Brand New!!!! Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book + A Giveaway

It is Valentine's Day and so I thought I should do something for all of you who are still reading here. I've got a great chance to win the brand new Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book.

This is the third edition of this "must have" book for serious or not so serious knitters. It's amazing to think that the fine folks at Soho have published this book in three different versions. But then when I think about it - what knitters knit and are interested in changes so much over the years. Who better to update such information than the women who work at the top of the industry. Remarkable too to know that it has sold more than 1,000,000 copies in its different versions! WOW. That is a book that is in a lot of knitter's libraries. 

This new edition of the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book includes beautifully illustrated how-to illustrations with complete and clear instructions on how to tackle each technique - and there are hundreds of them. It is a fantastic resource for sure. 

The Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book is split up into different sections like in the past and covers anything a new or experienced knitter might have a question about. 

The sections I found interesting - because they are new to the book and more representative of what knitters are making now are:

Lace

Designing Sweaters - including how to measure yourself to knit to fit

Directional Knitting - for those of you want to knit every which way - FUN!

Accessory Designing - how to design hats, mittens, gloves, etc.

Shawl Knitting - to follow the trend that seems to not stop

I'm going to hold on to the two other versions of VK Knitting Book and will place this one on my library shelves next to them. Thanks Trisha, Carla, Diane, and crew for working so hard and keeping the craft relevant. 

Do you want your very own copy of the brand new Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book? Here's how to enter the giveaway.

Answer the following question in the comments:
Tell me what your favorite knitting or craft technique is now. What is piquing your interest? What do you want to learn? 

Please as always, leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, Rav id or blogger id. 
Contest ends Sunday February 18th at 11:59 p.m. U.S. Addresses only. Thanks for reading! 

Contest is over. Congrats to D who has won the book. She wrote -
I knit mostly charity hats, but would love to learn fair isle and how to make socks or sweaters that fit. Thanks so much for your continuing inspiration, Kristin.

Book Review and Giveaway - Design Your Own Crochet Projects from Sara Delaney

It's been a while since I have posted an interesting new book. Fact is there haven't been many new releases that have excited me - especially in the textile craft world. So many books that have come across my desk seem to be repeats of things that have come before. Perhaps I have been around publishing and yarn too long? 

Finally, I have found a book that has just been released that is NEW - at least to these eyes. It is called Design Your Own Crochet Projects: Magic Formulas for Creating Custom Scarves, Cowls, Hats, Socks, Mittens and Gloves and it is written by Sara Delaney. That sure is one long title, isn't it? But it is pretty perfect as it tells the reader exactly what they will find inside its pages. Published just last month by Storey, this handy little book is spiral bound and will fit easily into a project bag. It has been sitting on my desk for a couple weeks now and I just have had time to crack it open and investigate. 

My first reaction to this book was - at last! Design Your Own Crochet Projects gives crocheters what they have been missing - a book to help them customize and design their own projects. This book breaks out into 7 chapters: Introduction, Scarves, Cowls, Hats, Fingerless Mitts, Mittens, Gloves, and Socks. The intro is very well done - giving the novice crochet designer what they need to begin. 

Each of the chapters introduces the specifics of what a novice designer needs to know when designing the project. It tells how to develop the project and then gives several pages of "templates" to use when designing each project. Photocopying of this template is encouraged which gives the reader the permission to design many projects of their own.

Each chapter then includes at least two designs with charts for plugging in your own gauge and yarn choice. The book also includes a link to an on-line calculator which will take your yarn choice with your gauge and plug them into each of the patterns given to automatically generate a pattern. Pretty amazing. 

There is even a small stitch dictionary of various crochet stitches at the end. That is such a nice addition giving new designers a chance to pick a stitch, swatch it and then jump into designing without having to purchase another stitch dictionary.

There is an excellent review over on the Crochet Concupisence blog. Full disclosure here - I have published with Storey twice and I personally know Sara Delaney. That said, when I first saw this book I said to myself - YAY - newbie crochet designers now have a book that tells them how to design accessories. Knitters have had the marvelous series of "Handy Books" by Ann Budd for years but now crocheters have a great book to use to learn to design their own patterns too. Great job Sara and Storey.

Here's what I have for one lucky winner today - - their very own copy of Design Your Own Crochet Projects. Here's how you enter.....

Answer the following question in the comments: Tell me what you would like to crochet this winter season. Are you a knitter who is thinking about learning crochet? Or are you a crocheter who only makes flat things and you would like to learn to make socks and mittens and hats? 

Contest ends Sunday evening at November 12, 2017 at  11:59 p.m. Please leave an easy way to get a hold of you - Rav id, blog, or email address. US addresses only please. Good luck everyone. 

Kaffee Fassett's Adventures in Color - Book Review and Giveaway

Happy Saturday everyone! I'm a bit late with this today. My computer isn't recognizing my camera and I wasn't able to get the photos I took onto my computer! I've been at the Farmers Market all day and just got home. These photos are taken with my iphone and it was dark so I'm sorry for the less than good photos. Whatever! Technology! Here we go....

Yesterday I wrote a little about the Adult Coloring Book trend (video on that link) and about the power that art and making has on Alzheimer's patients. Today I've got a great giveaway for one lucky winner. 

Kaffee Fassett has another new book - this one is a definite departure from his quilting books. It is an adult coloring book called Adventures in Color. It is published by Abrams Books. 

Most of you reading are probably aware of Kaffe's work with color and the textile arts. What genius for a publisher to have him do an adult coloring book! 

Adventures in Color is not only a coloring book for adults. Most adult coloring books are black and white line drawings bound into a book. Not this one - it is much much more.

Adventures in Color includes ten tutorials from Kaffe. He shows how he works in colored pencils and markers. Along with the 36 blank pages for you to color, there are 10 full color already colored pages done by Kaffe. 

These pages give the new artist guidance. Kaffe includes Tutorials on how to work with colored pencils, do shading, think about composition and more. It's nice to see the Adult Coloring Book being taken to the next level. I hope this book does really good out there in the real world. If it does, it will bring new people into the world of art and making and drawing and creating and that is a very good thing.

There are 36 black and white plates to color besides the 10 full color all ready colored plates by Kaffe. All the pages are perforated so they can easily be ripped from the book. The paper is very heavy and looks like a joy to color on. I've seen other adult coloring books and this one is so much nicer! It is widely available - it looks like even at Target. 

SO - here's what I have for one lucky winner today - their very own copy of Kaffe's Adventures in Color. 

Here's how you enter.... Answer the following question in the comments section.

Do you color? What do you think about the adult coloring book trend? Does anyone else color in your family? Do you think it will bring more people into the creative world? Any thought counts. 

Contest ends Monday at 11:59 p.m. US Residents only please. Please leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, blogger or Rav id. Thanks! Have a good weekend everyone!

Book Review + GIveaway - Ben Pentreath's English Houses + A Story

I am so excited to share with you all today a fabulous new book called English Houses: Inspirational Interiors from City Apartments to Country Manor Houses. It is written by Ben Pentreath. The photographs are by Jan Baldwin and it is published in the US by Ryland Peters and Small. 

Ben is an architect in London and co-owns the store Pentreath and Hall. Ben is also the author of a popular blog which I look forward to every week. Gorgeous photos of the UK. Sign up for it if you don't get it already. I think you will love it. You can also see more photos of several of his interior and architecture projects on his website here.  

Ben's first book was called English Decoration and it was published in 2012. I have spent many hours with that book - looking for bits of inspiration for decorating and design projects. When I heard Ben was writing a second book, I couldn't wait for it to be published. I received my copy English Houses which I had on order when it was first published in October. As when I receive any book in the mail, it is a good day. I cracked open the book and started slowly paging through the photos. 

There are 12 houses featured. The photos, by Jan Baldwin, are fantastic. There are overall room views and small vignettes so that you get the feeling of each space. Ben has divided the book into 3 chapters - London, Country, and Country Houses.

Each house is introduced by Ben with two pages of prose which really gave me the feeling of each home. He includes the history of many of the houses and also some stories about the owners who are living in them now. Each home is shown on 14 to 18 pages. There is no copy on each page to describe the photo. At the end of each house tour, there is a two page spread which shows a small thumbnail of all the photos and highlights the features of each room. There are little stories about the house, its objects or its inhabitants in each of these captions. This is a nice feature because the large photos are not compromised with blocks of type that cover pretty details as often happens in books. You know how book designers sometimes do that - they plaster some kind of colored box on top of just the thing you wanted to see and fill it with type. 

Here are some favorite spreads from English Houses. My photos do not do it justice. 

A giant cow head above a counter is from a butcher's shop

Gorgeous yellow walls

A handmade crochet afghan on the bed at top left; gorgeous kitchen

What a bathroom! And gorgeous chinoiserie wallpaper

In the past, I have traveled to the UK many times. In my current life, I can't do that so I rely on books and the internet to get my Anglophile fix. This book did just that. I can tell I will spend many hours with English Houses - re-looking at all the details of the fabrics, the colors, the architecture, the textures..... re-reading the stories and dreaming about what happens in each home. Each house is so different from the next but they all have that irresistible English vibe. Reading a book like this is such a pleasure and so different than looking at Pinterest or a web page. I can savor every small detail in the photos and really look instead of glancing and rushing into the next clicked rabbit hole. Holding a book in my hands is satisfying and feels like an indulgence. Everyone can use a little indulgence once in a while. 

As I was paging through English Houses - savoring each page, I got to a photo that looked strangely familiar to me. I wasn't sure where I had seen the chair before. The fireplace looked familiar too.  

Perhaps it had been in a magazine feature. I turned the page and I thought to myself - I think I have been there? How could that be? I could not have been to a house that is featured in one of Ben's books. 

And then I got to this photo spread of a kitchen. 

That sealed it - I had been there. I read on...... I discovered that the house that was featured was a house that I stayed in in the 90's when I worked for the yarn company. It was in Northumberland (far northern England on the east coast) and was owned by a woman named April. We had rented the house for a photo shoot location. In order to keep the house going and to cover the expenses, April had a location business and rented her home to folks who were looking for an English aesthetic for their projects. 

That house - in Northumberland - was a huge inspiration for me when I was working on the interior design of our own farmhouse in the early 2000's. It was very old and built of stone. 

The rooms were filled with old things - things that looked like they had been there and used for more than 100 years. The curtains on the windows were old and were fraying - but they looked perfect to me. That is where I learned that not everything has to be brand spanking new and in perfect condition. I learned that things look better if they have a little age and patina. 

While we were staying at the home, we were allowed to use anything in the house as props. Each room was a perfect back-drop for any product we had. The house was packed to the brim with interesting, weird British things - like wooden hands that were perfect as a prop for handknit gloves. There was a gorgeous fireplace where we did a sock shoot - with legs and socks resting on a fireplace bench. 

There were antique children's toys - I was sure the children who played with them had passed on many years before. The garden was gorgeous - carefully tended by the April's 80 plus year old mother. I think her name was Juliet. She gardened in Wellies, slacks, cardigan sweater and pearls. I will never forget her. 

And the kitchen - that kitchen - it was so welcoming and homey with a huge wooden rustic kitchen table, large white farmhouse sink (that is where I fell in love with those sinks), un-fitted cabinets, an Aga stove. Each morning, April would have breakfast for all of us staying there. And there were a lot of us - including models, hair and makeup person, photographer, photographer's assistant, stylist, and Pat Chew and I as representatives of the yarn company. Each evening, April would cook us all a fantastic dinner as if no effort went into it at all. She was so generous and kind and hard-working. In the evenings, I got to hang out in front of the fireplace sitting on down filled cushions on ancient chairs and finish projects for the next day's shoot. 

So not only is Ben's new book beautiful but for me, it now has re-kindled some special memories of a time when I had the good fortune to stay in a gorgeous bedroom in a giant old stone house in the north of England where -- when I looked out the window -- there were sheep and cows grazing outside and beauty was everywhere I looked. 

Thank you Ben for bringing all these beautiful homes into my life and for inspiring me to continue to tweak my home. And thank you to those homeowners who have kept those old homes up and shared them with the rest of us who never will have the chance to live in something so beautiful. It helps us to dream and continue to look for beauty. 

Here is another review of English Houses on the Architectural Digest blog - along with some better photos than mine and descriptions of the rooms. And here is a blog post about the recent US book launch of English Houses. What a party. Evidently Ben is Kate Middleton's favorite designer. I never knew. 

Here's what I have for one lucky winner - a copy of Ben's English Houses donated by the American publisher Ryland Peters and Small. 

Here's how you enter. Answer the following question in the comments section of this post: Tell me about a special memory or detail from a visit to a home or a place or things that is special in your home and conjures up memories.  

As always, please leave an easy way to get a hold of you - blog, email address or Ravelry id. US addresses only. 

Contest ends Monday evening November 21st at 11:59 p.m. Good luck everyone.

Contest is over - Elizabeth won who wrote: My paternal grandparents lived in the grand home that their grandparents built in 1864 with money gained during the gold rush out west. It had a beautiful cherry staircase, high ceilings and marble fireplaces but it was the bedroom I slept in when I stayed there that brings me peace to recall. The bed was my great grandmothers, with a towering head and footboard, floral carving and the most feminine of shape. A small writing desk was next to the window which overlooked Main Street so I could see the goings on at all hours. The fireplace would be lit on cold December nights during my Christmas stay and above it was a portrait of my great-great grandmother. I look like her and it would bring a smile to my face whenever I gazed up. Despite all of the romantic beauty of that room, it is the smell that I can recall the most. It was roses mixed with age and love that I can still conjure up when I close my eyes. I miss it. 

Last Flowers of 2016 + Botanical Inspiration - A New Book + Giveaway

We got frost a couple nights ago. My zinnias that have been blooming so bountifully are gone. 

The morning glories are gone too. 

The sunflowers have been over for a while. The birds and the squirrels have been fighting over the seeds. 

There are a few bits of flowers that didn't get frosted but flower season is pretty much over. Now it is the turn of the autumn leaves to fill our lives with color. 

Last week, I wandered around the garden as the sun was setting with my camera. The colors were so lush and rich. 

I couldn't get enough of these magenta colored Amaranth. The strands looked like wooly pom poms. Some of the blooms are over 36" long.

I looked up into the sky and the clouds were this gorgeous shade of peach and gray. Stunning. It didn't last long though. 

Here is the exterior of the newly re-done Garden Shed. I planted Morning Glories to grow up the railing in the front part of the porch and over the archway. They did just what I envisioned.  

The frost held off until after my photo shoot was over. That was so lucky.

You all know how much I love flowers. Really - is there anyone who doesn't? That's why I was curious about a new book called Botanical Style: Inspiration Decorating with Nature, Plants and Florals. It is written by British stylist Selina Lake and photographed by Rachel Whiting. Selina is no stranger to writing books - she has authored seven beautiful books on decorating and styling. She has a strong interest in DIY. (I have two of her other books - Homespun Style and Bazaar Style). Each book gives easy ideas for uncomplicated, easy to make projects. You would think she would run out of ideas by now but she keeps making books. I wonder what her next will be.  

Botanical Style is absolutely lovely. It is divided into 7 chapters: Botanical Inspirations, Vintage Botanicals, Boho Botanicals, Industrial Botanicals, Tropical Botanicals, and Natural Botanicals. 

The selection of textiles that she features is really great, including many vintage fabrics. Here are some of my favorite spreads from Botanical Style. 

This is a lush book - full of gorgeous photography. I can only imagine how fun it will be to look at in the middle of winter when I am dreaming of being outside and in my garden again. 

At the end of Botanical Style, Selina includes credits for each photo (most of them were taken in the UK and in Sweden), credits for suppliers of props, and a great source guide. 

Follow Selina on Instagram here. 

So here is what I have for one of you today..... your very own copy of Botanical Style supplied by the American publisher Ryland, Peters and Small. Here's how to enter....

CONTEST IS OVER. WINNER WAS BELLA. THANKS ALL FOR ENTERING. 

Answer one of the following question(s) in the comments section of this post.

What is your favorite way to decorate with flowers? 
How do you keep flowers in your life when they aren't growing outside anymore? 
OR Tell me about your favorite flower.

Please leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, blogger id, or Ravelry id. Contest ends Sunday October 16th at 11:59 p.m. U.S. Addresses only please. Good luck everyone! 

Wendy Bernard's Knitting All Around Stitch Book Review + Giveaway

I must say, I have been slacking in the Book Review department this year. I think I have been pre-occupied with my own book project. And honestly, I am not finding as many new books that I think you all will be interested in. Perhaps it is book burn-out for me.... but if you know of any books you think I might enjoy and want to share, please send me a note. 

In April, I received Wendy Bernard's The Knitting All Around Stitch Book and I have been meaning to share it with all of you. It was published in April but for me, knitting season is over in April. I decided to hold it back because knitting season is coming up SOON. This is a good book! 

This is the second "Stitch Dictionary" in Wendy's book writing career. She is also the author of the blog Knit and Tonic and the author of 3 "Custom Knits" books all published by STC. It is a follow-up to Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary. I love this book! If I were at the beginning of my Knitwear Design career, I would have been overjoyed to have this book in my arsenal of stitch books. 

The premise of The Knitting All Around Stitch Dictionary is that each stitch photographed includes directions in both Chart Form and Written Out. 

Besides having instructions both written out and charted, each stitch pattern gives instructions for beginning at the top of a project and at the bottom of the project. This concept makes a knitwear designer's pattern swatching and writing chores so much easier. 

The stitches are photographed very appealingly, aren't they? Types of stitches include, mosaics, knits and purls, lace, cables, and "fancy". 

I also like the portability and usability factor of the spiral binding. It seems very sturdy so that you can easily tote it around in your bag and not ruin it.  I've had lots of experience with ruining books in my knitting bag so I appreciate this attention to such detail. (You should see my shredded "Mon Tricot" Stitch Dictionaries.)

I've photographed my favorite stitches from the book and shared them here but let me tell you, there is so much more in it. 

There are also basic patterns given, including this cute hat. These patterns give a beginning designer a basis to try out different stitches on. Nice. 

And this chapter called Designs from Scratch which helps beginning designers or those who want to customize patterns.  

So here is what I have for one lucky reader today....... their very own copy of The Knitting All Around Stitch Dictionary. 

To enter, answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post. 

What do you have plans to knit this coming autumn/winter? OR What are your favorite kinds of stitches to knit? 

U.S. addresses only. And make sure you leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, Rav id, or Blogger id. Contest ends Sunday August 21st at 11:59 p.m. Good luck everyone! 

Contest is over. Lisa has won and been contacted. Thanks for everyone's interest!
Kristin