A Busy Week - Full of Books
"Autograph Anyone?"

The week has been filled with lots of exciting adventures as well as the day to day routines. To begin with, I approved the printing of The Crafty Welsh Corgi Knits - Pembroke and Cardigan. I had a lot of fun creating this book and it is dedicated to my late friend John Lang who was a longtime obedience club member and who had a amazing bond with his Pembroke Welsh Corgis over the years. John was always interested in forwarding the interest of the breed.

On Thursday, I stood in line with hundreds of others for the chance to meet Martha Stewart at the book signing for her new book Cupcakes at RJ Julia Bookstore. This is a wonderful shop in Madison, Connecticut. The line stretched the length of the block which gave me a chance to chat with those around me. I entertained my new friend, Joanne, by telling her all about Kanine Knits and the Crafty Dog Knits book series that I write. When I got to the front of the line, she took these photos. Martha autographed her book Cupcakes and then I showed her two of my Kanine Knits: Portraits of Dogs in Knitting patterns that showed her breeds. One pattern showed the Chow design I created that had been knit by Victoria Pettigrew of VIP Fibers using the hair spun from her own Paw Paw. She then checked out the Crafty Bernese Mt Dog Knits book of the series. She enjoyed it and was delighted with my concept of single breed knitting portrait books.

Saturday I was off to Greenwich Kennel Club to sign some autographs myself. It was fun sharing the tent with a bunch of very talented authors. I got to talk about my books and patterns, autograph and talk to exhibitors about future books. The Portuguese Water Dog group decided they definitely need a knitting book and some Poodle exhibitors said they would like to send me photos of their dogs for the book I'm working on now. It was a perfect day for showing with temperatures cool enough for the dogs and the sun out. This was a great place to show off my books as well as "talk the talk if not walk the walk" of showing that has been such a large part of my life for more than forty years.

Just to finish the weekend on a theme, I drove over to the Fabric Bug in Thomaston, CT to attend my friend Marie Bostwick's autograph session for her new novel The Thread of Truth. This is the second in her wonderful series that is based around a quilt shop in Connecticut so it was appropriate that she'd be signing books as quilters worked merrily away around her. The first book in the series, A Single Thread, introduced us to these strong interesting women and the challenges they face.

It was a wonderfully busy week with old friends and new. I look forward to what next week will hold.

Peggy at The Big E

It has been a while since I posted but lots has been happening at Kanine Knits. I have been writing multiple books, getting patterns converted to pdf's, working the booth at the Big E, which for people who are not in New England, is a six state fair held for 17 days in September, and generally being busy but happy.

When I got back from my trip to California for Book Expo America, I began working on more ways to let people know about my books and patterns. As I mentioned in my last post, I set up multiple blogs with information appropriate to each breed, and I worked on making specific patterns into downloadable pdf files so that people could get them quickly without having to wait for the patterns to arrive in the mail. So now each Kanine Knit Pattern is available in either form.

Then came the push to get the booth ready at the Big E. This fair is huge, and I was on a committee to put together a large booth withing the Connecticut Building where authors from the state could exhibit their books. Needless to say, this took time and planning, but it was a complete success and on the days that I worked the booth, I met knitter from all over the eastern US. Even the governor of Connecticut, Jodi Rell, came to see my books and talk about her son's Labrador Retriever.

Of course when I wasn't at the Big E or elsewhere marketing my books, I was gathering materials for the ones that I'm writing now. The one nearing completion is the Corgi book. It has taken a while to gather photos of these wonderful Pembrokes and Cardigans at work and having fun, but that book should be out soon.

At the same time, the Poodle book is coming along, though it is waiting for me to gather more photos from poodle owners who want to show off their dogs.

There is much to come, but I have to get back to my knitting. I'll try to post more soon.