There’s been a few questions come in about the book, and I want to keep the responses in a central place so everyone can access them. Some of the questions have come via replies to my newsletter, some via social media posts. The launch of the book has been SO successful that it’s taken us all by surprise, and the downtime I’d factored in wasn’t nearly enough. Put it this way – Google limited my sending abilities on Friday because the response was so overwhelming that my auto-responder was a tad busy and I hit my daily limit! This has to be one of the best reasons for my email to be restricted and I hope you can all have a laugh with me about breaking my email!
On the flipside, my personal capacity to reply is depleted. I’ve had so many lovely emails that I really want to reply personally to but I just can’t, I’m sorry. Likewise on social media I’m just about managing to hit the like/love button but that’s it. This is one of the realities of being Autistic, that communication is very exhausting, even for the best possible reasons, and I hope you can appreciate that one central post where I cover as much as possible is the best way for me to help as many people as possible.
Digital Versions:
Folks have asked if there will be a Kindle version of the book – to the best of my knowledge, no there won’t be – Soho Publishing/Sixth&Spring Books are a paper only publisher.
Similarly, there won’t be a download link included in the book for an eBook.
I appreciate this may disapoint folks, but this isn’t a self-published book and publishers have their reasons for sticking to paper only.
Availability:
Some folks are concerned about knitters in different parts of the world getting access to my book, or even being aware it exists.
Selecting guest designers for the book was *hard* . I wanted folks known for their use of colour and or construction, and I also needed folks I’d be able to communicate and build a good working relationship with. And I also wanted folks from as many different countries as possible, because my fans are all around the world and so often big mainstream books are heavily US-centric.
Designers involved come from Canada, UK, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Czechia. I am already making plans with guest designers about promoting the book to their local audience and it is most definitely going to be available right across Europe and beyond. It may take a while to filter through, and I don’t have all the details yet, but I hope you will be able to get hold of a copy without spending a fortune on shipping and customs charges.
Australia:
Before I sent the first newsletter, revealing the cover and pre-order details, I asked my editor about distribution in Australia. I know from my fantastic moderators that getting hold of copies of my ‘Knit Hats’ book (published by Stackpole) that getting copies to Australia was almost impossible.
I still don’t yet have distributor details. I know the ‘one link’ works and takes you to the listing on the Australian Amazon site and it’s showing as out-of-stock, and I don’t know when that’ll give you a pre-order option
Translations:
This has very briefly come up in conversation, and it was something I kept in mind when thinking about which designers to work with. I would absolutely love for this book to be available in languages beyond English, but that’s not straightforward and depends on a number of different factors – the big one being how popular the English version is – and I can’t give an answer to this question, and ultimately the decision is beyond my control. But I very much would like it to happen!
Skills Levels:
One thing that really bothers is the idea of skills levels. I don’t include them on my patterns because I find they do more harm than good. I have had beginner knitters successfully knit my Elemental Hats and why? Because they haven’t had me telling them they’re ‘advanced’ and therefore beyond their capabilities. Most of the techniques I use in my patterns are classified as ‘advanced’ by the CYC standards and I think that’s a tad ridiculous. Short rows aren’t an advanced knitting technique – they may be unfamiliar, but that doesn’t make them difficult.
Everything is difficult until you know how.
There’s an extensive tutorials section in the book, and we spent a lot of time making the photos and text as accessible and as clear as possible, so that you can learn easily as you go.
None of the methods demonstrated in the tutorials are exclusive to the technique, but there are some extra fun bits like repairing a German short row, and knitting backwards – including working short rows backwards and even slipped stitch selvedges! You don’t have to keep turning all the time, you can knit backwards instead! I also go indepth on Garter Stitch grafting, the cast-ons used, as well as German short rows and more. You know I like to get thorough with tutorials and cover as much as I can and throw in extra tips, and these are no exception.
There’s also an extensive selection of articles that explain the technique, how I came up with my process, and how to make it work for you. Honestly, we really do have you covered. Again, we spent a lot of time making this as clear as possible and easy to follow. There’s some really innovative stuff in this book, some friends and colleagues have even called it “revolutionary” (and I love them for that!) but that does not in any way mean you can’t do it. You absolutely can, and I’ll show you how.
The Ten Projects:
Over the next few months each designer involved will be sharing more about their projects, their inspiration and more, and that’ll cover various social media platforms and blogs. There’s way too much to share on that in one post, and I’d rather you hear it from them directly!
That said, the 10 projects have been added to the book’s Ravelry listing, with all photos and various notes about their construction:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/short-row-colorwork-knitting
eta/ they’ve now been introduced on the blog – click here!
There are 2 large shawls, 2 small shawls, 2 scarves, 1 cowl, 1 pair of mitts, and 2 Hats. The 3rd photo in the gallery above shows all the shawls and scarves. One of the scarves and one of the Hats are written for 2 different yarn weights, so across the 3 yarns used – Malabrigo Sock, Arroyo and Rios – each yarn has 4 projects. Most of the projects are one-size and come with adjustment notes. My Hats are multi-sized.
You can also find more images on the book’s Amazon page – at least I know they’ve been added to the US site and should have filtered through to other sites – and Malabrigo have started to share via their IG page, the first one was shared recently (they sponsored the book)
Amazon Affiliate Links:
As I said in my newsletter, I know Amazon are far from the most ethical company on the planet, but for many of us it’s our only option – it’s one of the only ways for me to get English language books in Italy, for instance. And not everyone has access to a local yarn or book store.
And Amazon rankings can make or break a book, so publishers have little choice but to encourage sales via this route.
With all this in mind, I set up an Amazon affiliate account for folks who will be pre-ordering through Amazon. The main link I sent out in the newsletter was a ‘one link’ which should redirect you to your local store, but a few folks have told me it wasn’t behaving properly.
And why the affiliate link? If you pre-order through one of these links I’ll earn roughly an extra 4.5% on each book pre-ordered, which increases my earnings for each copy purchased this way by approximately 50%. Which is a lot! As much as we’re hoping this book does really well, most folks would be surprised to know what royalties an author earns, and every little bit helps.
And don’t worry – it won’t cost you any extra! – that 4.5% comes out of Amazon’s pocket. It doesn’t matter which country link below you purchase from, Amazon will pay me that commission out of their profits.
If you’re rather pre-order through your local book or yarn shop, I’m absolutely cool with that too and fully support it!
Here are the links I have right now, and will add to this post as and when I can get more. If the ‘one link’ is sending you to the wrong country it might be a cookie issue, and a different browser might do the trick.
One-Link
Please try this link first, for any country, as it connects them all and makes payouts to me easier by centralising everything (each country has a minimum payout threshold, for instance, and many have specific tax requirements, or various withholding tax rates, before they’ll payout, but the ‘one-link’ means I only have to meet the criteria once, instead of meeting it for each country).
Please don’t edit the link, either – it’s designed to automatically redirect your to your nearest store, based on your browser cookies:
Book Details for Yarn and Book Shops to Pre-order:
Publisher: Sixth&Spring Books
Publication dates: US – April 30th, 2024; UK – May 14th, 2024
Paperback: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 197004814X
ISBN-13: 978-197004814
UK & EU distributor: GMC
US & Canada distributor: Ingram
Australia, NZ & ROW distributor: to be confirmed
OK, this is all I have for now – I hope it helps!
And do leave a comment below if you’ve any more questions, and I’ll do what I can to answer them!
3rd April 2024:
An update! There has unfortunately been a delay to the shipping of the first print run, and publication date in North America has been pushed back by 2 weeks. There’s a good chance the books won’t be delayed by that much, and they are working hard to make sure everyone gets their books as soon as possible, but there are a few things out of their control.
I’m reliably told that this delay doesn’t impact the UK/EU publication date.
And finally… the book is already onto its 2nd printing, and it’s not even published yet! That’s quite something, huh?
16th April 2024:
Another update! A few folks in the EU have got in touch to ask about long or open-ended extensions to their expected release date. I’ve spoken with the distributor and as far as they know, there are no delays.
However – demand for the book is high, there are a lot of pre-orders coming in, and this will be having a knock-on effect. In short, the demand is outstripping stock allocation. But more stock is on order, the book’s already well into its 2nd printing (most likely being shipped already) so if there are any delays on pre-orders in the UK or EU, they won’t be long.
The release date for North America is still 30th April – however your expected shipping dates may show a different date, possibly impacted by the shipping delays of the first print run.
17th April 2024:
I’ve heard from a couple of folks concerned that Amazon have given them a date of May 7th. I appreciate the frustration, but the shipping delay was unforeseen and out of everyone’s control. And I’m afraid none of us can control Amazon and their policies and practices! :/ There are a lot of moving parts here; as the author I’m at the very end of the chain but I am doing what I can to keep everyone updated 🙂
I do know that the US distributor now has the books and is preparing them to be shipped out to the various retailers, including Amazon. Ingram are the largest book distributor in North America and they’ve a large stock of the book, so whilst we can’t give any dates as to when any retailer will get them, please know they are on their way and Ingram are doing what they can to get everyone’s books out to them as soon as possible and avoid any further delays. 30th April is still the expected publication date in the US.
I ordered on Amazon UK in January via the one link. It’s currently showing in my orders as expected 20-21 May, although the main listing says it will be released on May 14th. I’m hoping that it will arrive somewhere in that timeframe as I want to take it with me on a road trip! My past experience with preorders from Amazon is that they will ship them out as soon as they have stock, so if the books arrive early we may receive them a day or two earlier.