Lately it seems that my regularly scheduled knitting program is routinely interrupted by – well, life.

First up was a memorable afternoon at Sheep’s Clothing in Valparaiso, IN for last weekend’s Head For Trouble trunk show and book signing with owner Paula and friends.

Then on Sunday, I was fortunate to attend a book signing at the Spice House in Old Town for Dorie Greenspan, a James Beard-award winning chef, cookbook author, and all-round adorable person.

Her books Around My French Table and Baking From My Home To Yours are in heavy rotation in my kitchen, and now that I have an autographed copy of her new book – Baking Chez Moi – it will undoubtedly become one of my favorites as well. As delicious as her recipes are, I’ve always found her writing style approachable, her recipes inventive yet based in the classics, and her book production consistently a feast for the eyes.

I’m looking forward to Hannukah all the more knowing that her new book will be waiting for me!

This week is all about celebrating a slew of November birthdays – my husband’s is today, my mother’s is Friday, and my mother-in-law’s is next Monday.

But even lots of gift-wrapping and cake-baking hasn’t kept me from knitting the extra samples I’ll need for a workshop I’m teaching on the 22nd. In between, I’m trying to finish a secret project for my daughter when she comes home to visit in late December. So some knitting is getting done after all!

Saturday’s Head For Trouble trunk show and book signing at Sheep’s Clothing in Valparaiso, IN was so much fun! Owner Paula has such a lovely and knowledgeable staff, and wonderful customers, that I felt immediately at ease.

With lots of space at the front of the fabulous shop, there was room to display every one of the projects from the new book, as well as the cool, drapey garments from Knits That Breathe.

Staffer Debbie was kind enough to model several of the hats from A Head For Trouble, including the one inspired by detective character Maisie Dobbs, which was her absolute favorite:

It looked absolutely perfect with her bobbed hair style. In addition, she wore her version of one of the garments from Knits That Breathe – the Zephyr tunic – in an alternative fiber. Lovely!

Paula wore her versions of both Iced Frappuccino and Zephyr throughout the day, which definitely encouraged customers to try making their own.

All in all, a very fun day!

The pre-order promotion for A Head For Trouble will expire at 5:00 PM CST tomorrow, Oct. 31.

If you’ve been too busy to place your order and take advantage of the free bonus patterns that are available, now’s the time to give yourself a moment to treat yourself to a book that you’ll enjoy and use for years.

Here are some of the options for your free bonus pattern:

The Head For Trouble launch at VK Live was fabulous; many copies of the book went home with many wonderful knitters who are excited about the Roaring Twenties-inspired projects.

Some of my favorite moments from the event included a meet and greet with Barbara Walker at the Gala Dinner on Saturday night:

With great forbearance, she signed a copy of her Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns for me – it’s the only one I didn’t already own.

As if I wasn’t rendered starry-eyed enough by this brush with knitting celebrity, who should be sitting next to BGW during the photo op below, but Meg Swanson. These two brilliant knitters are literally larger-than-life, and it shows here:

The HEAD FOR TROUBLE count-down continues. Take advantage of the pre-order promotion, and your very own copy (signed by yours truly, if you so desire) will ship to you the week of October 26th. Get ready to make a little trouble!!

To whet your appetites further, here are the last two of six total designs from my upcoming mini e-book collection, A Head For Fashion :

Please say hello to Caroline (the lovely toque on the left) and Jane (the fetching slouch cloche on the right), both of which already are up on my Ravelry Designer project pages with all the details.

For a very short time (Oct. 15th – 31st, 2014), you can get either one of these patterns for FREE when you pre-order either the paperback or the electronic version of my new book, A HEAD FOR TROUBLE; What To Knit While Catching Crooks, Chasing Clues, and Solving Murders.

If you order both hard copy AND electronic version, you’ll get the entire mini e-book, A Head For Fashion , with all six patterns. Watch my SHOP section for ordering specifics, coming on October 15th.

Only one week to go until A Head For Trouble‘s pre-order promotions begin.

I hate to admit it, being a grown-up and all, but I’m having a really, really hard time containing my excitement.

Because given my tendency toward excess, I couldn’t just create a new book with 20 projects in it.

Oh, no.

That would be far too restrained for me. Sometimes I believe, to paraphrase Mae West, that “too much of a good thing is wonderful.”

So here’s what I did: I designed a collection of six bonus patterns – five additional hats and an utterly charming pair of fingerless mitts, also inspired by the Roaring Twenties. These will be available online as a PDF only. Let’s have a little sneak preview:

All six of these bonus patterns have been collected into a mini e-book called A Head For Fashion, and you’ll be able to purchase it right around the same time that A Head For Trouble is released.

Why A Head For Fashion, you ask? Each of the six bonus projects is inspired by a female fashion designer who was known for her innovative hat creations, and was active during the 1920s, such as Rose Talbot (one of her stunning millinery designs is modeled below on the left) and Simone Mirman, who rose from poverty to become “Milliner to the Queen” of England during her long life:

But here’s the really exciting news: if you pre-order both the hard copy and the e-book of A Head For Trouble together during the promotional period of October 15-31, 2014, you will get this bonus e-book for FREE.

If you decide you want only the hard copy or the electronic version of A Head For Trouble but not both, of course that’s fine, too. Not to worry – you’ll still get something extra special.

Purchase either the hard copy or the electronic version during the promotional period, and you will be able to choose any one of the six bonus patterns from the e-book for FREE.

The individual patterns from the bonus collection will be available to purchase both on Ravelry and here on my website for $5.00 each. The mini e-book collection will be available to purchase as well, for $14.95…. and any way you look at it, that’s an amazing deal. The collection includes special features such as detailed instructions for sizing and styling to ensure your success with the patterns, as well as resources for the fabulous notions you’ll see on the projects.

More information and bonus collection photos coming soon!

Here’s a question: how many books can one author sign in 7 minutes?

Answer: 42 – a full case (and a cramped hand, but that’s another story).

And how do I know this? In preparation for book signings at Stitches Midwest this coming weekend, I signed lots (and lots) of copies of Knits That Breathe. Hope to see you there!

On another note, I can’t wait to share the details of this new design, coming for fall:

Meanwhile, summer in the city is in full swing, with all its most compelling distractions on display. For example, these new temporary sculpture exhibits at Millenium Park:

Concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion, the perfect picnic venue:

The “living” art fountain display at Millennium Park:

And the majesty of several spectacular summer storms, complete with dramatic cloud formations, lightning strikes on the tallest antennae in the city, and claps of thunder that send the cat scurrying for her “safe place” in the apartment, otherwise known as “under the dining room table.”

That is, when she’s not helping me knit:

Working on new swatches all week, in preparation for some fantastic surprises this fall:

Experimenting with new stitches and embellishments, which are always fun to audition before stitching them oh-so-carefully onto the final project. I was irrationally pleased to find a home for a cherished vintage button from the stash:

A little bit cross-eyed from this working up mini-landscape of cable crosses:

It’s always a challenge is finding the best foundation textures for a new project. Sometimes it falls into place quickly, when the *perfect* stitch pattern leaps out at me from the pages of one of my stitch dictionaries. More often, though, I’ll swatch four or five different stitches to discover the best one for a particular yarn. Here’s one example:

Starting tomorrow and in honor of Bastille Day – July 14th – if you order a paperback copy of Knits That Breathe on my website,  you will be able to score a free download of the electronic version with its wonderful interactive features!

This promotion will run for a limited time, so take advantage of it while you can. As the French would say, *”Le jour de gloire est arrivé.” Only where Knits That Breathe is concerned, there will be several jours de gloire when you can obtain your very own copy.

*Translation: The day of glory is here!