Workshops – Fallingblog

The future of Fallingblox & Buildingblox begins to solidify … but first:

Read on if you want to hear an early report on the direction I’m taking with my 2023 (and beyond) workshops — but before that, let’s talk about what’s already on the books:

I will have more virtual and in-person workshops to announce soon, but since time is of the essence, I wanted to let you know that I will be teaching a few workshops at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC next February (2023). VKL doesn’t allow me to link directly to workshops, but here are the ones I’ll be running there; you can go to their main site to sign up. Early bird pricing is in effect until Oct. 27, so get your tickets now!

Fri, Feb 10, 2-5pm: Intro to Double-knitting (SOLD OUT)
Fri, Feb 10, 6-9pm: Texture in Double-knitting
Sat, Feb 11, 2-5pm: Multi-color Double-knitting
Sat, Feb 11, 6-9pm: Intro to Double-knitting

I have more to tell you about, but it’ll need to wait until workshops are posted! One hint: expect me later in that same month in the Pacific Northwest again …

Now, to business

If you’ve been following my virtual workshops over the pandemic, you may have heard me wax philosophical about how to proceed into a “post-pandemic” world. While you can read more of those musings in a previous blog post, or watch my recent podcast, I want to keep you updated on my current thinking so you know that there is movement, not just silence, from my desk.

I’m not going to offer numbers just yet, partially because I haven’t fully settled on them yet, but I do want to give you advance notification that my prices are going up. Significantly, in some cases. Why? Bottom line: the numbers I was using were based on faulty math. I’ll explain that in a later post.

It’s hard for me to ask for more, but the fact is that if I ever want to realize this as a full-time job, I need to. And here’s the thing: I’m worth it. I am teaching workshops that nobody else in the world is teaching. I’m doing them for 3 hours rather than 2, and I’m recording them so you have access to them for a long time. Anywhere else, you pay much, much more per workshop, and in some cases you don’t get as much as you do from a BuildingBlox workshop.

Will I lose some customers? Almost certainly. I’ve kept my prices artificially low for altruistic reasons, and that means that some people who have gotten used to those prices will not be able to afford the price increases. But I will always be open to negotiating on a case-by-case basis with those who truly can’t afford the prices.

So here’s the breakdown of what the new BuildingBlox workshops are going to look like:

There will be almost three times as many workshops, including some project-based ones. This means that a workshop might run only once per year, unless I start offering more than 3-4 per month.
Workshops will be scheduled several months out — a whole season at a time, if possible. This will give people more time to plan, more time to enroll, and gives me more time to advertise.
Workshops will be charged under a tiered model. Previously called “Levels”, each tier will have a base price. Lower tier workshops (such as Intro to Double-knitting) will be priced lower. As the tier level rises, the price will rise.
Workshop recordings will be offered to all workshop attendees for a year from the date of the workshop, using a new portal which I am building into my site to keep people from having to navigate a video hosting site.
Workshop recordings will also be sold at a reduced rate (also per tier). So people will have the choice to take the workshop at the time with all the interactivity that entails, or access the recording without the interactivity at a discount.
When a workshop runs again, the recording will be replaced in my shop, but the original recording will still be available to any who purchased access to it earlier (until its time limit runs out).
In order to take a workshop or buy access to a recording, you will need to have an account on my site. This is the only way I can control access (a guest user can’t be given access to the recording in the same way).
Patreon supporters will get a monthly discount code equivalent to a certain amount more than their support tier (in other words, those who support me at $5 might get $10 off a workshop in a given month; supporters at $15 might get $20 off, and so on). It’s my hope that this will encourage more Patreon supporters as well.

In the past, I’ve always tried to avoid making these kinds of big changes without checking with my customer base — I’ve run questionnaires, had focus groups, etc. This time I was counseled from a number of quarters to just make the changes I need to make, and let the chips fall where they may. This is hard for me to do; I care a lot about what my students think about me and my work and workshops, but I also need to make sure I’m able to continue doing this without so many workshop cancellations.

Thank you for understanding. More info will be forthcoming as soon as it solidifies.

Alasdair Post-Quinn, “Softwear Engineer”, Fallingblox Designs

Fall 2018 Workshops etc.

If the Spring season (in knitting workshop parlance) is really Winter/Spring, as it starts in January, then the Fall season is really Summer/Fall — although Summer knitting workshops are few and far between. However, this year I’ve got a couple that technically do fall within Summer — but also some that stretch about as far into the Fall as workshops are likely to go (as nothing is ever scheduled past Thanksgiving).

June 13, Warwick, RI: I’ll be teaching an intro workshop and doing a presentation to the Ocean State Knitting Guild. I will be selling my own books and patterns at this event.
August 2-4, Schaumburg, IL: I’ll be returning to Stitches Midwest after a few years away; my books and patterns will be available at the Wall of Yarn booth.
September 5-9, Searsport, ME: I’ll be returning to Fiber College to teach three 4-hour classes. I’ll be selling my own books and patterns at this event.
September 13-16, Amherst, MA: I’ll be doing a series of intro and intermediate workshops at the WEBS Fall Knitting Retreat.
October 3, Harvard, MA: I’ll be doing a presentation (no workshop) to the Nashoba Valley Knitters’ Guild, and will be selling my own books and patterns at the event.
November 1-4, Pasadena, CA: I’ll be coming back to the Pasadena Convention Center to teach 6 classes at the new Stitches SoCal! My books and patterns will (presumably) be available at the Wall of Yarn booth.

More will be added to this post as other events are booked; you can also check out my events calendar for more details.

Also relevant to those taking workshops from me (especially beyond the Intro): I’ve got a new cast-on video up on my YouTube channel! This is long overdue, but as I’m revamping the workshop descriptions, prerequisites and homework for many of my classes, I’ve decided it makes more sense to have my own video than to refer people to someone else’s video just because I’ve been too preoccupied to take the time to update my ancient cast-on video.

Also, please subscribe to my Youtube channel! I had videos up on my personal channel for a long time and I’m trying to steer people to my new channel. If you want to see new videos as they come out, they’ll only be posted to my new channel, not my personal one!

Looking for updates on Extreme Double-knitting? Stay tuned! There’s one coming soon.

2018 Workshops so far …

As the 2018 “Spring” teaching season begins, I felt I should make a definitive posting of the season’s final workshop schedule. Clearly missing is the Vogue Knitting Live appearance which has already passed. I’m also trying to give as much info on book/pattern sales at these events as I currently have.

January 20, Epsom, NH: I’ll be doing an intro workshop for the NH Spinners & Dyers’ Guild. I’ll be bringing my books and patterns for sale.
January 27, Wayland, MA: I’ll be doing an intro workshop at Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market Farm & Fiber Day. I won’t have a formal vendor presence here. My books and patterns will be for sale to my students; if you’re not a student but interested in something feel free to corral me at the market and I’ll be happy to sell it.
February 22-25, Santa Clara, CA: I’ll be returning to Stitches West and teaching (among other things) two brand new workshops on double-knit intarsia and double-knit entrelac! My books and patterns will be available at Wall of Yarn, booth 827/829.
March 22-25, Hartford, CT: I’ll be teaching a few workshops at Stitches United. My books and patterns will be available at the Wall of Yarn booth.
April 6-8, Pittsburgh, PA: I’ll be returning to the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. My books and patterns will be available at the Space Cadet Yarn booth.
April 27-28, Minneapolis, MN: I’ll be back at Yarnover for my second year! My books and patterns will be available at the ModeKnit booth.
May 2-6, West Friendship, MD: I’ll be teaching a series of workshops at Maryland Sheep & Wool. Books and patterns will be available at the Buffalo Wool Co booth.
June 13, Warwick, RI: I’ll be teaching an intro workshop and doing a presentation to the Ocean State Knitting Guild. I will be selling my own books and patterns at this event.
August 2-4, Schaumburg, IL: I’ll be returning to Stitches Midwest after a few years away; my books and patterns will be available at the Wall of Yarn booth.
September 5-9, Searsport, ME: I’ll be returning to Fiber College to teach three 4-hour classes. I’ll be selling my own books and patterns at this event.
September 13-16, Amherst, MA: I’ll be doing a series of intro and intermediate workshops at the WEBS Fall Knitting Retreat.

More to come as contracts are signed! For more details on many of these, visit my Events Calendar.

2018 workshops & last chance for Media Mail

First and foremost, as we begin the season of ~~capitalist excess~~ joy and gift-giving, I wanted to let you know that my online store (featuring my printed books Double or Nothing and Parallax, plus several printed standalone patterns) will be allowing Media Mail as a shipping option for only the next week. On Dec 1, the option will be going away in favor of Priority Mail for the month of December only. In my experience, during the postal chaos of the Christmas season, Priority packages have a lower occurrence of loss or damage than others. So if you want to save money on (shipping for) a book for yourself or for a loved one, order before the end of the month! (Media mail will return as a shipping option in January)

Now, looking forward to 2018 …

Here in New England, Summer has given way precipitously to Fall, with Winter coming soon, so it seems a little strange to be thinking about Spring already. Spring, in the vernacular of the knitting teacher, is a little misleading: my Spring season starts in January. So here’s the list of my appearances in 2018 so far:

January 12-14, NYC: I’ll be teaching a couple of intro DK workshops at Vogue Knitting Live. Also, my good friend Diane is bringing Lady Dye Yarns to Vogue for the first time, so check her out if you’re there.
January 20, Epsom, NH: I’ll be doing an intro workshop for the NH Spinners & Dyers’ Guild
February 22-25, Santa Clara, CA: I’ll be returning to Stitches West and teaching (among other things) two BRAND NEW workshops on double-knit intarsia and double-knit entrelac!
March 22-25, Hartford, CT: I’ll be teaching a few workshops at Stitches United.
April 6-8, Pittsburgh, PA: I’ll be making my triumphant return to the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival
April 27-28, Minneapolis, MN: I’ll be back at Yarnover for my second year!
May 2-6, West Friendship, MD: I’ll be teaching a series of workshops at Maryland Sheep & Wool (precise timing TBA)
June 13, Warwick, RI: I’ll be teaching an intro workshop and doing a presentation to the Ocean State Knitting Guild.
More to come soon, probably — I’ll keep you posted! For more details on any of these, visit my Events Calendar.

Am I not coming to a convenient location for you? Do you have a LYS or guild that might like to bring me in? Get in touch and let’s talk! I’ve got a few weekends still open for the Spring 2018 season.

Finally, the book project

I haven’t stopped working on Extreme Double-knitting. I know I’m behind on the updates. I’ll get a new one up soon, but I’ve been traveling, teaching, and also suffering from a sprained wrist due to a minor bicycle accident. I’ve been unable to maintain the level of progress I would have liked. However, my schedule is solidifying beginning next week and I anticipate that I will be able to dedicate more time to this project. As before, if you’d like to be among the first to hear when the book is ready for preorder, please join my temporary EDK announcement email list. This list will be used once or twice to make announcements — then will be retired. So you won’t see any traffic until sometime in early 2018. For more granular progress, just keep an eye on this blog. And thanks!

A little Boston love among my perambulations

Many of my local peeps have been watching me bounce all over North America to teach double-knitting workshops and wondering, “When is he going to come back and teach us?” Well, Boston-area folks, wonder no more.

When I get back from my long visit to the West Coast to teach at Northcoast Knittery and Makers’ Mercantile, the next 3 workshops I teach will ALL be in the Boston area. OK, they’re all intro workshops, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right? (And if you want more advanced workshops, have your LYS get in touch!) They’re mostly clustered around the same time, but they’re far enough apart (geographically and market-wise) that it’s unlikely they’ll step on each other’s feet. Sorry — that’s just how it worked out for some reason.

First, on Thursday, Feb 20th, I’m presenting to the Greater Boston Knitting Guild, and then teaching an intro workshop. To get into this, you’ll have to be free during the day on a weekday, but like I said — different markets in different areas. This is Boston’s major TKGA-affiliated guild and it’s a great honor to be asked to present to them.

Second, on Saturday, Feb 22nd, I’ll be teaching an intro workshop from 1-4pm at the Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market and Fiber Day — so for those in the Boston Metro West area, this is your time! It’s also quite a deal, and you can book ahead online (or you can show up and pay at the door if there’s still room)

Third, for those who live in my actual neighborhood, I’m teaching at Mind’s Eye Yarns on Monday, Feb 24th in the evening (from 6-9pm).

Fourth, I’m going to be at FiberCamp Boston the weekend of March 15 and 16. The workshop I teach there will be more of a tasting — but for less than the price of your average single workshop, you can try out a whole bunch of new skills or even teach your own. It’s all about skill-sharing at FiberCamp!

Finally, for those of you further out but still in the Northeast, I’m teaching at WEBS on the weekend of April 12 and 13, and at Interweave Knitting Lab from May 15-18.

Happy Holidays from Fallingblox Designs

As I begin what is likely to be my last post of 2013, I wanted to thank you for making it a great year for Fallingblox Designs. While I haven’t been able to take time to design exactly what I wanted, I’ve been designing lots of new stuff for the Willow Yarns Colorwork club, the KnitCompanion kClub, the My Mountain competition, and an extra for my Craftsy class (which has just passed 5000 students)! With the help of Craftsy, my book sales have been up this year as well.

All this is well and good, but I hear the rumbling now and then: “When is he going to release something new for mere mortals?” It’s true — most of these designs have been exclusive in some way: you’ve had to buy in to something else to get access to them. But never fear — time heals all wounds and I’m happy to say I have some news.

First, I’ve got a new pattern just released on Craftsy. It’s called “Rustle Of Leaves” and is a fascinating keyhole scarf pattern with bold ruffles and a double-knit panel of falling leaves down the center. Craftsy is selling it as a standalone pattern as well as in kit form (with all the lovely Miss Babs yarn). It’s a fairly quick knit, for a double-knit item.

Second, SMC finally released the Moosalamoo pattern as a free download on their site. This is the hat that I had in their My Mountain Hat Contest for which there was much drama a few months back.

The patterns for Willow Yarns and the kClub will also eventually be available and I’ll post about those as soon as I can.

Finally, I’d like to announce that I have added a few more dates to my Spring workshop schedule:

Tues, Feb 4 (evening workshop): Kent, WA (Makers’ Mercantile)

Thurs, Feb 20 (daytime event): Boston, MA (Greater Boston Knitting Guild)

Sat, Feb 22: Wayland, MA (Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market Farm Fiber Day)

Mon, Feb 24 (evening workshop): Cambridge, MA (Mind’s Eye Yarns)

Sat/Sun, Apr 26/27 (tentative): Fairport, NY (Yarn Culture)

Thu-Sun, May 15-18: Manchester, NH (Interweave Knitting Lab)

Thanks again for a great year and I hope yours has been as good or better. I’m looking forward to 2014! So whatever holiday you celebrate, or even if you don’t, have a happy one and I’ll see you again soon!

Spring 2014 Workshops, early warning edition!

Whew! It’s been a long year and a long time since I’ve taught workshops, it seems. In honor of the close of my first decade on the knitting scene, I’ve revamped my workshops and will give several new ones a shot this coming Spring. Right now, I’m gearing up to leave for Thailand (in about 7 hours) and before I go off the grid for 2 weeks I wanted to let folks know about my confirmed workshop weekends in Spring of 2014. Some of these are fully confirmed and some are merely tentative; some are also far enough in the future that shops haven’t begun advertising yet. If one of these is your shop (or near you), you’re welcome to pursue them to get more details. I’ll be adding the details I have to my events calendar, but I’ll also post up here with a summary of all my workshops once I have them all confirmed.

Without further ado, here’s the list of locations where I’ll be teaching in Spring of 2014:

Sunday, Jan 12: Madison, CT (Madison Wool)
Sat/Sun, Feb 1 & 2: Eureka, CA (Northcoast Knittery)
Sat/Sun, March 22/23: Mt Holly, NJ (Woolbearers)
Sat/Sun, March 29/30: St Louis, MO (Greater St Louis Knitters’ Guild)
Sat/Sun, April 12/13: Northampton, MA (WEBS)

I’ve also got some tentative (unconfirmed) dates at my local yarn shop, Mind’s Eye Yarns in Cambridge, MA — and I have several more weekends in later April and May that haven’t been grabbed by anyone. They’re far enough in the future that if you’ve got a local shop that’s interested in running double-knitting workshops by me, you can put them in touch and we’ll hammer something out.

Keep your eyes on this space and perhaps I’ll see you in the Spring!

Summer knitting, winter garments

I’ve recently finished a couple of pieces I thought you might like to see, and I’m well past the middle on my other current project. I’m going to make this quick and to the point, for a change!

At TNNA, there was a contest flyer circulating around the designers and some free yarn offered by SMC. I took the yarn, not certain I’d be able to do anything with it, but willing to give it a shot. It’s bulky, neon, acrylic-blend yarn. In short, nothing I’d normally work with. But I had some ideas, and if I either couldn’t hit the contest submission deadline or didn’t like what I came up with, at least I’d have a hat I could wear to raves in the future. So I knit a prototype, but it was too small. The rave I went to that weekend didn’t have blacklights and was probably 90 degrees indoors, so no loss that I didn’t have a hat that fit. Around that time, SMC extended the contest deadline to the end of August, so I requested more yarn from them and knit another. This one was too big, and the rave it was destined for was outdoors but again had no blacklights so again no big deal. I made the final one and the size is “just right” — but now I have no more raves in my immediate future. So I submitted the hat to the contest after all, and I’m not too worried — if it wins, I get some more publicity, and if it doesn’t win I get a chance to wear the hat to a party that actually has blacklights — and I’ll probably rework it in different yarn and in double-knitting to release as a pattern in the future.

I’m modeling the hat in question here. It’s using increasing and decreasing to make a motif of pine saplings and tall pine trees meeting at the crown. It was lots of fun to knit and the bulky yarn made it really fast to knit up (not to mention that it’s stranded, so even faster). You can check out another view closer to the crown here.

Intarsia/duplicate stitch insanity for Willow Yarns

Meanwhile I was finishing up the stitching on Pattern 5 for Willow Yarns Colorwork Club. I had originally planned not to do an intarsia project but I felt it was probably a good thing to teach simple intarsia and duplicate stitch for the sake of completeness. Thanks much to my friend Doria for weaving in close to 100 ends for me (don’t worry, I paid her to do it)!

Last but not least, the gorgeous Pattern 6 for Willow Yarns — a full-size double-knit shawl with tessellated Scandinavian traditional “snowflakes”. It’s about 2/3 finished now. Having done this, I’m actually pretty psyched to get working on the other shawl pattern I have in my mental queue. You can also check out another view of it (with the tip flipped up so you can see the opposite side).

Final Pattern for Willow Yarns' Colorwork Club — Final Pattern for Willow Yarns’ Colorwork Club

Apologies to Anna Dalvi, who is a fellow Cooperative Press designer and already has a similar shawl which I didn’t see until after I’d designed this one. It’s still pretty different due to the type of tessellation, but it has a similar feel. Not to worry, Anna, since I’m not selling this one myself I doubt it’ll make much of an appearance on Ravelry anytime soon.

Looking forward to getting done with all this contract designing so I can get back on the Parallax patterns! October, here I come!

P.S. I’ve just revamped my workshop offerings as well as my website where they are offered. It does this funky CSS popup thing for each workshop offering, which was what I originally envisioned but couldn’t figure out how to do. Anyway, I’ll be sending out my 2014 Spring workshop dates to shops on my Workshop List soon, so if you want to be one of the first people to take one of my new workshops, get your shop to sign up soon!

Taking a break from knitting for a bit

… to do a blog post! Hah, gotcha!

Anyway, I’ve got a whole bunch of news, and I’m going to start with this new pattern. Well, it’s only sort of a new pattern. If you’re in my Craftsy class, you might recognize it. Originally, I designed the Duvino cowl/headband/cuff thing with a grapevine — you know, with grapes — rather than just a sort of “could be grapes, could be ivy” look. But I fixated on the yarn I wanted to use, and I couldn’t get the colors I needed in the contrast I wanted, so I changed the pattern and went in a different direction. Well, because I thought people might be interested in seeing my creative process, I showed the prototype version with the grapes on it in the intro video, and that resulted in this influx of requests for “the pattern with the grapes on it.”

I should have known.

So, as soon as I had a moment to breathe, I recharted the pattern with the grapes in it, made a few other little tweaks, and reworked it in some different yarn. I’m afraid I didn’t dig very deeply — I was in a hurry — so I just threw it together with Cascade 220 and Araucania Nature Wool. Of course, any worsted-weight yarn will work fine, and I trust that people will be happy to make their own colorway and yarn substitutions if they want to.

In keeping with my Parallax v0.5 model outing, I ventured further afield and found the statue of Abigail Adams to model the cowl for me. It was a gray and rainy day, and there were some aspiring thespians having conversations with the other nearby statues so I edged in, snapped a few shots, and headed off.

This pattern is available on Ravelry, but it’s also available for free to anyone taking my Craftsy class.

In other news, I’ve got a couple of last-minute class additions — if you’re in the Boston area, and especially if you’re one of those people who never cross the river, I’ll be at Newbury Yarns teaching my Intro class and my Advanced 3-color class on June 8th and 9th! I haven’t taught there in years and I look forward to teaching in her new shop. Space is limited so sign up now!

The kClub (where I’ll be showing off some new modifications to the 52 Pickup pattern) is now open for registration, and if you’re interested in attending a live webinar with me and trying some other neat things with three-color two-pattern DK, you should sign up.

And last but not least, my Willow Yarn Colorwork Club patterns continue to come out — the newest one is this lovely pair of mittens. If you join now, you’ll still get the previous patterns as well as the next 4 that haven’t come out yet. Learn stranded colorwork, corrugated ribbing, intarsia, and of course double-knitting, from yours truly.

Thanks for your continued interest and I’ll see you next time I can get around to posting!

Willow Yarns and Craftsy and Lucy Neatby, oh my!

Well, my Spring classes have been going wonderfully so far, and I’ve gotten to some great new shops which I hope I’ll be visiting again in the future! Thanks to the good folks from Montpelier, VT, York, ME, and Mt Holly, NJ for your hospitality and enthusiasm! I’ve gotten in a bunch of good knitting time while in transit, and I thought you might like to see the fruits of my labors.

But first, I wanted to mention a change in schedule — I’m going down to Glen Burnie, MD (right outside of Baltimore, but you probably already know that if you can make it there for a class) in a couple of weeks, and teaching at the Knitting Boutique. We decided to run my full complement of workshops there — an intro, a two-color advanced workshop and a three-color advanced workshop. The three-color advanced workshop is one of my favorites to teach, and it’s happening on Sunday, April 21. The intro and 2-color advanced workshops still have space and are running on April 20th. You should come if you’re in the area and free!

Recently off the needles is this shadow-box hat, which is a two-color modification of my Falling Blocks hat. Get another view of the inside here. But where can I get the pattern for that, you ask? This will only be available in the Willow Yarns Colorwork Club, where it’s Pattern #3! The first pattern is already up — an elegant stranded hat with cable motifs — and the second, a pair of stranded mittens with corrugated rib cuffs and Eastern thumb gussets, is going live on April 15th. After that, there’ll be a basic double-knit hat, then a scarf in intarsia and duplicate-stitch, a cowl in stranded inc/dec colorwork, and finally a full-size double-knit shawl. This Club works in an unusual but smart way — because each pattern takes a different amount of yarn, it’d be difficult to market it with patterns plus yarn for a single price. Instead, they sell access to the club which gets you access to the patterns for $19.99, and discount your choice of yarn when you start each pattern. Stay tuned and I’ll post some of the other patterns as soon as I’ve got good photos.

Last but not least, the Craftsy class is going really well — I’ve been averaging about 1000 students per month, although it’s slowing down now. I wanted to mention that the Craftsy Spring Sale is on now until Monday. There’s a different selection of discounted classes each day, so keep coming back and trying again if you don’t see the one you want. I think mine is on today (Friday) but if you miss it, you can always use my permanent 50% off discount code. Also, if you’re into double-knitting or haven’t been living under a rock in the last decade, you’ve probably heard of Lucy Neatby. She’s got a class on Craftsy in double-knitting as well! Hers is mostly on the tubular style, with a little colorwork thrown in at the end. She takes a different approach and I think her class would be an ideal one to start with and then move into my more advanced topics. Or, if you’ve already taken my class, take hers as well to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations.

Thanks for keeping up and keep me in your RSS feed so you don’t have to keep checking back for my very infrequent posts!