Knitting in the Nordic Tradition (Dover Books on Knitting and Crochet)

Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was thrilled when I saw this book show up on netgalley, and immediately downloaded and looked at it. Unfortunately I forgot about the review part, but the fault was mine, not the lovely book!

This book is fascinating for someone like me, who's a geek who loves math, history, and knitting, and anything that combines all three is pretty cool! If you are looking just for patterns, then the book may be a little dry for you, but I enjoyed it and love reading about the history of historical knitting traditions.

Unfortunately, I have to give the book 3 stars because the book is in black and white - there is no excuse for that in this day and age, especially in a knitting book! The charts can be read, but the three color charts are not easily read. The book is written ala Elizabeth Zimmermann - more pithy recipes then step by step directions, which I like but may be a turn off for some knitters, especially newer knitters. The book is definitely not recommended for newer knitters, but is highly recommended for someone who enjoys the history of knitting and is interested in doing a little bit of work with their knitting :)





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

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The Crocheter's Skill-Building Workshop by Dora Ohrenstein

The Crocheter's Skill-Building Workshop by Dora Ohrenstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a great little book for anyone out there who wants to learn more about crochet or to improve upon their crochet skills, from beginners to oldies like me :). The book has the absolute basics, but also discusses things like yarn choice and various crochet stitches.

Each lesson builds upon the previous ones, but you can certainly skip around if there is a particular topic that catches your eye. It's definitely a must have for anyone interested in developing their crochet skills, but is definitely more geared towards beginners or those who haven't crocheted in a long time.




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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and was not paid for my review.

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Origami Stars by John Montroll

Origami Stars by John Montroll
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very enjoyable, fun origami book.

I've dabbled some in origami. I first became interested in when I was a kid and went to Epcot Center, and one of the ladies there taught me a few things. My dad was hooked as well, bought a couple of packs of origami paper and some books for me, and I did some folding for a few years and then forgot about it, until I met a gal from Japan in college, and got back into it thanks to her.

This is a great book to add to my library. The directions are clear, there is such great variety in skill levels here and the stars are all fascinating as well. I love all the little comments and notes throughout the book as well.

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I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley in exchange for my honest review

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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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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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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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Stitch It Simple

Stitch It Simple: 25 hand sewn projects to make and share by Beth Sheard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A simple little, beginner sewing book, complete with templates and full color photographs. The book has a variety of projects and filled with ideas for items to make for your home. It's designed for beginner sewers (like me), but unfortunately, most of the projects aren't anything I would actually make, as they are a little too cutesy and a little too, well, plain.

That being said, it's a great book for beginners who want to learn to sew for the home (which to me is easier because you don't have to worry about fit issues like you would in making, say, a dress).

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received a review copy for free from netgalley

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Pendleton Handstitched Home: Projects to sew for cozy, comfortable living by Susan Beal

Pendleton Handstitched Home: Projects to sew for cozy, comfortable living by Susan Beal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who regularly reads my reviews knows I'm obsessed with quilting, even though I'm not, you know, an actual quilter or even much of a sewer. Still, I have to get my hands on every single quilting book out there.

I enjoyed this one. It includes a section on how to quilt, and the actual instructions for a variety of projects. Like I said, I'm not a quilter, but the instructions to me looked easy enough that even I could follow them & really makes me want to try a quilt. I love the fact that all of the quilts use wool, a fiber I love and a fiber often not used in a world of cotton and cotton blend fabrics. Just thinking about how cozy a quilt would be made with wool makes me want to dig out my sewing machine.

There's also a great little section on the history of Pendleton wool, which I found really interesting.

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received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

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review: Handbag Workshop

Handbag Workshop: Design and Sew the Perfect Bag by Anna M. Mazur
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm a beginner sewer (more of a wannabe sewer than an actual sewer) and so I requested this book to read and review from netgalley because the word "workshop" led me to believe that this would be a book on learning how to design and sew the perfect bag. I knew there'd be a variety of projects for all skill levels, but still thought it would be suitable for a beginner sewer.

It's not.

The projects use materials such as leather, and involve way too much work and too many steps, for this beginner sewer. The bags, for the most part, are not my style - they are more professional than my life calls for. Yes, choice of materials can dress a bag up and down, but that only changes things so much, and a dressy bag made in a more casual material is just going to look stupid.

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review: Comfort Crocheted Afghans

When I requested this book from netgalley (free, in exchange for my honest review), I didn't realize that this was just a sampler. They are now selling the same sampler on amazon - a good idea if you want to make just one of the afghans from the book, that happen to be in the sampler: Fish Ripples (a baby blanket which can be easily upsized), Marrakesh (with embroidery), and Serpentine (which is not to my taste because of the ruffles, but because it's made in sections, a lot of people will like this one). All afghans in the sampler - and I assume in the larger, full size book as well - are made out of Comfort (comfort afghans - get it?), a machine washable, soft, acrylic / nylon yarn.

review: Comfort Knitting & Crochet Afghans

Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans: More Than 50 Beautiful, Affordable Designs Featuring Berroco's Comfort Yarn by Norah Gaughan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Comfort Knitting & Crochet is a book of 50 or so afghan designs, using mainly worsted weight Comfort (acrylic/nylon) yarn. There's a great variety of designs, from pieced or paneled afghans to one piece designs. Some are written as baby blankets (which can always be done with different colors for lapghans for adults, which is what I usually do for baby blanket designs). Some are pretty standard type afghan designs that you've probably seen before, but most are pretty unique designs for all skill levels.

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Crochet Workbook by James Walters

The Crochet Workbook by James Walters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm thrilled to see that the Crochet Workbook is back! I actually own the original book, but am really excited to see that this book is back in print.

You can look at this book on two levels: as a basic how to book (both for beginner crocheters and beginner free formers), but also as inspiration for your own freeform. Walters and Cosh are famous in the crochet world for teaching us how to crochet using nature as your guide, and it's never been more true today then it was 25 years ago. This book is much more about crochet as art form, then about crochet as stitchery.

If you want to break into the world of crochet design, this book is a great starting point for you, because Walters and Cosh teach you how to make three dimensional shapes in crochet, using various stitches.

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Knitting Yarns

Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting by Ann Hood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who has read more than one of my reviews before knows I'm a crafter and more specifically a knitter and crocheter, and anyone who follows my blog knows I try to review a wide variety of crafting books, so naturally I jumped at the chance.

There's a few similar books out there, a collection of short stories with the common theme of knitting in all the stories. The difference is this collection includes more famous people, like Barbara Kingsolver, Sue Grafton, and Anne Shayne (of Mason Dixon fame). Like any short story collection, some are better than others - my least favorite was about a guy who kept talking about how he didn't knit but yet his story somehow involves knitting anyway. He just kept talking about how he didn't knit, like he was insulting the craft and those who love it. But that's the great thing about short story collections, you spend a few minutes reading a story you don't like, you move on to the next one that you do like.

There's also a few patterns included in the book, which in books like this I always figure they include solely as a way of selling more books (you know, people who enjoy reading will read this book, and people who just want patterns will buy this book, so you get twice as many sales). You have no idea what the patterns look like because you have to go online to see photos - I hope that this is maybe just something in my e-ARC and not in the final book. They are all very basic designs, like fingerless gloves, cabled head wrap, ruffled slipper socks, coffee cozies, etc., and most designed by Helen Bingham.



I received a copy of this book for free through http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/

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Quilting With a Modern Slant

Quilting with a Modern Slant: People, Patterns, and Techniques Inspiring the Modern Quilt Community by Rachel May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First, I want to say I am not a quilter, but I am a fiber artist and teacher and have long, long been obsessed with quilts. I own a ton of quilt books for their inspiration and even own a fabric stash & a sewing machine, though I can barely sew. I want to be a quilter, but the fiber life has a mind of its own.

The book starts with the basics, explaining how to make a simple quilt (6 parts) and defines what modern quilting is, and what different people feel about quilting and modern quilting in particular. There's a lot of writing from lots of different quilters from all walks of life, talking about how they make quilts and why and how they got started. You'll reconigize some of the names included in the book if you have any interest in quilting at all.

The book also has gorgeous, inspiring photography on each and every page.

I enjoyed the improv section the most, which makes sense because I love freeform the most in my fiber journey.



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Granny Square Love

Granny Square Love: A New Twist on a Crochet Classic for Your Home by Sarah London
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First of all, let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of Sarah London, have been reading her blog since she first started writing one, & I'm also ravelry friends with her.

The book starts as with so many other crochet books, with a how to section. I really, really, really hate seeing that in so many books, I always feel if you are a beginner crocheter, you'd be getting a whole how-to book out of the library or from the bookstore, you wouldn't just pick up a random crochet book & hope there's a how to section in it. To me, it's really a waste of space in the book & a waste of money, but that may just be me.

As with all of London's stuff, all of the projects in the book are very bright & colorful, which is why she has so many fans. The projects are beautifully photographed, with both full shots & close up views. There are 25 projects included in the book, & they are all very beginner friendly. The focus here is on color, not stitches, and each project includes some tips on picking color.

My absolute favorite project is the Grocer's Tote, which is also featured on London's blog.

I won a copy of this book as part of London's blog tour.

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Great Little Gifts to Knit

Great Little Gifts to Knit: 30 Quick and Colorful Patterns by Jean Moss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a little confused because I vividly remember reviewing this book, going through all the patterns & adding my thoughts and comments about each one, and I can't find a copy of my review anywhere either online or on my hard drive. So here I am trying to recreate it, playing catch up as I am always doing.

I love Jean Moss's designs and I'm always looking for "gift" related patterns. I only knit for a few people & usually socks, because generally speaking those are the only items that anyone ever appreciates (it's why I knit a lot for charity). This book has a lot of gift giving ideas that maybe, just maybe might actually be appreciated by family.

Patterns are clearly written, terms and abbreviations are explained, and items are well photographed.

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Curvy girl Crochet

Curvy Girl Crochet: 25 Patterns that Fit and Flatter by Mary Beth Temple
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another book that I vividly remember reviewing, but yet I can't find a copy of it anywhere.

I downloaded this book to read and go through on my nook and it entertained me all the way on the long drive to the airport and back (we were taking my parents). There is a wonderful variety of patterns in here that you'd come to expect from Mary Beth Temple, from jackets and sweaters to accessories. And of course there's hints and tips on how to make garments actually fit your body and make them flatter.

There's simpler, basic, every day sweater designs, that you'd actually live in all winter long, and more complicated, fancier stuff that you'd make and wear on special occasions.

Crochet garments, even in this day and age, still has the repuation that it's bulky and not flattering on a girl's figure, and this book goes a long long way to change that.

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Soap Craft

Soap Craft: 31 Recipes for Creating Amazing Handmade Soaps by Anne-Marie Faiola
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Years ago - before I knitted, before I designed, before I taught fiber arts, before weaving and spinning and dying, back when I did other crafts that didn't involve yarn, crafts like scrapbooking and latch hook and embroidery and cross stitching, I made homemade soap. I didn't make a ton of it, but I made soap, and it was fun.

When this book popped up on netgalley, I remembered how much fun it was to make soap. I didn't make anything fancy or honestly anything that even looked pretty, but it was fun. And reading this book made me remember how much fun it was to make soap and why I enjoyed making soap in the first place, and makes me long to make soap again (even though honestly, it won't happen because I'm a little too busy with the knitting, crocheting, hopeful weaving, sometimes spinning, always dying yarn and fiber, and oh yeah the designing and the occasional knitting class, too. Not to mention the reviews. And oh, seeing your husband every other Sunday).

Anyone's who's thought of trying a new craft or is looking for a new hobby or perhaps something different to sell at a craft show, should try this book. There's great details and lots of photos, besides amazing end products that you can actually make.

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Mom and Me Knits

Mom & Me Knits: 20 Pretty Projects for Mothers and Daughters by Stefanie Japel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Any knitter knows the name Stefanie Japel - famous for designs like the one skein wonder and the mini sweater / boob holder and author of countless other knitting books. So even though I don't have a daughter, I had to grab this book from my library and take a look. I happen to be a fan of matching mother daughter outfits, anyway - my mom & I always had matching Easter outfits, and we even had matching "pilgrim" outfits we wore to Plymouth Plantation & Sturbridge Village.

Outfits don't match perfectly, and Stefanie explains her daughters aren't girlie girlie, so she's not designing pretty "pink" outfits, but every day wearable outs that both mom and daughter will enjoy and wear all the time - something I want in a FO.

Patterns are sized through infants to size 50" adults and are all made in Stefanie's usual seamless, top down style.

There's a great mix of styles as well, from lace, cables, aran, etc. - I love the Mother's Lace Cardigan (of course, I love lace!)

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The Best-Dressed Knitted Bears: Dozens of Patterns for Teddy Bears, Bear Costumes and Accessories. Emma King by Emma King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I LOVE this book! It's laid out well, the patterns and directions are very clear, and I love the photos and the patterns.

First of all, and I know you've heard it before, I love toys even though I can't make them. This book once again makes me want to desperately try. I love how the book is set up - an easy bear to make (and some clothes), a harder bear to make (and different clothes), and lastly, the hardest and biggest bear in the bunch to make, with more clothes. The bears are knitted flat, but an knitter can easily convert the bears to being knit in the round to save some of the seaming chores.

The clothes are only written for each individual bear size, but again, an experienced knitter can easily make them a little bigger or smaller to fit the bear you knit. You can also adjust yarn weight & needle size to make the bears a little bigger or smaller.

Most of the outfits are beyond cute - I love the wizard and pirate outfits the best - and a few are rather simple, like the princess dress.

Any knitter who enjoys toys and making them for the children in their life - or big kids like me! - will love this book.

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