10/15/2014 – A Head For Trouble pre-order promotion begins today!

This is it, knitting friends. The official pre-order promotion for my new book, A Head For Trouble , begins today at 12:00 noon Central Time. I couldn’t be more excited if you told me I’d won the lottery!

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To kick off the launch, I’m offering some special bonuses when you order either the paperback or the electronic versions of A Head For Trouble, or both together.

I’ve mentioned them before, but let’s review the specials one more time so you can jump right on the one you want!

Pre-Order Promotion #1:

Order BOTH the paperback AND the electronic versions of A Head For Trouble together, and you’ll get to download the entire 6-pattern mini-collection PDF of my bonus book, A Head For Fashion. That’s this 46-page book right here, complete with interactive links to the project pages on Ravelry as well as sections devoted to ensuring your success with the patterns, yarn resources, and where to find the unique notions and embellishments that make the projects so delightful:

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Pre-Order Promotion #2:

Order EITHER the paperback OR the electronic version of A Head For Trouble separately, and I’ll email you the PDF to ONE pattern of your choosing from the 6 options in A Head For Fashion. Here they are one more time:

Caroline Toque

Caroline Toque

Coco Cloche

Coco Cloche

Coco Fingerless Mitts

Coco Fingerless Mitts

Simone Cloche

Simone Cloche

Jane Slouch Cloche

Jane Slouch Cloche

Suzanne Toque

Suzanne Toque

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s it. Make one of the two choices above, and collect your special bonus. Sounds like a lovely way to kick off the afternoon!

A Head For Trouble

Knit something special for your inner flapper!

Pre-order promotions start on October 15, so stay tuned!

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Just in time for holiday gift-knitting, A Head For Trouble is nearly ready to launch! It has been really, really hard to keep this big project a secret, but the wait is nearly over. In fact, the pattern basics are now up on Ravelry, so you can decide which to knit first.

I hope you’ll feel moved to pull out your treasured skeins of luxury yarn, and work up some of these special designs.

I got a few advance copies of the book last week, and couldn’t be more excited about the way it turned out.

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The theme is quirky, I know. But how better to combine my passion for 1920s fashion with my love of literary mysteries that feature strong female crime-busters?

As a knitwear designer, nothing gets my creativity more fired up than a challenge like the one I set for myself with A Head For Trouble.

A HEAD FOR TROUBLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all of us who adore Downton Abbey and similar period TV shows, we know that it’s the fabulous fashions as much as the compelling story lines that keep us tuning in week after week, and season after season.

And again, as a knitwear designer with a penchant for period fashion, it was a thrill to set myself the task of interpreting the Roaring Twenties for today’s knitter. 

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The 1920s was a time of unprecedented change for women. Also known as the “between the wars” period because WWI had ended and WWII was not yet even a distant rumble on the horizon, in the 1920s women enjoyed freedoms that had previously been exclusive to men.

Without getting too lecture-y here (but I do love history!), for the first time women were holding jobs in traditionally male professions. They owned and drove their own automobiles. They sought higher education in greater numbers, and the right to vote became a lightening rod issue of the day. 

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We see all of these forces at work in period dramas like Downton Abbey, and fashion was perhaps the most visible manifestation of the new freedoms that women demanded.

No more corsets, bustles, or “dressing” one’s hair into an elaborate coiffure. Skirts were shortened and tops became loose and drapey to allow for freedom of movement. Women bobbed their hair into a short, manageable style known as a “shingle,” or an “Eton crop.” These new hair styles necessitated new hat styles to complement them, and that’s where A Head For Trouble comes in.

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As you’ll soon see, A Head For Trouble includes all the hat styles popular during the Jazz Age, along with the most important accessories to accompany them. And I can hardly wait to share them with you.