String Revolution

I’ve had a quite extraordinary year. It feels like I started sprinting in mid-February, and didn’t stop until … well, probably until my grandmother died at the end of September. The pace picked up again in October, with a novel-writing binge followed by a marketing blitz followed by a present-making extravaganza, and whatever notions I might have had about using the time between Christmas and New Year to do some much-needed catching up and planning, they were trumped by a forceful lethargy that I am attributing only partly to the sinusy headcold that has had me in its snotty grip all week.

No matter!

Have some pretty pictures of some of my handmade presents this year.

Up at the top there, you see the earrings I made for my mother (left) and a cousin (right). Get me with my arty shot setup, and so forth. The large glass beads are by Anna Felton, who sells at the Dublin Food Co-op: each one is unique, and I think they’re utterly gorgeous. See more of her work on Flickr – I know she’s in the process of developing an online shop, but I don’t think it’s up yet.

For my mother-in-law, I made a set of quilted leaves, using the same technique as for the little wall hanging I made in 2010. Here they all are, mixed in with the cardboard templates I used. I made eleven altogether, each one a faithful portrait of an actual leaf collected last year by the mother-in-law, the children, and me. We’ll decide together, at our leisure, how to arrange and mount them.

For my mother, I dashed off a cowl by the estimable Yarn Harlot, called Pretty Thing. Very satisfactory: definitely pretty, and unquestionably a thing. Additionally, lots of fun to knit, and designed with the sort of skill and care that makes me glow happily inside. I knitted it in Araucania Botany Lace from This Is Knit, which I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show in November. Not the absolute rightest yarn for the pattern, arguably, as it tends to swallow the stitch detail – but so soft! [Ravelled here]

For my father, I took some raw silk that I’d bought in … oh, probably the early 1990s, from Shree on Grafton Street (anyone?), and made a tie – which I forgot to photograph until we were all gathered in my parents’ candlelit kitchen, hence the terrible shot. I embroidered on it the Italian word “Sprezzatura”, meaning something along the lines of “nonchalant brilliance”, about which my father has just written a paper (he being an academic and all).

Speaking of forgetting to take photographs, not pictured are a hasty hat, knitted for my brother in unspeakably smooshy Debbie Bliss Paloma from This Is Knit (the shop itself, this time); and a beaded choker with matching earrings, which I made for my sister in a workshop at the Knitting and Stitching Show.

This won’t seem like much to some of you, but I’m frankly quite impressed at how many presents I managed to finish this year. It beats the last couple of years by a long, long way.

Meanwhile, I have major big plans for 2012, both on this blog and elsewhere. Join the Revolutionary Horde (yes, it’s a mailing list, but where’s the fun in that?) if you want the low-down. Form’s up there in the right-hand sidebar; I’ll always treat your contact details with respect and care.

And finally…

Happy new year, my lovely readers! Thank you so much for being here, and I hope 2012 brings you an endless succession of good things. I hug you!

This week I’m summarising the heap of offers and announcements I’ve made in the last little while. Some of them, you might have noticed the first time around – in which case, please pass along with my gratitude for your patience. Others, you might have missed – in which case, I hope you see something you love.

Thing the Fifth: Colonial Eggacy!

You’ll remember this one, if you know me at all, because I’ve barely shut up about it since it went live.

Anyone just joining us, if you appreciate this execrable pun you can buy it on products at my Zazzle shop.

And if it’s not to your taste, well, what could be a more perfect gift for the pun-loving critic of colonialism in your life?

Incidentally, I’ve added a bag and a magnet to the product range since we last spoke.

Zazzle’s Christmas shipping deadlines are coming up pretty soon, by the way:

• For dark-coloured T-shirts: 4 December (that’s this Sunday)
• For light-coloured T-shirts, mugs, bags, and magnets: 8 December (that’s this Thursday)
• Or you can pay express rates up to 16 December and 19 December respectively

…so get your order in before it’s too late!

PS: Is it wrong that “perfidious albumen” still makes me giggle?

This week I’m summarising the heap of offers and announcements I’ve made in the last little while. Some of them, you might have noticed the first time around – in which case, please pass along with my gratitude for your patience. Others, you might have missed – in which case, I hope you see something you love.

Thing the Third: Stitch My Kid’s Art Commission Service!

You probably didn’t notice this one being launched. I didn’t do it very loudly.

But it might be the best thing in the world ever.

You send me an image of some child art that makes your heart leap. I turn it into a unique textile piece that will melt you into a big happy puddle every time you catch sight of it.

Yes, it’s the Stitch My Kid’s Art Commission Service. What could be simpler?

One client spot left in 2011, by the way…

What’s been going on at String Revolution these past few weeks?

What, indeed?

November is a month of hive-like activity in much of the (online, rich) world. There’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which you may have heard of, wherein writers attempt to produce 50,000 words in 30 breakneck, exhilarating, hilarious days.

Some bloggers, in response to this, have instituted NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), wherein they attempt to post every day for 30 days.

Visual artists, eschewing the restrictive confines of the “Na…Mo” label, undertake Art Every Day Month each November. And I’m sure there are more examples.

I’ve done none of these things. In fact, what I’ve done has lacked any kind of coherent planning. But nonetheless, there has been a shift in the wind around these parts, and I’ve caught the mood of the month. I’ve been announcing things. I’ve been making offers. I’ve been marketing. Best of all (if you’re me), I’ve been selling.

You could call it NaSelfProMo.

Ha. I like that.

NaSelfProMo.

As I say, I didn’t plan it this way. Most of the things I’ve posted about this month have been incubating for ages, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to focus and get them out. So they’ve all come along in a big lump, instead of a carefully controlled trickle.

I feel like a bit of a late bloomer – like these valiant sweet peas, which just won’t stop flowering in my November garden.

Anyway, throughout this week I want to tell you again about the various offers and changes and so on, so you’ll be sure not to miss any of them. It’s a series, people!

Thing the First: The Revolutionary Horde!

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages, and now it’s finally here: String Revolution has a shiny new mailing list. Obviously, it’s called the Revolutionary Horde.

The Revolutionary Horde: Wait … that’s us!
Me: Yes! You’ve been reified, innit.

Horde members get special stuff:

1. Advance notice of all my new offers.
2. Discounts on selected products and services.
3. Invitations to Horde-only events online.
4. String-related writing that won’t appear on the blog.

Sound good to you? Join the Revolutionary Horde using this lovely fuchsia-red signup form up (or the one in the right-hand sidebar – it makes no difference).

And let me hear a Hooray!

Name:

Email:

Grand Experiment Running Totals NINE (9) items sold, FORTY-ONE (41) to go. Get yours here!

I sincerely believe that the English-speaking world is divided into two types of people.

If you are of the first type, you’ll find that you cannot look at the above image without dissolving in a puddle of helpless mirth (I include myself in this category – and I drew the damn thing, so that’s hardly even decent).

If you are of the second type, you’ll tend to hold us first-typers in a kind of detached, piteous disdain. Try as you might, you simply cannot understand what it is about this crudely drawn, childish piece of irrelevancy that we are finding so terribly amusing. You suspect we’re putting it on. Maybe even having a joke at your expense…

In short, you’re either going to GET my gloriously vicious pun (which I’ve incubated, by the way, for at least a year before deciding to inflict it on the world), or you are NOT.

If you’re of the second type, you might like to click away now, before I completely destroy my image in your eyes.

…

Have they gone? … Good.

So, fellow pun-connoisseurs, I’m proposing a Grand Experiment

As long-time readers know well by now, String Revolution is a business, and I am a rationally enthusiastic but emotionally reluctant business owner. I’ve come a long way in addressing my severe marketing phobia, but there’s more to be done.

And here’s the thing: I’m thinking that among the ranks of well-read, language-loving, pun-appreciating, politically literate speakers of English, there must be a sizable constituency of people who would absolutely love to have a physical copy of Colonial Eggacy of their very own – on a mug, say, or a T-shirt.

I mean, if you GET it, you GET it, right? What’s not to like about owning something that makes you grin like a loon every time it catches your eye?

TO THIS END, Colonial Eggacy mugs and T-shirts are available in my Zazzle shop as of today, Monday 21 November 2011.

And here’s the Grand Experiment part:

I want to sell 50 of these.

Now, my usual strategy for a product launch like this would be to talk about it a little bit, here and there, for a day or two, until the shame and despair catch up with me, whereupon I never speak of it again.

In fact, already, I have a fuzzy little monster sitting on my shoulder, muttering, “We told Twitter and Facebook about this hours ago and nobody’s bought any yet – they’re obviously not interested.”

So this time, I’d like to do something different.

The tack I’m going to take is that there are 50 people out there who will truly love and appreciate owning this image in concrete form, and it’s my job to make sure they don’t spend the rest of their lives that little bit less gleeful for never having seen it. Because that would be sad.

Will you help?

You will? Thank you, lovely person!

Here are a few ideas:

1. You could link on your chosen social media to my Zazzle shop, or to the two individual products.
2. You could link on your chosen social media to this post, so people can read the backstory about the Grand Experiment.
3. If you yourself adore Colonial Eggacy, or if you know someone who would adore it – and if you have the budget – you could even, you know, BUY ONE (or several).
4. You could tell me what other Zazzle products would be suitable candidates for Colonial Eggification.
5. You could post a comment here, or contact me some other way, conveying general support. (Yes, that totally counts – I’m kind of petrified!)
6. You could suggest ways of getting the word out that I might not have thought of.
7. In a little while, if you notice me falling silent about the Grand Experiment, you could give me a gentle nudge.

Meanwhile, here’s what I’ll be doing: Not shutting up about this until 50 items have been sold.

(Just to contextualise, that will represent a major increase in my Zazzle sales.)

I’m allowing myself three months. If it happens sooner than that, I reserve the right to set a new target. I’ll update you periodically (you might want to subscribe to the blog and/or join the Revolutionary Horde if you’re interested in following along with that – see the right-hand sidebar above).

Right! That’s it!

Oh, just one more thing: if you want this, please go ahead and buy it now – you would make a vicious (and, let’s face it, unrepentant) punster very, very happy.