I Love Paper by Fideli Sundqvist, photography by Maria Wretblad, pub. Quarry Books, 2015 This is a book about paper art---paper cutting and paper folding, paper cake and paper circuses, paper to decorate with and paper to wear. The projects are charming. Some of the explanations are idiosyncratically translated but a little thought will make it clear what needs to be done. Unfortunately the book does not stay open very well. I tried bending its spine and that helped a little, but the center pages still want to close. You'll have to use clips or a book weight if you want to reference a certain page while working. The photography is fetching---well styled and artfully done. See samples in the slide show below. Sundqvist tells a little about her education and creative process. She also gives valuable tips for tools and object creation. I'm looking forward to making some of the geometric figures and maybe an apple or two! Disclosure: The publisher sent Kangath a review copy of this book. Kangath was not otherwise compensated for the preceding review. All opinions expressed in the review are her own.
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Warm Days, Cool Knits by Corrina Ferguson, photography by Joe Hancock, pub. Interweave Press, 2015. This book contains 20 "Lighter Designs for Every Season." All yarns are DK weight or lighter. There are roughly three sweaters and two accessories for each of the four seasons. Most of the sweaters are worked from the bottom up. About half of those are done in flat pieces and the other half circularly in one piece to the underarms. Garment sizes span 29 - 60" with most falling in the 34 - 50" range. The sock and hat patterns each come in two sizes. This is purely a pattern book, with no additional content to speak of. The design titles are old-fashioned Southern names, "most of which have passed into history." She calls the names "storied," but we have to imagine their stories as they are not provided. The cover pattern, Leora, is a linen tank with fetching side detailing. Corrina designed the straps to be wide enough to cover bra straps. Recently I haven't noticed women of any age being shy about showing their bra straps. Often they sport bra and cami straps of different colors under their tanks. Corrina begins the collection with Winter: Denford is a wool-silk raglan cardigan in argyle cables with a wide short-row collar; Zolena is a lovely pullover with matching cowl done partly in a yarn with Stellina content; Weldon is a whimsical slouch hat; Williston is a lovely lace sock pattern; and Lochlan (left) is a hoodie in textured chevron stitch. I admire many aspects of this thoughtfully constructed piece. Corrina's yarn choice is a luxurious merino-cashmere-silk blend which is both soft against the skin and warm. At only a DK weight, it's also light. The largest size (43" bust) only weighs around 1 1/2 pounds. The chevron stitch works like rib to cling to curves. I only wish the hood came down a little farther over the head. The zipper is a nice touch, and I love her color choice. Living in the South myself, I can attest to the need for books like this. The Spring chapter contains a couple shawl patterns, a couple tee patterns, and a short-sleeve cardi that fastens with one button at the top. However, I am not in love with any of the designs in this section. I guess I'm too much of a Yankee! Teola (right) is a polo shirt (it might look like a hoodie in this photo) which features a Jewel Cross Cable. Someone decided it would be a good idea to put the instructions for the cable on a different page from the chart so you have to flip back and forth from the chart to the instructions. Unfortunate. The summer patterns are more to my taste. Leora (the cover tank). Dorthelia is another tank, this time with waist shaping and lace around the bottom edge. Temple looks like the perfect item to wear in the ubiquitous air conditioning---a lace weight cardigan on size 6 needles. Alliemay is an unshaped lace dress which unbelted would hit my ankles. The belt can be tied anywhere, but is shown only in the drop waist position (which I think influences me against it). I think I would wear it at empire waist. Junius is a gorgeous golden shawl, specially shaped to lie across the shoulders without pins or clips. But my absolute favorite chapter is Fall. Darl is an adorable cardi with 3/4 sleeves and an allover diamond leaf lace pattern. Bayard (left) has a gorgeous wide yoke. Emmylou (below) is a crescent shawl worked up in Braeburn apple-colored yarn. Rhetta is a breezy cardigan with bracelet-length sleeves. And Wiley is a basic shawl with some interesting design features. Photos are sunny and knit-centered, with natural poses and every desired angle featured. They are attractive and set a cheerful tone for the book. The patterns seem well written, though little support is given to beginning knitters who may not be sure of the correct way to "dec one st at the neck edge" or "inc one st each side." There appears to be plenty of room to spell out those instructions and still leave a little white space. Schematics and charts are clear, though the schematics do not indicate direction of knitting. This book is not a resource for designing or adapting warmer-weather garments, but it does contain some helpful hints for working the patterns. I recommend it to knitters who knit for people (perhaps themselves) living in warmer climates---or anyone else who likes the designs. Disclosure: Kangath reviewed this book from her personal library. She was not compensated for the preceding review. All opinions expressed in the review are her own. I've struggled with drawing all my life. And let me tell you, it didn't get better after my stroke. My agent just gave me a nice compliment on my sketching, so I feel all warm inside, but I secretly know how much work I need to do! I recently ran across Fashion Drawing for Dummies Cheat Sheet, which outlines a six step process (more like five for me---I don't particularly agree with the "clothes look better on tall, slim bodies" advice) to drawing figures. I think I'll start following these instructions, and see whether I can further hone my sketching skills. Wish me luck! These are Chantal Garceau's Teddy Bear Booties out for a walk. Since I made these for a newborn, I did not add the leather soles. I considered selecting from the other grippy sole-coatings in The Knitted Slipper Book, but decided against them in the end. I did add cuffs in Knitivity machine-washable sock yarn in the Journal colorway. The color is a mix of medium-light browns enhanced by touches of ultraviolet. Dyer Ray Whiting is a genius! To add the cuffs, I used a small (2.7mm) crochet hook to punch holes in the felt at more or less regular intervals. Then I took a the hook through the holes from inside the slipper to the outside, grabbed a loop of yarn, brought it back inside the slipper, and stored it on 2.75mm (US2) double-pointed needles. I made 24 loops of fingering weight yarn for the size 0 - 3 month booties. I then knit a 4cm (approximately 1 1/2") cuff in k2p2 rib. Pattern Writing for Knit Designers by Kate Atherley, pub. Kate Atherley/Wise Hilda Knits, 2014. I know Kate Atherley as a well-qualified and thorough tech editor, so I was prepared for this book to be filled with solid information, a pattern template, and maybe a few checklists. I was not prepared for it to sweep me off my feet. The subtitle is "everything you didn't know you needed to know," and I think it's a fair bet that most designers will discover at least one aspect of pattern writing they had not previously thought about. The introduction, in Kate's characteristic clear tone, sets out what the book is, who it's for, why she was inspired to write it, and why it matters. Basically, if you write patterns for designs you created with the idea that others might follow your instructions, you should take a look at this book. The book is laid out in an engaging manner. The margins are lightly drawn graph paper, which fades out into the main text area. Much of the book is laid out like a knitting pattern, in two-column format with headings. Bulleted lists and the occasional chart help break up the blocks of text. Most sidebars are made to look like scraps of paper taped or paper-clipped to the page. The "Don't Just Take It From Me" sidebars are in the shape of cartoon speech bubbles. These last sidebars contain important feedback about what knitters like to see in patterns, gathered by Kate from the knitters themselves in multiple venues. Other recurring sidebars include the following:
One disappointment was that the page numbers didn't print on my 8 1/2 x 11" paper. (I told Kate about this, and she's working on a solution. In the meantime, just be sure to click "Scale to Fit" or something similar before you print.) I took Edie Eckman's "How to Say It" Craftsy class when it first came out. Her course skimmed the surface, where this book plunges to a shivering depth. Kate covers the following pattern features in detail :
She also gives overviews of the submission process, selling online, and copyright. And she has included a pattern template, a list of abbreviations, a glossary of how she defines standard terms, and a resource list and bibliography. Whew! As I said, it swept me off my feet. Even in Kate's matter-of-fact tone, some sections read like a suspenseful novel---others, like an explanation of that rice cooker manual I was never able to understand. I plan to read it through once more, and then use it as a reference. I highly recommend this book to anyone who writes knitting patterns. Disclosure: The publisher sent Kangath a review copy of this book. Kangath was not otherwise compensated for the preceding review. All opinions expressed in the review are her own. |
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