Great Women Building a Gracious World
Volume 2, Issue 5
November/December 2007
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Great Women Building a Gracious World Volume 2, Issue 5 November/December 2007
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Welcome to the World!
Photo by Leslie Shelor
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Fiber Femmes is published bi-monthly on-line by:
Fiber Femmes 12206 Squirrel Spur Road Meadows of Dan, Virginia 24120 Email: fiberfem@fiberfemmes.com Submissions: submissions@fiberfemmes.com Advertising: advertising@fiberfemmes.com
Editor: Sandra Bennett Publisher: Leslie Shelor
While every precaution has been taken to ensure accuracy of material published, Fiber Femmes cannot be held responsible for opinions or facts provided by authors, advertisers or agencies. Authors retain ownership of their material and reproduction without their written consent is prohibited. Agencies, advertisers and other contributors will indemnify and hold the editors harmless for any loss or expense resulting from claims or suits based upon content of any advertisement, defamation, libel, right of privacy, plagiarism and/or copyright infringement. The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the editor and publisher.
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Fiber Femmes Book Reviews
Romantic Home Sewing Cottage-Style Projects to Stitch for the Home By Christina Strutt Potter Craft, Publisher 2006
$25.95. Potter Craft Publishing has a great free newsletter and often have give-always as well. I won the above book and it's been a delight!
Nothing says love, comfort, home, graciousness, serenity like something hand crafted. And, on a bleak day, even something hand made will turn on the lights. Christina Strutt is the design diva behind Britain's Cabbages & Roses vintage-style fabric company. She has more than thirty easy-to-sew projects in Romantic Home Sewing that will turn a warm home into a cozy nest. All the projects are easy, well designed and can even be managed with needle and thread should there be no sewing machine available. Machines make the projects easier but don't allow the lack of a machine to stop you.
Instructions are given for a muslin canopy for the bedroom which adds a large note of romance to the boudoir. Tie-top curtains can be made in matching or contrasting fabric and adjustable curtain rod, make it an easy project. Take the project into the bath and make a shower curtain.
Depending upon the fabric, lovely curtains can add elegance or charm to your home. Romantic Home Sewing uses a vintage French linen sheet but even a new sheet can be used. Bunting can use small pieces of leftover fabrics and reminded me of Tibetan prayer flags. If you don't have leftover fabrics, a trip to the thrift store oftentimes yields hankies which stand in nicely.
Hot water bottles are a cozy comfort on a cold night and, when covered in flannel, zephyr the cozy factor into the stratosphere! We live in a large farmhouse and such as hot water bottles and flannel sheets make a cold bed more inviting. Fabric laundry bags add a sense of style when traveling and are ever so more "correct" than plastic bags. Besides, plastic bags made a dreadful noise and stink.
Among the more innovative approach is the fabric broach and crafty ways to embellish and customize a jacket or coat. The fabric broach is lovely and makes use of braid, ribbon, beads, fabric and anything else your imagination cares to use. The placemat and napkins are the start of a delightful Christmas or holiday gift that could also include tea, raw sugar and a cozy mystery.
Romantic Home Sewing is a true delight and affords many pleasurable hours both dreaming and making. I've already gotten started on my fabric broach and am thinking seasonally...
*************** A Good Yarn By Debbie Macomber Mira Books, Publisher, 2006
$7.99. Debbie Macomber writes cozy books that make you think you're having a delicious tête-à-tête with a friend. Her books celebrate friendship and the gift of life even with all its, sometimes, cumbersome trials and tribulations. Somehow the characters go through the fire and manage to end up stronger, wiser than before and even better for the trip. Ms Macomber is a knitter so her stories have authentic details that shows she knows her stuff. She's acknowledged her yarn stash could very well rival a small yarn store so she's also an enabler of the finest kind!
A Good Yarn is the shop on Blossom Street that draws together family and friends alike. As any good yarn shop, it crosses and intertwines the generations, making friends out of unlikely folks. Unbreakable bonds are formed as characters forge through life helping each other, leaning on each other and, just as in a real yarn shop, sometimes simply by being there. Relationships, values and ordinary women are woven together by a talented and skilled story teller and succeeds because Ms Macomber writes of women who are so real they could be you or I. *********** Sylvia's Farm The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd By Sylvia Jorrin Bloomsbury, Publisher, 2005
$23.95. Sylvia's Farm is a
collection of essays from a woman who bought 85 acres of land and a
house with more than 25 rooms who had the intention of serving
afternoon tea of her family and friends.
As so often happens, reality
clashed with dream and LIFE was the result. Sylvia's life in the
Catskill Mountains, going on more than two decades now, is full of
150 sheep, fourteen goats, a Border Collie, cats, chickens and a
donkey. The donkey is named Giuseppe Patrick Nunzio MacGuire instead
of the Don Key Hoateys I thought he should be named <g>.
It's a delight to read her stuff.
It's made up of the stuff folks who actually live on a farm and have
sheep, equines, chickens, dogs, cats and other farm animals, will
recognize. The life and death of having animals, of putting up food
one has actually grown, of sleeping well when the storm blows or
sleeping not so well when one isn't prepared. Evidently, Willie
Nelson thought so too. In his recently released book Farm Aid: A
Song for America he includes an excerpt from Sylvia's Farm.
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The Yarn Girl's Guide to Knits for All Seasons By Julie Carles & Jordana Jacobs Crown Publishing Group, Publisher 2007
$30.00. Have you ever wanted
a knitting book where the patterns were arranged by seasons? You
know...to make it easier to find a smart little top for summer
without having to wade through a bunch of three other seasons
patterns.
Julie Carles and Jordana Jacobs
are the Yarn Girls and their shop, the Yarn Company, is a mecca for
New York City knitters. Both thirty-something native
New Yorkers, friends since high
school, are now fugitives from the corporate
world and have knit their way to
success as evidenced by their fifth book. The patterns have clear
instructions and feature everything from the Flouncy Skirt in winter
to a summer Beach Tote. Dori's a genius fingerless gloves can be
whipped up in a day, or two, if you're already over committed. The
guys are well represented and Julie's zippered cardigan sweater is
for her brother Matt while the Beach Sweater looks good day or
night.
Fun patterns, stylish designs
combined with good photography and more than
forty well written patterns make
this a book "for all seasons". Those Yarn Girls...they've done it
again!
*********** Ethnic Knitting Discovery The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the Andes by Donna Druchunas Nomad Press, Publisher, 2007
$21.95.
The Talmud tells us, "You are not
obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon
it."
What, you ask, does this have to do
with anything?
The answer...everything! We're all
but steps in a path leading from Eve, or Lucy if you will, and going
into infinity. Every day, we, all of us, choose to be helpful or
hurtful, kind or unkind, a giver or a taker, a friend or a foe. I tell
people all the time that fiber folks are the Best People in the world
and I mean it. I can count on one hand the fiber people I've met who
were surly or contentious or just ill tempered. To a person, most are
gracious to a fault, willing to share their expertise and experiences,
willing to take the time to be kind.
Donna Druchunas is no exception.
She has a new book entitled
Discovery - Ethnic Knitting from the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and
The Andes from Nomad Press. She has two previous books, including
one of my all time favorites, The Knitted Rug: 21
Fantastic Designs and her
most recent Arctic Lace: Knitted projects and
Stories Inspired by Alaska's
Native Knitters.
Donnas has long been, since The
Knitted Rug, one of my favorite designers and bloggers. I enjoy
reading about her travels, her patterns are clear and well designed
and I always end up learning something...if not a lot of somethings!
The current back cover photo shows
Donna, seated, with what looks to be size
50 knitting needles in hand, busily
working on another project. She looks like a person who, while not
taking herself very seriously, takes her work Very Seriously. IOW, my
kind of Fiber Femme.
Ethnic Knitting has eight master
patterns for drop-shoulder pullover sweaters but begins with four
simply projects to build the skills necessary to accomplish the master
patterns. She uses quick notes, a visual plan or detailed guidelines
in worksheets designed to assist knitters to not only knit a sweater
but learn how to craft one in the process.
For the sample sweaters she explains
how the same designed 40-inch sweater will fit (very close) as opposed
to a 34-36 inch sweater (loose fit). I find this quite helpful, ever
more so than leaving out the additional guidelines.
Donna is a continuing thread in the
life line of knitting. She realizes she's yet another knitter to
continue, or assist in continuing, the age old craft of knitting.
There are as many ways to knit as there are cultures in the world and
I'm grateful to Donna for bringing more of them to light.
I hope you enjoy her as well and,
after visiting her website
and buying her book, discover for yourself
the pleasures of
Ethnic Knitting.
*********** Bags With Paper and Stitch Innovative Surface Techniques for Embellishing Bags by Isobel Hall Interweave Press, Publisher, September 2007
$24.95. Papermaking is something I know very little about. So recent Fiber Femmes articles and this interesting book are intriguing me toward yet another fiber obsession. When will it end?
I think a real newcomer to the art of papermaking would probably benefit from either a class or a basic book before tackling the beautiful projects in this book. Many of the terms and materials used were totally unfamiliar to me. There are large sections of instruction for the techniques, though, and a little background would enable anyone to produce beautiful and intricate pieces from Hall's instruction. There is a very good section on handles and fastenings for bags, with some creative suggestions and ideas.
The book is beautifully photographed and the styles and finished objects pictured are inspirational. While I wouldn't consider this a beginner's book by any means, I think the dedicated papermaker would find Hall's book a wonderful guide to a world of creativity. *********** Crochet Me Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution by Kim Werker Interweave Press, Publisher, October 2007
$21.95. Get out your hooks, Crochet fans! Kim Werker, editor of Interweave Crochet magazine and the founder of crochetme.com, has gathered together a group of hip designers and created a book of innovative and stylish designs. The eighteen patterns range from bags to sweaters and leave granny squares and crocheted flowers far behind.
I particularly liked the looks of both the Babydoll Dress by Amy O'Neill Houck and the Leaves Sweater by Annette Petavy. Both designs use fine yarn to accomplish a beautiful drape. In fact, there were only two designs that I saw in the entire book that used worsted weight yarns; all the others use DK weight and finer. One great feature, especially for a hand spinner, is the substitution section for each pattern that gives a guide to the actual size of the yarn used. There is a section on techniques and a list of suppliers.
One of my favorite things about this book is that each designer is profiled extensively, and most of them have blogs and web sites! *********** Contact Fiber Femmes for a review of your book or product.
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