a vibrant collection of inspiring and instructional books specializing in knitting, sewing, quilting, drawing, and other “maker” genres.
We just sent our new STC Craft catalog to the printer. It includes five new books for spring 2010--Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts by Kaffe Fassett; Alabama Studio Style by Natalie Chanin, Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans by Norah Gaughan, Margery Winter, and the Berroco Design Team; Knitting 24/7 by Veronik Avery, and Knits Men Want by Bruce Weinstein; plus our beautiful backlist. For a sneak peak, click here.
This was our 2nd choice cover for Vintage Baby Knits. So cute! The actual cover is at right. If you click on it, you'll see some interior pages from the book. To see a gallery of images, click here.
The process of creating the Weekend Sewing cover took awhile, but once we had worked through a few challenges, we ended up with a group of very strong choices. When you look at the runner-ups below and the cover we settled on, it's hard to imagine the anxiety that Heather Ross (the author), Brooke Reynolds (the graphic designer), and I (the editor) each experienced along the way.
To see the actual cover and some interior spreads from the book, click on the cover in the margin at right. (Fun fact: That's Brooke, our mulitalented graphic designer, in the tree.) To see a gallery of images from the book, click here. And to see Heather sewing with Martha Stewart, watch her on the Martha Stewart Show next Tuesday, May 19. UPDATE: If you missed the show, watch Haather's segment here.
When we were working on the cover for Sewing Green by Betz White, we seriously considered two covers: the one we chose and the one of the sewer at the table below. Although I feel sure that we made a good choice, I do miss seeing this pretty image since it didn't make it onto the cover or into the book.
This one wasn't a serious contender but it is also nice to revsit.
To see the final cover and some pages from the interior, click on the book cover at right (under "Look Inside Our Books"). Or, to see the cover and a sampling of images from the book, click here.
When my book Weekend Knitting was first published in 2003, this was its cover.
It stayed that way until it was released a few weeks ago in paperback with this cover.
Honestly, I like both of these choices. But there was another cover that I rallied for in both hardcover and paperback. It wasn't chosen either time, so I figured I'd share it here.
Thanks to Susi Oberhelman and Ericka McConnell for providing the beautiful graphic design and photography, respectively. What a pleasure to have so many wonderful choices! Thanks also to Deborah Newton, who designed the Garter-Cuff Fingerless Gloves in the photo on the hardcover, and to Pam Allen, who designed the Farmer's Market Bag in the photo on the paperback, and to our lovely models. To see a sampling of images from inside the book, click here. To see a few interior pages, click on the small book cover image at right.
Larissa Brown, coauthor with Martin John Brown, of Knitalong, mentioned on her blog the other day that she had been looking at the runner-up covers I have been posting and wondered if there had been any other Knitalong covers considered that she hadn't seen. For that book, we didn't seriously consider a lot of different options. We had two single-image covers that we liked but we didn't think either of them communicated enough about the book's content to work. Here they are (the second one was cut so early in the process that we didn't even begin to think about a back cover):
To see a gallery of images from Knitalong and the final grid cover, click here.
I go into most of our cover meetings with a strong opinion about which of the covers I'm presenting for a particular title I like best. For Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin, I actually had several favorites. Here are two of the covers we considered (with their corresponding back covers). All graphic design and photography by Robert Rausch.
To see a gallery of images from Alabama Stitch Book and the final cover, click here.
This is one of the my favorite covers that wasn't chosen for the American edition of The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket; it was created by graphic designer Alissa Faden Click here to see a gallery of images from Gentle Art's interior as well as the cover that Alissa designed that was chosen. And visit Jane's blog to see the British cover (and the cover to Jane's other new book Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer).
Click here to see a gallery of images from the book and the the cover that "won."
We work with wonderful graphic designers on STC Craft books. After we send them photographs and sample copy (often a year or more before a book actually goes on sale), they design sample spreads. And once we've approved those, they generally work through 4 passes--over the course of many months--during which time the design and text are refined. Inevitably, there are times when we are unable to use a few of the most beautiful spreads. When I suggested to Brooke Reynolds, the graphic designer of Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin (photographs by Thayer Gowdy), that we share some of those deleted "scenes," she jumped at the opportunity and sent me these spreads.
This is the original table of contents. Each circle shows a snippet of the artwork Lena designed for a project in the book.
This is the original introduction to chapter one. We ended up cutting it to 1 page because we were short on space.
We didn't have room for the photo of Lena working on the artwork for the Cafe Apron, but we did use the photo of her drawing pad in the section of Chapter 1 about transforming a design idea into artwork for printing.
To see more of what Brooke is up to, check out her new blog. And, while you're at it, check out Thayer's new blog too.
For a long time I've wanted to include the STC Craft catalog on this blog but couldn't figure out how to do that with my meager technical skills. Then one day last week, Julia Coblentz, our marketing director, suggested that I post it as a pdf download. So simple and so obvious. Click on "Online Catalogue" at top right to check it out. Thanks, Julia, for your idea. And thanks to Christopher Blank, our web marketing manager, for sending the files for me to post so quickly.
I can't imagine staying organized without my planner. And each year I buy the same one -- a 5.25" x 8.25" moleskine diary with one page of writing space per day. At the end of December, I put my old one on the shelf with the others from previous years, then start a new one for the year about to begin. It is a small ritual that I enjoy. However, this year I made a minor change. I stitched a reverse-applique cover for my journal out of recycled cotton jersey . . .
. . . following the instructions in Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin (founder of Alabama Chanin). Natalie's book will be in stores in March, one of the four new STC Craft books to be released in the first four months of 2008.
With my new planner ready and looking so special, I can hardly wait for the new year to begin.
While reviewing the traffic here, I regularly notice that the galleries are quite popular. So, in an effort to give you more of what I think you want, I have added three new galleries this evening: Knitting Classic Style, Knitting Nature, and Save this Shirt. At this stage of the process, when the books are completed and I have a chance to look at--and enjoy--the images inside of them without worrying about the myriad tasks that go into making them, I always feel somewhat amazed that we actually reached this point, that the author and I and the rest of the publishing team actually finished. Of course, there are always new books to work on. It is, in fact, an ongoing cycle--one book is delivered to stores at the same time that another proposal lands on my desk. Often people ask me how many books I am working on at one time but I've never sat down to figure that out as doing so feels rather overwhelming. Tonight I will continue to put off that task and simply enjoy the galleries, which make everything look so easy. I hope you will as well.
Sometimes people ask me which of the STC Craft books I like best, a question I cannot answer. In part, this is because I need to be diplomatic. But, more than that, this is because I believe that each book is unique and special in its own way. It sounds sappy and maybe like a cop out to some people, but it's true.
Still, there are a few books that I think are especially important, and those are the three books in our kids' crafting series--Kids' Embroidery by Kristin Nicholas, Kids Crochet by Kelli Ronci, and Kids Weaving by Sarah Swett. These books teach all of the basics and also a little bit about how crafting fits into cultural history.
If you know children who like to make things with their hands, I hope you will check out these books, and, if you have some extra time over the holidays, do some crafting together. I believe that when we teach kids these skills, we are giving them a gift that will last their entire lives (sappy but true, once again).
The decision about a cover for an STC Craft book is a team decision. I take one or several covers to a cover meeting and present them to a committee of people, including the publisher, director of sales, and CEO. Most of the time, even if I am presenting more than one option, I have a clear favorite and I try hard to sell that cover to the committee. Every once in a while, however, I have more than one favorite and I am especially curious to get feedback from the committee. That was the case with Knitting Lingerie Style. Here is the cover we used:
And here is the runner up:
While I am happy with the committee's decision, I do still really enjoy looking at the runner up. So, it's great to have this blog so I can share it with you and give it a bit more life. Thanks to Anna Christian, the graphic designer for this title, who pulled the file for this cover out of her archives.
Coming up with a cover concept is a challenging and exciting part of the publishing process. In the case of our new book by Andrea Berman Price, Knitspeak: An Z to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns, the graphic designer Sarah Von Dreele and I floundered a bit at first--until one day I remembered a postcard I had received a long time ago from the Italian luxury brand Malo that featured a line drawing of a sweater created out of poetic verse.
I excitedly called Sarah and told her how great I thought it would be to show a sweater filled with abbreviations and other terminology used in knitting instructions because, on a certain level, hand-knitted sweaters are made of these instructions, and Knitspeak was written to help people understand these instructions. I showed Sarah the postcard and, if I remember correctly, she emailed me a pdf of her interpretation of this idea within an hour.
Andrea is currently touring to promote Knitspeak. Here's her schedule for the next few weeks in case you find yourself in one of the towns she's visiting.
October 20: Yarns in the Farms (Beverly Farms, MA)
November 3: Springwater Fiber Shop (Alexandria, VA)
November 10: Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins (Boulder, CO)
