|
Booksigning by Cat Bordhi Friday at Island Wool,
"New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One"
posted 08/10/2007
If you’re a knitter or someone who dreams of making a living as an author, you might want to stop by to chat with Cat Bordhi when she signs fresh-off-the-press copies of her latest knitting book at Island Wools from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, August 10. A former Friday Harbor Middle School teacher, she has been such a niche publishing sensation she was able to retire five years ago following the success of her first book.
"Socks Soar on two Circular Needles" was an immediate and non-stop success, it is now approaching 100,000 copies in print. It came out in German a year ago, and is being translated into Russian as well.
The advance copies of her latest knitting book, "New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One," arrived on June 20. "Just hours before Harry Potter," she states with a smile.
Now just two weeks since the book was released to the public, the first printing is nearly sold out and the second is underway.
Bordhi, whose small publishing company is called Passing Paws Press, spends most of her time at home writing, designing, and illustrating her books, interspersed with travels around Canada and the United States teaching knitting workshops and speaking to groups.
It’s not just simple knitting, although she says it’s simple enough to do. Instead, it’s "playful, liberating knitting that excavates unchallenged traditions and continually asks the question, ‘What if you tried this. . .?’ and then investigates many possible answers," Bordhi explains. "Today’s knitters are highly educated, incredibly intelligent and adventurous thinkers, and they love a fruitful challenge."
So far Bordhi has upended sock traditions (her first book introduced a different and more efficient arrangement of sock-knitting tools – two circular needles – to replace the four or five double-pointed needles used for the past 500 years), and then she stretched the single-sided, single-surfaced Moebius loop into a dizzying array of knitted garments, felted containers, and even boots (70 designs fill two volumes – "A Treasury of Magical Knitting and A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting"). And now, "New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One<" "reveals that at least eight entirely new architectural forms can be knitted around the foot as well as or better than the two forms which have dominated 99.9 percent of all socks ever knit."
The exceptional quality of Bordhi’s books and the volume of sales fascinates and frustrates numerous large publishers who would like to sign her as an author. "I wouldn’t give up my independence for anything," she says. "By self-publishing, I’m able to conceive of a book and remain faithful to its spirit as it evolves. A book is a huge project, something like raising a child, although usually it takes less time. You cannot predict either an infant’s or a book’s true course but can remain alert and faithful to it. You wouldn’t want to cripple a child or a book by requiring it not to surprise you as it grows. A large publisher has no choice but to constantly make compromises, keeping the trajectory of a book aimed obediently at the target agreed upon in budget, acquisition, and editorial committees. And sometimes the vision of an individual author and editor are tragically out of sync. All this can be avoided in self-publishing, if the author has the wherewithal and market access to pull it off."
In February, Bordhi will lead her annual self-publishing retreat for knit designers, a seminar which attracts so many applicants that they must be carefully juried in according to likelihood of success. "My long-range dream is to support and guide other designers to produce a substantial number of equally spirited, unique, beautiful, self-published books that nourish the knitting community and that continue to raise the bar for large publishers who are inevitably influenced by the quality we independents are able to produce."
Bordhi credits local book designer, Bruce Conway, with her own initial education as a book designer. "I hired Bruce to turn my manuscript into my first Moebius knitting book, and he was kind enough to tolerate me sitting beside him for three weeks, watching his every move, and asking endless questions. I’d intended for him to do the second volume as well, but to our mutual astonishment, as the first book drew to a close I discovered that our weeks together had actually been an apprenticeship.
I was able to begin, under his tutelage, to put the second book together myself. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. For my latest book, I completed the interior entirely by myself, including hundreds of Illustrator drawings, roughed out the cover, then had Bruce work his magic to complete the cover design and nudge the interior a bit. He’s a marvelous book designer and a generous, unstinting teacher."
Local photographer Kathy Ballard’s work graces the front cover, and Bellingham studio photographer Michael Hopkins staged and took all other sock photos. Local celebrity, Mona the Roche Harbor Road camel, appears in the author photo on the back cover. "My daughter Jenny is my business manager, and Bruce is my art director," Bordhi says, "and that’s the whole company."
Previews of all of Cat's books can be downloaded at catbordhi.com.
|
