a week on the high seas and will DEFINITELY have pictures for you on my return. Promise!

We're back!

As you may have noticed, the blogging has been a bit neglected lately. I didn't even notice that my last post was #500. Wow! I think my site meter is nearing 10,000 visits, too. It has been almost three years since I started this blog and we've certainly had our ups, downs, and long periods of silence.

That said, I am really going to try to get the third design idea up later this week. I've been totally swamped getting designs ready for TNNA (check out the preview page for a couple fun new things), figuring out the kids' school situations and dealing with the massive growth of my business. Just to give you an idea, we've grossed more revenue already this year than we did all of last year. Yay us! However, that does mean that a LOT more patterns are needing to be printed, assembled and sent out. Not to mention the steady stream of work I'm doing for others to publish.

I have a really hard time saying no, and I've gotten myself involved in several sock clubs already this year. On the plus side, socks don't take too long. On the down side, I don't have unlimited capacity! I've already let my job at Dublin Bay go (Tuesday was my last day) and I'm constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as getting in over my head. Fortunately I've got some great sample knitters who really help to keep me out of trouble...

I've also really been struggling with fatigue all spring. I think it was a combination of my sedentary lifestyle (all that sitting in front of the computer or sitting and knitting), terrible diet and those 50 extra pounds that don't seem to ever want to leave. After my constant battle with injured shins last spring during my ill-fated attempt to train for the Portland marathon, I kind of gave up on myself. It's hard when you have the drive to do the training but your body betrays you. After that happened, I sort of went into a downward spiral and really struggled with depression for the rest of the year. Things went looking up in the fall (you might remember my short Fly Lady kick) but headed back into the basement this spring. It's hard to get excited about designing or blogging when all you want to do is sleep all day...

I feel like I'm getting back under control. I've started back on Weight Watchers and have dropped 5 lbs already in the last two weeks. I've decided that if I can't run a marathon, I'll walk one. My goal is now to walk the Portland Marathon in 2009. I've also decided to see if I can get a last-minute team together for the Portland to Coast walk relay (if you're in the area and have any interest, e-mail me!) since I won't be able to get the training in for this year's marathon. It's amazing how much difference a change in diet can make. Maybe Tom Cruise was right and all we depressed women need is more vitamins! (Um, I'm joking, BTW - I will NEVER agree with TC on that one...).

I even got motivated to finally make a long-delayed dentist appointment! I'm not looking forward to that one... I'm sure I've got at least one cavity hiding in there (plus I live in fear of being told that I can't put off having my wisdom teeth out any more). Wish me luck!

Yeccchhhh!

So, I've been gone for 10 days (from blogging, anyway). Did you miss me? Probably not. I've been hit with one thing after another lately - first a stomach bug and now a nasty spring cold that has me constantly feeling like I'm going to sneeze. Even when I finally do squeeze a sneeze out, that tickle immediately comes back. No fun. The good news is that all of this down time has gotten me a lot of knitting time. I've been spending the last 10 days knitting and watching loads of junk TV. I'm now completely obsessed with both Celebrity Fit Club and The Real Housewives of New York City. Sadly, The Real Housewives just ended but there's at least one more episode of Celebrity Fat-I-mean-Fit Club.

While I sit on the sofa and watch people working out, Bill was busy actually working out - he ran the Boston Marathon on Monday morning. He finished in 4:37:26, which he wasn't overly happy with (he was on track for a 4-hour finish at the half-marathon point but had to walk much of the last bit due to various muscular issues). He also forgot to put on his sunscreen and ended up with a horrible sunburn on the top of his shaved head and his shoulders. Poor baby! Not to mention he's been fighting my same cold. It doesn't help that it seems like spring will never come to Portland - we're still getting hail on almost a daily basis and it's in the 40s every morning when I get up.

All this illness meant that I missed the premier event of Portland's knitting social scene - the Yarn Harlot's reading at the World Forestry Center last night. I'd even switched my work schedule so that I had the night off to go see her, but I ended up dragging my sorry carcass home early and going to bed. It's a bummer, especially now that fellow Portlanders are starting to blog about how much fun they had (sorry to flake out on you Amanda, but I'm glad you still made it!). Don't you feel bad for me?

I'm now going to continue feeling sorry for myself, turn up the heat, brew some Throat Comfort tea and watch the rest of the new episode of Work Out. Did I mention how much I love to sit on the couch and knit while watching OTHER PEOPLE exercise?

Three years!

My baby boy turned 3 on Friday! Wow! I can't believe that the past three years have gone by so quickly. We had a little family-only party on Friday night. See if you can figure out the theme...





Bill had control of the camera most of the night. I'm not sure what was up with this picture, which I just discovered when downloading the pics onto my laptop...



On Saturday afternoon, we finally got around to having Sydney's birthday party. It was a joint Sydney/Owen party, really, but since Owen doesn't really have any friends that aren't younger siblings of Sydney's friends, he was the only boy amongst a sea of little girls. He didn't mind at all.



We even managed to get through the day without any injuries! I was worried that balls would get dropped on toes, but all the kids were pretty good about it. Even this one...



Sydney even managed to get a couple of strikes (and so did I)! We might have to go bowling more often.

Back in the real world, another free-pattern-disappearance debacle has hit the online knitting world. This time, it looks like Interweave has pulled a bunch of free patterns from its website. It's citing the new contract that it has with its designers, which specifically covers digital rights (rights to publish our patterns on their website for free or for paid download), but from looking at my own particular contract, I think that might be oversimplification (since from my extremely legally-inept reading of the contract, they retained whatever rights they had previously if they decide to exercise them). Of course, I can only speak for my own contract and I have no idea what other designers have negotiated.

I love Interweave, I'll say that loud and up-front. They're the only knitting magazine I bother to submit to anymore and the new contract is very fair and good for designers. However, the way Interweave has handled the taking down of several free patterns is quickly turning into a customer relations issue. There are apparently certain patterns that were listed in the magazine's table of contents but were not included in the print magazine - they were web-only content. Now, due to the new contract (or so Interweave says), many of these patterns have been pulled. Subscribers to the magazine or, especially, people who bought a particular issue just to get one of those patterns (thinking, logically, that they were in the magazine since they were listed in the table of contents both in the front of the magazine and on the website) are understandably miffed.

It's unfortunate that Interweave didn't figure out a way to grandfather these particular patterns in. I don't know if the designers of these patterns insisted that they be taken off the website (it's really not fair or safe to assume either way). I do think that Interweave messed up a bit in its quest to get digital rights that it didn't have for older patterns (it seems that the new contract helped to clarify digital rights that could've been legally questionable and get the right to release earlier patterns that were under contracts that did not cover digital rights at all). In trying to get digital rights for older patterns, they may have inadvertently shot themselves in the foot with the newer patterns that they already had digital rights to. Since I don't know the specifics behind the contracts for the web-only designs (apart from my own), I can't say if the designer protested at the idea of a particular design being released for free on the Interweave website or not.

I do know that my one web-only pattern from Interweave, the Winding Cable Knee Socks, is no longer available as a free pattern from the main website (although it still remains at an old link, for the moment anyway, and that's just fine with me) even though I never said specifically to remove it. In the new contract, we were asked to list all of our patterns and say what we wanted done with them. For some reason, I assumed that since the Winding Cable socks were already a free pattern on the website they'd stay that way, so I left them off the list entirely. It looks like that resulted in them getting pulled. There's also no stipulation for an indefinite "free" term for a pattern - the contract asks for permission to release a pattern for free for one month for an additional fee. This is very fair for new patterns, but I personally wouldn't expect it to apply to patterns that were previously released as free web patterns. In my mind, anything that goes up on the web for free, I write off as an advertising expense. I'm not expecting to be able to sell that design anytime in the future.

It's all very messy, and I hope it doesn't result in Interweave being muddied too badly. They are ultimately trying to do right by their designers (at least, the people at Interweave itself are - I really have no idea about their parent company, Aspire Media). People really get up-in-arms about the disappearance of their free patterns! It's unfortunate, because the more complaining that goes on, the less likely it is that designers or publishers will offer free content. Yes, publishers are businesses, and if free patterns cause lots of grief without bringing in new customers, they won't offer them. No matter how much they love knitting. However, I do agree that it's reasonable for people to expect a pattern that is listed in a magazine's table of contents to be available to them somehow. It will be interesting to see how Interweave smooths this over.

Now, on to happier subjects, my two MagKnits refugees that will continue to be offered for free are now up over on the new online mag Knotions. Go to the patterns page and you should see them. Jody, the founder of this new and brilliant online publication, graciously offered to quickly tech edit and format these designs and host them - thank you to her! Yes, she gets some free designs out of the deal, but it also takes the heat off of me to get these available in workable format for people who are impatiently waiting to knit them. I'm more than happy to send some traffic her way in thanks for that.

I'm off to watch the end of Election and knit on the never-ending sleeve of the notorious ribbed monster. I've got to hurry up and finish it, because I've got five (yes, five!) projects that are due to various Interweave publications at the end of May. Five! I just hope my fingers are up to it...

RIP, MagKnits

Hmm, another RIP post. I hope this isn't going to be a trend! The knitting world lost one of its online mags this week - MagKnits, home to my very first published pattern, is no more. I won't get into the ugly details, but I do want to let you know what's happening with the three patterns I had published there.

My first dilemma was whether to continue offering these patterns for free, or convert them to my standard pattern format (which has added bonuses such as pretty colors and lots of text) and offer them for sale in my regular pattern line. The copyright always remained with the designers for these patterns, so that wasn't an issue. I had always written them off, though, because copyright to a design that's offered in free internet archives indefinitely is sort of tough to sell anywhere else. Now that the archives weren't an issue, I wasn't sure what to do.

There are some knitters who get really irritated at the idea of having to pay for something that once was free. They figure I got paid $50 (or yarn, or advertising) for my design - isn't that plenty? They don't realize that the pattern needs to be reformatted and re-tech edited since what we submitted was an originaly unedited document. If I wanted to offer it in my print pattern line, I'd need to charge for it to cover paper costs, etc.

Ultimately, I decided that I will be offering two of the patterns for free via Knotions, a new online knitting magazine whose editor graciously offered to format and edit all homeless MagKnits patterns and put them up on her site this weekend. If she's not completely overwhelmed, Kaibashira and Ziggy will find a new home there very soon (and I won't feel like I need to reformat them, have them edited and put them up on my website as downloads any time soon, although ultimately I would like to do so).

In case you've forgotten, Kaibashira:



and Ziggy (my very first published pattern):



I redid Ziggy's chart, since in the original version it wasn't very clear (I didn't have good charting software like I do now).

I am going to split the difference and publish the third pattern, my Vegan Suede Vest in my print line and charge for it. It wasn't overly popular, but I think I can rework it in different colors and different yarn (the original was Berroco Suede) and it will do much better. I'm currently thinking Cascade Sierra and ditching the lace-up front... We'll see when that happens!

Here's the original version of VSV:



Since this pattern was paid for with the yarn used to knit it and it took me FOREVER to grade, I don't feel bad at all about charging for this one now.

In other exciting news, the projects for Columbus are moving right along. I've got a preview page up with a few of the new designs that I've managed to photograph but we've got a bunch more in the hopper (keep checking the preview page for updates if you're impatient).

I'm also extremely excited to announce that Gardiner Yarn Works will be distributing Caffaknitted patterns by Katie Park. These are the cutest things EVER and I'm so excited to be able to give her wider distribution. I'm a little afraid of having the samples at my house, though (they're going with us to Columbus), because my kids are going to go absolutely nuts when they see them. I'm quite sure I'll be talked into making them their very own set.

Now I'm back to the never-ending pattern grading. This one isn't a raglan but has a stitch pattern (ribbing, if you can believe it) that's giving me quite the time of it. When you see the finished item, you'll see why. Even the seeming simple designs take some thought and foresight, as I found out when I joined the shoulders on this particular garment and realized that the ribbing didn't line up at all from front to back. Whoopsie!

Design #2

Can you believe it? Second week of April, 2nd design! I am on fahr! Maybe it's the release of the new book More Big Girl Knits which has two of my designs in it, looking fabulous. Not only that, but I was given props for my sock design, Twisty Stitch Socks, during Jillian's interview on the Knitgrrl Show (Shannon Okey's podcast/radio show)! I nearly fell off my chair when I listened to it today. Anyway, here's the second design idea for you:



This is a simple little shell/vest with an eyelet spiral pattern twisting around the body. The bottom has a picot hem and it would be, of course, knit in the round to the armholes. The edgings for the neck and armholes would be a simple pick up stitches around and then bind off (alternately, single crochet) so as not to add any bulk.

Here's a close-up of the swatch:



The yarn used for the swatch is Terra from The Fibre Company. It is a gorgeous, amazing yarn but I wouldn't use it for this design because it is ridiculously expensive. Great for a design in a book where the yarn gets sent to me, not so good for an individual pattern leaflet. Instead, I have a few potential subsitutes, all yarns looking for a good project:



The orangey yarn on the left is Cascade Lana de Oro, the pink in the middle is Cascade Pastazza and the yellow is Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb. Hmm...

It's sort of strange to be putting these ideas out there with the idea of having them voted on - I love them all (which is why they're getting picked for this little exercise)! I suppose there's nothing stopping me from working them up anyway, unless y'all hate them or something.

In other news, I'm sad to report that I'm going to be leaving my lovely day job at Dublin Bay Knitting Company at the end of April. It just got to be too much and Bill finally put his foot down. Not that he has much hope that I'll stop working all them time on Gardiner Yarn Works stuff, but at least I'll be home more often and maybe a little less stressed out! I'll still be teaching some classes there, and maybe subbing when someone's out on vacation, but I won't be working there regularly anymore. It has been a great experience, but I have to admit I'll be happy to have my Saturdays back!

We're still busily searching for a preschool for Owen. I've pretty much talked myself into the benefits of sending Sydney to the neighborhood elementary school (there was some last-minute waffling and wringing of hands, but I think I'm pretty much convinced that it's the right choice). We visited a great Montessori school last week but they don't actually have any openings and for some reason, it really annoyed me that they charged a non-refundable $200 application fee (as in, if space never opened up, you still don't get your money back). Bill reminded me that it's just like your college applications - you don't expect to get that back if you don't get in, but for some reason it feels different. I don't know that we would've put Owen in that school anyway due to the fact that it's still a bit of a drive through an area that has terrible traffic in the afternoons. Next week we're visiting one that's just a few blocks away - that sounds much better to me!

I need to keep reminding myself that I'm choosing between a bunch of things that are all good options. It's not like if I make the wrong choice the kids will be resigned to going to Portland Community College and if I make the right choice they'll end up at Harvard. And, going beyond that, so what if they do end up at PCC if they're happy with it? I'd much rather these two grow up to be happy than grow up to be successful (well, I'd love it if they were both, but I'll take happiness over success any day).

I just realized I've hardly done any knitting today! I haven't picked up any of the projects sitting around except for a few rounds on a sock while at the drive-thru at Starbucks. No wonder I feel twitchy! Today was spent photographing, updating web pages, formatting ads (who knew I was going to end up doing graphic design along with everything else?), dealing with the never-ending river of e-mails, updating my profitability analysis (we're doing relatively well here - not yet profitable, but the idea of someday becoming profitable no longer sends me into fits of laughter), picking up Knitalong, More Big Girl Knits and the new Yarn Harlot book (in preparation for her visit on the 22nd) at Powell's, and squaring away our train tickets to Seattle for Sea Socks. Is that enough detail for you? And for breakfast I had a venti caramel mocha and half a cinnamon-raisin bagel with cream cheese...

Bill's distracting me with his yelling at the tv - the NCAA final game just ended in a tie, so I'm going to go join him to watch overtime and DO SOME #$@#&$^ KNITTING!