Week 5.
theme is YARN
I have three yarn related books to giveaway
not much time left to enter your link in the comp -
1. Teach yourself visually crocheting - by Kim P. Werker and Cecily Keim, (Donated by Wiley publishing)
What am I doing reviewing a crochet or knitting book anyway? I may have only basic skills in this area, but I know what I like and I know if I can understand it or not and I know if I want to make it. However as technically this area of craft is not my forte, I let a very experienced yarn person (my mother) who has knitted, crocheted, spun, felted, anything else to do with yarn for more than 40 years, look over the following three books and give me her opinion.
Teach yourself visually crocheting, from my perspective seemed like an excellent book, great diagrams and easy to understand intructions. Lots of advice on materials, technique and patterns, and for those of us who find instructions difficult, the visual nature of this book is very useful. But is it a good crochet book? I gave it to my mum for the once over and she came back saying that this is would be excellent if you had never crocheted before, as the instructions etc are so very good, really well illustrated and labelled. Next she discussed the fact that even if you were not a beginning crocheter then this book still has much to teach, lots of different stitches and patterns make this book good for experienced people who love to crochet as well. So good on all areas, excellent book, great instructions, well laid out, and easy on the eye.
2. Holiday knits - by Sara Lucas and Allison Issacs, 25 great gifts from stockings to sweaters (Donated by Chronicle books)
This book from my beginner knitter perspective seemed like it might have fun patterns to try, interesting and not too challenging for a first project. Such as baby booties, hats, pillow and scarves with enough variation but not too taxing. From an experienced knitters perspective these patterns would be a pleasure to knit, simple and interesting for a little light knitting in front of the telly at night or to take travelling. The name of the book, holiday knits, does explain many of the patterns, mostly christmas related, the sort of gifts you might give in a northern hemisphere christmas, as well as christmas decorations and ornaments and a couple of variations on the christmas stocking. All in all a well laid out book with simple patterns good for gift giving.
3. One skein by Leigh Radford (donated by Interweave Press)
This book has received a bit of hype in the blog world, with a knit-a-long and a secret pal exchange as well as a podcast interview. For a sneak peak check out the website. So what is with all the hype, is this book any good?
It certainly is luxurious to look at, the projects are all yummy. Leg warmers, singlet tops, as well as the requisite gloves, scarves and cardigan. There is some variation with patterns such as knitted purses, bath mats and felted bowls. Quite a bit of variety and enough to make a die hard non-knitter pick up the sticks. I had my mum look over the book, and she is a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to knitting practical items, she doesn’t go in for frivolous, but even she was impressed. The patterns are well laid out, easy to understand, good instructions, and while she wouldn’t bother with knitted bibs or cupcakes or candy wrappers, she did like the look of the neckwarmer and socks, and she does like a good baby cardigan pattern.
A few thank yous are needed - to Jon for the challenge manager plugin for wordpress that he wrote for me and is still making modifications on - he has made it available for download if anyone is interested in finding out more about it go to his website.
Thank you to the readers and participants for making this challenge interesting and worthwhile and to the authors and publishers for donating prizes and thank you to the great sponsors for keeping us going!
