Working on my TNNA travel plans

I missed TNNA, Columbus last year and there is no way that I am missing it again!  Now that I have said that....TNNA couldn't have come at a worse time!  Every year the show hit around the 2nd weekend in June, which works for me.  This year, they changed it up a bit and delayed it until June 23 - 25th.
Drats - last day of school is the 21st (Education begins on the 21st and goes  through the 23rd) and then
Sunsplash (Younglife camp) is from June 25th - 28th.  That wouldn't be so bad if I weren't a leader!  It has also been a tradition that on the last night of school, my oldest girl has all of her friends over for a sleepover.  They get maybe 3 hours of sleep then get all dressed up for the last half day of school and between my husband and I, we haul all the girls to school in 2 cars.  It has been such a fun tradition and the girls look forward to this every year.  This year, however, it can't happen!  Then I will have to leave Sunday for home - giving me just one day at the exhibition so that I can be home by midnight - so I can depart the next morning for a camping trip with 75 kids!  Really????
The kicker of this entire trip is that the tickets have gone up a ton - a ton being about $125 from last year.  Damn - this recession is kicking my butt and so are the new dates!

Sometimes life just topples over itself.....

From sketch to publication

I always love seeing "behind" the scenes of a photoshoot or a cooking show to see what happens behind the camera and out of view to get the project from its inception to its final cut.  So here is a quick time line of what a magazine design may look like from start to finish.

1 of 3 submission pages

Last March (2011), I submitted this design sketch along with a detailed page description which includes everything from the inspiration, the construction details to the suggested yarns and colors.  I actually sent 2 sketches of 2 designs, the other one being a sleeveless pullover with the star stitch pattern being on the bust and a St st on the bodice.  The sleeveless pullover was yellow and the sleeveless vest was in blue.  I suggested either yellow or blue for the garment.

I swatch out the stitch pattern and attached a jpeg of the swatch to the publication company.  In the olden days, this swatch would have been mailed in to the company - but nowadays, a good picture is all that you need.

Upon acceptance (I think this was accepted within a month of submission), I had 2 months to complete it from start to finish including all schematics and 5 sizes written using the magazines style sheet.  I take a picture of the sweater and send the sweater, the yarn label with a piece of yarn attached and the pattern itself to the editor - and then pray that the sweater safely arrives to its destination!  My biggest fear is that it gets lost or damaged in transit!  This garment was sent to Creative Knitting in June - maybe July (can't remember now).

Normally I don't get to see this part of it - but Creative Knitting has been posting pictures onto Facebook of the Photoshoots (love seeing this part!).   This is just part of the photoshoot and these pictures were just posted a few weeks ago.

Here is the final picture of the sweater and the cover of the magazine which just hit newsstands this past month.  The sweater was returned to me along with a copy of the magazine.

Yarn used was Frog Tree Meriboo (MW).

So from submission to final publication - you are looking at almost a year! 

Awesome 15 minute photo shoot

I just had an amazing 15 minute photo shoot with a not quite yet 2 year old.  She is unbelievably cute for starters but she also doesn't move, flinch or make funny faces --- a good thing!  I can't wait to show off my new pics but they are for a magazine due out sometime in Fall - or late Fall - which just kills me!  I can't wait that long!

I'm so happy with the bundle of designs for this magazine and the numerous pictures I shot as well.

I also hate posting without a photo-----

Day 3 was another fab day at Madrona

The day began at 1:30, Madrona time.  I had a mini class with Nancy Merchant, author of Knitting Brioche.  Another awesome class!  Learned a new cast on and Brioche which I have played around with before but never got past the first few stitches without scrapping. 

Here is a swatch of my work.  I was just starting to work the Brioche in purl form - hence the reason for it all of a sudden looking wonky.

 Day gets even better when I find out that my knitting BFF is coming to meet with me for one last go round in the marketplace.  But before I can even respond to her text - I notice that my name has been drawn for a door prize!  I never, NEVER I tell you ever win anything!  I had quite a few to pick from but after help and guidance from my BFF, I chose the years subscription to Knitters Magazine.  Gotta love getting something in the mail every month!

We head back to the marketplace hoping to find some last minute treasure and low and behold, I found one!  The yarn is from Habu Textiles (NY) (www.habutextiles.com) and it comes on a cone.  It is 100% silk and it vaguely reminds me of thin twine.

Color is a mix of brown and grey with off white flecks.

My intention is to knit this tunic dress (Scarpetta by Kirsten Johnstone).  I wish I had taken a picture of the one in the booth, it showed better than the images below.

So - I spent more money, gained more knowledge and truly had a great afternoon with a friend.

Day 2 of Madrona - and even better!

So day 2 of Madrona started out with a 9 am morning class.  Not only did both girls make the bus - but I also found great parking and had plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and get situated. 

The Instructor was Elise Duvekot and she lives in the Netherlands.  She was an excellent instructor who knew how to run a class! 

Here is a swatch of my work.  I should have photographed the wrongside as I loved the back side more than the front side.  The class was Columns of Cables, knit 1 below and it was a technique that is easy to do once you understand it.  I fell in love with the technique as well as her designs - a few were utterly gorgeous like the sweater that alternated between a lace weight mohair with a bulky wool (it was gorgeous without the weight) and the socks.

 The socks were beautiful and her workmanship is impeccably perfect.  Classes like this inspire me to improve my knitting and try new techniques.  The class was spendy but worth every penny!

I have a mini class tomorrow on Brioche knitting with Nancy Merchant (author of Brioche knitting) and I have high expectations that it will be just as good as my class was today.

Stay tuned....I'll be posting again tomorrow!

Day 1 of Madrona and it was fabulous!

 Day 1 of Madrona is exactly what I expected ----tons of yarn, crowds of ladies wearing their favorite sweater, shawl or scarf and lots of oohhing and aahhing. 


My knitting gals and I love to carpool over and convince one another to buy buy buy whether we need it or not.  We're good at debating over which color looks best on who and what gadgets are a must.  We just like to spend each others money!  There is always one in our group that is easy to persuade and there is always the other one that needs a ton of convincing (that would be me!).  Then there is the one that knows exactly what she wants and she needs no help from anyone! Lastly - there is the one that doesn't think she's capable of knitting this or that and we spend the next hour convincing her that her knitting skills are much higher than she thinks they are!  Sadly - our 5th friend was busy volunteering at the elementary school and missed out on all of the fun!


So - my big purchase was this new yarn (or at least I have never seen it before).  The booth was Angora Vally Fibers & Fly Designs (www.angoravalley.com) out of Tenino, WA.  They had a bunch of machine knit socks and fingerless gloves knit up in this up in this felted Possum yarn.  Supposedly, the more you machine wash it (lay out to dry) - the fuzzier and softer it gets.  The socks were amazing and I couldn't stop looking at them.  So here's the details:
30% New Zealand Possum
50% Merino Wool
20% Nylon
525 yds at 100 grams for $25.00.  Enough to make a pair of socks. 

My other purchase - (don't worry, I still have 1/2 day classes on Friday and Saturday with time to shop some more!) were these stunning buttons from Black Water Abbey (www.abbeyyarns.com).  Now - I wasn't the first to see them - my girlfriend was.  My girlfriend has great taste by the way so when she slipped them back onto the rack - I snatched them up!  It was the last set too!  They say that they are Vintage Vegetable Ivory - whatever that means.  As a vegetarian, that means to me that no elephant was killed during the making of these Ivory buttons!  They are just stunning and I'm sure that I can find the perfect cardigan to go with these buttons.

After a grueling couple of hours of shopping - we headed to the Murano restaurant for some lunch.  It was delicious but the company was even better and we all walked away with some fabulous treasures! 

I'm just not paid enough for all this hard work!

 First try at the chart - and about 10 hours into it

Up until this pattern, I have been paying my tech editor to create my charts and schematics.  She does such a wonderful job and so efficiently that there really was no reason for me to learn.  However, I am now re-thinking this.  I suppose that I should learn to be self sufficient so I bought a software program that does charts.  This has been a huge learning curve for me - in fact, it has eaten up my week! 

Second try at the chart - about 20 hours into it

I have pulled out my hair...sworn up and down....believe that there are horrible glitches to the program...and question who in their right mind spends this much time to create a $5 pattern!  Am I nuts? 

It definitely makes me wonder why there are so many people willing to create FREE patterns when there is so much work involved to create a GOOD pattern. 

My next challenge will be to create my own schematics.  I have the software---have had it for several years but not sure if I am willing to kill another 20 hours trying to learn something that I can pay my tech editor for.  She makes everything look so easy!  Maybe I'll fly to Florida where she lives and pay her to show me how she does it....wouldn't that be nice!