When my first child was born, and I counted his fingers and toes, heard him cry, and gazed into his beautiful eyes, I realized how anxious that I had been during my pregnancy, worrying that he (or she) would be healthy. Yesterday, I saw “Annetarsia Knits” for the first time. It isn’t bound yet, but the pages are all there, in order – it looks like a book, and it looks great.  I had the same feeling of huge relief that I did when my babies were born. Many, many people invested time, talent and considerable energy and patience to make this happen.  I don’t want to let any of them down.  But, I am thrilled to say that the final result is surpassing my expectations.

 

 

 

The foldout of the front and back cover is larger than the book pages, because the book has a hard cover, and the photo will wrap around the cover.  It will also be laminated, so it will look a bit different.  At this point, I trust the printer, Asia Pacific Offset, who so far has surpassed every expectation.

The pages are folded together in small groups, like little brochures.  They will be sewn together and attached to the hard cover.  This allows the book to be strong, and withstand lots of use.  What I really love, though, is that it will lay quite flat when opened, which is so important when actually using a book to knit from!  Book construction is actually quite complicated, and I will never look at a book quite the same way, again.

I’ll be taking this version of the proofs with me to Interweave Knit Lab, and I hope to see my East Coast friends there!  Donna Druchunas and I will be sharing a Teacher’s Table in the Knitters Market.  She will have items from Stories in Stitches 3 to share with you, and I will have projects from “Annetarsia Knits”, as well as the baby book!

Donna says that she still has space in her class on knitting socks from Japanese patterns, which sounds like a lot of fun.  I am excited to be teaching how to calculate “Yarn Gauge” for the first time, which allows the knitter to know how much yardage is needed to knit something.  No more guessing!  That technique will be in “Annetarsia Knits”, and this is the first class developed from book content.  Another milestone!

 

 

 

Information on pre-ordering “Annetarsia Knits” will be coming very soon.  In order to get updates, sign up for my e-mail list!