Mixed bag

Today is one of those posts where I try to mention all sorts of unrelated things, a kind of mental housekeeping. But I tried to put in some pretty fiber-y pictures (and a kute kid shot), so you won't get bored.

Incoming

I just discovered that Franklin's book, It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Yay! My copy is pre-ordered, I assure you. Franklin's cartoons are wonderful and he is a superb writer. I feel very strongly that this book is going to be this fall's Next Big Thing. Someday, our house will have a plaque on it that says "Dolores slept here." (Although after her recent visit, there are quite a few houses on the Main Line that could display that plaque...)

Outgoing

Between yesterday and today, it's been wind, wind, wind. (Um, that would be wind with a long-i sound. Not windy at all here.) I just mailed the last shipment of my four-month BBF Sock Club and it's been amazingly fun. These are some of the skeins that were mailed:

I lucked out with an extremely great group, and I hope most or all of them will want to continue on with the Club. . .

Today there's a BBF update featuring some lighter yarns for spring. I've got merino/tencel sock yarn, some of which are here:

and three batches of 50% wool/50% silk, designed with the Clapotis in mind. (You can see Liz's gorgeous Clapotis here. Her photos rock, too.) This is the same yarn she used, in the same amount, but in different colorways.


There'll also be some Norwegian roving (a sturdier fleece, good for socks or outdoorwear). So stop by midday and see what Charcoal and I have cooked up for you.

Upcoming

Thank you for all of your kind words about Knit So Fine: Designs with Skinny Yarn! I was excited to see that we've cracked the Top Ten on Amazon's Knitting Books list. We are going to be doing a really cool blog tour in June. I'll post the schedule with links in a few days -- we're still ironing out a few details -- but my co-authors and I will be doing guest posts on other people's blogs to talk about the book. In particular, we're going to talk about specific skinny yarns we love -- the ones we chose to use in the book. So you'll get to hear about specific projects and read some mini-yarn reviews, as the bloggers hosting us will get sample skeins of the same yarns we used so they can swatch and give us their opinions.

We're also going to have a KSF Knitalong; the website is being set up even as we speak by our awesome publicist (I know, can you believe it? I have a publicist!) so I'll give you the link as soon as it's ready.

In the meantime, Joe is going to do a very special episode of Blossom his blog on Monday featuring an interview with yours truly. Rest assured, the questions will have a Steven Colbert-like flair to them...

Ongoing

April's book report: Let's see, Tudor-ama continued, as I read most of Mary Queen of Scotland & The Isles: A Novel by Margaret George. I got really interested in Mary, and although I knew what was going to happen to her at the end, I had to stop reading before I reached the end because I, um, got kind of attached to her. (Am I a complete whackjob or what?).

I opted out of the Tudor thing in order to read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which had a Gothic but timeless quality reminiscent of books like Rebecca and Jane Eyre. I enjoyed that one a lot. I also read The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters (my clever and talented friend Selma recommended Minette Walters to me) which was a mystery set in present-day London; it wasn't as good as the Setterfield one.

One Final Observation

If you've never heard an auditorium full of ten-year-old kids play "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" on kazoos (in harmony, no less), you just haven't lived.