Executive Decision

I'm closing in on the one year anniversary of my decision to make a book. Creating a book sounds easy in theory, but is ridiculously hard in practice. It took months to figure out a theme, to do all sorts of research, learn how to construct certain garments. (I wanted to put socks in my book, but didn't know much about sock construction, so I knit a lot of socks to practice.) And despite constantly working on the book, the goal of finishing kept moving further and further away from me. It came to a head last week when I could hardly pull myself out of bed due to stress related to the number of patterns in the book. So I have made an executive decision: there will be 10 patterns in the book rather than the original 12 I had intended.

Leftover yarn from design #7

The main reasons are:
1. I couldn't think of two more ideas that didn't seem forced.
2. I was becoming ill over trying to make two more designs.
3. No one really cares if there is 10 or 12 designs. I just need to get this book out.

After making that decision, I woke up the next day feeling happier than I had in the last 6 months. My creative mojo came back and I even went on a two hour bike ride, which is something I hadn't done since September. My goal of finishing seems so much closer now! In the last week I have finished knitting design #7. (I still have some pattern editing to do, so it isn't 100% done just yet.) And I started working on design #8. If I'm able to keep up the momentum, I should be able to being taking the photographs this summer.

A sneak peek of design #7

On a slightly separate note, I've been seriously considering writing up some photography e-courses that would have an emphasis on fiber/knitting, but would be applicable to any sort of product photography. Subjects that could be covered would be as follows: composition, lighting, color theory, use of props. Each subject would have in depth explanations paired with exercises. (And possibly a bit showing a comparison of cameras such as a dslr, point and shoot, and iphone, and what you can do with each) I've seen plenty of "use natural light" but very little of why and how to use light effectively. I want to be able to show the times of day in the same area and how you can use the light to your advantage. With the amount of work that would go into this, I'd want to sell it. But before I even go there, I thought I'd see if there was any interest.