Big Girl Knits...revealed!

For those not on the Knitty designer list, you might not know the big news. Jillian Moreno and I are co-writing a new knitting book! The tentative title is "Big Girl Knits", and as you can probably surmise from the partnership and the title, it's book of patterns sized 14 and larger, but not like any plus-sized knitting book you've ever seen. Think Jillian's Folly and Boo, too, and you'll see where we're going with this one.

Jillian has been percolating this idea for a while and she talked to me about it back in spring. We decided soon after that we wanted to work together on it; Jillian takes the lead as the design visionary and style editor and I bring up the rear with the writing and book editing stuff. What a team!

The book is with Quirk Packaging, the people that made Knit Wit happen. They're working on choosing a publisher and we're planning to have the book out in 2006. What season is yet to be determined.

my name is amy and i am a fiber ho.

and it's my birthday today, so i treated myself.

thanks to a recommendation on the knitty coffeeshop's new spinning forum, i went to The Bellwether and had a really nice AIM chat with the owner. I told her about my fiber-related peculiarities and that I want to spin silk. She's set me up with two spindles: the Cascade St. Helens' for spinning sportweight and a compact deluxe purpleheart/osage orange Tabachek for the thick/thin stuff I want to do in soy silk, etc. plus a cool little book on spinning silk with a drop spindle.

this is the beginning of a slippery slope, i am certain, and i'm not bothered a bit.

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we were up in the Port Perry area on the weekend and stumbled on the local spinners/weavers guild show. i met the nicest woman who spun for me on her double-treadle louet s10 [which looks to me to be a very amy kind of wheel]. we talked and she shared hints with me, the most important one being that i'll need to be relaxed to spin.

how did she know that would be an issue, after only speaking with me for 3 minutes? i say to you: snork. speak with me for 2 minutes and you'll know i've got hyper up the butt. i'm permanently pseudo-caffeinated. so this will be an interesting exercise. but watching her spin [she with her 30 years of experience] was so calming. like what knitting rows of stockinette used to do for me before i discovered the bliss of knitting charlottes and other simple lace patterns.*

i read last night, in my issue of spin off, that most men find the wheels fascinating. hub was there and was bored stiff, and he likes mechanical things. last night, he said to me, "just buy the yarn; why make it?" but he doesn't understand that the silk i want i can't find. and the soy silk i want i DEFINITELY have to make myself. he finds knitting amusing, but as i don't particularly care to spend hours with my eyeball stuck to the eyepiece of his huge telescope, i don't expect him to much notice the difference between the yarns i use. he's appreciative enough of the finished objects, which suits me fine.

*one realizes, i hope, that this is concrete proof that knitting is addictive, since i am now forced to move to stronger stuff to get my fix.

we're so glad you like it!

the Knitty surprise was a labor of love from us all. but I must give the big mad props to the woman who thought of it in the first place: the Catalyst, Jillian.

there's no one i'd rather write a book with*.

*what's that i said? if you're on the Knitty designers' e-mail list, watch for an exciting message tonight. it splains the whole thang.

two things

item one: the fall surprise is up!

item two: I didn't know my middle name was Rosen. Read the article on knitting [part of a whole knitting-related section!] at the Toronto Star.

I think it's time I introduced myself to a certain local reporter, wouldn't you say? :-)

Stuff!

Ah, to be home and back to the usual fretting instead of the on-the-road fretting.

Like: why is the Neverlost telling me to turn left into the very solid concrete barrier that divides this highway? I refuse.

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Anyway, things that are on my mind lately:

- hub needs a sweater. i need to knit him something in at least aran gauge, if i'm to keep my sanity. and of course, the amy fiber rules apply. add in the fussy hub rules and we're left with NOT MUCH TO KNIT FOR HIM. i'm thinking the organic cotton I have would suit him well, in both gauge and texture, but not in color. if i were braver, i'd dye it a rich midnight blue. but to do that, i'd need more stock in the palest color it came in [i have a lot of the chocolate...what a surprise! food-colored yarn!] plus the guts to do it.

- the new Knitty plan that hub and i formulated while on the road in NH. who knew New Hampshire could be so good for brainstorming? anyway, it's an exciting new addition to the Knitty site and I'll be getting on it soon.

- book proposals. publish or perish! and i'm not even post-doc or anything.

- my easy-peasy superlong lace scarf pattern with the funky fringe treatment. so simple, i can't put it in Knitty, but I want to share it here. i need a name. i'm already knitting my 2nd and the first one has become my favorite fall accessory so far.

- my birthday, cause it's coming and soon. oct 27. heaven help me. no more year of life, the universe and everything! i am sad. [p.s. mom and sis, the wishlist is updated as per the family directive. :-)]

- the habu swatch book that i ordered at the CSNF this weekend. can't wait till it comes!

and lots of other stuff, including fiddling with the archive so the readers AND the editor are happy. i think i may have hit paydirt. excuse the mess in there -- the new, tidier, more useful one should be up tonight.

there's more, but thinking about it hurts my head.

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by the way, speaking of the CSNF, i have to express my sadness at the cut in knitting vendors this year. the knitting-related classes didn't seem to be any leaner, which is good news, but there were so few knitting vendors at this show compared to previous years! considering the recent growth of our craft -- including the addition of 4 new yarn shops in town since last year -- i was really stunned by this.

if you were a quilter or a multi-crafter, the show most likely tickled you pink. there was a ton of fabric in fat quarters [plus all the quilty accoutrements you could dream of], sewing machines, beading galore [Swarovski -- drool], scrapbooking up the wazoo and lots of other stuff. the knitting vendors that were there were lovely, but i was just so surprised that there weren't more of them.

having Habu come, though, was a delicious surprise. Yay, Habu!

Absolutely deluged, and in a good way

Unbelievable.

Guys, you can't imagine how many submissions have come in for this issue. I am absolutely spoiled for choice. We have never received so many submissions for an issue before!

I'm now sorting through all the delicousness and hope to get back to everyone this weekend with a yes or no. I love your creativity and genius. I hug you all! And now, back to work.

I'm back!

Didja miss me? [Oh, don't answer that. I'm just kidding.]

All went very well. If you want details, I was blogging daily [or at least writing daily and uploading posts when I got internet access] over at the book blog. Summary: it was freaking amazing.

The highlight, or at least culmination of the week, came when I got to vote in the US election, me being a US citizen and all. I did my civic duty and I hope it makes a difference. My home state is New Jersey and I'm worried. But at least I've done what I can.

Anyway, now that I'm back, I'm working on getting out the fall surprise. A few lucky people on the tour got to peek at one of the items and the reaction was unanimous: get the issue out. So I'm doing it, really.

Watch for it next week, and a big hi to everyone I met on the road. You all were really nice people.

A little garage sale

When I got the contract for the book, I bought a brand-new Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine [aka knitting machine] just in case I needed to crank out samples quickly. I never needed to.

So I've got this unused, still-boxed machine, including the row counter, sitting here, taking up space. I'd like to sell it to someone local. I'm in Toronto, but will be passing through all those towns mentioned in the previous post, so I could deliver to a signing if you'd like. [Why does this sound vaguely illicit? :-)]

The row counter currently retails for $31US at Joann.com. The knitting machine was around $150US when I bought it. It's the standard machine, and comes with all original bits, still wrapped, unused. The instructional video is temporarily misplaced, but as soon as I find it, I'll deliver it to whoever buys it.

$100 takes the whole lot. Write me at amy A-T knitty d0t com and the first person in is the lucky duck!

The lucky duck is in New York. That was quick! :-)

A new location for the old blog

Hey, y'all! Welcome over here.

I don't have much time to write today, cause I'm finishing up day job work so that I can go on the book tour, but I do promise to write soon.

In the meantime, I'm bringing my iBook with me on tour and will blog if I get internet access. If not, I'll write posts anyway, with pictures even! And will post them to the book blog when I'm back. The book blog is over here.

If you're in the DC/VA, Atlantic City, New York, Brooklyn, Boston or Burlington VT areas, please do drop by when I'm in town. I would so love to meet you! All the details are on the book blog on this page.

Hugs, and I'll be back to normal blogging when I return the week of October 18th. That's also when you can expect the fall surprise to go live. Coincidence? I think not! :-)