Author: tobyroxane

1. If you’ve been trying to buy my London Underground book through my website and you haven’t been able to, that’s because I’m “in between” credit card processing servers. I was using authorize.net and it was AWFUL and I don’t care who knows it. In fact, everyone should know it. I’m in the process of switching to a different one—I’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

2. My second book, The Tarot Collection, is now available for purchase as an ebook on Ravelry! The printed copies should start showing up in yarn shops toward the end of the month.

3. Are you going to TNNA in Columbus, OH? I am too!! (TNNA stands for The National Needlearts Association, and they have a big trade show every summer. This year it’s in Columbus.) I’ll have a booth with Deep South Fibers and if you’re going, you should make sure to come say hi.

When I was little, I was a worried kid. I was afraid of a lot of things, but mainly robbers (by some weird irony, Home Alone, with tiny little Macaulay Culkin, was one of my favorite videos), kidnappers, and fire. The fire thing started when they started doing “Fire Prevention Week” in school (in fact, I remember having that as early as pre-school). If you didn’t grow up in the late 80’s/early 90’s or have a kid who grew up then, Fire Prevention Week was a week in October when firemen went around to all the schools to talk about fire safety. It was mostly stuff like the famous “stop drop and roll” mantra, but I remember one particularly sadistic fireman telling us this:

“If there’s a fire in your house—even a little one that you or your parents put out yourselves—you should call the fire department. Because sometimes, a spark from that fire can live inside the wall until everyone goes to bed at night and then it can come back to life and set your house on fire while you’re asleep.”

Now, it has since been confirmed that this is actually true, but if you ever want to scare the shit out of a 6 year old, there you go. I tried to get my dad to prop a ladder outside my bedroom window so that I’d have a fire escape route, but that would be an easy way in for the robber/kidnappers! Such a dilemma!

When I hear people say they wish they could go back to childhood, where they had no responsibilities, no bills, blah blah blah, it makes me shudder. I was an extremely stressed out kid. (Although I wouldn’t mind having a scheduled naptime again. That was pretty rad.) I’ve definitely mellowed over the years, but I’ll tell you what keeps me awake at night now:

Errata.

I’m serious. The other night I woke up at 4am and I couldn’t fall back to sleep because I kept thinking about people finding mistakes in my patterns. And it’s not like this is an unfounded fear—it’s happened before. It continues to happen. And it frustrates the HELL out of me.

When I first started publishing patterns, I didn’t know any other designers (don’t get me started on the Designers forums on Ravelry). I didn’t know anything about tech editors, but I’d heard something about test-knitting, so I had my patterns test-knit. Once they were published, people still found mistakes in them. Then I heard about technical editors (for those unfamiliar, a technical editor (tech editor, for short) is someone you can send your pattern to and they’ll go through it for typos, they’ll do all the math and make sure all your stitch counts are accurate, make sure the charts match the written directions, all the materials you need are listed, and everything else you can possibly check to make sure the pattern is completely clear and correct).

So I went on Ravelry and looked around and sure enough, there were lots of tech editors advertising their services. But I’ll tell you this: the number of completely unqualified “technical editors” out there is ASTOUNDING. I’ve lost count of how many I’d been through before I found one (very recently) who seems to do a really conscientious job. Even the qualified ones sent me back patterns with errors. And even though they were technically my own errors to begin with, I paid someone to GET RID of them. The most frustrating part is that it’s not the tech editor’s name that goes on the pattern in great big letters—it’s mine. Whatever kind of job the tech editor does, it reflects on me.

Oy, see, I’m getting all worked up. It’s a scary thing, relinquishing control over a pattern and trusting someone to make sure the thing is actually knit-able. And that’s kind of the problem, for me. The whole thing is so tied up in emotions (fear, shame, anger) that it becomes hard to deal with it in a reasonable way and I want to just pretend the problem doesn’t exist.

It’s hard to come up with any kind of neat conclusion because the problem of errata and technical editing HAS NO CONCLUSION. It NEVER ENDS.

Oh, and I forgot to mention–I gave the Toby Roxane Designs facebook page a total overhaul. Facebook makes me kind of cranky, but I did it anyway because I love you all and want you to see funny, knitting related pictures and know exactly what I’m doing every minute of every day. Ok, just kidding, I know I won’t be that good at keeping up with it.

Also, now that I’ve finished The Panopticon, I’m onto the Yarn Harlot’s blog. I’m pretty late to the party, obviously, but I figured I should see what all the fuss was about. So far so good.

There’s a new one out! Meet Point of View:

As I’m sure you know, I’m quite fond of shawls. I love knitting them, I love wearing them, and the fact that so many other people seem to share this sentiment is pretty fantastic.

This new shawl is kind of a departure for me. I usually make shawls from the top down, but I decided to try something new for this one—it’s worked from side to side with short rows, kind of on the bias. I didn’t invent this shape, but I can see so many design opportunities in it. I’m sure there will be more shawls using this construction method in my future.

To kick off the release of this shawl, I’m hosting my very first knit-along! For those that aren’t familiar with knit-alongs, they’re fun. A whole bunch of people all knit the same pattern at the same time and post pictures of their progress, ask questions, post comments, and I’ll be there to moderate. There will also be prizes! The details are in my ravelry group, here. I hope you’ll join me, and I can’t wait to see what you all do.

As you may recall, I’ve been deeply into Franklin Habit’s blog, The Panopticon, for a while now (I started at the very beginning and I’ve just about reached the present). If you don’t read it, you should—it’s hilarious, poignant, insightful, intelligent, witty, and all manner of things a good blog should be (not to mention full of pictures).

The problem is that it makes me feel like there is absolutely no point in my blogging because it’s all been done SO much better. But then I remind myself that I am not a gay man living in Chicago. My experiences are completely different and therefore I DO have things to contribute to the blogosphere! I have things to say!

So then I ask myself, “Well then, Unique and Wonderful Snowflake, what DO you have to say?” And the answer is,
“Hmm..um…hmm. I’d kind of rather be knitting. Go ask Franklin.”

As you may or may not have noticed, you can now purchase a hard copy of my London Underground book right here, through my website!

And at the moment, I’m in the middle of a tech-support nightmare. I spent all yesterday afternoon on the phone with tech support trying to configure shipping costs—turns out I was doing everything right, EXCEPT, after HOURS of this befuddled dude putting me on hold, BD (Befuddled Dude) told me it would only work if I was using Internet Explorer, version 9.0 or earlier.

Take a minute to think about what crazy bullshit that sounds like. If it sounds nuts to you, please send me a message or leave a comment or something. Tell me I’m not crazy (or if you know the reason for this requirement, please share).

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I’m making the best of it: a sale! Until I figure this mess out, you get

FREE SHIPPING!

So buy now, before I call in someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

Something that always really bugged me in school (this includes college) was the concept of the “length requirement.” Papers always had to be at least 3 pages, at least 5 pages, at least 10 pages…etc. This frustrated the hell out of me because I was usually able to say what I needed to say in under 3, 5, or 10 pages, and then had to go back and waffle about adding synonyms where they really weren’t needed (“he was angry, mad and furious”). I was an expert on using Microsoft Word to adjust the spacing between letters, the spacing between words, and the margins to eke out as many pages as I could, to get as close as possible to the stupid length requirement. However, I was not the kind of student to balk at handing in a 9 page paper when the minimum length was 10, and I can’t recall ever being penalized for it (by a teacher whose grading system had enough thought behind it for them not to have to resort to counting pages to come up with a grade).
When you get to the real world, there are no length requirements. In fact, it’s the opposite—it’s a much more valuable skill to be able to say what you need to say in as few words as possible. Nobody has the attention span to read four pages when a paragraph will do. I only ever had one teacher who valued concision: my junior year of high school, I took a poetry class. One of our first assignments of the year was to write a poem. The next day, we were assigned to count the words in that poem and to cross out exactly 30% of them. The day after that we were instructed to type up the original and the new version and we all read each other’s poems. Every single one of them was much improved by the hearty slashing we gave them.
Anyway, you may be wondering where I’m going with this. The answer: Twitter. Twitter is where I’m going with this. Today, I took some marketing advice and joined Twitter. I have to say, despite the ridiculousness surrounding it, the 140-character limit kind of appeals to me. 🙂

Anyone going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival this weekend? I’m leaving tomorrow and I’m SO excited.

Here’s something to be even more excited about: my London Underground book will be for sale in the Verdant Gryphon booth (20A)! So if you haven’t had a chance to see it in person yet, you should definitely check it out (and VG is some yarn you really don’t want to miss).

Plus I’ll be wandering around both Saturday and Sunday so if you see me, come say hi. Really, it would make me SO happy. 🙂

As you may have noticed by now, I’m pretty bad about keeping up with the blog. It’s a problem that reminds me of one I used to have in college—I had a really hard time taking art classes and writing classes in the same semester. It’s difficult for me to switch back and forth between visual and non-visual media.

Similarly, knitting is a super visual thing, and writing is…something else (cerebral, maybe? Let’s go with that). When I read Franklin Habit’s blog, for example, I’m totally astounded by his ability to knit constantly AND keep up the blog with beautifully written, witty posts practically every freaking day. It takes my head SO LONG to transition from one to the other.

It also doesn’t help that I’m decidedly NOT a picture-taker. I know you know what I mean—some people are somehow always ready with their cameras or cell phones, un-self-conscious enough to snap away when a moment comes along. I, on the other hand, have to un-transfix myself from the photograph-able moment, dig around in my bag for a picture-taking device, and by the time that’s all over, the moment is long gone. Or if it isn’t, the people I want to pose are getting all antsy and their smiles are forced.

This may stem from the fact that my dad is a photographer, and so for as long as I’ve been a part of my family, he was always the one in charge of that. (Of all the art media I’ve tried, you may have noticed that photography was not among them. There’s a reason for that.) I’m more used to being the subject than the photographer, which is kind of weird to say out loud. Makes me sound like a prima donna, or like I model all my own designs or something.

I USED to be good at blogging. I had a blog in high school (don’t even bother searching, it’s all deleted). Anyway, be patient with me. I’m trying.

Oh, oh! This is unrelated, but I never told you! About three weeks ago, I got the BEST haircut of my entire life! It’s SUPER short and I LOVE it:

Exactly one week ago, I spent the day at the Verdant Gryphon dye studio in Easton, MD. As I’ve mentioned, Verdant Gryphon is one of my all-time favorite dyers, and to be invited to hang out and dye yarn with them was majorly exciting.

I drove down Thursday afternoon. Let me tell you, when you cross the border from Delaware into Maryland, it is RURAL. Being used to living in New Jersey, the most densely populated state, where I can practically hold hands with my neighbor out our windows, it’s a bit mind-warping to drive for 20 miles without seeing a single house. Or person.

Anyway, the town of Easton is cute, but hard to navigate when you’re looking for your car at night because you can’t remember where you parked it. Isn’t there an app for that?

Around lunchtime on Friday, Gryphon picked me up and we got lunch to bring back to the studio. The studio is HUGE.

I met Gryphon’s daughter Lia (now going by her middle name, Sappho), Leigh-Anne, Steve, Rachel and Jamie, who were all really sweet. Here are Steve and Leigh-Anne:

We had lunch and commenced to drinking (we sampled all the cocktail club drinks and you club members are in for a treat)…

and then Ann Weaver showed up!

I’d been wanting to try dyeing yarn for a while, but never quite got it up to gather up all the right equipment and resign myself to making a huge mess, so this was the most perfect environment to experiment. As promised, the elves showed me what was what, I watched them for a bit, and then set about my own dyepots. I’M ADDICTED. I’m trying to talk my housemates into letting me turn the back deck into a dye studio.

I will say, though, that dyeing is a pretty simple process, but it’s not easy to get good results. In my opinion, all the yarn I dyed kind of looked like a first attempt, but I learned a lot along the way and I was totally not ready to quit by dinnertime.

Still, dyeing is hungry work and late in the day, we caravanned over to Leigh-Anne’s house where her lovely husband was making Cornish game hens. Her house is beautiful. And there are chickens!

Dinner was delicious enough to make me forgive them for having a dog named Toby (seriously, you wouldn’t believe how many dogs are named Toby…and how many of those dogs are male). By the time I got back to my motel room, I was thoroughly exhausted, but it was a GREAT day.

I didn’t take that many pictures because I always get so involved in things that I forget, but luckily, Jamie took a bunch and they’re better than any I took or would have taken. You can see them on facebook here.

My yarn wasn’t totally dry by the time I got home on Saturday, and here’s a picture of it all hanging in my bathroom:

I’m looking forward to seeing whose doorsteps they show up on!