Book Reveiw: Knitting Vintage

Knitting Vintage by Claire Montgomerie contains 30 knitting projects inspired by the fashions of the 20th century.

The Patterns are split into the decades from which they draw their main inspiration from. These range from the "Roaring Twenties" to the "Dramatic Eighties".  Each segment has several pages at the start describing the main changes in fashion, how knitting was affected by it and a mood board showing the inspiration used for the designs in that segment.

All the designs featured in the book are very much wearable in a modern setting and some of the really awful designs that appeared in the 70s and 80s have been wisely left out (this is my opinion however so don't take it too seriously).

The patterns are mostly for clothes but there are several accessories as well such as a string of beads inspired by the flapper styles of the twenties or a lacy collar from the fifties.

Knitting Vintage retails for £16.99 but I got my copy in the Works (a book and art supplies shop) for £3.99.

Book Reveiw: Knitted Mug Hugs

Knitted Mug Hugs by Val Pierce is part of the 20 to Make series of books. I reviewed others of this series in this post (knitted fast food) and this post (eco-friendly knits).

The purpose of these mug hugs is to insulate your hands against the heat given off by hot drinks and to decorate your mug with a personalised cover saving you from muddling up mugs from a set and getting Earl Gray tea instead of coffee (this hasn't happened to me yet but knowing my luck it probably will).

Several of the patterns have variant designs for the decoration to achieve a different look for the same mug hug such as the hug with a fluffy sheep on it can be transformed into a hug with sophisticated rose instead.

All the patterns use either DK or 4ply yarns with 3.25-4mm sized needles.

Knitted mug hugs retails for £4.99

apologies and updates

I've been feeling a lot of blogging guilt this summer as I've not been posting as much as I would have liked.
I had an excuse up until two weeks ago with an exam resit for Uni but now I have nothing to do until September.

Sorry guys, blame tumblr.

I will be posting later today about stuff and I'm just going to throw some of my book review posts out even though I'm not completely happy with them.

crafty day

I got my own sewing machine at the beggining of the month. I havent had the time or the space to be able to get it set up and actually do somthig with it. I finally found some time today and I've been sewing and crafting since midday.

I started with trying to fix a little bag I had bought at D-con 2011 that was put together very strangly...

It's lined but the seams are not inbetween the layers

I unpicked all the stitching and then pinned it all together ready to sew then promptly got confused and forgot what I was supposed to do to sew it up without sewing the top up.

While waiting for that knowlage to return I did some work on a skirt I have been wanting to make for a while but haven't had either the time or access to a sewing machine. The only thing I don't like about doing these is he level of gathering that needs to be done. I also find the hems on thse skirts to be a bit dunting as they just go on and on for several meters all of which needs to be pinned and pressed to make sure it is all straight and it doesnt come apart when under the sewing machine.

after puttting in the stitches for the gathrs I had a look at the bag again and had another go at it. three hours and numerous mistakes later I decided that it should be left until tomorrow (it is currently inside out and sewn up in such a way as it is impossible to turn it out).

I'm probably just going to knit for the rest of today (and watch The Hollow Crown). Currently I'm working on a light but really warm scarf.

The yarn is Wendy Wisp in Cinder and Carbon

  It knits up so quickly but it is very easy to drop stitches when using a very loose tension (I somehow managed to go from the twenty stitches I cast on to sixteen stitches less than half a meter into a project with a single ball of this).

Book Reveiw: Keep Calm and Cast On

Keep Calm and Cast On is a pocket sized compilation of quotes, facts and generally good advice put together by Erika Knight. It is published by Quadrille and is part of a series of books in a similar style. The others in the series to my knowledge cover gardening and cooking.

"knitting is the saving of a life" Virginia Wolf (1882-1941)

The book is hardback bound in fabric giving it a very vintage feel similar to the other things in the "Keep Calm" style it also has a built in ribbon page marker.

"You don't knit because you are patient. You are patient because you knit" Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee, 2008

I find it good just to have on hand so when I'm bored or looking for inspiration or people have been telling me I shouldn't be knitting I can just pick it up and flick through it and find quote or pointer to make me take up my needles again and lose myself in the stitches.

"I like making a piece of string into something I can wear." Anonymous

The book also contains quotes and information about Stitchlinks, an online group who aim to utilise knitting and other similar activities as a form of heathcare. They mainly target mental and emotional problems such as depression and have been researching the idea that knitting can help with delaying the onset of dementia. More information can be found on their website.

"I was a foolhardy lover who has always been prepare to throw his loyalty and devotion at the feet of Mistress Knitting." James Norbury, 1904-1972

I got my copy from waterstones. It can be found on amazon here (ISBN: 978 184949 095 5).

"Remember It's only yarn and yarn can be reknitted. So you can always rip out a few stitches or rows, trace back to where you were in the pattern and start knitting again."