You completely made my day
Tuesday June 19th 2007, 3:46 pm
Filed under: "Wrapped in Comfort"

Sea Silk Monterey patternI write this site to try to create a place of safety from the pressures of the world, a place where people can grab a chair, their knitting, if they like, and relax and find themselves among friends.

My book was released last Monday. By Friday evening Amazon had reverted to its “This title has not yet been released” page, at the same time some people were getting theirs–from Amazon. After there were a few posts of “Mine came!” on the lists, I got an email from a woman who had pre-ordered in March, after Amazon had told her it was not available yet, asking, did that mean she didn’t pre-order early enough in the line-up to get hers?!

I’m assuming Amazon assumed x percent of the pre-orders would be cancelled, didn’t stock enough to cover the initial demand, and simply ran out. It’s just knitting, after all, and really, how much interest could there be in that? And lace, at that.

You know what the largest user group of bloglines is? You got it. Knitters.

By yesterday Amazon was shipping again. Meantime, over the weekend, chapters.ca likewise posted it “temporarily unavailable to order” (maybe it got held up at Customs, let’s not be too full of myself) and a large online vendor of knitting supplies had, like Amazon, gone from shipping to “not yet been released.”

The funniest was a guy who was scalping copies at $52.

I dunno how word got out so well or how you all did this, but I have to tell you, you’ve been making me feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Thank you thank you thank you. I can only hope it lives up to your hope. I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels right now to be getting multiple reports from yarn store owners of opening up cases and selling out on the spot. Y’all don’t mind if I bask a bit, do you?


21 Comments so far
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You’re so cute! I bragged to my friends here about it; they’re very happy for you.
See you on Thursday!

Comment by Shelle 06.19.07 @ 4:32 pm

A little kid on Christmas eve who didn’t get caught getting into the chocolates and candy canes and who now is extremely wired, excited, and ready to burst with excitement might be closer to reality. It has been fun to watch.

Comment by rich 06.19.07 @ 7:02 pm

Yeah yeah, book book. Kidding! That is so great! Once again, the power of the knitters. But I want to know what that yarn is in the pic and what you’re making now!

Comment by Kathleen 06.19.07 @ 7:28 pm

And you completely made mine… I love the Embossed Diamonds afghan and I can’t wait to go find a copy of your shawl book. Thanks so much for sharing!

Comment by Annie 06.19.07 @ 7:29 pm

Bask away, my friend! You deserve it.

Comment by Amanda 06.19.07 @ 7:52 pm

Heeee. How coooool! 😀

Comment by Romi 06.19.07 @ 8:56 pm

Dear Alison:

I know I posted a comment yesterday about getting your book, but I just had to come back and say that this is the only knitting book I have ever bought that I know I will knit every pattern in the book. My husband watched me pour over the book for more than an hour, then head in to go through my stash. I heard him mutter, “Oh this is trouble…” He’s right!!

If you go into Purlescence soon, say hey to Nathania for me.

Jane

Comment by Jane Gawthrop 06.20.07 @ 6:51 am

I am so happy for you! Nothing like a success to make a person feel good. Congratulations! I personally can’t wait to see the book for myself. After all it is hard to get a hold of right now. 🙂

Comment by Amanda 06.20.07 @ 6:57 am

I am happy for you and I’m so looking forward to my copy. Hopefully, it will get here soon! I have been very impressed with the previews I’ve seen and I’m looking forward to the stories.

Comment by Alison 06.20.07 @ 7:38 am

Oh, oh, it’s out! I’m still anxiously waiting for my copy. In the meantime, to take the edge off, I’ve started knitting the Strawberry Pie Shawl, but am stuck in the pattern. I’ll send details via another post, because I don’t want to detract from your well-deserved basking in any way today. Congratulations!

Comment by Eva 06.20.07 @ 8:07 am

Bask away! You deserve it! I will be looking for the book at the first bookstore I hit once I’m stateside.

Comment by AmyS 06.20.07 @ 8:13 am

Ooooh, I logged on to Amazon this morning, and it gave mid-August as the date I can expect to receive your book! I can hardly believe it. Somehow I think it will arrive sooner though, because it said I can’t change or cancel the order. If it really does take them that long to ship to me, I will gladly be buying a second copy so I can have one sooner! lol I’ll just give the other one to my Mom. 😉

Comment by Joni 06.20.07 @ 5:33 pm

Mid-August?! Wow. My screen is showing right now that it’s available; maybe they got restocked today?

By the way, my email provider has apparently been blocking the arrival of some of the comments to my inbox the last day or two, and I apologize to anybody I haven’t gotten back to.

Comment by AlisonH 06.20.07 @ 7:08 pm

While at mt LYS I wrote all the info down for her so she could order them for the store. I hope she gets them in soon.

Comment by Sonya 06.20.07 @ 7:18 pm

Bask!!Please Bask!! Days like this make up for a whole lot of other types.

Comment by Lilly 06.20.07 @ 8:33 pm

Allison, I have your book and I feel that I can make each one, but I do have a question. Is it possible (since I have all this lace yarn), can I use it with smaller needles? Do I need to add stitches? Any help would be appreciated. I am a newbie as far as lace knitting is concerned.

Comment by Linda E. 06.21.07 @ 7:34 pm

FYI: There are thousands of copies at Ingram. This means that anyone within shouting distance of a Borders or Barnes & Noble should be able to get one within a week, if Amazon is fighting back. I *think* there were even some available for “Easy ship” from Borders, which would mean people wouldn’t pay shipping.

This is both for information purposes for you, and also to let you know how big this is. A thousand copies at Ingram is really, really good.

Hugs for you.

Comment by kristine 06.22.07 @ 7:37 am

I had no idea that knitters were the biggest users of Bloglines! Although I DO know that the general idea of knitting brings to mind the Victorian era to most people. I get funny looks when I say I knit and yet have only made1&1/2 sweaters. people don’t get what a huge selection there is of patterns!

Comment by Carol 06.22.07 @ 8:49 am

too cool! Now I have to look for it, I’ve been living under a rock of late. BTW could you retell the title? I’m too lazy for my own good, but that will make the search so much easier!

thanks
cb

Comment by Carole 06.22.07 @ 10:42 am

Linda, one of the things I’ve been itching to do is to take Constance’s shawl, one of the narrower ones, and do it with laceweight, probably, in my case, Jaggerspun Zephyr (which is one of the heavier laceweights) and size 5 needles and try it with the stitch count doubled. Finer laceweight and 4s should work fine, too, for that (I’m assuming a very loose knitting technique, since that’s how mine is.) I’m going to be working out the stitch count adjustments, making sure I keep the number of stitches increased to the right amount so that the patterns between the sections still match up right. The patterns all state the number of stitches in the stitch patterns, so it’s not hard to figure out.

I’ve made the Nina and the Bigfoot shawls in Fino 70/30 baby alpaca/silk heavy laceweight on size 7s, but I’m ready to try it in an even finer yarn myself. And Constance’s shawl is an easy pattern to carry around without needing the instructions after the first repeat.

Comment by AlisonH 06.22.07 @ 10:44 am

CONGRATULATIONS ALISON!

Gave up trying to find your email so I just pulled up your page! We are going to be at Oakland/TKGA with a booth, if you need a place for your book signing, please don’t hesitate to take over my desk – although, I don’t think my little roll-top will be able to handle it, ha ha

I have told a ton of people about the book with our yarn in it and they want a copy but want to buy it from me, send me information on how to get a dozen or two copies. I want my OWN copy, of course, but I want an autographed one, naturally.

I have been busy working on alpaca yarn. We found a mill here in the USA to process our yarn and it will be absolutely beautiful, I also taught myself how to dye fleece and yarns, just finished a rainbow blend but my mom kept pushing for a University of Oregon green and yellow so guess what – did that one tonight – having a blast!

We look forward to seeing you in September. Darrin is still flying, having fun doing it except tonight it got crazy – lightning struck the plane north of Denver. He told me about it but didn’t sound too stressed so I don’t know if it wasn’t a big deal or he just didn’t want me to fall apart.

Talk to you soon,
Pam

Comment by Pam Bell 07.07.07 @ 9:58 pm



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