By now anyone reading this blog has realized I’m not very good at telling you my every move. Indeed, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the self-promotion required at the time of a book release. I need to get over that.

And those of you who have been close enough to me to see me handing out promotional postcards and generally tooting my own horn are thinking, “Wow! She didn’t seem uncomfortable to me! As a matter of fact, she was downright smug!”

Well, I am proud of the book and furthermore, my mother called today and said she is proud of me. So I’ve made my mama happy, and isn’t that all a girl really wants?

Over the next ten days or so, my schedule is jam-packed with fiber fun:

Be on the lookout for a blog interview on  www.thefiberforum.com.

On Monday, August 18, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, I’ll be doing a LIVE on the air interview on “Getting Loopy” with Mary Beth Temple, at BlogTalk Radio.  Mary Beth is lots of fun and keeps the show hopping–and it’s now a 45 minute show!

If you aren’t familiar with Blog Talk Radio, it’s about the most interactive (and crazy) of the “interactive” venues. All at the same time, the host or guest will be talking, the real-time chat room will be chatting, and folks will be calling in to talk on the air. I don’t know how Mary Beth handles it all with such grace and goodwill, but she’s a real pro! Go to www.gettingloopy.com for more information.

On Wednesday, I’ll be headed to Schaumberg, Illinois for Stitches Midwest. Stitches is always a blast, and I love to visit Chicago. It will be the real debut of Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs, so I’ll finally get feedback from real users. For those of you who plan to attend, I’ll be doing book signings with Village Spinning and Weaving on Thursday evening, Yarn Basket at 12:30 on Friday, and Yarniverse at noon on Saturday. Check your show schedule for booth locations.

In the meantime, I’ve got some big tech-edit deadlines and I’ll be moving my daughter into a college dorm room. At least this year it is scheduled to be a mere 82 degrees outside and we’ll be moving into an air-conditioned room, unlike last year’s 100 degree outdoor air temp and a 3rd-floor walk-up unairconditioned room with a tiny window.

Until next time…

I’m really looking forward to attending the Knit & Crochet Show this week in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is the combined Crochet Guild of America and The Knitting Guild of America show. In particular, it’s the CGOA annual national convention–THE place for crocheters in the U.S. to get together and strut their stuff.

You may have noticed that crochet has come off the back of sofas and onto the backs of the fashion models on the runways and the regular folks at the mall. There are some very talented women and men doing amazing stuff with a hook and yarn, and it’s inspirational and stimulating and humbling to see what they do.

Although I haven’t had much of a chance to make something special for the show, I will be wearing my own design, the featured on the Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet. So, yes, I’ve now made two of them: the one on the cover of the magazine, and a copy for myself!

I will also have my advance copy of Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs for everyone to preview, and I’ll be handing out postcards and flyers reminding you to order a copy so you’ll have it as soon as the boat o’ books arrives from China!

Although I’ve mostly been in “crochet mode” the past several months, I’ll be teaching mostly knitting at the Show. On Wednesday, CGOA’s Professional Development Day, I’ll be presenting “Designing for Publication” in three separate 1-hour sessions. There are a lot of really terrific sessions being given that afternoon, and I wish I could attend some of them. On Thursday, I’ll be teaching “Where Do They Get Those Numbers? (Math for Knitters)”, one of my favorite classes, and a brand-new class entitled “unLearn to Knit”, which I’m very excited about. I’ve taught it once before and got a great response.

Another favorite, “Intarsia Without Fear”, is schedule for Friday morning, and is sold out. Friday afternoon is “Knitting Disasters & Other Opportunities”, which is always a lot of fun! And the part I’m perhaps most excited about: on Saturday, I get to take a class! My schedule seldom allows me the time to take a classit, but I love to learn new things.

I got my advance copy of Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs in the mail on Friday. Yippee! Even though I had seen the pages as color layouts before, it’s always exciting to hold an actual bound copy in my hands for the first time. Here it is…

This book is very colorful and fun to look at, and I think the motifs are really appealing. But I would say that, wouldn’t I? Now I’ve got to stay focused on knitting my current project, because what I really want to do is go crochet some motifs…

TNNA was terrific, as always. The best part of TNNA is the people–talking to shop owners, yarn company reps, designers and teachers from all over the country. I always return home energized and ready to WORK HARD. If only there were more hours in the day.

A special thanks is due to Amy Greemun, publicist and fun gal, for letting me stay with her in Columbus when my room wasn’t ready. We had a laugh over the fact that neither of us had organized the hotels/flights correctly.

This past weekend, I taught a couple of classes at Carodan Farm’s Soxperience. The farm is in a lovely setting in rural Greene County, Virginia, and the early-morning drive over the mountain to get there made it worth getting up at 6:00 a.m. Tents were set up on the lawn, but the heat and humidity drove us into the air-conditioned shop for the afternoon session. I think I convinced at least one person that crocheting and knitting CAN mix.

In the morning, I taught Motif Crochet to an assortment of both beginner and experienced crocheters. They got to drool over some of the motifs from Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs, and learned some tips for making and improving their stitching. In the afternoon, we got a start on Flower Inset Socks. Not everyone got all the way through to the heel, but they all know my email address, so I’ll expect questions!

Now I get to stay home for a few weeks before heading off to the Knit & Crochet Show in Manchester. NH. Next week I’ll be debuting a new class - UnLearn to Knit- at On the Lamb in Staunton, VIrginia.

Hoards of yarn and needlework professionals are set to descend on Columbus, Ohio, this weekend to attend The National Needlework Association trade show. OK, as the beginning of a blog post, that sentence stinks. However, it’s true, and anyone who has attended previous TNNA shows knows what a rush it is to come to Columbus and see new products.

Even more exciting to me is the chance to meet with those in all aspects of the industry–shop owners, yarn companies, publishers, teachers, designers–and talk shop. Teaching at TNNA is fun. Yarn shop owners and employees make terrific students!  (And they’d better be on the ball this weekend, as I’m cramming the material for 3-hr classes into 2-hr time slot.)

I’ll do my best to make a report, and to take pictures with my handy-dandy cell phone. Of course, I haven’t yet learned how to get those pictures off the cell phone, so my reports won’t be illustrated unless I manage to overcome that little technological hurdle.

See you in Columbus!

Welcome to the new, re-designed EdieEckman.com!

It is designed for optimal viewing in Mozilla Firefox, a free and open-source web browser. The code behind the site is Wordpress, a free and open-source web publishing platform.

If you notice any errors in content, please inform Edie, while any technical difficulties should be reported to the Webmaster. Thanks!