Craftside

A knitter's letter to President Abraham Lincoln featured in the book Knitting America

Happy 4th of July Craftside readers! I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous and festive day! I thought it would be fun to share this letter to President Abraham Lincoln written by a knitter featured in the book Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art.

Click on this page from Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art to enlarge and read the knitter's letter to the President.

More about the Voyageur Press book:

Knitting America:

A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art

by

Susan M. Strawn

Foreword by:

Melanie Falick

Beautifully illustrated with vintage pattern booklets, posters, postcards, black-and-white historical photographs, and contemporary color photographs of knitted pieces in private collections and in museums, Knitting America is an exquisite view of America through the handiwork of its knitters.

 

Knitted balloons featured in the new book The Textile Artist's Studio Handbook

Unexpected things can be so inspiring! Such is the case with this photo of knitted balloons featured in the book The Textile Artist's Studio Handbook: Learn Traditional and Contemporary Techniques for Working with Fiber, Including Weaving, Knitting, Dyeing, Painting, and More.

I now want to put my thinking cap on and come up with something that would be totally unexpected to knit! If you are a fiber junkie like me, check out the Quarry book:

 

The Textile Artist's Studio Handbook:
Learn Traditional and Contemporary Techniques for Working with Fiber, Including Weaving, Knitting, Dyeing, Painting, and More

by

Visnja Popovic

Owyn Ruck

The Textile Artist's Studio Handbook is the only book you need for expanding your repertoire of textile crafting and design techniques. This is the go-to guide for the foundations of design and fabrication, glossary of materials, and classic techniques that include weaving, dyeing, painting, and more! Plus, where else can you get behind-the-scenes access to setting up the best home textile studio for you?

Inside, you’ll find exploration of basic materials (including fibers, dyes, paints, and other media); visual tutorials for spinning, felting, crochet, weaving, sewing, and quilting; primers for surface decoration techniques such as dyeing, painting, stitching, and screen printing; and patterns and project instructions.

Visnja Popovic is the co-founder and education director of the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY. Owyn Ruck is the co-founder and general manager of the Textile Arts Center. They both currently reside in Brooklyn.

   

American Crazy Quilt Scarf by Susan Nix from the book Knitting Scarves from Around the World

Do you like trying new stitches out and want a way to feature and enjoy them? Why not try using them in a scarf like this one featured in the book Knitting Scarves from Around the World: Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques!

 More about the book:

Knitting Scarves from Around the World:

Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques

By

Kari Cornell

Photographers:

Sue Flanders

Janine Kosel

Here are 40 patterns for scarves from around the globe—including stylish traditional projects from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the British Isles, the Americas, and Asia. Pattern introductions provide a background of knitting techniques from that part of the world, including schematics and charts.

Kari Cornell is a book editor by day and an avid knitter by night. She is the editor of several collections of knitting stories and patterns, including For the Love of Knitting, Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales, Retro Knits, and Modern Knits, Vintage Style. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

Photographers Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel are authors of the book Norwegian Handknits.

 

How to spin extreme tail style yarn from the new book Hand Spun: New Spins on Traditional Techniques by Lexi Boeger

The first Craftside Wednesday Giveaway of 2012 is... a copy of the super cool and inspiring book Hand Spun: New Spins on Traditional Techniques!

To get yourself in the running for the first book giveaway of the year, simply answer the question:

What was your favorite book of 2011? What book did you make something from, become inspired by or otherwise savor?

Leave your answer in today's comments section by midnight ET on Wednesday January 25, 2012 and you are in the running!

And this wouldn't be Craftside without an inside peek into Hand Spun. Check out this tutorial on how to spin yarn with extreme tails:

Click on these pages from Hand Spun to enlarge and read the full directions on how to make extreme tail spun yarn.

More about the Quarry book:

Hand Spun: New Spins on Traditional Techniques

by

Lexi Boeger

Hand Spun contains a collection of never-before-published spinning techniques along with interesting, creative, hip projects. The essential momentum behind this book is to satisfy fans of the author's first two books in their desire for new materials to learn. As Intertwined becomes more well-known, these handspun styles are flooding the internet craft community. Hand Spun offers fresh, new, and exciting material for these spinners to move on to. Where Handspun Revolution, the author's first book, was the spark that ignited the genre of Art-yarn, and Intertwined is considered the bible of creative spinning, Handspun builds upon the now common knowledge of novelty spinning, digging deeper into the traditional underbelly of spinning, not as a means to teach traditional techniques, but rather as a way of turning very traditional forms inside out: Using time-tested techniques to deliver cutting-edge forms. This book also covers fiber-preparation processes, from scouring raw fleece to several carding techniques.

Pluckyfluff creator Lexi Boeger has forged a new genre in the craft of handspinning. She has been a working artist, writer, and designer for 20 years and brings the perspectives and knowledge gained in these fields to the craft of spinning. She has brought creative spinning to the attention of the international art world through art yarn exhibitions and workshops, and has helped to permanently blur the line between art and craft. Boeger currently produces new works from her studio in California.

 

How to blanket stitch felt flowers onto a scarf from the book Knitting Scarves from Around the World

I always think about using the blanket stitch to sew elements down around the outside, but these cute felt flower elements use it to secure around the inside! See how to use the blanket stitch to embellish a scarf on this page from Knitting Scarves from Around the World: Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques.

Click on these pages from Knitting Scarves from Around the World: Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques to enlarge and get the felt flower pattern and directions for embellishing a scarf with blanket stitched flowers.

More about the book:

 
Knitting Scarves from Around the World:

Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques

Edited by

Kari Cornell

Photographers:

Sue Flanders

Janine Kosel

Here are 40 patterns for scarves from around the globe—including stylish traditional projects from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the British Isles, the Americas, and Asia. Pattern introductions provide a background of knitting techniques from that part of the world, including schematics and charts.

Kari Cornell is a book editor by day and an avid knitter by night. She is the editor of several collections of knitting stories and patterns, including For the Love of Knitting, Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales, Retro Knits, and Modern Knits, Vintage Style. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

Photographers Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel are authors of the book Norwegian Handknits.