I’ve had some projects that have been waiting on the back burner while I finished the book, and now it’s time to bring them forward again. The one that’s been the longest away is a project I wrote about in my Craftstory (for the book). Not merely a knitting project, but a small side business that I stopped before jumping into double-knitting with both feet. I called it “Alasdair’s Fine Mathwear;” I designed moebius scarves, klein bottle hats, hyperbolic surfaces … but I didn’t know anything about pattern writing at that point. I sold or bartered with the pieces themselves, did a few commissions, but this business was ultimately short-lived. Many of the math-related patterns I came up with have been left alone for some time, but I think it’s time I revisited a few — but now, in double-knitting. It’s likely that I’ll be releasing these as a small ebook/print booklet similar to Parallax.
Here’s the first one — or at least, here it is before it’s been stitched together. It’s a very weird garment and a very weird shape. In case it’s not clear, it’s a tube with a slit in the center. Anyone want to make a guess as to what it becomes when it’s properly assembled?
In book news
It’s been a great first (whole) month, with fantastic book sales numbers at Vogue Knitting Live and again at the Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market this past weekend. Online orders are down to a trickle, but I’ve got hope that a few new publicity opportunities will bear fruit. I’ve had some new wholesale accounts opened, so there will be a few LYSs around the country stocking my books as well. I hope Stitches West will be a big success; the Adenydd shawl will get its major runway debut there too (it took a short spin on the catwalk at the Fiber Festival of New England).
In a couple of weeks, I’ll have a new edition of the Parallax booklet available. I liked the print job on Double or Nothing so much that I decided to do a short run of Parallax there as well. It cost quite a bit, but this is a book that routinely sells well and has never had trouble doing so. I hope that it will continue to do so, since I am about to have 1000 of them. The lower price point per book means I can also afford to wholesale them as well, for those who are interested.
I’ve also begun having some of my patterns professionally printed. On my store, you can now see printed patterns as well as books to order. All of these (as well as my new book and the Parallax booklet) come with a free PDF download from Ravelry. Each book and pattern has a unique code on a sticker inside, so you can even give them as gifts and your recipient can easily redeem the code.
In other news
I’ve got another local class, and have been booked to do two intensive workshop series at two weekend retreats, in addition to the dates posted a couple months back.
March 5, 1-4pm: Intro to Double-Knitting workshop at Stitch House Dorchester. There will also be a mini-trunk-show and book signing event afterward at 4pm.
May 5-7: The Flaming Ice Cube knitting retreat in Canfield, Ohio. Learn double-knitting, two-pattern double-knitting and multi-color double-knitting — a great introduction along with some intriguing next steps.
June 1-5: Camp Stitches Vermont in Essex Junction, VT. If you already know double-knitting and want a 3-day, 15-hour intensive workshop on a huge number of double-knitting techniques beyond the basics, this is the event for you. Don’t know double-knitting yet but still want to take this? Get a head start on my Craftsy class first.
Want to see where else I’ll be teaching? Check out my events calendar.
Finally, I’ve just begun to release my patterns on Fibermob, a new website recently opened by the good folks at Yarnbox. They’re still tweaking things over there, but it seems to be working, so give it a shot if you like. How can you resist the Aardman-like sheep logo?