Our Beloved Dog, Raven (1998-2008)

This month has been a busy one, full of looming deadlines and caring for our beloved dog, Raven, who has been ill for the past two weeks. Here is a photo of her laying beside me in my office a few years ago.

I’m halfway through the deadlines, for which I’m grateful. But I’m also happy to have work to keep me busy just now, to help keep my mind off Raven who, sadly, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today.

We will miss her dreadfully. She was with us for ten years which doesn’t seem nearly long enough. (Is it ever?) She brought us untold joy and lavish amounts of love. We’re thankful to have had her in our lives all these years.

Web Site is Back Up!

To my complete wonder and utter amazement, I successfully migrated my Web site a few minutes ago. It is now safely housed at its new host site. Yes, it really is slightly after 5:00 am and no, I haven't been to bed yet...but I'm on my way!

Yippee! I can now upload the site easily and can update it when needed. The "Happy Spring" greeting that was on the old site was starting to grate on my nerves, but then I haven't been able to get FTP access to the old site since sometime in late May. Can you tell I was dreading the move? Otherwise, I'd have moved it much sooner.

The site is a little messy because I decided to throw together a completely new one at the last minute, which was probably the last thing I should have done on short notice. But, it (mostly) works, and that's the main thing. The free patterns page is still under construction but I have all the files and will be working on that later today!

My Web Site is Down

My former Web host is working more quickly than I had anticipated. My Web site is now offline temporarily. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back up!

Web Site Changes

All good things must come to an end (or so I’m told). I’ve had a lot of trouble uploading new content to my Web site at www.BrendaStratton.com over the last year since I changed Internet Service Providers. Now, things have deteriorated to the point that I’m going to move the site to a new host. I hope to accomplish this over the next week or so.

Since I’ve never moved an existing site before, I’m not quite sure what difficulties I may encounter. So, if you stop by my site in the near future and notice that things are wonky, bear with me and try back later. The address will remain the same, so you will still be able to find my site in the same place you always have once I get any bugs worked out.

After the domain transfer, my free patterns will return. I have several of the older ones ready to upload. The trick is getting the site moved to a host that will actually let me upload them.

Thanks for your patience!

A New Design Has Just Been Published

I’m happy to announce that my first project since returning to crochet design earlier this year has just been published. You’ll find it in the Coats & Clark booklet, Crochet Made Easy. The design I produced for this booklet is First Baby Blanket on pages 30-31. It is also shown on the back cover. It is a very simple design but that was the whole point since the book is focused on teaching people how to crochet.

This is only the first of several designs that I have placed over the past few months. Since some are still in the publication process and others are still on my hook, I’ll announce each as they become available.

Rejection Slips: We All Get Them!

Rejection slips are a fact of any writer's life and, whether you've realized it yet or not, writing crochet instructions is a form of technical writing.

Don't let rejection slips get you down. Also, don't let them discourage you from submitting again or define how you feel about yourself as a designer. Instead, use them as a tool to help you improve your work. When a project is returned to you with a rejection slip, take a critical look at it and do your best to evaluate it through the editor's eyes. If you see room for improvement, make corrections and resubmit the project to another editor. If I you feel that if is fine as is, send it on to another editor without changes.

Ideally, you will get a feel for what your editors want from you and, you’ll get better at taking that critical look at your designs before you send them out for the first submission. As you get better at working with the editors and they learn what they can expect from you, you will place your designs with more regularity.

As a former crochet editor of several nationally distributed crochet magazines, I can assure you that editors reject projects for many reasons that have nothing at all to do with the merits of your project. Why? There are several reasons. Editors usually work with themes. If you do your homework to find out what the editor's needs are for a book or an issue of a magazine, you've got a better chance of having your work accepted. There are also times when an editor may have already purchased a design that is similar to the one you just submitted so they have no need for another design of the same type. And sometimes, no matter how much an editor likes a project and wants to purchase it, there just isn’t room to get it into the publication.

To improve your chances for placement:

1. Consult the editorial calendar for a publication, and submit what the editor asks for. Follow the submission process exactly. If there is something about the process you do not understand, ask.

2. Be considerate of the people you are submitting to. Make sure your designs are neat, clean and free of contaminants (pet hair, cigarette smoke, etc.) Keep in mind that some of the people who will handle your work may be allergic to some or all of these things. (I know someone who is, and she suffers a great deal when people ignore this simple request.)

3. ALWAYS include a check for return postage when mailing a submission. If you don’t, your submission may not be returned to you.

Want to Help Launch a New Craft Forum?

Some friends have launched a new craft forum at Funcraftics. They asked me to moderate some of the forums, including crochet and knit, and of course I said yes! So come on over and check it out, and help us get some discussions going. We look forward to seeing you there!