Beginners Handbook of Knitting Stitches


Chloe Thompson - 2013
    With this book you will learn:Basic stitches like the Purl StitchKnit stitches, such as Diamond Brocade and Seeded TrianglesRib Stitches like the Mock Cable Rib and Fishbone RibLace Stitches, such as the Fishtail and Cubic LaceCable Stitches like the Woven Cable and Waving CablesBONUS: As an added bonus this book includes a knitting glossary at the end, for you to use to help understand knitting jargon!

Plant Craft: 30 Projects that Add Natural Style to Your Home


Caitlin Atkinson - 2016
    Plant Craft features projects inspired by the natural world and made out of live plants, cut flowers, foraged branches, and more. You’ll learn how to create a colorful floral mural, an elegant table centerpiece, a serene underwater sculpture, a whimsical mobile, and more. The step-by-step instructions are clear, easy to follow, and fully illustrated with color photographs, and the projects vary in difficulty. Given the right care, they all have the potential to grace a home for a long time.

Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art


Ricë Freeman-Zachery - 2009
    Whether you're looking to clear more space in your head for creative thinking, or to make the most of the time you do manage to sneak into your studio, the help you need is all right here.Discover ways to keep the creative part of your brain engaged even during activities such as shopping or doing "business work" on the computer.Learn how to budget your time by spending less of it surfing the internet and more time sketching out your next creative project.Pull yourself out of a creative rut with ideas from reorganizing your studio to remembering that mistakes can be fun to forcing yourself to try a new color palette.Obtain an insider look into the studios of several successful artists and get a glimpse of where they get to go to work every day and the rituals they use to get the juices flowing.Try out jump-starting exercises for your brain and unleash an entirely new creative direction.Creative Time and Space is just the friendly push you need to work more of what you love (making art) into your life and to love whatever space you create it in.

The Needlepoint Book: A Complete Update of the Classic Guide


Jo Ippolito Christensen - 1976
    Completely revised and expanded, this updated edition includes your favorite features, plus: * A 16-PACE COLOR INSERT WITH ALL-NEW PROJECTS * A CRASH COURSE ON THE NEW FIBERS UPDATED INFORMATION ON MATERIALS, AS WELL AS HOW TO WORK WITH AND CARE FOR THEM * DOZENS OF NEW STITCHES AND A CHAPTER ON THE POPULAR OPENWORK STITCHES * MORE THAN 1,300 ILLUSTRATIONS * 369 STITCHES! DIAGRAMS FOR ALL PROJECTS SHOWN The Needlepoint Book covers all the information you need to learn needlepoint and improve your technique -- in a single comprehensive volume. You'll find section on: * CHOOSING THE RIGHT PROJECT * TRANSFERRING DESIGNS * ELEMENTS OF GOOD DESIGN: COLOR, PROPORTION, AND BALANCE * LEFT-HANDED NEEDLEPOINT * FINISHING TECHNIQUES * CLEANING NEEDLEPOINT * AND MUCH MORE! The Needlepoint Book is a complete guide to the craft, and the only book you'll ever need as a reference to become an expert at creating exquisite works to be treasured forever.

Greetings from Knit Cafe


Suzan Mischer - 2006
    The result was Knit Cafe, a sleek yet homey neighborhood yarn store in one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world. This fabulous shop—and its unique spirit—are celebrated in Greetings from Knit Cafe, now available in an updated paperback edition.  Colorful and chic, the book offers 30 of Knit Cafe’s most dazzling patterns for "California-style" projects ranging from hiking socks to a bikini to a "red carpet" gown. It also features stories about how the celebrated store came to be and how its eclectic clientele came to shape it. Even a few favorite recipes from regular customers are included. Knitters nationwide will enjoy Knit Cafe’s California spirit and join its eclectic circle of devotees.

Alterknit Stitch Dictionary: 200 Modern Knitting Motifs


Andrea Rangel - 2017
    These non-traditional colorwork charts are perfect for the creative knitter looking to break away from the ordinary. Derived from graphic design elements, these fresh motifs include everything from geometric mountains, waves, and spirals to modern bikes, skulls, and sheep. Dive into stranded colorwork with confidence with a section on reading charts, working floats, and choosing colors. Learn how stranded colorwork can be used in design with five accompanying projects including mitts, cowls, and sweaters. Plus, use your imagination to modify, deconstruct, and combine the unique motifs to create your own designs. Be inspired to break the rules and use charts in creative ways with AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary.

Sew Many Dresses, Sew Little Time: The Ultimate Dressmaking Guide


Tanya Whelan - 2015
    The trick is a set of patterns for 6 skirts and 8 bodices that line up perfectly at the waist, plus an additional 4 sleeve styles and 4 necklines. Tanya gives readers clear instructions and easy-to-follow step-by-step diagrams that allow them to use the enclosed pattern pieces to create up to 219 fitted dresses, including simple strapless designs, sheaths, and halter gowns. The book covers basic dress construction and altering techniques for women of all shapes and sizes.

Mastering Hand Building: Techniques, Tips, and Tricks for Slabs, Coils, and More


Sunshine Cobb - 2018
    In this book, Sunshine Cobb covers all the foundational skills, with lessons for constructing both simple and complex forms from clay. Ceramic artists will also find a variety of next-level techniques and tips: designing templates and replicating pieces, lidded vessels, using molds, a variety of decorative techniques, and other avenues of exploration are all inside.Artist features and inspirational galleries include work from today's top working artists, such as Bryan Hopkins, Lindsay Oesterritter, Liz Zlot Summerfield, Bandana Pottery, Shoko Teruyama, Courtney Martin, Sam Chung, Deborah Schwartzkopf, and many more.  Take your hand building skills—and your artwork—to the next level with Mastering Hand Building. The Mastering Ceramics series is for artists who never stop learning. With compelling projects, expert insight, step-by-step photos, and galleries of work from today’s top artists, these books are the perfect studio companions. Also available from the series: Mastering the Potter's Wheel and Mastering Kilns and Firing.

Geek Knits: Over 30 Projects for Fantasy Fanatics, Science Fiction Fiends, and Knitting Nerds


Joan of Dark - 2015
    And if you're less into the culture and just need something unique to hold your comic book collection, author Joan of Dark has that covered, too. Inside you'll find fun and funky projects modeled by some very familiar faces, including René Auberjonois of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and his Blue Box Scarf, John Carpenter and his Asylum Comic Book Cover, and George R. R. Martin with his trusty knitted Dire Wolf!Whether you consider yourself aligned with the Chaotic Good or take a more Neutral Evil approach to life (and knitting), Geek Knits has everything you need to dress the part.

City Quilts: 12 Dramatic Projects Inspired by Urban Views


Cherri House - 2010
    In this book, you'll discover the secrets of minimalist design-how to find beauty in the basic elements of your environment. These projects deliver exciting, vivid results with solid color fabrics. City Quilts was named one of the Best Books of 2010 in the Fiber Crafts Category by Library Journal, and is a finalist in the 2010 Foreword Book of the Year Awards."

The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers: A Guide to Making Unbelievably Realistic Paper Blooms


Livia Cetti - 2014
    The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers is Cetti’s comprehensive how-to manual showcasing her until-now secret techniques for creating 27 popular blooms, including peonies, poppies, roses, and hibiscus. Clear instructions and stunning step-by-step photographs show crafters of all levels how to make individual flowers as well as how to combine blooms to form 20 exquisite garlands, centerpieces, wreaths, corsages, and boutonnieres.

Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery


Leanne Prain - 2011
    Hoopla rebels against the quaint and familiar embroidery motifs of flowers and swashes, and focuses instead on innovative stitch artists who specialize in unusual, guerrilla-style patterns such as a mythical jackalope and needlepoint nipple doilies; it demonstrates that modern embroidery artists are as sharp as the needles with which they work.Hoopla includes twenty-eight innovative embroidery patterns and profiles of contemporary embroidery artists, including Jenny Hart, author of Sublime Stitching; Rosa Martyn of the UK-based Craftivism Collective; Ray Materson, an ex-con who learned to stitch in prison; Sherry Lynn Wood of the Tattooed Baby Doll Project, which collaborated with female tattoo artists across the United States; Penny Nickels and Johnny Murder, the self-proclaimed Bonnie and Clyde of embroidery; and Alexandra Walters, a military wife who replicates military portraits and weapons in her stitching.Full-color throughout and bursting with history, technique, and sass, Hoopla will teach readers how to stitch a ransom note pillow, mean and dainty knuckle-tattoo church gloves; and create their own innovative embroidery projects. If you like anarchistic DIY craft and the idea of deviating from the rules, Hoopla will inspire you to wield a needle with flair!With a foreword by Betsy Greer.

Paper Cutting: Contemporary Artists, Timeless Craft


Laura Heyenga - 2011
    This gorgeous volume features work from 26 contemporary international artists who are creating images of astonishing intricacy, using little more than paper and blade. Featuring a host of new discoveries and including art by such stars as Nikki McClure, Rob Ryan, and Thomas Allen, as well as a number of emerging practitioners, Paper Cutting is sure to engage art buffs and indie crafters alike. An in-depth introduction by paper art expert Natalie Avella illuminates the rich history of the centuries-old form, and a whimsical preface by beloved artist Rob Ryan rounds out this delightful collection.

Easy Crochet Critters: 10 Amigurumi Designs


Lion Brand Yarn Company - 2008
    From the alligator to the walrus, each of the 10 creatures can rest in the palm of your hand. Just think how much fun you'll have crocheting the whole zoo, especially when you use Vanna's Choice and Vanna's Choice Baby yarns from the Lion Brand Yarn Company. Enjoy the adventure of crocheting these winsome, wild creatures. They are wonderful to keep or to share! 10 designs to crochet using medium weight yarn: elephant, hippo, monkey, giraffe, alligator, lion, seal, walrus, penguin, and snowy owl. Sizes range from 4" to 8" tall.

The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes: Personalize Your Craft with Organic Colors from Acorns, Blackberries, Coffee, and Other Everyday Ingredients


Sasha Duerr - 2010
    Duerr demonstrates how to create complex and complimentary colors by using plants grown or resources found in the garden or collected from sidewalks and vacant lots. Simple and sustainable, her methods will work on fabrics, paper, shoes, lamp shades, wood beads, leather, and even hair. This is a book for any gardener, sewer, fabric lover, or do-it-yourselfer interested in adding safe and spectacular colors from everyday ingredients.