Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

How was your weekend?

I spent mine managing random blogs; one got nuked, the others didn’t get the hits expected.  I’ve been trying to fix things.  Sigh.  I worry that I won’t be able to pull it all together.  How do you ask for a sign from God - Please, God, tell me it’s going to all come together?

Please, God, tell me it’s all going to come together.

The new designs are coming along.  I’ve got a pattern writer and the first one is in the mail to her.   The others are still in progress; swatching yarn will be here in a few days.  I’ll need sample knitters in a few weeks.

Hope your weekend was better than mine.

 

3 Comments » - Posted in General by terri

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Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Another, simpler design

Some of my friends on Ravelry asked for a simple design in the new collection, so I am pulling a quick change of game plans and adding something easy.  I came up with this berries pattern in a beautiful eggplant and warm tan, trimmed with an as-yet unknown pattern.  When I’m pressed for words, I call this color “yuppygreen.”  I haven’t decided which color is background and which is foreground.  Hmm, maybe that will be an option - or a pattern feature?  There’s an epiphany here, waiting to happen.  

Another rainy day here in Seattle.  I took a walk in the mist, and felt like some kind of exotic livestock.  A water buffalo or yak or something.

I hope I can launch this collection in September. No writer yet, but Denise has offered to knit a sample sweater.  Thanks, Denise!

2 Comments » - Posted in Knitting Adventures by terri

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Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Birds of a Feather

Here is the third design I’m working on. Or a peice of it, anyway. Drawing the birds is tricky - there’s really not enough resolution at knitting gauge to show any details.  I spent an afternoon this week sitting in my favorite new coffee shop with the sketch book, just drawing pigeons as they pecked around outside.  This is a major work in progress, liable to change dramatically.  Although I started in Selbu, this design is taking on a more Continental flavor.  I studied old cross-stitched linens before sitting down with the sketch book, and that is showing through.  If I use this as a panel and intersperse with more traditional borders I think I can pull it back north.  Anyway, I think it will be beautiful.  The color palette will be red and gold, with hot lime green for accent. I want a naive, folk-art sensibility that’s sophisticated enough for today’s tastes.  This will be on a women’s pullover.

No takers on pattern writing yet.  Come on, you guys!  I know my writer is out there somewhere… how about sample knitters?  You came through on the mittens, I know you’ll come through here, too. 

2 Comments » - Posted in Knitting Adventures by terri

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Friday, April 25th, 2008

More designs rolling out

Hi everybody. I’m still hard at work on the new designs. Here’s a glimpse into the process. (click the little pic) First I load my brain with beautiful Norwegian designs and images, then I sit down with paper and colored pencils to sketch. You can see the color card as well. After a while the colors and patterns start to play together.

Next I take it to the computer where I can make actual charts. I use Adobe Illustrator for the design phase as well as creating my final pattern files.  I can flip and rotate and manipulate the shapes any way I want; play with colors with just a few clicks, morph one design into another.  I can make a bunch of virtual swatches in the time it would take me to knit the non-rolling edge on just the first one!  Yes, I still need to knit my final choice, but for initial design work?  The computer rocks.

[As an aside: I wanted to show you something interesting - see that big flat grey thing in the big pic?  (Click the little pic to go there.)  That’s my drawing tablet. After so many years in the computer field, and especially afer working with some top-notch graphic designers in the web world, I finally bought one for producing Selbuvotter. I absolutely love it. Not only does it integrate wth Adobe apps to do some seriously phat tricks, but it also replaces the mouse for every-day use. The light colored rectangle maps to the screen, so where ever I touch the pen/stylus on the pad, the cursor (mouse) clicks. It’s much easier on the wrist - you use your fingers and arm, like a pencil. I haven’t had trouble with carpal tunnel since I bought it. If you’ve got a couple hundred to spare, go get one. Now.]

So I’ve got designs, but I’m having a hell of a time writing the pattern instructions these days. My brain just can’t get through the algebra. The geometry is fine - I seem to be stuck in visual/spatial mode. Are there any pattern writers out there, experienced in stranded knitting, including steeks? Email me!

2 Comments » - Posted in Knitting Adventures by terri

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Saturday, April 19th, 2008

New Design Sneek Peek

This is the reverse of the fabric, of course.  It’s worked in an all-over of traditional Norwegian patterns - roses and pomegranates; symbols of love and beauty, and life and fertility.  This is a deeply romantic design, and will be worked as a unisex-styled cardigan in a nice range of sizes. 

The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn which works in the same gauges as shetland.  I’m using a nice tealy blue on natural white, but I think it would be equally stunning in soft gold on fuschia. 

My thought is to wholesale and retail the pattern, and to resale kits off my site.  Whaddya think?

10 Comments » - Posted in Knitting Adventures by terri

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Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Guess who just got a major review?

In the Library Journal?

Shea, Terri. Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition. Spinningwheel. 2007. c.127p. illus. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-9793126-0-1. pap. $24.95. FIBER CRAFTS Every once in a while you come upon a self-published book so fascinating you wonder why it wasn’t picked up by a major craft-book publisher. This work on Selbu mittens, characterized by black patterning on a white background and part of a 150-year-old Norwegian knitting tradition, falls into that category. Shea researched much of this book while interning at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. She recounts the history of Selbu knitting, then devotes the balance of the book to 31 patterns she reproduced from actual antique mittens and gloves held by the museum and part of a private collection. Knitters will appreciate the large, functional charts and clear photos of each design as well as the detailed instructions for completing each mitten or glove. Warmly recommended for large public libraries and ethnic textile collections.

I’m freaking speechless.  Please God, may it lead to some sales!

Woo Hoo! I AM a Rock Star!

8 Comments » - Posted in General, Mitten Mania by terri

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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

No, THIS is the whacked hair

I curl it sometimes.

Hard at work these days.  I finished swatching my first new design (no, you can’t see it yet) and have found a knitter to do the sample.  Paying taxes.  Writing a whole lot, but nothing worth showing.

I’m scheduling more workshops for the summer - possibly Connecticut in July and back to ThreadBear in September. 

Book sales have plummeted since February, so I’m trying to come up with new revenue streams until fall knitting picks up again.  I’d sure love some ideas beyond the new designs and teaching contracts.  My postcard campaign was less successful than I had hoped.  I only got two new retailers, and their orders didn’t even cover the costs.  Also, that Japanese client isn’t as big as I had hoped for.  I just remind myself that it will all work out, and when I get too stressed, I go jogging.

Which is why I now am wearing pants the size I haven’t fit into since my early 20’s.

Next month is the anniversary of my sister’s death.  Not looking forward to that, nor particuclarly to my birthday, which happens to fall on Mother’s Day this year.  Not just 40 any more, but “in my fourties.”  So many things I had hoped to have accomplished by now. 

One day at a time, right?

6 Comments » - Posted in General, Knitting Adventures by terri

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Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Where’d she go?

She went crazy, and hopes to be back soon.

I don’t know how to describe my winter.  Maybe it’s best to say, I’ve been cocooning.  Here’s the butterfly so far:

 

 

I’ve lost a ton of weight - almost 30 pounds - started jogging, eating better, yadda yadda.  I whacked my hair off this week but I’m not sure if I like it.  Either way, it will grow back within a few months.  New glasses seen here.  But not a lot of knitting.  I’m working on that, though.  Look for a small collection of Norwegian designs this fall - a couple of sweaters at least.  And if anyone is looking for contract sample knitting, drop me  a line.  I’m also working on a spring pattern.  It’s an original idea so I don’t want to spoil it.  I’ll keep ya posted.

So what’s going on these days?  Did I miss anything good?

8 Comments » - Posted in General by terri

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Monday, January 21st, 2008

Monday Meme

Rosemary, bless her, has managed to pull me out of my shell with a fun meme I hadn’t seen before.  

10 Things I’ve Done that You Probably Haven’t

1. Saw Mt. St. Helens errupting on May 18, 1980.

2. Went naked through a Dunkin’ Donuts drivethru.  (I was eighteen.  Sue me.)

3. Sat on a grand jury.  It was June 1992 or ‘93, and I got to participate in sending out every single felony indictment in Lane County, OR, for an entire month.  It was a life changing event that scared me straight and led directly to:

4. Moved to a new city with $32.37 in my pocket and a crappy job waiting for me.  I lived in a closet for three months and saved every penny I earned (minus food and bus fare) to get first/last/deposit on my own apartment.

5. Designed and wrote the code for the “Getting Started” applet in Microsoft Windows 98.  With the help of my team, of course.  Win98 was code named Memphis, and so we named our component Elvis.  I still have a copy in my office.

6. Gathered buffalo down from a buffalo wallow at Yellowstone.  I also found a really cool piece of jasper which become a special talisman for me.

7. Climbed the great pyramid, and looked into the sacred cenote, at Chichen Itza.

8. Been first guest at a Japanese tea ceremony.

9. Stepped barefoot on a banana slug in the Oregon rain forest on Cape Mears.  Yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds.

10. And of course, self published a book, which is entering its second printing.  I should have some on hand in a couple of weeks.

 

So that’s me.  What have you done?  I’m supposed to tag five people, but I just can’t manage to pull that part together yet, so consider yourself tagged.

10 Comments » - Posted in General by terri

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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

It’s Alive!

Happy New Year and welcome back to Spinningwheel.net!

Yes, I’ve been away for a bit.  It happens.  I’m not sure how regularly I’ll be posting for the next few weeks, but I feel myself coming back.  I think I do a regular cocooning-thing, and just need time to be by myself.  I know you understand.

Still following the politics.  This morning my darling child informed me that I should vote for Obama, and that she wants a boy to be president, because SHE wants to be the first girl president.  You go girl. 

My new stocking pattern is a freebie from Piecework!  And Knitting Daily!  Please, oh please, if you find me here from there, won’t you buy my book?  (No, seriously.  Buy my book.)

And speaking of the book, I’ve ordered the second printing!  Yes, that’s right, you’ve bought nearly 5,000 copies, and I am truly grateful to you all.  Especially, still, the three hundred and three of you who bought the thing sight unseen, as-yet unprinted, and allowed me to get the thing on paper without completely draining my bank account.  You will always have a warm squishy place in my heart.  The second printing will have errors corrected - at least those that I’ve found - but no new material.  It’s a new print run, not a new edition.

Last note, I’ll be at St. Distaff’s Day on Saturday, so you PNWetters best come on in and say Hi.  I have a table with some friends, and will have books to sell and of course, I’ll sign any you’ve got with you. 

That’s it for now.  TTYL.

 

9 Comments » - Posted in General, Knitting Adventures by terri

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