NaNoWriMo 2009

Something you may not know about me: I’ve always wanted to write children’s books. But, my writing career took me in other directions, and it is only now that I have time to give it the attention I would like to.

Two weeks ago I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo 2009, and I intend to win. In case you don’t already know, NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. Winning it means completing the first draft of a fifty thousand word novel in only 30 days, which breaks down to about 1667 words a day. Madness, you say? Absolutely! I can’t argue with you there. But, the short deadline is also part of the fun of it, that is, of course, if you don’t mind a month’s worth of little sleep and lots of frozen dinners.

NaNoWriMo is held every November 1-30. Brainchild of author Chris Baty, it started out with him and a few of his close friends. From there, it has skyrocketed in just a few years into a worldwide event that boasts nearly 170,000 participants around the world in 2009.

So, what happens if I don’t complete the novel in the specified amount of time? Well, nothing, really, except that now that I’ve put it “out there” on public notice, I’d have to wipe a lot of egg off my face while trying to explain to friends and family members why I didn’t finish. I think I’d rather be attacked by flesh-eating bacteria. So, barring any cataclysmic events I can’t control, in spite of the short deadline, I intend to finish.

Now, getting said novel published is another matter altogether. It’s a very tough market to breach, and I hold no illusions about it. But at the end of my life, whether it has been published or not, I can at least say that I wrote a novel. I won’t have to say that I didn’t try.

One good thing has come of this. I’ve learned the value of a power nap at my desk. Who needs the lying-down-in-a-real-bed type of sleep, anyway? I can do that after the revisions and editing, say next October sometime.

For more information about NaNoWriMo, check out the Web site at http://www.nanowrimo.org/.

And now, back to work…

Love, children’s novels and NaNoWriMo,

Brenda

Autumn is in the Air!

I really love this time of year. The stifling summer heat and humidity are finally gone, replaced by much cooler and drier fall temperatures. It’s a lot more pleasant to be outdoors now, so I’ve been taking advantage of it whenever I can between work and errands and some rain. My husband and I have been working hard on getting our yard ready for winter, raking leaves, cutting back plants that need cutting back and just generally making things look nice.

Yesterday, I decided the outdoor landscape looked fall-ish enough to dress my front porch for the season. Usually, I do this about the third week in September, but it has been a warm fall and the leaves are just now turning color. Maybe it’s silly, but I don’t like to put my fall decorations out while it still feels like summer because I don’t like rushing the seasons. It reminds me of the retail stores putting the Christmas decorations out at the same time as the Halloween decorations, but that’s a rant for another day.

I snapped these photos while I was arranging the front porch. I have a few more things I’d like to add (including a life-size scarecrow that will sit on the love seat in the photo), so it remains a work in progress for the moment since it’s windy here today. I’ve already had to rescue a few things to keep them from blowing across the yard into the street, but I’ll put out them out again when the wind settles down.

A couple of blog entries ago, I mentioned that I had ordered the yarn to swatch a fall afghan. The yarn has arrived, and I’m busy stitching it up now. What fun!

Love and fall colors,
Brenda

Recycling Unsold Design Swatches

When I swatch a design, whether on request from an editor or for an independent submission, I like to let my imagination and the design process lead me where they will—that is, of course, unless the editor has specific instructions about what she expects from me. Can I work to an editor’s specific instructions or visualize exactly what I want to create and then reproduce it in yarn or thread? Absolutely. But, unleashing my imagination to create whatever it desires when the opportunity permits keeps designing fresh and new for me, even after nearly 27 years in the business.

As most any designer will tell you, the design process is often one of trial and error. Sometimes, I come up with a design element that I like but feel isn’t quite right for my current project. Instead of discarding these swatches, I collect them in a small plastic tote I keep next to my desk. Eventually, I go back through them to see what I can use in another design.

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may know, I’ve been on a cleanup, de-clutter campaign in my office over the past week or so. Yesterday just happened to be the day that I decided to go through the aforementioned tote and decide what to do with the contents. While I knew there were quite a few swatches that I would be able to use, even I was surprised to find that I can easily put together at least 12 designs from the cast-offs with the possibility of a half dozen more. Here is an obscure preview (right) of a few of the swatches I am planning to turn into new designs. Sorry I can’t show you more detail. In fact, the parts I’m showing you are actually parts that will change, but that’s how the design business goes. None of my editors would thank me for making public work that I submit to them!

Although I design in most areas of crochet, floral afghans have long been my signature. So, it’s not surprising that most of the cast-off motifs have a floral theme. Because there is this one unifying factor throughout, I have more options regarding what I can do with them. I can easily translate them into a couple of afghan books if I wish. I can also submit them individually to different publications. Or, I can discard the afghan idea completely and make them into something entirely different. I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do with them yet, but drawing on this resource of otherwise unused design work pays, both in terms of potential earnings and time that I haven’t actually wasted when I created them in the first place. So remember, hang on to those little doodlings you do with your crochet hook and your fiber of choice. They are almost as good as money in the bank if you happen to be interested in a design career.

Love and recycled designs,

Brenda

The Best Laid Plans…

I had high hopes for spending some of my time this summer updating and promoting my blog but, with all the travel, the time passed in such a whirlwind that some days I almost wondered which state I was in. Things are finally settling down, though. My travel plans are at an end for the year so I have time once again to concentrate on getting creative. While there were “only” 4 trips, it amounted to a whopping 3700 miles by car with lots of things to do in between. While the summer months didn’t leave much time for me to design, you can bet that I was putting together ideas in my design notebook, many of which I’m busy swatching now.

Even though I didn’t have a LOT of time to design, I did manage a couple of projects for one of my editors which I’ll tell you more about as soon as I know they have been released. In addition, Carol Alexander, editor of Crochet! magazine, used one of my dishcloth designs, Dishcloth Duo, in the At Home section of the November 2009 issue. In case you’re wondering, it’s a single design but worked in two different color ways with Coats® Crème de la Crème cotton yarn.  Even though it’s my own design, I have to admit it is my favorite dishcloth pattern. The reason is that I really like the convenience of working with medium weight cotton yarn, but I don’t like the bulk that many dishcloth patterns have. So, the simple (sc, ch-1) pattern is my answer to reducing the bulk without leaving the gaping holes which can occur with double- and treble crochet stitches. You can check out this issue at the Crochet! magazine Web site, but hurry before the next issue is published and replaces it on the Web site. To view the Crème de la Crème selection at the Coats and Clark Web site, click here.

Since summer has faded into fall, it’s getting chilly here in the Midwest now, especially at night. I had to give in and turn the furnace on last week, and it’s cool enough that a trip outdoors any time of day requires a jacket. Now I wish I’d made myself a pair of those cute fingerless mitts that are so popular, but you can be sure they are at the top of the list of things I plan to make just for me. I love the changes of seasons, and fall is an especially great time to bring out the heavier yarns and stitch up something warm and wonderful!

Speaking of the changing seasons, the leaves turning color on the oak tree outside the picture window in my office has inspired me to swatch an afghan in all the rich autumn colors. I’ve just ordered the yarn and can hardly wait to get started on it. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my mind on my work, though, as the view through this same picture window also provides a great deal of entertainment. With oak, walnut, pecan and evergreens in my back yard, it’s a true haven for all the neighborhood squirrels. They are especially active right now and have been putting on daily shows for me as they chase each other up, down and around the tree trunk and across the canopy of the trees in my back yard. 

And now, it’s time to get back to work!

Love and yarn,
Brenda

Follow Me on Twitter!

If you haven’t already discovered it, Twitter is a great way to keep up with what is going on in the lives of friends, family, business associates, celebrities and other people you want to keep track of. You can access it from your computer or your mobile phone (if you have the capability). I find myself updating my Tweets much oftener than I do my crochet list, simply because it’s easier, and I can do it on the fly. For those reasons, I’ve removed the link to my crochet list in the sidebar and inserted a Twidget (Twitter widget) instead. It's the best option for staying in tune with what is going on in my crochet world.

Happy Tweeting!

Catching Up

As I sit here writing, I can’t help asking myself how I could let so much time pass between blog postings. Has it really been almost four months? The calendar tells me it has but, in my mind, it seems little more than a blur of flurried activity.

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling again lately with sporadic access to the Internet from my laptop. Thank goodness for Internet service on my mobile phone or I’d be even further out of touch. I haven’t tried posting blog entries from my mobile phone yet, but I’ll definitely have to look into that since the traveling is going to continue for awhile. Maybe it’s time to invest in a mobile broadband card for my laptop? It’s something to think about, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.

One of the many things I love about my job is that my work is so portable. No matter where my travels take me, my laptop, crochet hooks and fiber fit neatly into the plan. I think the hardest part for me is trying to anticipate which fiber I’ll need while traveling, so it helps immensely if I have a particular project on the hook at the time. Otherwise, I tend to over-pack as I try to decide what I want to design while I’m away. While that doesn’t particularly bother me, I do try to keep my poor husband in mind as he tries to find a way to fit yet one more bag of yarn into our minivan!

But, I’m home again for a few weeks, so I’ll work on breathing some life back into the blog. I have a “new to me” yarn I’d like to tell you about, so I’ll try to get that up very soon. Stay tuned!

Three New Designs!

Have you had a chance to check out the May 2009 issue of Crochet! magazine yet? I contributed three designs to this issue including the two Flower Pocket Handkerchiefs on page 18 and a Jewelry Pillow on page 62, all commissioned by the editor, Carol Alexander.

Since I have been busy with other things over the past few months, these are the last designs that will appear in print for a little while, but there will be more soon. If you don’t have the magazine and would like a sneak peek at it, browse the Crochet! Web site. You can see photos of my designs here on the table of contents page.

Voice Recognition Software in Windows Vista

As someone who spends a lot of time writing, I’m always looking for new ways to do it more efficiently to speed up my work. To my surprise and delight, I recently discovered that Vista comes packaged with speech recognition capabilities, and I’ve begun working with it to see what it can do for me.

In fact, this entire blog entry was dictated to the computer (as opposed to typing it). I can see that I'll need to work with it in order to teach it how I want it to work. And, it may be a bit of a stretch at the moment to make it work with my crochet designs due to the nature of the many abbreviations in the crochet language. But, I have high hopes for it, and it is already helping me in my general writing. At the very least, it will speed up my blog writing!

If you’re interested in trying this out, I suggest starting with a quality headset microphone that has a USB connector for best results. (I bought mine from Best Buy for about $29.95.) To the best of my knowledge, speech to text only works with Windows Vista unless you have installed stand alone voice recognition software.

Here is a page from the Microsoft Web site that explains this far better than I could and will help you through the setup.

The speech recognition software is not limited to writing. You can use it to open and close programs, switch between windows and a multitude of other tasks. If you have a chance, give it a try. At the very least, it’s fun to work with. At most, it has the potential to make your work easier.

Now, I just have to explain to my family why I’m sitting here talking to my computer…

Discovering the World of Netbooks

What’s a netbook, you ask? It’s the new mini notebook that is taking the computer industry by storm. What does this have to do with crochet? A lot, actually.

Like many of you, I spend a great deal of my day working at my computer. I also travel quite a bit, which makes computing on-the-go an absolute necessity. I already have a laptop, but I wanted something that was even smaller and easier to travel with—something that I could tuck into my purse or crochet bag for easy note-taking, pattern writing or editing. I was certain that it would make my life easier, but since I count computers among my hobbies, I thought they also looked like fun. I was right on both counts.

I did some research, discovered what I did (and did not) want in one of these little computers, then persuaded my husband to take me computer shopping. Within just a few minutes of entering the computer store, I found what I was looking for and bought it on the spot.

As with anything else you buy, there are pros and cons to the different brands, and it’s not my intent to recommend one over the other. But, the Asus EEE PC 1000H had everything I wanted and needed at a price that I found affordable at less than $400.00 (that is if you don’t count the extras I bought that I didn’t necessarily need). So while I’m sure that there are plenty of other great buys out there, this one was right for me.

Because the keyboard on a netbook is smaller than on a standard desktop or laptop, I was a little worried that I would find it hard to get used to but that wasn’t the case. After stumbling through a few lines of text, my fingers soon figured out the smaller key spacing, and it has been smooth typing ever since.

With the smaller amount of memory a netbook has, I was also concerned whether it would be powerful enough to handle my Microsoft Office 2007 Professional suite, but I needn’t have worried. I installed it shortly after bringing the computer home and haven’t noticed any system slowdown.

One word of caution, though. Some of the netbooks are distributed with Microsoft Windows XP, while others are distributed with Ubuntu, a Linux operating system. I have no experience with Ubuntu, but I’m told that it can make installing new programs difficult if you aren’t familiar with Linux.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, I am totally thrilled with this little computer. It does everything that I need for it to do and is much lighter and easier to carry around. If purchasing one of these minis is an option for you, I definitely recommend them!

Lattice Rose Set & Midnight Roses Tea Cozy

Several of my designs were recently published in Crochet! magazine. Midnight Roses Tea Cozy appeared in the January 2009 issue, followed by the Lattice Rose doily and rug in the March 2009 issue. All of these projects feature rose embellishments.

If you’re at all familiar with my work, you may already know that I design a lot of floral projects. My fascination with flowers dates back to when I was a little girl. My father was an avid gardener, and he particularly liked growing roses. He grew many other flowers as well, but the roses were always my favorite. Admittedly, I don’t have his green thumb, but the beautiful flowers that graced our yard have been my inspiration for designing floral projects for many years.

Lauren at crochetstitches.blogspot.com made the Lattice Rose rug as a birthday present and posted the photo on her site. If you would like to see it, check out her site.

Weaving In Ends, Color Changes, Etc.

One of my least favorite jobs in completing a crochet project is weaving in the yarn ends. When I first learned to crochet, I saved them all to do at the end of the project, but I soon learned what a chore it was to face them all at one time. So, practically from the beginning, I’ve worked them in as I go.

There are different methods for accomplishing this, but I was intrigued by some of the tips in the following video I found at YouTube. It addresses several issues, including hiding the yarn tail at the beginning of your work, closing the gap that a beginning chain-3 at the beginning of a row or round can produce, color changes and working in the back ridge of a chain. Enjoy!

Lead-testing Legislation Postponed 1 Year

The lead-testing legislation by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has been postponed for one year, until February 10, 2010, in order to work out the details. You can read about it here.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

If you have not been following this legislation, I urge you to familiarize yourself with it since it will impact crafters and small, home-based businesses nationwide.

Bits & Pieces of Yarn

If you’re like most of us, you probably have odd skeins and bits and pieces of leftover yarns to deal with after completing a crochet project. It’s not too hard to find a project to use up the leftover whole or even half skeins, but what do you do with the smaller bits and pieces? Personally, I can’t bear to throw them away, so here are some of the projects I use them for.

....Crochet motifs for gift blankets or other items.
....Tie the ends together to make into magic balls.
....Donate to schools, senior citizen centers, etc.
....Make hats and scarves for charity.

(Note: I do not advocate placing the bits and pieces outdoors for the birds to use in building their nests. While the idea is well-meaning, I feel that the potential harm it poses for the birds is not worth the risk.)

What is a magic ball, you ask? It’s a ball of yarn made up of short lengths of leftover yarns. Simply tie the ends securely together, leaving a tail several inches long. (The tails are not woven into whatever project you choose to make with it.)

Some suggestions for magic ball projects are:

....Pet mats or coats
....Fun and funky afghans, lap robes or coverlets
....Mud rugs
....Coasters
....Mug and soda can cozies

If the pieces of yarn are very short, consider saving them for use in stuffing pillows, toys or other items that require stuffing.

I’m sure you can think of a wide variety of projects I haven’t named here!

In With The New...

With the holiday season over for yet another year, it’s time for me to get back to work! As I mentioned previously, I’ve taken quite a bit of time off this fall and early winter, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been idle. I’ve lots of plans for new designs and directions to take my work in 2009. But, more about that at a later date!

I’ve learned that making New Years’ resolutions doesn’t work for me. Instead, I set goals, which I allow to change as time and life dictates. It puts a little less pressure on me, yet gives me something to work towards. Last year, I met two of the three goals I set. Considering that I had a change of heart and circumstances dictated that it wasn’t time for the third one to be fulfilled yet, I’m fine with that.

For 2009, my goals are:
1. Spend more time relaxing with family.
2. Put my Web site to better use.
3. Produce even more and better designs.

We’ll check back in another year to see how well I did.
Happy New Year 2009!