March 3, 2010: The Blog Is Moving

Okay, so I've had it. The problems with the commenting software keep growing. I've moved the blog to SquareSpace. Please update your blog aggregators and bookmarks to the new URL.

I am moving over this month's posts; everything else has been archived here. Note that the blog archives are for informational purposes only and won't be maintained.

Hopefully this change will streamline everything. I'll leave this page up for about another week to give evryone time to make the change.

Thanks!

March 3, 2010: Meet Chrissy Again

Since it didn't work very well to have Chrissy at the end of February's blog, I am re-posting the interview here today. I'll do the drawing for the books tomorrow, so e-mail me soon if you want to be in on the contest!

My guest today is Chrissy Gardiner of Gardiner Yarn Works. I can't remember when I first met Chrissy—it seems like we've known each other forever! She's an incredibly talented designer and I have had the pleasure of having her visit me here in Montana. And even if you're not a self-confessed sock-knitting junkie, you will enjoy her book:

Why socks? What did you find so interesting about socks that you wanted to write a book about it?

I've found that socks are the perfect little canvas for playing with stitch patterns and new techniques. They're small enough that I can crank one out in a couple of days, but they use enough stitches to allow for really elaborate stitch pattern panels. They don't have a lot of complicated shaping to deal with, once you get a few good heels in your bag of tricks. They're knit in the round, which makes patterning on every row with lace or traveling stitches a lot easier. They don't take nearly as much yarn as a sweater, and I find them a little bit more engaging than a scarf or other flat piece.

What was the hardest part of writing the book? The easiest?

The hardest part was getting started, and then continually convincing myself that anyone would want to read it! Thankfully, it seems that they do. Since I self-published, I didn't have an editor to confirm that my idea was indeed marketable or to set deadlines for me. I've always been the type of person who's highly deadline-motivated, so this was really difficult for me. Fortunately we had this little event in Portland called Sock Summit, and I decided to debut the book there. It was great motivation! The easiest part of writing the book was designing the patterns. I never seem to lack for sock design ideas!

How do you balance work and family?

I'm lucky to have a husband who works from home and kids that are both in school (but still to young for lots of activities). Bill and I share kid duty very equally, and he's always able to pick up the kids from school if I have a deadline (or vice versa). It works out very well, although I do admit to being a terrible housekeeper and cook. I love to cook, but it's the first thing that goes if we get busy. One of the biggest benefits of working for myself is that I can scale back anytime I need to. This helps with both family and burnout!

[Chrissy and her daughter Sydney and me at Camas Creek]:

What inspires your designs?

I'm a stitch dictionary collector, and I love to spend an afternoon or two paging through my many stitch books (such as Cables: Volume 1!) and flagging patterns that strike me for one reason or another. Then I'll try to fit them together, or tweak them in interesting ways, often playing off of a theme such as nature or a sweater I saw in a movie. I also really enjoy working from a skein of yarn, swatching it and letting it "tell me what it wants to be". I know it sounds cheesy, but the yarn really does talk to me!

[Look at some of her designs! Chrissy is a very versatile designer!]:

Are you thinking about a second book or working on one?

I am working on another book (or trying to, anyway)! It's going to be another sock book, this time inspired by the very creative work of the current crop of hand dyers. I love the fact that when you get a skein of hand-dyed yarn, there's so much personal attention that has gone into that skein, from applying the colors to winding the skein to attaching the ball band. It's so different from commercial yarn manufacture, and each skein is its own miniature work of art. The new book will include profiles of about 25 different hand dyers whose work I find beautiful and inspiring (and believe me, narrowing it down to 25 was nearly an impossible task). Each dyer was asked to send me a skein of yarn that they feel represents them as an artist, and I'm designing a sock specifically for that yarn and talking about my process for coming up with that design. It has been great fun so far!

What do you do for fun to relieve the stress of knitting?

I try to make time to do plenty of reading (my goal for 2010 is to read one new novel and one non-fiction book per month, which I know is nothing for an avid reader but it's huge for me between the kids and all the knitting that needs to get done). I go through phases where I like to cook and bake really elaborate things from scratch, which I find really recharges my creativity. I'm currently working towards running a half marathon over 4th of July weekend with the ultimate goal of finishing the Seattle marathon this fall. And I've just rediscovered my love of downhill skiing along with the fact that we live just over an hour from a great mountain ski area that's open year-round! I've always been a bit of a generalist, and I find that I need to keep myself busy with a variety of things or I start to really lose my mind.

[Chrissy and her husband Bill—what a guy!—at Sea Socks]:

Favorite yarn? Favorite needles? Favorite knitting gadget that you can't live without?

Well, my favorite yarn is anything soft and pretty. Does that narrow it down at all? I love natural fibers and gravitate towards the softer wools. I also love alpaca, although it's not always the best choice for socks if it's not blended with at least some wool. If I had to choose only one yarn to be stuck on a desert island with, it would be Handmaiden Sea Silk. I know you can't knit socks with it, but if you're on a desert island, do you really need socks anyway?

Favorite needles are definitely the Addi Turbo (although I'm coming around to the Addi Lace - I don't generally like sharp points, but I have a couple pairs that are working well for me right now). I also use my Denise Interchangeable kits a lot for larger-gauge knitting. If I was a double-point girl, I'd be sporting those slick Signature needles - I've test driven them and boy are they nice. I use dpns maybe once or twice a year, so I won't be making that investment anytime soon.

As for knitting gadget, I have to say that it's my Clover Chibi with the fine-gauge curved-tip darning needles. I would give up a lot of my other notions before I'd give these up. That curved tip makes all the difference, and if you try to get me to use a straight darning needle these days, it would feel like pumping up a bicycle tire with a fireplace bellows. They're the ones in the little orange case - I buy them by the half-dozen just to make sure I'm never without one!

Thanks, Chrissy, for stopping by! I've got two copies of Toe-Up: Patterns and Worksheets to Whip Your Sock Knitting Into Shape to give away. To enter, send me an e-mail at Janet at BigSkyKnitting dot com and tell me what the names of Chrissy's two office bunnies are (you can find out at her website!). I'll enter all the names into a random drawing and pick two winners.

March 1, 2010: A New Month, New Commenting Software

I've installed new commenting software on the blog, so we'll see how it works. I just don't think that Echo was prepared to handle the migration of former Haloscan users. And I wasn't terribly impressed with their support department.

My apologies to all of you who had trouble over the past couple of weeks. If it's any consolation, so did I.

So let's see how this works, shall we? I'm not thrilled with the huge size of the "commenting" box, but re-formatting it is a bit beyond me.