House Sick (yet..?)
More kvelling.
We're getting finished with the details in the house - actually putting AWAY some of the stuff would be a nice gesture - and I have two mounds of work in front of me for the weekend. And a special shout-out to Marni for sending me a scan of the IK article - I hadn't read it yet (oh, merciful heavens, I don't look THAT fat, do I?) and it was SO nice to get a chance to peruse it! Issues to non-subscribers go out after the 8/8 release date
THE HOUSE
Here are the latest pics. Can I just say how much I LOVE Ikea for the continued excellent, simple decor choices in inexpensive but durable fabrics and materials? LOVE them! The blinds are $9.99 (on sale from $14) from Ikea, and the curtains are $14 for 2 panels (6 are used in the large window, 1 each for the smaller windows). The curtain rods are $5 and simple, simple, simple to put up.
I've also been haunting Home Depot for the spring curtain rods for the other rooms. I'm not the biggest curtain fan - I prefer simple shades - but when I do hang curtains quite often I like to just hang them within the window molding so that as much of the painted wood shows. These curtains are actually vintage embroidered dishtowels I found at a yard sale a few years ago and squirreled away. I don't think they were every actually used (a bridal shower gift?) and they seem very happy to finally be seeing the world (or at least my freshly painted kitchen!)
Gerry's room still needs blinds - we've removed the heavy, heavy, wooden valanced roll shades that had been up since 1956 (literally) and will replace them with something a little lighter. Oh, Ikea... I hear you calling my name... We weren't going to paint his room, just have the trim and ceiling painted, but when we removed all of the stuff so the painters could have a go at the trim I noticed that the walls weren't in as good shape as we thought. So the room was painted Green Tea to match our bedroom (it's right off the master bedroom - a lovely sleeping porch for the un-airconditioned days of 1927 when the house was built!)
WORK
I'm not sure how I'm going to get through what I need to get through this weekend - the laser prints are coming in for Men Who Knit today (they were due yesterday, but didn't show up and the tracking number my editor gave me doesn't work at the UPS site. She swears they'll be in today - and in the same email told me that I had to have them sent back to her on Saturday for a Monday delivery. Nothing like working all day on Saturday - I always do anyway, these days) I'm excited to see them.
I also have the first chapter of patterns from Romantic Knits to revise this weekend. THAT'S going to be a headache. My tech editor sent me notes and I have to turn them around and make corrections as soon as possible (the deadline on this book is insane). She also sent a very kind note suggesting that perhaps I'm doing too much. You think, Donna?
Sidebar: Donna is the author of the new and very wonderful book, Arctic Lace which I've had the pleasure of reading. We don't 100% agree on methods of knitting, but that's part of the fun and beauty of the knitting community! At any rate, it's a wonderful book to check out!
I think about that a lot. I am doing QUITE a bit
It's partly because I love it so much, and also, sadly, I have to admit that it's partly because pay for designers is so terrible. We earn less than the stylists, photographers and models who show off our designs in the mags, yet our work is so much more highly detail-oriented and time consuming.
I am NOT a detail person - I never have been - although I try to be when it's important. And, not being a detail person, I have to rely on detail-oriented folks (like my tech editor) to help me see the error of my many ways when I write a pattern. I can come up with the design concept, figure a way to make the garment drape interestingly, choose the right fiber, draft a schematic and even create a "muslin" or sample garment quite easily. It's the putting all of this into instruction form for FIVE SIZES that gets me fuddled sometimes - and, understandably - this is the most important part to the average knitter.
I think I'm going to try to move toward a model that works better for me. I'll try to divide the work of creating a design and writing a workable pattern for it up between myself and a detail oriented tech editor/writer who can take my notes and my initial pattern and make it more usable/workable. How I'll do this on the slim budget we designers get for each pattern is a mystery (I already pay more than 50% of any design fee to the knitters I use to work up that design - just because I'm not compensated as well as I'd like is no reason to stiff the person doing the actual WORK!)
I don't mean to sound whiney - and as I said before, I'm the luckiest person I know! But I wish that there were a more fair way to compensate designers (and knitters!), keeping their fees in line with the fees of the auxillary personnel who model and photograph the designs. I certainly don't think they're paid too much! And I also know that the editors I work with do their best to compensate the designers as well as they can within the established framework. But perhaps the framework has to be changed?
Maybe the answer is fewer designs in each issue? Who knows. I don't have all of the financial facts in front of me, and it's easy for me to sit and make broad, general statements about fees, etc. But my tech editors comment about the fact that I seem to be doing too much really made me stop and think about how much I AM doing, why I'm doing it, and what the actual compensation is per garment. Something to ponder.
Do you love how I start the post by gushing over the cheap prices at Ikea (Made In India) and end by complaining about my own compensation? THAT is really something to ponder. Compensation is relative, and I can't forget how relatively rich I am.
We're getting finished with the details in the house - actually putting AWAY some of the stuff would be a nice gesture - and I have two mounds of work in front of me for the weekend. And a special shout-out to Marni for sending me a scan of the IK article - I hadn't read it yet (oh, merciful heavens, I don't look THAT fat, do I?) and it was SO nice to get a chance to peruse it! Issues to non-subscribers go out after the 8/8 release date
THE HOUSE
Here are the latest pics. Can I just say how much I LOVE Ikea for the continued excellent, simple decor choices in inexpensive but durable fabrics and materials? LOVE them! The blinds are $9.99 (on sale from $14) from Ikea, and the curtains are $14 for 2 panels (6 are used in the large window, 1 each for the smaller windows). The curtain rods are $5 and simple, simple, simple to put up. 
I've also been haunting Home Depot for the spring curtain rods for the other rooms. I'm not the biggest curtain fan - I prefer simple shades - but when I do hang curtains quite often I like to just hang them within the window molding so that as much of the painted wood shows. These curtains are actually vintage embroidered dishtowels I found at a yard sale a few years ago and squirreled away. I don't think they were every actually used (a bridal shower gift?) and they seem very happy to finally be seeing the world (or at least my freshly painted kitchen!)
Gerry's room still needs blinds - we've removed the heavy, heavy, wooden valanced roll shades that had been up since 1956 (literally) and will replace them with something a little lighter. Oh, Ikea... I hear you calling my name... We weren't going to paint his room, just have the trim and ceiling painted, but when we removed all of the stuff so the painters could have a go at the trim I noticed that the walls weren't in as good shape as we thought. So the room was painted Green Tea to match our bedroom (it's right off the master bedroom - a lovely sleeping porch for the un-airconditioned days of 1927 when the house was built!)WORK
I'm not sure how I'm going to get through what I need to get through this weekend - the laser prints are coming in for Men Who Knit today (they were due yesterday, but didn't show up and the tracking number my editor gave me doesn't work at the UPS site. She swears they'll be in today - and in the same email told me that I had to have them sent back to her on Saturday for a Monday delivery. Nothing like working all day on Saturday - I always do anyway, these days) I'm excited to see them.
I also have the first chapter of patterns from Romantic Knits to revise this weekend. THAT'S going to be a headache. My tech editor sent me notes and I have to turn them around and make corrections as soon as possible (the deadline on this book is insane). She also sent a very kind note suggesting that perhaps I'm doing too much. You think, Donna?
Sidebar: Donna is the author of the new and very wonderful book, Arctic Lace which I've had the pleasure of reading. We don't 100% agree on methods of knitting, but that's part of the fun and beauty of the knitting community! At any rate, it's a wonderful book to check out!
I think about that a lot. I am doing QUITE a bit
It's partly because I love it so much, and also, sadly, I have to admit that it's partly because pay for designers is so terrible. We earn less than the stylists, photographers and models who show off our designs in the mags, yet our work is so much more highly detail-oriented and time consuming.
I am NOT a detail person - I never have been - although I try to be when it's important. And, not being a detail person, I have to rely on detail-oriented folks (like my tech editor) to help me see the error of my many ways when I write a pattern. I can come up with the design concept, figure a way to make the garment drape interestingly, choose the right fiber, draft a schematic and even create a "muslin" or sample garment quite easily. It's the putting all of this into instruction form for FIVE SIZES that gets me fuddled sometimes - and, understandably - this is the most important part to the average knitter.
I think I'm going to try to move toward a model that works better for me. I'll try to divide the work of creating a design and writing a workable pattern for it up between myself and a detail oriented tech editor/writer who can take my notes and my initial pattern and make it more usable/workable. How I'll do this on the slim budget we designers get for each pattern is a mystery (I already pay more than 50% of any design fee to the knitters I use to work up that design - just because I'm not compensated as well as I'd like is no reason to stiff the person doing the actual WORK!)
I don't mean to sound whiney - and as I said before, I'm the luckiest person I know! But I wish that there were a more fair way to compensate designers (and knitters!), keeping their fees in line with the fees of the auxillary personnel who model and photograph the designs. I certainly don't think they're paid too much! And I also know that the editors I work with do their best to compensate the designers as well as they can within the established framework. But perhaps the framework has to be changed?
Maybe the answer is fewer designs in each issue? Who knows. I don't have all of the financial facts in front of me, and it's easy for me to sit and make broad, general statements about fees, etc. But my tech editors comment about the fact that I seem to be doing too much really made me stop and think about how much I AM doing, why I'm doing it, and what the actual compensation is per garment. Something to ponder.
Do you love how I start the post by gushing over the cheap prices at Ikea (Made In India) and end by complaining about my own compensation? THAT is really something to ponder. Compensation is relative, and I can't forget how relatively rich I am.
posted by Annie at
Thursday, August 03, 2006
16 Comments:
Your house looks great.... I need to do some painting too...
The house is looking fantastic! I understand your comments about compensation...very sad facts, but true.
Maybe all knitting designers should go on strike for higher pay?
Something to ponder, indeed. The more creative and compelling your work is and the more you are interested in quality -- of writing, finished garment, whatever -- the less you're paid. And unless what you do generates money in some way (think of stockbrokers, entertainers, etc.), you will not be compensated in any proportion to the talent you've put in (begin with teachers). This rule of thumb has helped me a lot over the years as I work on writers' mss. and try to ensure that a "perfect" book appears. Lots of quality, little money, nice co-workers. Your worth has no connection to your paycheck, remember. Lecture/rant over. Luise
when ever someone sees me KIP and says "you could make money doing that" i just shake my head...
and...
yes; i too am blessed with "rich" . i have all the clean fresh water i want; some of it it even heated; the list of what makes me (us) rich is long.
and
having said that, i also say that i can't afford most of the stuff in the big box of the big box retailer for whom i work,
not ranting; just saying.
Hi Annie,
You said:
Sidebar: Donna is the author of the new and very wonderful book, Arctic Lace which I've had the pleasure of reading. We don't 100% agree on methods of knitting, but that's part of the fun and beauty of the knitting community! At any rate, it's a wonderful book to check out!
Actually, we do agree. I knit Combination method for just about everything, and I'm stuck up enough to think that it's the best way to knit. It's how I learned from my grandmother when I was about 4.
I just think that for a lot of newer knitters, it's hard to learn to use this technique for lace, because there are not many people who can help them with figuring out the decreases. It's not that the technique is actually harder, it's that usually you are left on your own to figure everything out!
For my book, Arctic Lace, I hadn't thought there were enough Combination knitters out there to cover that style of knitting in the book. But you've gotten me thinking and I am going to add a special tutorial for knitting lace with Combination knitting style to my website.
Anne, I thought you looked great in the IK article and you came off just as lovely as you do in person. I'm looking forward to Romantic Knits!
You're right, Donna - I mispoke!
Connie, your check is in the mail...
Hey Donna - combination knitters like us just sort of get used to using charts to mentally hop skip and jump through a pattern - left decrease, right decrease - double decrease - as long as it's pointed in the correct direction! So, as long as your charts (and you ARE using charts, eh? I have a lovely recent lace book whose patterns don't and it makes me want to pitch it across the room) are fine, combination knitters should muddle through. Or maybe I just have 30 years of muddling though behind me so I'm used to it! LOL! BTW, the yarn on the cover shot - quivit? Lucky girl! Just finished a shawl in natural alpaca in much the same color and it's yummy.
It always cracks me up when someone tells me I could make a living knitting or assumes that I knit myself sweaters because they are less expensive than store-bought sweaters! I'm so glad for you that you are making a living knitting but no one does it because it's lucrative. We understand you are aren't whining, but it's a fact. Love how the house is turning out!
Hi Other Ann, yes, I definitely have charts and the symbols do show the correct slant for each stitch!
I, by the way, can't make a living knitting and designing either. I edit and do a little bookkeeping to pay the bills. I do feel fortunate that I can work at home and most of the projects I work on are related to knitting and crochet!
Donna
Annie,
I just picked up my copy of IK at the newstand in British Columbia, always nice to have it available early. The photo of you is a nice photo and the article was great. And the work you are doing on your home is lovely. I hear you about the inequities of pay for different work. When I was younger, my mum, who was an R.N. with post-graduate training in surgery and midwivery still made less money that one of my sister's high school friends who worked behind the counter in the deli at the local grocery store. I suppose the solace is that you do what you love.
i really appreciated your post today and how much (unpaid) time went into writing about a very important topic. and the most important point WAS at the end, though i do agree heartily with all of it.
i am a designer, too, though not at all well-known and everyone tells me i do too much, i take on too much, i don't sleep enough, etc.
but hey, a girl's gotta eat! i am philosophic too about my "pay", but still, your point about everyone else's pay being higher rings true. why is that? my day job is also in publishing and there as well, the pay is low for an artist, while sales and marketing personnel are much better compensated.
thanks for sharing your experience!
ps: i took a class with you in wooster ohio this spring and am using the cabling tachnique all the time AND i bought a scunci!!
Hi Annie! This has nothing to do with your post, but I thought you may find it interesting all the same. Yesterday, I went to visit an art class taught by a (fantastic) local artist, M. Douglas Walton. I happened to be wearing my silk corset top of your design, and the whole class, including the teacher thought it was so beautiful and amazing. One lady, whose been painting for 17 years, and has done some lovely work herself, even asked me if I'd model so she could draw me wearing the top! She did a lovely drawing. I don't know whether she'll ever actually paint it, but isn't it nice to know that other artists enjoy your work enough to incorporate it into their own? :-D
I saw you on Knitty Gritty today. At the beginning of the show Vicki and her mother were making a lampshade and I thought, "Why isn't Annie Modesitt up there? Are they going to just let her sit with the knitsters the whole show?" Then, I fast-forwarded and there you were! I saw that steamer and I said I've got to have one of those. My husband said it sounded like a Christmas present to him. Ha! I doubt I wait that long!
Cathy
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