Month: May 2022

June and July workshops are up!

…and there are two new ones to choose from!

Advanced Double-knitting Texture draft sample (probably not actually the one from the upcoming workshop)

I have been watching interest in some of my workshops dwindle a bit, and in order to breathe new life into them, it’s really past time that I brought in a new workshop or two. Some months ago, I put out a survey where people expressed interest in some new workshops I had in mind, and while I have not been able to work out all of them, I’m a little further along on a couple. To be honest, I am not ready to teach these workshops right now. But scheduling them at the end of July will give me a deadline by which I must be ready. And I will be. I look forward to it, and I hope people are excited about them.

Also, my Off the Grid workshop which was cancelled in May for low attendance has now been rescheduled for next weekend. It’s got enough people to run now, but I’d love a couple more, if you’re interested and free.

Without further ado, here’s my list of upcoming scheduled workshops, both virtual and in-person (all times in Eastern Time):

BuildingBlox virtual workshops:

(all of these will be recorded for all who enroll, whether or not they are able to attend at the scheduled time)

Vogue Knitting Live workshops (NYC):

Also in September/October, I’ll be at Knitters’ Day Out in Harrisburg, PA, with a schedule very similar to the VKL workshops above. Links to that when I have them.

I have a new mailing list signup form which you should go check out, especially if you’re interested in my new workshops. Aside from the main list, you can sign up for the individual workshop interest groups (including for the two new workshops), which get first crack at my virtual workshops when they’re announced.

Thanks for your continued interest and I’ll have more to post soon!

Alasdair Post-Quinn, Fallingblox Designs

I have come to a realization …

In the absence of my social media guru, I have tried my best to keep up with the weekly scheduling of social media posts. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed the result. The reason I had a social media person working for me was simply because I don’t “do” social media naturally. I am working on it, though.

However, in the past couple of weeks, I have been so overloaded with responsibilities, real and self-imposed, that I have realized something very important: in any given week, I have time for either production or promotion — rarely both. This realization has been very freeing for me — previously, I would get hung up on the fact that I was unable to get any social media posts scheduled, then get stuck in a spiral of guilt and executive dysfunction and the week would end with nothing getting done on the knitting front. Last week, instead, I just told myself “OK, I didn’t do any social media posts — this must be a production week” and I got 3 Youtube videos out, moved my mailing lists from MailChimp to MailerLite, set up some email automation, and cancelled a workshop for low enrollment 🙁 .

Will this mindset work forever? It remains to be seen — but I think it’s healthier than the alternative. So if you don’t see any social media posts from me for a week, you can rest assured that I’m being productive and will have more news for you soon (hopefully). This isn’t great for the almighty algorithms, but short of spending a mint, very little that I can realistically do will help much with those. The best you can do is like and follow my Facebook page, and with luck you may see some of the posts there. That, or stay tuned here or on my mailing lists — which the last survey I ran told me were much more important to most of my customers than social media anyway.

Workshops update

Per my recently-posted virtual workshop cancellation policy, I’ve had to let my Off the Grid workshop go this week for low enrollment. I am still trying to figure out June, and in all likelihood, I will move that workshop to June and give those students another chance to take their preferred workshop (as well as more time to get more students into the workshop). However, I have two more workshops this month as well as new in-person workshops scheduled for August at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC! (all times below in Eastern Time)

BuildingBlox workshops:

Vogue Knitting Live workshops:

When virtual workshops for June are scheduled, you’ll find out here (or sign up for my workshop interest groups to get first crack at them).

New videos posted

Hopefully you’re following my YouTube channel so you already saw these go by as they were posted, but just in case you’re not, I now have 3 new short technique videos up. These were originally the “Technique(s) of the Month” from my last 3 podcasts, so if you’ve been watching those, there’ll be nothing new here — but they are at least easier to access than having to scroll through to the end of a podcast.

Patreon updates

If you’re interested in joining my Patreon but don’t want another monthly charge on your credit card bill, I’ve just qualified for (and enabled) yearly payments, which come with a 10% discount on your month-by-month tier cost. Thank you to those of you who support me there in whatever way you do so! Not sure what Patreon is or why I’m using it? Read more here.

A good start to May

It’s only May 4th, and I’ve released a new pattern, gotten a podcast out … now if I can just get some more enrollments in this month’s workshops, I’ll be golden. Without further ado:

Two new patterns!

Since the last blog post, I’ve now released two new scarf patterns that are available for purchase on Ravelry or LoveCrafts, both using Rowan Felted Tweed/Colour solid and gradient combos. Vesica is a wide scarf based on a sacred geometry pattern; Arabiyya is based on a segment of a pattern I’ve been playing with for years. Arabiyya uses increasing and decreasing to shape the ends of the scarf, but there is an option for a plain rectangular scarf for those who’d rather keep the pattern intro-level.

Fallingblog Podcast #7 has been released

If you’re interested in the two patterns above, head over to the recent podcast for some more info about them, as well as a long-requested tutorial on weaving in ends in double-knitting.

Workshops in May (and beyond)

I have virtual workshops galore — both my own and through Stitches — and also some in-person workshops coming up in August and September. If you’re interested in intro/intermediate level workshops, sign up soon for the Stitches ones; if you’re interested in advanced-level workshops, look no further than my BuildingBlox series — I’ve even got the elusive Double-knitting Entrelac workshop this month! You can see them all on my calendar but here’s a quick rundown:

Stitches Expo at Home (2 hours each, all in Central Time):

BuildingBlox workshops (all in Eastern Time):

As usual, all of my BuildingBlox workshops will be recorded so you’ll have access to the workshop video even if you’re unable to attend at the time of the workshop (but you do have to enroll to get access!)

I also have in-person workshops coming up at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC in August, and Knitters’ Day Out in Harrisburg, PA in Sept/Oct!

In other news

If you’ve been trying to access my website over the past several weeks, you may have noticed some glitches and changes. I’ve been struggling with some serious instability (of my website! I’m OK) and I’ve had to do a bit of an overhaul. It’s stable right now, but at some point I’m going to need to delve into the back-end of the site and finalize some things to make it easier to manage in the future. So what does this mean for you? Not much, unless you run into something that doesn’t work as it should — if so, please just get in touch and let me know. If it just looks like the formatting is a little weird, you can ignore that for now — it’s a work in progress. Thanks for understanding!

Stay tuned — more to come sooner or later!

Alasdair Post-Quinn, Fallingblox Designs