Snow and Christmas presents

We had an unusually large amount of snow this week, 5 or 6 inches, and most of it is still there making life a little difficult to get around. We did manage to get the car out of the drive to take DD back to college in Cardiff but I wasn't doing the driving!

As a result of the snowy weather I wasn't able to go to Arundel to do some more filming for knit1.tv. I'm supposed to be going again this week but I'll wait to see if the roads improve. The main roads are fine it's just getting out of our road that is a little interesting!

Anyway all this snow has given me some time to look through my Christmas presents. As usual I got quite a few knitting books (as you can see from the pictures). The 'Reversible Knitting' book wasn't quite what I expected. The stitch patterns are interesting viewed from either side but are not necessarily what I would have called reversible. They do give a lot of food for thought and when I have some time I will try out some of the stitches. The garments themselves are interesting (although not my personal style) but use some interesting styling techniques.

'Haiku Knits' is a pattern book but it does have some interesting details. 'Knits from the North Sea' has a variety of lace patterns to play with. They are used in scarf and shawl patterns but most of the patterns have charts so you can work the stitch patterns in your own design if you want. 'Noro' has information about the development of Noro yarns and some very wearable patterns. 'Swing, Swagger, Drape' also has some very wearable patterns and like many XRX books is beautifully photographed by Alexis Xenakis.

'Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans' has lots of information and traditional stitch patterns to try out. I asked for the last book 'No Idle Hands' after it was recommended by Joyce Meader (historical knitter) who said it was a great read and although I have only read the introduction it is very readable, I just need more time and fewer magazines to catch up on, then I can get on with reading it properly.