Another fabulous tutorial for matsutake. Link to tutorial.

Rockpool candy – Let me ease your day new intervention launching on 6 July. Let me ease your day is a new movement, taking yarn bombing, and repurposing it for the good of all, by providing knitted, crocheted and sewn textiles to the people in our society who might just need a random act of kindness to ease their day.

In times of financial worry, charities suffer. The public pull in their purse strings and stop giving. When the living is easy, our money is often given to charity to ease our consciences, to allow us to carry on our day to day lives without having to interact with needy causes and to feel like we’re doing something. But I want society to be different. As crafters we have skills that we can put to use and make a difference that is not dependent on the free change we have in our pockets.

Easy Needle Felting by Nancy Hoerner, Judy Jacobs, Kay Kaduce. Published by Sterling (March 4, 2008)

I have done wet felting in the past, although not so much recently, and I belonged to the local felter’s association, making rugs and hats – it was a very satisfying process. I had not tried needle felting before so I when I was given this book I was very intrigued and immediately searched for where I might find the needed supplies, as I wanted to get stuck straight into making some of the beautiful hats shown in the book.

The book starts with “a brief history of Ffelting” showing some ancient samples of felting – quite interesting. A felting glossary as the back, tools and safety instructions at the front are followed by instructions on how to make the felt fabric – it is all very clear and well illustrated.

The projects themselves are lovely and I am very keen to get started – I quite like the “bold traveller bag with a beaded flap”. There are quite a few bags followed by “needle felted hats” – it is these I was really excited about – as I do like to wear a hat – and am interested in making a cloche style hat using this method.

The next chapters go into making decorations for hats, jackets and other clothing. Actually if you have the tools and fibre there is no end to the different items you can make from felt. If you are a crafts person and like working with natural fibres you – you will find this book on needle felting very interesting.

About the reviewer: Janette spends her retirement working on all things yarn related. When not knitting, crocheting, felting or spinning she is slowly doing up an old weaving loom and plans to have a go on that as soon as she possibly can.

Crochet Chic: Haute Crochet Scarves, Hats & BagsBy Francine Toukou, published by Lark Books (November 1, 2007)

Firstly, this is a hardcover book, and that gets my vote straight away. I love hardcover books, not only because they look and feel so nice, but because wear well over time.

Sometimes it seems that a book has a whole heap of amazing things in it, but only one or two patterns that people would feel comfortable wearing in public, or that people would be happy to buy in the supplies for and take the time to make. The patterns in this book are very usable, lots of bags and scarves – and some more unusual patterns such as the Victoria Collar.

This book gets another big tick from me since it looks as if most, if not all of the projects work up very quickly. Crochet is great for that anyhow, but team up a quick technique with a speedy pattern and I am very satisfied. Another big plus is that all of the projects are made using crochet, but not many of them look like they are crocheted. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the one hook method of playing with yarn, but so many patterns look like granny squares all sewn together, or seem to be made into things that don’t hang or wear well. I can forgive the two patterns in this book that ARE actually made of granny squares all joined together because the rest of the projects use a combination of embellishments (pom poms, fringes, ruffles, flowers, appliqué, bobbles or a contrasting edge), a variety of yarns (mohair, ribbon yarns) and techniques (felting), and of course well written and designed patterns to create items that look and feel gorgeous.

In addition to seducing the reader with so many great projects, this book goes on to educate any reader new to crochet as to actually HOW to do the stitches and techniques used for the projects. This section includes information on the very basics of crochet, how to do the stitches mentioned, how to join things together, and how to make the embellishments. It even has a section on garment care and keeping your projects looking nice. On top of all this, it has another section that includes handy information on gauge, hooks and different kinds of yarn.

This is a stylish book full of projects that are quick, easy – it is well designed to showcase the projects and to make it easy for people to make them.

About the author: Kate is a busy mother of three (soon to be four) and has far too many craft projects on the go at any one time. These could include, but are not limited to, crochet, 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.

This is not your normal pattern book (though it does have 20 patterns) the real attraction is the inside view of the ten Fibre Farms and the different fibres they produce. (book website link)

Shear Spirit: Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns, and Miles of Yarn by Joan Tapper (Author), Gale Zucker (Photographer), published by Potter Craft (April 15, 2008).

Each chapter concentrates on a different fibre farm, I found each and every one of them totally enthralling. Anne from Meadowcroft Farm in Maine is working on a degree in Agriculture and Resource Economics while her husband restores the old house on their farm. She says running the farm is “part inspiration and part planning”. She loves to create systems and has essentially taken on the entire production process: growing her feed, selling livestock, selling wool and products like sweaters and blankets that create piecework jobs for home knitters and showcase her hand spun and hand dyed yarn. The images of her hand dyed wool left me wide eyed. She goes into some detail of the dying of the wool in that she carries salt water from the river up to the farm. She does quite a bit of experimenting with some natural dyes and some authentic aniline carbon based dyes, though she still favours indigo which she grows. But even with the detail she has gone into, it has certainly wet my appetite to read more. She offers two patterns which show off her use of dyes. I truly loved reading this chapter and wanted a whole book on each – in fact I wanted to jump on a plane and go visit!

This image is just one of the lovely patterns featured in the book – Montana Tunic –

Each of the ten chapters is about a different farm, different animals, different fibres and different skills and experiences in different areas in the USA. Each chapter, is a sample of the lives each of the people live on their so different properties. These are people living out their dream, something we are
not all able to do.

Each farm offers a couple of patterns from bags to adults and children’s cardigans, shawls and berets and socks all from different animal fibres. I personally liked the Mariposa Cardigan for a child from the Victory Ranch, and simply loved the photo of the child with the alpacas. The Welsh Travelling Socks from Autumn House Farm would be an inspiration for anyone to even learn to knit and possibly dye their own wool as well. For those who like weaving Kai Ranch show some hand dyeing and a photo of one of their lovely natural coloured rugs from mohair fleece.

Its a book I would recommend to anyone who themselves wanted their own little corner of the world and to those who enjoy various crafts and seeing what others have made and possibly make themselves its certainly inspiring.

About the reviewer: Janette lives in suburban Australia living out her own dream in her retirement. She spins, knits, and surrounds herself in all sorts of fibre related crafts.

Beautiful hand braided scarf tutorial, stunning. Link.