Shibori Knitted Felt: 20 Plus Designs to Knit, Bead, and Felt by Alison Crowther-Smith published by Interweave Press (April 1, 2008)

This is a beautiful book, Interweave always do such a great job in presenting their books. Beautiful photography and simple styling that show off the classic designs in their full glory.

The shibori aspect comes in by using the same techniques used in traditional shibori dyeing, tying, folding and scrunching and then applying these techniques when fulling a knitted item to create unusual and interesting effects.

The projects in the book are all suitable for intermediate knitters with some also suited to beginners. Projects include a bobble cushion, a pleated scarf, an artist ‘islands scarf’ which can be made as a shibori felted sampler suitable to experiment with different techniques. There are also some lovely bags, placemats and brooches too. Lots here to experiment with.

Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects by Betz White published by North Light Books (December 10, 2007)

This has got to be one of the most exciting craft books I have seen a long time. This has really got me excited to create. There are so many fabulous projects in here – complete with excellent bold fun photography and lots of clear how-to instruction photos as well.

I knew Betz was clever and original and very cool – and this book just proves it. The, by now, famous woolly cupcakes that she demonstrated on Martha Stewart grace the cover. But otherwise most of the other projects are completely new – lots of original designs, some simple, some more complex, but none of them difficult.

Betz explains the technical aspect of felting woolen sweaters at the beginning and she is obviously passionate about it and has done a lot of experimenting. This book is fun!

I absolutely love the ‘rustic throw’ a bold blanket made up of squares of different colours with some leaf designs stitched on here and there. There are other blankets too for baby, and plenty of cushion designs as well. But apart from these sort of standard designs (Betz is hardly standard – the crazy ‘breakfast in bed pillow is testament to that – but you know what I mean), there are some more interesting uses to put to your woolly scraps. There are sweet little ornaments, gorgeous kids clothes – vest and dress and poncho, as well as a doggie jacket and kitty mat, some super fun things too like hand puppets (these are really cool), variations on the journal/book cover, and a very cute craft apron (the cute part in the little owl face pocket). I love what she does with accessories too – bags and scarfs and hats. There is too much good stuff in here.