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Book: Blog tour: Granny Square Love

by KateG on October 8, 2011

in Home+Decor, knitting+crochet+yarn

Granny Square Love: A New Twist on a Crochet Classic for Your Home by Sarah London. North Light Books (September 2011).

With a riot of gorgeous colour, Sarah London’s book Granny Square Love is for anyone who loves crochet, and loves granny squares in every room of the house.  Welcome to the Whipup.net stop on the Granny Square Love blog tour!

Reviewed by Kate G

Quite often, when someone talks about crochet, they are talking about a granny square.  Granny squares are virtually the foundation of crochet motifs.  In Granny Square Love, Sarah London, a great lover of granny squares, shows how to take the most basic granny square, add fabulous colour combinations, and to add a granny square project to every room of the house.  I know so many people who love the rhythm of making granny squares, and who make them by the dozen.  Most of these squares are destined to be stitched together into afghans, and now crocheters have so many more options for their grannies.

Even if you have never picked up a crochet hook before, Sarah London’s clear instructions will get you started making chains and basic crochet stitches into granny squares in a few minutes.  The stitch illustrations are clear, and the photos of granny square construction are helpful, easy to follow and delightfully retro.

Each project has a clear description, details such as yarn, notions, hook size and measurements of the finished item, row by row written instructions for each round, tips for finishing each project off, and a colour commentary by Sarah London.  So often yarn projects are presented in a dictated colourway, and either the crocheter has to use those colours or figure out another colour scheme without any guidance from the designer.  I really like Sarah’s colour tips, and finding out her motivation for certain colour palettes, and her colour decision making processes.

Another fabulous part of every project is the large scale stitch chart.  For every crocheter that loves to use a stitch diagram, there is another that avoids a pattern with a diagram, with so many people never having had learned to read the symbols that make up a crochet chart.  Here Sarah provides clear diagrams, along with detailed row by row instructions, so that a crocheter of any experience level can follow along with the text and the diagrams at the same time, until reading a granny square crochet chart is second nature.  I personally love using crochet charts, and I’m excited about other crocheters learning to use charts, and doubling the number of patterns available for them to tackle.

The projects in Granny Square Love are divided into projects for each of the rooms in your home.  My favourite projects are the giant floor cushion (loungeroom), stool cover (kitchen), garland (dining room) and curtain (bathroom and laundry).

If anyone ever wanted to move away from the most simple granny squares used in Granny Square Love, to more complicated grannies or to other sizes or crochet motifs, then all of Sarah’s projects would be easy to adapt.  But I bet that anyone who loves granny squares will make these projects, at least once each, and surround themselves in every room with riotous coloured grannies.

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

DISCLOSURE: Sarah London PROVIDED WHIPUP.NET REVIEWER KATE WITH A FREE REVIEW COPY. THE AMAZON LINKS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS.

Join in the rest of the blog tour:

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Books – Block Party

by KateG on June 29, 2011

in Books, Quilting

Block Party–The Modern Quilting Bee: The Journey of 12 Women, 1 Blog, & 12 Improvisational Projects. Alissa Haight Carlton & Kristen Lejnieks. 2011, Stash Books.

I know that there are a lot of how-to crafting books on the market, and many of them very excellent books at that.  But this book is a how-to story that is sewn together with a common thread, following a journey of twelve women and twelve quilts across the United States, and bound together online by a love of colour, design, quilting and friendship.

Sewing and quilting has a long tradition of people working together to create an item together, as well as being a social event and an opportunity for collaboration and learning.  Lots of quilters have evolved this traditional Quilting Bee into an online experience, where people from diverse backgrounds and locations collaborate on quilts, using the postal service and the internet to share and connect.

Block Party; The Modern Quilting Bee follows the journey of an online quilting bee ‘Block Party’ established by Kristen Lejnieks and Alissa Haight Carlton.  Over the course of a year, the twelve women who belong to this online group each designed a quilt and made a block for each of these quilts.  You can have a look at the blog that started it all at blockpartyquilting.com

Each quilt in this book is presented as a finished object, clearly describes the design process and the process of coordinating the other quilters in the book, and provides instructions and photographs for the reader to use the techniques to make a similar quilt block.  How great is that, to have a finished quilt, a story, techniques and instructions, all in one place!

Apart from the well formatted, clear, well photographed and easy to understand techniques and projects in this book, I think that my favourite part is reading about the people behind each quilt, and the decisions each one made when she was designing the quilt.  I also really love reading about the challenges that each quilter had and has overcome, some quilters were really pushed out of their comfort zone when asked to use a certain technique or colour palette, but each one felt that they had learned and become better quilters for being nudged by understanding friends.  I also love the story of community, and how online friendships can be started by a common crafting interest, and can help people to create the most amazing things.

So if you are a beginner or an experienced quilter, interested in crafting groups, interested in online groups, interested in process and learning and growth and creativity, Block Party will likely give you the warm fuzzy feeling in your belly and your brain like it does to me.

Meet the quilters:

Follow on the rest of the blog tour:

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

Disclosure: Stash Books provided Whipup.net reviewer Kate with a free review copy of this book. The Amazon links are Affiliate links.

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Books: Bedtime reading for knitters and cooks

by kath_red on May 23, 2011

in Books, Food

As you may – or may not – know, I am a voracious reader. And lately I have been reading some novels that have a creative edge – you know – with a cooking or craft thread running through. Here are four books which I took away on holiday with me recently and read eagerly while looking out to sea and drinking tea.

The Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans (Allen & Unwin June 2010).

I love reading books that are set locally and written by local authors – so Melbourne folk you might like this book too. Set in Rural Victoria in a small country town, this book is not what it seems. Full of interesting characters and sidestepping snippets, it is a bit sad sometimes but mostly lovely and surprising. About a girl looking for her father and a father who is hiding from himself. Not a love story in the usual sense – instead it is a love story between a father and daughter discovering each other and trying to help each other. And there is knitting too – yes an eccentric and sweet old lady knits tea cosies – it all fits perfectly beautifully. I sort of imagine this sort of thing when I think of old ladies knitting tea cosies – but I suspect the ones in this book are rather more practical – maybe like this one. I simply love this tea cosy - and this one too.

The Beauty of Humanity Movement: A Novelby Camilla Gibb (Penguin Press HC March 2011). Available in Australia through Allen & Unwin.

The beauty of humanity movement is named after a group of 1950′s Vietnamese artists and writers who paid the ultimate price for expressing their views. This book is stunning, set in the present time but going back and forth to the group of artists in the 1950′s who are at the heart of the story, a young woman in search of her past finds an old man trying to forget his – and their stories intertwine through the classic dish of Phở – a beef broth. Its an interesting premise and I was fascinated by the history of Vietnam, the art, the culture and ultimately the food. Phở is what brings everyone together in this story and has a story of its own – bringing together the history of Vietnam in this one dish. It is a classic street food in Vietnam as the broth needs to be lovingly tended for several hours and is therefore not so easy to make at home. If you do want to try to make it at home – I cobbled together a few recipes – as I am planning on tackling it this weekend. Making Phở at home : Phở Secrets : Phở recipe.

Cooking for Claudine: How I Cooked My Way into the Heart of a Formidable French Family by John Baxter. (Faber short books May 2011) Available in Australia through Allen & Unwin.

This latest book from Australian Expat Film Critic John Baxter is a captivating and romantic memoir. At its core it is about family and food and love, but it also explores themes of living in France and French customs as well as being welcomed into a French family (this interview is interesting). John Baxter describes how in his later years he falls in love and marries a French woman from a traditional old family and throughout the years somehow John has been given the task of preparing Christmas Dinner for the large and extended French family. Each year he goes to great lengths to impress and prepares wonderful and exotic dishes. His most recent Christmas sees him searching out ingredients from local markets and artisan food makers, while at the same time exploring his adopted country and local food customs. Wonderfully written with humour, intelligence and love. (And yes there are recipes – the final dinner included a whole suckling pig!)

Friendship Bread: A NovelContemporary Literature) by Darien Gee. Published by Ballantine Books (April 5, 2011). Available in Australia through Allen & Unwin.

Friendship bread is a bread starter that needs to be nurtured and fed for 10 days before using, then it can be divided to make four loaves. One quarter of the starter is kept and the other three quarters are packaged up and given out to friends to make their own breads. Lovely concept but can get out of hand as you might imagine – which it does in this book too. Sadness and friendship, love and loss are explored in this book – with the friendship bread bringing healing to unhappy souls and bringing together a town to help those in need. A quick read, with lots of cooking and food to feed the soul. As I didn’t have any starter passed on to me I had to find out for myself how to make it and found lots of resources on the net – the best place to start is with the book’s own website – where there is a recipe to make the starter Friendshipbreadkitchen, to make the basic bread as well as plenty of variations.

DISCLOSURE: Allen & Unwin PROVIDED WHIPUP.NET WITH REVIEW COPies OF THese BOOKs. THE AMAZON LINKs are AFFILIATE LINKs.

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Book: blog tour: Sewn by Hand {+ a giveaway}

by kath_red on April 19, 2011

in Books, Green Crafting

I am so happy to have Susan Wasinger visiting today as part of her Sewn by Hand: Two Dozen Projects Stitched with Needle & Thread blog tour. Susan is also the Author of The Feisty Stitcher and Eco Craft, both of which I quite liked.

I asked Susan a couple of questions about her love of hand sewing and her eco-crafting philosophy.

I love the idea of sewing without electricity – the whole concept of slowing down and enjoying the process. Can you talk a little about your ‘slow sew’ philosophy and how you came to it?

It was purely self-preservation–and plain old loneliness–that brought me to the hand-sewing idea. I was tired of being locked away in my sewing room everytime I had a project to finish. I wanted to be mobile and able to mix with people while still being able to engage in my work and get it done.  Originally, hand-sewing was merely a way to cut the cord, to make sewing as portable and sociable as knitting is.  So I brought my sewing out into the open, to the kitchen table, to in front of the saturday night movie, to the sidelines of soccer and baseball games.

All of that was lovely and fun, but it wasn’t the end of the wonders of hand-sewing.

There is the relaxation, the “slow going” of hand sewing that makes for fewer hectic, stressful moments. You know how it is when you are machine sewing and you have a difficult seam, and there are a million pins, and a tight curve to negotiate, and that needle is pumping away at 20 stabs per second, bearing down on your tender little fingertips. Now that is stressful! In hand sewing, no matter how difficult the seam, or tight the turn, or how many pins, you are just poking along one tiny stitch at a time. It’s just calming, and relaxing, and it makes even the hard stuff nice and easy.

And then there is the silence, which I rhapsodize shamelessly about in the book. But really, when was the last time you had a conversation while you were sewing on a machine? Hand sewing is quiet time, which is something so rare in this clanking, buzzing, shrieking, twittering modern world of ours. It is quiet time that just happens to be engaged and productive as well.  This is work that your hands and heart and mind all seem to enjoy at the same time, without any one of them racing ahead or another falling behind. And in our crazy disjointed willy-nilly lives, that gentle balance is a lucky and happy thing to find.

There are quite a few projects in the book that reuse and recycle materials, this eco/green crafting fits in well with your ‘slow crafting’, can you tell us about what sorts of fabrics and materials you prefer to use and what draws you to certain fabrics?

For years I made projects out of junk and trash and recycled materials first for Natural Home Magazine, and then in my book EcoCraft. After hundreds of craft projects inspired by green thinking, it is second nature for me to see possibilities in stuff other people throw away. I have sewn a messenger bag from old plastic sacks. I’ve made chic date book covers from truck tire innertubes. I just can’t help but see possibilities in the lowliest stuff.

Often I find the inspiration right within the thing I want to repurpose, like over-shrunk sweaters or an old vintage shirt. I start looking at the nature and characteristics of the thing, at what makes it still loveable, and then I start looking for another way it can be useful. In the case of old sweaters, it is the color and the softness that inspires me to make a hat. With the old vintage shirts, I loved the soft palette, the practical no-nonsense material, and all the buttons and tailoring. So I made an apron that allowed me to “borrow the seams”. I cut the shirt as little as possible, moved pieces, turned them sideways, to make a very functional apron that uses the old shirt button placket front to make an adjustable neck strap and uses the old shirt pocket to make a new useful pocket on the apron. Form begets function in this funky form of renaissance. It is recycling playing at a little bit of reincarnation.

Your design aesthetic is quite varied – but invariably encompasses natural materials, and earthy raw textures, can you talk a little about your design philosophy and aesthetic?

Natural fabrics, stuff that feels real, and true. That is what I like. Linen is my absolute favorite fabric, especially natural linen. But I also like colorful calicos and shiny oil cloth, and graphic printed stuff.  I like when things inherent to one kind of fabric are played up and amplified in the design. For instance, little vintage print calicos are all the rage. Part of their appeal is that they are soft and rumply and remind us of some of the most well loved things of our past like a treasured quilt or a favorite dress. With age, the soft cotton gets softer, and paler, and maybe a little fuzzy around the seams. This adds to its history and charm. I like to design that right into the project from the start.

In Sewn by Hand, I made a hat and some slippers that use a piped edge made from cotton calico that was deliberately frayed and ruffled to bring out its inherent character. I used the same frayed edges to add sweetness to bibs and soft fabric spheres. Cotton and linen don’t mind wrinkles, and a frayed edge is both soft and simple and carefree. That wrinkly, ruffle-y, softly frayed edge is just in the DNA of the fabric itself. When the design brings that to the fore, then the project seems just right….

Follow along with the blog tour
4/4 Blog tour kickoff at LarkCrafts.com and giveaway
4/6 Sew Daily blog
4/8 Click here for a free travel thread caddy project from the book!
4/11 Pink of Perfection
4/13 Artsy-Crafty Babe
4/15 MayaMade
4/19 WhipUp
4/20 CRESCENDOh Blog
4/22 MummySam
4/25 Feeling Stitchy
4/27 Zakka Life
4/29 BurdaStyle blog

Would you like one of these books?  Lark is giving one away along with a small hand sewing kit, and other bits and pieces.  Leave a comment here – you have 48 hours. The winner will be contacted via email.

Disclosure: Lark provided Whipup.net with a review copy of this book. The Amazon link is an affiliate link.
TO PURCHASE THESE BOOKS ONLINE WITHIN AUSTRALIA WE RECOMMEND CAN DO BOOKS.

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Book: blog tour: Country side softies

by kath_red on April 18, 2011

in Books, Whip Up Tutorials

Very happy to have the honour of kicking off the book/blog tour of Amy Adams new book Countryside Softies: 28 Handmade Wool Creatures to Stitch published by Stash books. So welcome Amy!

Writing a craft pattern book has it’s ups and downs.  Some days the ideas flow to a point where you realize you can’t possibly fit all this into just one book.  And then, once it’s all over and with the publisher, new ideas pop up which make you think ‘why didn’t I do that at the time!’.  The pond was one of those new ideas, and I’m delighted to offer it to you as a free pattern here…

You will need:

  • Blue felt for the pond (plus extra or another colour for the base)
  • Light blue felt for additional pond area
  • Green felt for the lily pads
  • Pink or white felt for the lily
  • Selection of embroidery threads in blues and greens (I used pearl cotton 8)
  • Small button for the centre of the lily
  • 1” (2.5cm) of Velcro
  • Sewing needle, pins, scissors and the patterned out templates
  • Plus: A Riverside Softie made from the book ‘Countryside Softies’ by Amy Adams (Otter, Swan, Kingfisher or the Duck) [or maybe the dragonfly which is offered as a free pattern via the Stash books website]
  • Pattern/template

What to do:

First, print out the templates provided (use the scale indicators to check you have them the correct size) which will help you work out exactly how much felt you’re going to need. Cut out the blue pond shape, and also the largest lily pad.  Position the pad on the pond, and fix in place by stitching some veins on the leaf in backstitch.

Stitch blanket stitch around the edge of the lily pad leaf.  This will make the edges of the leaf curl up slightly.

Next, cut out the lighter blue pond area, and anchor in place onto the pond base with some backstitched wavy lines.  Add a few more ripples to the pond in other areas too.  Cut out 2 small lily pads, and also sew them in position by adding backstitched veins to the leaves.

To make the lily, cut out the 3 petal shapes, place them in a pile in order of size with the largest at the bottom, and secure the flower in place by sewing a button in the centre through all of the layers of felt including the pond base.

In the centre of the large lily pad, attach one of the pieces of Velcro.  The other piece will need to the sewn onto the base of your chosen Softie to attach it to the pond.

To finish off the pond, cut an additional pond shape, place it underneath the pond, and secure the 2 together by sewing blanket stitch all the way around the edge.  I used the Otter Softie on mine (he is one of my favorites from the book!) and finished off my pond further by making a little fishing rod from the stick.  I attached the fish (the pattern for this is in the book) to one end with a little embroidery thread, and also added a ‘No Fishing’ sign to the other end.

Naughty Otter, I don’t think he can read!

Disclosure: Whipup.net was provided with a pdf review copy of this book, and the link to Amazon is an affiliate link.

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