If I tried to put all this in my daytimer…

… I’d need an extra page.

So here's what I've done so far:

I got the motorhome cleaned, scrubbed, and smudged with incense. Put bedding on the beds. Loaded some canned goods into the cupboard. Stove, water, and water heater tested. (Need to test the furnace tomorrow!) Tried to start it, no go, probably needs a boost – The Reluctant Farmer is taking care of that. Took out some of the shop stock so that at least that much will be ready when I get home from Ontario. (More on that in a bit.)

I've also been doing a bunch of laundry in our new washing machine - the old one died a long-anticipated death on Thursday morning, and we were able to pick up a new one (well, new to us – the people had listed it on Kijiji just that day, and their place was not far off my route home from counselling, so it worked out perfectly). The new machine is WONDERFUL – it’s really big, and very quiet, and doesn’t dance across the floor or complain about being unable to drain. When I arrived to pick it up, the people were there talking with a friend who’d obviously come by on his way home from work. I recognized the company name on his truck, as it’s the same place my friend with the horses works. I asked if they might know one another and sure enough, they do. “Oh yeah,” the guy said, “he was talking to me about this McGavin’s Bread wagon he’s gonna restore …” I laughed. “He was at my house yesterday with one of the spokes for that wagon, I’m taking it with me when I go to Ontario so my wheelwright friend can make copies!" Apparently that detail had been mentioned in the conversation … it was quite a coincidence! I felt all, I dunno, famous or something.

So, laundry – which dries nice and quick outside in this sunny and somewhat breezy weather, and motorhome prep, and also getting ready for the show tomorrow. It’s Artist’s Day at the Pegg Garden, and I’ll be there selling my woven items, one hand knit scarf (in really wild muppet yarn), and my books … and weaving, and spinning, and generally just being a fibre artist where everyone can watch. I also have some fabric with me so I can do the tests of ecoprinting with the plants that grow in the garden in advance of our workshop coming later this summer (the workshop is the last weekend in August, also at the Garden). I’ll need to be there a bit early so I can wander off and get plant samples rolled up into fibery cocoons for steaming and colour setting. They have to sit for a few weeks, so I need to get them wrapped and steamed before I leave so they can sit and do their marinating thing while I’m off gallivanting around.

I did get the wheel, spindles, and all my stuff out into the van tonight – and I took my gray coat, to show as a sample of what can be done for custom work (it’s also a different shape, so I want to have both the swing coat and the blanket coat there to display) … and I grabbed some yarn so I can warp up the little loom once I’m there. I’d sort of thought I might do that ahead of time, but really, I’m out of energy and I’ll have plenty of time tomorrow as the show goes from 11-4, and warping is just another part of the whole adventure so people might as well see that too.

Oh, and yesterday I did most of my packing for my trip to Ontario – I am gone all day tomorrow, and I have to be at the airport for 6:30 Monday morning (which I clearly did not process when I chose that flight time … an 8:30 am departure seems quite reasonable, until you factor in the need to be at the airport two hours early and the fact that it takes over an hour and a half to get to the airport from home). We will be adding in time to stop for coffee on the way, trust me. I’m heading to see my parents, and then my sister and brother in law will join up with us for a day, and Friday I’ll be heading to Burlington for the Ontario Handspinning Seminar where I will be helping out my friend Wheelwright with his antique spinning wheel sales and assisting during the keynote speech he’s giving. Oh, and doing the last minute assembly of the giveaway items that he was asked to make for the Saturday night banquet! (I know what they are, but I think they are a surprise so I won’t say.) It sounds like it’s gonna be a blast.

Then once the conference is over on Sunday afternoon, I’ll hop on the train and go to Oshawa to visit some of my Chosen Family, and Monday afternoon I fly back home.

Then I do a bunch of laundry, go for groceries, load up the motorhome and head to Olds for Fibre Week!

I am gonna need all of July to recover from this, but it’s gonna be an awesome ride.

Stay tuned for more of the adventure!

Giveaway results!

The month of May has ended, and we are into June … so it’s time to announce the winners of our book review giveaway!

The Random Number Generator lists Cathy as the winner, for her Goodreads review! Thank you Cathy! Send me an email (there is a contact us link at the bottom of the website, here) with your address so I can mail out your prize package! As I see from your blog that you’re a knitter, I’ll include some handspun yarn for you to add to your stash. :)

And the second prize goes to Terri, for her Goodreads review. I can deliver yours when I see you next!

Third prize, believe it or not, goes to my very own Mom. It’ll be in the mail soon, Mom!

Thank you all so much for participating in the draw!

Prizes! Giveway time!

Don’t forget to write your reviews of Just Keep Knitting and let me know where they are so I can give you cool stuff! :)

Time for a giveaway!

I recently ordered some cool stuff that celebrates Just Keep Knitting: tote bags, mouse pads, pens, t-shirts, that kind of thing.

Since the box arrived the other day, I figure it’s time for a giveaway!

Here’s how it’s gonna work:

• You need to have read Just Keep Knitting to qualify for this one! If you don’t have a copy, you can order one here, or get the ebook (immediate delivery!) here.
• Next, you need to write a comment about the book – nothing huge, just a quick blurb so that potential readers know what you think about it. Be honest! Balanced reviews are best, really.
• Where do you do this comment thing? Probably the very best place is Goodreads – membership there is free, and it is a great way to check out what others say about a book before you buy it or take it out from the library. I will often see a book that looks potentially interesting in the online library listings, but as I can’t just flip through it when I’m choosing books remotely, I pop over to Goodreads and check out what others have said about it before I make up my mind. It’s a great resource!
• If you have an electronic copy of the book, leave your comment wherever you purchased it: Smashwords, the iTunes bookstore, Barnes & Noble, wherever.
• Feel free to comment in multiple places if you can – Goodreads and Smashwords, iTunes and the Kobo store, whatever works for you.
• After you make your comments, come back here and post a comment, letting me know where you’ve left your remarks. You get one entry for every comment you leave out there on the net.
• If posting comments elsewhere isn’t your thing, you can leave a ‘review blurb’ here, as a comment on this blog post, and I’ll count that as an entry too.
• *added after a late night thought* You can also talk about the book in a post on your blog … and that’ll count for three entries!

The contest will stay open until May 31: plenty of time for those who haven’t yet read the book to catch up. Winners will be selected by random draw and then contacted for a postal address so that their surprise can be sent in the mail! Be sure to leave some kind of identifying tag on your post – if you comment here anonymously, just use your initials or something in your post so that you stand out from the crowd!

Ready … set … read … then write!

A successful Author Visit … thank you!

I wish to express my most heartfelt thanks to all those who came out to the Author Visit today at the Darwell Library. It was so wonderful to see you all there, so many of you with works in progress in your hands, and to have the chance to talk to you and hear your stories.

Thanks to the library staff and volunteers for supporting their local author, as well. Look at the sign! Cool, eh?

Thanks again to everyone for helping me to make Just Keep Knitting a success. I love hearing from my readers, and meeting them is even more special.

Thank you all.

April 21: Author Visit at Darwell Library

On the afternoon of April 21, 2012, I’ll be speaking at the Darwell Public  Library – first at 1 pm, then again at 3 pm.

Do stop by, if you can spare the time – and if you knit, spin, crochet, embroider, cross stitch, or work on any other kind of reasonably portable handiwork, please feel free to bring it along! Far from distracting me, I find it encouraging to see people working in the audience while I talk. :)

I’ll be speaking about the process of writing Just Keep Knitting, reading a few short excerpts from the book, answering audience questions, and signing books (which will be available for purchase). I will also have all the knitted projects from the book with me, so that people can see the finished items and to serve as a focal point for discussing the healing nature of craft and creativity.

Come by if you can – we are about an hour west of Edmonton or St Albert. The library is just south of the four way stop that is Darwell:  it’s the blue building at the northernmost end of the complex of structures that includes the Golden Age Hall, the Darwell Hall, and the library. I’d love to see you there!

Just Keep Knitting eBook sale

In celebration of the second print run of Just Keep Knitting (books were ordered yesterday), it seems like a good time to have a sale on the electronic version of the book!

If you’ve got an eReader of any kind (even a regular old computer), there’s a file format that’ll work for you.

From now until Easter Monday, you can get 25% off all purchases of Just Keep Knitting at Smashwords.

Just enter code WZ84X when you check out, and voila, the deal is yours.

Enjoy!

Book Launch Party

Yesterday, there was a small book launch party hosted by a fibre friend of mine who lives in town (a far more convenient location for a party than way out here in the middle of nowhere, to be sure).

A bunch of spinners and knitters came, and my best friend – who does not knit, or spin, and is allergic to most animal fibres - showed up and bravely joined in. Enabling efforts were put into high gear as everyone explained that you can spin cotton, or tencel, or bamboo, and oh my, what about silk? Get her a copy of of No Sheep for You, and she’ll be on her way! Carpal tunnel problems? Bamboo needles and circulars. No room in your house? Check out the travel wheels.

After listening to the high-speed conversation about the shawls in Just Keep Knitting – including a rapid-fire discussion of yarns, stitches, needle sizes and construction techniques – my non-knitting friend shook her head and said, “Now I know how people feel when they are trying to keep up with you and I having a conversation … whoa! This is great … but wow, I’m gonna cut people more slack next time they point out how fast we’re talking!”
We spun, we had soup and cheese and pickles and cakes and cookies and crackers and wine and lemonade and Irish beer, and then one of our friends showed up after playing her morning St Paddy’s Day pipe band gig … and we got to have bagpipe music!

Now tell me, do you know *any* other authors who get bagpipe music at their book launch parties?
I feel so blessed and lucky to have such awesome friends. Thanks everyone for sharing in the joy of the completion of this project – whether you attended the party or not, I’ve had such wonderful support and encouragement from everyone, and it means a lot to me.
The next book will be more cheerful, I promise … and it’ll have more fibre and knitting projects, too!

---

Oh yes, I must also mention that as of yesterday, exactly one month from the arrival of the printed books, the revenue from eBook + paper book sales has put us into the black … and, more books will be on order as of next week!
Thank you for supporting your local writer!

The radio interview on knitting as therapy: live!

I did a radio interview with a station in the UK early in February, and I just now located the posted interview … if you’d like to hear me talking about how I got into knitting, how the book came to be, and how I think knitting helps us cope with difficulties, well, have a listen! (It does end rather abruptly -  but that really is the end ... the full radio show will be posted later on, it's not quite done yet.)
Also, there’s a few other posts on that blog about knitting and therapy – including a question that needs your input.

Book Review of Just Keep Knitting

We have an official book review!

Skipper, a knitter, writer, and all-around interesting person, lives here:

All the time! Isn’t that cool?

You can follow the adventures of life on a boat at her blog, Waterborne – A Live-Aboard Blog.

And, you can read the review of Just Keep Knitting in this post, here!

Halfway there

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the launch of Just Keep Knitting!

As of today, less than two weeks from the date printed copies became available for purchase,
more than half of the books in the initial print run for Just Keep Knitting have been sold.

This means that the initial up-front investment is well on the way to being recouped, which is a wonderful thing: independent publishing provides the author with complete control over the project, but it also means that financing said project is up to the author as well!

The majority of these sales have been to people I know – either in person or virtually – and I want to thank every one of you for making the launch of the book such a huge success.

If books continue to sell over the next couple of months (i.e. after all the people I know have their copy :D) then I will consider a second printing: I’ll be putting some thought into how I can realistically assess the demand for the book in the next week or two.

Thank you again for welcoming my words into your world.

The books are here!

Three boxes of books arrived today by Canada Post.

The preorders are packed up and ready to go in the mail!

Want one?

Order yours here and I’ll put it in the mail for you!

A radio interview

I had an email the other day from a reporter in the UK who wanted to talk to me about knitting as therapy. Apparently the UK Health Board is looking at instituting formalized knitting therapy groups, which I think sounds like an interesting idea. It’s sometimes easier to talk about serious things when you have something safe acting as common ground – when you can be working on something that keeps your hands occupied and your spirit calmed, while you listen to (and maybe participate in) the conversation around you that might venture into some difficult areas.

Hannah, the reporter, was lovely to talk to (she has such an adorable British accent), very easy to speak with and very open.

We talked about the designs in the book, and how I needed to make things that purposely told my story because somehow, it helped me come full circle and think about what needed to be thought about, but at a safe pace ... at the pace of the knitting. Some things really just take quite a bit of time - and you have to give yourself the time to work through it all. I hadn't thought about it before, but maybe the really big projects I worked on were just that - to give me time to do all the thinking I needed to do.

We talked about the Hearts Ease shawl, how it's the one I made in Jessica's memory (my daughter) - to cover that spot on your chest where the heartache feels so physical after grief and loss; and about how now when I wear it and people ask me about it I can say, "yes, I made this - I designed it in memory of my baby girl, isn't it pretty?" and I'm happy to remember her this way.

We talked about the Memory Shawl - which I made in memory of my first husband - how it's easy to knit because in that awful time between a death and the funeral(s) (there was a really long wait when he died, more than a week), you are all at loose ends and can't think but you need something to work on ... and then the finished shawl is appropriate to wear to the services.

We talked about the Comfort Wrap, and how it's got big pockets so that you can keep your Kleenex in there if you're in a place in your life where you need to do a lot of crying. I've been in that place an awful lot, I know you need Kleenex pockets!

We talked about my counsellor saying that knitting is helping me undo my old thought pathways and build new ones - which I believe, though I don't know how that works, because it seems to be working for me.

We talked about using knitting as an outlet for all that anxious energy - instead of pacing or fretting or twisting hair or whatever, you can send the energy into your needles, into your work, and then it's not making you crazy *and* you get to make something! So those of us :ahem: with a bit of an overdose of Protestant Work Ethic can sit and rest when we need to, without feeling like we are 'being unproductive'. And like so many  of the knitters I’ve talked to about this have mentioned, you get to be in control of the project - you can choose the colour and what you work on and what it looks like, and if it doesn't work out you can start over!

We talked about how knitting can be so forgiving - how if you make a mistake you can just undo it and start over, how every time you pick up your needles the yarn says 'it's okay, just try it and if it doesn't work we'll try something else' ... it's like a sermon in your hands, every time you pick up your work.

We talked about how knitting is so grounding - in depression or anxiety we are often 'in the past' or 'in the future' in our heads, but the only place we can ever truly be is right here, right now, in the present. One of the skills counselling teaches for dealing with that is to try and get really 'present' in your body - to feel the floor under your feet, your butt in the chair, to be really aware of your current surroundings ... and knitting really helps you do that because it is so tactile, and so much 'right there' in your hands, needing some of your attention ... but not all of it, so that you can still think while you work.

We talked about knitting groups - apparently in the UK, the health boards are looking at setting up actual knitting therapy groups, like, official ones. Here, I said, I think we do that - but unofficially. People get together to knit, and then because we have that in common it's safe ... we can talk about knitting at first and then we become friends, and then we support one another. I do think there'd be a place for knitting groups that have professional support available ... when I said that to The Reluctant Farmer he agreed immediately that knitters need professional help! Goofball. ;)

Hannah was just lovely to talk to, and I hope that the interview material I provided will be helpful to her in making up the final piece. She'll send me the finished work when it's done - and I promise to share!

Okay everybody … keep knitting!

I did it. I really, really did it.

Those are my hands, holding the book that I wrote.

It’s got my name on the front.

It’s got my words inside, and the patterns I designed, and the pictures I took of the things I knit from those patterns.

 

I did it.

 

I published a book.

 

Wow.

Done!

The final draft is done and has been submitted to the printer!

We are on track for the official release date of February 14, 2012 …

Woohoo!

In case you are curious, the cover image is a shot of the final project in the book – the Lighthouse Shawl. I designed it, knit it (all bazillion stitches of the thing), photographed it, and then used it as the background for the cover design which I worked up in GIMP – thanks to the help of The Boy who showed me this cool (free) software.

Final Edits

It doesn’t matter how many times you go over the manuscript on the computer, the last round of edits just have to be done on paper.

Having accidentally discovered the Staples Online Print Centre, I was able to upload the files from the comfort of my kitchen table late at night, then pick up colour copies of the cover proofs and a coil bound copy of the text when I went to town for getting groceries and chicken feed. It’s funny the things you notice on a hard copy that you just don’t see on the screen: parts of the image where the resolution wasn’t right, bits of wording that just don’t flow correctly even though they seemed fine a day ago, fonts that don’t match.

So, my trusty mechanical pencil and cylindrical eraser and I are working on the final round of edits. I talked to the printer today, and, God willing and the creek don’t rise, the book should be available right on schedule: on February 14, 2012 … the day that would’ve been Jessica’s seventeenth birthday.

We’re almost there.

Hearts Ease: completed

About a week and a half of dedicated knitting and the Hearts Ease shawl is finished (I completed it a few days ago, actually, but haven’t had a chance to post about it until now).

It still needs to be blocked so that the lace borders lie flat, but I wore it one day already and I can’t believe how very warm and comfortable it is. The weather was warm for this time of year and I wore the shawl over a long sleeved t-shirt and was comfortable even outdoors (though of course I had a warm coat with me and my coveralls are in the back of the truck - smart people don’t risk being without adequate clothing in winter).

I have a lot of knitting to do: all of the projects for the book have to be knit before they can be photographed and the book can’t go to print without the pictures. Somehow I hadn’t quite thought that through until recently, so I am spending a lot  of time with needles in hand just now – there are three projects still to finish.

Back to knitting!

Progress

Thanks in large part to the company of an excellent audio book there has been substantantial knitting progress. I listened to The Secret Scripture, a wonderful novel by Sebastian Barry, and it was read by a woman with the most beautiful Irish accent that often reminded me of the familiar Newfoundland accent that I miss so much.

Anyway, with the company of a good book in my ears I was able to make substantial progress on the Hearts Ease shawl: I got the complicated turn at the point figured out and the entire border knit the same day I cast on, which was pretty impressive, and I’m working my way up the body of the shawl now. I have the plain garter stitch done and have switched to some beautiful blue yarn that my sister brought from England for the coloured stripe. I like how it looks so far:

Time to find another story, I think.

If at first you don’t succeed…

.. at least knitting makes it easy to try, try again.

That tiny bit of knitting has taken days to accomplish. First, it was worked in a pattern I just now discovered is not available for use in the book, so that got frogged since the design is a scarf pattern that goes with one of the chapters in Just Keep Knitting. For the next attempt, I graphed out this really interesting gradual increase from a pointed beginning … and after multiple attempts to get that to look right, including three different sets of needles and four complete do-overs, I gave up on the approach entirely and went with a straight cast on and an integral lace border. That, at least, looked a lot better. Next was to start knitting the chart. One and a half repeats of that made it abundantly clear that the whole thing would look a lot better if the pattern started at the narrow end of the diamond and the yarnovers were on the other side of the decreases. Frog it back to the lace border and try again.

Now, with a straight cast on, an easy integral lace border and one full repeat of the chart worked, I am almost ready to say we might have a workable design here. Give me a few more repeats to be sure, but I think this might be the winner.

There’s a life lesson in here, I suspect. Continuing to pour your efforts into doing more of the same isn’t going to give you different results, any more than knitting more repeats of an unworkable pattern is going to transform into something lovely if you just work at it long enough. But, if you go ahead and say “ARGH!”, pull out the unworkable stuff and start over with a different approach, you’ve at least got a chance. It might take a few tries, but at least this way there is hope for a different – and quite possibly better – outcome!

Time to knit some more repeats and see if this actually is a better outcome…

Just Keep Knitting

If you follow this blog, you may have read Listen, posted in March of 2011. That was the beginning of my writing journey: I discovered that by telling the story of what had happened in my life, not just in my journal but posted out in the wide world where other people could read it, I felt better.

A lot better.

Not long afterwards, the outline for an entire book appeared in my head more or less out of the blue: all the chapters, the content, the shape of the tale. I know an important message when I hear one … so, I started writing.

I’ve been dealing with delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since the early months of 2011. The anxiety, sleeplessness, and ongoing chest pains are the legacy of the chaos that took over my life when my first husband’s brain tumour took hold and turned him into a stranger with a familiar face. During and after his illness I had so much on my plate that I just kept on pushing through life: oh, I acknowledged that things were difficult and I did what I could to deal with the pain and loss and grief, but there wasn’t a lot of room in my life for that kind of work. I had a child to raise, bills to pay, a life to rebuild. The old troubles were tucked away in the hopes that time would heal the wounds without any further input from me.

Well, time alone didn’t do it, and in the past several months I have done a lot of work facing the old hurts and finding my way along the difficult road to forgiveness and healing. This book is the result of that work.

It is my hope that the story of my past, combined with the reflections on forgiveness, faith and fibre (knitting is indeed a healing art) will shine a light of hope so that perhaps, someday, there might be just enough light for someone else to find a way out of the dark.

Just Keep Knitting is expected to be available in early 2012—if you’d like to be notified of the official book release, just send us a note through the link on this page (or from here, if you prefer).

Until the books come out … just keep knitting!