Author Archives: JC
At long last, Charts Made Simple is now available for order through Amazon. Does that mean the book is “real”? More real than when it wasn’t available through Amazon? Some people may think so. Myself, I’m waiting for the book to be available at Powell’s. Or at any yarn shop I happen to pop my […]
When most knitting books go on the road, they go in the form of a trunk show: garments featured in the book are packed up, shipped to a yarn shop, and displayed prominently. Knitters get to see and feel the garments, and sometimes try them on. The books get a kick out of all the […]
All morning, I kept listening for the tell-tale drone of the UPS truck. False alarms made me all jittery, then crushed my spirit. Finally, mid-day, these arrived: Books! Not a mere idea, not a bunch of InDesign files, but real, live, don’t-stub-your-toe-on-the-boxes books! Charts Made Simple was so long in the making, I wasn’t sure […]
Sock news
By JC | January 6, 2011
Sock Summit 2011 is approaching fast, and nobody knows it better than ST-1. Among a million other tasks, they’ve got to figure out who will teach what during four sock-filled days. Imagine: dozens of teachers, umpteen three- and one-hour time slots, untold numbers of tantalizing topics. The mind boggles at the thought of spreadsheets bursting […]
In the past few weeks I haven’t been doing any teaching. (With good reason! Who wants to take a knitting class during the holiday season?) But that doesn’t mean I’ve been twiddling my thumbs. December is prime time for teachers like myself and event organizers to get together and plan the coming year. The result? […]
The other day I saw a demonstration of bobbin lace. Sheesh, did that lacemaker make those bobbins fly! I have no clue how she could move so fast, yet remember where she was in the pattern. But even though I’m curious as to how bobbin lace works, even though I’m a skill junkie that likes […]
I had the best time today writing up the pattern for a scarf I plan to knit. This is odd. Most designers (myself included) would say that pattern-writing isn’t their favorite task. Rather, it rates far below sketching or swatching, and somewhere near envelope-stuffing. Apparently, though, it’s been long enough since I last wrote or […]
Limbo
By JC | November 23, 2010
With Charts Made Simple in the printer’s hands, I’m kind of at loose ends. Tasks that had been sucking up gobs of time are now completed, but I’m not ready to start anything new. Just the thought of beginning a large project—book or otherwise—gives me the heebie-jeebies at the moment. So instead I’m looking to […]
This morning, FedEx dropped off a long-awaited package: print proofs for Charts Made Simple. The color cover was separate from the interior, and the interior had been printed on lighter-weight paper than will be used for the actual book. But the proofs were bound. It’s starting to look like a real book. So I spent […]
FO parade
By JC | November 18, 2010
A couple weeks ago, after realizing I had a few too many WIPs sitting around, I took action. First, I finished this: This scarf had been done for months, except for weaving in the ends and blocking—finishing it off was low-hanging fruit indeed. Knit out of Pico Accuardi’s sock yarn in a stunning Acid & […]