Where do we go from here?

by Shannon on May 1, 2013

(If you are a Buffy nerd you just heard this in your head, didn’t you?)

I have been having an internal struggle about what to do with the blog during its planned renovation this year. As part of a larger transformation (improving pattern layouts and instructions, doing some re-branding for the Knitgrrl patterns and getting new ones released that have been hung up during the transition), I need to decide just what happens HERE going forward.

See, way back in 2002 when I first started the knitblog, there weren’t many blogs period, let alone knitting ones. (First entry. Feel free to laugh). There was no Ravelry, no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube, no Instagram, no social media as we know it now. Two years after that first blog post I was sitting on a 2-book contract for the Knitgrrl books. Ten years after that post and I’m running my own knit publishing company with 20-ish available titles, not even counting the 12+ I’d written myself.

My head is spinning just thinking about it!

There are thousands of subscribers to my mailing list, which is often neglected because I don’t like sending out emails without a point. (Oh hi, beloved mailing listers! I am going to mail you about this, though!), and I know from the stats how many of you read the blog, so it’s not like I’m just going to abandon it.

Instead, I want to ask you what you want. What you need. How I can make this a more helpful and better destination for you. And so I’m doing a survey… one where you can win up to $100!

Go here and tell me what you want, what you really really want.

(First Whedon, then the Spice Girls? What is this world coming to, anyway?)

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Bunnies + Seattle, Portland, Atlanta

by Shannon on March 31, 2013

Happy Easter, everyone! (And hurray for Passover, because I got candy for that, too — let’s hear it for having friends of all holiday candy persuasions!)

It’s been a while. Oh hi. Since last I posted Google Reader shut down…hopefully you’ve found a replacement if you were following the blog via feedreader.

Usual excuses apply: I’ve been traveling like crazy (back to back Vogue Knitting Live in NYC, the O’Reilly Tools of Change publishing conference and Stitches West). This isn’t changing any time soon. This week I head out to Seattle for another Vogue Knitting Live, then to Portland for a trunk show at Pearl Fiber Arts, and immediately down to Atlanta for Stitches South.

At VKL Cooperative Press has its own booth, at Stitches South we are sharing with our dear friends from Cephalopod Yarns. Cephalopod + me = hijinks. If you saw that photo of Batman in our booth at VKL NYC? Yup. Our doing. I doubt there are superheroes for hire outside the hotel in Atlanta though hope springs eternal.

In Purely Crazy News: remember Maize? The sweater I oh so optimistically prereleased for ordering before the tech editing was done? And then I BROKE about five tech editors on it? Whew. I am SO GLAD to report that it is done for real now, and we’re doing all new photos for it because the tech editor who finally bent it to her will (Andi! Yay!) knit a new sample as she worked it out.

Halleluia.

So I’ve dispatched it off for photos and that’ll be out soon.

Meanwhile in my personal bat-cave, I have a resolution for 2013. I’ve been intending to a. revive my own pattern line, which has taken a real backseat to Cooperative Press work and b. publish more of my own work at CP.

On b, not necessarily pattern books. I really want to finish up the book version of the Get Published class I teach online. As part of that, I will be teaching another edition of the class online this spring. See knitgrrl.ning.com, we’ve got a thread going where you can indicate interest.

I wonder, though, if there would be any interest in doing a live bootcamp version of the class here in Cleveland (or elsewhere). Maybe around TNNA? Give a shout in the comments with your thoughts on that. If you’re a designer planning on attending TNNA already…

Other stuff: I have another big project underway that’s software-related. It’s taking up a lot of my spare thought cycles but it’s going to be very, very worth it. An amazing team of collaborators is falling into place behind the scenes, which is so exciting. Tiring. Exhausting. But exciting!

Hopefully, then, you can forgive my extended blog-absence. It’s a miracle if I’m home and making dinner before 8:00 on more nights than I would care to count, and sometimes I just want to run away and join the circus…but I persevere.

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I like iPads, don’t you? Want a Mini?

January 8, 2013

We’re doing a big contest over at Cooperative Press. Here’s the info. It’s tough to get attention when you don’t have a kazillion dollars for ads, so you do what you have to in order to gather up the social media eyeballs and “meet” new people who haven’t already heard of you. I spent a [...]

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New interview in Yarnwise

December 24, 2012

I’m excited to see the new issue of Yarnwise with my interview is out now (AND available for download to iPad, etc which I am doing right now because it would be a little crazy to run to the bookstore on Christmas Eve). Thank you, dear Lou, for thinking of me and doing such a [...]

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NaKniSweMo and so much going on!

November 16, 2012

How goes it, NaKniSweMo knitters? Reading the discussions over on Ravelry, it looks like a LOT of people are making great progress. Yay! I almost feel caught up from my MONTH OF MADNESS, aka October. Almost. You can see a lot of pictures from my month on the road over at Instagram — when I [...]

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NAKNISWEMO 2012: The NaKniSweMo-ing.

October 31, 2012

Ana (aka sugaroni) has made some FABULOUS new Ravatars for this year — grab them here. Discuss what you’re knitting here. Want to offer up a prize for this year’s successful finishers? Do that here. And for those of you who haven’t played along in previous years, here’s what you need to know: How it [...]

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Mmm, wooooool.

October 9, 2012

I’m incredibly pleased to get the chance to talk about a new book by Sue Blacker that I really, really like. Pure Wool: A Knitter’s Guide to Using Single-Breed Yarns is the sort of book you’ll love if you liked Clara Parkes’ The Knitters’ Book of Wool or Deb Robson’s The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook: [...]

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Guest post: Rohn Strong

October 8, 2012

Rohn Strong, author of The Heritage Collection: WWI & WWII is our guest on the blog today! I first met Rohn when he pitched another idea to me for Cooperative Press, but I was really excited about this project he’s doing and I hope you will be, too. As some of you might know, I’m [...]

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Not dead, just busy…

September 19, 2012

My mother has been suitably appalled with me over the past week. I’ll call to check in on my dad, who fell off a ladder at work last month and has not been having a very fun recovery (dizziness is no one’s friend), and she’ll say “what are YOU doing?” “going home to make dinner…” [...]

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Felicia Lo’s Spinning Dyed Fibers + giveaway

August 24, 2012

I love Felicia Lo from Sweet Georgia Yarns! We first met in person many moons ago while I was in Vancouver taking photos for my book Spin to Knit, and we’ve worked together on a number of projects, including my book Alt Fiber (she dyed all the natural fiber yarn samples) and books for Cooperative [...]

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