Time is flying past already this year but I thought I would still share some of my knitting Christmas presents - books as usual. I did receive lots of books on knitting and crochet this Christmas but I still haven';t had time to do more than have a quick look through each book.
I already have a number of Alice Starmore books (her Fair Isle and Aran books to name just 2) and I like the way she puts stranded colour patterns together so it was great to get this book to add to my collection.
I'm currently working on a couple of sock designs so both these sock books are interesting. The Ann Budd book covers a variety of ways of designing and knitting socks as well as having patterns from well known sock designers. The 'Knitted Socks East and West' book has some very interesting stitch patterns which are unusual constructions rather than the socks themselves being unusual. I need to find time to try out some of these stitch patterns!
Lots more interesting stranded stitch patterns and information about constructing Norwegian style sweaters; I've only had a very quick look at this book so far.
When I first saw this book on Amazon I thought it would be an OK techniques book. I was in my local Waterstones before Christmas and the book happened to be in there so i had a look through it. I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of information and different/more advanced techniques and stitches as well as the basics so I added it to my Christmas list and DH got it for me.
I also saw this book in Waterstones at the same time and was very impressed. It does cover knitting from all parts of the world so if you are interested in different knitting traditions this would be a great book to get. I've only had time to have a quick look so far, I just need a few years of nothing else to do to read all these books.
I didn't get any yarn at Christmas but we were in Devon with friends at New Year and visited Totnes (the home of the hippies and flairs!!). At the top of the main shopping street was a shop called Greenfibre (I think). It sold organic cotton fabrics and cloths, lotions, soaps etc but as I pasted the window I noticed some skeins of yarn - alpaca yarn at half price. Those of you who know me will know I don't need any more yarn but it was too good a bargain to pass so in I went and bought several skeins. I don't know what I will do with them yet, I may mix them with the chunky baby alpaca I got from Bev Beattie at Knitting4fun, I'm sure I'll think of something!
At the beginning of January DH and I went up to London as our kids gave us tickets to see Jersey Boys on the first Saturday in January.We met Frances up in London in the afternoon and after getting another ticket for her we were walking around and saw Foyles book shop. I like books shops almost as much as yarn shops so we went in and I found this book which covers the Unravel exhibition in Belgium last year. The book is in English and again looks very interesting hence why I bought it. It wasn't cheap as it has been imported from the States but has lots of intere3sting information about current knitting artists etc.
Well i think I did OK... just need a few years of time to devote to reading.
