Calling all PDX knitters...

I know, I know - two blog posts in one day? It's crazy, but I wanted to mention this awesome sock club that's opening tomorrow morning with a very limited number of slots. It's local dyers and designers, and the coolest thing is that every other month, the dyer/designer for that month's project will meet with the folks in the club for lunch at Gino's in SE Portland (the awesome restaurant of sock-club organizer Deb Accuardi). It's called the Community Sock Club, because the members will be meeting in person and hopefully building a little sub-community of Portland-area knitters. Such a rad idea!

Just what I needed!

So, after I have my little freak-outs, life almost always seems to turn the corner soon after. At the high point of the freak-out, it seems like things are completely unmanageable and will always be that way. Then, at some point, I tell myself that it's not worth it, and it's okay if I just walk away. Nobody's going to die if I suddenly stop writing patterns or tinkering with my website. People will still learn to knit socks if I'm not there to teach them. As soon as I think about quitting, and realize that I can, I mellow out and realize that I don't want to quit. And I re-admit to myself how lucky I am to be living this life. Positive thinking begets more positive thinking, and the sun comes back out.

Yesterday, after a mostly-sleepless night brought on by restless children and too-hot-to-sleep weather, I taught a 6-hour toe-up sock workshop to a fabulous, fun bunch of students and came home feeling fired-up again. There was a little box waiting for me, and inside it were 5 copies of this!



Even though I've printed out multiple book-like copies of the book, there's nothing like seeing a glossy bound copy to take your breath away. It's so cool. Here are a few shots from the inside:







And the back cover...



Of course, the actual book will look slightly different - it will be a little smaller (8" x 10" instead of 8-1/2" x 11") and have some additional edits, but all-in-all, I got to hold my book for the first time yesterday. It was pretty awesome.

Not to mention, I managed to score a couple great blurbs for the back, one from Clara Parkes and one from Cat Bordhi. Of course, I sort of have an "in" with Cat since she's my self-publishing mentor and role model, but I was still quite honored and delighted that she liked the book so much. Just because she was my teacher doesn't mean she'd automatically love my book... Here's what will be added to the back cover:

A veritable toe-up masterclass complete with helpful worksheets, well-illustrated technique tutorials, and 15 fresh and varied patterns from someone who is truly passionate about socks.
- Clara Parkes, KnittersReview.com, author of The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and The Knitter’s Book of Wool

Any knitter will succeed and thrive under Chrissy’s tutelage in this comprehensive and impeccably organized course in toe-up socks, with its generous menu of heels, toes, custom worksheets, and stunning original designs.
- Cat Bordhi, author of New Pathways for Sock Knitters and Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles

High praise from two of my idols! I'm starting to think that this little book might just do okay.

I've got to go get poor Bill some coffee - he was up all night with Owen, who is suffering from some mighty allergies and gushing bloody noses in the wee hours. Poor little guy wakes up looking like he's been in a boxing match. I'm so glad Sydney seems to have missed out on the allergy gene...

Freaking out!

So I had a major meltdown this evening. I'm dealing with this giant pattern order, and of course I ran out of ink in the middle. Then, I've got the book to contend with, including the not-so-small problem of paying for printing. To top it all off, Sock Summit registration opened this morning (and pretty much sold out within the first hour). This is good, since I was totally worried that nobody would sign up for my classes (and that fear was totally unfounded - my classes sold out along with everyone else's). But it also means I have to get my butt in gear and get my class materials together.

If this knitting-related madness wasn't enough, I have to teach a recycling class to 30 preschoolers tomorrow morning, something for which I am completely unprepared. What am I doing to get ready? Downing a bottle of wine and listening to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at much too high of a volume.

I have a bunch of garden pictures to blog, but they're stuck inside my camera. We worked almost all weekend on the front yard, and it's looking pretty darn good. The biggest issue is space - I've still got sage, basil, cucumbers and a couple of errant zucchini plants to fit in. We gave the neighbors some sugar pumpkin starts that had sprouted in our asparagus patch from the pumpkin I tossed off the front porch last fall. Aren't volunteer veggies the best?

In the all-consuming world that is book prep, I managed to spent this evening putting together the book website (go there and click on the cover thumbnail, and you can see some of the gorgeous pattern pics that will be in the book). I think it turned out okay - the best thing is that I did a final round of edits on the book today, and it's looking DARN good, if I do say so myself. Every bit of feedback that I've gotten has been over-the-top positive, so I'm slowly admitting to myself that it might actually be a winner. Yay!

Now I've got to stop typing because I know that too much wine and too-loose fingers are not the best combo. Time to go to bed and mentally prep for those 30 preschoolers, expecting to learn something about recycling... I'm going to take a handful of stuff from the worm bin and dazzle them with the squirmy wormies. Preschoolers are pretty easily amused, right? Wish me luck!

Who says triangular shawls are only for little old ladies?

Yes, there's this perception out there that triangular lace shawls are something only a little old lady would wear. My girl Sarah from Knot Another Hat disagrees. At the TKGA show this past weekend, she was rockin' the Toe the Line shawl with her new purple hair. You can see photos on her blog (and enter a contest to win lace yarn and pattern of your choice).

Triangular shawls...they won't magically turn you into a little old lady. On the other hand, I would love to see a little old lady in a Toe the Line rockin' some purple hair!

PS - since I have such a hard time blogging these days, I'm going to give Twitter a try. You can follow me there at @knittinmom. Tweet tweet! Facebook is up next...in all my free time.

Eep! I'm on Amazon!

My book is inching ever closer to reality. It's now available for pre-order on Amazon!



Crazy! We've got a booth at the TKGA show in Portland this weekend (if you're there, be sure to say hi!), so I've been able to show the proof to several of my friends. So far, the feedback is all good (but of course, they have to say nice things because they're my friends). I really hope that it will be a useful, happy-making book for many, many sock knitters. Woo-hoo!

Someone else's knitting...

Since I don't have any knitting of my own to show you, I have to resort to showing other people's knitting. Namely, Grumperina, who is making new samples of a couple of my designs.

She's finished a new version of Kiwassa in Schaeffer Andrea, and she's currently knitting along on a new Path of Flowers in Mountain Colors Winter Lace. The Path of Flowers is going to photograph SO much better in the dark color than it did in the original fuzzy orange Kidsilk Haze. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I'm currently in a sort of stupor - I don't know exactly what to do next, so I end up not doing anything. To help matters, I've gone cold turkey off caffeine, so my head feels like it's going to explode. Plus, Owen is home sick from school and making me crazy. He's too sick to go to school, but he doesn't feel bad enough to slow down much. This is his third day home, and it's really making me dread summer vacation!

Yes, I'm still alive!

But just barely...and only through super-human effort. Does anyone else feel like April was only two weeks long? I can't believe how quickly this spring has gone. And yet, when I look back on all I've gotten done, I can't believe it wasn't longer. It's amazing what you can get done when the cable's turned off and you're actually applying yourself. I often wondered, back when I was a corporate slave and doing the bare minimum, what I could accomplish if I actually worked to my best ability (I estimated I probably did about 4 hours of actual full-on work per day, apart from the weeks where things were really cooking, and still managed to get glowing performance reviews which made me wonder what everyone else was doing!). Now that I'm working for myself, I'm discovering that it's quite a lot! I've discovered that I am one of those people who should not work for others if I want to realize my full potential...

Of course, now that I've blogged this, I'll never get another job in corporate America because my potential employers will be able to Google this and find out what a slacker I really am. On the other hand, I was able to perform beyond expectations in just 4 hours a day! I'm not planning on rejoining the wage slave racket anytime soon, so I guess it's a moot point. I'd rather sell the cars, plant more vegetables in our already overrun yard and homeschool the kids than go back to the office!

But I digress. I'm sure you're much more interested in pattern/book progress, which is chugging right along. Gail and I did the final (hopefully!) photo shoot for the book yesterday. I've spent countless hours tinkering with the formatting and have it in nearly-final shape to be sent off for a final proof. Review copies will go out soon. It will go up on Amazon for preorders in the next month or so. I'm starting to plan a few workshops - I'll be visiting Yarn Harbor in Duluth, MN for a toe-up workshop and book signing the last weekend of August, and I'll be doing a heel workshop and book signing sometime in early September at Knot Another Hat in Hood River. Everyone WILL be knitting toe-up socks by the time I've fully implemented my plan for toe-up world domination! (evil laugh here)

But seriously, things are going very well but are ridiculously busy. If you're at the Portland TKGA show next weekend, stop by our booth (61, right next to the knitting comic books). And forgive me if I'm totally glazed over - I find myself unable to complete a sentence on a regular basis these days. I won't be half surprised when smoke comes pouring out of my ears and the old brain just refuses to go any further. Whew!