Sunday, October 07, 2007

Let's Start At the Very Beginning...

...a very good place to start.

Hi Knitters,
Actually, I am starting at the very end. I ended up my Minnesota visit at Needlework Unlimited which is one of my favorite places to be. I was graciously welcomed and that shop is something else, it is huge and brimming with every great yarn you could ever want. Karen Rumpza is a savvy owner with her inventory. The knitters there were wonderful and plentiful. There was a steady stream of happy faces that included a brand new baby named Thora (and proud mom and grandma, too), and the lovely Lesli (check out the fantastic blog she just started!) and her beautiful daughter, Ella, kept me company for quite some time. Ella, who is seven, is an enthusiastic knitter to say the least, and she had the cutest felted bag that she knitted herself, so fun to see. Anyway, I went through stacks of books, both hats and nursery kind, and it was a relaxing and pleasant stop, thoroughly enjoyable. I would go back there anytime.


The photographer for the book, Liz Banfield, lives in Minneapolis so I am always telling people that all of those great babies are from Minnesota. I have to mention that I met the mom of the gorgeous little girl who modelled the tea set in the book. Her name is Piper and she has a great story. Right before these photos were taken, maybe a week before, she was adopted from China! The mom wasn't sure how she would react to being a model, but she was perfect. Liz Banfield knew her from the neighborhood. It was great to meet her and hear about Piper in person. Piper's mom is pretty cute herself!


The other person I met was baby Chloe's aunt who showed up at Needlework. Chloe is in three pictures in the book. She is in the stroller wearing the circles stroller jacket. She has the best cheeks I have ever seen! Chloe is also wearing the rosebud hat next to the fruit loops bag. Her family is so excited about her being in the book. It was touching to see how proud her aunt is of her niece. I signed a book for Chloe and thanked her for being a model in my book. These kinds of meetings make everything worth it to me, pure and simple.
Saturday morning I went to the Midwest Booksellers Convention. Wow, was that an interesting look into the book selling market. Independent bookstore owners came through in large numbers and they get free books and other stuff from the hundreds of publishers who set up booths. It is like Christmas and everything is free. I set up this little table of goodies at the Workman booth. It attracted a lot of attention because of the knitted samples, people love a good knitted cupcake. I signed and gave away 60 copies of itty bitty nursery in less than an hour. I met quite a few knitters/bookstore owners as well. Many of these little book shops have a knitting shop right nearby. That was good fun.
The best part of of the convention was meeting my beloved Danielle face to face. In this day and age you can work with someone on a daily basis for months and never meet them in person. Isn't that kind of strange? It is to me, I like to know what someone looks like and I have been known to make people describe themselves over the phone to me. Sorry about that.
Danielle was my publicist for itty bitty hats and she is amazing. She is a jack of all trades in every sense of the word. She can literally do anything and everything and manage any crisis in a matter of moments. She switched jobs at Workman and is now in sales and marketing. Workman is lucky to have her. Plus she is just so darn fun. We went out to dinner on Friday night (actually, I just remembered it was my birthday that night) at a great restaurant on Nicollet Mall called the Newsroom. The food was delicious and we ate a ton. She looked so cute and New York sassy and I looked, well, Midwestern mom. That is making me laugh. What can you do? I am what I am. Danielle is a knockout and a kind, thoughtful, hardworking young woman. I love her to the core and I am lucky to have the opportunity to work with her and to spend time with her. Thanks Danielle!
Oh yeah, I did a taping for KARE 11, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, which will be shown on Tuesday, Oct. 9th on the Showcase Minnesota show. If you're in the area and are able to see that spot, I would love to hear how it went. One funny thing is that during the taping my cell phone went off, it was my sister wishing me a happy birthday. We laughed about that later. I thought they would stop the tape so I told Corbin that my phone was going off, but she just kept on going! I got a bit distracted so that should be good for a laugh. Despite that the taping went fine and I hope it looks good. Let me know!
On Thursday I went to The Yarnery in St. Paul. What a great shop! The staff was friendly and warm and they had a wonderful event all set to roll. You can see pictures here. I forgot to get my camera out. I met the lovely Eva who is a great itty bitty knitter. She was such fun to chat with. The beautiful Sylvia was there with her bear and I helped her figure out the feet construction. Her bear was so cute and she is so excited to be expecting her first grandchild soon. I want to hear all about that, Sylvia. Also, the beautiful baby Will came and hung out for a long while. He was so sweet. I love meeting those babies. The Yarnery just opened an online shop for their store. Check that out for sure and they are selling the patterns for these fantastic felted snowmen with accessories. You will see their ad in the new holiday Interweave Knits. That is one cute pattern! I loved being at this shop so much. What a treat of a night.
Well, one last line of business. I had the pleasure of being featured in the business section of the weekend edition of the Capital Times newspaper here in Madison. You can check out that article here and the reporter Katie Dean did a super job. Thanks, Katie for being thorough and making the effort to come to the Knitting Tree event. I was really impressed. I can't imagine how hard those reporters work and at such a fast pace, incredible.
Wow, can you believe all that? For anyone who made it through this post, thank you! Now I am off to clean my house which you also wouldn't believe.
best, susie

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds as though you have had an exciting and exhausting week. I just received my copy of Itty Bitty Nursery this week and am in the middle of the cupcake set for a friend. The projects are all sooo adorable! Thank you for the picot edging tutorial. I don't crochet so it was a great help to see the video for the knitted picot edge. I am sure that I'll be viewing that particular tutorial more than once as I attempt the edging.

peaknits said...

First - a very happy belated birthday! I made it through the wonderful post and newspaper article - great job! You look to be having so much fun. I don't have a doubt that this is realy just "the beginning" - I'll see you at Lakeside in a couple of weekends! Yay!

Anonymous said...

I just got my copy of itty bitty nursery...
oh.my.goodness.
I can't wait to finish cleaning MY house
so I can sit down and drool over
all of the gorgeous projects!
Well DONE!
Greta
http://gretaknits.typepad.com/lifelong_knitter

Adrienne said...

Sounds like fun! My copy is on its way to me!!! yay! LOL

Lovemook said...

Congrats on the "beginning" :) I'm jealous that I'm not in Midwest anymore and not there to meet you :( When are you coming to the East Coast??? Can I help to arrange it? Can't wait to see your new book, just ordered it. <3 Anya

Annie said...

You were so much fun to meet! Small world, huh? Thanks for the sweet comments. Ella was blushing. And thank you for bringing the tea set. My favorite - but everything was gorgeous!! You are one talented knitter and I can't wait to see your next book. Look me up if you are ever in or near Anoka.
Happy knitting!

Sarah said...

My house needs somebody to clean it, but it won't be me anytime soon! I broke my toe yesterday and need surgery, so hooray! I have tons of time to knit now! First off will be the pigs/wolf set--I have a list in the front of ibn with which projects I want to do before Christmas, and in what order. I'm afraid I'm going to need to break something else to get it all done in time. :)

Anonymous said...

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR SCHEDULE !! BUT I AM SO EXCITED THAT YOU ARE COMING TO LEXINGTON :0) I COULDN'T WAIT TILL NEXT WEEK, SO JUST RAN TO JOSEPH BETH BOOKSTORE TO PICK UP ITTY BITTY NURSERY !!! IT LOOKS GREAT !!! I LOOK SO FORWARD TO MEETING YOU THIS SATURDAY...AND WELCOME TO KENTUCKY ( IN ADVANCE !! )
OFF TO PLAN WHICH PROJECTS TO DO FIRST....CUPCAKES OR BEAR ??? :0)

Denise said...

Well Happy 'belated' Birthday - I didn't know you were a fellow Libran ;-) (my birthday is next week) and if I'm lucky my copy of IBN should be in my grasp by then -Amazon finally shipped it out on the 4th! Until then I have started a pair of 'Monkey' socks, and I'm so excited cos I've got the first one already finished tonight. Now I just need to start all over again and make the second one.
Well done on your book tour so far, sounds like hard work to me - you deserve to have your house cleaned for when you get home ;-)
Happy Sunday.
Hugs
Denise

Anonymous said...

WHAT A BUSY SCHEDULE !!! BUT SO GLAD THAT YOU ARE COMING TO KENTUCKY !!! I COULDN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT SAT., SO I RAN TO JOSEPH BETH BOOKSTORE TODAY AND BOUGHT ITTY BITTY NURSERY !!! OH, I LOVE IT !!! I LOOK SO FORWARD TO BRINGING IT BACK SAT FOR YOU TO SIGN !!!! WELCOME TO KENTUCKY....IN ADVANCE !!!
OFF TO PLAN MY PROJECTS....CUPCAKES OR BEAR ??
THANK YOU,
BARB :0)

Susan B. Anderson said...

Annie,
Why did I think your name was Lesli? Was that someone else or did I sign your book to Lesli? I am sorry if I got that wrong!
susan

Judy S. said...

Hi,

Chloe is my grand niece, and we think she's pretty cute, too. I also purchased your book this week and appreciate the great special techniques section in the back!

I think Katie has taken me to that knitting shop when we were visiting Grandma Jane.

Happy knitting,
Aunt Judy in Washington State

PS Jane and I grew up in WI!

Susan B. Anderson said...

Hi Judy S.,
Thank you for writing me about the beautiful Chloe. I just loved meeting Chloe's aunt, what fun to see the excitement about the book. You know, I love to think about all of those sweet little cherubs modeling their hearts out on those pages. What pride all of their families must feel. I know I would have if one of my babies was in a book like that.
Chloe is one special girl and I can see she is one cherished baby.
susan

Annie said...

Long story short, yes my given name is Lesli but nickname by grandparents and parents is Annie so I go by both.

Unknown said...

Hello Susan, Thank you for your kind words. It was great meeting you. Now I see that we have one more thing in common. We were both born in October.
Keep dreaming...
Sylvia BA