Holiday Hats for Babies: Caps, berets & beanies to knit for every occasion by Debby Ware

Holiday Hats for Babies: Caps, berets & beanies to knit for every occasion by Debby Ware
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very cute book, filled with a variety of hats to knit for the special baby in your life! The patterns span all of the holidays, and are suitable for advanced beginner to intermediate knitters. The details are what make the hats in this book special! Hats are great projects for beginner knitters to make (especially baby hats) because they are so easy and quick to make, and they make great gifts for baby showers!

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Wedge

Friday FO

Just a quickie drive by post - this is my advent calendar scarf from December. It was knitted in December, it was finished in December, I just never managed to share a photo!

It was not easy to take a photo of a long sampler scarf!

juno blizzard of 2015

Just a little video I posted on youtube about the blizzard!

Blizzard of 2015 - Juno in southern MA

Hope wherever you are, that you are safe and warm!


We've gotten about 20" of snow so far, and it's still coming down.

We live in Southern MA on the border of CT and RI.
We're expecting another 6-10" of snow during the course of the day.

It's very windy, the roads are unplowed, and we're settling in for a day of catnapping, shoveling, reading, and more shoveling.

Lucky Spool's Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making: From Color to Quilting: 10 Design Workshops by your Favorite Teachers by Editors at Lucky Spool

Lucky Spool's Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making: From Color to Quilting: 10 Design Workshops by your Favorite Teachers by Editors at Lucky Spool
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First, let me start off by saying I am NOT a quilter and am barely a beginner sewer. I'm obsessed with quilts, love looking at them & dreaming of making them, but I haven't made the plunge - yet. I was hoping that this book would help push me into quilt making; unfortunately, it's just not written for a beginner. That's fine; there should be books out there for every level of skill for every craft, and that's a good thing!

I didn't feel the quilts were terribly modern; most of them were things I'd seen before on pinterest, the net, etc. - yes different colors/fabrics but the same basic design.

The cover isn't appealing (another reason for the 3 stars). I didn't particularly find the photos amazing, either; I expect photos in a craft book to motivate me into making the projects, and these photos didn't do that for me.

All in all, I just was disappointed with the book.

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I received a review copy from netgalley in exchange for my honest views and was not paid for my review

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The Fifth Vertex by Kevin Hoffman

The Fifth Vertex by Kevin Hoffman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

parts I really liked, but overall, another book I didn't really get into.

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I enjoyed the book when I first picked it up, and couldn't stop the first few chapters. Then the action seemed to slow, the book got a little weirder, more and more characters were introduced, when I felt like I was still trying to get to know the main characters. I didn't really "like" any of the characters other than Cailix, and really would have liked to have seen her in the book much more (and perhaps we'll see her more in future books).

The book is well written, the stage is set out well, the action flows from one scene to the next, but I just couldn't really get into it as much as I would have liked. By the time we got to the halfway mark, I had to force myself to finish (mostly because I wanted to know what would happen to Cailix, and not to the other characters).

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I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley in exchange for my honest reviews, and was not paid in any way

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More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a nice addition to your knitted books library. There's a variety of projects & skill levels, though the 2 hours or less category was my least favorite and a little lacking in originality (this is very hard to do, admittedly! Coming up with something to knit in that amount of time is not easy. Personally, I would have preferred more original patterns with maybe a five hours or less time frame). The projects in the last chapter I definitely wouldn't consider last minute gifts, and considering I've never even knit my own husband a sweater, I don't really consider a men's knitted vest a last minute knitted gift idea, but everyone is different, and I appreciate the variety of projects and ideas!

The book is well photographed and well laid out, patterns are easy to follow, read, and understand.

My only real complaint about the book - and why I'm giving it four stars and not five - is that the patterns, for the most part, are just very simple, like ribbed hats for the family. There are a million ribbed hat patterns already; I understand, it makes for a very fast, easy gift, and the ribbing makes it easy to "guess" a size for your intended giftee, but couldn't we have mixed it up a bit? Done broken rib? just as fast, just as easy for fitting, just as easy to design in multiple sizes (and at least there's half a million patterns out there, instead of a full million!)

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I received a free copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion & was not paid to write this review.

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Catching up

blog party

I am participating this weekend in the biannual blogathon. If you follow me on instagram (hi! I'm anastaciaknits) then you'll know I ended up with pneumonia. Thanks to the wonders of antibiotics, I am finally able to breathe again (what a wonderful feeling!) but I have NO energy & cannot seem to get out of bed. I worked a total of 7 hours this week; it was all I was able to do :(.

 I've mostly slept, and by yesterday I had the energy to cast on a plain, stockinette stitch sweater, so I've done a little knitting in bed on that.

Today I feel well enough to do SOMETHING, though I still can't walk more than ten feet without getting out of breath. Sigh. So I figured I might as well try to get caught up on some blogging.
Over on the site, they suggest devoting 24 hours - not necessarily in a row - to blogging this weekend. Well, my goal is a lot less than that - I am hoping for maybe 4? (not counting reading) Remember, I'm recuperating here, and just sitting up in bed is taking a HUGE toll on my body!

Sigh

So my goals for this weekend:

1. Catch up on reviews. Not sure how many I'm behind on, but it's time to catch up
2. Finish some reading, so I can catch up on more reviews. I've been almost done several books for two weeks, but haven't had the energy being sick to even read :( so hopefully today I can feel up to do some reading
3. 3. Join 3 blog parties today, tomorrow, & Sunday, minimum
4. network - I'm so, so bad at this! Visit other blogs, make comments, try to join in the twitter party this afternoon
5. If I have the energy, then I'm hoping to work on setting up a blog planner & / or trying to work on a more set schedule &/or plan for the blog. Once it was a book review blog, then it was a craft review blog, then it was a craft blog, then it was a book / craft blog, now it's a whatever I feel like posting blog... sigh... 

Quiet Sunday morning

Jon working on his car model kit

Crochet World

Look who's pattern is popular from Crochet World? Yup, bragging a bit...

Tangle!

Firecracker Shawl

The firecracker shawl was a collab of sorts between a fabulous indie yarn dyer and myself.


I fell in love with her yarns and the ethics behind her yarn and have another design in works using it.

I used Morning Bright's Holistic Merino Yarn in DK and her site is Morning Bright.

This is a FREE crochet shawl pattern that anyone can make with any yarn (though I do recommend a DK, a sport, or a worsted weight yarn for best results), available on the fall issue of

Crochetvolution!

Becky also made a version of the shawl, using another colorway of her fab yarn, and her beautiful daughter is modeling for us.


She used a colorway named Granite and used one skein, just like I did.



Link up parties:

Too Cute Tuesday

December 2014 - photo recap!

Where I share random photos - some I previously posted on facebook or instagram, and some I have not.

What do you think?

Should this be a new regular feature?