Increasing

It's been a while since I've put up a video. But I'm having a heck of a time loading onto Youtube, so until it shows up there, here's a link to some video on m own server. I'll add more if I can afford the bandwidth!

The holidays were great. I'm still recovering, still basking in the fun and companionship, and today I enjoyed the calm of a Saturday at the Landy Household (Gerry and the kids took down the tree while I sat and went over the final proof of Romantic Hand Knits, cursing myself and blessing Donna...)

For Christmas Gerry got me a microphone for my ipod, if I can figure out how to work this thing I may be doing podcasts from the shops where I teach

(At this point I'm envisioning a podcast where I would interview knitters & shop owners across the country.)

I went up to Hopewell, to the East Fishkill library for a little chat with some knitters on Thursday - what a blast that was! As you can see, I'm famous. I talked at length about me, and then followed up with more stuff about me, and then a little bit about knitting.

I was told it was funny, the folks seemed to laugh. They bought some books and I did a few private one on one short lessons with some folks - an EXCELLENT day overall! Then Cindy took me to a MAGNIFICENT lunch and we bonded over our love of database design. Knerds who Knit.

I'm bursting at the seams over a project I'm working on. WIth any luck it will be ready to unveil at TNNA (which I'll be hyping on a very small scale - one on one with a few editors.) I do have a distributor, which is a step in the right direction.

I'm concerned that it's a brilliant idea, but that my execution won't live up to the concept. Is my best good enough? I don't spend a lot of time pining over skills I don't have, but I want to do this one really well. This whole self-publishing vs. "real" publishing has been one of the best educations I've ever had - I learn every day how much I don't know, and also how little that matters. What matters is knowing where I'm lacking, and finding people or applications or reference materials that can help me bridge the gaps.

This year at TNNA Offinger is offering space to teachers ($75 per space) where we can put up a little mini-booth with information about our classes. I've printed a bunch of large-format postcards to hand out, and made a big poster of the same image. My brilliant idea is that I've put instructions for cabling without a cable needle on the back, so hopefully the shop owners will want to keep the card around for a while and not pitch it immediately.

Once we move to MN Gerry will be Mr. Mom and I'll be able to schedule more teaching engagements as my books come out. I really need to work up some new classes based on projects in my books... Learn-as-you-go-marketing 101.

I'm treating myself to TWO beers tonight (isn't it obvious? I'm just about to tell you that you have a beautiful smile...) which is something I haven't done in weeks. I tlak about drinking like I do it a lot, but I'm a total lightweight.

We've had cases of Anchor and Blue Moon in the fridge for weeks, we downed quite a bit at the party, and now Gerry and I are celebrating our Saturday with a bit of the smooth and pale bubbly brew. I do love beer. I have maybe one every two weeks.

Well - back to my VK project. With any luck I'll have it done tomorrow, then back to the packing up of dishes, books and summer clothes! It's a very easy pattern, but I reknit the front of the sweater because I wasn't happy with the way the intarsia was flowing. This is where being a fast knitter becomes a hinderence - I KNOW I can do things so quickly that I bite of large mouthfuls of project then choke on them. I guess I shouldn't drink and knit.

Here's a shot of Mr. Butkis (named after Dick) - the loudest 15-year old cat in the world. As Gerry says, "Who knew that the fountain of youth was yelling...?"