Balticon is Coming

Balticon is still around a couple of corners. But now is when time seems to finally start to speed up after dragging on for an entire year.  Poetry hasn't been at the forefront of my brain lately.  I have this other thing I do...dyeing yarn...and Balticon is a really special time for me in that regard.  

Two years ago when I went to my first Balticon and started meeting so many amazing people face-to-face for the first time I wanted a way to bridge my two passions, yarn and writing. So, the first Balticon yarns started off  as my way of interpreting entire genres (erotica, fantasy, science fiction, horror) and the idea gradually morphed into what it is today...I get my inspiration for the Limited Edition colorways from specific artists and pieces of work, usually podcasts or books, sometimes websites or blogs.

Limited Edition means that except for the one small batch (6 skeins) these colorways will not be repeated.  So, they are unique in that they are my way of representing another artist's work in a completely different medium and that they are only available for a very short time (the 10 days to 2 weeks leading up to Balticon (Memorial Day weekend), and in a very limited quantity.

They are a way for yarnaholics who are fans of these other artists and their work to express it with their own creation of something uniquely them.  I view my place in the creative process as being an intermediary between the art that inspired me and then someone else using my creation to create something of their own.

A lot of work goes into dyeing as many skeins as are necessary in a very short time.  Right now, I have 5 of this year's 7 colorways dyed.  The first two are dry and reskeined.  Two still haven't been dyed yet, and the other 3 are still drying from their time in the bath.  Besides the actual dyeing process, there are swatches to knit, lots of pictures to take, blog posts to do, labels to print, skeins to be reskeined, and this year there's also an audio promo to put together.

Yep, an audio promo.  To get the word out about these yarns that were inspired by podcasts to the very podcast audiences who might just want to buy them.  Hey, I'm finally learning a thing or two about promotion from social media.  So, I've added a little more work to my already very full plate.  Oh, well, what's a few more tasks?

Tonight I found my mic and I wrote the copy.  I'm not sure it will fit in the time available yet, but some time in the next night or two I'll find out when I go to record it.  A good friend who is a genius when it comes to all things audio is going to give me a hand and do the editing end of it for me.  Yeah, yeah, I know I need to learn that stuff at some point.  Now just isn't that particular time.  One of these days.  Meanwhile, I've already talked to a number of podcasting friends who will run it for me as soon as we get it done.

I'm so excited!  This is my favorite time of the year.  It's better than Christmas, my birthday, and/or any and all other special days all rolled together.  I'll be putting up posts on each of the colorways starting in the next few days over at Dyed Bright Here.  In the meantime, I need to get back to work.  See ya soon.