Testing Forum

EDIT: It is now 5 PM central. We are almost there :) Keep checking back! I am expecting 1-3 more hours. I will keep you posted!

Edit: It is now 11:30 AM, and this will be a bit longer :) I will keep you updated if it will be back up this afternoon :) Keep checking back!

The testing Forum is going through a major upgrade. The site will look very different. This was very much needed, as the old version is now done away, and it being replaced (not just upgraded) with an entirely new file system.

For the time being, the points under your name will not show. This is because that was a program for the old type of forum. More on this once the forum is back up. Do not worry, all points have been recorded so nothing will be lost :)

It will take a little bit of time to get the forum back in order (new colors, ranks, mods etc).

I hope to have the forum back up in a couple of hours, but it may be a little bit later, as I have a conference at my daughter’s school at Noon.. so it may be this afternoon. I will keep you all updated here :)

A Big Book? What do you think?

I had a customer write me the other day… Here is what she wrote:

My husband bought me the rugged mountain pattern collection a few years ago
and I absolutely LOVE them! I would love for you to publish a book with only
your patterns in it! I am a huge fan of your work! Keep it up Lisa! You
rock!

I actually have been contemplating this for a while. Although I have a couple of smaller books out: Lisa’s New & Easy Cable Afghans & Throws, and Hats, Scarves & Mittens For The Family, a big hardcover book is very enticing.

Lisa's New & Easy Cable Afghans & Throws

4 cable designs utilizing a new cable technique

Hats, Scarves & Mittens For The Family

Hats, Scarves & Mittens For The Family

P.S. These books are now available for purchase through the Crochet Garden, along with a few others!

What kind of book would you like to see? I actually have started on some swatches and sketches for a possible book.. and have a couple of themes in mind.

Book with just baby patterns? A book with baby and tot patterns? A book with a mix of things? Maybe, “best of the Crochet Garden?” What do you want to see in a book? What books do you have that you love? Out of the books you like, what is it about them that you like?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

On another note… Garden Lullaby

Sizes Newborn - 12 mos

Sizes Newborn - 12 mos

has now been released! It comes in sizes Newborn to 12 mos.. I think it is a darling little dress… When I see this dress, I think of a little one, “helping” mom out on the laundry line.. It has been such a while since I did a thread dress. What next, maybe a Christening dress?

Oh, I wish there was more time in the day. I am now up to 3 binders full of designs and sketches. Each time I think of a new idea, out the binders come, and in goes another piece of paper… I am so worried about not remembering a design later- with how scatterbrained I am.

It is nice though, having them. Sometimes, I have editors come to me needing a design in a specific yarn. Sometimes I think of an idea right there on the spot. Other times, I just pull out my binder, photograph a few pages, then email them to the editor. I like having numerous ideas at my fingertips.. and so far, editors like it, or well, at least I think they do!

So.. about this big, book idea. I am feeling confident enough that I could pull off designing an incredible book. I do have things in motion. I am not yet ready though to propose the idea, as I feel I need to greatly cultivate it. So, please, lend me your thoughts! The biggest thing though, and not that it is an absolute when writing a book, but something that gave me even more of a drive to work on this book idea:

A while ago (not that long ago), I started to tech-edit some crochet patterns. Now, one does not need to be a tech editor to write a successful book proposal. I just feel that it adds to my skills. When I was asked to do tech editing, I was quite shocked. However, a multitude of reasons contributed… I was told I am highly detail oriented.. Which, I will have to agree, but only on a certain level. See, my desk, is a disaster :) I lose things all the time. I have notes here and there, hooks falling down.. towers of binders and papers trying to reach a new definition of “balancing act,” along with paperclips and safety pins.. Now, give me one piece of paper and ask me to solve a complex math problem, no problem! Give me a photo to edit and my eye zones in on each and every detail. Ask me to read a book, and I will remember in Chapter 1 what color shirt the protagonist was wearing (that is, if the author mentioned this).

I have concluded, my scattered-brainedness had to with the physical location of objects! And I am thinking, it is due to my over-detailed part of the brain.. so this other part of brain is squeezed out. Yes.. that is it. (Or maybe my rational of why I am always late because I can never find the keys?!

Well, more on the tech editing another time, maybe tomorrow. It was a very new experience for me, one I feel deserves a post all its own.. and well, gives me something new to write about so I do not neglect my poor blog!