Knitting Studio Trunk Show!

My 3rd trunk show was truly fun!

The Knitting Studio is called, "The Friendliest Yarn store in VT" and it's SO true. When you go into the store, you immediately feel welcome, comfortable and like you could stay there all day to chat and knit.

Before I even reached the door, I saw this sign in front of the shop on the sidewalk -



Isn't that awesome??? Ian was like, "Hey, that's pretty cool!" and I thought so, too!

I went inside the store to put down my trunk and boxes of books and Ian took this photo of me just inside the door -



Lee, Leslie and Bridgette of Knitting Studio are wonderful and made me feel very special that day. Leslie bought my very first book in cash because she said that she wanted me to have my very first sale right away. Isn't that sweet??

Here I am with Lee and Leslie before the show started. (And look at the great yarn in the background!!)



I set up my woolen goodies on the back table and, while I was waiting for interested knitters, I roamed the shop perusing their interesting and lovely assortment of buttons, yarn, patterns and books. It's one of those stores where you think you've seen everything and then, all of a sudden, you find something else that catches your eye.



The two items that I wanted to buy (but didn't this time, but will definitely get NEXT time!) were a beautiful lace/fingering weight Bamboo/Merino/Bison blend yarn (yummmmmy!) and the Eco Cashmere, which I've had my eye on every time I visit their shop. I ended up buying 2 skeins of a fushia Mirasol Tulsi, a skein of Regia Monster & book (for kids' socks), a couple of magazines for Jackie, a skein of Noro Kureyon for the Log Cabin blanket (in a color I hadn't seen before) and an adorable tea/coffee container that's green and stainless steel and had a sheep on the front saying, "Knit Happy".

I was totally lucky and grateful when a number of friends came by the shop to see me and the trunk show. Julie (CoolMoonYogaKnits from Ravelry) came with her adorable daughter, Phoebe and Pam (PamBill from Ravelry) also came to see me - and she looked so pretty in all of the hats. (I'm still thinking of that great Thorpe hat she had knit out of Malabrigo...it was great!) The four of us had fun trying on all of my designs and seeing which ones looked good on them. In this pic, they're wearing the ones that I thought looked the best.



Finally, Kerry (KMurphy4) came to visit me and that was wonderful to have a friend from home come to the yarn store! We sat and talked for a while (and planned later on to go to Dobra Tea house in Burlington to knit - which was sooo fantastic!).



At the end of the day, I'd sold 20 books (yay!) and went home tired, but happy. It was a great day!

The next day, though, wasn't so great. We got up very early so that we could leave VT in time to make a friend's last-minute wedding in NH, which was at 1:30 pm. On the way there, my car overheated (three times!) and we ended up having to call AAA to tow it to a nearby town in VT. It most likely has a blown head gasket and I had to leave my lovely car in VT (which has my trunk show, Ben's boots & karate belt and Ian's snow shoes!) in the trunk). Ughhhh! Ian's grandfather (who is in his 80s!) drove us all home and then drove right back to VT. It was very generous of him, but I was also worried about him the whole time. Almost 7 hours of driving for a grandfather is alot! Luckily, he got home safely. Whew!

So...at the moment, we found out it will cost over $1600 to fix my car and I won't get it back until Friday or Monday of next week. ARghhhhhhh!

But, besides this bad news, I was truly happy with the trunk show and I'm so grateful to everyone at The Knitting Studio - thank you all very much and I'll be up there again soon to shop and visit! (And I recommend that you do, too! lol!)

Have a great day everyone! ; )

Trunk Show at the Knitting Studio this Saturday!!!

Hi again, everyone!

Just a reminder that I'll be at The Knitting Studio in Montpelier, VT this Saturday from 1-4 pm for my trunk show and book signing of Dreamscape!

As a gift to anyone who visits the shop and buys a book that day, I'll be giving out a FREE PDF copy of my book!! Yay!

Please come and visit me at this wonderful and very friendly yarn shop. I'd love to see you!!

My Book is HERE!!!!!

I'm so absolutely excited to tell you that my very first, self-published pattern book is here!!!!! Yayyyyy!!!!



Details

Title- Sleepy Eyes Knits: Dreamscape
Type- Pattern book containing 12 patterns (6 classics, 6 brand new)
Theme- Victorian/Gothic/Antique
Pages- 60 pages
Binding- Spiral bound (wire-o)

Titles of the new patterns:

Spellbound (a knitted choker in which to add vintage jewelry to)
Immortal (an oversized, lace, rectangular stole in worsted weight)
Persephone (a very feminine lace beret)
Chimera (a flower accent to add to your knitted items)
Soleil (a lace shoulder wrap)
Lena (a lacy beanie hat)

I've tried to keep my style similar to the designs I've already created - mostly accessories, simple lace, with each project using (usually) one 1 skein or so of yarn for the project and taking advantage of high quality, luxury yarns. I love being able to knit items that are not only interesting and relatively quick to knit, but that I enjoy wearing and feeling against my skin. That is what I keep in mind when I am designing something new.

There are several wonderful features to this book that I'd like to share and think you will enjoy, too.

1. Theme - The idea of the book is this: I fall asleep one night reading one of my victorian/gothic novels (think Victoria Holt or Wilkie Collins) and dream about knitwear. I find myself wandering gardens and cemeteries in a ghostly form, later bringing to life the designs I've seen in my dreams.



2. Size and Spiral Binding - I decided to make this a small book (5.5" x 8.5") so that a knitter can easily stick it in her/his bag and take it along, without it taking up too much room or being too heavy. The spiral binding is really nice because it will keep the book open to the exact page that you want. I originally planned on having it in perfect-bound form, but you just couldn't see the very inside parts of the pages without cracking the spine. Though this binding may make the book look less "professional", it is infinitely more practical.

3. Photos - The photos were all taken my husband or I (half and half, I think), but the photos were all altered by my husband, Ian, who is amazing. He took each of the photos and transformed them into an "antique" looking picture, with the knitting object in FULL COLOR and the rest of the picture in black and white or sepia. The effect is amazing and I love how each of the photos turned out. All of the photos of me have me in "ghost form" because I am the one dreaming - and the rest of the pictures of the other models are just antiqued. The pages of the book that do not have photos on them are on a parchment-looking paper, designed to look very old and worn (See above sample page). This is my favorite aspect of the book. (I collect antique books).



(You may notice that the picture above features the beautiful Jackie of the Hello Jackie blog. This is my favorite photo in the book.)

4. Spinner-Friendly - Since this book is designed to be "spinner friendly", I've included ply, fiber content, weight and also wraps per inch (wpi). This way, you are able to find something similar in your handspun stash or regular yarn stash if you didn't want to use the particular yarn that I did.

5. Pricing - I had an savvy idea about pricing for this book. I'm planning on having it available as a pdf, as well as a hard copy. (Working on that at the moment). So, there will be 4 prices:

-Book only ($14.00)
-Book and PDF ($20.00)
-PDF only ($7.00)
-PDF for self & gift for a friend ($10.00)

The 4th option (PDF for self & gift for a friend) is something that I've been thinking about for a while. I've always felt that, when buying a pdf as a gift for someone, that it's very, very tempting to also print out that pdf for yourself (or keep a copy of it) before sending it to a friend. Has anyone else felt that way? But, it seems like paying double the price for a pdf is a bit too much if only one person is buying it. Does this make sense? (Maybe I'm just crazy). So, what I'm going to do is to make a special price if you are buying a pdf for a gift and one for yourself at the same time. It will be less than 2 pdfs and only a little more than 1. That way, the person buying the pdf won't be tempted to just buy 1 and take it for herself and THEN give the same one to a friend. Less temptation, Less guilt, Better for me.

At this point, I'm not totally set on the prices, but this is a guideline for now.

There are a few factors that some knitters might have an issue with and I'm going to go over them here so that people can try to understand why I organized the book the way I did.

1. Charts - there are charts for almost every pattern, but some of the patterns were only 2 rows of actual "pattern" and the rest was simply knitting or purling, so those charts weren't included. I wanted to put the charts on their individual pattern pages, but it made the book much, much longer and I had to keep my printing cost down. Instead of having an extra 12 pages, I was able to put all the charts on only 3 pages, which made the cost of printing much more manageable for me. If I do another edition of the book and I have more funds at that time, I will add the charts to the pattern pages.

2. Yarns - again, another factor that I was influenced by cost. I listed the general yarn details in the pattern itself and then all of the details in the back under "Yarn Information". This way, I could make the patterns smaller and use only 1 page for the specific yarn information.

3. How to Knit - this book isn't a "how to knit" book. I figure that there are many wonderful books out there that explain this information much better than I can. This is a just collection of patterns that I designed- one that I hope knitters will enjoy and find interesting.

I'm also thrilled to announce 4 (so far) Gina House/Sleepy Eyes Knits trunk shows/book signings in the New England area. (I will update these as the dates get closer)

Fresh Purls
Providence, RI
December 5th and 6th, 2009
Sat (10-4 pm, 1:30-3:00 pm Amanda Hat Class) and Sun (11-3 pm)
http://www.freshpurls.com

Windsor Button
Cambridge, MA
January 16th, 2010
Sat 12- 4 pm
http://www.windorbutton.com

The Knitting Studio
Montpelier, VT
January 23rd, 2010
Saturday 1- 4 pm
http://www.vtknits.com

The Yarn Sellar
York, ME
February 6th, 2010
Saturday (time to be announced soon)
http://www.yarnsellar.com

At each of the shows, I will be showing samples of each of my knitted designs, selling/signing copies of my new book, signing copies of "The Joy of Sox" and also giving out "I Knit and Amanda Hat!" pencils to each knitter who shows me the Amanda Hat they knit. (Picture is fine, too) I'm hoping to spend time sitting and knitting with everyone who comes to visit the store, too. And, most definitely, shopping!! ; )

If you're on Ravelry, check out the SleepyHeads group and click on the events that you'll be able to come to. Right now, only the Fresh Purls event is up, but I'll be adding more very soon.

I hope you will be able to join me at one (or more!) of these events - I'd love to meet you!! If you can spread the word about the trunk shows and my book, I'd be very, very grateful ; )

Would love to know what you think about this book preview...

Happy Knitting!

P.S. I'm trying to work out the details for selling the book at this point. It will either be available on my blog, Ravelry or my etsy shop (talking to them now about if that's something I can do) or a combination of these.

-

Vermont Knitting Trip

Whew...finally got some time to post about our Vermont knitting weekend. I've had sick kiddies home most of the week and I finally think they're on the mend. Me, on the other hand.....

Anyway, I wanted to share with you all of the beautiful yarn that I bought, the fantastic inn we stayed at and the yarn stores we visited.



First, the Marshfield Inn and Motel - eco-friendly (which I loved!), extremely delicious breakfasts (esp the local eggs and bacon), very friendly hosts (they were very accommodating and friendly!), clean rooms/bathrooms (and hot water!) and a beautiful view. The only things that I wished for were a bigger room for all of us to group together for knitting (we ended up taking turns in each others' rooms) and clocks. Besides those, I would definitely stay there again - what a lovely place!



The first yarn store we visited was just around the corner from the Inn in Plainfield and only sold Vermont (non commercial) yarns, which I thought was a nice idea. The store was big inside (perfect for staying there and knitting) and had some nice yarns....Green Mountain Spinnery, Cherry Tree Hill, This and That Farm, a nice pattern/book selection and cute knitting accessories. The owner was very good to use and gave all of us 10% off our purchases. I think the biggest hit was the "This and That Farm's" Cormo/Tussah Silk 2ply (4 oz and 254 yards of heavy worsted). Sooo soft, soo squishy and nicely spun - I bought 3 skeins. I think almost everyone bought some.

Here is the whole group at the store:


(Back L-R: Christina, Me, Jackie, Lora, Vidhi, Patti, Heather, Julie, Amanda 2.0, Blogless Amanda, Ericka)
(Front L-R: Chris, Brittany, Donna, Gaye, Sarah, Denise, Donna)

After this, some people went to the Cabot Creamery, Ben & Jerry's or to another yarn store further away. Some of us stayed behind to knit - which was relaxing and fun. That's when I started giving out the hourly prizes for the weekend - everyone in the group donated something and was able to get at least one prize in return. That was awesome!

Later that night for dinner, we had reservations for the Main Street Grill in Montpelier and it was FANTASTIC! We paid to have our own room (with the wine bottles and stone walls...very cool) and had a hot, sexy nice-looking waiter to serve us. From salad to dessert, the meal was exquisite and delicious. I think I had the most fun of the weekend that night. I highly recommend this place!

The rest of the night was an orgy of knitting, playing Apples to Apples, drinking (some of us didn't) and some nakedness. I got a lot of knitting done on my sister-in-law's felted bag (pics next post) and laughed a lot.

Sunday was mostly spent packing, knitting and getting ready to go over to The Knitting Studio in Montpelier, VT. We had an appointment for the day - there was even a sign on the door saying that the store was closed for a "private party" and it was thrilling that it meant US! The owner, Brigette, was funny, welcoming, and adorable. I loved the store, the yarns and the whole atmosphere. I hope she visits us here in NH at one of our knitting nights. What a super store she has! (She even baked goodies for us and refreshments!)



Now...onto the luscious yarns I bought!!!



1 & 2. Green Mountain Spinnery's "New Mexico Organic" -2 skeins in white - for socks. Sooo soft and lovely. (shown on bottom) and This and That Farm's "Cormo/Silk" - 3 skeins off white- for a shawl. Again...extremely soft and squishable.



3. Regia 4ply Sock Yarn - 2 skeins for a gift for my grandmother-in-law



4 & 5. Classic Elite "Star"- 4 skeins (on sale 40% off!) in different colors for my sister-in-law's scarves and Classic Elite "Princess" - 1 skein for fingerless mitts for me

Then, I also got these yarns/fibers in the mail for other projects (I'm up to my eyeballs in softness and yarngasmic yarns!...not that I'm complaining....)


1. 4 skeins of Malabrigo in two complementary shades of yellow for a tea cozy (Ravelry Link)


2. 2 skeins of Malabrigo for hats for Ian for the winter


3. 2 bags of London-Wul's polwarth fiber for spinning - one bag will be for making yarn for this beret (Ravelry link).

I'm in Heaven!!!! What do YOU think? LOL