Fiber Arts

Abrahams repeats the format of 100 Afghan Squares To Knit, her 2002 collection of patterns for knitted afghans and throws for the experienced knitter. Here she features 12 designs in a variety of themes and colorways, including several, like the Playmat—with its knitted-in numbers, letters, and geometric shapes—that would make good gifts for children. The Four Seasons afghan is a special treat, with motifs illustrating the seasons interspersed with colorful cable-stitch squares. Many of the squares make liberal use of beads, buttons, and sequins as embellishments. Rowan yarns are specified throughout, but the reader is given enough information to make intelligent yarn substitutions. Consider for larger public libraries, especially where Abrahams’s first book was in demand.

Although several other excellent stitch dictionaries have been published recently, including Lucinda Ganderton’s Stitch Sampler: The Ultimate Visual Dictionary to Over 200 Classic Stitches, Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, and Betty Barnden’s The Embroidery Stitch Bible, this guide gives more detailed information on a greater number of stitches than any of them. It includes 263 stitches on fabric (surface and counted-thread embroidery), smocking stitches, and stitches on canvas (needlepoint). Each stitch is allotted a full- or half-page spread and is illustrated with a color photo, a stitch diagram, and step-by-step instructions. Working direction—often omitted from other stitch dictionaries—is specified, and useful information on how and when to use each stitch as well as instructions for left-handed modifications are included. Small library collections may prefer Barnden’s book, with its colorful visual index and interior spiral binding, but for sheer wealth of stitch information, all public libraries should seriously consider this title.

Flamme (coauthor, Thinking Outside the Block: Step-by-Step to Dynamic Quilts) often draws inspiration from the garden, and here she applies that inspiration to easy-to-make fabric flowers that require only scraps of fabric, stabilizers, fusible web, and basic floral supplies. Although decorative machine stitching can be used to embellish these flowers, most require no sewing and can be completed in an afternoon. The book includes illustrated step-by-step instructions for ten different flower projects that feature, e.g., daisies, sunflowers, orchids, calla lilies, and hydrangeas. The finished flowers can be arranged in vases or used without stems as flower pins, as clothing adornments, for scrapbooking, for gift packages, or to lend quilts a 3-D element.

Alternately, Fun-To-Wear highlights softer flower blossoms as decorative clothing elements and hair ornaments. The 36 projects, most of which can be made entirely by hand, are grouped into 13 basic types: free-motion, gathered, five-petal, yo-yo, roses, ruched, individual petal, pansies, folded-petal, loopy, bias-strip, poppy, and felt. Each project is accompanied by a one-page color photo of the finished flower, a list of materials required, and step-by-step instructions. Searle uses a wide variety of fabrics, including some really smashing silk charmeuse, and offers several novel embellishment ideas, e.g., using coiled zippers as flower centers. Both books are good choices for public libraries; Fun-To-Wear is warmly recommended.

Fons and Porter (cohosts, Love of Quilting; coauthors, The Quilter’s Complete Guide) have chosen 24 vintage quilts from the collections of the Henry Ford, a Michigan museum complex established by the Ford family in 1929, and offer instructions and full-size patterns for each to enable the modern quilter to reproduce these American treasures. The quilts are divided into five major groups: “Quilts of Susan McCord” (an extraordinarily talented 19th-century Indiana farm wife who quilted for some 50 years), “Red & White Quilts,” “Log Cabin Quilts,” “Appliqué Quilts,” and “Patchwork Quilts.” Each pattern is illustrated with a color photo of the original quilt and includes a history, a materials list, full-size patterns, and step-by-step instructions. Special sections cover American quilting from 1825 to 1925, a gallery of McCord’s quilts, and an annotated bibliography for further reading on 19th-century quilting. A solid choice for all quilting collections.

New Yorker Gardiner and Texan Shayne cowrite a popular blog called Mason-Dixon Knitting. Here they share the joy of knitting with a wider audience in a book that, were it a movie, would rate as a three-star comedy. Yes, there’s knitting—some 30 fun and inventive knitting patterns, e.g., Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono, Mason-Dixon After-Dark Nightie)—but there’s also a hilarious knitting history time line, interviews with creative knitters, sidebars on topics like British slang, field-tested favorite TV shows to knit by, places in which the authors have tried to knit and failed, and essays on the joy of community knitting. An excellent annotated bibliography of “books to lead you to great heights of creative genius” rounds off this entertaining read. Highly recommended for all public libraries.

Despite their similar titles, these two books are quite different. In Luxury Knits, knitwear designer Griffiths (Textured Knits: Quick and Easy Step-by-Step Projects) shares 22 patterns for accessories, garments, and gifts knitted with high-quality (read: expensive) yarns. These projects, illustrated in color, call for blends of cashmere, chenille, merino, mohair, and silk and range from a summer camisole to a winter cardigan.

Morse, owner of a high-end Manhattan knitting boutique, concentrates on luxury (read: really expensive) fibers and, in addition to offering knitting patterns, takes readers on a photographic journey around the world in search of cashmere, silk, and merino. She also discusses characteristics of each fiber, how and what to knit with each, and how to recognize high-quality yarns. Knitters who may limit their use of these luxury fibers (a yarn kit for the beautiful silk honeycomb pillow costs $200 for the yarn alone) will nonetheless find the extensive background information on each fiber enlightening. Public libraries with sufficient demand for high-end knitting project books may want to consider Luxury Knits, but the more comprehensive Luxury Knitting merits a wider audience.

Danish knitwear designer Isager became intrigued by African cultural artifacts—baskets, carpets, and other textiles—as source material for her original designs. Here she features 16 hand-knitted sweaters and vests combining African patterns and motifs and using such knitting techniques as intarsia, double knitting, entrelac, stranded two-color, and domino knitting. These beautiful and rewarding designs, worked in fingering weight yarns, will appeal to the skilled or ambitious. Each sweater is partnered with detailed instructions and pictured in full color beside the African textile or basket that inspired the design (e.g., cloth-printed patterns by the Asante people of Ghana). Recommended as a top choice for textile collections.

Both these books target the young, hip knitter, but with very different approaches. Knitgrrl 2, Okey’s follow-up to Knitgrrl, emphasizes instruction, with colorful closeup illustrations of such techniques as casting on, knitting, purling, joining new yarn, and binding off; chapters on dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid, knitting with beads, and embellishing knits; and a small collection of projects suitable for beginners. Among the 16 projects are beaded jewelry, a quick-knit poncho, and a beach bag (with cell-phone case).

Funky Knits also contains instruction for the beginning knitter but with enough detail to make it more suitable for the knitter with some experience. In some cases (e.g., the textured zip-up top, the acoustic guitar case) we’re most likely talking college-age. Then, too, Meldrum (coauthor, Denim People) uses pricey yarns that may not fit within a teenager’s budget; some yarn substitution might be in order. Projects include a basic black party dress with lace trimming and iPod covers. Knitgrrl 2 is an excellent buy for public library teen collections; consider Funky Knits for large public libraries in need of knitting books for young adults.

Nadelstern (Kaleidoscopes & Quilts) is known for her seemingly complex and visually challenging quilts. Here she reveals that her quilts actually consist of easily constructed blocks and shares the clever tricks of fabric choice, cutting, and placing that make them seem more complicated than they are. A puzzle quilt is a sampler quilt in which each block is used twice but is pieced in such a way that the “puzzle” is to determine which are the two identically pieced squares. This is not a project book but rather a workbook for the quilter who wishes to take quilting from the bed to the art gallery wall. Recommended for large public libraries.

Nicolay transformed her first T-shirt with batik at age nine and went on to turn this alternation of her favorite garment into a career. In this colorful manual, she includes illustrated step-by-step “recipes,” many of which do not even require sewing machine know-how. With just scissors, a needle, thread, and (for some designs) safety pins, readers will learn how to cut, fold, sew, gather, embellish, disassemble, and reassemble second-hand T-shirts. And, yes, there are actually 108 designs, from simple earrings made from T-shirt scraps to a three-tiered “T-skirt” to the ultimate budget wedding gown constructed out of seven white tees for less than $40. Interspersed throughout the book are tidbits of T-shirt trivia and anecdotes about celebrities and their tees. An excellent choice for public library young adult collections.

Many quilters make sample quilt blocks or lay aside blocks that don’t quite fit into their current quilt project and never end up beig used. Phillips has assembled a collection of some 35 colorful projects for just such spare blocks. For those quilters whose leftover blocks are not of the size the instructions specify, she includes patterns for the blocks used in each project. Many of the finished pieces, such as the canvas tote bag and the director’s chair back, are embellished with store-bought items. The patterns range from easy to moderately challenging and include a fun fleece scarf, a decorative toaster cover, and a quilter’s tool bag. A popular addition to public library quilting collections.

All knitters and crocheters have yarn stash—those leftover balls and skeins stashed around the house, in the car trunk, and even in rented storage facilities. Radford (art director, Interweave Knits magazine; AlterKnits: Imaginative Projects and Creativity Exercises) has come up with a variety of small projects suitable for stash busting. Most require the equivalent of one skein of yarn, while others, like the gorgeous labyrinth circle rug, are designed to use up numerous bits and pieces of leftover yarn that might otherwise be discarded. Projects include accessories like gloves, hats, bags, and leg warmers; baby items; felted bowls; and decorative knitted cupcakes. This high-quality project book is recommended for public libraries.

The authors, both British knitwear designers associated with Rowan yarns, have assembled a striking collection of 35 women’s garment designs ranging in size from 14 to 24. Garments are divided into three themed color palettes—cool, natural, and rich—and feature classic lines flattering to the larger figure. Many of the sweaters and jackets feature eye-catching edgings, trims, or beading and the collection includes several crocheted accessories. Yarns specified for the designs are the high-quality (and pricey) Rowan and Jaeger brands, but there is enough information supplied to enable the knitter on a budget to choose substitutes. All designs include color photos, schematics, and step-by-step instructions. An outstanding pattern compilation for public libraries.