Endless activity and irony

So I'm currently reaping the rewards for slacking off most of the last half of 2008. I've been at my computer for what feels like a month straight (although it has actually only been a few days). It has been seriously cold out, so I haven't braved the bike. Not to mention, I totally jinxed myself by saying it wasn't going to snow again until next winter. The day after I posted that, this is what I woke up to:



How karmic! And yesterday, as I was feeling guilty about not wanting to bike Owen to school because it was too chilly for delicate little old me, fat flakes started to fall. By the time we pulled out of the driveway, there was a couple inches on the ground. It's all melted now, but we've seen more snow this winter than we did the previous four years we've been here combined. Love that global climate change! Portland might actually have to buy a few more plows if this keeps up...

Not that the snow has affected my activity much. These past few days have been all about pattern formatting, printing, putting more paper in the printer, printing, putting more ink in the printer, printing, putting patterns in sheet protectors for a couple hours, checking the printer to make sure it's still going, endlessly cropping photos in Photoshop for the website, coding and recoding the web pages (all the new designs are up now - yay!), discovering that my pdf versions of the patterns had "printed on 100% recycled paper" at the bottom and deciding that that wouldn't do, opening all 50+ InDesign pattern files so I could recreate the pdfs with a cute little line about not printing or printing on recycled paper (which I'm hoping is indeed cute rather than annoyingly preachy), then when on "Walk in the Woods Socks" (after working through the pattern list alphabetically) discovering that instead of "pattern" I had put "catalog" in the footer necessitating a revamp of all pdfs created so far to include the appropriate wording...

It goes on and on. I haven't showered or changed in days, I'm begging Bill to take the kids to school and cook dinner (we broke down and ordered Thai food last night because I didn't make either the split pea soup or quiche I was planning to - which reminds me, I need to get the split pea soup in the crock pot or we're going to have the same problem tonight...). I see the light at the end of the tunnel now, but it's still distant. Not to mention I still have the regular household maintenance tasks of cooking, baking and laundry, and I need to start planning my garden so I can get seeds ordered in anticipation of the fast-approaching "last frost" date on the calendar at the end of February...

This morning my list of tasks includes shipping a trunk show featuring 10 of our lace designs off to Sticks & Strings in Scarsdale, NY (it will be there for the first 3 weeks in Feb - if you're in the area, be sure to check it out!), after figuring out how to laminate hang tags for all the samples and getting the remaining patterns in sheet protectors. Then I need to reformat several patterns to say "Distributed by Cascade Yarns" and print out a *large* order to ship up to Cascade. Of course I've nearly run out of sheet protectors, so that means I'll need to make myself presentable and head over to Costco to pick up several more boxes. I'm also trying to get the rest of the website updated to talk about our trunk show program. It's not enough to just add a blurb about the trunk shows on my wholesale page - no, I somehow decided last night that I need a new page for prospective retailers as well as a new page only for trunk shows. And I'm probably going to feel the need to add a page on the consumer side so that knitters know where the trunk shows are going to be so they can go visit them. Whew! I need an assistant (know one who will work for free or for yarn?).

But enough of my whingeing. I've got split pea soup to make! Can you believe that my daughter who won't touch most healthy food with a 10-foot pole actually loves split pea soup? She's an odd duck, that one...

Naniboujou at Naniboujou!

I've been meaning to share these pics for awhile but it's hard to fit everything in when you only blog twice a month. Therefore, in keeping with my New Year's resolution to blog more, I've decided not to wait until weeks have passed before posting again.

My mom & step-dad visited Naniboujou Lodge over New Year's and Mark was kind enough to e-mail me these pictures of Mom modeling the socks (the very same socks pictured in Knitty) at their namesake lodge.



Don't you love that giant fireplace? Here's a great view of the incredible dining room ceiling:



And here's the beachfront that the lodge faces:



Isn't it delightfully grey and gloomy? I love the beach in the wintertime with the big dark waves and icy rocks. No sunbathing on that vacation, I'm sure! It has been such a delight to get so many e-mails from people who have a connection to Naniboujou Lodge. Mom showed the owners the pattern during their visit and they seemed quite delighted even though they are not knitters. If you ever have a reason to vacation in northern MN, it's a great place to stay!

I'm currently in the midst of a frenzy of pattern printing, editing, e-mailing, re-photographing and website updating. I know I promised to give some sneak peeks of the newest designs, so here are a few of my favorites.

From new GYW designer Leila Wice, these are Fancy Pants, modeled by the way-too-adorable Imogene.



This shot was SO cute it made the cover of our new catalog. We also started distributing a new line of felted crochet patterns from designer Sharon Braden who lives south of Portland. She's got four different animals, but I have to say the sheep is my favorite.



(You can also make it in black.)



Most of the new designs for this go-round were done by others since I was busy working on socks for the book and, let's face it, slacking off. I did manage to get a couple things into the pattern line. First for baby, the Entrelac Baby Sacque (thanks to my tech editor Amy for suggesting I spell "sacque" en francais):



This is a design I've had in my head for a couple of years but never got around to putting it down in yarn. After my obsession with the Garterlac Dishcloth, I decided to finally get off my duff and just do it already. It was, of course, pretty darn fast since babies are nice and compact.

The second design is one I started working on in the airport on the way home from TNNA in Columbus last June. I finished it and it sat on my office shelf (and sat, and sat) until I finally decided to just write it up (it took all of about half an hour - what was I waiting for?). I named it "Snow Day" since it was formatted right around the time we had our massive snowstorm. Unfortunately I didn't get around to photographing it in the snow - maybe next year because we're NOT going to have any more snow in Portland this year, right?



And now it's back to work with me. I'll let you know when I get the website updated with ALL the designs and a few new shops. I'll get it done one of these days, really!

New New Year's Resolution and TNNA post-mortem

Having not blogged since Jan 12 (which Blogger so helpfully informs me when I log in), I've decided that another of my resolutions for 2009 is to BLOG MORE THAN TWICE A MONTH. I know that there are so many blogs out there (among other distractions *cough*Ravelry*cough*), if I'm not careful I really am only going to be writing to my mom! Not that I don't love my mom (and quite often I write as if I am only talking to her, which can be trouble), but I do adore people who tell me they read my blog. I still can't believe anyone does, besides Mom, and I know she mainly reads it for info on the grandkids. Here's to you, blog readers who aren't related to me by blood or marriage!

So the big event in the past week has, of course, been TNNA in San Diego. My intrepid business partner Donna and I headed south in the deluxe party van last Wednesday and didn't look back. We found ourselves in a very scary hotel in Sacramento (or, rather, Rancho Cordova, on the outskirts of Sac), right next door to a Hooters. We had a very nice dinner at Chipotle, which I never get to go to due to Bill's refusal to eat Mexican food with its generous lacing of onions and peppers. Fortunately, Donna is pro-salsa so we got to eat Mexican several times over the course of the week. After surviving the night with our door firmly dead-bolted, we had a lovely drive through the central valley of California and were enthusiastically welcoming the thought of hitting San Diego by dinnertime. And then we hit LA.

After driving by my old house in Stevenson Ranch (about 30 miles north of downtown LA) and gassing up the car, we stupidly headed down I-5 into the heart of the beast. I should've known to take the old shortcut (when we commuted from Stevenson Ranch to downtown, we had a longer-but-faster circle around the horrendous I-5 traffic) but for some reason it didn't click that traffic would be pretty bad at 4:30 on a Thursday. 5 hours later, we arrived exhausted at our hotel in San Diego. Needless to say, neither of us was dying to move back to southern California, even if the weather was lovely all weekend.

Friday was booth set-up, and as this is our third TNNA (along with the two retail shows we did last year), we felt like old pros. Everyone who'd seen us at previous shows said our booth looked fantastic this year. Here's a little peek (taken with my Blackberry, so forgive the dark blurriness - high-rez it is not!):







On Friday night, we watched the fashion show and were quite delighted at how wonderful our Kiwassa Shawl looked on the stage. There were some interesting entries in the show, including a gorgeous crocheted wedding dress and a pair of knitted boxers (about which the poor model was a very good sport - the sole male model at these shows gets LOTS of attention from the mostly-female crowd, especially when he appears on stage in knitted underwear and nothing else...). After the show, we decided to blow off all social engagements and went back to the hotel to crash. I was lucky enough to be comfortable sleeping with earplugs, but Donna got to listen to the partying Marines who set up shop right outside our door for several hours.

The rest of the weekend was spent manning the booth, peddling our wares, and connecting and reconnecting with shop owners, other designers, yarn company folk and various publishers. It was very fun (but exhausting) and I feel like I've got my design mojo back, finally. Cat Bordhi stopped by to check on book progress and I was able to show her the sock I was working on. Myrna Stahman (of shaped shawl and lace fame), who is another self-publishing mentor and design director at Buffalo Gold, brought me to the Buffalo Gold booth where she and the owners shoved a pile of lovely yarn at me (including their buffalo sock yarn which is incredibly soft and yummy!). However, the highlight of the weekend was when Iris Schreier of Artyarns (who happens to also be an incredible designer) came over to our booth to tell me she was a fan of my designs and she'd love for me to do some patterns with her yarns! I just about fell over. She took me back to the Artyarns booth where she managed to show me a few things before she was mobbed by shop owners (despite the bad economy, her booth was NEVER quiet - it's good stuff, that!). Of course the problem I have in a booth like that is I can't focus because everywhere I look is something I want to knit with. It's hard to zone in on one thing that I could actually do something with in a reasonable amount of time as opposed to saying "I'll take one of everything!" and then fantasizing about filling my living room with beaded silk and cashmere so I can roll around in it while the kids are at school.

The show was relatively successful for us, considering the state of the economy. We weren't mobbed by any stretch of the imagination, but we picked up several new shops and got good reorders from some of our favorite returning customers. Now I've got to get a bunch of work done, including finishing up the last touches on the new designs, updating the website and of course the giant task of printing and shipping the new orders. I also want to send out newsletters to both shops and knitters and create our budget for next year so I can figure out where we're going to advertise. Good thing we turned off cable - maybe I'll actually be able to get something done! We also sprang for a new adult-and-kid exercise machine - it's something to keep the kids busy while I'm doing all this work, anyway!



Next up...a preview of the new designs, including those adorable felted animal purses you can glimpse in the booth pictures. Crocheters, pay attention!

Eeep!

Wow, has it really been 10 days? I have been in a TNNA-prep frenzy the past couple of weeks. I'm such a procrastinator that it only seems I can get things done when I have a deadline looming. Despite the odds, I think I've managed to pull it off yet again. Of course, I still have a couple patterns to format and get to the test knitters and tech editors, but those are just minor details, right? I've got the catalog done, the order forms back from the printer and all the samples but one, ready to travel to San Diego. I've got 100 copies of the catalog to staple and a few minor little signs and doo-dads to format and print up before we leave, but I'm feeling pretty good in general. Tomorrow will be all about baking up the road snacks.

My eating whole foods kick is still going strong. For the road, I've already made a pan of chocolate chip granola bars, and I've got a big pot of cooked quinoa on the stove with which I will make lemon-garlic quinoa salad (some to take with and some to leave here to feed the refugees/family) and quinoa herb bread. I'm planning to make some chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies, a big batch of granola for the kids to eat while I'm gone, some crackers and hummus, and some black bean brownies. We'll see if I manage to get it all done...

We've had some sad news and some happy news here at the Gardiner house. The sad news is that my grandfather passed away two days ago from pneumonia. He has been suffering from Parkinson's and in a nursing home for the past 10 years, so his passing was not unexpected and it was certainly his time. My mom, aunt and uncle were all there with him, although he suffers from dementia and may not have known who they were. I'm very sad that I can't make it home for the funeral, but of course it's being held this weekend, the one weekend this month (or last, or next) that I absolutely can't make it. I will be with him and my family in thought and spirit, though, for sure.

On to the happy news...



Yup, Sydney lost her first tooth! It was quite the event - she was eating a pear and it just popped right out. I was worried at first that she'd swallowed it because we had some trouble finding it (but no worries - it was in her lap and the tooth fairy very generously left her $1 in quarters as a reward). I can't believe that my baby girl is old enough to be getting her grown-up teeth!

I also tried to get some shots of Sydney in her new Little Cable Hoodie that she got for Christmas. This is what passes for posing nicely in our house...







It's time for me to get back to my packing and stapling, but rest assured that new designs are forthcoming and I'll let you know when I get a chance to update the website with them. You never know...it could happen tomorrow (or it could be 3 weeks from now)!

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again - it's always fascinating to me to go back and look at the resolutions I made the previous year because my life often ends up changing so much that what I was focused on at the beginning of the year might be totally irrelevant by the start of the next. Case in point - at the start of 2004 I'd just finished reading the Rich Dad series of financial independence tomes. The focus heavily on real estate investment, so I became obsessed with figuring out how to buy a rental property. Several of my resolutions for that year involved taking steps towards that goal. Never mind that we lived in Southern California near the height of the real estate boom and didn't have an extra hundred grand sitting under our mattress... Needless to say, at the end of 2004, we were planning our move to Portland, I was six months pregnant with Owen, and priorities had shifted.

I don't remember making formal resolutions for 2008. For several years, Bill and I would sit down at the start of the year, make our 10 resolutions each (and another 10 family resolutions), and then he'd laminate a little card for each of us to carry in our wallet. He's out running errands (he made the mistake of asking me if I needed him to do anything while he was out and ended up with several boxes to drop off at Goodwill as well as library books to drop off/pick up) so I can't ask him if we ever did that last year. It would be interesting to see how much priorities have shifted in the past year. I'm thinking it might not be as much now that our lives are relatively stable. We've been in our house for 4 years now (a record for us, the couple who didn't live anywhere more than a year in our previous 5 years of togetherness), we're relatively content with our lifestyle and don't feel the need to do anything radically different (like start investing in real estate). Most of my resolutions for the next year involve a sharpening focus on home and health (of both my family and the planet).

1) Cook and eat whole foods almost exclusively (as in, don't buy it in a box if I can make it myself), which I've been doing already for the past couple months with great success.

2) Spend a minimum of two days per week without driving the car.

3) Limit purchases to essentials in all odd-numbered months, waiting a minimum of 2 weeks before making big purchases of non-essential durable goods in even-numbered months. This came about when listening to a financial expert on NPR the other day - she advised limiting purchases to things like food, electricity, gas, etc. for a month and keeping close track of what you do buy. I don't think I could do a whole year of not buying anything new, but I can probably do a month. The goal is to eliminate those impulse buys that I'm so very good at.

4) Find the joy in my knitting again. I think I made this one last year, too, and it the joy has certainly come and gone repeatedly during 2008. The most joyful things I've made this year have been gifts for family - slipper socks for Bill, mittens and a hat for Owen, a sweater for Sydney and socks for my mom. I need to make sure I take time to knit for pleasure as well as for my business. The favorite thing I made for myself? A crochet tawashi (a little circular dish scrubbie) that I whipped up in an evening as a replacement for my plastic sponge habit.

5) Watch a maximum of an hour of television a day and instead focus on books and radio. I've been reading a lot lately and realizing how much I've missed it. When my knitting obsession began, I pretty much stopped reading all together. Lately, I've been a library regular and have no trouble keeping my hold queue stocked up to the 15 item limit.

That's a few of the things I want to focus on for 2009, along with a pie-in-the-sky goal of walking the Portland Marathon this fall. Training to run the marathon didn't work very well, but I just might be able to walk it. We'll see how it goes - I might decide I want to do bike tours instead.

Happy 2009, y'all!