The Independent Stitch

Blog Action Day: Climate Change . . . and enjoying life more (mostly)

Today is Blog Action Day, and the topic is climate change. It's a huge topic, with significant impact, usually presented in either intensively data-driven or doom-and-gloom scenarios. Last year, I attended a fascinating series of interdisciplinary presentations at Colorado State University on climate change. There were weather folks and poets and social scientists. Solving, or, rather, effectively responding to, what's going on with global climate change will require communication and coordination among lots of different people who know lots of different things. It's interesting to read down the list of disciplines of people involved with the CSU programs.

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At a personal level, I'm tempted to believe that anything I do as an individual will have such a small effect that it's inconsequential.

However, there are things I can do, and have been doing. Each of them has enhanced my life. I have to trust that there are beneficial results for the planet as well.

Over the past three years, my daughter and I have transitioned to biking almost everywhere we need to go in the city. We do pick up the car keys when the streets are icy, it's pouring rain or snowing hard, there is so much wind that forward motion becomes impossible, or we need to travel after about 10 p.m. It's amazing how often we can bike. This has brought us both a lot of joy. Also more muscle and lung power.

The photo above shows that bike's first day in our household. It has since been outfitted with a back rack and a folding basket, has taught us how to change flat bike tires and lubricate chains, has logged a lot of miles, and has improved the general climate around our house on a daily basis.

We are eating more locally produced food. Wow, does it taste good. We already ate low on the processing scale, but this has taken the flavor up several notches. It's also fun to know who is growing what we're eating, and that our small contributions are helping them sustain their independent businesses.

These potatoes (there were about seven varieties) were so simple to cook and tasted divine.

The next actions we take are bigger, but they only peripherally affect our family's quality of life. So far, these efforts require more work and cost significantly more than their non-ecologically informed alternatives, and don't, as far as we know, increase our income at all.

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Some businesses, like ours at Nomad Press, need to reach out to communities that are not local. We publish books on traditional and ethnic approaches to knitting. Nomad Press belongs to the Green Press Initiative, and we use recycled paper whenever possible (which is almost always). We also carefully watch other aspects of the requirements of publishing, including minimizing the impacts of transportation.

We've been with Green Press Initiative (GPI) a long time. In our first qualifying book (the revised and expanded edition of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way), there's a text statement about GPI on the copyright page. Later, we added the GPI logo in the same location (Priscilla's Spinning in the Old Way and Donna Druchunas' Arctic Lace). Our more recent books (Donna's Ethnic Knitting Discovery and Ethnic Knitting Exploration) have it on their back covers.

I hope some day (soon) the ecologically based actions we take will begin to make sense for our business's financial bottom line—not so much for our sake (although that would be nice) but because if these decisions were easier to implement, more cost-effective, and did increase sales, even more publishers would be inclined to make similar choices.

There are a few rudimentary marketing efforts for green-aware books in place, although they are not yet very high-profile.

Powell's Books has a Green Press section on its website. It's been in existence for several years, but I don't think many people know about it yet. (To locate it, if you don't have that link I just provided: on the main page, scroll to the very bottom and click on the link in tiny type that says "Green Initiatives at Powell's"; on the new page that opens, scroll down to just above the "tell us what you think" box and click on the Green Press Initiative link within the paragraph of text.) To find our books once you are in the Green Press section, go to the categories in the lefthand column, click on "crafts," and discover that three of the four listed titles are ours. (It looks like I need to remind Powell's of two more . . . we could apparently have five out of six entries in the category.)

Here's a brand-new idea that I hope gathers support more quickly: Eco-Libris is coordinating a green-lit awareness campaign called "It's Time for a Green Book: 1 Day, 100 Bloggers, 100 Green Books, 100 Reviews." The reviews will be released on November 10. We shipped off four books to their assigned bloggers yesterday morning.

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We do what we can. Our choices, small as they are in the overall picture, may make a difference.

At the very least, these choices feel like the right ones for us to make. We have also signed the 20/20 pledge, and are finding it easy to keep up with the commitment.

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Tonight I've ridden my bike to the coffee shop—a local business—to finish this post and work on a book project. It was windy when I left home, but not too windy. It will be dark when I ride back again, but I have good lights. And I might see deer again—in the city—as I did the other day when I rode home from the same coffee shop.*

That's one of the huge benefits of climate change: I have a bike that I love to ride.

Join me?

  (I'm the one on the right, in back. That's my sister on the left, in front, happily on her very own bike.)

* No deer this time. Two foxes, though!

Saturwoolday

It's shaping up to be a fine day. One of the things I love about wool is its variety, and what's going into the tub today represents quite a range:

There's Castlemilk Moorit, a very rare breed closely related to Shetlands. The provider of this sample apologized for its second cuts (snippets caused by shearing with two passes) and scurf (I'll skip describing scurf at the moment . . . ), but it's a lovely color, with excellent staple length, and will be just fine when washed and processed:

There's Polwarth from the Falkland Islands . . . not all of the sheep from the Falklands are Polwarths, but a quantity worth noting are . . . fine, with really cool crimp (those wavy contours in, in this case, both individual fibers and locks):

And we finally, finally (thanks to the generosity of friends on a couple of continents) have some Herdwick, giving us an opportunity to consider things like kemp (coarse, dye-resistant fibers) and Mrs. Heelis:

And while the wools are soaking in the tub, with their 20-minute demands for attention and changes of cleansing and rinsing solutions, I have THIS to enjoy:

It's Clara Parkes' new The Knitter's Book of Wool. Just arrived. I've glanced. I love Clara's take on the world, and am so glad she wrote this book.

It's shown on some Suffolk fleece I have here . . . I pulled out a lock at the lower right corner of the book, because it's so nice and long for a Suffolk. In the background is a rug I wove many years ago from Pendleton mill ends. I have a lot of rugs made with those mill ends, picked up at a weaving place in Poulsbo, Washington, long, long ago. They are still trucking. Our older dog "digs" in this one every night, making herself a nest to sleep in.

Snowing out. A good day for enjoying a variety of wools in a variety of ways.

If I get the washing done in time, I might even get to spin or knit some.

Artposium travel 1: One of the Colorado Scenic Byways

Last weekend, when I attended the Artposium in Delta County, Colorado, I stayed with Priscilla GIbson-Roberts and Jack Roberts. The Artposium's topic was food, and we ate wonderfully throughout the official event.

Priscilla and Jack value the garden and the table as well, and breakfasts, before the official day began, were also delightful: oatmeal cooked with garden fruits, homemade grape juice, Icelandic pancakes rolled around jam made from homegrown strawberries. Priscilla attended part of the Artposium, but during other parts she was at home slow-roasting tomatoes from their garden, because they'd just had their first frost.

When I stopped back by the house to say goodbye before heading east again, Jack had made ice cream with more of their garden's strawberries (this year produced a more-than-abundant crop; they were talking about strawberries like most people talk about zucchinis). Fortunately, I hadn't eaten to capacity at the lunch: almost, but not quite. I initially said no to the ice cream, then, when I realized it was homemade, thought I might be able to handle a tiny bowl . . . exquisite.

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I chose to drive from the Front Range to Delta County, scene of this Artposium, by way of the interstate only as far as Glenwood Springs, where I turned off onto the highways that lead to Carbondale, Redstone, and Paonia. This constitutes half of the Colorado Scenic Byway known as the West Elk Loop, and goes up over McClure Pass, reputed to be one of the best aspen-viewing locations in a state known for aspens (although they're only in the mountainous sections). And this is peak aspen (and elk-bugling) season.

I've loved exploring the less-traveled parts of Colorado, although I tend to do so only in the course of a need to be somewhere other than home (usually work). But I figure if you've got to be somewhere, you might as well enjoy the journey.

My most recent, and by far the most useful and beautiful, guide to the landscapes of Colorado is Colorado Scenic Byways: Taking the Other Road, with text by Susan Tweit and photos by Jim Steinberg. Jim takes fantastic photographs (and lets me see what the place I'm traveling looks like in other seasons, too). Susan's text takes me under the surface of the places I'm seeing with enough detail to be satisfying. On this trip, she especially helped me enjoy the rocks, which are extraordinary.

Colorado Scenic Byways is actually two books: both have text and photos, but the big one is for browsing and the smaller atlas is for use on the road. They stay safely in a slipcase when they're not being enjoyed. Great idea, beautifully accomplished. It won ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award and the Colorado Book Award, and never did a book (or set of books) more deserve that type of recognition.

Getting back on track with the next post, after my rhapsodic outburst. . . .

3,742.7 miles, eight states, a good book, music, and a Wyoming oasis

Ending trip mileage: 3,742.7 (6023.3km). Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, (Oregon again), California, Nevada, Utah, (Wyoming and Colorado again).

Trip average: 31.8 miles per gallon, although I reached 33.7 on the outbound half (the 1100-mile section that did not include Seattle and Sacramento). The car is rated for 19 city, 26 highway. It's a manual, so I have some control over mileage through my driving style, and I think I'm getting the feel of the transmission down pretty well. On last year's similar trip, the overall average was a bit under 30 m.p.g.

Most mornings, I drove enjoying the sound of the air through the open windows. Especially when I was traveling two-lane asphalt, those times were reminiscent of road trips in the '50s and '60s. (I drove interstates when necessary, but logged a lot of miles on well-paved now-secondary highways.)

As the heat increased and the day (and my energy) wore on, I tended to close the windows, turn on the air conditioning (highest registered outside temperature was 101 F / 38 C), and listen to a book or some music.

The book I checked out of the library was Temple Grandin's new Animals Make Us Human:

There's still a long list of holds at the library for the regular books, but I was second in line for the audio version and it was returned just in time for the trip. Perfect!

I especially enjoyed the chapter on wildlife, in which she talks about lab science versus field science. She mentions a discussion she had with her dissertation adviser about experiments without controls. She contended that they could be valuable, and that careful field observation studies the subject in its natural environment where behaviors are not distorted as they are in a lab. He contended that control groups are essential for real science, and that careful observation is insufficient. She countered that astronomy is considered a real science, and all of its methods are based on observation. Often her straightforward logic, part of the way her mind works because of her brain's particular neurology, quickly slices to the core of a question. There's more in the chapter that intrigued me. I'd like to read or listen to the book again.

I wish I could listen to music when I work, but I concentrate so hard that I rarely can. It's nice to have some drive time because I do love music. I haven't figured out how to feed the iPod's sound through the car's speakers (I know it can be done), so I grabbed CDs. It's interesting to try to grab a collection of what I might want to listen to on a particular trip. What would I be in the mood for, given the likely landscapes and events, for the next three weeks?

I didn't have time to listen to everything I took with me, mostly because I do like quiet, and there were lots of good options I left at home. Here's some of what I listened to, a whole bunch of proven favorites (often several albums by an artist or group) and a couple of new discoveries:

• The Wild Tchoupitoulas (ongoing thanks to my brother-in-law for introducing me to this album years ago)
• The Rankin Family
• Linda Ronstadt (including one album with Aaron Neville, a nice follow-up to Wild Tchoupitoulas)
• Wolfe Tones
• Anonymous 4
• Grand Dérangement
  
• Dixie Chicks
• Ken Woodard
• Golden Bough
• Paul Simon
• Sweethearts of the Rodeo
• Capercaillie
• O Sister 2
• Kathy Mattea

I took, but didn't listen to, a couple of albums of Andean music and several shape note collections. I listen to those relatively frequently when I'm at home. No classical music in the CD set: not great for staying awake while driving. I had some on my iPod and listened to it during non-driving times.

Nevada and Utah, as I've mentioned, were not great spots for vegetarian food for the traveler. Neither was western Wyoming. So toward the end of the trip, I hoped to encounter a particular location in Laramie, Wyoming, at a time when it was open:

 

It was Monday, a day when many restaurants at home close, and a few minutes after 11. It looked pretty quiet on the street.

 

They'd just opened for the day. Whew. I rarely have room for dessert, but I think a couple of days of short rations left space. I made it through the peach-raspberry cobbler, after a veggie reuben and delicious kale slaw. I ordered a slice of vegan chocolate cake to go, to share with my daughter, because by this time I was about an hour from home. It was all worth waiting for.

If you're ever in Laramie and need healthy food, check out Sweet Melissa. Downtown, by the railroad tracks. No website.

The Big Project: hints can be revealed (pertains to fiber, surprise, surprise)

Last weekend I drove south and into the mountains to spend a couple of days working on The Project.

(I've finally got the energy to see if I can cover the information the computer powers-that-be evaporated on me just as I'd finished writing a post on Monday. This time I am working in an offline composing program called Ecto. I don't know much about Ecto, so we'll see if this goes better than Monday did!)

I stayed in a cabin courtesy of Carol Ekarius and her husband, Ken Woodard. Ken went off to spend the time playing music with friends, leaving me and Carol to work on The Project. Yep, The Project requires two of us, and we both are the sort of people who are challenged, rather than daunted, by large, complicated tasks. Still, we haven't felt comfortable talking about what we're thinking (and working on) previously. Even though we've been working on it for a lot more than a year already. It's big. We do, now, suspect we will be able to pull it off in the foreseeable future.

Here's Carol at the cabin with Red, one of our weekend companions.

Chickens are not allowed inside, although Red forgets that from time to time in her quest for yummies.

Carol is passionate about livestock and small-scale farming. Her books include Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs: 163 Breeds from Common to Rare (Storey), which just won the Colorado Book Award in the general nonfiction category; How to Build Animal Housing (Storey), which won a Colorado Authors' League award; Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep (Storey), written with ground-breaking handspinner Paula Simmons; Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds (Storey); Pocketful of Poultry (Storey); Small-Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit (Storey); and Hobby Farm: Living Your Rural Dream for Pleasure and Profit (Bowtie).

I'm passionate about fibers and rare breeds, as those who know about my work at Interweave Press and Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot and as a freelancer and as the publisher of Nomad Press are aware.

We've both been involved for years with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

I'm doing fibers.

(That's Tuf, one of Carol's dogs.)

Carol's doing critters.

We're both working day and night.

Theresa and Red are doing eggs. They helped out a lot over the weekend.

Even though there is a MASS of work left to do on The Project, we made great progress and feel hopeful that we'll be able to change it from a bunch of separately written pieces into a coherent whole—while continuing to generate still more separately written pieces.

One of the things I like best about working with Carol is that when we get together and compare notes and I show her my research and the charts I'm drawing and the details that I'm endeavoring to condense into useful summaries that take into account geographic and biological variations and all sorts of other random differences . . . she doesn't say that I don't have to do all that and she doesn't tell me It would be faster if I just pulled somebody else's information and got on with it.

No, what she does instead is tell me about the weird and obscure and interesting books she's gotten through interlibrary loan and ask me for a reminder about a weird, obscure, and truly fascinating book that I got through interlibrary loan (because she's going to request the book, too, now that I've returned it). . . . She also doesn't imply that it was silly of me to pay $25 to borrow a book for a couple of weeks from the National Agricultural Library because it was the only copy of that book in the United States and it's not in print elsewhere any more. No, she gets on the computer and finds sources for more fibers and orders them and has them sent to my house.

It's great to be collaborating with Carol on this project. We're both nuts in some of the same ways. We won't ever do as much research as either of us would like to (we would like to finish), but we'll get enough done to have fun and to produce something we think fiber- and critter-appreciating folk will find useful and informative in a way that's unlike anything else that's come before it.

Of course, we also both work full-time at other jobs while we're doing this. Carol is the executive director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (we met when she was in this role and I was working on a heritage preservation project in Park County, Colorado). I juggle this project around freelance writing and editing and Nomad Press.

We might get tired from time to time, but neither of us is likely to get bored.

Time to get back to work. I don't think this is as good a post as the one I lost, but at least it is written and about to be published.

More about this project will be revealed as it moves (reasonably swiftly, we hope) toward completion.

Nearing the end of editing a book

I need to check how many years the book with a deadline this week has been in the works, but . . . as of last night at about 10:30, it's all in one piece and that piece is a near-final draft. This is freelance work, so I'm not doing the graphics or layout . . . just the words, which can be plenty. All intense editing jobs should incorporate free access to a gym (preferably within fifty feet of the desk the editor can't leave for long), regular massages, and, near the conclusion, sessions with a good chiropractor.

Fortunately, I've learned pretty well by now how to pace myself, that exercise and food are essential, when to set aside a particularly sticky task and come back to it later, what types of breaks work best for recharging both body and mind, and when (and when not) to take them.

On Saturday, I drove nearly 200 miles round-trip to go to half of an all-day shape note singing (singing from Denson (red book) and Norumbega (black book), with a few forays into Cooper (blue) for some alto harmonies). That would seem excessive if I had more opportunities to go to all-day singings, but I only have access to a few a year. I wanted to go for the whole day (9:30 to 3:30), but couldn't let myself leave until I'd reviewed (and returned to the author) everything BUT the one hardest-to-edit chapter in the book. I'd spent time on that chapter earlier in the week before I decided that this was one of those tasks that, if I let it, it would suck up every scrap of energy and time we had, so it needed to be shown who was boss. I put it back in the "in progress" folder and turned to work on the rest of the book.

At 10:19 a.m. on Saturday, I completed the last file on my list (except the set of files for that one chapter). There was not a single editing-capable brain cell left in my skull. If I'd tried to continue, I wouldn't have accomplished anything. At 10:45, I was in the car. By 12:45, I was at the singing. Home by 6:30 with groceries (no time for restocking the pantry all week), then to a play (I'm Not Rappaport, by Herb Gardner, at Bas Bleu Theatre). Straight to bed, no editing.

Sunday: completely dedicated to dealing with the final chapter, which was, indeed, like obedience-training a giant octopus. All the information was there. The author just knows his material too well. I needed to make the chapter work for a reader who does not live and breathe this particular topic (like me). I started at 7:30 a.m. and finished at 10:07 p.m., having taken three short breaks for meals, two to walk the dogs, and a couple of hours in mid-afternoon to do essential errands.

I've still got work to do on the manuscript, but it is now (finally) clear that we will turn it in to the publishing house this week.

Cue "Hallelujah Chorus." I'm trying to think of equivalent works from other musical traditions that are appropriate to the situation and I'm coming up blank. Do Buddhists have celebration songs with that much enthusiasm?

The book we are working on will, by the way, be an extraordinarily fine and useful title that will do excellent work when it is out in the world. (For those who know me, it is not about knitting.) It should be published in the first part of 2010.

Fiber book review: Pints & Purls

It's not that I don't drink booze. However, given the budgetary choice between, say, fiber and a beer . . . or a glass of good wine and a good book . . . I'll just say it's no contest. Yet having been in a number of musical groups, married to a musician, and the like, I've spent a lot of time in bars and I'm actually in one now, although it's daylight and we're using it as an extension of the coffeehouse next door.

I do knit a lot in low-light and interrupted situations.

So when Pints & Purls: Portable Projects for the Social Knitter, by Karida Collins and Libby Bruce, appeared in front of me, I took a close look. Even though I don't fit the demographic profile of the book's intended readership, it has a lot of appeal.

The authors have included lots of tips for knitters who haul their knitting around and work in spurts under less-than-ideal conditions. Those who drive carpools or travel on crowded public transportation take note. They share the contents of their traveling knitting kits, offer guidance for getting spills out of works-in-progress, and tell how to fix mistakes. There are also a bunch of felted projects: felting obscures a multitude of sins.

My count may be off—it's shadowy in here and the music on my headphones, drowning out the conversations at the next tables, is loud (New Orleans funk at the moment)—but here's the inventory of projects I just took:

• Scarf/shawl/cowl: 6 (one a scarf with mittens attached)
• Sweaters: 6
• Socks: 3
• Hats/caps: 4
• Bags: 2
• Belly warmer: 1
• Coasters and cozies and wine charms: 7
• Dishrags: 1 set of 3
• Leg and arm warmers: 2
• Lap blanket: 1

Project difficulty ratings come in the form of "designated driver, don't mix these with whiskey" (my customary role and knitting preference), "1 drink, don't get distracted," "2 drinks, you'll have to focus at least part of the time," "3 drinks, you may have to concentrate a bit," and "4 drinks, minimal level of concentration and skill."

I was most taken by Libby Bruce's Fizzy Sweater . . .

and two of the scarves, Danielle Romanetti's Linden Wrap, a nice mix of entrelac and a leaf-lace pattern:

and Karida Collins' Ruff Neck Warmer:

I also might knit several of the other sweaters, the bags, the socks, and one of the caps.

The sweater in the photo below caught my eye on the first skim-through, and still has a lot of appeal . . . 

Unfortunately,somebody—editor? production lead?—might have had one too many at proofing time and I can't find the pattern in the book. (The leg warmers are described.) Maybe it'll be a bonus on a website? Or maybe I'll figure out my own pattern for a similar cardigan one of these days. I do like the concept.

The book's only major drawback, in my opinion, is the wood-grain background on all text-dominant pages, including the detailed instructions, which makes for challenging reading in the semi-dark.

Ethnic Knitting Exploration: author interviews publisher, part 2

Author Donna Druchunas asked me so many good questions that this is part 2 of the interview. Part 1 appeared yesterday.

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Donna: Do the books seem to be meeting the goal and filling the need that you originally envisioned?

Deb: The books you have written have gone beyond my initial vision: they accomplish what I had in mind, and they also have their own spirit and voice.

The Ethnic Knitting series was conceived as an introduction to Knitting in the Old Way (KITOW). While you provide supporting materials for KITOW, you also added material that reflects your own experiences and interests: the Andean material that you present in Ethnic Knitting Discovery (EK1) is different from the Andean material Priscilla included in KITOW, and in Ethnic Knitting Exploration (EK2), of course, you cover Lithuania, which isn't part of KITOW (the sweater tradition in Lithuania having been massively overshadowed by, for example, gloves).

I'm not at all sure whether they are working for readers as we intended, because most of the feedback I get is the sales numbers, which are really important for us to keep doing this work but aren't very informative about how people are using the books!

I love seeing garments people have made, whether on their blogs or through Ravelry or in person. The books are intended to spark ideas, not to dictate their implementation, so every new piece made from them represents a personal view and a bit of magic.

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Donna: As editor and publisher, what's been the most fun part of working on this series for you? The most challenging?

Deb: Taking the manuscript and turning it into a book involves a lot of steps, a number of which are fun.

One of the best is getting the illustrations back from Joyce Turley, who does the drawings that go with the projects and also a number of the technique drawings. I give her detailed references to work from, and she turns them into crisp, attractive pictures. Joyce knits and crochets and understands electronic book production. She's a gem.

For the fingerless gloves, I knitted a prototype for Joyce to draw from. (Unfortunately, because I really like the glove, I haven't had time to knit the second one.)

Speaking of the fingerless gloves, we have a sample pattern from the book available here as a PDF, so people can check out the style in which the projects are presented (including Joyce's great illustration!). There are more sample PDF patterns from Ethnic Knitting Discovery (EK1) available on Ravelry, some for free and some at low cost. We're experimenting with PDF and electronic publication.

Download EthnicExplorationExcerpt-FingerlessGloves (about 800 kb)

And continuing on the topic of fingerless gloves, here's a transcendent version made by LynnH at ColorJoy!

 

Isn't that fantastic? So different in colors, gauge, and personal size from the one I made—although all of the basic elements are the same.

It's so wonderful to see all the variations that people can create on the blank canvases of the projects in Ethnic Knitting Discovery and, now, Ethnic Knitting Exploration! This is the sort of thing that makes all the challenges of independent publishing worthwhile.

So here's another. . . . Kris Paige, who knits like a fiend but doesn't have a blog, made a sample poncho for Joyce, the illustrator, to use as a reference. It now belongs to Kris's baby granddaughter.

I also love doing the layout and typography, thinking of ways to make the material you've given me as user-friendly as possible in its new format as a book.

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. . . the most challenging . . . ?

Well, the books have been much more work than either of us envisioned! That's true of many things we take on. I think it was Peter Drucker who said that every good idea ultimately degenerates into work: so true. Fortunately, when we get the finished, printed books and can send them out into the world, I mostly forget that, so I can start the next project. . . .

Certainly the hardest part of EK2 involved the massive computer problems, partially chronicled in this blog, that were never completely resolved and that made me think for a while not only that we would never get this book released—after several years of work on it—but also that Nomad Press would fold entirely.

We haven't recovered completely from those challenges, but (1) the BOOK IS OUT and (2) I now have completely new hardware and software, and am able to proceed with the next set of good ideas, which are, of course, running behind schedule. . . . 

My relief at getting EK2 to press, even late, was huge.

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Donna: On April 6th, I talked with Amy O'Neill Houck at The Hook and I about some reasons that I am attracted to historical and traditional knitting.

What attracts you to this topic?

Deb: That was a terrific post Amy and you did, Donna. I have a lot of reasons for being interested in historical and traditional knitting, which I'll only be able to touch on briefly here.

My own creativity was in many ways discouraged by the school system, and I've had to fight against the lack of encouragement relating to artistic and creative work that I got while I was being "educated," especially in high school.

I first broke loose of that sense of restriction with textiles: my first hand-knitted sweater (my second completed project) was a five-color Norwegian ski sweater. I had excellent yarn, a pattern written in Norwegian (which I don't read), and charted motifs . . . as well as a college roommate and a shopkeeper who acted as if this was a perfectly normal way to begin.

Then, on my own and in other places, I had to learn to recreate the delight of that first experience. The skills that traditional and ethnic knitters learned from other knitters were what I needed, and as I acquired them, mostly through stubbornness plus trial and error, they liberated me. This was before books like Priscilla's Knitting in the Old Way and Jackie Fee's The Sweater Workshop (raglans) had been published; it was about the time that Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears and Knitter's Almanac were released, although I didn't discover them immediately.

Learning to spin my own yarn knocked me square into the "need to work without detailed instructions" realm, because initially my yarns didn't match any known gauge (they were amazingly inconsistent).

As I've gone on with knitting, I keep discovering that the traditional and ethnic skills apply to all sorts of knitting. They allow me to knit from patterns without being thrown by errors in the printed instructions; to modify designs to better fit the intended wearer; to substitute color and texture patterns that I prefer. Or to take ideas from several patterns and make my own interpretation by combining them.

I think every knitter should start with the skills that traditional and ethnic knitters employed on a daily basis. That's what puts us in charge of, rather than at the mercy of, our knitting.

Besides, I've realized recently that the sweaters I have worn for years (even decades) and on a near-daily basis are the ones I've made in traditional shapes, with patterns of my choosing, in yarns that I love. Ultimately . . . this kind of knitting WORKS.

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Donna: What's your favorite part of Ethnic Knitting Exploration and why?

Deb: That's a hard question to answer, so I'll go with my first gut reaction: the explanation of how to read, and knit from, cable charts. Pre-publication, I found myself printing out copies of pages118-119 and 123-127 to hand people to help them solve problems with beginning cable knitting. Including my daughter, who was learning to knit cables at a time when I was out of town.

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Donna: I know many readers are interested in different formats for books and we're working on some PDF releases, Kindle editions, and an audio book.

What do you see in the future for Nomad Press?

Deb: We're exploring ways to get information to people in formats they find handy and useful. We're kind of working in the dark here, though—again, the feedback comes six months to a year after we do the work, and often in ways that are hard to directly trace to our actions.

So we're experimenting with the PDF patterns, some free, on Ravelry and through your website and the Nomad Press site. The books should be available any time both for Kindle (including the iPhone/iPod Touch apps) and for Sony eReaders. There will be an audiobook for Arctic Lace. We're looking at smaller projects that would be delivered only through the internet (even though I am resolutely loyal to print publication).

We have enough books and other ideas in the pipeline to keep us joyfully working on new releases for between three and five years. Sometimes I get antsy to get them finished faster so people can enjoy them, but I won't take shortcuts on quality to make that happen.

And, of course, we'll continue to produce the books in ways that minimize their environmental impact without compromising the quality. All of your books, for example, are printed on papers that meet Green Press Initiative standards, using vegetable-oil-based inks (soy and canola), rather than petroleum-based inks.

And, of course, we're making books that we trust will be reliable resources for knitters for many years. They're not ephemera. We're all about feeding knitters' brains and creativity, empowering them with transferable skills, and making things that last.

Blog tour! Ethnic Knitting Exploration - author interviews publisher, part 1

Welcome to a blog tour stop for Ethnic Knitting Exploration, by Donna Druchunas.

I'm the book's publisher, so we decided to turn the interview process around and have Donna ask me questions. I knew she would come up with interesting and perceptive angles. She did. The post got really long, so I've broken it into two sections; part 2 will appear tomorrow, including a free PDF download of one of the book's patterns.

If you can't wait for the PDF, it's here: Download EthnicExplorationExcerpt-FingerlessGloves (about 800 kb)—but if you come back tomorrow, there will be photos of actual gloves, too!

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Donna: In several interviews on this tour so far, I've mentioned that the idea for these books on Ethnic Knitting came from you.

Can you remember how we first got started working on this project?

Deb: Absolutely. We were in that little coffee shop on Cleveland in Loveland, Colorado—that very funky place that unfortunately isn't there any more.

I was concerned that some people were missing out on the fantastic information in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way because they needed help getting through the intermediate steps: from yarn-plus-gauge-swatch to a complete plan for making a sweater.

Many knitters could make that leap without help. Many more were missing out on the delights of traditional-style knitting because they couldn't quite untether from step-by-step instructions. That's a sensation I was familiar with, because I remember my own tentative first efforts. I envisioned a way to get information to knitters who might be stuck in the same place I was many years ago. It took me a long time to get past that.

You sat across the cafe table from me and volunteered to help knitters bridge that gap.

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Donna: That brings up the next question: Many knitters want to know how Ethnic Knitting Discovery and Ethnic Knitting Exploration are different from Knitting In The Old Way, and which approach would be right for them.

What advice can you give us, since you publish all of these books?

Deb: Great question. They're all about ethnic knitting, and about empowering knitters to discover and then master new skills as well as their own creativity.

Knitting in the Old Way (KITOW) represents Priscilla's life-long fascination with the way sweater design has evolved through history and across geography. It's a book to dip in and out of, to experiment with, to come up with ideas. It gives the essential information on ethnic knitting in a very concentrated form: it covers a huge amount of territory, and requires the knitter to have a supply of confidence or bravery (either will do). The second edition, which I published, contains a lot more information (and more detailed information) than was in the original 1985 edition; both are classics.

Ethnic Knitting Discovery (which we call EK1 when we're at home) and Ethnic Knitting Exploration (EK2) began with the idea I mentioned above, of giving knitters a step-up to Priscilla's wonderful book. Since you are who you are, Donna, these books also became distinct works in their own right. More on that in a moment.

Here's my advice:

(1) Knitters who open KITOW and feel like they're in over their heads or doubtful of their abilities will want to start with EK1 and EK2. After they've got their bearings, they can come back to KITOW.

Yes, ANY KNITTER CAN make sweaters from scratch without a pattern! It's EASY! It's just the conceptual leap that takes courage and fortitude. EK1 and EK2 are the knitter's partner and safety net for that leap.

I recommend that knitters who are tentative about cutting loose work through one sweater from beginning to end, using the detailed EK worksheets, to see how the steps go together. For a drop-shoulder or modified drop-shoulder sweater (as described in KITOW), EK1 is the right resource. For a raglan, circular-yoke, or saddle-shoulder sweater (as described in KITOW), EK2 is the place to go. EK2 also has information on how to turn a pullover pattern (of any type) into a cardigan.

(2) Knitters who open KITOW and feel like they're in knitting heaven . . . might want to check out EK1 and EK2 as well. Those books contain information that's not in KITOW that they might enjoy discovering—like the Andean knitting techniques in EK1, and the Lithuanian material in EK2.

(3) EK1 and EK2 are also the ideal partners for people who want to teach classes on traditional and ethnic knitting techniques. KITOW is fantastic for an advanced knitters' seminar. Any of the books could provide the foundation for an extended guild study project.

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Come back tomorrow for more!

Blog tour for Ethnic Knitting Exploration, plus general progress

Re-entry from the week in the woods has been a little rocky. Here, it feels like I run as hard as I can to stay in place. That's not true: but I do need to make a conscious effort to see the progress.

Here's my attempt to take a picture last night, as the rain began to turn into snow (this morning, it's still snowing):

The stars I saw last week in the mountains were that plentiful and bright.

On the really, really good side: I have been blessed with another week of concentrated writing time, and it will be soon! I learned yesterday that I have an official residency through the Colorado Art Ranch, a nomadic arts organization that holds events throughout the state (it's a fantastic model, and puts together fascinating programs). Susan Tweit and Richard Cabe set the wheels in motion and made sure I committed to do this before I thought of all the reasons I can't leave the office.

Donna's blog tour for Ethnic Knitting Exploration

The blog tour for Donna Druchunas' Ethnic Knitting Exploration started on April 1. I'll be participating on April 10.

As the book's publisher, I'm also still sending out review copies, and I spent yesterday filling out forms to put that book (and all the other Nomad Press titles) into the program that makes them available on the Sony eReader. The books have been making their way into the Amazon Kindle program for the past couple of months (I submitted all the necessary files in January), which means they will also be available on iPhone and iPod Touch with the Kindle for iPhone app that was released about a month ago. They're not showing up on the Kindle lists yet, but not because all the information isn't in the right places. . . . If anybody sees them there before I do, please let me know! I keep checking. . . .

It will be pretty cool, I think, to have ready access while standing in the yarn shop (or in the boarding area at an airport terminal) to books like Donna's Ethnic Knitting series and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way.

Here's an abbreviated schedule for Donna's blog tour, with a few editorial comments from me (more details at Donna's blog):

April 1 - Theresa Walunas
The Keyboard Biologist
Among other things, Theresa and Donna talk about connecting to our roots through knitting (they're both Lithuanian).
The interview is here.

April 2 - Lorraine Ehrlinger
Lorrieknitsandsews
A blog about Lorraine's knitting, sewing, and other parts of her life.

April 3 - Jean Clement
Desert Rose Designs
Thoughts while designing projects, about personal projects and the special "awards" Jean knits for RMTA (Rocky Mountain Trials Association).

April 4 - Lynn DT Hershberger (LynnH)
ColorJoy by LynnH
Lynn is all about color, texture, textiles, music, dance, and movement.

April 5 - Katherine Vaughan
Knit with KT
Katherine talks about her design process for her pattern line, and offers reviews of books and patterns, as well as knitting commentary.

April 6 - Amy O'Neill Houck
The Hook and I
Knitting and crochet musings, techniques, and patterns from a writer and vegetarian mother of two living in Alaska.

April 7 - Wannietta Prescod
What’s Wannietta Knitting Today?
The three-time and current winner of Canada's Search for the Fastest Knitter and 3rd fastest in the world at the '08 Knit Out.

April 8 - Andrea Lyn Van Benschoten
The Fiber Forum
Andrea's fiber-related journey through crochet, spinning, knitting, felting, and more.

April 9 - Peggy Gaffney
Kanine Knits
Portraits of dogs in knitting is what Peggy Gaffney creates with her unique line of sweaters and accessories, as well as charts of more than a hundred breeds (you could sure use these designs with the Ethnic Knitting structures!). Her sense of the individual breeds is extraordinary. Check it out.

April 10 - Deb Robson
The Independent Stitch - Part 1 and Part 2
This is me. I had other ideas, but we're going to have Donna interview me. She'll ask interesting questions. I told her to surprise me.

April 11 - Joanne Conklin
Rhythm Of The Needles
A blog about knitting, designing, travel, music, hockey, and more knitting.

April 12 Faina Goberstein
Faina's Knitting Mode
Read and see videos about techniques, design, new books, new patterns.

This past week Faina and I took the same online class with Jill Wolcott. The two of us missed the final memo and signed into the wrong "room" for the session and spent about twenty minutes chatting and getting to know each other and wondering where everyone else was. We finally found them, but I really enjoyed the talk with Faina and am glad we got lost.

April 13 - Shannon Okey
Knitgrrl.com
Knitgrrl.com is author/designer Shannon Okey's website. Shannon's also the editor of Yarn Forward magazine (U.K.) and is doing a fantastic job.

April 14 - Leanne Dyck of Olavia's hand knitting patterns and of oknitting.com book publishing
Designer's Note
Leanne is a knitwear designer and author; she shares news, views, tips, and stories.

April 15 - Kat Coyle
coiled
An eclectically creative blog, with knit design, other art forms (including painting), and doing crafts with her young son.

April 16 - Daniel Yuhas
Tatting My Doilies
Lots of knitting and designing, with forays into math, family, gardening, and really long bike rides.

April 17 - Kristi Geraci
Knitters Anonymous
The knitting adventures of Cookie and Kristi, friends who knit (and design) a lot of socks, and some other things, too!

April 18 - Karin Maag-Tanchak
knitting &
Karen knits, cooks, writes, and takes pictures. All for one low price.

April 19 - Carol Sulcoski
Go Knit In Your Hat
At Catalyst Coffee, my neighborhood hangout (*which is alive still/again*), they serve excellent food and beverages with "a side of sass." I think of Carol's work in similar fashion: she provides "No-Bull" book reviews, and is the author herself of the excellent Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns.

April 20 - Cindy Moore
fitterknitter
I had the pleasure of "meeting" Cindy Moore through one of Donna's previous tours. She's a knitter, spinner, and weaver with a passion for cycling and exercise. She has been rewriting and charting designs from The Art of Knitting 1897. She shares the results first on her blog.

April 21 - Margit Sage
Fiber Fiend
Dyeing, spinning, knitting, and design (with LOTS of photos). She also talks about being in a fiber business, her dogs, some liberal politics (only linking to action you can take, not rants), and doing all this despite her particular health challenges (fibromyalgia and intractable migraines). She keeps on truckin'.

April 22 - Audrey Knight
AudKnits
Knitting inspiration, patterns, and tips & techniques.

And back to the regularly scheduled activities

So today I'll be getting a few more review copies out, doing my best to figure out how the new software manages fonts (I need to install new fonts, and assemble and activate/deactivate sets: basic tasks, but apparently so basic that they're covered in one of the final chapters of the manual, as far as I can tell—or so basic they don't need to be discussed in the manual?), and move forward with the editing and layout of several individual patterns, new business cards, and the next two books. . . .

But before I leave, here's what happened when I got home from my writing retreat in the woods:

That's Tussah. She just oozes to where she wants to be. Which is close enough for maximum patting. I was looking a little tired because I'd just driven down from the mountains. I also hadn't found time to get a haircut—overdue by more than a month. Shaggy! (I got one on Thursday night.)