Well, I wrote out the first in the Designer’s Notebook posts this morning, only to have my blog client eat the entire contents. So if you received an email saying “we have a new post” and you’re wondering where it went… well, so am I. I guess that post’s superpower is invisibility….

Tune in later this week, after I re-create the post and get it up for you.

Shows in 2010 and 2011

Well, it’s official. Handknit Heroes will be at Stitches East again this October, and at Stitches West in Spring 2011. Just giving you a heads up, in case you’re going to be at either show.

Return to Me, My Pretties

One of the saddest parts of my day is opening my email and finding out that we’ve had a return. It pops into my inbox from my mail service with “RTS” as the “address info,” and my heart just goes “oh!” We currently have 7 unclaimed RTS’s for Issue 3 right now. Did your package go astray? If you haven’t received Issue 3 yet, please send a note to support (at) mortaine.com so we can help you out.

On Designing

Over the next 2 weeks, I’m going to share with you the process of designing a basic hat. Now, partly I’m doing this because for Issue 4, I want to publish a few hats (yes, not one but several!) But also, I know how daunting it was for me when I was new to knitting and trying to figure out what I needed to know and do in order to design something new.

So, in the next two weeks, I will be opening up my red notebook and sharing with you some of the process for designing a hat, accounting for gauge, different stitches, and designing for multiple sizes. Hopefully, you will find it useful and informational, and if nothing else, you’ll enjoy watching me try to fit a 5 sts/inch pattern to match 3 sts/inch one.

Shout Outs!

Knitting Knights is a cute new manga-style knitting comic book with kind of a space-alien (in a mangaesque way) theme.

I had a blog article posted last week in Lighting Little Fire’s Midsummer Days Dream blog festival, about traveling with small projects.

And the Crochet Liberation Front gave me a huge honor this week by bestowing the Let My Picot Go award! Thanks, guys! You’re the best!

PS: Sorry this went out with “Untitled 2″ as its creative title– I hit the “Publish” button a little too soon! Whoops!

Within days, our subscribers and pre-ordered shops will be seeing this:

in their mailboxes. Yes, Issue #3 went out into the mail today to all subscribers!

If you don’t receive yours within 2 weeks, please send a note to support at mortaine.com, so we can find out what happened, and take care of it for you.

Issue #3 is at the printers, being printed. I shot a little video so you all could see the kinds of problems we’ve had all throughout the production process. This isn’t the only setback we encountered, of course– it’s just the most recent. But it points up to an attitude we adopted back when we were running late by three months already, with little end in sight: quality over speed. We could have rushed and rushed and not fixed the script problems, or not worked on getting the pattern right, or not fixing the hand diagrams– we even could have said “oh, heck, these dialogue bubbles are only on two pages….”

But we didn’t. I mean, at some point, you have to look at the deadline as it fades into the distance and decide that if you can’t do it on time, at least you can do it right.

So we did. We did it right. It wasn’t fast, but it’s good. I think you’re going to like it.

 

 Issue 3 Sneak Peel: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’ve had another minor delay, this time until April 15th. We apologize to our subscribers, who have been waiting a long time for Issue 3! We hate to do it, but we will never send you a sub-standard issue, so we thought it was better to delay.

AND, to hold you over, here is the first page from Issue 3!

Issue #3 Progress

Issue #3 is 90% done, the pattern is 90% complete, so we’re winding up for shipping day! If your address has changed since Issue #2, drop us a line and let us know so we can make sure Issue 3 reaches you!

Future Issues in Progress

If you don’t know about Script Frenzy, it’s a month-long script-writing challenge to write 100 pages of script in 30 days. This year, I’ll be participating, writing the next 4 issues of Handknit Heroes.

As I write, I’ll be posting updates and excerpts to my Twitter account, and tagging them with the hashtags #screnzy and #hkh. So you can follow either of those tags, or subscribe to an RSS feed of the combined tags, which should get you any posts with both hash tags– most likely from me, or anyone else writing a Handknit Heroes script for Script Frenzy (if you’d like that to be you, drop me an email; I’d love to know about any fan fiction!)

You’ll notice that most of my tweets are either blog posts or flickr links (to knitted stuff)– I’m not a very obsessive twitterer, so aside from the updates in April, you won’t get inundated with a billion tweets if you decide to follow me there.

RSS Feed Fixed

Speaking of RSS feeds, I fixed a problem with the one on this very blog! I don’t know how long it’s been going on– probably as long as we’ve been live– but the RSS feed displayed in the sidebar was, well, simply wrong, and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. It’s fixed now, so if you’d like to add our updates to your reader, go ahead!

Our subscriber form is still a little wonky. If you’ve tried to subscribe or unsubscribe and couldn’t, go ahead and send us a contact email, and Elizabeth or I will manually take care of it.

It’s been awhile since our last update, but we have exciting news to share with you! A date for shipping the new issue, a HKH appearance by Stephanie, and a new team member. Things are rolling along well again. We appreciate the patience you’ve had with us during this delay.

So, first the news we have been receiving lots of inquiries about: Issue 3! We are very happy to report that Issue 3 is coming together and will be shipped to you on March 30th. Marc and Stephanie have been very busy, and we can’t wait to see what you think of this issue. Maybe I’ll release some more content hints as we get closer to release date. Maybe.

Also, for those of you in the Pacific northwest, we hope you’re coming to the Madrona Fiber Festival! Stephanie will be there all weekend, and she’s going to be demonstrating mask-knitting. How awesome is that? Look for her in the rotunda, and be sure to stop and say hello. It looks like the festival has an awesome line-up of vendors and instructors. If you’re in the area, be sure to check it out!

And the last bit of news would be…me. I’m the newest member of the Handknit Heroes team, and you’ll probably get to talk to me if you e-mail HKH about something as my role is mostly customer service. I’m happy to help with subscriptions and other questions, so don’t be shy! You can find me on Ravelry as emwall24 as well (that’s my personal account – please continue to direct HKH questions to the support e-mail!). I’m so excited about where this magazine is going, and I have enjoyed getting to “talk” with some of you. We have awesome subscribers!

Stitches East is this weekend in Hartford, Connecticut! Handknit Heroes will be there, sharing a booth with Knit Princess. Stephanie will be selling and signing comic books, so if you’re in the area, come by and say hi! If you’re local, bring your comics to sign; I’m always happy to do so!

The new subscriber discount in our online store has been extended to December 1st.

England was marvelous and lovely and… full of germs. I came home and promptly spent the next week laying in various hotel rooms hoping to recover from the stomach flu. It was so bad, I missed Rhinebeck. How sad is that? I even drove past it, because I was on my way to New Haven, Connecticut, but I had to just wave at everyone in their nice knitted sweaters and keep going. I felt terrible, and not just because I was sick.

I also left two of my handknitted socks (from different pairs) in England, but fortunately a friend of mine found them and will send them along, so they’re not lost forever. But if you knit socks, you know the trauma of working 8+ hours a day in commercially-made socks when you had planned to have beautiful hand-made ones that would perfectly fit your feet instead. And being sick, I’ve been completely unmotivated to knit on the 2 pairs I brought with me to work on. In fact, for all the knitterlyness of this trip, I’ve bought a lot of yarn (of course), but have only crocheted a pair of slippers, a pair of mittens (which I’m not fond of and will probably frog), and half of a hat.

The good news is, I’m doing a lot better now and am back at work. Marc and I worked on something neat and fun while I was in London. I can’t talk too much about it, but it was a different direction for Handknit Heroes, one which I hope will be entertaining, at least, and very kid-appropriate.

Oh, and that picture is us, Marc and Stephanie, the Handknit Heroes team. The picture is blurry, though. It’s one of the last photos on my camera before it broke on Sunday (everything broke on this trip). The last photo on the camera was this one:

Yes, unmasked, our faces literally break cameras. I guess we have super-powers after all!

Shout Outs

We were covered in the English press fairly heavily, so I’ll post the roundups here:

SFX gave us a great review.

Tom Watson, a member of parliament, also likes the comic.

Bleeding Cool is ready to jump on the bandwagon!

And Anglo Celt, Irvine Times, and a rather large family of outlets ran a story on the 6th…. but I can’t find it now (404 Not Found)! Geek Chic, if you have a permalink, send it in, please!

Finally, It Came from Darkmoor included a shout-out to the comic book– thanks, guys! Sorry we missed you on your second time around the comic show floor!

Remember, if you’re looking for Handknit Heroes in your local shops, we have a store locator on our website. If you’re from England and trying to find this lovely comic book, try I Knit London (Waterloo, London), or Yarn Over (Eastbourne, East Sussex).

I know it seems like it’s been quiet in the house of Handknit Heroes, but it has not!

We’ve been busy. VERY busy! But first, a public service announcement:

Address Change?

If your address has changed, or if for some reason you didn’t receive Issue #2 by now (it went out months ago!) please contact us using the Contact form on our website. We process your address changes immediately, and this is really the easiest way to let us know so your comics can arrive quickly. This is especially important as we’re gearing up to mail out the glovelet pattern, and I want to make sure it gets to you!

Marc’s Back!

Marc came back to work about a month ago, so we’re back on production schedule. We’re still sending out the Villainess Glovelet pattern to thank you for your patience. If you haven’t subscribed yet, now is the time to do so, so you can get your hands on the glovelet pattern when it ships out next week!

Here’s what the glovelets look like:

They are lovely and elegant, and will make a beautiful accessory for you this winter. They’re relatively easy to knit, too– if you can knit the bag in Issue #2, you can make these glovelets. The yarn is ShibuiKnits Sock, which is a lightweight sock yarn, with an absolutely decadent feel– very soft and luxurious. And the Glovelet pattern is already on Ravelry.

Show Me the Funny!

I went to Sock Summit, had a great time, and we took hundreds of photos of sock knitters turned superhero! Check them out in our Flickr tag! I want to thank everyone we met at Sock Summit– you made the whole weekend so much fun, with your willingness to be daring, have a little fun, snap a picture, and smile for us. I have come to realize two things about this particular product: fun makes a long show worthwhile. No matter how exhausted we were, we were always able to engage people because as soon as you put a superhero mask on someone, she turns into a superpowered fun generator!

What was really amusing, to me, was the fact that people recognized me more easily when I put one of the masks one! Probably because of my avatar on Ravelry, with the superhero mask knitted out of Malabrigo worsted.

After Sock Summit, we headed up to Seattle for the Mariners Stitch n Pitch, which was also a great deal of fun. It was a madhouse of knitters, fast-paced and immense and wonderful, and I only have two regrets! 1) That we were in a spot where there was no light after the sun set (and too much light before the sun set), and 2) That I didn’t get to see any of the ball game! Ah, well. The Royals won, which was kind of neat, since my mom (also a baseball fan) lives near Kansas City. Here’s the two of us at the last baseball game I attended (in lieu of photos from Stitch n Pitch, which I wasn’t able to take because we were sooo busy!):

And now, I’ve retreated to Sequim, Washington, to plan and prepare for the Big Upcoming Trip of Massive Shows:

• British International Comic Show: Birmingham, England, October 3-4. Marc and I will both be there, and the admission is pretty low, so if you’re in the area and want your comics signed by BOTH of us– do come!
• The Knitting and Stitching Show: Alexandra Palace, London, England, October 8-11. We’re in booth D8. Marc will be there on the weekend, I’ll be there all 4 days, and Erssie may even make a rare appearance for a signing session! Check back for details!
• Dutchess County Sheep and Wool: Rhinebeck, New York, October 17-18. I will be attending as an attendee, but I’ll be at the Keep the Fleece tent for the awards event.
• STITCHES East: Hartford, Connecticut, October 23-25. Sharing booth 228 with Knit Princess, we will have our comics and books and t-shirts and all sorts of fun goodies for you to enjoy!
• Aki-Con, in Everett, Washington, November 6-8. It’s an anime and cosplay event. Every so often, I find an event or show a little outside the normal intersection of knitting and comics, like Maker Faire, and if I’m going to be in the area anyway, and the booth fee is reasonable, there’s seldom a reason not to come and set up and see if the participants respond to it. Who knows? Maybe nobody at Aki Con knits (yet)…. but I’ll bet there are TONS of cosplayers who would love a handknit mask!

Action Figures

A couple of folks have already found the Action Figures in our webstore. These cute dolls action figures in crochet were designed by Vox Mortuum, an excellent designer who I’ve been pleased to work with. They’re our first crochet pattern, and… they’re not quite ready yet. I still have to edit them and put them into the Handknit Heroes format and style. Sadly, I can’t actually show them in our store without making them available for purchase, so please just be aware– if you buy the pattern, the PDF will be emailed to you once it’s ready. It’s a pre-order, and we’ll be sure to get them to you as soon as possible! The good news is, this and Issue 3 production are at the top of my to-do list this week, so you won’t have long to wait!

Shout Outs

Waaay back in the day, Knitch Magazine reviewed the comic– I just found the review via one of my searches.

Janelle brings a roundup of Sock Summit, including her visit to our booth!

Geek Girls Rule, a blog and podcast, reviewed the comic book after Stitch n Pitch! Thanks!

Have a shout out, comment, feedback, question, or address change? Drop us an email via the Contact form!

Lots of stuff going on at Handknit Heroes Central… and a lot not going on, too!

First: Upcoming Events!

I’ll be at Sock Summit in booth 726 in Portland, Oregon from August 6 to 9– hope to see you there! We’ll have comic books, t-shirts, and some snazzy new knitting patterns, including our first sock pattern. The sock pattern is an intermediate pattern, but it’s a fun one for sock knitters.

I’m also going to be at the Seattle Mariners Stitch n Pitch on August 27. This should be very exciting– I love baseball, and have wanted to go to a Stitch n’ Pitch since I first learned about it. I’m definitely looking forward to cheering for the Royals (I often cheer for the away team… somebody should!) and spreading more Handknit Heroes joy around the world!

Play Yarn Dash, Enter to Win Stuff

From July 15-31, the Handknit Heroes home page has an image for Play Yarn Dash, a type of online scavenger hunt where you log your visit at participating fiber and yarn related companies to enter and win cool prizes donated by the participating shops. Find the corresponding link on one of our other pages to log your visit. Play Yarn Dash is free to play, and you get a free knitting pattern when it’s all over.

Keep the Fleece!

The Keep the Fleece deadline for the Worlds Longest Scarf project is approaching in September. If you’d like to participate in the Handknit Heroes scarf and team, let me know– we’ll get you set up!

Meanwhile the Keep the Fleece contest has a deadline of September 1st. Handknit Heroes is proud to be a category sponsor for the GI Joe category for any natural fiber item made by a man.

What Else is (Not) Happening

Unfortunately, we had a minor setback in producing the comic book. Among other delays (writer’s block: mine), Marc threw his back out and is laid up. So he’s resting up and we’re sending him lots of get well wishes.

His pain is your gain, though. Since Issue #3 is going to be delayed, we’re sending out a special bonus pattern to all subscribers at the end of August. It’ll be a fairly easy pattern– if you knitted the bag from Issue #2, you’ll be able to make the pattern in Issue #3, and I think you’ll enjoy both knitting and wearing it. It’s my way of giving Marc a break in the schedule so he can recover, while still giving our subscribers something fun to enjoy while you wait for him to recover.

Shoutouts

A BlogHer Blog Shoutout! Thanks!

Unrelated to HKH, but still cool: “Hilariously, Yumi’s power is related to knitting and the little outfits she creates for Kansuke. Once he steps into one of her outfits, Kansuke becomes human-ish and has the ability to fight on his partner’s behalf.“