Yarn Sellar Trunk Show -Yay!

I am SO lucky! Another fantastic trunk show at The Yarn Sellar for Dreamscape!

The day started off with a fun ride to York, Maine with my dear friend, Laurin - it was so relaxing and we laughed and laughed - even when we got lost (slightly) and couldn't find the yarn shop (which we've been to so many times-LOL!). We called out places that we wanted to visit on the way back home - like the When Pigs Fly bakery (yummy - I bought chocolate bread, 4 seed bread, sourdough and oat & honey, plus balsamic vinagrette and jellies) and Yummies candy store (omg - floor to ceiling candy - 10,000 pounds in the store!).



The fantastic and thoughtful, Julie, had opened the store early and had hot coffee, tons of water bottles, and sweet smelling munchkins ready for us. In a flash, we'd set up the trunk show on the table and the appendages (lol) and I was set to go!



Within 1 hour or so, I'd already sold 10 books! Wowza!

Not only did I have the BEST time meeting knitters (some of who came just to see ME! I just can't believe it...) and seeing them try on hats, scarves, shawls and mitts, but it was just so much fun sitting there and KNITTING. Laurin and I sat at the table and chat, knit and relaxed. Totally wonderful.


(A lovely Amanda Hat wearing knitter and me.)

There was one awesome knitter who came to see me, Amanda, who brought her family with her - and her beautiful teenage daughter (whose name I should I have asked) looked AMAZING in every single hat on the table. It was one of the best times of the day seeing her try things on and look fab-u-lous! She had her mom pick out yarn for every hat in my book! If only I'd gotten better pictures of her.....I did get a pic of her and her family at the table, though: (she's the one on the very left with the burgandy Amanda Hat on)



Some of my close knitting friends came to see me, too - Kerrie-Ann, Jackie, and Lora. Oh, it makes me feel incredibly special when friends are so supportive of me and my book. I love you guys!!!


(L-R: Kerrie-Ann, Jackie, Me)

All in all, another totally successful and super fun day - I sold 24 books by the end of the day. Laurin and I went shopping after the trunk show and out to dinner for yummy hamburgers at a restaurant on the way home. I got to finish the very last square to Ben's Log Cabin blanket. I'm sewing it up now. Yay!

I want to thank Patti and Roger (to whom I send many loving thoughts and hugs), Julie and Martha for all that they did for me for my trunk show - I can't tell how much it meant to me and you are all so wonderful. Thank you!!!!!

And, before I go, a pic of my mom's finished Fudge Swirl Cabled Mock Turtleneck - it's a birthday gift and I hope she likes it!!



And, also, on me:



What do you think?

Happy Knitting!!! ; )

Trunk Show at the YARN SELLAR this Saturday!!!

Hey everyone!



Just a reminder that I'll be at the Yarn Sellar this Saturday for another "Sleepy Eyes Knits: Dreamscape" Trunk show and book signing. I'm happy to say that I will be there from 10 am - 4 pm (all day!!!) if you'd like to visit, shop and come to sit and knit with me. It's a wonderful store with such friendly and fun people - totally worth the trip....plus you get to see meeeee! LOL!

Almost every weekend this month I have a show, so if you miss this one, the other two are here in New Hampshire (at the Yarn and Fiber Co. in Derry- 13th and Elegant Ewe in Concord - 20th)

Lately, I've been knitting my heart out on little Ben's Log Cabin Square blanket-which is totally, wonderfully quick, fun AND addictive. I'm on number 15/16 of the squares I'm making and I think it may be finished by the end of this month. Woo-hoo!

Here is the current pic of it (with only 13 squares of Noro Kureyon on size US 8 needle):



I looooooove it!

Still working on my October Frost Cardigan, too...but it's hard to work on that at group, since each row has at least 3 different cable charts. It's coming out beautifully, but slowly.

As always, if you're interested, you can buy a PDF of my Dreamscape book on Ravelry and also on my Etsy shop -where you can buy the actual book (with free stitch marker!) as well. If you're able to come to any of the trunk shows before the end of the month, you will receive a FREE pdf with every Dreamscape book purchase. Do it now before it ends!!! (he he)

Have a wonderful weekend and, in the next post, I will show finished pics of my mom's Fudge Swirl Cabled Mock Turtleneck sweater!

Byyyyeee!

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.

-

Spunk-a-licious!

CAUTION....had too many pics to post, so I had to choose only some. Sorry! Hope they all come through...



What can I say about a day spent at a fantastic yarn store with a to-die-for view and....best of all....Amy Boogie of Spunky Eclectic?



SpunkyTastic!!!!!

Melissa, Lora and I started off at Donna's house (Blogless, Koigu Donna) and headed to York, ME to the Yarn Sellar to meet the fabulous Julie, Brenda and, YS owner and sweetie, Patti. (Ericka and Chris met us there before leaving for Lisbon.) Here we all are before leaving...with Donna holding a basket of Heather's Sereknity Sock Options yarn.



(l-r...Lora, Roger (Patti's hubby aka Bruce), Patti, Donna, Melissa, Me and Julie)

After stopping for a quick lunch, exchanging cell phone numbers (thank GOODNESS we did!), getting lost a couple times and then finally meeting up at a Dunkin Donuts/Mobil gas station (to refresh ourselves with waters, coffee and candy...namely, PEPPERMINT PATTIES...hint hint...wink wink....), we were on the home stretch to Spunky Amy's.

Donna made a very impressive, race car driver's sharp and short right turn into the parking lot at once when we screamed, "THERE IT IS!!!" and, I think, ralllied rather well after her heart stopping for a second or two. (and saying, "You are FIRED as the copilot for the next trip!" to me....which, of course, I've heard before, right Laurin?) Sorry, Donna!

Here is the view from Amy's shop...



Impressive, isn't it????

After getting a huge hug from Amy's adorable, squeeze-her-face daughter "Medium Boogie" (not to be confused with "Baby Boogie") and Amy herself, we all rushed like a mob into the shop. Although the size is small (especially for about 10 of us at once), everything is arranged very nicely and you know exactly where to go for what you want. Not only does she have YARN! and FIBER!!!, but also spindles, spinning wheels, spinning equipment, and her own handmade pottery, which is gorgeous. It was just like at SPA, we all kept going back in for more! Go outside, go back in, go outside, go back in....it was a vicious cycle of horrible monetary proportions. shiver

Wanna see pics of the store?? (of course you do!)

Exhibit A: The Yarn



Exhibit B: The Fiber



Exhibit C: The Spindles



Exhibit D: The Pottery



And, you know what else???

Melissa and Lora learned how to spin on the drop spindle!!!! Woo-hoo!! (Ericka and I thought to ourselves, "He he...we've corrupted MORE knitters!"...or at least, that's what I think we thought!)

Here I am giving Melissa a hand, though she was really a natural.



And Melissa and Lora succesfully spinning! (Lora, you are awesome at the S twist!!!!)



Most of the time, we spent on the porch, knitting (welll, I talked....mostly...shocker) I think I was getting a little too "photo happy" because Brenda and Julie looked at me like THIS:



And the lovely Patti...



I thought Chris and Ericka looked so cute here together...dont' you? Busy knittin' away....



I think we spent almost 3 hours there and it was the most relaxing and fun time I've had in weeks....I even got to draw chaulk pictures on the driveway with "Medium Boogie", which was almost more fun than knitting! (gasp!) Here are some pics that we drew together...



Boy, it really made me want to have a little girl....boohoo...but, no, I'm happy with my video game playing boys : ) Maybe I could just borrow Medium Boogie or Jackie's Little One sometimes....right?

On the way home, and Donna's trunk stuffed to the brim with yarn and fiber, we stopped for dinner and it was delicious! We had a waitress, Jamie, that rivaled Famous April for friendliness and that "je ne s'ai quoi" that we look for when dining and knitting. It was a long ride home and though I tried to give Donna subliminal messages on the way...(saying "Yaaaarrrnnn" instead of "Yaaaawwwnnn")....she wasn't really fallling for it. Damn it.

So, you ask, what are the treasures that you took home??? Well, here are some of the things I got....some are gifts and I didn't take pics of them. Wanna see????



(l-r) "Nuclear Flower" sportweight, "Walking on the Sun" laceweight merino, "Your Majesty" skinny sock, and "Killer Tomato" skinny sock.

Plus, I got "Pulsations" in green to knit up Amy's new "Pulsations" sock pattern...see HERE and a couple rovings for spinning.

All in all, it was a FANTASTIC day, although I missed everyone who couldn't make it. I'm sure we'll go again, though.

Oh, let me leave you with THE WALL OF GINA...



(Medium Boogie wrote my name all along the brick wall near the shop. I LOVE her!!!) Go visit Spunky's Shop NOW! (he he)