If you’ve been over to the Inside Crochet group on Ravelry, you’ve heard part of my news for the week: the publishers of Inside Crochet have decided to hire a full-time in-house editor over in the UK. So Julie and I will no longer be editing the magazine. That said, we have commissioned work up through issue #11, so you’ll see our work in the publication for a while.

When Kerrie, the magazine’s publisher, told us about her intention, we weren’t shocked. Now that the magazine has grown and is so successful, it makes sense to have an editor who can work alongside the rest of the staff.  We are also thrilled with the new editor–Claire Montgomery who has been a regular contributor to the magazine. But we will miss the job–we loved putting the designs together for the magazine, sourcing yarns, creating themes. Most of all, we loved working with designers–shepherding them from idea to publication and helping their ideas become published designs.

One of the other things I loved was working with Julie–she is a great partner and we are certainly going to keep doing projects together. Meanwhile, I’ll just have to think of other reasons to call her up on the phone every few days.

Finishing work on Inside Crochet couldn’t have come at a better time for me, because I’m starting another big project next month–I’m going to graduate school. I’ve been accepted into the University of Alaska’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. The program begins in May, and is conducted mostly remotely, but there’s a 10-day residency in July when I’ll go to Anchorage.  I can’t wait to dive in and really focus on my writing, and the UAA program sounds amazing.

Now, this has been a busy couple of days for the blog tour, and I didn’t get a chance to post over the weekend, so I have TWO tour stops to tell you about:

First up, on Sunday, The Crochet Dude. Drew reviews the book and talks a bit about the design he contributed.

This morning, June Gilbank of Planet June has a review of the book and a play-by-play account of her customizing the Gone Fishing Vest to fit her own little handmade bear. It was great to read how June worked through the fun and the challenges of making a custom-sized teddy vest. June is also giving away a copy of the book, so be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win.

Don’t forget–tomorrow’s stop is LIVE! I’ll be chatting with Marly on the Yarn Thing podcast. Head over to her site to find out when it airs in your time zone, and please do call in to chat, it will be much more fun with your participation.

Announcements, Changes, and More Blog Tour & Book Giveaways