This past month has largely been spent in taking Double or Nothing‘s technique photos. I’ve set up part of the guest room as a photo studio, and I’ve taken hundreds of photos which I’m now flipping through and selecting for processing. I’m planning on compiling each pattern with its techniques, photos and charts to send to my tech editor before the end of the month. While she’s poring over them, I’ll begin the layout and determine what I’m still missing.
Since I don’t have much to show, I thought you might find it interesting to see my studio setup. Aside from the budget photofloods on either side, the camera rig is kind of unique. Anyone who’s taken a live class with me in the last couple of years will probably recognize the tripod — but instead of a webcam, I’ve got an iPad Mini in an iOgrapher case (which primarily gives me a tripod mount). So I’ve got lights and a camera — but the really fun part is how I trigger the iPad’s camera. I’ve got my hands under the iPad; I can see the framing and focus, but I can’t free a hand to take a picture, nor would I want to tap the screen since it’ll jostle and blur the photo. In the absence of a psychic link, I figured voice control would be ideal. Some years ago, someone wrote an app called “Snap!It”, specifically for knitters with this problem, but it’s kind of buggy and I got tired of yelling “snap!” at my iPad over and over until a photo was taken. Instead, I recently found the WhistleCam app, which allows you to whistle for a photo. If you can whistle (which I can), it’s a super-responsive option that is far less buggy than the alternative. Getting the photos out of the iPad was more of a challenge since they don’t automatically go to the camera roll, but that’s a less interesting story.
As of right now, I’ve got 336 people on my preorder mailing list, or an average of 30 per post since I started my promo push! Thanks, everyone! If all of these people buys one physical book when the preorder site goes live, I’ll be funded for the bare minimum needed to do a print run. Of course, I’m hoping that over the next 5 weeks that number will grow. However, I’m not yet at the point where I can begin considering sweetening the deal for the members of that list, so please do join the list if you’re interested and share this around if you know anyone else who might be.
In non-book news, I have my first couple of confirmed gigs for 2017! I will be at Stitches West again in Santa Clara Feb 23-26, and I’ll be appearing at Yarnover in Minneapolis on April 22! This year I’ve got one more workshop weekend at Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC, September 25th. There’s still room if you’re in the area and want to learn basic or two-pattern double-knitting!
Also, I had an interview with Marly Bird on her Yarn Thing podcast and I think it went really well. If you missed the live broadcast, check out the recording!
If you’re just tuning in, go back to Month 5 where I explained what I’m doing with my promo push, and then check out the pattern previews I’ve been posting once a week since then. Also, stay tuned because I’ve got 5 more previews to go and they just get better from here. Thanks for visiting!