As a finishing touch for all your handmade garments or a great pick-me-up for a vintage find, these lovely blooms are the perfect way to use up scraps of yarn or try out interesting new yarns.Breeze through this gorgeous collection featuring a colorful palette of simple spiraling roses, saucer-sized poppies, delicate lilacs, an assortment of vegetables, and more. All are shown full-size and in scale and is complete with stitched leaves and embroidered stems. Each flower pattern has full instructions, yarn requirements, and a suggested skill level. An additional section serves as a refresher course with basic techniques and provides inspiration for embellishing your finished flowers with beads, buttons, and sequins. You can also learn how to use the flowers in a range of fun projects, from customizing clothing and accessories, to decorating gift-wrapped packages.This book will inspire all knitters and crocheters to pick up their needles and start creating their own beautiful blooms.

    Some make our hearts and hands sing, some get the job done without much fanfare, and some cause nothing but frustration and disappointment. The gorgeous pair of socks that emerged from their first bath twice as long as when they went in. The delicate baby sweater that started pilling before it even came off the needles. The stunning colorwork scarf that you can't wear because the yarn feels like sandpaper against your neck. If only there were a way to read a skein and know how it would behave and what it wanted to become before you invested your time, energy, and money in it. Now there is! With The Knitter's Book of Yarn, you'll learn how to unleash your inner yarn whisperer.In these pages, Clara Parkes provides in-depth insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind the most common fiber types, preparations, spins, and ply combinations used by large-scale manufacturers and importers, medium-sized companies, boutique dye shops, community spinneries, and old-fashioned sheep farms. And, because we learn best by doing, Parkes went to some of the most creative and inquisitive design minds of the knitting world to provide a wide assortment of patterns created to highlight the qualities (and minimize the drawbacks) of specific types of yarns.The Knitter's Book of Yarn will teach you everything you need to know about yarn: How it's made, who makes it, how it gets to you, and what it longs to become. The next time you pick up a skein, you won't have to wonder what to do with it. You'll just know-the way any yarn whisperer would.

    *Everything the beginner knitter needs to know*Why knit? Why join a knit group? How to start your own knit group*What you'll need to get started on what might turn out to be a lifetime's passion*Step-by-step practical guide teaches how to knit in easy, jargon-free language*Troubleshooting section explains how to avoid the mistakes that you are definitely going to make*20 funky patterns for you to follow

    For knitters looking for something new to spark their imaginations, AlterKnits is the answer. Featuring 27 imaginative projects, 10 creativity exercises, and thought-provoking quotes from Albert Einstein, Martha Graham, and many more, AlterKnits inspires knitters to expect the unexpected, to enjoy the rewards of experimentation, and to see the possibilities of knitting with broader vision.Some projects call for unusual materials-plastic tubing (for a bag handle) or sterling silver wire (for a necklace). Others blend different craft techniques-a pullover with sewn-on velvet cuffs, a baby blanket with painted-on polka dots. Still others apply knitting in unexpected places, such as laptop cases and bulletin boards. The creativity exercises-called AlterExercises-challenge knitters to try out new ideas and to ask provocative, sometimes amusing questions. Tucked into a pocket on the inside front cover is the 32-page AlterKnits notebook, the perfect place for readers to work on their AlterKnits exercises and do their own creative doodling .With AlterKnits, our concept of what we can knit will be forever altered!

    From basic cross-stitch and chain stitch to more complicated couching, laid work, and drawn thread work, this is the stitch bible for embroiderers wishing to improve their technique and add new dimensions to their work. Stitches are arranged according to their use, including outlines, filling stitches, isolated stitches, motifs, edgings, hems, insertions, flat stitches, backgrounds, and textures. Concealed spiral binding allows embroiderers to read and practice simultaneously.- 200 photographed stitches accompanied by 400 illustrations- Stitch selector for easy reference to all 200 stitches- Glossary of embroidery stitches and techniques

    Presented with easy, step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and photos, these 23 projects include a bohemian coat sweater, a mohair hat, retro bed slippers, and an assortment of trendsetting bags. Projects are included for baskets, pillows, and a throw to add a stylish twist to a crocheter's home decor. In addition to introducing basic crochet techniques, this guide tackles more advanced projects using a variety of yarns, including mohair, merino, angora blends, and linen.

    They’ll also learn whether knitting swatches is really necessary and how big to knit a piece before felting. Twenty-four detailed projects include stylish bags, totes, hats, and mittens; warm and fuzzy vests and slippers; and decorative pillows, placemats, and coasters. With a section on embellishing felting and felting on felt (needle felting), knitters will be inspired to create these beautiful projects for friends and family, from the baby’s first felt hat to the furry slippers for cold winter nights.

    Crafters dabble, collaborate, muse, and make, all in their own way and on their own timeline. For all crafts, there are established techniques to follow but wild, innumerable ways to experiment, using the basics to launch crafters to new heights. Crafter’s Devotional can aid that launch. Each day of the year is given its own focus, on which the reader will find a daily dose of craft content that inspires, instructs, and illuminates.

    Need some pillows for your new couch, and have a bunch of old wool sweaters? Turn those sweaters into felt! Knitting, felting, leather tooling, glass and metal work––it's all here. CRAFTIVITY is filled with 60 amazing DIY projects that make the most of what you have by taking old stuff and turning it into functional, breathtaking art.

    It offers a comprehensive look at the various available fiber options, choosing and preparing each type of fiber for use, and crafting these materials into ready-to-work pieces. A final chapter on the various uses of spun yarn focuses on project planning, with definitions and context for measuring wraps per inch, determining yards for specific projects, and choosing a yarn size.

    But guess what? For every one knitter in the world there are three crocheters—which translates into millions of hip, crafty, 18- to 35-year-olds ready to be happy hookers with Stitch ’n Bitch attitude, sexiness, ingenuity, and cool. Written in the author’s cheeky chick style, this heavily illustrated book—featuring four-color photographs and instructional illustrations throughout—is chock-full of instruction, inspiration, and to-die-for designs, from a Fishnet Skullcap to a lacy evening wrap. For knitters and new crafters exploring the hook comes the primer: the advantages of crochet and the ways in which knitters (and nonknitters) benefit by learning this sister craft; a discussion of tools; all the cool yarns available, and what the different gauges mean; plus basic techniques and stitch patterns—including the chain stitch, picot, flowers, filet crochet, changing yarns, and finishing. Then come 40 fabulous, funky projects—the kind that make Stitch ’n Bitch rule—for crocheters: Pom Pom Capelet, Retro Clutch Purse, Anarchy Irony Hat, Ms. Pac Man Change Purses, Doris Daymat, Va-Va-Va Voom Bikini, Animal I-Pod Cozies, Kid’s Sock Monkey Poncho. No, these aren’t your grandma’s doilies.

    Sweaters get damaged or go out of style but we still love the prints, colors, and textures. You don't have time to knit it from scratch. It's ecologically correct. And most of all--it's fun!Sweater Surgery shows you how to upcycle all your slightly worn, slightly damaged, or plain old out-of-style sweaters into fabulous new items for your wardrobe and your home. Readers learn how to choose, cut, restitch, felt, and embellish old sweater fabric, transforming it into beautiful handbags, mittens, scarves, hats, hoodies, skirts, jewelry, soft toys, pillows, and more!Complete instructions for 27 projects, plus a huge gallery of exciting ideas for further inspiration.

    Walker, author of Treasury of Knitting Patterns.Elizabeth Zimmerman once wrote, "So please bear with me, and put up with my opinionated, nay, sometimes cantankerous attitude. I feel strongly about knitting." Perhaps her passionate opinions, as well as her love of wool craft and her delightful style, hark back to her English upbringing or long residence in the Wisconsin woods; in any case, the "Busy Knitter," as she calls herself, is one of the most charming and informative, as well as "un"ventive (her word) knitter-authors anywhere. This book gives full scope to her tireless imagination through a year's worth of projects, fitted to the seasons, moods, and needs of knitters who would like to design their own work.The year begins with an Aran sweater and proceeds to February baby things, a March Shetland, April blanket, May mittens, and so on through the months, completing the zodiac with November moccasin socks and a December last-minute wishbone sweater. Projects are completed in the midst of canoe trips, fishing expeditions, travel, and snowstorms. The author continuously comments on the project, its history, other ancient and modern customs, and personal beliefs.Mrs. Zimmerman works step by step with the reader, suggesting alternative methods and ideas as she goes. Her patterns are "classic," historically suited to wool, thus remaining ever-fashionable as well as tasteful and attractive. The knitter may easily adapt the designs at will, creating new, individual projects. Mrs. Zimmerman's hints (such as how to measure gauge when working a pattern and tips for baby's items) help ease the way and will instruct even the most experienced knitter. This corrected edition of the Knitter's Almanac will provide at the very least a year's worth of knitting pleasure to intermediate and advanced knitters and may even help stimulate a knitting passion.

    this book also features tips on choosing baby friendly fabrics and includes a comprehensive technique section glossary and resource guide. hardcover spiral bound 176 pages. imported.

    Aneela Hoey offers basic instructions for simple stitches, along with a generous selection of original embroidery patterns.