Books

I decided to share a couple of books that recently caught my attention

THE HANDMADE MARKETPLACE by Kari Chapin has been out for a little bit less than a year.  From what I've read so far, this "manual" is great for beginners and covers a wide range of topics from "creating your own brand" to "using blog to promote your craft business". 

THE ARTIST'S WAY is a 12-week course touch by Julia Cameron.  I have discovered Julia's website by accident and am quite anxious to complete the course by following THE ARTIST'S WAY book.

I've heard and read about THE HAPPINESS PROJECT before and although I consider myself a happy person I would love to read about Gretchen's quest for a happier life.

Another accidental discovery - Betty Edwards method of teaching drawing:

..."learning to draw" means learning to make a mental shift from L-mode to R-mode. That is what a person trained in drawing does, and that is what you can learn.

I would love to give this method a try and get a copy of THE NEW DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN.

Discovering

I really like finding out new things and the past several days were filled with happy discoveries.

Here is the first one:



Hemingway's "Super Stitches Knitting"- a gift from my non-knitting coworker. I have been looking at stitchionaries available at the bookstores and on Amazon for a while. I am not ready to design my own sweaters yet, but I would like to try my creativity and knit a scarf or a headband using different stitches. "Super stitches knitting" seems to be perfect for that. The book is divided into sections including: "knit and purl", "lace", "fair isle", and so on. It also has a section with tips and instructions on casting on, binding off, colour-work, and fixing errors (that one will be useful). I can not wait to create my own project using some of the stitches from the book and I think I know what it might be.

The second discovery was a long awaited first issue of Debbie Bliss magazine.


There are several interesting items in this magazine and overall presentation and design are very beautiful. I think Debbie Bliss magazine will be one of my favorites.

The last 2 discoveries were online magazines. The Inside Loop - UK based knitting magazine and Knotions. Both look very interesting and I will be spending some time reading the articles and choosing patterns I like.

There was actually another discovery or should I say an acquisition (yet another gift) but I will dedicate a separate post to it once I take proper pictures.

Books, books, books

I am still working on Mr. Sock II. As some of knitters mention, there comes a point in any project when you just can not wait to finish it, and that point came yesterday. Unfortunately my Ikebana class (what, you thought knitting is the only unusual thing I am into???) took longer then expected and I did not have time to finish the sock. I got to the heel part, but hey, it is all downhill after heel, right?
I also did not get a chance to take pictures - BAD blogger, Anna, BAD!

I do have something to share with you today: I place my first knitting Amazon order! I exercised great self-restrain and discipline while ordering. Those of you who know me in real life can imagine how hard it was. I first narrowed my choice to 30, then to 17, finally I picked 8 ... only 3 books made it to the "shopping cart" but I believe I made the right choice.
Here are the top 3, as chosen by yours truly

3rd place:
I am yet to share my full story of shawl knitting with you. For now I'll just say that I did not give up the Knit1 shawl. I actually got some awesome yarn and special needles (it's a blogworthy story on its' own), and I even started it. I also looked at tones of lace knitting sites and I feel that after socks-addiction it would be shawls. Oberle's book is PERFECT for that.


2nd place goes to:


I had to get a crochet book, I am a Crazy Crocheter after all. To tell you the truth my last trip to the bookstore left me disappointed; for some reason there were no good crochet books there. It seems like people knit but do not crochet, anymore. However, Crochemealong blog proves the opposite. This is the blog, where people share their progress on the objects they make from "Crochet me". After looking at all the gorgeous projects I could not resist ordering the book.


And the winner iiiiiiiiis:


It had to be about socks. Even if I already have 20 patterns waiting to be knitted, another 70 are more then welcome. I also heard great reviews about Rowley's book - can not wait too flip through all the designs.

P.S. the order of books does not reflect my personal preferences. I like all of them equally, just like mothers love their children.

Just a quick update

This is the book I am currently reading. A lot of useful information and an easy read.