Fuzzy Knits, take 2!

At long last, after a year's worth of knitting, writing, editing, photographing, proof-reading, formatting, (and on and on, it seemed) the second edition of Fuzzy Knits is ready!

I've written a bunch about the individual designs before, so I won't get into them now. You can go here to see images of all the patterns. I'll just leave you with the details of where you can get it (clicking the links to follow will take you to where you can purchase the book).

The download version (i.e. a PDF file) can be bought on Ravelry and Lulu. The file you download includes the cover. This option is really nice, because you can print it yourself and keep it in a handy binder or plastic sleeves.

The printed book can be bought on either Lulu or Qoop. These two shops offer slightly different versions of the book: on Lulu the book is perfect-bound with a soft cover and full-colour photos, while on Qoop the book is coil-bound with a soft cover and you can choose between black & white or full-colour photos.

Now for the tricky part. We are offering a copy of the new book to anyone who bought the first edition of Fuzzy Knits. Because Lulu does not give us a list of who buys what, we will need to see a copy of your receipt for the old book*. You can forward that to barbara at fuzzymitten dot com. Then I will email you a PDF file of the new book. Please be patient, as it may take me a few days to get through everyone's emails.

EDIT: I’ve also discovered that if you no longer have your Lulu receipt for ‘Fuzzy Knits’, you should be able to find a purchase history in your Lulu account. So you can just copy that info into an email and send it along to me.

Also, you might notice that we updated the cover of Festive Knits. This is so the style matches the cover of Fuzzy Knits, but the content of that book has not been changed in any way.

*Please note that if you bought a printed copy of the first edition, we cannot replace it with a printed copy of the second edition. You will receive a download copy of the new book.

moving forward

Everything is slowly coming together on the second edition of Fuzzy Knits. It's only taken us, what, a year! Sheesh, I suppose that's normal for a regular published book, but it seems like ages for me. I guess with a regular book, you also get to rely on others for a bunch of the work. Doing my own editing and proof-reading is a tad scary - hoping I don't miss any serious mistakes, that everything makes sense, that you can all follow the instructions! Thank goodness Mr. Mitten has the patience to do all the rest of the formatting in the publishing software, because I don't know if I would be up to that.

I've also taken all the photos myself, with Mr. Mitten doing the photo editing. We spent all day Sunday on the 12 pattern photos, and I think they turned out pretty good. We went for a much simpler style than in Festive Knits. I just have to get a good cover shot now, and then we're ready for the first printed copy!

Of course, all this work has me thinking, what next? (seriously, folks, my creative brain never quits. Sometimes I wish it would let me have a little vacation...) I've been perusing the Knitted Toys group over on Ravelry for ages, trying to figure out what you all want to knit. I've come up with a few categories that most of the projects seem to fall into:

• very simple, usually knit in the round with minimal sewing
• very complex with lots of pieces to sew together, or complex shaping (or both)
• somewhere in between, which is where mine usually fall
• dolls, of various styles (lots of topsy-turvy dolls lately)
• sock monkeys
• food
• other (odd but cuddly) things

All this variety has me wondering what you would like to knit next? I am a little tired of the same old thing, hence the Bunny Puppet. It's cute and cuddly like my other toys, but the design is almost totally different. However, I know you all like the cute animals with clothes, and there is no end of animals that could be worked into this format (more or less successfully, although this often depends on how inspired I feel).

I had a few ideas of what I wanted to do this year, but now I'm not too sure about how to move forward from the mammoth project Fuzzy Knits turned out to be. I'd really like to take a little break for Spring planting, and enjoy being outside with my munchkin. But, I also want to keep my brain working on new things for you, even if my knitting needles take a rest. I wish I could design all the things people ask for, and all the things I think up myself, but my knitting time is so limited now... I need to figure out the best idea, if I can, and concentrate on that. So, any input you are kind enough to give me would be very helpful!

Who knows? Maybe inspiration will hit, once I've had a little time to rest. This season of change could bring just about anything...

work report

I have a few things to report in the way of Fuzzy Mitten doings lately. We're chugging along on the new Fuzzy Knits book. All it really needs now is the photos, and then we can order the first copy to see how it looks. So close, and yet it still seems so far away! Probably because I started this project thinking it would only take 4-6 months, but it's taken us an entire year.

I'm not too sure what's next. I have one new pattern in the works, but I might hang onto it until the Autumn, as that seems a more appropriate time for it. I've been thinking of designing a pattern for Knitpicks new Independent Designer Program. Have any of you heard of this, or made use of it? It seems like a good venue for patterns, since their yarns are fairly popular in the US. However, the patterns are all $1.99, so I would design something a bit simpler than my usual patterns. I've got a good idea, I just need the yarn and the time!

Thanks so much to those of you who bought a Bunny Puppet kit! I didn't realize they would sell so quickly. If any of you wanted one, but missed out last week, you're in luck! I've found some more yarn, and there are a bunch of new kits in my shop now. The yarns are a little different from the first set, but just as nice. There's still plenty of time to knit one before Easter, so go have a look!

In other news, our Baby Mitten is growing, and no longer a baby! Maybe we should call him Munchkin Mitten now? He's been walking for a few months, is rather chatty (even if most of his words sound the same), and is finally growing some hair. He requires a lot of my time now, especially with him taking only one nap a day, learning so much all the time, and getting into anything within reach. It's really funny too, some of the things they learn! Lev loves our kitties, and is always asking me to play with them or give them treats (this is so they will stop hiding from him, since he's still a bit rough).



He's also started singing along to his favourite cartoon, a Russian version of the Bremen Town Musicians.  He's certainly not in tune, but it's so cute! He even sings at the same parts of the songs every time.

pocket mouse

Mouse

The previous content of the post has been removed, because it was causing confusion over whether or not the pattern was actually free. If you would like to knit this toy, you can find the pattern on Ravlery, Etsy, or in my Fuzzy Knits collection.

Panda cuteness

Panda

The previous content of the post has been removed, because it was causing confusion over whether or not the pattern was actually free. If you would like to knit this toy, you can find the pattern on Ravlery, Etsy, or in my Fuzzy Knits collection.

so hard to write...

It gives me great pain to admit this, but the new edition of Fuzzy Knits will not be ready before the holidays. It's been upsetting me so much that it's taken this long, and I finally had to admit that the stress wasn't healthy for me, and might compromise the quality of my work. This Autumn has been so much busier than I imagined, with Lev running headlong into toddler-hood, and Mr. Mitten working overtime at a new and more demanding day-job.

We really want to take the next few weeks to enjoy the holiday season, visit with family, and wind down from such a hectic few months. (I hope you have the same opportunity.) Then we can get back to work in the new year, and with luck, get the book ready for the next big holiday season. With the pressure off, we should be able to give you the quality of book you deserve.

If you were thinking of giving the new book as a gift this holiday, perhaps you could consider the Festive Knits book instead. If you live in the US, you should even have a little time to order a printed copy. Or, if you don't mind a bit of do-it-yourself craftiness, you can order the download (Ravelry link), print the book out at home, and put it all together into a nice binder. With a bit of yarn and some other supplies for a toy or two, it would make a great gift for a knitter who loves cute critters!

However, I know a few of you were counting on the new toy versions to complete some gifts, and I don't want to let you down. The two posts following this one will have the instructions for the head and ears of the new Mouse and Panda. You will still need to use the original patterns to complete the toy, but I haven't changed these much in the new versions, so you should still get a very adorable toy.

under the weather

Oh poor, dear blog! You've been so neglected lately. This time it was a cold keeping me away. A horrible, mean cold that's kept me under the weather for a week now (the state of our house makes it seem longer). Only today am I feeling a faint hope of being well someday soon.

Sweet Mr. Mitten has spent his evenings keeping the dirty dishes and stray toys from overwhelming us, as well as being a stellar daddy, so there hasn't been much progress on the new Fuzzy Knits. But with so much of the work being done in tiny bits and pieces, we'll probably sit down to work on it one day, and have it ready in a blink!


I did find a wee bit of time the other day to snap a few test shots for the book. I think the photos are a good start, although I wish there was a hobby shop around here with fun miniatures. I'm pretty stumped for ideas for a few of the toys, so I guess it's all right that we're not quite ready for the pictures yet.


I do have a cool idea for a holiday clothing pattern for you, and the yarn for it is ordered. I just hope it gets here soon, and I have enough time to make it up, before all the holiday craziness really gets rolling!

shop update

In case you missed the notice on Facebook, or don't check up on Fuzzy doings over there, I had a nice little shop update last Friday. There are still several kits and zip pouches, so go check them out! I love the kitty print fabric so much, I nearly kept one of those pouches for myself. But Mr. Mitten reminded me that I have half a dozen knitting bags littered around the house, so I put it up for sale after all.


In other news, I was working on the very last pattern for Fuzzy Knits this morning. Woo hoo! A few days of knitting should get that critter done. Then it's just a matter of kicking someone in the butt to get everything formatted (I really love him, but he can procrastinate with the best ;) Oh, and take all those photos (though the photo editing takes twice as long as actually shooting photos)! Hopefully we can get all the individual patterns updated soon too, but those are more work.

getting there...

It's been a little quiet around here lately, hasn't it? Not because I have nothing to say, but it's been so difficult to find time to think, then take photos, and finally write it all up so it makes sense. I'm sure we all have times in our lives like that. The last few weeks this is because it's the start of cold and flu season, and Lev seems to be catching anything that comes his way. Poor munchkin barely has a day between getting better and the next set of germs. I'm so glad I'm generally quite healthy, so I don't have to try taking care of a sick baby while I'm sick too!

I have found a little knitting time, and I'm slowly making progress on the last few toys for Fuzzy Knits. The Polar Bear, Monkey, and Pupster are all finished. The Tiger is made up, but I'm still thinking about changing her dress, so she's been stalled for a couple of weeks. That just leaves the Easter Bunny, and I don't plan to make any major changes to him (just a longer jacket), so he should get done more quickly. I really want to get photos, so you can see what they look like! The Pupster is much cuter with ears and a body :)

Anyway, hopefully I can convince Mr. Mitten to find the time to work on the book, so you don't have to wait too much longer. At the very latest, it will be done in time for holiday ordering. This book will also be available on Qoop, so you can take advantage of their lower prices on printed books.

I think I hear waking noises from Lev's room, so I must go. Have a lovely weekend, all!

introducing

Now for the fun! I just couldn't keep these new designs a secret any longer - they were just so cute I had to share them once I had a few photos. If you haven't seen them via Facebook, here they are.


Peanut, a chipmunk with a cable pullover. He's sweet on his own, but in the pullover he looks like the star of a 70's knitting pattern book. His stripes are done with duplicate stitch, so you can follow what I've done or improvise your own stripe pattern based on the chipmunks in your neighbourhood.


Kelby, a smooshy faced pug in a seamless hooded anorak. He's about the same size as the big teddy and bunny, so super cuddly for a little kid. His face is more complicated than most of my patterns, but it was necessary to get him to look just right. Don't forget to check out his tail.

Mr. Mitten will get working on the individual patterns as soon as he has time (work is a bit crazy right now), so you can look forward to them soon! These two patterns will be replacing the Squirrel and Big Teddy in the new edition of Fuzzy Knits, so you can also look forward to them there.

monday morning news

Thanks for all your input so far on the poll and in the comments! There's still a couple days to vote, if you haven't yet.

Mr. Mitten and I have been discussing the results already. Some are pretty obvious, like the numbered rows, since I had a poll about that already. I've started doing that with all the patterns I've been working on recently, so expect to see it in any new or revised patterns.

Other ideas I find very exciting or intriguing. Some I can try to get to soon, some will have to wait a while because we don't have time, or it's not feasible with the way my shops are set up right now. Anyway, we'll give you a better idea of things to come once we've seen the final poll results, and figured out the best way to meet the most popular ideas.

I wanted to let you know we've decided to change a couple of patterns in the Fuzzy Knits book, so there is no overlap in toy patterns between the two books. The new patterns will be similar to the Big Teddy and Squirrel, but still unique from those in Festive Knits. I'm going to keep them a secret until the new version is released, but maybe I'll get a couple of photos for sneak peeks, once they're done (I'm having a terrible time designing the face of one, but I'll get there eventually!).

new face for the panda

Also, we are working on ways to get you the updated versions of the patterns and books, without you having to buy them again. If you bought something on Lulu, it's very important to save your receipt, since I have no way to check what a customer buys there. I'll post more info once the first of the patterns are ready.

poll results

The results of my pattern format poll are pretty clear, so it looks like I'll be changing the patterns to include numbered rows. A little more work for me now, but I think it will make the patterns much easier to follow (for you and me!) I'm slowly working my way through the patterns from Fuzzy Knits, so I don't have to go back and change very much. So far I've done the Silly Duck and Siamese Kitty. The duck has been changed quite a bit, with different feet and a knitted bill, but somehow still looks similar to the old one. The kitty is just the same as before, but she now has a fancier dress, since I wanted something different from the bunny's pinafore dress. I might try taking a few photos to give you a hint of what they're like, since this blog has been a bit boring lately!

In baby news, Lev is growing well, and is generally being a very good baby since his daddy went back to work. We've started solid food again, and it seems to be sitting much better than when we tried it a couple weeks ago (it made him spit-up too much). He even remembered how to eat it off the spoon after a few tries. He's starting to figure out how to balance himself while sitting up, but only if he's distracted from flinging himself around! Today hasn't been going so well, though. He's teething badly again, and he gets his 6 month vaccinations today, so he's going to be a cranky-pants baby for the next day or two. At least the weather is nice, so perhaps a long walk is in order.

Book pricing and costs

Hi, everyone. Mr. Mitten here with some more info on the book's pricing. As Barbara said earlier today, Lulu recently had a price hike on all printed materials. Before, you were paying $12 in printing costs per book, but now it's up to $15, which is quite a significant difference. Unfortunately, that means that we couldn't continue charging $19.95 per book, especially considering that we also have to pay Lulu's commission on each item sold.

This is why the price for printed books went up by a bit. We tried to make it up to you guys by lowering the price on the download version to $17.50 -- hopefully this will help those of you who aren't interested in getting the printed version (though it's nice and shiny! I'm very pleased with it.)

Just a couple of words about our operating costs -- we barely have any. :) The book was written entirely in Free Software (pictures done in Gimp, covers and charts done in Inkscape, and the layout done in Scribus, all of it running on Fedora Linux). Apart from Lulu (or Etsy), there are no other middlemen, so anything you pay goes straight to the artist, making sure that she is always pregnant with new ideas (*badum-pum!* ;)).

Overall, this distribution model works out pretty well for everyone, and unless Lulu's printing costs go up again, we should be able to continue to offer patterns at comparatively low costs (at least compared to some other pattern designers.)

new fuzzy knits kits

I've been working on a batch of kits over the past month or more, and I'm glad they're finally done and up in my shop. I seemed to only ever find a few hours at a time to work on them, but I get tired so easily now, I really couldn't have pushed myself to get them done sooner. They are all offered with the Fuzzy Knits book, but as before, if you already have the book but want the kit please contact me! It's important to do this before buying the kit, so I won't have to pay extra fees on the cost of the book. They generally don't sell too fast, so don't worry about missing your chance.


Some of the kits have hand-dyed yarn again, since it's so much fun to do. I particularly love the variegated blue yarn I made for the lamb kit, and wish I'd thought to make another skein for myself. The way I dye the yarn, every skein is unique, but I rarely get to see what people make with them. I know I could get truer colours with proper acid dyes, but the food colouring has such interesting reactions with itself and the yarn, I often get really lovely marbling and heathering in the yarn.

nearly ready

After a few late nights, and some agony with a bug in the software, my wonderful hubbie finally finished the draft version of the new book. Having worked on it so hard, for so long, it's strange to think it might be nearly ready. We've ordered the test copy, which should be here in a week. My fingers are crossed that it all looks good, because that will mean we can put it up in the shop!

I thought I should mention one thing about the Festive Knits book: it's a different size (6x9") from the old one (8.5x11"). We decided that a smaller book would be easier for you to carry around, or have sitting in your lap or on the arm of your sofa. It has the coil binding, though, which makes it easy to keep open at the right page. However, this smaller size means that it would be a real pain for you to print, so for now the book will not be available as a download (also, the quality of the pictures makes the file too big to download easily). Mr. Mitten will be working on a different format which will be download-able, but it probably won't be available until after Christmas (he has a few other projects to work on before he can get to it).

This has made us curious if we should change the size and format of the Fuzzy Knits book, so I've put up a poll with a few possibilities. Whatever the popular opinion ends up being, I doubt we'll be able to work on it anytime soon. We just want to find out what you think, so we can make plans.

Also, I've gotten really behind on my email the last few weeks (both my business and Ravelry messages). Between babysitting, working on the book, knitting, and everything that needs to get done at home, I just haven't had time to sit down and reply to everyone. However, I have a half day off tomorrow, so hopefully I can take a couple of hours to get back to you. I'm sorry if you've been waiting a while to hear back from me.

a few little changes

I've been thinking of a few little changes to my Etsy shop. I like to keep the number of toy patterns at 20, because if it gets too much above that, it's a lot of work keeping track of which ones are sold out. As well, some of my patterns just don't sell very well. I do keep all my patterns for sale at my Lulu shop, because that one mostly takes care of itself.

So, one change I was thinking of making is to combine all three bunny patterns into one bundle. It always seemed silly to me to have three different ones, when really the only difference is the outfits. But while I didn't have so many patterns, it made sense to offer my customers more choices. So the proposed new pattern would have the bunny, with long and short ear options, and three outfits: the pinafore dress, the hoodie, and the jacket and waistcoat. I would probably sell it for $5.75, like the clothing bundles. I've put up a poll, so you can vote, or leave a comment with your opinion. I suppose another option would be to include the super cape and t-shirt, instead of the hoodie.

The other possible change would be to remove a couple of toy patterns from my Etsy shop, whichever 2 have the lowest sales. I think this would be the koala and either the cow boy or the puppy. However, I would hate to get rid of any of those while still having 3 bunny patterns. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Also, I want to announce that we've decided to lower the price of the Fuzzy Knits book. I know that people who order the printed version also have to pay quite a bit in shipping, so hopefully this lower price will make the book affordable for more people. This also means that the wholesale price for yarn shops has decreased a bit.

Today is a usual quiet and lazy Saturday. We popped down to the farmers market and picked up a bunch of organic veggies: zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, and some sugar-snap peas (already nearly all gone!). We also found some sausages from a nice farmer who raises antibiotic-free animals, and I picked up a bar of home-made soap as a little treat. Doesn't sound too bad, eh? Our farmers market is actually very small, but we make the best of it.

fuzzy knits

The new version of my pattern book is now available at my Lulu shop. It has the same patterns as the Festive Knits book: polar bear, puppy, squirrel, lamb, easter bunny, boyish monkey, tiger, panda, siamese kitty, pocket mouse, big teddy, fluffy duckling, and super cape as a bonus. The cover and picture pages have been changed slightly, but otherwise that's it.

We had considered getting an isbn number, but they wanted us to change a bunch of things about the format, and it costs quite a bit. For now we are keeping the book the way it is (so you still get the spiral binding!) and if it gets really popular, we will consider the isbn number then.

I have ordered a few copies that will soon be available in my Etsy shop. There will be a few copies available for sale by themselves, and I will be putting together a few more kits. So if you have a friend's birthday coming in the next few months, keep me in mind :)

Do you guys mind spreading the word for me? This book is available wholesale to yarn shops, and I know of a few I can contact. But if you are 'in' with your local yarn ladies, and they like my designs, please put them in touch with me. I can hook them up with the place to order my books in larger numbers.