Just Call Me Ruby

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Delivery Day!

An early morning phone call surprised us with the news yesterday that Volume 2 of A Stitch in Time was on its way to us and would be with us that day. It was all very exciting and Gavin raced off to the Studio to await the new arrival. We were also expecting a delivery of 100s of packaging boxes so I had to stay at home and wait for them.

I paced up and down, I jumped around and did a little dance as my nervous energy built and built. Eventually the call came from Gavin telling me the delivery had arrived.

When I got there the unloading had almost finished with only 3 pallets remaining on the lorry. This is the friendly delivery man, who had the enormous task of manouvering all the pallets out of the van, down the drive and into the studio.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This is what the room looked like as it began to fill up. And then the moment the delivery was complete the first box was opened. And here it is:

400 pages of loveliness.

And here I am exhausted and very shabby holding the first copy of A Stitch in Time Vol 2. Please excuse my tattiness. I didn't sleep the night before and as I've mentioned before we have no heating at the studio yet and we were moving 1000's of books around so I wasn't really dressed for an official photograph!

So then the first chance to actually look through the pages of our beautiful book -

It is everything I hoped and more. There were many times in this two year process when I doubted if we would actually get to this point as so much seemed to go against us but at the very end everything worked like clockwork and we have the most stunningly beautiful treasury of vintage patterns that I could ever have imagined. I love our book and I truly hope you all will too.

For now
Ruby xxx

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Publication Date and a trip to Wales

Without further ado, I am delighted to announce that A Stitch in Time Volume 2 will be published on 25th October (in two weeks time).

An email has gone out to all pre order customers which advises that orders will be despatched in order of them being placed, so earliest order first. Wholesale orders will be going out in much the same way and then its over to the stores to deliver how they see fit. UK orders could take up to about a week to be received therefore, and depending on the individual country's postal service I would allow three to four weeks for delivery overseas. We'll also be taking the pre order special price off the website at the end of this week so the price will be going up to its full price from Monday. So if you would still like to take advantage of the pre order offer for a few more days, now is the time to do it.

So a couple of days ago, Gavin and I set off through the countryside to meet with the lovely printing firm who are printing the book for us. The pages of the book were being printed 16 pages to one sheet of paper, so 8 pages to each side of paper. With 400 pages to the book that means 25 separate 'sets' of 16 pages. This doesn't sound so much until you see all spread out in front of you!


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

Where the chap is at the far end of the row is the other end of the book and it is all the piles that you can see. I almost burst into tears as we walked around the corner and saw it spread out in front of us.

And it wasn't just the number of piles


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

It was all the sheets piled up too!

We were given a guided tour of the factory and shown the enormous press that our book was being printed on


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

Each one of these sections prints one of the four colours needed, the paper is turned over and the process is repeated on the other side. Every stage of the process is followed by cameras so that the print machine operators can check every single page as it passes through the press. The firm is very enviromentally active and have won all manner of awards and accreditation for their efforts to reduce waste and work in an enviromentally friendly way - their canteen even has a wormery for all kitchen waste! All the paper used is FSC approved and of particular interest to me, the inks used are vegetable based. This was common practice in the past but inks became chemical based over the last 60 years or so which has an impact on the enviroment in various ways. I was keen to find a printer who used vegetable based inks so was delighted when this was the case. My other concern was that the printer would be reasonably near to ourselves. So although not on the doorstep, they are only 4 hours away and with the book binders being used only an hours trip from the printers, the amount of travelling the books have to do before they reach us is minimal.

Here are a few more images of our book 'curing' before it leaves the printers to have its beautiful hard back case wrapped around it.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

I think most of the images are just about blurry enough to keep you all guessing!

for now
Ruby xx

Thursday, September 29, 2011

While I wait

With the book writing process now complete what do I do with myself while I wait for the book to arrive from the printers? Changing your work/life pattern after two years of working day and night to complete a project of this size has proven difficult. Basically my system has crashed and I am suffering from both physical and mental exhaustion. Not unusual or unexpected after a creative project of this scale, but debilitating non the less. Once a couple of other smaller deadline projects were completed, I couldn't even think what to knit next. I desperately needed to rest but there was a nervous energy that wouldn't allow me too. So really I have needed to hit the bottom so that I could begin to build myself back up and over the last week or two I've got there! Good food, lots of rest, no stress, fresh air and exercise is what is prescribed, so I'm trying my best. I have to announce that because of this I have had to withdraw from The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace this year but I will still have a stand at Harrogate in two months time though as this gives me time to recover. I'll also be doing some book signings and trunk shows from November.

Gavin and I have introduced some new regimes for ourselves - nothing complicated but things like allowing ourselves time for a lunch break rather than eating quickly whilst working, stopping work at a reasonable hour - and understanding that, no, 5am is not a reasonable hour, and probably most significantly having some time each evening where checking emails is not allowed. We have decided that if we are eating or watching a film we will put our i-phones away and not look at emails until the meal or the film has finished. We need to do this for our sanity and our physical strength, as its one thing being a 24 hour business for trading purposes, but its another completely when the two of you as man and wife are dealing with emails etc for 18 hours or more every day. I genuinely didn't use to think that this separation was needed but now I do. I feel such guilt if I don't check my emails the moment I wake up, even before getting out of bed, or at 1am in the morning if we've just finished working, in fact I feel guilty every moment I'm not working, and that guilt is causing great stress which is making me ill and so has to stop. So from a certain point each evening, we are going to go offline and actually have some down time.

So with all this new found 'spare' time what am I doing?

I am spending a great deal of time, reading and re-reading from my own black and white manuscript of A Stitch in Time Vol 2. Only printed on 100gm paper it is thinner than the finished book will be, but it is still huge in all its 400 page glory.

It thrills me to look at it but like you all, I am so impatient to see the final results. the firm we are using is incredibly thorough and as keen as we are for the book to be as perfect as possible. Colour matching has been a big part of the pre-print process and I am excited to see how closely the finished results match the real thing. It will be with us in a few short weeks and will hopefully be as magnificent as I am expecting it to be.

I am also knitting from my draft copy.

This sneeky peek is of a new colour way of a design in the book that is in my size (for me!) using Excelana in French Rose as the main colour, with a Fair Isle design which also uses Ruby Red, Nile Green, Alabaster, Powdered Egg and Persian Grey. I am hoping to have a good selection of the garments available in two sizes for when I start visiting stores and shows.

Another very exciting development is that we have finally collected the keys to our new studio space. It is in a tiny village only 5 minutes from home and is a former coaching house.

The ground floor will be predominantly for storage and an office but the large upstairs room will be my studio.

It will be great for photography purposes with good natural light and lots of floor space - I can't quite believe how much floor space actually. The building is in need of quite a bit of TLC internally as you can see, but within the next 12 months we hope to get it just how we want it. We may even be able to do open days in the future.

And finally, with the launch of this year's Poppy Appeal in aid of The Royal British Legion I am delighted to announce that my knitted poppy pattern is again available to purchase through the knitonthenet website with a donation for every sale going to the appeal.

Many people are knitting numerous poppies and selling them on to raise even more money for the Poppy Appeal. There have even been poppy auctions. Why not join in and make this the year you wear a knitted poppy?

for now
Ruby

Friday, August 19, 2011

August 19th 1961

It was 50 years ago today that my beautiful mum and rather cool looking dad walked down the aisle together.

Since mum's stroke two years ago I have wondered if we would get to this day and although it may be a somewhat different day to what we all expected, it is here, and I can honestly say they are both still so, so much in love and I just want to wish them a very, very happy 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Lots of love
Susan

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Amazon Anomoly

Checking Amazon.co.uk yesterday I was surprised to see that A Stitch in Time V:2 is showing as available but with delivery in approx 4 weeks. The book is definitely not available yet and I'm really not sure why amazon is showing it in this way. The approximate delivery date of 4 weeks makes sense but if you order from Amazon expecting the book to arrive immediately I'm afraid you won't receive it.

I do hope this hasn't caused anyone too much disappointment or confusion. Pre-order despatch will be our number one priority once the book is published so hopefully no one will be kept waiting once it is available.

for now
Ruby xx

Friday, July 29, 2011

Some Pretty Pictures

Excellent progress is being made on A Stitch in Time Vol 2 and it will soon be going to the printers. In the meantime I'm excitedly looking forward to the arrival of samples to pick our cloth cover for the book. I've always wanted to publish a book with a hard back cover but wanted even more to publish a book with a cloth cover like the Odhams books etc so am thrilled with this. I also think it will make the finished book even more special.

I know I've been quiet on the blog for several weeks as I have worked on the book day and night so thought I would share a couple of the designs from the book with you:


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This gorgeous coat is officially known as 'The Swagger Coat' and is from the 1930s. It may be more familiar to many of you as Miss Marple's coat, worn by Geraldine McEwan in the TV series. It has also been seen far more recently, for approx 5 seconds, in the film 'The King's Speech', so a bit of a celebrity!

To create the smooth, slightly shiny fabric the pattern required and also getting the uncommonly big tension for the period, I used Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran in Water. It knits up beautifully, extremely quickly and with its high silk content, has exactly the right amount of sheen. The first size shown here takes 8 skeins. It will be available in a wide range of sizes from 30-52 inches.

This garment has had quite an impact on everyone who has seen it. She's called Kasha and is from the 1940s. I have a separate blog post all about the intricacies of multi sizing this little lady as she is quite a challenge so I won't dwell on that today. This beautiful cardigan jumper is knitted in Skein Queen Blush in a very special shade created by Skein Queen herself called Vintage Gold. The largest size is knitted in Lotus Cashmere DK. The lace motif is pretty complex but has been charted for the book making the knitting a lot easier. The button band is knitted as part of the fronts with the collar and little shoulder pads knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. Because of the complexity of the lace pattern, Kasha is available in a smaller range of sizes but is still available in sizes 30-44 inches.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

And one final reveal before its back to work for me. This is the Pretty Frilled Jumper, again from the 1930s. This is knitted both vertically and horizontally and with delicated frills knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. The stitch pattern is very simple but made more intriguing by the unusual construction. This design seems to look good on everyone who has tried it on despite being a little underwhelming in the original pattern. I think its the frills, framing the face so elegantly and then adding a bit of glamour at the wrist. It is knitted in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply Jumper yarn which has the right amount of body to get those frills to stand to attention. It is available in a range of sizes from 32-46 inch bust.

I will leave it there for today but will introduce a few more designs next week.

for now
Ruby xx

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

KNIT NATION 2011

I will be travelling down to London this weekend to take part in Knit Nation at Imperial College London.

I will be teaching two classes "Vintage Fit & Finishing" and "Interpreting and Working from Vintage Patterns". I think both classes have either nearly or have sold out, although there may be one or two spaces left on Sunday for Working from Vintage Patterns.

I will also be having a stand at the event and thought it would be nice to offer a 10% discount on Excelana yarns to any pre-order customers of A Stitch in Time, Vintage Knitting Patterns, Vol2, who buy from my stand. To claim your discount please bring a print out of your order confirmation from the knitonthenet shop (only pre-orders directly made on the shop I’m afraid) and we will deduct 10% off any Excelana purchase.

I am trying to work out how to offer the same arrangement on the online shop for pre order customers but haven’t got it sorted out as yet, as our shop is very basic and doesn’t allow for a lot of ‘fancy stuff’.

This and the potential offer on the shop is in addition to the discount voucher being provided with the book pre-order package.

There will be a lovely selection of the garments from Volume 2 on display along with the yarn usage guide I've been steadily compiling, so if you see something you like and you want the yarn ready to get started when the book arrives next month, you can take advantage of the 10% offer.

I've also been calculating amounts needed for Excelana when substituting it for other yarns used in Volume 1 and Vintage Gifts to Knit so lots of reasons to come to my tiny stand and say hello!

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

for now
Ruby xx

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

More on the making of A Stitch in Time Volume 2!

Things are going full steam ahead and very quickly as the book gets closer and closer to being ready. We recently had a further photoshoot around a series of outdoor locations that I had chosen close to my home. I'm lucky to live in an area that has a significant number of places that lend themselves beautifully to period photoshoots and just like with volume one, I wanted to include as many of them as possible in the book. As every single waking moment of every day is currently accounted for, twice over, I'm going to pass this post over to my assistant Inny, who has written a great account of this shoot over on the knitonthenet blog. There are also some great behind the scenes photos. You can read all about it here.

for now,
back to work!
Ruby xx

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

A Stitch In Time Photoshoot on Film!

At one of the most recent photoshoots for A Stitch in Time Volume 2, one of Charlie's friends at university who is also studying film, kindly offered to video the day and then turn it into a short film for us. Scott Willis, our wonderful film maker, travelled down from Edinburgh on the day of shooting in March and spent the day quietly filming us. He has since spent many hours editing the footage into a marvellous visual treat of the day. I do hope you enjoy it.

A Stitch In Time Photo Shoot from Scott Willis on Vimeo.

The garments shown, as I'm sure you're going to ask, are all in Volume 2 and in order that they make an appearance they are:-

Sirdar 1035 (yet to be named!) in Skein Queen Blush, shade Vintage Gold - 1940s
Helen Shrug in Excelana 4ply, shade Alabaster - 1930s
Tri Cable Cardigan in Shilasdair Cashmere 4 ply - 1930s
Pretty for Everyday in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply (also in Excelana 4ply) - 1940s
Glamorous Evening Top in Knitshop Mulberry Silk - 1950s
Pretty Frilled Jumper in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply jumper weight - 1930s
The Jan Sweater in Excelana 4ply, shade Powdered Egg - 1930s
There is a glimpse of Dinah's Lacy Top in Rooster Baby, shade Ice Gem -1930s
Then Sirdar 1035, Jan Sweater then back to Sirdar 1035
At the very end you can see Pretty for Everyday in the background and the garment on the cover shot is Cryscelle in Knitshop Mulberry Silk - 1930s. Phew!

The two models appearing in the film are the wonderful Theodora Burrow and fabulous Lola Valentine. The hair and make up artist is Catherine-Elizabeth who can do the most amazing hair I've ever seen. Others present are myself, Charlie, Gavin and Inny.

I want to take the opportunity to thank Scott once again for a fantastic production. He's only just finishing his first year - he is going to be so good!

I'm off to watch it once again, so
for now
Ruby xx

Friday, May 20, 2011

Italia!

Last week was a very exciting week. Gavin, Charlie and I set off for Italy to spend the week with Woolly Wormhead and her family just outside Sant Archangelo in the North East of Italy.

Woolly, Tom and Aran off to a wedding - copyright susan crawford 2011

With four avid photographers, Woolly, Tom, Charlie and myself all armed with our cameras at all times, there have been a LOT of photos to go through. In the end, I've chosen a small selection for the blog that I think sum up our time there.

The camp we stayed at is known as the Mutoid Camp, which is the base for a group of sculptors and artists who make the most amazing pieces out of scrap.


Copyright susan crawford 2011

The sculptures are larger than life and are dotted all around the camp.


copyright susan crawford 2011

This first sculpture is by the lovely Lou, who made us very welcome on the first night of our stay, inviting us to a barbecue she was hosting. Later in the week, Lou was to get married. Unfortunately we had to fly home on the morning of the celebrations which was a real shame.


copyright susan crawford 2011


copyright susan crawford 2011

This huge 'man' is one of a number done by another camp resident, Debbie who makes incredibly detailed and intricate sculptures, particularly for their scale.


copyright susan crawford 2011

This huge beast stands at the entrance to Woolly's plot. Its scale can't quite be appreciated here but it is over 10 feet tall. Many of the sculptures on the camp have been done as communal projects so I unfortunately don't know the details of the artists for all the works I have shown.

Gavin and I slept in Barp which Woolly used to use to get around in. Charlie was in a separate trailer


copyright susan crawford 2011

and Woolly, Tom and Aran were in the 'silver decker bus'


copyright susan crawford 2011

Sant Archangelo is a beautiful, Italian town, which has built up around a walled centre.

This is the view from about two thirds of the way up the hill

This it the beginning of the ancient walls rising above the town.

And of course amazing typically italian streets. I love the shades of green and pistachio, coral, pink and terracotta all blending into each other in this photograph. High up one of these winding streets is a small museum - a button museum! It is a fabulous museum with buttons from 1700s through to current times, and with a huge number from the 1920s-1940s which made me very happy.


copyright susan crawford 2011

The owners made us extremely welcome offering us iced tea and cake whilst we studied the collection and even had a small range of 'overs' from between the 30s and 50s from which I purchased a small number! I'll share these another time though.

One of my favourite day trips was our visit to San Marino, which is only 30 or 40 minutes from Sant Archangelo and rises up on the horizon in front of the camp. It is apparently the oldest republic in the world. It is also very wealthy and very, very pretty. Cars are parked part way down the mountain that is San Marino and then the rest is done on foot. The views are spectacular, stretching across Italy in all directions.


copyright susan crawford 2011

The streets though are very, very steep so I would recommend good walking shoes!


copyright susan crawford 2011


copyright susan crawford 2011

Three year old Aran made light work of all the steep climbs! However you are rewarded at the top with some very nice restaurants and cafes to sit, recover, eat and drink - I'm good at that bit.

Back at camp there was some work to do as Woolly had photography to do for both her forthcoming Bambeanies booklet and also a retrospective she is beginning to work on. I couldn't resist getting involved and taking some photos of Woolly's work myself. A particular sculpture features heavily in Woolly's photos, which is known as the Time Machine - a result of a collaborative project by the Mutoids.

It has many parts, sides and shapes which Woolly has used to great effect. I actually managed to catch her at work when she wasn't looking!

As you can see from the photo above, Woolly persuaded Charlie to do some modelling for her. I took a couple myself in an attempt at Woolly Wormhead style -


copyright susan crawford 2011 - hat woolly wormhead

I will most definitely return to Italy. It was everything I hoped and more, but most of all I want to thank Woolly, Tom and Aran for making us so very very welcome and sharing their little part of Italy with us.

for now
Ruby xx

Friday, May 06, 2011

Pre-order update and Pattern Preview

Due to the popularity of the pre-order offer on A Stitch In Time, Vol 2, we only have a few left where mini skeins will still be part of the pre-order package but I'm happy to announce that the new offer will be:

A signed copy of A Stitch in Time Volume Two
A Susan Crawford project bag
Discount vouchers
PDF preview pattern
All still for £30 + £4 P&P to anywhere in the world.

I'm also holding postage costs down for as long as possible but as we subsidise the postage costs I can never guarantee how long that will remain the price, but for now...

A couple of days ago I released this adorable pattern to all the wonderful people who have kindly pre-ordered A Stitch in Time Volume 2 and this is the pattern that any new pre-orders will also receive as a PDF - "The Jan Sweater"

Jan is knitted in Excelana 4 ply using the shade Powdered Egg. The original design is from 1938. It features a classic boat neck and deep ribbed welt. The lace pattern is very easy to follow particularly as the body is unshaped between the welt and the underarm.

Front and back are worked the same, all in all making this a great introduction to vintage knitting. The boat neck can be left fully open as shown on the photos, or it can be sewn up to suit the wearer's preference.

Photographed, is the beautiful Faye, who modelled for me for the first time recently and was an absolute joy to work with, instinctively understanding the clothes and the eras they were from.

The ear rings and brooch both belonged to my grandmother Ruby, as did the watch that you can just see in the first photo. The scarf and skirt are both vintage finds.

Don't forget there are a handful of pre-order packages left that include the mini skeins if you really wanted to get your hands on those, but I think that Jan makes a very good replacement. Don't you?

for now
Ruby xx

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