The book signing was one of the most fun I've ever done. It was at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder, and I was signing all four of my books. I didn't sign a lot of books. In fact, I kept count.
1 copy of Kitty Knits
1 copy of The Knitted Rug
1 copy of Ethnic Knitting Discovery
6 copies of Arctic Lace
I met some fabulous people today and had a wonderful time talking to knitters. Some had heard of my books and were surprised to find me signing at Shuttles and to discover that I lived nearby, some were shopping for other things and were interested in talking to me about writing, some were attracted to the samples I had with me (always especially the qiviut), and others were people I knew from the shop.
On the way home, I opened the car windows all the way, let the wind ruffle my newly cut short hair, and blasted the sound track to Love Actually all the way.
When I got home, I found out that Arctic Lace is being reprinted again. I have lost count and I don't know how many printings it's gone into now, but my editor said "That book has LEGS. It's lovely." I agree, particularly because I hear so many stories from people who have read the book and who have visited Alaska or learned to knit lace because they've been inspired by my work.
Finally, Deb and I discussed how it's so difficult to communicate what Ethnic Knitting Discovery is about. Every time I explain it to someone, their eyes open wide and they grab up a copy right away. But it's not apparently obvious what the book is about from the cover or the information that is immediately available. So here's a little recap, for those who are curious.
Ethnic Knitting Discovery teaches you how to design your own sweaters in the simple, drop-shoulder and modified drop-shoulder (what I like to call "square armhole") shapes. The book has recipes, instead of patterns, so you can work to your own gauge and choose your own pattern stitches and colors. It's a lot more detailed than Priscilla Gibson-Roberts's Knitting in the Old Way and it provides three ways for you to design a sweater:
1) Option one is a schematic with very brief instructions. This is for people who have experience design sweaters and who like to just wing it and make things up as they go. You fill in a few key numbers, cast on, and the adventure begins. The text and picture provide reminders of the key steps required to make the sweater, without the clutter of any extraneous information.
2) Option two provides a spreadsheet to help you work out all the calculations for the entire sweater. You can figure out each number as you need it, or you can work it all out in advance to give you a better idea of what to expect as you go. You can use the numbers alone, or combine them with option one for a more detailed plan.
3) Option three provides step-by-step instructions, fairly close to a pattern except that you fill in all the numbers yourself. This can be used in conjunction with either option one or option two, and icons of the numbers and letters in the margins of the instructions help you to match the text up to the schematic and the spreadsheet.
There are no photos in Ethnic Knitting DIscovery because I don't want people to copy my sweater ideas. But you can check out what people have been doing here and here.
So, that's it in a nutshell. I think I might need to make a video book overview to show how this works, because it lacks the spark when it's just written down like this.
Ethnic Knitting Discovery also received a fantastic review in Vogue Knitting. If you have the current issue, be sure to take a look at that. I was totally thrilled when I read this review. It's short but very punchy.
So that was my day. Now I have to go to bed. TTYL.
P.S. I frakking love Neil Gaiman. If you don't read his blog (and his books), you really must start now. More good stuff today. You'll have to click to read it.
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