Tag Archive | handmade

Getting Over Rejection

Let’s play Bad News/Good News. Which do you want first? Bad? Okay: I’ve now gotten four rejections on my memoir queries. They’ve all been very kind and gentle, but they’re still No. The first was fine, the second was disappointing for a moment, the third was a deep breath, and the fourth kicked my butt for some reason. I really was expecting this, but apparently that doesn’t make it easier. Those rejections, combined with the knowledge that memoirs are hard to sell and have to be extremely unusual and compelling, had me thinking I should scrap the current manuscript and rewrite it as fiction.

But, good news: after several days of extreme self-doubt, I feel ready to get back to work. I have more agents to query; I might as well get through the list before giving up. I had a very kind friend who offered to read my query letter and synopsis, so I’ve got some strong feedback to help me as I revise. My family is heading out for the day so I’ll have some quiet time to really focus…if I can resist the call of my knitting.

I finished the newest hat yesterday; it was a super quick one. The pattern is called Sneaky Snakes and the easy 4-row lace pattern made a nifty squiggly pattern. There are only three decrease rounds so you definitely want to make sure you’ve got a long enough body. I like how mine ended up.With that done, I made some more progress on my Color Block Wrap. I’ve got the first block done, but I only made it to 65 stitches instead of 69. It’s fine, though. It’s delicious to knit and I’m looking forward to moving on to the second color tonight. It will be my reward for revising my query letter!

Two Hats Done, One Begun

Mar24

As expected, the kids’ spring break has interrupted my knitting/writing/blogging processes, but at least there is a little bit of knitting going on. And today our calendar is empty so both children are still asleep at 9 a.m. and I am stealing the time to catch up with all of you. Of the four projects I started last weekend, two are now complete! First up is the Hot Pink Waffles. The pattern was written for DK, so I lowered the number of stitches to cast on with this worsted weight, but not enough. It’s a little looser than I would like, but it will do. It fits well enough on my noggin.The girl and I went to watch Room with my mom yesterday, and I got this hat up to the decreases while watching. It was a good movie, grim but moving, definitely wonderful performances. I still liked the book better.

I also finished the bulky ivory hat, and there’s more of a story to that one. There’s a book out called Weekend by Jen Geigley with fabulous bulky-weight patterns. I love them all. She had a sale on it recently so I splurged and bought the book, and decided the hat Sliver would be my first project. But I didn’t really like the dropped stitch “run” so I just omitted it. I had some super bulky yarn and the right size needles, and no, I didn’t test for gauge because it’s a HAT and it will fit someone and I almost always knit to gauge anyway.

Not this time. I cast for the size medium and knit away, and it looked small but I ignored it. When I picked it up yesterday to finish it, I decided to face the truth and put it on my head. It was definitely NOT a size adult medium. It was easily a child-size hat, but long. I thought about frogging and starting over with the XL, but realized I didn’t have enough yarn. So I frogged back about an inch of the body and finished off a cute little kid hat, and added a pompom because pompoms are adorable and I had exactly enough yarn left. Maybe I knit more tightly than Jen, maybe my “super bulky” yarn wasn’t as bulky as hers, I don’t know. But I still love the hat, and I still want to make an adult version at some point. But for now, I’m going through the book to decide which pattern I want to try next! Until I decide, I cast on for another lacy cotton slouch hat, this time in a peachy pink. Yesterday was National Puppy Day but I didn’t have the time to blog, so Grace and Jack will send you belated happy puppy wishes!

Four New WIPs

Mar21

I kind of went crazy this weekend and started some new projects. Not just one, a few. The first is my fourth Hitchhiker. This one is for a former co-worker and a good friend, someone who was kind enough to read my manuscript and give me some feedback. She picked the yarn and I’m providing the manual labor. Fortunately, she has very good taste. The yarn is Araucania Huasco, a lovely crispy Merino. It’ll be my first fingering weight Hitchhiker but it’s going quickly enough. Still, I got a bit tired of the skinny yarn and tiny needles and needed a bulky fix. So I started this. Simple beanie in super-bulky wool on size 15s. This was so super fast to knit…but the sad part is that I got to the decreases and realized I have no size 15 DPNs and couldn’t finish. Joann doesn’t carry them in the store, but thankfully we’re testing Amazon Prime so I’ve got a set ordered that should arrive tomorrow. But just that hat wasn’t a long enough break from the Hitchhiker, so I *finally* cast on for my Color Block Bias Wrap in Chateau. Um, this yarn is AMAZING. It’s a bulky blend of 70% alpaca, 30% bamboo, and it’s a chainette yarn so it’s incredibly light and fluffy. I don’t even care that it’s spring and I’m knitting with alpaca. I might in a couple of weeks, but for now, this will be fantastic evening knitting.

Finally, this morning the girl had an early morning orthodontist appointment to have her braces removed (hooray!). Early, like 7:30. On spring break. Ugh. Anyway, I had a bag ready to go, and in my bag I had yarn and needles to start a new hat. I’m thinking it will be for me but I always think that and I never keep it. Still, I’ll pretend. I’m doing another Violet Waffles hat and using HiKoo Simpliworsted, a bouncy squishy merino/acrylic/nylon blend. It’s one of my favorite yarns, and I think it will make a great lightweight hat. But seriously, hot pink is a really hard color to photograph.

I managed to almost double my WIPs in two days, but I’m okay with it. I now have a nice mix of projects to meet almost any need. I’m not sure how much knitting I’ll get done this week, having both kids home all week for spring break, but it will surely be more than the writing/revising I’ll get done (which will be none, I’m guessing). And maybe that’s just as well. I’m up to three rejections, and each one stings a little more. So it might be best for me to take a break and not think about it for a while. Today, I’ll do that by taking the girl on a belated birthday-shopping trip. Maybe I’ll take the hat knitting with me!

Purple Moonstone Wrap

Mar19

I finished my wrap last night, just in time for a short blast of cold weather before spring hits for good. I thought I’d woven in all the ends but in taking photos this morning I saw two I missed. And it needs to be blocked: the point keeps curling up. Plus, I didn’t have enough yarn to do the i-cord edging, so I can either leave it off or add it in a contrasting color (maybe the odd color lot from this yarn?). I haven’t decided yet. Will it keep the edge from curling? What if I block it and then decide I want to add the i-cord, will that be ok?I love how big it turned out! I wanted it to be more like a wrap than a scarf, and that’s what I got. I cast on 175 stitches, using two strands of worsted held together and size 15 needles. Another nice thing: I found those interlocking foam mats at Aldi yesterday, a set of 4 for $10, and of course snagged a set. The ones I have were “borrowed” from my husband’s basement workout space, so they’re not exactly in the best of shape. This way I can return his and use pretty new ones!

Now I’m back to three WIPs. One is the Because I Love You Wrap, which I haven’t re-started after frogging. Not sure why I stalled on that one. I also have another Hitchhiker waiting to made as a thank-you for one of my early readers. She picked out really pretty rainbow yarn for it too. Maybe that will be my weekend knitting!

I’ve been reading a lot more lately too, and am in the middle of Stephen King’s On Writing. Fabulous book, that is. Don’t know how I missed it all this time. I’ll definitely need to get my own copy of that one.

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

FO: Striped Baby Hat

Mar18

Yesterday was another day where I needed a little travel project, so I grabbed the two colors of Malabrigo Rios I had left over from the Duality hats. I weighed it, compared it to the ones I’d made, and decided I just had enough left for a baby hat. I cast on 72 and knit away, and this morning I finished it off. I wasn’t sure about the skinny stripes, but my daughter said it was really pretty, so I stuck with it. I do really like how the stripes turned out at the crown. I had to improvise the decreases a couple of times, but it worked out just fine. I think it’s a fun, funky hat for a hip little kid!

Memoir or Novel?

Mar15

It’s voting day here in Missouri and you can bet I’ll be out there doing my part! I hope all my fellow voters today do the same. Now, maybe I should have a more patriotic project to show off today, but all I’ve got is the completed green hat. Good enough for March, I think. Pattern is Duality, yarn is Malabrigo Rios in Lettuce. I’ve got enough leftover of it and the teal that I really want to make a striped version now.

Confession time: I didn’t get my two queries done yesterday. Somehow I got stuck in a self-defeating mood, convinced that I’m wasting my time trying to sell this memoir that no one will want to read. And I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve written other stuff too. I’ve got two completed novels in my files. So I thought about how I never did anything with those, and how the one I’m currently revising is surely trite and common. Then I thought about how I’m still struggling to build my Etsy business, and my proofreading client base, and suddenly it hit me that I’m trying all these things and none of them are working out the way I want them to. And bam, before you know it, my head is in a not-so-good place.

Therefore, I spent much of the day outside with the puppies instead. It was a beautiful day, so I don’t consider it time wasted. I’ll consider it a mental health day.

I soaked up sunshine and puppy loving and the smell of spring flowers. I wrote in my journal, and I knit on my hat.

And today is a better day. Nope, I’m not giving up yet! I may still be unconvinced about my memoir but I’m going to work on revising my synopsis and query letter and then contact more agents. But I’m also pondering the idea of fictionalizing it, if this doesn’t work out. There are a few benefits to that route: I get more flexibility and freedom in storytelling, there’s no legal/liability issue from using the real company’s name, fiction is simpler to query (no lengthy, complex proposals), more agents rep fiction than memoir, and fiction is more marketable. But my concern is whether I would lose the heart of the story by making it fiction. Maybe part of its appeal is that it’s honest and true, and if it were a novel, it wouldn’t be as relatable.

What do you think, readers out there? Do you like non-celebrity memoirs? Do you seek them out? What draws you to them?

Here’s Grace’s opinion. Make of it what you will.

Don’t forget to vote, whenever it’s your turn! Every single vote counts!

Boring Wrap, Green Hat

Mar14

My Manos Maxima wrap is going swimmingly. I made lots of progress yesterday while I watched a movie on a wet, gray day.But then…I kind of got bored with it. It is a really simple pattern, after all, mostly just stockinette. (This is why I think I will never be able to make a sweater.) So I had to set it aside and do something more interesting for a while, like cast on for a new Duality hat in a pretty green Malabrigo Rios. This is what I got done during our viewing of Apollo 13, and there were several spots I had to stop knitting and just watch. It’s just such a good movie, you know? Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise are so good, and Ed Harris is a bit attractive, and it’s all suspenseful and funny and stuff. So yeah, it was a good Sunday. Jack agrees; he appreciated being able to rest after all the excitement of the birthday party. This morning I was resting on my couch with a cup of tea, appreciating the view of the magnolia tree in my front yard. We had one at the house where I grew up, so this is a lovely reminder, plus it’s just a gorgeous tree. I can see it from the window of my craft room too, where I sit at my desk. Just another reason why I love this house. Maybe it will inspire me today as I get back to work on query letters. I got my first rejection yesterday, a very kind form rejection, and it’s fine. I’m expecting plenty of those. I’ve got lots more agents to query, and I still haven’t searched through the new Manuscript Wishlist website yet. I think my goal will be to send out two more queries today; that seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

I hope your Monday is productive as well!

Yarn Store Trickery

Mar13

Funny story: so you know I went to my LYS recently, twice in two days actually. The first time, I noticed a gorgeous gradient wrap. They had two samples knit up in different colors. The second time, I asked about it, wanting the pattern. The owner said oh yes, it’s a free pattern with the purchase of the yarn…four colors at $30 a skein! Um, wow. I said that was out of my price range for now and thanked her, and she said, “Sure, and you know it’s here later.” Sure, okay. I almost asked if she’d sell me just the pattern, but figured she would have offered if it was an option.

I’m glad I didn’t, too: I went home and out of curiosity did a search on Ravelry. I found the exact same pattern…AND IT’S FREE. It’s a FREE PATTERN. I’m a little irritated. I understand kits, I understand paid patterns, and I’ve even bought yarn to get the pattern and be able to replicate a shop’s sample. (In that instance, the pattern was written by one of the shop’s employee and isn’t even available on Ravelry.) But when it’s distributed for free on Ravelry, it irks me that they’d want me to shell out $120 for it. And for the record, I spent $30 the first day and $50 the second, so it’s not like she wasn’t getting any money out of me.

So if you’re interested, check out the Pradera Wrap by Jocelyn Tunney. It’s stunning, and she’s got so many other equally beautiful patterns on her page on Ravelry. I’ve made her Picholine Hat and Springtime Picholine Hat, and I’ve got several others in mind.

In related news, yes, I did get to do some knitting yesterday. Here’s the start of my Moonstone Wrap. I started with size 17 needles and it was too loose, so I frogged and cast on 175 stitches on size 15s. I love it already. Can’t wait until it’s done, and I don’t think it’ll take too long. The party went well, though I did keep Jack on the leash for the first hour or so until he adjusted to having so many strangers around. He did keep my baby nephew happy: the baby laughed every time Jack barked, which was a lot. Once I let him off the leash, he did really well. He and Grace both followed me around, settling in wherever I did. My mom noticed and asked if they loved anyone else as much as they love me. Don’t tell my kids, but I don’t think so. They’re both my babies, even if I do have a favorite!

Now, I’m off to knit my quiet Sunday away. I must take advantage of the time I have, since I lost an hour today!

It’s MSWL Day!

Mar10

I am in a bit of a knitting lull, friends. This week has kept me busy and distracted enough that there’s just not a lot of yarn stuff going on. I did have some yesterday during flute lesson, and I cast on for something new because I’m so bored with all my current WIPs. I’ve got a blanket, a wrap, a scarf I’m not sure I’m liking, and the Because I Love You Wrap which is waiting to be cast on yet again. None of those sound like fun car knitting, do they? No, they do not. Ergo, a hat. It’s another Lace Ribbon Slouch hat like this aqua one, only this time in white cotton. I also went down in needle size, to 5s and 7s, since the first hat was a bit large.

Today is errand-free, so you’d think I’d have lots of knitting time, but it’s also #MSWL day on Twitter! That stands for manuscript wish list, and it’s when agents/editors post what kind of projects they’re looking for. It’s a fantastic resource for writers like me, looking for an agent, so I’ll be keeping track of that throughout the day and working on my queries at the same time.

My biggest struggle with MSWL is that memoir is a really difficult genre to break into (unless you’re a celebrity) so there’s very few MSWL requests for it. Many agents seem resistant to memoirs, many only want authors with an established platform, and those that do take on memoirs are *extremely* selective. With good reason, I’m sure: memoir isn’t a hot seller the same way commercial fiction, YA, or thrillers are, so the writing/premise/hook etc all have to be top-notch.

But there are memoir readers out there like me, who like reading memoirs by ordinary people. I know there’s at least one, because this article from bookriot.com popped up in my Facebook feed the other day, and it was the absolute perfect boost I needed. It’s called What Makes You Pick Up a Memoir, and this last bit summed up my thoughts exactly:

“I think people read memoirs by “non-famous” people to get a glimpse into someone else’s life. Readers, by nature, are curious people. What better way to satisfy that curiosity than losing yourself in someone else’s story for 200 pages? We read memoir for connection, to feel less alone, to know that someone else out there has struggled with something similar and lived to tell the tale. We read it for entertainment (I never laugh out loud at books, but Tina Fey’s Bossypants changed that), we read it for hope.”

SEE? Isn’t that awesome? That’s me. That’s my audience, people like her. So this is my hope: that my story is interesting and written well enough to engage the right agent/editor so I can get my book into her hands!

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods so everything is sunny and bright and optimistic. The puppies are full of spring fever and spend most of the morning romping outside before coming in and passing out like this. As much as I like to watch them play, I do love them when they’re all sleepy and peaceful.

Frogging and Query Letters

Mar7

Ugh. I need to frog my Because I Love You Wrap and start over. Okay, no, I don’t really *need* to, but I want to and won’t be happy with it if I don’t. Here’s what I’ve got so far: I love how it’s knitting up, and I even watched a video about intarsia and figured out the yarn-twisting bit so there’s no hole where I picked up the teal for the stripe. Great, right? Right! But then I looked at the pattern again and realized that in the second half of the shawl, the stockinette sections are much bigger because of how the shawl grows. I would much rather have the variegated yarn in the big sections of stockinette than the solid teal. Maybe it’s a minor thing, maybe it won’t make a huge difference, but in my mind right now, I’m thinking it will. The only downside is that I’ll lose those two lengths of teal yarn (unless I just use them and have even more ends to weave in). But at least I figured it out before I got even further into the wrap!

Here’s some good news though: remember my Duality hat from yesterday? The designer noticed my project page on Ravelry and asked to feature it on the pattern page!! I love when that happens! You can see it here, and remember, today’s the last day to get the pattern for free!

And more good news (maybe): I sent my first query letters to agents yesterday!! I don’t know if I’ll ever think my memoir manuscript is “done” but it feels done. It feels ready, although of course as soon as I sent the letters I was consumed with doubt and self-loathing. I only did three; they take longer than you’d think. You have to determine each agent’s requirements, tailor your query letter for each agent, then copy and paste the requested materials (and in my case, reformat it when it goes all wonky in the email). I also had to write a brief synopsis, since one agent requested it along with the query letter. Each one is so different, it seems like. And there’s so much pressure to be PERFECT with that one short letter.

Ugh. It’s hard hard hard. But also so exciting. It feels wonderful to move on to this step, to believe in myself enough to send my book out for others to judge. And they will, and most of them will reject it. I recognize that, and it’s okay. I know there are thousands of books written every year and agents have to turn down perfectly good books just because it didn’t call their name. I only need one, one fabulous agent who believes she can sell this book to a publisher. Until I find her, I’ll keep sending out queries and waiting patiently.

And I’ll knit of course, to calm my nerves while I’m pretending to be patient.

Okay, fine, you’re right. Yes, I’ll play with the puppies too.