Update-y goodness
So, in my last post I mentioned lots of exciting things are happening around here, but I didn’t say what. Now that it’s all official and nothing’s going to get jinxed (I hope!), I can reveal some of the somethings.
Firstly, and this is a big reason why I’ve been off-grid for awhile, we moved to London (and therefore have had no broadband for almost a month, so I’ve only been keeping up with Twitter and e-mail for the most part)! O got a new job and that required us to leave Sheffield. I love Sheffield, but there really weren’t that many opportunities for us there. Plus, I’ve been kinda itching to move again. Staying put for five years is a long time for someone who’s used to moving almost once a year. Anyway, our new flat is fabulous and we’re sharing it with a friend of ours that we’ve known for a long long time. Plus, sharing is a great way to save money and we get a much nicer place this way. And when I say nice, I mean nice. Right now, as I’m typing this, I get to sit on our balcony and watch boats go by on the Thames. And I can see the top of Westminster Abbey (I think… I’d better double-check that with O actually, just to make sure). So the last few weeks I’ve been dealing with all of the fun stuff that comes with moving. Like transferring utilities over, learning that when this place said furnished they meant it (I’ve never had crockery be included in a furnished place before!), discovering that the previous tenants hadn’t cleaned the oven at all, that there are carpet beetles in this place too. One was right smack in the middle of the wall as we were doing the inventory before we moved our stuff in so I know we didn’t bring it with us. But seriously, I’m so glad that we’re here. I do miss my friends back up north, but we do visit Sheffield quite often, so it’s not too bad.
Secondly, because we moved, I gave up my day job. I’m probably going to look for some part-time work here since I want to get out of the flat and actually talk to people during the day (there is only so much TV that I can watch while I knit), but I’m also going to focus on making the knit designing thing more profitable (ie actually pay me too for some of my time instead of just paying the materials). Now that I have the time and energy during the day again, I’ve been doing quite a bit of sketching and swatching. And I actually have a pattern that’s just been released! I’ll write more about it in a separate post next week, but for now, all I’ll say it’s pretty, it’s lace, it’s a shawl/scarf and it only takes one skein of 4ply/fingering weight/sock yarn. And it’s on sale until July1st! Sinikka will normally be £3.75, but if you use the coupon code “WOOLFEST13”, you can get it for just £2.50.
Thirdly, although this could kind of go with the secondly as it’s to do with knitting, I’ve been published in a book! The book, What (Else) Would Madam Defarge Knit?, came out this April. I haven’t really talked about it on the blog because I wanted to make sure it was a surprise for my parents and grandparents. They’ve received copies of the papercopy in the mail, so now it’s all good. It’s been so hard not talking about this (my designs were accepted back in November 2011), but now that they’ve been surprised, I can talk about it freely. My patterns are based on a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. The story is about a child and his friend who stick together through the hard times and overcome a witch who’s trying to eat the poor thing (why? I still haven’t figured that out and story doesn’t say!). There are two versions of the fingerless mitts: twisted stitches knit in DK-weight and colourwork using 4ply. You can buy the e-book either through Ravelry or through Co-operative Press and if you want a paper copy, you can get that through Co-Operative Press too. There will be a KAL for my patterns in the WWMDfK Ravelry group later this year, so feel free to join us there too. There’s one more thing in the works relating to this bit, but I’ll wait to announce it here until it’s all official.
So excited! About everything! And now the coffee has kicked in too, so extra exclamation points!!!