Piker!
I just listened to Marie Irshad's Knit Cast (obviously I'm enjoying my ipod - it is heavenly - and I'm catching up on so many podcasts that I'd missed before...), the Shannon Okey episode, and I'm feeling like a piker!
Wow - what a busy woman she is! I thought I was busy, but I'm sitting here on my hands (which makes it hard - but in some ways more fun - to knit and write) while she pumps out 17 books and 14 businesses. I am in awe! I'm also kicking myself because apparently she was just a few miles from me last week and I didn't get my butt over to Modern Yarn in Montclair, NJ to see her - oh, well, live and learn... I think that was the day I was doing my taxes...
To be honest, I'm feeling in a minor slump right now. Perhaps is the feeling-between-books sensation, or I'm still getting up to speed for this Winter, but the past few years I've had a book in the works or in the wings at all times, and now all I have are some ideas floating around my head. I think I'm slightly disenchanted with the whole publisher world (so different from self publishing) and I have to either deal with it or - well - I just have to deal with it. I also just noticed last night after I'd scanned in the contact sheets from my Romantic Knits photo shoot that the shawl is worn wrong side out. Oy. That was the day that I wasn't at the shoot, and the shawl was DEFINITELY labeled with a pin to note the wrong side.
Which makes me long for a chance to work with Brooklyn Tweed, a blogger and knitter (and amazing photographer) in Brooklyn who takes the most soulful shots of yarn and sweaters. Imagine, a photographer who KNITS and who GETS IT!
I think it may be time for me to start my search again for an affordable color publisher (no, lulu or the POD printers are just too expensive...) I think my only hope may be to go overseas, but I'd rather not...
Wow - what a busy woman she is! I thought I was busy, but I'm sitting here on my hands (which makes it hard - but in some ways more fun - to knit and write) while she pumps out 17 books and 14 businesses. I am in awe! I'm also kicking myself because apparently she was just a few miles from me last week and I didn't get my butt over to Modern Yarn in Montclair, NJ to see her - oh, well, live and learn... I think that was the day I was doing my taxes...
To be honest, I'm feeling in a minor slump right now. Perhaps is the feeling-between-books sensation, or I'm still getting up to speed for this Winter, but the past few years I've had a book in the works or in the wings at all times, and now all I have are some ideas floating around my head. I think I'm slightly disenchanted with the whole publisher world (so different from self publishing) and I have to either deal with it or - well - I just have to deal with it. I also just noticed last night after I'd scanned in the contact sheets from my Romantic Knits photo shoot that the shawl is worn wrong side out. Oy. That was the day that I wasn't at the shoot, and the shawl was DEFINITELY labeled with a pin to note the wrong side.
Which makes me long for a chance to work with Brooklyn Tweed, a blogger and knitter (and amazing photographer) in Brooklyn who takes the most soulful shots of yarn and sweaters. Imagine, a photographer who KNITS and who GETS IT!
I think it may be time for me to start my search again for an affordable color publisher (no, lulu or the POD printers are just too expensive...) I think my only hope may be to go overseas, but I'd rather not...
posted by Annie at
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
5 Comments:
Slumps are normal. I think I may be in one right now--a little time off between the big projects to give your brain and hands a bit of a rest. It seems to me that we creative types *think* we have to produce and work at least the same number of hours as a 9-5 person. However, I find it doesn't work like that for me. Sometimes, I work far far more than 40 hours a week.
Other times, I need a break. I can't write all day...after about 2,000 words, I'm no longer very literate! I can't knit/design all day every day...hands get sore. There need to be breaks to cope with life and to process information before diving back in again. I find it hard to give myself permission to rest, but sometimes, that's what I need. You'll jump out of this rest period with lots of new energy and ideas. Just give yourself permission to think for a bit! At least, that's what I keep telling myself...:)
Oh, that would be such fun for US!!! You, paired with Brooklyn Tweed!!! YES!!!!!
Joanne's oh so right -- sometimes it's the "slump" that produces the next big ol' mental breakthrough. I felt guilty a few weeks ago for taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon instead of working... which is just absurd, when you look back on it. Your brain can't push stuff out 24-7, it needs time to reflect!
Piker? I think not. All that traveling and teaching you do is a much bigger mental slog than my tied-to-the-keyboard work style! (Something I appreciate even more after getting sick while on book tour!)
Re Shannon Okey - I haven't seen any of her books so I can't comment on how good they are, but there is always a tension between quality and quantity. The best work takes time, I think. The number of published books isn't how I judge a designer's work.
What about Cat Bordhi's printer--her books have full color and they're beautiful and affordably priced... The name of the printer is Friesens. Good luck!
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